Rebuilding A Franchise: From First to Worst and Back … Hopefully

It started with a poor season.

For better or worse, the 2008 baseball season was a disaster for my squad in the SLO League, causing me to seriously consider blowing up the team that had led me to two titles. I’d entered the 2008 draft with what at the time was considered OK keepers — Chase Utley, Victor Martinez, Justin Verlander, Carlos Lee and CC Sabathia. But then things quickly started to unravel.

Britney Spears, Grady Sizemore and of course, fantasy baseball magazines

Even though The Jon is a couple of days late due to being consumed by the MLB Network, The Jon did not miss out on the best day of the year. What day is this y’all ask? Thought you’d never ask. The Sporting News came out with its fantasy baseball magazine. Like what type of beer to drink on a 10 degree day, The Jon is a fantasy baseball magazine connoisseur.
And after 10 seasons of poring over them, The Jon has come to the undeniable conclusion of The Sporting News puts the best magazine out there. Sure that’s like saying Britney Spears is a better singer than Jessica Simpson, but since TheBaseballStars are to stupid and lazy to put one out on their own, The Sporting News will have to do.

Two suckers looking from the outside

The Oz has been called many things.
Whipped. Bustah. Little Boy Blue.
And now he can be called loser after being knocked out of the playoffs by PoiDog. On a separate note, Newspaperman, FreeSanJose and PoiDog are all in the playoffs, and the only one who is writing about any semblance of the playoffs is The Jon.

Not like you would want to read PoiDog, that guy is out of here. The Jon feels Like KRS-One when he stated on one of his albums “D-Nice is not a part of BDP.” Actually come to think of it, PoiDog bears a striking resemblance to D-Nice … but The Jon digresses yet again.

Back to The Oz. The Jon e-mailed The Oz after his debacle and all he did was gripe about how he lost, blah, blah, blah.

Hey The Oz, The Jon is a dynasty, you should be asking The Jon questions, not the other way around. But alas, here is the official transcript, fools.

The Jon knows these thing to be true: Week 19

Bronson Arroyo, you bum. After crying last week how The Jon was out of the playoffs, The Jon still has a slight chance after a shellacking to our Waste of Space fantasy owner. Seeing how the trading deadline was Sunday, The Jon has been busy all week getting Evan Longoria. Once that deal was done, The Jon saw Carlos Lee was available also and gave up a third round pick in next year’s draft.

Then Carlos Lee gets hit by a pitch by Arroyo and my pick and slim chance of the playoffs are all but gone. Just like that, the best hitter and front-runner fantasy MVP is out for the year. The Jon is beyond mad … only one thing can make me happy …

Four Bagger: Long Way to the Top

That’s the AC/DC tune stuck in my head today as I think about my positioning in each of my four leagues. I’m resting comfortably in second in the State League (TBS Home League), ninth in the SLO League, seventh in the Roto League, and in sixth in the Card League.

I’ve all but conceded defeat in SLO, and have actually gone into the seller’s market, dealing CC Sabathia, Carlos Lee and Adam Dunn for a pair of first-round picks, a couple of roster slugs, and a pair of young players, Evan Longoria and Jay Bruce. I’m not a huge Sabathia fan, and neither Carlos Lee nor Adam Dunn were keepers for me, so it made sense to “get younger.” The odd part about it is that I’ve also dropped some dead weight and picked up some nice players with value. I’m still competitive. More on that later.

But I want to spend the majority of this piece discussing the State League, and the dynamic of such lopsided standings. FreeSanJose currently has a stranglehold on first place leading me by 18 games, and third place by 24 games.

Three-peat starts here (Draft Results)

The road to the three-peat has begun.

On Saturday three of TheBaseballStars got together for the SLO League draft. TheJon took part by Yahoo Instant Messenger while PoiDog and myself hung out with the other owners. I’m not going to run down every bit of the draft, it’s a bit complicated since it’s a keeper league. But I will share my results. Reminder: I entered the draft without a first-round pick, and with these keepers: Victor Martinez, Chase Utley, Carlos Lee, C.C. Sabathia and Justin Verlander; rookie keeper: Cameron Maybin. Here’s what my team looks like today …

Newspaperman’s Top 5 fantasy prospects

So you’re looking for this season’s version of Ryan Braun, huh? I know how it is. Braun, a relative unknown to the casual baseball fan, burst onto the scene last year and manhandled major league pitching. He likely led your arch rival to a league title, or a playoff berth anyway, and now he’s being chosen in the top three rounds of many fantasy drafts. Some publications have even projected Braun to hit 40 homeruns this year and chosen him to supplant David Wright as fantasy’s third best third sacker. (I aint buying that). That said, you’re probably looking for the “next best thing,” the prospect that will be overlooked on draft day because no one knows him. Here is a list of five prospects that should have immediate fantasy impact.