March 24, 2009

State of the League

This year's fantasy baseball will be a little different from most other years have been.

Apparently I'm one of few folks in my circle who still want to play fantasy baseball because our league has - in the past three years - dropped in enrollment from twelve teams to five. It's pathetic. Either they don't want to play fantasy baseball or they just don't want to play fantasy baseball with me.

Man...

So, we've got a five-team league which means that there's a hugely deep free agent pool and teams that are stacked like...um...like something really stacky.

Here's the 2009 version of the Princeton Vikings fantasy baseball team:
  • C - Victor Martinez - old dude, weak position overall, but it's a position that I don't think is going to make or break my team
  • 1B - Albert Pooholes - my first-round pick, 2nd overall, perpetually strong...I've been accused of having a weird man crush here, and it's kinda true
  • 2B - Alexei Ramirez - he's ranked pretty high
  • 3B - Evan Longoria - hopefully he repeats last year and improves on it
  • SS - Jimmy Rollins - he's been very solid for a few years, no worries here
  • OF - BJ Upton - another young Ray...hoping for two repeats here
  • OF - Alex Rios - was on my team last year and disappointed a bit, so I'm thinking he'll bounce back a bit this year
  • OF - Corey Hart - hell of a singer in the 80s
  • Utility - Curtis Granderson - recovered from last year's season-ending injury, ready to compete for the MVP again
  • SP - Johan Santana - he wasn't the greatest pitcher on the planet last year, but he was one of the best in the league
  • SP - CC Sabathia - fat tub of firebally-throwing goo, and he's got a team of All-Stars behind him to get the wins
  • SP - Brandon Webb - hasn't had a bad season yet, not gonna have one this year
  • SP - James Shields - didn't realize just how much I'm counting on TB to repeat
  • SP - Josh Beckett - the move to Boston can only help him
  • RP - Francisco Rodriguez - the move to NYM will help him, but he still won't pick up as many saves as he did last year
  • Bench
    • OF - Jay Bruce - here's a flyeron a young guy who might or might not surprise
    • RP - BJ Ryan - with a fully healthy season in Toronto, he'll up his saves by five or ten
    • RP - Brian Fuentes - the Angels have been offering up save opportunities for years, and this year shouldn't change that
    • RP/SP - Joba Chamberlain - the talent's gotta show up some year...might as well be this one
The teams are so deep, the league so tiny that I have no idea whether this is a good team...yet.

But I at least know I'll be better than Calen's team.

7 comments:

calencoriel said...

You're neglecting to mention a key variable to the demise of your league...the fact that since I've joined, the enrollment has dropped by 50%.

Clearly, you never should have invited the girl to play.

calencoriel said...

sorry..."a girl"

DanEcht said...

I'm playing a 10-team league, and what I hope will be a halfway decent team:

C - Victor Martinez for me too.
1B - Ryan Howard - not worried here.
2B - Dan Uggla - not my ideal, but I can live.
SS - Derek Jeter - I'd rather not have Yankees on my team, but Jeter isn't the worst I could have.
3B - Evan Longoria - I'm also hoping for a repeat of last season.
OF - Jermaine Dye, Vladimir Guerrero and Justin Upton - As long as the first two stay healthy, I'm happy.

SP - Ryan Dempster, Matt Garza, Josh Johnson and John Lackey - I didn't bother with pitching until the later rounds, and it shows a bit. I also desperately need a closer or two.

The league is strange to me in that there are five outfielders, a second catcher, a corner infielder and a middle infielder in addition to a utility man, and nine pitching spots - not to mention six reserve spots. The huge rosters kind of eliminate the free agent pool, so hopefully all the teams will be active. On a completely unrelated note, my NCAA bracket is better than I've ever done.

PHSChemGuy said...

Calen - in that league, you are definitively the girl...you're not The Girl, but that's a technicality...I'd never invite her play in the league...and I hadn't noticed the correlation - you are a pariah...

Dan - I'm not sold on Ryan Howard...he's a stat filler in two categories (RBI, HR), but that's about it, and some of his table setters are injured...for closer, grab Gregg for Chi quickly...just named the starter...I played in one of those big-roster leagues once, really took me a while to adjust to the freaky numbers...

DanEcht said...

Howard won't be great, but he'll be good. Most closers are gone in my league, so for free agents I'll have to settle for Manny Corpas, or trade up for better.

Anonymous said...

It has nothing to do with you, I am just not interested in almost daily attentiveness to major league baseball. I may watch part of a game on tv every now and then, but baseball no longer thrills me.

PHSChemGuy said...

That's the same reason that Barnes gave, basically that he stepped out for a summer and turned out to really enjoy not spending the time following baseball.

I'll admit that I don't dig watching a baseball game - especially on TV - but I do enjoy the fantasy game.