Fantasy baseball isn’t my favorite thing in the world. That being said, I still play it. Well, kind of. I join a couple of Yahoo Fantasy Baseball public leagues every year. It’s mostly to give my life some meaning in July and August when I find myself watching regional arena football. Go Salina Liberty!
Anyway, I haven’t been able to do a fantasy baseball draft this year with the MLB season postponed. I mean, how could you with so much uncertainty surrounding the season? It may be a public league where half the managers don’t touch their roster all season, but I’m still in it to win it.
I broke down and joined a Yahoo Fantasy Baseball draft this week because there was nothing better to do. It was a surreal experience. Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why.
You know the players, but that’s it
Normally when you join a fantasy baseball draft under normal circumstances, you have an idea of how you will build your team. However, this goes out the window with no idea of how many games the season will be or what the structure looks like. Especially when it comes to pitchers. If games are only seven innings, how deep will starters go into games? If there are a bunch of doubleheaders, will closing duties be split? There are too many questions that don’t have answers.
The desperate search for early season stars
It dawned on me during the third round of my fantasy baseball draft that I only really need players that get off to hot starts. It seems highly unlikely 162 games are played, and the MLB regular season can’t really be extended beyond the end of September. That means you can’t afford to carry players who are traditionally slow starters. I found myself frantically scouring Baseball Reference to find anyone who put up numbers early in the season.
The joy of a fantasy baseball draft chat
People who are bored enough to participate in a public league fantasy baseball draft for three hours also love to talk. Talk isn’t really the right word. They actually just like to make threats and act like 14-year olds. The chat in my Yahoo Fantasy baseball draft had one guy who told everyone how gay every pick they made was. There was a person who only drafted relief pitchers and insulted everyone who didn’t take them. Oh, and I was there claiming the movie Baby Geniuses was based on the story of my life.
