It is that time of year, the time of year where I write a blog post about my fantasy baseball team that not even ten people will read. It is lucky I don’t worry too much about my readership numbers for blog posts like this isn’t it…?
So I’m back with my Fratton Yankees. I still have not won this darn league despite having a fantastic squad. I’ve made the playoffs four straight years but haven’t been victorious at the end. Last year I was the overall #1 seed by a considerable margin but tripped over in the playoffs. The year before I was the overall #2 seed but tripped over face first into a BBQ in the playoffs. I got a shellacking and a half.
As per usual we get to keep 12 major league players and four minor league players. We will then draft 12 extra major leaguers along with four more minor leaguers in the draft.
I kept:
Buster Posey – C
Daniel Murphy – 2B
Manny Machado – SS/3B
Josh Donaldson – 3B
George Springer – OF
Kyle Schwarber – OF
Miguel Sano – 3B/OF
Billy Hamilton – OF
Yasiel Puig – OF
Yu Darvish – SP
Roberto Osuna – RP
Aroldis Chapman – RP
I had one real decision in the major league portion of the draft. Yasiel Puig has all the talent in the world but hasn’t put it together for two straight years yet I didn’t want to give up on his talent. This meant I kept him over Kenta Maeda, a starting pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers. I’m still not sure if I made the right decision there as I really liked Maeda but that is how I rolled.
In the minor league portion I kept Joey Gallo, Lucas Giolito, Kevin Maitan and Lazaro Armenteros. Gallo is the power hitting 3B/OF of the Rangers who has issues actually hitting the ball (when he makes contact it goes a long long way), Giolito is the #1 SP prospect in the game but his stock seems to be falling. Maitan is a young SS prospect who was the #1 international prospect last year and Armenteros is a complete unknown but has been called the Cuban Bryce Harper so I rolled the dice.
In the draft itself (major league portion) I took Albert Pujols first to fill my hole at 1B and then went 11 straight pitchers. DeSciafini, Wainwright, Zimmermann, Lynn, Uehara, Rondon, Volquez, Liriano, Sabathia, Kazmir and Stephenson. My first pitcher is already injured and might need TJ surgery so is very possible to miss the whole season and neither Kazimr nor Stephenson broke camp with jobs in the starting rotation. Not exactly ideal that…
In the minor league portion I added Padres SP prospects Quantrill and Morejon. Former #1 overall pick Mark Appel came next followed by Mets SP prospect Szapecki. So another four pitchers. Overall that meant I made 16 picks in the draft and only took one hitter (Pujols) and he was my first pick.
Since the draft I have made one big trade though. Miguel Sano has gone for a haul of four players. A deal I couldn’t really say no to. I got Tyler Skaggs and Alex Cobb to bolster my rotation. Young SP prospect Michael Kopech who throws 105 MPH and is the #2 SP prospect according to Jon Sickels and also got Luis Robert, an unknown who was the best young player in Cuba last year and was described by one scout as the best baseball player on the planet. The type of hype I all too often buy into. Also the type of player I like to own the rights to just to see what happens.
The season started yesterday and to replace DeSciafini and Osuna (both on the DL) I brought in Alex Gordon to give me a spare bat on the bench and Sergio Romo, who’ll be setting up for the Dodgers this season.
Is this the year I finally win this league (its been going since the 2006 season) or is this another year of disappointment? I know one thing, no-one really cares but I can tell you this, I will grimly be participating all season long with the goal to not only win but to create a dynasty…
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