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July 14, 2004
All-Star Break Fantasy Blogging
At the start of the season I was in 4 fantasy leagues. I guess I still am, but I've sorta ignored the two Yahoo! leagues, mostly because Yahoo! makes me login too often and I hate the Yahoo! UI to begin with.
In my two remaining leagues, things are good to average. The SI league I'm in thanks to a classmate who's friend works for STATS, INc., is a mixed league, which I don't like to begin with because everyone can field an all-star team.
There I'm struggling a bit, no thanks to my pitching, which should be stellar. I gave up on saves, a lazy ignoramous of a stat, when two of the guys I drafted (McDougal (KC) and Mantei (AZ)) were either injured, sucked or both, from the get-go. I dumped those two along with Dotel for some other solid starters to go after K's and W's, along with a decent ERA and WHIP. My current 9 starting pitchers are: Josh Beckett, Roy Halladay, Rich Harden, Brian Lawrence, Cliff Lee, Ben Sheets, Carlos Silva, Paul Wilson, Randy Wolf and Kerry Wood, along with Tim Hudson on the bench. Nice staff, you'd think, but injuries and incompetence leave me with a staff ERA of 4.16 (8th place), a WHIP of 1.35 (last place) and 45 wins (5th place). I lead in K's and of course I'm in last place in saves. I bounce between 4th and 7th place overall in the league. Luckily, this league is free.
The other league is the one I really care about. It's an NL-only auction-style keeper league based on the original Rotisserie rules as laid down by John Benson, et al. around 25 years ago. I've been in this league since 1987 so it's definitely more competitive and more worthy of my time than stupid Yahoo! leagues.
Currently, I'm in 2nd place. My dad, who beat me out of first place last season by .5 points, is leading. I'm in second by a lot. My dad has solid pitching and good hitting. I have no pitching and great hitting. My outfield features Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols, but my pitching staff is led by Eric Gagne, who is great for stupid saves, but he doesn't win games or eat up innings. When you're #1 starter is either Kris Benson or Livan Hernandez, you're in trouble.
That's what's interesting about fantasy leagues that only allow either AL or NL. You're going to wind up with the hot middle reliever from the Giants or the 4th starter from the Phillies. It makes scouting more important. You might need to know the 4th OF for the Padres or you might need to grab Brian Schneider from the Expos to fill your 2nd catcher slot. It's more like managing a real team, rather than an all-star team.
Posted by Half-Cocked at July 14, 2004 10:56 PM