As many of you know the TSM Fantasy Baseball Draft is currently going on. I personally don't really even like playing fantasy baseball that much as I never want to be on those people rooting for players on the team who's playing against their favorite team. Because of this I never play for money as I have enough things to worry about than if Brett Myers gets 10 strikeouts and smacks his wife three times so I can win my game that week. This is the 4th year of the league with it being the 2nd year of the current incarnation run by MJ Styles. The first two years of the league were run by Lightning Flik and in those two years I had one of the best teams in the league, reaching the championship game both years although losing the title both years. I had Albert Pujols and Bobby Abreu both seasons and all was right with the world. But when Lightning Flik left the board, I think at least, the league was rebooted and all keepers were gone. No biggie but when I drew the 17th pick in the draft order I knew there'd be no Pujols left for me and I proceeded to draft one of the worst teams in the league, finshing 15th out of 20 and not even qualifying for the consolation bracket.

 

Here's a recap of my terrible draft from last year. Feel free to point and laugh.

 

1. Carl Crawford - (Final Yahoo Ranking: 20th, 89 R, 183 H, 18 HR, 77 RBI, 58 SB, .348 OBP)

 

This is another reason why I don't really like fantasy baseball is that because of stolen bases a player like Crawford is a superstar in fantasy baseball. He's a good player no doubt but no one would ever think of Crawford as one of the elite players in baseball.

 

2. Rich Harden - (Final Ranking: 379th, 46.2 IP, 4 W, 0 SV, 46 K, 0 HLD, 4.24 ERA, 1.22 WHIP)

 

I didn't follow Rule #1 of fantasy sports: Don't draft players from your favorite team. Harden certainly has the talent of a pitcher to be drafted this high and I gambled on him finally having an injury free year and lost badly. I did end up keeping him as I had hardly any players worth keeping but we were required to keep four so maybe Harden will finally pitch 200 innings this year. And maybe the Royals will win the World Series.

 

3. Chad Tracy - (Final Ranking: 175th, 91 R, 168 H, 20 HR, 80 RBI, 5 SB, .343 OBP)

 

Ugh. I had a hard on for Tracy going into last season as I was convinced he'd have a breakout year and plus he also had eligiblity at three positions. Had a decent year but no where near a 3rd round pick.

 

4. Brett Myers - (Final Ranking: 73rd, 198 IP, 12 W, 0 SV, 189 K, 0 H, 3.91 ERA, 1.30 WHIP)

 

This was one of my few solid picks as based on the Yahoo rankings he ended up being worth exactly a 4th round pick thus I ended up having to keep him almost by default.

 

5. Bobby Crosby (Final Ranking: 613th, 42 R, 82 H, 9 HR, 40 RBI, 8 SB, .298 OBP)

 

I forgot one of my own rules here: If ESPN "experts" are really high on a player assume he'll be terrible. Now I didn't think Crosby was going to emerge as an MVP candidate like some did but I definately thought he'd continue to improve. Not only was he hurt, he was also terrible when he was in the line up.

 

6. Derrick Turnbow (Final Ranking: 428th, 56.1 IP, 4 W, 24 SV, 69 K, 4 HLD, 6.87 ERA, 1.69 WHIP)

 

Maybe I should just stop this entry because this is getting embarrasing. I should have listened to those who thought Turnbow's excellent 2005 season was a fluke and boy were they right. This pick pretty much killed me in the saves category all year as I never found a decent closer.

 

7. Brian Giles (Final Ranking: 216th, 87 R, 159 H, 14 HR, 83 RBI, 9 SB, .374 OBP)

 

Because of the park he plays in Giles isn't a very attractive player in fantasy baseball but he had an outstanding 2005 season so I was happy when he fell to me but his OBP dropped 49 points in 2006. I actually have drafted him again this year hoping he'll have a bounce back year but I'm probably going to be wrong on that as he just turned 36 last month.

 

8. Placido Polanco (Final Ranking: 430th, 58 R, 136 H, 4 HR, 52 RBI, 1 SB, .329 OBP)

 

This seemed like a good pick at that time as Polanco had emerged as one of the better second basemen in baseball the previous couple of years but he had a terrible year offensively in 2006.

 

9. Michael Barrett (Final Ranking: 317th, 54 R, 115 H, 16 HR, 53 RBI, 0 SB, .368 OBP)

 

Barrett was having a good year for a catcher, and became one of my favorite players for punching A.J. Pierzynski, but he missed the last month of the season due to injury.

 

10. Nick Johnson (Final Ranking: 120th, 100 R,145 H, 23 HR, 77 RBI, 10 SB, .428 OBP)

 

The best pick I made in the draft and even it came back to haunt me. He of course suffered an ugly broken leg injury with about a week left in the season and is likely going to start this year on the DL but because my team was so terrible I decided to keep him in spite of this.

 

11. Brad Radke (162.1 IP, 12 W, 0 SV, 83 K, 0 HLD, 4.32 ERA, 1.41 WHIP)

 

Because he retired I don't know what his final Yahoo ranking was but it couldn't have been very good as Brad went out at the right time.

 

12. Scott Linebrink (Final Ranking: 235th, 75.2 IP, 7 W, 2 SV, 68 K, 36 HLD, 3.57 ERA, 1.22 WHIP)

 

One thing I really dislike about this league is the inclusion of the completlely irrelevent Hold statistic being included. I let Linebrink go at some point because I think I was desperate to fill the other numerous holes on my team due to injuries that I abandoned Holds.

 

13. Carlos Silva (Final Ranking: 375th, 180.1 IP, 11 W, 0 SV, 70 K, 2 HLD, 5.94 ERA, 1.54 WHIP)

 

Another terrible pick. Silva had made a living off never striking out anybody but never walked anybody either but the never striking out part bit him in the ass finally last year and I didn't wait too long before releasing him.

 

14. Dan Johnosn (Final Ranking: 693rd, 30 R, 67 H, 9 HR, 37 RBI, 0 SB, .323 OBP)

 

Yet again not following Rule #1 but even I wasn't as high on Johnson as some A's fans but I figured this was a low risk pick here and boy was I wrong.

 

15. Brian Anderson (Final Ranking: 664th, 46 R, 82 H, 8 HR, 33 RBI, 4 SB, .290 OBP)

 

Gambled on a rookie here and once again was wrong as Anderson was not ready yet to hit MLB pitching.

 

16. Dave Roberts (Final Ranking: 146th, 80 R, 146 H, 2 HR, 44 RBI, 49 SB, .360 OBP)

 

Hey a decent pick, imagine that.

 

17. Luis A. Gonzalez (7 R, 36 H, 2 HR, 14 RBI, 1 SB, .269 OBP)

 

Picked purely because he was eligible at a ton of positions and had been halfway decent offensivley but was just awful in 2006. Don't know his ranking because he's now in Japan.

 

18. Jason LaRue (Final Ranking: 762nd, 22 R, 37 H, 8 HR, 21 RBI, 1 SB, .317 OBP)

 

Seemed like a decent choice as my back up catcher but not even close.

 

19. Jeff Franics (Final Ranking: 285th, 199 IP, 13 W, 0 SV, 117 K, 0 HLD, 4.16 ERA, 1.29 WHIP)

 

Pretty good pick here as him and Myers were the only pitchers I could rely on all year.

 

20. Todd Coffey (Final Ranking: 285th, 78 IP, 6 W, 8 SV, 60 K, 15 HLD, 3.58 ERA, 1.44 WHIP)

 

I was hoping Coffey would emerge as the Reds primary closer but never happened.

 

 

Because I had so little to work with going into this year I already hate the look of my team this year so far. I'm counting on Ryan Zimmerman emerging as a superstar this year but given how things went last year I'll assume he'll do a good Bobby Crosby 2006 impression.