Let’s Have A Look At My Fantasy Team
By Editorial Staff
Why not?
Heck, I write so much straight-faced analysis on here, I like to throw in a change of pace now and then. Maybe then, people won’t realize I’m just a number-crunching robot.
Cue the evil robotic laugh!
Anyway, I feel like sharing my personal relationship with the game helps readers get to know me better as a writer. It also sheds some light on my own individual biases and notions about the game, which I feel I should let people know.
What more direct way of interacting with baseball than fantasy baseball? It gives one the power to, within some constraints, build a team however one likes.
I’m in a 20-team league this year. It’s set up with nine pitching categories and nine hitting categories, and they’re all sabermetrically oriented. No wins, no saves, no batting average. Instead, we have…
Runs
Hits
Home Runs
Total Bases
Walks
OBP
Slugging Pct.
Extra-Base Hits
Stolen Base Pct.
Homers Allowed
Walks Allowed
Strikeouts
ERA
WHIP
K/BB ratio
Walks/9 IP
K/9 IP
On-Base Pct. Against
Adding to the fun is that it’s a 20-team league with a real MLB roster setup. You have to have:
One of every offensive position
A backup catcher
A backup middle infielder
A backup center fielder
Another backup outfielder
A 13th position player of your choice (Util)
Five starting pitchers
Seven other pitchers (starter or reliever)
There are also five bench and five DL slots, so there are 600 players in the league at any one time not counting DL. It’s pretty epic.
My team is as follows:
C1-Brian McCann
C2-Carlos Ruiz
1B-Daric Barton
2B-Chase Utley
3B-Gordon Beckham
SS-Cliff Pennington
MI-Joaquin Arias
LF-Kyle Blanks (hey, a Padre!)
CF1-Dexter Fowler
CF2-Rick Ankiel
RF-Garrett Jones
OF-Will Venable (hey, another Padre!)
Util-Travis Hafner
SP1-Jon Lester
SP2-Ubaldo Jimenez
SP3-Brett Anderson
SP4-Brian Matusz
SP5-Dan Haren
P1-Sergio Romo
P2-Brandon League
P3-Matt Daley
P4-Pedro Feliciano
P5-Jenrry Mejia
P6-Kevin Jepsen
P7-Esmerling Vasquez
Bench-Adam Moore, Travis Buck (hitters), C.J. Wilson, Luke Hochevar, Felipe Paulino (pitchers switched in on days they start)
DL-Freddy Sanchez, Sammy Gervacio, Marc Rzepczynski, Michael Wuertz
That’s pretty impressive, in my opinion, for a 20-team league. They rewarded my faith by going 17-0-1 in the first week (damn Hits category!).
The pitching staff is loaded with strikeout potential, and Utley and McCann (my first two picks) are studs at their respective positions. The rest of the hitters were sleepers, like Jones, Blanks, Barton, Venable, Pennington, Fowler, and Ankiel.
So…that’s my team. I’ll probably post updates about it now and then. Take from it what you will.