“So, Dale, what have you been working on recently?”
“Well…I manage a baseball team.”
“Little League?”
“Fantasy league.”
Just like Dale Doback from the movie Stepbrothers, I manage a fantasy baseball team. 3 of them to be exact. It’s an addiction that I have had since 2004 according to my Yahoo! Sports fantasy profile. I’m pretty sure it started even before that actually on a site called sandbox.com (just checked and that site is still around, but completely different than it looked 10 years ago). Not only do I play fantasy baseball, but I play fantasy football, NFL and college pick ‘em, and NCAA basketball tournament pick ‘em. I have never really gotten into fantasy basketball, auto racing, or golf, but shamefully I can say that I have participated in fantasy fishing…
Anyways, fantasy baseball is on my mind right now. I take lots and lots of pride in my fantasy baseball teams. Not many people know this about me, but I spend hours each week adjusting rosters and scouring the waiver wires looking to upgrade my fantasy rosters. I watch Baseball Tonight and Sportscenter just about every single night, read articles online, read articles in magazines, and check box scores daily to see how my players are doing and to scout out players. I can tell you the stats of just about every player on each of my 3 teams. I’m completely obsessed with stats of players and the game of baseball. I’m also super competitive, so fantasy baseball is the perfect game for me.
The 806 Raiders of the Redzone League are in their 3rd season in ESPN fantasy sports. This team has not been great the past 2 seasons. This season is a different story. The Raiders have been in first place since early in the season and are currently 25 games ahead of the second place team in the division. My team is totally loaded at pitching this season with Cliff Lee, Adam Wainwright, Josh Johnson, and Francisco Liriano. This is a keeper league so the Raiders should be set up at pitching for the next few years. The offense has been anchored by David Wright and Vladimir Guerrero all season. Of my 3 current fantasy teams, I am most excited about this one and will definitely be disappointed with anything less than a championship.
The FReeK Show is my Yahoo! Sports fantasy team. The FReeK Show’s namesake is inspired from a movie character in Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle. This team has been part of a league called the Bad News Bears since 2007. It is a 10-team league and I would say 4-6 of us have been playing in the league since it started in ’07. The ’10 FReeK Show has been my most difficult team this year by far. I have spent more time on this team than any of my 3 teams. Last year I cruised in the regular season in this league and won the regular season standings by 7.5 games (unfortunately the team choked in the championship round of the playoffs). This season I have made 26 roster moves already and I made 26 roster moves all of 2009. But after all the roster moves, the team has shot up to 2nd place from 6th in just 3 weeks and is currently just 2.5 games out of first. I am most proud of this team because I get a sense of accomplishment and that all my studying and baseball watching is paying off.
My 3rd team this season is in a money league. This is something I had never done before this season. There was a $100 buy-in for this 10-team league. The draft was held at the league commissioner’s house where all managers took turns picking the players for their rosters. My team currently sits in 6th place in this league but is showing signs that it can move into the top 5. This is a much more difficult league because each team has 30 players on their roster. This leaves the waiver wire very thin and it is difficult to make roster moves. This has been a challenging league so far this season but I have hope that I can put this team into the top 5 and possibly even top 3 with a little bit of luck.
This weekend alone I spent probably 4-6 hours analyzing, contemplating, and adjusting fantasy rosters. I know it’s all for nothing (except the money league), but fantasy baseball just allows me to learn more about the game I love and also allows me to be competitive at the same time.
Just as I did in Blog #1, I will post some famous players who have worn the #2 since this is Blog #2. Feel free to add your famous #2 in the comments. These just come to me off the top of my head with no research done..
Derek Jeter
(and now my mind is drawing a blank, possible because it’s 2am..)
Until next time,
-Terry
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