Hard at Work - For You

Being league (Beloved) Commissioner for Life is much like being the progressive and public-spirited governor of a state with a conservative and mean-spirited legislature, and I mean that in the most loving way possible. I have made, and will continue to make, determinations about questions of position eligibility with only the welfare and smooth functioning of the league as my governing principle.

But remember that poor Democratic governor. Zie (gender neutral - very progressive) can only do zir best while accepting the fact the mad cow posse (if I may playfully and respectfully so describe) that is zir state's legislature may overturn and nullify zir decisions. Here are the latest and hottest: Giancarlo Stanton is a left fielder, Shohei Ohtani is a right fielder and Alex Verdugo is a center fielder.

Unless you (already gender neutral - good job!) by majority say otherwise. Now is the time to raise those questions.

Winter is Coming

 That is to say, looms the fantasy baseball draft and its attendant pain and suffering in that if you haven't started preparing, if you don't have at least three dozen Excel spreadsheets crammed line to line with the most trivial of statistics, not to mention a stack of unredacted NSA surveillance and also a reputable source of safe and reliable - though technically illegal - mood sharpening substances, it's too late for you if you entertain any notion of avoiding relegation to some damn bass fishing fantasy league.

So there's no shame in just giving it up without even getting started. Flip a coin, choose based on high school mascot or from which of the Dominican Republic's 31 provincias the player comes - one is as good as the other because it's too late, baby, it's too late. 

One of my favorite baseball cliches is, "Stick a fork in him, he's done." I just counted 'em up. I have nine forks, poised and ready to go.

Putting on My Best Sweats for Draft Day

 These accentuate my buttocks.

Will the Draft Descend into a Sewer of Rage and Sadness?

I suppose this means we'll have to drink a lot. 

 Those who haven't been socializing during the pandemic aren't used to seeing people in person. For example, the experience of managing a group conversation bigger than what a person has experienced over the last year could cause someone to think harder in the moment, and thus take more energy.

 

Draft Prep Off to a SlooooowStart

Very excited about the draft but, sitting down this afternoon to jot some notes about projected starting lineups (as opposed to who actually started games the first week of the season), I discovered I am NOT excited about my usual draft prep, of my usual practice of extensive list making. (Which has always made me think I was a chartered accountant in a previous life, in Great Britain, of course, no such thing as a CPA across the pond as we learned from more than one Monty Python sketch.) Maybe the Covid lockdown, i.e., slowdown, has created an inertia so deep it will take months to overcome. The past year, for so many things why do it today instead of tomorrow. (Mañana, mañana, mañana is soon enough for me.) 

 

Yet the remorseless clock at the bottom of this page....

We Know Nothing. Nothing.

I mean speaking for myself.

Fearless Predictions for this Draft

John the Fearless (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

* Everything I read suggests King Felix is his old self and then some. I'm guessing he'll go for at least $8.

* Does David Price really have a fifth pitch or is that just Beantown hype? He's still worth $9.50, slurve or not.

* Justin Verlander's beautiful wife is giving him some beautiful trouble according to Buzzfeed. Court action is fine in tennis but baseball not so much. Stop the bidding at $4 and cross your fingers.

Let's Talk Positions

English: Jack O'Brien – Played in Major League Baseball between the 1899 and 1903 seasons (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Time to fire up the old league blog again to deal with that most vexing of recurrent problems: Who is eligible at what position? I'm guessing 95 percent of the time the answers are obvious. He played there last year. He's playing there this year.

Next case.

Manny Machado has spent his career playing 3B, but this year - his final under contract to Baltimore - he wants to play SS and thus (did I mention it's his final year under contract) he's playing SS. We are not one of those leagues that places guys at multiple positions! Deal with it.

But some situations are more opaque. Some DHs only DH, but MLB depth charts solve those problems - most of them. Mariners DH Nelson Cruz is number three RF on the Seattle depth chart. He also played five whole games there last year. Thanks to my link you can look it up!

And, of course, there's Marwin Gonzalez, who was all over the place last year. He played 47 games in LF and 38 at SS. This year the CBS depth chart has him as backup not in LF but in *all four infield positions.* I say tally the first two weeks of the season and go with that. But do not forget the bottom line, this league's Iron Rule which the BCL has adamantly applied. Majority vote rules! Anything a majority of the league says must be so *is* so. We have occasionally tweaked reality to shore up a weak position.

There you go. The floor is open for discussion. Comments?

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Draft Countdown is Underway

Pose your questions, lads. Since we are going to draft with ten this year, placement of marginal players at thin positions is important. Since I am old school and take a "paper" paper, I am here perusing the box scores, looking for anomalies and portents. You may recall I said Mr. Carlos Santana (the baller) will be drafted as a ....

I've forgotten if I said RF or 1B. As of this morning, he's played at 1B five times and RF three times. A strict constructionist - is that you, Clarence Thomas? - would place him at 1B, but I say let's put him at the weaker position, which looks to be RF.

But back to this DL madness. Guys dropping like flies, and the net effect of this 10-day DL is to make you think they will probably be back sooner rather than later. I'm just saying wait on the dreaded MRI.

Caption That Kevin!

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That's Right. It's Time for *Caption that Kevin* the only contest where you don't  win only if you don't play. Are you Ready? It's time to *Caption that Kevin* And the first caption is:

che was right.

you can't lead a revolution

with split ends.