I really didn’t know what to expect when I agreed to play fantasy baseball this year. I’ve heard of it, and I try follow the sport as much as I can but I’m not too up on in depth knowledge of rosters, but I was still excited to be taking part.
I suppose I should actually explain what the draft is. Many people will know fantasy football, where you build up the best squad of players possible within your budget. Any player can play for any (or all) teams, and over the season points are accumulated to find the eventual winner. Fantasy baseball is a little different. A player can play for one and only one team. The season begins with a draft, where owners take turns selecting who they want to play for their team. This adds an extra bit of strategy, and there are numerous websites completely dedicated to the art of team selection and team strategy.
Our draft took place in Slattery’s pub, and all ten owners were there. This added to the atmosphere as picks were scrutinized, players struggled with the 90 second pick time limit, and keeping track of who was picked became more and more difficult (selecting a player already drafted meant you lost that draft pick until after the end of the draft)
Red Sox V Yankees opens the 2010 season
I’ll be the first to admit that I didn’t know too much about what was going on. But I soon got into the swing of things. A few times after I made my picks there were audible groans from other team owners; this must mean I was doing something right 
A few picks ended up being surprises: Carlos Pena went very late, and I’m told Mike Napoli secured his highest ever draft position when he was drafted in the 9th round. I’m sure I made a few mistakes, taking players too early, or missing a bargain when I had the opportunity but again, I’m new to this so it can be forgiven.
For the record, I drafted 6th of 10, and ended up with the following team:
- Miguel Montero – Catcher
- Ramon Hernandez – Catcher
- Joey Votto – 1B
- Brian Roberts – 2B
- Mark Reynolds – 3B
- Derek Jeter – SS
- Alexei Ramirez – MI
- Aramis Ramirez – CI
- Matt Kemp – OF
- Shane Victorino – OF
- Josh Hamilton – OF
- Franklin Gutierrez – OF
- Garrett Jones – OF
- Carlos Pena – Util
- James Shields – P
- Brian Matusz – P
- John Danks – P
- Ryan Dempster – P
- CC Sabathia – SP
- Javier Vasquez – SP
- Matt Garza – SP
- Andrew Bailey – RP
- Neftali Feliz – RP
- JA Happ – Bench
- Buster Posey – Bench
- Todd Helton – Bench
- Juan Rivera – Bench
- JD Drew – Bench
It looks a strong enough squad for someone who’s never played fantasy baseball before. I guess we’ll have to find out when the season kicks off on Thursday!!
Another writeup on the draft was written here. Opinion on my team I’d like to hear, is there anywhere I could be stronger, or somewhere it could use a little tweaking.
