Last night, the draft for the 2008 edition of the YBFBL was held, and by my count, 10 of the 14 teams were present. (Great turnout). I led the league wire-to-wire during the regular season last year thanks mostly to 21st round pick BJ Upton, and I’m pretty sure I won the regular season title in 2006 as well. I’ve gone out without a whimper in the postseason each year, mostly because my team was never deep enough offensively. I plan to change that this year.

Usually, I go into my fantasy draft targeting six or seven key players hoping to land four or five of ‘em. From there, I just wing it and build the rest of my team around those guys. This year, I tried something different. I went in with a set strategy that I’m happy to say I stuck to despite several tempting opportunities to digress. Basically, I loaded up on offense early, and waited until the very end of the draft to grab pitchers–preferably high upside guys. My thinking is that hitters are generally known commodities and can be difficult to obtain during the season, but pitching is so unpredictable that there will certainly be a few quality arms available in free agency along the way. (I grabbed Fausto off the waiver wire last year). Problem is that if my team stinks, I look like an idiot.

I got stuck with the first overall pick in the scissor style draft, meaning I had to wait roughly 15 minutes in between making back-to-back picks; it was quite the ordeal. (The draft started at 9 p.m. and ended at 11:30-ish). Thanks to Patrick for once again putting this together. My roster is after the jump.

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Phew. Kinda looked like he’d be headed to AAA for a while.

Whaddaya think, does he have a shot at winning College Player of the Year, Minor League Player of the Year, and Rookie of the Year in 3 consecutive years? What about MVP in the 4th year? That’d be one hell of a thing.

(hat tip to TPA)

Chipper Jones went down with yet another ankle injury yesterday, leaving my fantasy 3B position empty. I acted quickly however, dropping him in favor of some kid named Gordon.

Whadda ya think, am I better off than before?

The draft for the Yanksblog.com Yankees Bloggers Fantasy League was held yesterday, and here’s who I ended up with:

(Round 1, Pick 2): Jose Reyes
2/19: Grady Sizemore
3/22: Jason Bay
4/39: Joe Nathan
5/42: Francisco Rodriguez
6/59: John Smoltz
7/62: Felix Hernandez
8/79: Daisuke Matsuzaka
9/82: Cole Hamels
10/102: Delmon Young
11/112: Russ Martin
12/119: Tad Iguchi
13/122: Chipper Jones
14/139: Pat Burrell
15/142: Derek Lowe
16/159: Jonathan Broxton
17/162: Conor Jackson
18/179: Chris Duffy
19/182: Edgar Renteria
20/199: Chad Tracy
21/202: BJ Upton

It’s your garden variety basic fantasy league - head-to-head competition in 5 hitting and 5 pitching categories. I got stuck with the second overall pick, and had originally planned to take a masher. I ultimately decided against it, because stolen bases, or lack thereof, has killed me in years past, plus HR and RBI are typically easier to find in the land of fantasy baseball.

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With Opening Day just around the corner, it’s nearing draft day for millions of fantasy players. Time to break out those Street and Smith magazines and the Baseball Prospectus annual that just arrived in the mail.

For me, this is my seventh draft day with the same core of players, and most years I manage two or three teams in various leagues. I’ve won a few leagues; I’ve finished in the top three in many others. While I don’t memorize 700 EqA numbers or K/BB ratios of the top starting pitchers, I do have a draft day strategy. But talking about draft strategy is boring, and everyone thinks their draft strategy is the best.

Instead, let’s look at a draft day conundrum that I know affects many fantasy players. I’ll use a friend of mine as an example.

Like me, my friends is a very big Yankee fan, but he’s not as experienced with fantasy baseball as I am. As he manages his team, he subsequently lets his emotions get in the way with his efforts to win the division. His cardinal rule, in this day and age, can be very damaging to the long-term prospects of his team. That rule? No Red Sox.

My roommate will not accept any Red Sox on his teams. If he does an auto-draft and lands a member of the hated team in Boston, he will trade the player in question in a lopsided deal. Conversely, he has a love affair with members of the Yankees.

Last season, said friend once tried to convince me that Bernie Williams was a viable fourth outfielder for a fantasy team. Now, I love Bernie, but he was hardly a viable fourth outfielder for the Yankees, let alone a fake team that largely depends on power and on-base percentage. Nevertheless, my friend loved his Yankees to the detriment of his team.

In the end, my friend won one of his leagues, but we’re not talking about an über-competitive league.

In fantasy baseball, this handicap, this blind love of the Yankees, can be very very damaging. Who wouldn’t want David Ortiz’s or Manny Ramirez’s slugging stats piling up points for his fantasy team? But if you’re anything like this obsessed Yankee fan, you can’t root for the Red Sox. You can’t bring yourself to ever cheer for David Ortiz or Manny Ramirez. And don’t eve get me started on Curt Schilling.

But to be a top-notch fantasy manager, you have to suck it up for the course of the season. If Manny Ramirez is available or David Ortiz lands in your lap early in the second round of the draft, take them. Root for the Red Sox to lose and hope they hit a bunch of inconsequential home runs and drive in a bunch of inconsequential RBIs.

Fantasy baseball really tests the limits of fandom, and sometimes, you just have to pick one over the other. To win your fantasy league, you may need to rely on players you hate. You may need that Barry Bonds, that Daisuke Matsuzaka, that Roy Halladay. And it hurts to watch them play your team. That’s just the bottom line, fan allegiances be damned.