It’s My Fantasy

I had my fantasy baseball draft this weekend. It’s always an exciting time. I don’t know if anyone else who has a team has hard-fast rules when it comes to drafting. I have a few of them. The most important one is that ALL Yankees go immediately to the “Do Not Draft” column. Even most ex-Yankees (like Nick Swisher) or potential Yankees (like Vernon Wells) join them on the list. That’s fairly easy. Second, draft as many Red Sox players as I can…without getting TOO crazy and drafting them too soon. I end up intending on drafting Sox players a round “early” but usually move them up closer to two. It’s ok with me. It makes it more fun. Third, try to fill up the rest of the team with as many NL guys as I can. The last thing I need is to be cheering for David Price to beat the Red Sox in order to help my fantasy team.

So, I know you’re all waiting to see who made it onto my team. Ok. None of you care who is on my team. Once you realized that my fantasy wasn’t about Keira Knightley in a tub of Jello, you moved on. But, if you’re still here, take a gander. It’s an 11 team, 5x5 league with slightly larger rosters than normal. So keep that in mind.

C Joe Mauer

1B Adam LaRoche

2B Evereth Cabrera

3B Will Middlebrooks

SS Stephen Drew

Corner Infield Brandon Belt

Middle Infield Josh Rutledge

OF Andrew McCutchen

OF Giancarlo Stanton

OF Matt Holliday

OF Shane Victorino

Utility Lance Berkman

Utility Darwin Barney

Utility Dee Gordan

Bench Jarrod Saltalamacchia

Bench Jackie Bradley Jr

Bench Donovan Solano

SP Matt Cain

SP Gio Gonzalez

SP Jon Lester

SP Tim Lincecum

SP Clay Buchholz

SP Anibal Sanchez

RP Joel Hanrahan

RP Jonathan Papelbon

RP Junichi Tazawa

Bench John Lackey

Yeah. I haven’t heard of a lot of those guys either. My first pick was Andrew McCutchen. I passed on Matt Kemp, Justin Verlander, or Albert Pujols mostly because I saw McCutchen play when I went to Pittsburgh. That was pretty cool. I went a long time before taking my first Sox player. Lester was the first one, around round eight. He was my third pitcher chosen after all. So, I showed a lot more restraint than in past years. Of course it helped that the Sox didn’t really have a first round talent, and someone took Pedroia before I could get him.

I like my outfield, naturally. My catcher is nice as well, especially since Mauer is eligible at first base and corner infield. With Salty, there’s some room to play around with the line-up to cover off days for other players. I’ll take my starting infield too. If Middlebrooks is everything he hopes to be, that will be fun. The pitching staff could be one of the best I’ve had. Cain and Gonzalez give me a good starting point. Imagine if Lester, Lincecum, and Buchholz all travel back in time? Yikes. Even Sanchez and Lackey could be great late-round additions.

It’s the “extra” positions that are killing me. I have to start Dee Gordan? Bleh. Even if he runs wild, that will be tough to take. Darwin Barney? Ick. Hopefully Jackie Bradley can come up in a few weeks and take their spot in my line-up. If that happens, this could be a solid team.

What do you think?