3.20.2005
The Keeper and the Damage Done
It is no exaggeration to say I had waited for today - Draft Day - with more anticpation than I had reserved for any holiday, or payday, or any other kind of day in years. I can't say why I look forward to baseball so intensely this year (marginally more so than other years), but I can say that by the time 2 p.m. PT rolled around today I sat surrounded by no fewer than three editions of Baseball Prospectus, two separate notepads of rankings and cheat sheets I'd composed, and a twice-drained mug of coffee. My fingernails were already bitten off to the bone. I have a problem.
I was drafting for my first-ever keeper league, the ramifications of which I may not be able to accurately quantify for decades. This also marked my re-entry to fantasy baseball ESPN-style, which means no deviation from standard 5x5 scoring unfortunately. Why ESPN forbids anything beyond the most rudimentary customization is beyond me, but it helps explain why Yahoo leagues have taken so much of their business (that, plus the lack of free ESPN leagues). I'm sure ESPN realizes how much business fantasy baseball brings in for them, but it wouldn't take too much tweaking for them to grab a whole lot more.
Anyway, the 24-Hour Procrastination Center consists of twelve managers, some of whom seem to know each other in two distinct circles. We're using rotisserie scoring because head-to-head requires little more than a distaste for starting pitchers and a killer rabbit's foot. Here is the draft recap, but I know that can't be very interesting to an outsider such as yourself. Much more important -- not to mention relevant to the credibility of this particular pit stop on the information superhighway -- is whether the owner of the Mission Magicians can follow the same advice that I gave would-be fantasy owners recently. Let's check it out:
Have a beer or two. Um...I'm not here to talk about the past.
Don't be afraid to show favoritism. At this point it must come out: the editorial controller of the MLBeat is a lifelong Braves fan. (Save your disdain as I shall immaculately defend my allegiance in future posts.) I took Tim Hudson in the 3rd, Chipper Jones in the 6th, and Dan Kolb in the 10th. All are justifiable in terms of my needs at the time, as well as their values where I took them. Check. What's more, the fate of the 2005 Braves pretty squarely hinges on the continued success of these three players, so I am quite comfortable with these choices so far.
Improvise. This I did. My original plan was to snag two ace-caliber pitchers in the first three rounds and stack up on hitters from there, making sure not to completely miss out on closers in the meantime. Instead, my 11th slot in the draft order -- not to mention my pick of Soriano over Randy Johnson at 14th overall -- meant that I had to settle for Hudson by his lonesome atop my staff. I took three closers in an attempt to a) set the bar in saves and b) make everyone else panic, but it didn't work and as a result I missed out on some good offense (Wells, Posada, Bay, and/or Andruw Jones might have ended up on my team otherwise). This resulted in a late scramble to fill out my OF slots, which I did capably (Lane, Burrell, Holliday, Mondesi), but the casualty is my starting pitching; if Jeff Weaver is a mediocre #2 in real life then he's mere fodder in fantasy, frankly.
Allow yourself a good choke. The point of this rule was not to come unglued, which I never did, though I did have to make a few decisions under the gun. My biggest choke here was probably taking Kolb in the 10th when Jason Varitek, both Guillens, Braden Looper, A.J. Burnett, and Barry Zito were still available. More of a hiccup than a choke really, though Burnett would look nice on the roster right now.
Pick a good middle reliever. There were simply too many intriguing late options at SP for me to take this one too seriously, but Ugueth Urbina qualifies and is likely to pick up a few saves along the way.
Beware the perfect roster. Not a problem. Eaton, Millwood, and Mondesi are highly droppable, and I plan on proving it in the months to come.
Take an injured player. Wade Miller will start out on the IR, with Mike Sweeney to inevitably follow.
Prepare to hate your team. Can't say I do. I actually think I put forth a pretty well-rounded effort top to bottom, which is a sure sign I'll be wallowing in ninth by June. Let the record show that I was somewhat satisfied with my efforts at this point.
Right now I know very little about my competitors except that they seem to know what they're doing. We have the chance for a full-participation league, and if I can snag a few appropriate waiver pickups then I can stay afloat in wins and steals and then....wait a second, I'm just writing all this to myself aren't I? Is anyone still around? Guys, come back! I'll be less self-indulgent in the future, I promise!
I was drafting for my first-ever keeper league, the ramifications of which I may not be able to accurately quantify for decades. This also marked my re-entry to fantasy baseball ESPN-style, which means no deviation from standard 5x5 scoring unfortunately. Why ESPN forbids anything beyond the most rudimentary customization is beyond me, but it helps explain why Yahoo leagues have taken so much of their business (that, plus the lack of free ESPN leagues). I'm sure ESPN realizes how much business fantasy baseball brings in for them, but it wouldn't take too much tweaking for them to grab a whole lot more.
Anyway, the 24-Hour Procrastination Center consists of twelve managers, some of whom seem to know each other in two distinct circles. We're using rotisserie scoring because head-to-head requires little more than a distaste for starting pitchers and a killer rabbit's foot. Here is the draft recap, but I know that can't be very interesting to an outsider such as yourself. Much more important -- not to mention relevant to the credibility of this particular pit stop on the information superhighway -- is whether the owner of the Mission Magicians can follow the same advice that I gave would-be fantasy owners recently. Let's check it out:
Have a beer or two. Um...I'm not here to talk about the past.
Don't be afraid to show favoritism. At this point it must come out: the editorial controller of the MLBeat is a lifelong Braves fan. (Save your disdain as I shall immaculately defend my allegiance in future posts.) I took Tim Hudson in the 3rd, Chipper Jones in the 6th, and Dan Kolb in the 10th. All are justifiable in terms of my needs at the time, as well as their values where I took them. Check. What's more, the fate of the 2005 Braves pretty squarely hinges on the continued success of these three players, so I am quite comfortable with these choices so far.
Improvise. This I did. My original plan was to snag two ace-caliber pitchers in the first three rounds and stack up on hitters from there, making sure not to completely miss out on closers in the meantime. Instead, my 11th slot in the draft order -- not to mention my pick of Soriano over Randy Johnson at 14th overall -- meant that I had to settle for Hudson by his lonesome atop my staff. I took three closers in an attempt to a) set the bar in saves and b) make everyone else panic, but it didn't work and as a result I missed out on some good offense (Wells, Posada, Bay, and/or Andruw Jones might have ended up on my team otherwise). This resulted in a late scramble to fill out my OF slots, which I did capably (Lane, Burrell, Holliday, Mondesi), but the casualty is my starting pitching; if Jeff Weaver is a mediocre #2 in real life then he's mere fodder in fantasy, frankly.
Allow yourself a good choke. The point of this rule was not to come unglued, which I never did, though I did have to make a few decisions under the gun. My biggest choke here was probably taking Kolb in the 10th when Jason Varitek, both Guillens, Braden Looper, A.J. Burnett, and Barry Zito were still available. More of a hiccup than a choke really, though Burnett would look nice on the roster right now.
Pick a good middle reliever. There were simply too many intriguing late options at SP for me to take this one too seriously, but Ugueth Urbina qualifies and is likely to pick up a few saves along the way.
Beware the perfect roster. Not a problem. Eaton, Millwood, and Mondesi are highly droppable, and I plan on proving it in the months to come.
Take an injured player. Wade Miller will start out on the IR, with Mike Sweeney to inevitably follow.
Prepare to hate your team. Can't say I do. I actually think I put forth a pretty well-rounded effort top to bottom, which is a sure sign I'll be wallowing in ninth by June. Let the record show that I was somewhat satisfied with my efforts at this point.
Right now I know very little about my competitors except that they seem to know what they're doing. We have the chance for a full-participation league, and if I can snag a few appropriate waiver pickups then I can stay afloat in wins and steals and then....wait a second, I'm just writing all this to myself aren't I? Is anyone still around? Guys, come back! I'll be less self-indulgent in the future, I promise!
