The Discreet Charm of Jason Bourgeois

Part II of my continuing season long series spotlighting speedy, yet marginal, replacement National League outfielders that I acquired off the waiver wire for my injury consumed, offensively challenged, fantasy baseball team shines the spotlight today on Houston Astros OF Jason Bourgeois.

Since picking him up off the waiver wire last week, Bourgeois has, in his past seven starts, hit a blistering 14 of 27 and stole seven bases. As it stands he is currently hitting .407 and is tied for second in the majors (behind teammate Michael Bourn) in steals with 12 despite his limited appearances. Suffice to say the batting average boost and the infusion of hot, cheap, speed has been most appreciated.

If Bourgeois can maintain a decent fraction of his currently unsustainable hitting and continue to rack up the steals, the lowly Astros will at least have an impressive one-two top of the order with the speedy duo of Bourn and Bourgeois. I also faintly hope that if Bourgeois continues his hot play he will not only help my team but become enough of a fan favorite in Houston that a ramdom motivated Astros fan/foreign film enthusiast will create some variation of a poster referencing Luis Buñuel's 1972 Best Foreign Language Oscar winning film "The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie". While there is obviously no connection between the journeyman outfielder and this classic French surrealist film and admittedly the tenses don't even match up; when will one ever have another opportunity like this to make such an esoteric reference in connection with a baseball player? Given the odds, I think you have to strike at the first chance.

A crude artist's rendering

*Update: In news that should be of absolutely no surprise to me I just found out that Bourgeois has been placed on the DL with a strained left oblique and appears likely to be out for the rest of the month. However, I also learned that Roger "The Shark" Bernadina has just recently been brought back up by the Nationals to replace the injured Rick Ankiel, proving the old adage that when God injures a light hitting outfielder he brings up another one.

Jawsome!

In news that is of absolutely no value or consequence to everybody else, I am delighted to find out that Washington Nationals outfielder Roger "The Shark" Bernadina was called up from Class AAA Syracuse on Tuesday (he even went a meaningless 2 for 2 in last night's loss to the Mets).

As the owner of a fantasy team with an injury ravaged outfield in a sadistically deep NL Only league (to put things in perspective, the feather hitting Will Venable is an important cornerstone of my outfield), I can only hope that this may be the modest first step in him regaining a starting outfield position (which I reasonably assumed he would get at the beginning of the season when I drafted him) so I can reap the rewards of his sweet potential 15-15 while hitting around .250 abilities. The Shark may not quite be a "superstar" or even a "good player" by some metrics and his excellent defense won't translate into any fantasy value, but he is still probably better than Rick Ankiel or even Laynce Nix.

Additionally, there is no other player on the team, not even the $126 million man, Jayson Werth, that has the perplexingly rabid following, the bizarre folk hero status of Sharkadina (proving the old adage that it is always more fun to be a super fan of a marginal player than a star).

*Update: Well, so much for that, Bernadina just got sent back to AAA a few hours after this article was posted. It was a hell of a ride. For now we can only keep on the watch for additional shark sightings in the future. Maybe Matt Stairs will die of old age and clear up a roster spot.

But it's just a sweet, sweet, fantasy baby.

Now that the 2009 Major League Baseball season has officially passed its hump day and entered into the second half, it's that time once again for me to take stock in my fantasy baseball fortunes. As some of you readers may recall, I had posted two individual entries detailing my two yearly Yahoo! fantasy baseball teams way back at the beginning of April when the season was just beginning; when expectations were high, optimism was abundant, Manny Ramirez was free of steroid suspicions, and the Mets were fielding a competitive major league team. Oh, how long ago it all feels.

So how "gang aft agley" have my best laid fantasy plans gone? How surprisingly successful have been some of my outside hunches turned out? How cruelly or well has the unpredictable, invisible hand of the DL treated me? Did I really expect Jeff Francour to have a turn around season? Let's tally up the damages shall we?

Team 1
The Chan Ho Parks
Current Rank: 1st out of 12
Real Life All Stars: 9 (1B Prince Fielder, 3B Ryan Zimmerman, SS Hanley Ramirez, OF Curtis Granderson, OF Carlos Beltran, SP Ted Lilly, SP Zack Greinke, SP Chad Billingsley, RP Mariano Rivera)
Team MVP: SP Zack Greinke
Team Underperformer: 1B David Ortiz
Waiver Wire Star: OF Michael Cuddyer

The Good:
When your team is in first place, the good obviously comes more easily. At the risk of completely jinxing my dream season, I have to say the Chan Ho Parks are cruising along in their league, enjoying a comfortable double digit lead over the second place team. The team's success is buoyed by a pitching staff that is tops or near the top in every major pitching category. A huge amount of credit goes to first half MVP SP Zack Greinke, the 11th round afterthought 3rd pitcher who started out the year with a historic display of pitching dominance; perhaps the greatest start to a season in the rotisserie baseball era. He has somewhat cooled off over the past month but his numbers are still outrageous. Hitting wise, the team has top ranked power and batting average numbers which offset my league worst stolen base rank and middling runs scored. Everyone has essentially lived up to or surpassed their drafted expectations with a few minor exceptions.

The Bad:
The only real disappointment of the team was the thus far worthless season of the completely broken down 1B David Ortiz who the auto drafter saddled me with after showing up at the draft a little late. Fortunately I had plenty of other options to replace him with. Of course it's not hard to replace someone that until recently could only fit in the utility slot. 2B Jose Lopez has been relatively productive for a 2B, but hasn't quite lived up to my personal hype. Waiver wire pick up 1B, OF Nick Swisher was red hot at the beginning of the year but soon fell out of his everyday roster spot.

The DL:
As is the case with most successful teams, a light DL is usually a big key to success. For most of the season, the only resident on the DL was SP John Smoltz, who was a late draft flyer without much expectation to play anyway. The recent loss of OF Carlos Beltran has definitely hurt though (although obviously not as much as it hurt the real life Mets). Aside from that, the team has been a model of health.

Predictions:
Some of the more exceptional players will probably regress but if everyone plays to their expectations (and thus far there has been no indication that they won't), then I think I can ride this hot start straight to the title. Injuries are the only real threat to derail my lead.

Team 2
Team Korea All Stars

Current Rank: 4th out of 12
Real Life All Stars: 9 (C Joe Mauer, 1B, 3B Kevin Youkilis, 2B Freddy Sanchez, 3B Evan Longoria, OF Brad Hawpe, SP Ted Lilly, SP Zack Greinke, SP Zach Duke, SP Edwin Jackson)
Team MVP: SP Zack Greinke
Team Underperformer: SS Jimmy Rollins
Waiver Wire Star: SP Edwin Jackson

The Good:

The 4th place standing, although above average, actually short changes this team. This team has spent most of the season around 2nd and the current spread between 2nd and 4th is so thin that the spots constantly fluctuate. With that being said, the best this team can hope for is a 2nd place finish given the fact that the first place team is completely dominating the league with nearly 25 more points than the second place team. As for my team, I've once again enjoyed the fruits of a SP Zack Greinke (and SP Ted Lilly) containing pitching staff. In addition, my staff was saved by the waiver wire pick ups of both all stars SP Zach Duke and SP Edwin Jackson from the same day. Hittingwise, it's been fairly strong and consistent all around. Oddly enough, despite the All Star nod I don't even regularly start 2B Freddy Sanchez as I've opted for the versatile and surprisingly productive 2B, 3B, SS Macro Scutaro.

The Bad:
The two biggest disappointments on the hitting side were Team Underperformer winner and first round pick SS Jimmy Rollins who has been in a slump for most of the year and 5th round pick OF Matt Holiday, who appears to have lost all his slugging powers after leaving the state of Colorado. On the pitching side Cliff Lee has pitched decently but has come nowhere near his Cy Young season last year, especially on a lousy Indians team. There was also one other negative first half pitching performance that was so exemplary in its awfulness that I have to give it, its own category...

The Chien-Ming Wang:
Would you believe he was drafted by me one place ahead of All Star SP Ted Lilly? There has been a historic fantasy knock against the guy due to his paltry strikeout numbers and average ERA and WHIPs, but he had a reputation as being at least a dependable source of wins. Of course that was before he put together possibly the worst three consecutive starts in modern baseball history. In 6 innings of total work over three starts he had managed to give up 23 runs for a monstrous era of 34.50. I immediately banished him with extreme prejudice but I think the team is still paying the wages of those three horrible starts.

The DL:
The team has been pretty healthy as a whole. The only major DL stint is the current one that SP Brandon Webb has been on since leaving the first game of the season. had it not been for my timely waiver wire pickups, the team would have probably completely fallen out of contention without its ace. Although, it sure would have been nice to have his dependable numbers all year.

Prediction:
Barring a wave a crucial injuries or a series of sustained slumps for the team in first, the best I can hope for with this team is to get that second place sized piece of the pie. I would not be disappointed in this team one bit if it turned out that way, under most seasons this would be a top team. Optimistically I'm thinking 2nd, but more realistically I'm expecting 3rd or 4th.

It's Just a Fantasy...2009, Part II

The 2009 MLB season is now just about three days in. At this point I'd like to point out to the many overly anxious fantasy owners out there that there is still about 160 or so more games to play in the season so you should temper your expectations (whether positive or negative) based on this extremely small data sample. This goes out especially to all those gun jumping owners who are currently extrapolating Marlins 2B Emilio Bonifacio's current prolific output for the rest of the season. Seeing as how the season, however, is well underway I figured I'd better get the rundown of my second fantasy baseball team in before the selections lose their optimism and start to look foolish. Lets take a look at last year's team:

League: Ah Me Gusta Beisbol

My Team: Team Korea All Stars
Draft order: 11th pick out of 12
Previous Year's Rank: 6th out of 10

Although my team enjoyed a brief stint in first place at the midway point of the season last year, by the end of September they had totally run out of gas to finish in the bottom half of the standings. Looking back, the team had a solid offensive core but was done in by injuries and poor second half performances by basically the entire pitching staff (Carlos Zambrano, John Smoltz, Kelvim Escobar, John Maine, Chad Cordero, Oliver Perez, Bronson Arroyo). To go with the super obvious sports talk radio expert answer: had it not been for those rash of second half injuries and ineffectiveness, there was a good chance I would have finished first. With an additional two teams added the the league this year, I'll have to dig a little deeper for quality, consistent, talent:

Rd1. Jimmy Rollins SS - For the second year in a row, J-Roll becomes my first pick of the draft. It isn't all that surprising given the fact that I got slotted in the same second to last pick position I had last year (although that was 9 out of 10 while this year it was 11 out of 12). His injury hobbled post MVP campaign last year may have been a general disappointment, but he's still a top tier option in a scarce position. While, doubtful he'll put up number similar to his MVP year again, he's still effective when healthy and still steals a ton of bases, which is always fantasy gold.

Rd2. Evan Longoria 3B - Last year I picked rookie of year winning, superstar third baseman Ryan Braun; this year I picked rookie of the year winning, superstar third baseman Evan Longoria. Braun came through on his high expectations for his sophomore year and I expect Longoria to be as productive as well. Some sources at the beginning of the year tag him as a dark horse MVP candidate, so I've got high expectations about him overall.

Rd3. Brandon Webb SP - As last season and many previous fantasy seasons will attest to, I have a knack for picking pitchers that promptly get injured or suddenly lose their talent for the upcoming season. Webb has been one of the most consistent and dependable fantasy starters over the past three years. I chose him because I wanted a stone cold ace who I could just plug into the starter's position and never worry about for the rest of the year. This is why I am not overly concerned that he gave up 6 runs in 4 innings on his first start Monday. Oh he's missing his next start? No worries there either.

Rd4. Kevin Youkilis 1B - Youks put up some major MVP-like numbers last year. Although I wonder if he'll be able to repeat those career numbers this year, I'm pretty confident that he'll still produce enough to be a big contributor to the team. In retrospect I would have liked a little bit more power coming from my 1B position though.

Rd5. Matt Holliday OF - A top ten fantasy pick last, but a disappointingly unproductive season and a trade away from the hitter friendly thin air of Coors Field plummets his value to the fifth round. His home/away split stats in Colorado seem back up this assumption, but I still think he will maintain his stellar average and still be capable reaching the 30 hr/100 rbi plateau.

Rd6. Joe Mauer C - Picking up a catcher in the 6th may be a bit early, but it's actually more restrained then last year when I took Russell Martin in the 4th round. I sort of think Mauer's a tad overrated, but I can't deny he'll give me a major boost in the batting average category from a position that normally is poison to it. Of course this is all when he comes back from his stint on the DL for back problems.

Rd7. Cliff Lee SP - For all those people who thought Cliff's amazing, out of nowhere, Cy Young winning season last year was the fluke of a lifetime, his opening day start seems to indicate that they were totally right. However it is of course only one game and while I can't expect him to repeat last season, I still think he'll end up being a solid number 2 starter.

Rd8. Bobby Abreu OF - Sure he's getting a bit long in the tooth and his home run power has notoriously dipped since his famous home run derby win in 2005, but the man is still a five category roto machine. In that quality Angels line up, I expect another productive year from him.

Rd9. Matt Capps RP - Ah Matt Capps, the patron saint of second tier closers. When he comes off the board, you know you better start scrambling for the remaining closers left. As terrible as the Pirates are, they'll still win plenty of savable games, and Capps is dependably entrenched as the starting closer. I could have done better but I also could have done a lot worse.

Rd10. Carlos Zambrano SP - Once again I turn to probably my favorite fantasy pitcher, the rock steady Zambrano. What more can I say then I wish I had five Carlos Zambranos starting for me.

Rd11. Brian Wilson RP - What second tier closing tandem is complete without the addition of Brian Wilson? I actually had to pick him up two rounds higher than in my previous draft due to an early rush on closers. I'm obviously just looking for quantity of saves rather than quality.

Rd12. Andre Either OF - Yet another repeat from my first team. What can I say, every year you end up drafting a handful of the same players either due to similar circumstances or some personal favoritism. I for one am exited for the young OF and expect a breakout year from him.

Rd13. Zack Greinke SP - Did I mention I ended up with a a lot of repeats in this draft from the first draft?

Rd14. Adrian Beltre 3B - I feel sorry for Adrian Beltre. The man is forever haunted by the one straight up monster year he had in 2004. Every year since then has been a disappointment by comparison, despite the fact that they have been consistent to better than his career averages. They're steady, good numbers but nowhere near 2004. Of course he totally cashed in on that 2004 season when he signed his lucrative long term deal with the Mariners, so I guess I should really feel bad for the Mariners.

Rd15. Chien-Ming Wang SP - Wang's a great pitcher in reality but, in the realm of fantasy, his meager strikeout numbers and decent ERA and WHIP make him a merely good pitcher. He really only provides superb numbers in one pitching category: wins. Everybody loves wins.

Rd16. Ted Lilly SP - Deja vu?

Rd17. Brad Hawpe OF - He's a solid back up OF option. It also helps that he plays for the Rockies and he has demonstrated in the past (2007) that he was capable of elite fantasy numbers. While it remains to be seen if he could reach those numbers again, he's still a good hitter.

Rd18. Kazuo Matsui 2B - Unfortunately I waited just a bit too long to draft Jose Lopez as my 2B in the later rounds of the draft so I got stuck with Kaz Mat. It's a pretty bad situation, I may have to turn to trading to remedy it. For now, I'll have to plug in him and hope that he stays relatively healthy and continues to steal bases.

Rd19. Troy Glaus 3B - Definitely not as useful as he used to be when he qualified for SS and was taking steroids. The guy had 27 hrs and 99 rbis last year, yet he's totally relegated to late round bench fodder.

Rd20. John Smoltz SP - Just like my first team, I took another chance on Smoltz again during the late rounds. However at the time, there was no news that he wouldn't be ready to pitch until June. He's chilling in the DL slot for now but I may have to drop him.

Rd21. Fausto Carmona SP - Sort of a less consistent version of Chien-Ming Wang, not really sure what I'll do with him. Last year was trash, but I took a flyer on the assumption that he might be alternating good odd year seasons with bad even year seasons like Brett Saberhagen in the 80s.

It's Just a Fantasy...2009

Can you believe that April is already upon us? Man, March went by so fast that I didn't even get around to reaching my ten post monthly quota (and that's the story I'm sticking to). Of course, for all baseball fans, the start of April means the start of another fresh new season; another year of following your team through the 162 game war of attrition that marches through the sweltering dog days of summer and hopefully into the chilly promised land of October. As for my hometown Mets, the outlook for 2009 seems relatively optimistic. The team is essentially the same as last year but they made moves to completely turn their biggest, most crippling liability (the bullpen) into what may very well be their greatest strength. In addition, Sports Illustrated, just the other day, predicted the Mets to win the World Series and at the same time fatally jinxed CC Sabathia by putting him on the cover. And finally, what are the statistical odds of a third straight disastrous September collapse? Improbable, right? Right?!

The start of the new baseball season also signals the beginning of, that other great national pastime, fantasy baseball. While all I can really do is watch, cheer, and hope for the best in the realm of real world baseball, within the stat filled universe of fantasy baseball, I can at least attempt to exert some sort of control over my team's destiny, and it all starts with the draft.

The drafts for both my yearly Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball teams have recently concluded and the initial die has been cast. So once again I present the exclusive 2009 round by round coverage of the first of my two annual fantasy baseball teams:

League: The Champs Are Here

My Team: The Chan Ho Parks
Draft order: 1st pick out of 12
Previous Year's Rank: 8 of 12

For the second straight year, my team managed subpar 8th place finish. It was technically worse than last year since there were 12 teams as opposed to 13. Looking back with the crystal clear lucidity of hindsight at my picks from last year, all I can do is shake my head at some of my demented optimism. There were injury plagued busts (Chris Young, Ryan Zimmerman), breakout stars that just broke (Corey Hart, Rich Hill), and of course, as the case with every Victor draft, terrible closer seasons (Trevor Hoffman, Rafeal Soriano). These types of disappointments, however, are not just exclusive to me, time makes fools of every drafter. The key to success is how one adapts and adjusts their initial hand as the season progresses. But delusion will always springs eternal at the start of the year draft:

Rd1. Hanley Ramirez SS - This was the first time in my entire fantasy baseball drafting existence that I got the first overall pick. Unfortunately, I promptly squandered this opportunity by forgetting about the draft and showing up five rounds late. Although, all things considered, you're probably better off having the auto drafter make a 1st overall pick than a more nuanced later one. Han-Ram has been generally considered the consensus number one pick so, with the possible impulse choice of David Wright, I would have likely drafted him anyway.

Rd2. Carlos Beltran OF - For the second year in a row I get him as my second round selection. I can't really complain about the auto drafter's selection here, he's a top tier fantasy OF. Although I usually prefer to fill out my scarce infield positions and then rely on the depth of the outfielders.

Rd3. Prince Fielder 1B - A little disappointed with the drafter's discretion on this pick. There are plenty of big bat, slow footed (although he somehow managed to steal 3 bases last year) slugging 1Bs to be found later in the draft. Last year was a definite regression from his monster 50 HR 2007 and I have a feeling that the Brewers are headed for a step back this year. Also, I like to keep my teams with "no fatties".

Rd4. David Ortiz UTL - I really don't approve of this selection. Right after drafting a big fat slugger in the previous round, the auto drafter picks up another big fat slugger...with even less versatility. I've always been wary of that small class of straight up DH guys who can only play in the valuable utility spot. If they're not providing you above average production, they're just hindering your roster flexibility. I also think that Big Papi is basically done as the fantasy monster that he once was. I'm sure he'll still contribute to the team but those 40+ HR/125+ RBI/.300 seasons may be a thing of the past.

Rd5. Curtis Granderson OF - I'm not really over the moon about this pick as well. He's got speed and a little bit of pop, hopefully he can get back to being a 20/20 guy. If he ends up with something similar to his 2007 numbers he'll make for a good poor man's Grady Sizemore. If only triples were a roto category.

Rd6. Chad Billingsley SP - This is actually my first real pick of the draft. I frantically entered the drafting room to find that it was five rounds in and the drafter had yet to give me a pitcher. Based on what was available, I was glad to see my long time fantasy crush Chad Billingsley was still on the board. For the past three years I have had him on one team or another and he has never disappointed. As my ace, I expect another 15+ win, low 3 ERA, 200K season from the man.

Rd7. Mariano Rivera RP - Throughout my fantasy existence, the only closer I have ever selected in the past who did not immediately turn into suck for the upcoming season has been Mo. His ability as a closer to remain healthy and productive after being drafted on one of my teams is one of his greatest accomplishments as a pitcher and will no doubt be noted on his Hall of Fame plaque.

Rd8. Ryan Zimmerman 3B - Let that be a lesson kids, you wait until the 8th round to address your 3B position and you get Ryan Zimmerman. This is actually a full round lower then when I got him last year. Last year was a complete disaster (perhaps National disaster?), but I still hold out hope that he'll come back healthy, productive, and emerge from the fantasy blackhole that is the Washington Nationals to actually become a useful player again.

Rd9. Carlos Zambrano SP - As a fantasy owner, I am first and foremost drawn to predictable dependability. I usually like to leave all the high upside, high risk selections to the other owners. Few players embody the steady reliability I look for than the Big Z. The guy's a lock every year to pitch 200 innings, keep the ERA under 4, toss around 200Ks, win around 15 games, and walk a ton of guys. Last year was actually a slight aberration from the norm but I'll definitely start him with confidence.

Rd10. Andre Ethier OF - I hate to admit it but I really dig the Dodgers' lineup, in addition to stars like Manny and Furcal, they've got a really solid lineup of exciting young players, including Ethier, who is still slightly undervalued and has terrific upsides.

Rd11. Zack Grenke SP - Everyone's favorite brooding ace seemed to have overcame his social anxiety disorder and being a Royal to put together a fine looking season. I'm hoping that he'll continue his development and bring me similar to better numbers as my number three starter. One more quality year and I will stop referring to him with the word "crazy" in front of his name.

Rd12. Jose Lopez 2B - Lopez is my official hot pick of the year. In a position category where the talent level falls off a cliff after the top four or so guys are taken, I've grown quite fond of the criminally overlooked young 2B from Seattle. Despite solid offensive numbers (.297/19/89) and the potential for an even bigger breakout season, I find him lumped around middling, later draft, second tier options like Rickie Weeks and Kelly Johnson.

Rd13. Brian Wilson RP - Since I find drafting closers to be a complete crap shoot, I just looked for guys who had at least a firm lock on their jobs. Brian Wilson definitely is of the Todd Jones/Joe Borowski school of unsexy closing, but I'm willing to settle for quantity over quality in my saves. With an improved Giants team this year, would another 40 save season be all that out of the question?

Rd14. Bengie Molina C - Ah the catching position; where unless you overpaid for one of the top five or so catchers, the question to ask in making a pick isn't "will this player help my team" but "will this player not hurt my team"? His laughable position as the Giants' cleanup hitter last year allowed him to put up career offensive numbers. I expect them to be a little tempered this year but still consistent.

Rd15. Ted Lilly SP - Lilly's eight or so years of pitching mediocrity before joining the Cubs has thus far seemed to have shielded many from the fact that his last two seasons have been his best and most productive. Durable and consistent, another quality Victor type player.

Rd16. Kevin Gregg RP - I drafted him as an afterthought, just for the seemingly unlikely chance that he was going to beat out the far more talented Carlos Marmol for the Cub's closer spot. It was a pleasant surprise when he actually won out. The Cubs are going to win a lot of games this year and many of those wins will require unflashy, workman-like, Kevin Gregg saves.

Rd17. Jair Jurrjens SP - No real story behind this pick. I just needed a pitcher on the bench and I figured he had some decent upsides. Also, I felt the team could have used more J's on the roster.

Rd18. Ryan Theriot SS - By this point in the draft you're getting all your bench players in order so who's a better spark plug off the bench than Ryan The Riot? Versatility, a good average, plenty of speed, and most importantly "scrappy intangibles".

Rd19. John Smoltz SP - Sure he'll turn 42 in May and he's coming off major surgery and there's a good possibility that he'll be rocked by American League hitting; but until he shows me otherwise, the guy can still throw. How quickly people forget that he was well on his way to another age-defying sterling season last year before going down. I'm willing to take a flyer for the 19th round.

Rd20. Jeff Francour OF - He had just an absolutely atrocious season last year, but as a late round pick it's totally low risk/high reward. He's still a young guy and if he can make some adjustments and put up numbers even somewhat resembling his 06 and 07 seasons, it'll be more than worth it.

Rd21. Mike Pelfrey SP - Why the heck not? Gives me someone else to root for.

In a land called Fantasy...

As some of you out there may have heard, the MLB All-Star Game will be played tonight at Yankee Stadium. In any other major sport it would just be another fun but ultimately meaningless dog and pony show for the fans, but of course in the crazy world of twenty first century Major League Baseball, this light exhibition game will determine home field advantage in the World Series. Just think, months from now the question of who will play the critical deciding game 7 of the World Series at home may be determined by a late game match up between "All Stars" Cristian Guzman and George Sherill.

While there is an equivalent to the All Star Game in the world of fantasy baseball. This break for the Mid-Summer Classic gives me the perfect opportunity to take stock of how my two fantasy teams have faired thus far (because I'm sure everybody out there has just been dying of suspense and speculation). Looking back on the posts and the wide eyed optimism that permeates from every fantasy owner just after completing a draft, it's always interesting to see just how everything has played out thus far. Overall I noticed that there were a few accurate predictions, a handful of pleasant surprises, and of course a fair share of crushing disappointments.

Team 1
The Chan Ho Parks
Current Rank: Tied for 7th out of 12
Real Life All Stars: 3 (OF Corey Hart, OF Nate McLouth, SP Aaron Cook)
Team MVP: OF Nate McLouth
Team under performer: RP Rafael Soriano
Waiver Wire Star: OF Nate McLouth

The Good:
About half this team is now made up of surprisingly productive players scooped from the waiver wire, the most prominent of whom has been Nasty Nate. He basically came out of nowhere and, despite weekly predictions by critics that he would return to mediocrity, has been a five tool stud. Other stars picked from the fantasy scrap heap include groundball inducing wins machine SP Aaron Cook, the surprisingly productive C Bengie Molina, and human Swiss Army knife Mark DeRosa who has more than adequately filled in for FOUR different positions (1B, 2B, 3B, OF).

The Bad:
Pitching has yet again become my Achilles heal. A combination of slow starts, inconsistency, and just straight up crappiness have put me in an early hole in the pitching catagories. Staff ace CC Sabathia had an absolutely awful start to the season, however after some constructive criticism, a trade to the Brewers, and the dropping of the periods in this first initials, he seems to have gotten him back on track. SP Chad Billingsley has also started to come around as well. However, despite his recent success I still won't be convinced SP Oliver Perez is consistently startable until he gives me a couple more non-meltdown starts.

The DL:
3B Ryan Zimmerman's extended trip to the DL may have been a blessing in disguise since it forced to me replace him with replacement 3B Jorge Cantu rather than have kept putting up with his sub-par season in the hope he'd turn the corner. RP Rafael Soriano now joins Dan Kolb and Bob Wickman in the list of Atlanta Braves closers I've drafted that have totally let me down. Soriano was sharp for all of 9 appearances before making my DL spot his long term home and leaving the aging and ineffective Trevor Hoffman as my SOLE source of saves. Then of course there's the sad tale of my number 2 starter Chris Young, who is making the long trek back from a freak Albert Pujols line drive to the face.

Prediction:
I may be languishing just south of the middle of the pack but I wouldn't count out a second half run. A lot of my star guys have started playing up to their potential (Carlos Beltran, Jimmy Rollins, Corey Hart) so I wouldn't be so quick to call this season a wash. First may be too far out of reach but a second or third place finish is not out of the question.

Team 2
Team Korea All Stars
Current Rank: 1st out of 10
Real Life All Stars: 6 (C Russell Martin, 2B Dan Uggla, OF Ryan Braun, SP Edinson Volquez, RP Mariano Rivera, SP Carlos Zambrano)
Team MVP: RP Mariano Rivera
Team under performer : OF Delmon Young
Waiver Wire Star: SP Edinson Volquez

The Good:

There's plenty of good to be said when your team is in first place. Basically, in stark contrast to my first team, there haven't been many changes to the roster since opening day due to most of the original player playing up to my expectations (C Russell Martin, 1B Derrek Lee, OF Ryan Braun, SP Carlos Zambrano, SP John Maine). That combined with a few other players playing far beyond my expectations (2B Dan Uggla, RP Mariano Rivera) have given this team sustained success. Also Edinson Volquez's amazing season thus far, along with Josh Hamilton and Cliff Lee, is one of the great waiver wire success stories of the season.

The Bad:
The only real negative is the surprising amount of notable players that have been cut due to season ending injuries. SP John Smoltz was on his way to another fine season when shoulder problems shot him down, projected number 3 starter Kelvim Escobar didn't even pitch an inning this year, and my second closer Chad Cordero had his season cut short after his first appearance (fortunately I got his replacement, Jon Rauch who has been solid). It's a good thing everyone else was playing well enough to make up for these losses, on paper they look like they would have totally crippled the pitching staff.

The DL:
Aside from the above mentioned season enders, the DL has been a relatively quiet place, probably also another reason for my unexpected success. There was a rough stretch where I was forced to put in Bobby Crosby to make up for the absence of Jimmy Rollins. Currently Ryan Chuch (who was playing way over his head before getting hurt), and Magglio Ordonez (who may have lost his OF job to fill in Xavier Nady during his absence).

Prediction:
My lead in first is only a mere 2 points so that league title is far from a done deal. I know my offense will always be there, so if the pitching can just keep up for another two months I should be able to hold off the competition.

An Open Letter to C.C. Sabathia

Dear C.C.,

As I've mentioned in the past, I have historically been an offensive minded fantasy baseball manager. My teams have traditionally been solid five category roto mashers with mediocre to sub par pitching performances (sort of like the Detroit Tigers). This is partially due to the fact that in my constant quest to find build a lineup that'll produce in all the major catagories, I end up delaying, round after round, those important rotation picks until I find myself with a Ted Lily or Kevin Millwood becoming the ace of my staff.

After so many years of my team pitching becoming a burden and a liability rather than a benefit, I decided to eschew my tendency to stock up on offensive talent in the earlier rounds and actually select as they say a legitimate "ace". Now that's where you come in. In the vaunted third round of the draft I put aside offensive considerations and selected you to lead my staff, to aid in brining overall balance to the team.

I mean, any reasonable fantasy owner would have pulled the trigger. You had been a model of constancy for the past seven seasons. You were in the prime of your career at age 27. You had just come off a stellar year where you won the AL Cy Young as the best pitcher in the league. You had the benefit of a potent offense on a team that was predicted to be a strong contender for the World Series. And you had the personal motivation of playing your best so you can cash in on the free agent market next year. All signs pointed to another great to at the very least good year.

Now four starts into this new season, all I have to say are three letters: W T F!?!?

Is there some injury you're hiding from us? Is there an issue with mechanics? Have you developed some psychological aversion to throwing strikes? Is there some sort of a fix in? Is Robert De Niro holding your child hostage? How can you be this awful?

Now I understand the season is still young and rough starts are not uncommon, but after watching you give up 9 runs for the second straight start, I have some cause for concern. As it stands now, you are 0-3 with a 13.50 ERA with as many walks as strikeouts (14) leading to an astronomical WHIP of 2.56. In 18 innings of work you have managed to to reach nearly half the amount of total walks (37) and losses (7) as you've had in 241 innings of work in 2007.

If I wanted to be severely underwhelmed by a former CY Young winner I would have drafted Barry Zito instead. Despite his 0-4 record his 4.50 ERA and 8:9 K to BB ratio and 1.68 WHIP (while all atrocious) are not nearly as damaging to my team overall. Drafting the corpse of Walter Johnson would have at the very least done no damage to the my overall numbers.

Now I know the Indians have been under performing thus far but you can't even play that "not enough run support card". On opening day you were staked an early five run lead you properly managed to blow. The team tried to dig their way out of that 9 run hole you created against Oakland in the in the first 4 innings but not even a 6 run 8th inning could save them. You're not on the Royals, you don't need to pitch a shutout to win, keep it 4 and under and I'm sure the team will most of the time pull it out.

Now a more imprudent owner may have already dumped you on the waiver wire to make room for a flavor of the month hot starter like Brian Bannister or Micah Owings; I cannot give up on you just yet. However as of this point though you have currently lost your starter spot until signs of improvement (i.e. until you totally screw me over by throwing a complete game shutout on the bench). To give you an idea of how bad things have gotten, I have been offered a trade in all seriousness to essentially swap you for middling innings glutton Livan Hernandez. That's right that Livan Herndandez. And while I'll hold off on that blockbuster, combined 600 pound, trade for now, I hope that it'll light a competitive fire in your belly and you'll find a way to turn that corner.

In the meantime here are a few handy tips:

• Strikeouts? Great.
• Walks? Bad.
• Home Runs? Bad.
  
• Grand Slams? Even worse.
• Fly ball outs? Good.
• Grounders? Sure why not?
• Seven inning starts? Great.
• Early exits? Bad.

Remember...Livan Hernandez.

Your Fake Owner,
Victor

It's Just a Fantasy...Part II

I am currently enjoying the first day of my week long Spring Break. As in years past I marked the start of it by yelling "Spring Break!!" a la Milhouse after exiting my final class of the week. Anyone care to join me on a wild road trip to Knoxville? If we're lucky we may be able to swing by Reno to catch an Andy Williams show.

This is really one of the things I'll miss most if I ever actually end up getting "a job" and enter the "real world." Instead of spending a wide open week doing everything in my power to forget all the things I've learned this semester, I'd be...working and complaining about all the extra vacation traffic on my daily commutes; pretty depressing. Let's all just hope I won't have to deal with that sort of unpleasantness.

The coming of spring break also heralds the imminent return of baseball, now only a few weeks away. And with that awkward lead in, I present part two of my three part series on my upcoming fantasy season with exclusive round by round coverage:

League: Ah Me Gusta Beisbol

My Team: Team Korea All Stars
Draft order: 9th pick out of 10
Previous Year's Rank: 5 of 9

This is my other Yahoo! baseball draft with all the standard 5x5 roto rules and formats. It's the smallest of my three drafts, usually with ten or less teams competing. While the odds of winning the league are higher, I prefer as many teams as possible. With a small league like this there is a far deeper pool of players to go around which sort of takes a little bit of the fun out of mining for talent at the bottom of the draft or speculating on unproven prospects. On the other hand it is fun to have an arms race to see which stacked team of all stars can top the other and the devastating effect of a star getting injured (or being suspended for steroids) is mitigated by a deep waiver wire or trade block. My team last year, much like most of my fantasy teams had gaudy offensive numbers but was handcuffed by mediocre to awful starting pitching leading to another middle of the standings finish. What can I say, the chicks dig the long ball (and stolen bases). Hopefully, this year I'll try not to be a negligent father to my pitching concerns, while still remaining #1 Dad to my offense.

Rd.1 Jimmy Rollins SS - That's right Rollins again. He's almost always the best option available at the bottom of the first round. I hate the man and in reality if he had a miserable season it'd work out best for me; but alas in fantasy land he's the player that a majority of my fortunes now rest on. Let's go Phillies.

Rd.2 Ryan Braun 3B/OF - It's only his second year, he hasn't played a full season, I normally prefer established talent, and I still think Tulowitzki should have been Rookie of the Year but the monstrous upside was so great I couldn't pick over him. If his numbers last year extrapolate to a full season this year..watch out. Interesting how my first two picks were under such duress.

Rd.3 Magglio Ordonez OF - If it wasn't for A-Rod casually having another god-like year, Mags would have been the MVP. While I don't expect him to hit .363 again, barring injury I can't see how he won't put up another season of fat numbers in that juiced Tigers offense.

Rd.4 Russell Martin C - Yes, I was that guy at the draft who spent their early pick on one of the two elite catchers this year. It was a little compulsive of me, but for the rest of the draft I felt really good watching everyone else try to find a backstop that wouldn't hurt their team too much. The catcher position will actually be working for me rather than against me.

Rd.5 Bobby Abreu OF - He stopped hitting a lot of homers after his historic win at the Home Run Derby in 2005, but the man's still fantasy gold. He's the type of player that I'm always looking for in a draft, a proven guy who has put up consistent numbers in all the catagories. Although as with every time I draft a Yankee I still get a bad taste in my mouth.

Rd.6 Carlos Zambrano SP - I figured it was about time to pick up my ace. He can get a little wild sometimes but there's no denying the guy's a stud. He's extremely durable, strikes out a bunch, and gets a lot of wins. He's just got to keep that WHIP down.

Rd.7 Derrek Lee 1B - I still have lingering bad memories of 2006 when he derailed my season after breaking his wrist, but he seems like he bounced back pretty nicely last year. As long as he keeps eating his Frosted Flakes and avoids collisions with Rafael Furcal I don't think he will disappoint.

Rd.8 John Smoltz SP - This is another strange fantasy bedfellow. Along with Chipper Jones, Smoltz has been the consistent face of everything I hate about the Atlanta Braves. However, now he's my number two man and I'll have to cheer him on as he continues his stellar pitching into his forties, usually against the Mets.

Rd.9 Mariano Rivera RP - Normally he's taken a lot higher than Rd. 9 but I guess many see the beginning of the end after last year's good but not great season. Sure he's only getting pretty old, but he's still going to get a mess of saves without the Joe Borowski ERA. He's still elite in my book. There's that taste again though.

Rd.10 Dan Uggla 2B - I learned my lesson from the previous draft about holding out for second basemen in the post-Utley part of the draft. So, I turned to my good friend Dan Uggla who came out of nowhere to help out my team in 2006. He still provides top tier offense for the position, but please for the love of god, improve that .245 average!!

Rd.11 Kelvim Escobar SP - He's always been consistent but unspectacular. I am hoping that he might be able to repeat something close to the career year he had last year. He'll always maintain some degree of default quality and he's on a good team.

Rd.12 Delmon Young OF - Here's another guy who goes against my "proven veterans with established ceilings" drafting tendencies. Here's one of those immensely talented young stars (younger than me) with fantastic five category fantasy potential that may or may strike. I figured I'd do a little gambling. Although I thought I'd never see him in baseball after that umpire incident.

Rd.13 John Maine SP - I think he's a solid starter who's only going to post better numbers this year on an improved Mets team. Of course this is all through the slightly rose colored frames of a Met fan.

Rd.14 Chad Cordero RP - "The Chief" provides me with a steady no nonsense source of saves. Although a repeat of that amazing 2005 campaign would be nice though. I think the best saves sources are on bad teams. They don't blow out teams much so things are close and even the worst teams will have roughly 60 -70 wins.

Rd.15 - Mike Lowell 3B - Aside from 2005, when his talent inexplicably disappeared for that one season, Lowell has been steady to (for example last year) great. I double he'll hit .324 and have 120 rbi but in that prolific Boston line up the numbers should be pretty tasty; especially for a guy I'll probably be switching in and out of the utility slot.

Rd.16 - Oliver Perez SP - He's another repeat from my earlier draft; he actually fell three rounds here. Like I said before he'll many times throw a gem or not get out of the first inning. Hopefully he'll pick up a thing or two from fellow lefty Johan and hit his potential.

Rd.17 Ken Griffey Jr. OF - Hopefully I'll reap some of those 30 HRs and 90 RBIs until his arm falls off or his leg explodes sometime in late July.

Rd.18 - Bronson Arroyo SP - A recent Victor fantasy favorite. Not a year has gone by since he broke out with Boston, where I didn't draft him on one of my teams. While not amazing, he's definitely was not as bad most people think; pitching for the Reds should be judged on a different standard.

Rd.19 Tony Pena RP - Apparently he's got the inside track on the closer spot on the Diamondbacks, if not it's only a 19th round pick.

Rd.20 Kelly Johnson 2B - The likely lead off guy for Atlanta so there's a lot of potential for runs there. If I get too disgusted by Uggla's batting average I just may stick him in. It'd be even better if I could trade him to my other team that's forced to start Felipe Lopez.

Rd.21 - Joey Votto 1B - Decided to blow my throw away final spot on the hot prospect. I know it'll take a lot of faith in the Reds to put him over "superstar" Scott Hatterburg, but if they decide to pull the trigger and reap whatever benefits of the hype...or I'll just immediately cut him now.

Overall, I'm feeling good about this one. If I can just get average to good numbers from the starting pitchers I think I'll be competing for the top spot. I don't have that many doubts that the offense will be doing their part. Again I must emphasize that predicting anything in fantasy baseball however is a futile task so it'll be interesting to see how different this roster will be mid season.

It's Just a Fantasy...

Fantasy baseball might possibly be killing baseball. It won't be one of the main things that are killing baseball like steroids, HGH, the increasing popularity of football, Scott Boras, and the lack of parity for small market teams; but it contributes in its own little way. What began as an obscure basement hobby by a bunch of statheads looking to take Strat-O-Matic baseball to the next level has grown into this massive national activity that runs rampant in our schools, offices, and the internet.

Sure, on one hand it all seems positive, there's an interest in the game and a chance for the fan to get more involved with the up coming season. On the other hand, it reduces a beautiful sport into cold numbers and figures. All nuances fall off to the side and the information about if somebody stole a base becomes more important than what team actually won (this is unless you have pitcher going that night). This national hunger for numbers can be evidenced anytime you tune into a cable sports network and witness the cramped real estate on your screen, bursting with streaming numbers and statistics. Then there are those people who just take it way too far, organizing massive drafts, with custom made boards and faux trophies and rings, stuffing themselves into another coronary; thinking they're Theo Epstein when most of it really comes down to if your players randomly don't blow out their knees out. It's the antithesis of the team nature of the sport. It encourages reckless gambling. And most of all its inherent complexity makes it a tremendous time sink.

But, hey, I still do it. It's fun. You know I love wasting time. And in the end I stand a good chance of winning some nice scratch and bragging rights. Besides, how else am I going to make a worthless September match up between the Marlins and the Nationals seem interesting?

With that being said. I present the first of my three annual fantasy draft teams with exclusive round by round coverage:

League: The Champs Are Here

My Team: The Chan Ho Parks
Draft order: 10th pick out of 12
Previous Year's Rank: 8 of 13

This is one of my two Yahoo! baseball drafts. It's a standard 5x5 roto draft (and if I have to explain that to you, you're probably not interested in the answer) with 5 pitchers and 2 relief pitchers, etc. My team last year was down right schizophrenic. I was in the top or near the top of every offensive category, however my pitching was last or second to last in nearly every pitching category. All this led to a team that was firmly established just south of the muddled middle. This year I hope for a more balanced effort.

Rd 1. Jimmy Rollins SS - What can I say? He was the best player available at my position in the draft. While there's little doubt he'll give me elite production at SS, I'm still torn about depending on the leader of the arch rivals to my Mets.

Rd2. Carlos Beltran OF - I seem to end up with him every other year. While he's one of the best fantasy OFs around, I always feel like he could be playing better and he's just being lazy out there.

Rd3. C.C. Sabathia SP - Usually I hold off on my pitching until it's too late and I'm relying on Bronson Arroyo to be my staff ace, but this year I made an affirmative move to get a star. It's a shame though that average pitcher weight isn't a category.

Rd4. Adam Dunn OF - He's like a real life, white, Pedro Cerrano. Basically it's a Faustian deal to sacrifice batting average for a guaranteed 40 home runs. Oh and is that a handful of stolen bases I see?

Rd5. Carlos Guillen 1B/SS - I'll be playing him at 1B. I think he's one of the most underrated fantasy players around. In that juiced Tigers offense he'll hit .300, have at least 20 HRs, 100 RBIs, and have double digit steals. Now that's the kind of five category production I like.

Rd6. Chris Young SP - Needed a quality number two pitcher and on a bunch of teams he's as good enough to be a number one. The last two years I've picked him, he has never let me down. Which means he'll probably suck this year.

Rd7. Ryan Zimmerman 3B - I don't like turning to players from the Nationals for offense, but Zim's a solid 2nd tier 3B option. I'm hoping his stats go up a bit since with the new stadium they don't have to play in that pitcher friendly canyon known as RFK.

Rd8. Corey Hart OF - He wears his sunglasses at night and provides five category production in a stacked Milwaukee lineup.

Rd9. Trevor Hoffman RP - This was a knee jerk reaction to other owners gobbling up closers. I panicked and picked the most established name out there. Sure he's a 100, sure his numbers have been going down as of late, but....

Rd10. Rich Hill SP - Solid third starter. He's young and has good numbers. He does play for the Cubs so freak injuries or sudden loss of ability to play is not uncommon.

Rd11. Rafael Soriano RP - He's in a great situation and should have great success closing for the Braves. Of course, that was the exact same thought I had when I drafted Dan Kolb in 2005.

Rd12. Chad Billingsley SP - He was a real surprise for one of my teams last year and has all the stuff to be a real ace for the Dodgers. One my favorite picks in the draft.

Rd13. Oliver Perez SP - A walking land mine of a pitcher; don't know if he'll pitch a complete game shut out or get shelled for 10 in the first inning. I think it averages out to fairly decent pitcher in the end.

Rd14. Matt Kemp OF - Another young Dodger that helped me out this year. Outfield's a little crowded out there in LA, but I'm sure his talents will keep him in consistently.

Rd15. Jarrod Saltalamacchia C/1B - You have to pick a catcher sometime. I figure he won't hurt the team too much and he does hit home runs, which everybody loves.

Rd16. Aaron Rowand OF - Everybody's saying he's going to hit the wall (literally and figuratively) in San Francisco this year. As a lower round backup outfielder, I'll take a lesser version of his 2007 campaign.

Rd17. Mark Buehrle SP - Figured the team needed a veteran clubhouse presence.

Rd18. Willy Tavares OF - He steals bases.

Rd19. Felipe Lopez 2B/SS - Let this be a lesson. Don't hold off on drafting your second baseman until the last few rounds. This would have been a great option in 2005 before he joined the Nationals and lost his talent.

Rd20. Yunel Escobar 2B/3B/SS - Nice young prospect with sweet three position versatility. He could end up being the Braves lead off guy.

Rd21. Aaron Heilman RP - Mr. Irrelevant. I figure if the one of the Mets starters gets injured he could fill in or if Wagner gets injured he could close; so he's at a good position to capitalize.

So in the end I think it was a decent first draft, good but not great. This doesn't look like a first place team off the bat, but the thing about fantasy baseball is the capricious and arbitrary nature of the game. I'm sure some of these guys (I'm looking at you Felipe) will be dealt and replaced by the next breakout star waiting on the waiver wire or through a trade as the season progresses.