Draft

Okay, I am so sorry. It has been an insane week, so I haven't gotten around to writing. However, I have something awesome to write for you tonight. I chose my first fantasy baseball team of the year. The league I am in is called the Battle of the Blogs. Essentially, the idea is that a lot of people who like to talk about sports and claim they know everything like myself now have a chance to back it up. So, I thought that I would show you my entire team.

Catchers: Mike Napoli (starter), Bryan Pena

First Baseman: Gaby Sanchez (starter), Mike Napoli and Garrett Jones also have eligibility at this position

Second Baseman: Gordon Beckham (starter), Clint Barmes

Third Baseman: Ryan Zimmerman

Shortstop: Alexi Ramirez (starter), Clint Barmes

Leftfield: Juan Pierre (starter), Ben Francisco

Centerfield: Adam Jones (starter), Carlos Beltran

Right field: Garrett Jones (starter), then Ben Francisco

Utilities: Carlos Beltran

Starting Pitchers: Felix Hernandez, Ubaldo Jimenez will lead the way, but they are supported by Cole Hamels, Randy Wolf, and Tim Stauffer with Daisuke Matsuzaka and Joe Blanton on the bench. My relief pitchers are Brad Lidge, Brandon Lyon, Mike Adams, Evan Meek, and Takashi Saito.

Well, what do you think? I would love to hear any and all of your opinions!

Right Field Debate

I saw the Phillies play again last night. Even though the final score wasn't good, it was so great to see them play again. One of the things about being one of the best teams in the MLB is that TV stations love to put them on. Also, featuring the best rotation in baseball doesn't hurt either for the heightened media perception. I think we definitely have potential, and the only battle that seems really up for grabs is the right field vacancy left by Jayson Werth. It looks like it will be filled by Ben Francisco, Dominic Brown, or John Mayberry Junior. My personal opinion is that Ben Francisco should get that job. The reason I believe that is because he has put up pretty consistent numbers off the bench, and it is much harder to come off the bench and produce well then to be in there every day. However, my opinion doesn't count much, so I would bet you that Dominic Brown gets the job. He is extraordinarily athletic and has a ton of potential. I think that he could bypass the other two someday on pure athletic talent, but for now I would say go with Ben Francisco.

Restraint

I am cutting back. I am only playing two fantasy baseball leagues so far this year. Compared to the three I played last year, this will be pretty easy. Winning however will not necessarily be easy. One of these leagues is with of people who are related to one of my friends, and it is always a very competitive league although it does tend to overvalue Red Sox which is all right with me because I am able to grab a few good players that normally I could not grab. I am sure that I overvalue Phillies as well, but surprisingly I have never ended up with a team full of Phillies. I will normally have maybe two of them, but I do it because they are good players first and foremost. My other league is full of other bloggers such as myself who just got together one day on some message board on the Internet and started playing. The hardest part of this league is that there are 20 teams. Therefore, every team ended up with a few solid players, but by the time we got to the final round, it was even hard to find anything but bench players.

Turning Over

So, for any of you who were wondering, my group did very well presenting yesterday. In fact, I think that everyone did a great job. People tend to rise to the occasion when presenting, so that was very cool. I just heard on the news that pitchers and catchers report on Sunday for the Red Sox, so the Phillies must be around that time as well. That is very exciting but at the same time it is sad to see basketball season ending. I spend so much time watching various games throughout the winter that I don't necessarily do for baseball. I think that the main reason for this is that it is a lot more fun to sit in a gymnasium in the winter than sit at high school baseball game in Vermont. Not that I don't love baseball, but Vermont has about the worst baseball weather, and it almost always rains multiple times throughout the season. Again, I still love this sport so I of course have been outside in those rainstorms, but there is something much more pleasant about sitting inside a warm building while still having a great sport being played. The season is winding down, but it is not over yet so enjoy!

Photo by akeg on Flickr

Spring Training is Almost Here

Well, the Super Bowl is over, so the next big events are the beginning of spring training and slightly after that and slightly more important than that is March Madness. Not that spring training is not important, but I feel like the games are not on TV enough, especially of the Phillies, so it is difficult to watch that much. Regrettably, I don't exactly know how long it is until pitchers and catchers report, but I know that is within the month, so that is very exciting. As I have said before, I feel like the Phillies are the team to beat not only in the National League but also in all of baseball. I really don't know who will challenge well this year, but I have to assume that Atlanta will be solid because they have been solid every year since the early 90s. You never know with the Mets or Marlins, and we can safely assume that Washington will not be too great although they do now have Jayson Werth, and I know that he is an excellent hitter who will solidify their lineup. It will be a fun year, and I look forward to having a better prediction of the World Series than I did for the Super Bowl.

Say It Ain't So

Well, I just watched the movie Eight Men Out, and we have just been doing a lot of work with ethics in finance, so that is kind of on my mind right now. What I'm thinking is that Joe Jackson should be in the Hall of Fame. Yes, he did take the money according to all sources, but he also had an amazing series. That makes no logical sense whatsoever which makes me think that Joe did not know what he was doing. Most people have made the claim that Joe Jackson was not very intelligent. I will not go there simply because I have not done enough research to make claims like that about people. Where I will go is that I wonder if he was told the whole truth. The only reason I make that claim is because even if he was not very intelligent, he'd know better than to cross guys like those gamblers. Even street knowledge of those guys would have led him to realize not to cross them. Therefore, why would he knowingly deal with the guys and then cross them? Perhaps he was told that it was a bonus from Comiskey. That would totally be out of character given what I have read about Comiskey, but framed in the right context, who knows? I guess that is my point. Who knows what really happened, and I do know that he was one of the best players in baseball history.

Photo from http://www.shoelessjoejackson.com/about/photos.html