First or Bust

Fantasy baseball is over for another year and I can finally say I am a champion. After playing years of fantasy baseball I have never touched the top. Years of 2nd/3rd place finishes left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. Year after year, I build a strong team that always spends time in first place and competes against every team but year after year, there is an owner who has career years from all his players.

Some of the guys I participate with always say I should be happy that I am placing in the top 3 year in and year out but who gives a rats ass if you finish top 3 every year. It is first or bust man!

Fantasy baseball is all about drafting the right players and filling in the holes when DL stints occur and making sure to find rookies or guys having career years to add to your team before someone else picks them off the waiver wire. After a 162 game season, it was all worth it. The time spent sitting in front of the computer clicking and browsing through numbers trying to find some player who is breaking out was fun and now rewarding. Even with the injuries to Beltran, Ibanez, Torii Hunter, and the 50 game suspension of Manny I found a way to take the league. Yes, I had a pretty stacked team. Keepers/draft is where it happens. That is how great of a year I had. Finding McCutchen, Jeter being the old Jeter, Fielder coming into his own, Lincecum throwing smoke, finding Asdrubal Cabrera on the wire, Kurt Suzuki pitching (funny huh?) in from behind the plate, and one of my underrated but not under appreciated staple on my fantasy keeper list Carlos Lee.

At one point in the season, I was thinking I would never finish first especially with all the injuries and “other” things happening. But it all came together and I am glad it did. Now is the time to celebrate a little and rub it into some of my buddy’s faces but in a few weeks I will need to turn my attention to something important, scouting for next year. Yes, I am already preparing for a repeat in 2010. I don’t go hardcore into numbers and spend hours everyday in front of the computer for baseball stats but I do spend some time looking at winter baseball stats and making sure to take note of young guys who are producing. A great league to look at is the Arizona Fall League. Ever heard of a guy named Tommy Hanson? He was MVP of the league last year and we all know what he did this year in the bigs.

The season is over and everything worked out. If anyone is interested in fantasy baseball please leave a comment and if you have a competitive/serious league with owners who actual stay active through the long 162 game season, please leave me a comment and hopefully we can get a league together. March is not so far away, draft time is slowly coming.

Unfamiliar

Always interesting to see a player wear a new uniform even if it is a Class A uni. When I was younger I always made crazy trades in all of my sports games because I was always interested in seeing players wear different uniforms. With free agency and crap with salaries and contracts you don't get to see players move teams on a regular basis. When I say regular basis I mean yearly. I know, it would be terrible to see top talent moving yearly but for some odd reason I would love to see it. Having players wear new uniforms and bringing hope to bottom dwelling teams.

Going to wrap this post up because I have nothing more to say. The post is going nowhere and all I wanted to say from the beginning was Beltran looks weird in another uniform. Hope you enjoyed wasting 2 minutes of your life.

DL'ing

What a turn of events that unfolded this year at Citi Field. With a new ballpark and a $150 million payroll, the Mets were suppose to finally overcome the past two late season collapses and make a push for a World Series ring. Guess the baseball gods didn't get the memo.

The thing that is getting on my nerves a little is the fact the Mets are still trying to get their players back on the field. I'm not talking about the unknowns but rather their star players that they have committed big time $$$$$$ to. Guys like Beltran, Reyes, Delgado, and now Wright.

News out today is telling us that David Wright will find himself playing sometime this week after landing on the DL with a concussion. Does anyone else in this world find this move to be completed bone headed?!?! The season is lost and you are trying to get a guy, who just suffered a concussion, to play baseball. What is going on in the Mets organization. Shut him down for the season and shut all those guys mentioned above down too. Who cares if he passes all the tests. Play on the super safe side.

We all know that shutting down all your players is not what a team needs especially since they sucked it up all season but for the longevity of the organization they have to. The fans are going to be pissed and may not come to the ballpark for the final month of the season but once school starts most people stop coming anyways, unless you are a contending team.

Taking chances on bringing back a guy who is not 1000%, yes I said 1000%, healthy is something that the Mets might regret in the future. Remember how they treated Ryan Church when he suffered a concussion. Guy was back in the lineup and then the DL and back again. Someone in the organization needs to stand up and make their voice heard.

Keeping their star players off the field is an option they can not afford to mess up.