A Football Dude Tries to Relearn Baseball

Wanna feel inadequate? Try dating a bisexual porn star.

I don't speak from experience there. I just feel pretty safe in the assumption.

My recent brush with inadequacy, however, came via my first fantasy baseball draft of the year.

It wasn't so long ago that I fancied myself a pretty solid fantasy baseball player, always well prepared at draft time and nearly always contending for a title. The devotion of more time to carrying the football content around these parts over the past couple of years, however, plus running FantasySportsBusiness.com, helping to get RapidDraft fantasy football off the ground, working a day job until 2009 ... oh yeah, and seeing my family every once in a while -- let's just say it left me with a bit less time to focus on baseball the past couple of years.

I managed to draft a good enough team in my four-keeper Yahoo! league in 2008 to lock down second place despite an inactive second half, but at some point in 2009, I became that jerk who couldn't even keep his lineup free of "DL" tags. Naturally, then, as we headed to the Fantasy Sports Trade Association conference in Las Vegas last week, I told my boss I'd have no trouble taking the lead on selecting Team WFG in the "experts" draft.

A January baseball draft is bound to present some pitfalls, but things get even tougher when you draft with a group of bright fantasy folks. This group included ...

John Zaleski of Fantasy Factor and Charlie Wiegert of Fanball -- who've been playing fantasy for almost as long as I've been alive and been running fantasy sports companies since before I hit middle school

Tim Heaney -- who's younger than I am but a lead baseball voice for KFFL and the returning champ in this league

Pierre Becquey -- who oversees ESPN's fantasy writing staff and is Canadian, thus probably much more ready to fight at any moment than I am

Scott Swanay of Fantasy Sherpa -- who runs more stat algorithms than there are Molina brothers

Ron Shandler of Baseball HQ -- Let's just say that when one of your buddies drafts Troy Glaus at this point, you quickly chime in with something like "every team needs a DH who can give you 12 games" or "maybe you can draft him a replacement hip next round." When Ron Shandler plucked Glaus in Round 20, though, all I could think was, "Crap, Glaus must be a sleeper this year."

I did, of course, take some time for preparation heading into this thing. I finally activated the Baseball Prospectus subscription that my brother had gifted me nearly a year before and even read some of the articles. I checked out the average draft position and cheatsheet material over at MockDraftCentral.com. I paid closer attention when posting baseball articles by our own pair of Brads and read some of Grey's brain droppings at Razzball.com.

Really, though, after more than a season and a half on not closely following baseball, I headed into the draft last Monday night with a five-point plan:

1. Don't make any picks that draw blatant laughter. Basically, I was hoping not to call out the name of any guy who had just announced his retirement or undergone Tommy John surgery.

2. Nab a few Expos late. Those guys are always underrated.

3. Don't stick only to familiar names. There were about four more Escobars and seven more Cabreras called than I knew existed, so it was clear that a 2003 all-star team wouldn't cut it -- despite my best efforts to assemble one, which I'll get to in a minute.

4. Don't ignore players just because they've failed me in the past. This has been one of my bigger problems in fantasy baseball: drafting players a year before their true breakout and then steering clear of them at the start of said breakout season. Rickie Weeks has burned me in the past, but I thought he was worth a shot in Round 12 after he did some good things in a truncated 2009 (at least, according to the magazine in front of me).

5. Don't jump on Nolan Ryan too early. Sure, he'll help me in strikeouts, but at the cost of my ERA and WHIP?

As the first round of this 14-team draft worked toward me at Pick 13, I hoped that Ryan Braun would last. One of the few young players with whom I'm really familiar (having acquired him for my sinking ship of a keeper team last year), Braun's cross-category value is obvious. Not surprisingly, he didn't get to me, but I was pleased to land Prince Fielder after a couple of owners ahead of me took Joe Mauer and Roy Halladay. The Halladay pick carried the bonus of making me look like at least the second-least prepared owner in the group.

It turned out that none of my fears were truly realized. Josh Hamilton brings risk but was worth a shot in Round 6 (72nd overall), at least I'm guessing by the lack of snickers when I picked him. Adam Wainwright might be coming off a career year, or he might have become the ace last year that folks have projected him to be. Either way, he was a decent No. 1 starter for my team at No. 69.

In the eighth round, I'm not sure if I selected a Canadian Olympic figure skater or some dude who failed as a kicker for three different teams last year. Either way, though, the leg drive of Elvis Andrus should get me some steals, right?

I did pick up Vladimir Guerrero (Round 10, Pick 128), Carlos Zambrano (12, 156) and Chipper Jones (15, 209) to make myself feel comfortable, but none was a big risk in double-digit rounds and each was at least good at some point. I even drafted a couple of young upside guys (Rockies OF Dexter Fowler and Washington RP Drew Storen), because I can't see winning a league like this without hitting on at least one or two values in that area. This is, after all, a 14-team setup with 23-man lineups -- and the leaguemates named above are likely to jump on the in-season breakouts before I even know which team they play for.

I'd be lying, of course, if I said I knew anything about Fowler or Storen before last Monday. 

We still have three more rounds to finish up via e-mail, but I'm feeling OK about the team I'm putting together. Maybe that's because no one laughed out loud as I picked on draft night. Maybe it's because my roster finished way ahead in player names called out after I'd already grabbed them. Maybe it's because I just don't know any better. 

The season will tell if this group can compete with a bunch of "experts," but at the very least, it feels nice to reconnect with baseball. Now, when should I take Randy Johnson?

Matt Schauf is the senior football writer for World Fantasy Games. E-mail him at matt.schauf@worldfantasygames.com.

The roster so far ...

Sports Buff Stories more

Be Patient (Sept. 9): Fantasy Colle...

Last-minute RB Ranks (non-PPR): Fan...

Hitter Report (Sept. 9): Fantasy Ba...

Last-minute TE Ranks (non-PPR): Fan...

Last-minute WR Ranks (non-PPR): Fan...

Waiver Wire (9/9): Fantasy College ...

RapidRemote Week 1: Fantasy Footbal...

Pitcher Report (Sept. 8): Fantasy B...

Headlines more

Report: Patriots, Brady finalize ex...

NFL Inactives (Thursday, September ...

Kosier, Colombo held out of Thursda...

Blue Jays claim P Buchholz

Angels to keep Double-A team in Ark...

Brady involved in car accident

Cowboys make Austin one of NFL's hi...