Is it drafty in here?

Okay, I made it through the fantasy baseball draft – less than a week until opening day! I SO can not wait for baseball to start again. Drafting a new fantasy team was sort of like rounding up a bunch of co-workers to help with a big project. You might know some of them pretty well, and you might be slightly familiar with the work of others, but a few are just new people you picked at random. And when it’s all said and done, you HOPE this group will work well together…

I wasn’t as happy with my team this year immediately after the draft, but the more I look at it, the more I’m starting to like it. I think I made some decent picks in my number 9 spot (which was a rather strange place to choose, to be honest… there seemed to be many times when it would seem too early to pick a certain player, but by the time it was back to my turn, it would be too LATE to pick the same player. Oh well… I tried to make the best of it…) I’m pretty happy with my first baseman (Justin Morneau – he beat out Derek Jeter for last year’s AL MVP, so he’d better be good…). I like my shortstop (no, not Jeter, unfortunately – Michael Young… not too bad. He hit .314 last year and had 103 RBIs…) and my third baseman (Garrett Atkins… .329 last year… 120 RBIs… 29 homeruns…). My outfield is so-so, but I’m hoping for good things from Carlos Lee, who moved from Milwaukee to Houston last year. That alone should make anyone play better… even I would play better if I moved from Milwaukee to Houston…

As far as pitching, I’ve got C.C. Sabathia, who I’m really happy with. Even though I know there are naysayers out there who think it was a mistake to take him. But I still have faith in him, even if every time he pitches I worry he’ll succumb to a heart attack, brought on by his obvious love of cheeseburgers. I was impressed last year with his six complete games and two shutouts, plus his 172 strikeouts in 28 games. And hopefully he’ll have a few more games this year, since he sat out the first few weeks last season with an oblique injury. I also have Matt Cain, who throws a lot of strikes, but also needs to lower his ERA – he’s young, so there’s room to improve. Plus Dontrelle Willis and Andy Pettitte (my token Yankee). I’m expecting good things from Pettitte this year (c’mon Pettitte!!). I’m especially happy with my two closers – Joe Nathan and Billy Wagner – because as I learned last year, closers can be a very valuable supplement to pitching when your pitchers are lagging…

After the draft, our Fearless Fantasy Baseball Leader Tim likes to send out his “predictions” of who’ll finish where in the league. His prediction this year is that I’ll come in ninth and Rick will finish eighth. Now, just to compare – last year, Tim “predicted” that Rick would finish last, and I would be either seventh or eighth (I can’t remember which one). Can we all remember how things ended up? Let’s review, shall we: I finished second and kicked eight guys’ butts. Rick finished fourth. Tim obviously knows exactly what he’s talking about. And here’s an interesting fact: the last two years, Tim has consistently “predicted” that HE would finish third. Hmmm… third, huh? That’s just far enough away from first place to not “seem” conceited, yet high enough of a prediction to say, “I’m obviously better at this than most of you.” Honestly, I think anyone could have drafted anyone and Tim’s predictions wouldn’t change much… and actually, I LIKE that prediction of ninth place. I’m fine with that prediction. Because it’s always better to be UNDERestimated than OVERestimated. It gives me a lot of room to move up...

But I will admit that toward the end of the draft, I barely even knew who I was choosing. Not only was I practically falling asleep at my computer, but many of the players remaining were guys I’d barely heard of. I mean, I think I may have accidentally drafted one of Angelina Jolie’s adopted kids, and possibly a Radio City Music Hall Rockette (is there an MLB player named Julie?? I just don’t know…). But regardless, I can’t wait for opening day, and I can’t wait to watch the Yankees this year – it’s funny how much I miss baseball when it’s gone. And this fantasy baseball stuff makes it even more fun…

I just hope Angelina Jolie’s Vietnamese kid knows how to hit a ball…