We are a fantasy baseball league whose draft is scheduled for April 17. This year it was disturbingly easy to set the date. That's an omen -- a bad one.
I've been saying it's early days and it's ... really early days. We have only to look at Tola's team. He's wallowing in last place, and you look at his lineup and you find:
T. S. Intellectual - Stats for Players While Active (Year To Date)
Look at Texiera. Wouldn't you trade your first baseman for him straight up right now? With the exception of Cabrera, sure. I'd trade Morneau for Texiera right now, and Morneau is hitting .360. Pierzynski is off to a bad start, but I doubt that lasts. P'ski isn't all that good, but he's very consistent. The only hitter I'd worry about -- were I the noble Tola -- is Rajai Davis. I think of him as the black Eric Byrnes, maddeningly inconsistent and with very little track record to give us confidence that we know what his baseline is. But if he can manage an OBP over .300? Sixty steals.
Pitching I'm less sure about. Porcello is only in his second year, so who knows? But *Vasquez never misses a turn.* Lousy start, but I can't believe he won't be worth the 3 bucks for whatever MT paid for him. Peavy? Don't know. Intrigued by him and would have bought him for a buck or two if I'd needed a pitcher at the moment his name occurred to whoever threw him out. So my conclusion is that Michael's hitting will be better than average because no way his final BA won't be .280 or thereabout, with all the other batting numbers towed behind. His pitching could be anything -- good, bad or in between. So I say he's even money to make money. Next week I'll look at whoever is on top. Memory tells me that being in first at this point doesn't mean much but that at least two of the top four teams will stay there. I'm trying to remember the last wire-to-wire champ. I'm pretty sure there have been some.
Since Coco Crisp was injured before the season started, and Rajai Davis has only played center for the A's, I'm assuming we will place him in CF, not LF. I'm preparing my draft list both ways.
Let's use the mighty blog to settle disputes before the actual Great Day itself -- or at least to frame the disputes so we can scream and yell more efficiently. Who qualifies at which positions can be a puzzle. For our "newbies," it's worth pointing out that we assign players to the position they are most likely to occupy this year. Thus, Zobrist -- on whom I was counting as a top second baseman -- has started his first three games in right filed and apparently will continue there.
And, of course, we will need to settle on a field position for DHs, our usual practice.
Looks like it should be a good draft. We've lost Wieder but perhaps on the third day he will rise again -- pardon me, I'm used to drafting on Easter. I have Skyped with Berger, and Peter is ready to put Berger up on his mighty Mac laptop like an outtake from 1984.
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