I belong to three fantasy baseball leagues...or as my wife Doree gently puts it: “three too many.” It's not that she hates baseball. Well, she does hate baseball but that's beside the point. What irritates her and what non-fantasy participants can't understand are the hours of research and planning and tinkering with rosters and more research and more planning go into this hobby...all of it culminating in our yearly Fantasy Baseball drafts which each and every one of my league mates think of as Christmas.
For the uninitiated, Fantasy Baseball comes in a variety of formats and styles but the one I play is called an “auction” draft. Each team has a salary cap of $260 and with that have to fill their roster with twenty-three players: two catchers, nine pitchers, five outfielders, a first, second and third baseman, a corner infielder, middle infielder and a utility player who can play any position, including pitcher.
In addition, each team can draft up to seventeen minor league players or major league reserves to use throughout the season. The major league players count $10 against the cap and the minor league players $5. In one of the leagues I play in the minor league players can be kept for as long as you like—or until they hit the majors and accumulate either 130 at bats or, for pitchers, sixty major league innings.
So, for example, if you drafted Mike Trout a few years ago for $5...that's a pretty good deal since his auction price today would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $45-50, a big chunk of your salary cap.
But that's why we spend all that time researching...because we want to be the ones who can unearth those minor league gems and allow us to overpay for people like Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder who under perform or, in Fielder's case, barely perform at all.
But of course that's the crapshoot with Fantasy Baseball. It's just like the real deal. Injuries are part of the game. So if you, like my friend Dave Penson, begin the year with a killer pitching rotation that includes Jose Fernandez, Masahiro Tanaka, Homer Bailey and Matt Moore...it's no guarantee that any of those guys will stay healthy.
Dave, by the way, is one of the country's leading oncologists and travels to our draft in Studio City, Ca. Every year from his home base of Vanderbilt University. We have another player who commutes from Maryland, two who fly in from New York City and one who lives in Maine and generally does the draft via telephone but we're trying to talk him in to coming out for the 2015 extravanza, which will be held March 28 and I can hardly wait!
So how have my teams done so far? Well, my American League team “The Bo Belinsky's,” named for my favorite wacky lefthander, is in fourth place with a shot at third which would place me in the money. And oh yes, you do get paid if you win—anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars depending on the makeup and entry fee of your league.
But I won't be worrying about that for my two other leagues. My National Leaguers, “Van Mungo's Ghost” named for you know who, are dead last and aren't going anywhere. No excuses. I drafted poorly, traded badly and got what I deserve.
My eighteen-team league, which is sponsored by “Tiny Naylors,” I'm also in last place but with extenuating circumstances. Early in the year, realizing I didn't have a team that could win or even contend, I began trading off my expensive star players for minor leaguers and draft picks for 2015. So even the bad teams have something to look forward to because you never know when the next Mike Trout might be lurking around somewhere.
Last year I drafted a high school kid, a Cuban slugger who hasn't even defected yet and a bunch of other hopeful maybes. This year I'm looking at Vladimir Guerrero's 15-year-old son who hasn't even signed with a team but, rumor has it, can hit like his old man. This is how sick it can get...and fun, too. Because no mater where you are in the standings...there's always next year. And hope springs eternal.
For the uninitiated, Fantasy Baseball comes in a variety of formats and styles but the one I play is called an “auction” draft. Each team has a salary cap of $260 and with that have to fill their roster with twenty-three players: two catchers, nine pitchers, five outfielders, a first, second and third baseman, a corner infielder, middle infielder and a utility player who can play any position, including pitcher.
In addition, each team can draft up to seventeen minor league players or major league reserves to use throughout the season. The major league players count $10 against the cap and the minor league players $5. In one of the leagues I play in the minor league players can be kept for as long as you like—or until they hit the majors and accumulate either 130 at bats or, for pitchers, sixty major league innings.
So, for example, if you drafted Mike Trout a few years ago for $5...that's a pretty good deal since his auction price today would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $45-50, a big chunk of your salary cap.
But that's why we spend all that time researching...because we want to be the ones who can unearth those minor league gems and allow us to overpay for people like Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder who under perform or, in Fielder's case, barely perform at all.
But of course that's the crapshoot with Fantasy Baseball. It's just like the real deal. Injuries are part of the game. So if you, like my friend Dave Penson, begin the year with a killer pitching rotation that includes Jose Fernandez, Masahiro Tanaka, Homer Bailey and Matt Moore...it's no guarantee that any of those guys will stay healthy.
Dave, by the way, is one of the country's leading oncologists and travels to our draft in Studio City, Ca. Every year from his home base of Vanderbilt University. We have another player who commutes from Maryland, two who fly in from New York City and one who lives in Maine and generally does the draft via telephone but we're trying to talk him in to coming out for the 2015 extravanza, which will be held March 28 and I can hardly wait!
So how have my teams done so far? Well, my American League team “The Bo Belinsky's,” named for my favorite wacky lefthander, is in fourth place with a shot at third which would place me in the money. And oh yes, you do get paid if you win—anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars depending on the makeup and entry fee of your league.
But I won't be worrying about that for my two other leagues. My National Leaguers, “Van Mungo's Ghost” named for you know who, are dead last and aren't going anywhere. No excuses. I drafted poorly, traded badly and got what I deserve.
My eighteen-team league, which is sponsored by “Tiny Naylors,” I'm also in last place but with extenuating circumstances. Early in the year, realizing I didn't have a team that could win or even contend, I began trading off my expensive star players for minor leaguers and draft picks for 2015. So even the bad teams have something to look forward to because you never know when the next Mike Trout might be lurking around somewhere.
Last year I drafted a high school kid, a Cuban slugger who hasn't even defected yet and a bunch of other hopeful maybes. This year I'm looking at Vladimir Guerrero's 15-year-old son who hasn't even signed with a team but, rumor has it, can hit like his old man. This is how sick it can get...and fun, too. Because no mater where you are in the standings...there's always next year. And hope springs eternal.
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