Best Spot to Draft in Fantasy Baseball?

What is the best spot to draft in your Fantasy Baseball league? Common sense argues that it is always best to have the first pick in any kind of Fantasy draft. This is truly the only way you can get a shot a prime top-3 draft pick like Alex Rodriguez, Hanley Ramirez, or David Wright. It would make logical sense that this is the best place to start your assualt on your Fantasy Baseball league competitors.

Hold on. Wait a second. By taking a quick look at some of the data from Fantasy Baseball, you may reach some different conclusions. Could it possibly be better to pick later in the first round, rather than at the beginning? I will tell you my thoughts.

First though, a little bit of background. Our Fantasy Baseball league is hosted over at CBS Sportsline where it has been since 2001. There has been a core group of gentlemen (about 7 of us) that have participated throughout the years while a few others have come and gone. We have had 3 winners of titles in the 7 years, one gentleman 3 times, another twice, and myself once -- in 2006.

In all, the league has been a keeper league, however in the recent few years -- your keepers have to be from a draft round later than round 5 or from the waiver wire. Keepers can only be kept for one year. In our drafts, we do reverse order every other round so, the person that gets the 10th pick, also gets the 11th pick, etc.

Then the email came out Thursday announcing the random draft order for our league. I was a little annoyed because it was going to be the second year in a row and 3 out of the last 5 years that the "randomly weighted" draft put me at the bottom. At the same time, another owner who has consistently been in the bottom of the league complained about not having a top three pick.

I thought that comment was a little ludicrous in the fact that why should I fail to have the opportunity to draft Alex Rodriguez (he tends to be the first pick each year) for instance just because that owner fails to manage their team year-after-year. I threatened to have my roster illegal all year just so I could have the first pick next year.

The good news is that the email with the draft order was sent out in error and they were not the correct picks. The draft order will be updated in the next few days. However, I digress.

In our league, the last few years there has been a inverse relationship between the initial order in the draft and the outcome for the league. Here are the examples:

In 2003, the winner picked 10th in the draft.
In 2004, the winner picked 8th, 2nd place (me) picked 10th in the draft.
In 2005, the winner picked 9th in the draft.
In 2006, I won after I picked 6th in the draft.
In 2007, the winner picked 5th in the draft.

Amazingly, nobody with a top-4 pick won the draft -- what is that saying? It would seem there may be a few arguements that could be made.

1. The truly elite and CONSISTENT talent in Major League Baseball really falls off after the middle of the second round.
2. In fantasy baseball, it is more about having a "decent" draft day, and moving quickly on the waiver wire after the start of the season. Many players are not consistent from year to year so you need to find who is going to be hot -- and undrafted as early as possible.
3. There is a ton of luck involved with baseball, more than any other sport.

I tend to agree with points #1 and #2 in my experience from Fantasy Baseball. What is your experience? After thinking about this in detail here, I now have to think about what place I want to fall in the draft. In my opinion, 5th-7th in the draft would seem to be optimum. You still get that elite talent in the beginning of the draft and you are well positioned to adjust each round as you are in the middle of order -- no more than 10 picks from you next pick.

What do you think?

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Kobe Update: Local Media Updates Us

Not more than minutes since I wrote the article about how I would love to see Kevin Garnett join Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles that I came across a few other articles talking about the subject. I often ignore the majority of articles outside of Los Angeles as the bias against the Lakers and especially Kobe Bryant is profound. Unfortunately, so bad that it often impacts the quality of journalism. None the less, some interesting things out there.

For instance, the article that resonates most with me from HoopsWorld.com called "What Happened?"

The Lakers passed on many opportunities to improve but none with the impact of landing the Big Ticket.

Garnett has that home in Malibu. He's looked great next to Bryant on All-Star teams. He's an intense competitor who only played beside a true closer once in his career (a healthy Sam Cassell).....

In the end, the realist sits down and marvels "What happened to my Lakers?"

And that's exactly where I am at right now. What is going on with my Los Angeles Lakers? Didn't they start off the season on a tear until injuries devoided them of any opportunities to make real progress? Didn't I see Kobe drop 65 at Staples raining 3's like they were from Heaven?

And now, apparently Kobe Bryant and Mitch Kupchak are on speaking terms. (Sarcasm) I mean, Mitch has been a wonderful GM, bringing players like Jason Kidd, Ron Artest and.....oh wait. Still, the Los Angeles Times reports:

Kupchak declined to provide any specifics of their conversation, which took place a day after Minnesota forward Kevin Garnett reportedly vetoed a trade to Boston.

Unfortunately, the true reality is that Mitch does not have any fact to provide. Overall, I have to say -- big whoop-tee-doo -- I could care less if Mitch and Kobe speak. What I want to happen is Mitch either leave in favor of Jerry West or make a deal and keep Kobe. Bottom line.

Then the Press-Enterprise is reporting that Kobe fans are still remaining loyal to him.

The love affair Lakers fans have with Bryant appears to be unwavering, even in the wake of his recent rants, of his casting aspersions on the entire organization and of his back-and-forth demands to be traded and then rescinding those demands.

Honestly now, who else is there? I mean, if Kobe is gone, aren't we back to the post-Magic Johnson era of Lakers basketball? We all know how that looked until Shaq showed up. That does not mean we stop being fans, but do we really want to be Boston Celtics bad? Yes, our desire to keep Kobe is unwavering. He's the 2nd player EVER to drop 81 points in a game -- and gosh darn it is he exciting to watch in person.

What's your take? I am sure there is more to come on this front!

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Can Kobe save my season?

A Recent Post from my on the Cornerstone Conference NBA Fantasy League. (more to come on last night's Laker game!)

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The last two weeks have been abysmal for my team, Bio-Waste. After a dominating performance against Benchwarmers and then squeaking by Honkylips, the team’s playoffs positioning and chance are now fading fast. After getting hammered by Higa last week, when I walked into Staples Center last night – the deficit to Yojays looked an improbable 1-8.



In addition, at the beginning of the season when I grabbed these Lakers tickets - they were not one of the games I was really excited about. With the Portland Trailblazers in town, a collection of jailbirds of various natures, hence earning the nickname for the team of Portland Jailblazers – how exciting could the game be? Not to mention, it was smack in the middle of the 1st round of the NCAA tournament. How could I watch my brackets?

Then, when starting lineups were announced – Luke Walton was no where to be found, bad sign. The first half, the Lakers as a team were awful. Kobe kept making great passes to open teammates and mentioning no one particular (yes, you Smush Parker) – they passed up the open looks. It was so bad, that every time the chant for the “Let’s Go Lakers” came, I was forced to chant “Let’s Go Kobe.” It was clear to everyone in Staples Center the Lakers had no chance unless Kobe did something special.

Kobe had a decent first half and there were signs of how hot he was on a couple occasions where he sank back-to-back three’s. A third 3-point attempt realized his heat-check was not quite white hot yet – but who knew what was coming.

No need to really re-cap what happened in the 4th quarter and overtime; everyone knows that Kobe willed the Lakers to victory dropping 8 3’s, and 65 points on the Portland Trailblazers. A truly spectacular overtime thriller that w

What did it mean for Bio-Waste? Nothing less than a miracle. A 1-8-0 deficit turned into a 5-4-0 advantage in the matter of 53 minutes of basketball. So now, Kobe I plead – save Bio-Waste and my Fantasy Season – we need you!

My only fear now is, how many games will Stu Jackson suspend Kobe for scoring 65? There has to be something worth suspending there, right?

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RE: Officially Cursed Status?

A Cornerston Conference follow-up posted by me.....
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I am terrified to be posting this right now, as I may be subjecting myself to the unexpected now that the Bio-Waste is finally healthy for the first time......all year.

I want to also pay tribute to three other guys who year after year have caused their teams to be cursed.

Stephon Marbury -- the original Fantasy cancer.

Steve Francis -- the guy never was the 'Franchise.'

Shaq -- His FT% guarantees you a category loss after agonizing loss each week. I do not remember ever seeing a Fantasy team in any league take home the trophy with Shaq on their team.

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RE: Officially Cursed Status?

A follow-up on a recent Cornerstone Conference posting by yet another owner.....
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I have been giving this whole "cursed" thing a whole lot of thought and
I've resolved that there is some merit to curses.

While my team's high level of "sucking" is in large part due to my
poor draft of which I take full responsibility for (despite the fact
that I end up with the last or second to last pick in the draft every
year regardless of where I finish.). I have begun to give greater
credence to the whole cursed thing.

So below is my analysis of the anatomy of a curse, and what some of the
players I believe to be ones that will drag your team down and lead you
into fantasy hell.

Carmelo Anthony - what was I thinking? Trading a stand up Christian guy
who had by far and away the coolest dunk at the dunk contest for Melo?
Ever since this guy appeared in that video where he's laughing
in the background as some thug is condoning killing cops he became off
limits. I'm an idiot.

Carlos Boozer - That guy was cursed ever since he screwed Cleveland and
took off for Utah. Seriously, Dude's off limits. He's Cursed and getting
what he probably deserves. Remember This:

Boozer: "Jim (Paxson) let me out of the last year of my contract and
I'll re sign with you guys"

Jim Paxson: "Duh... OK...."

Boozer: "Hey Cavs! Screw You I'm signing with Utah"

Seriously Boozer is cancer.

Kobe Bryant - I'm not sure what to say about this guy. But I've yet to
see a fantasy team get to the promiseland with him as the
centerpiece.... Especially since Cordillera. I still contend that Kobe
will never win another championship in real life but only history will
bear that true. As for fantasy, the fact that this guy would be in jail
if not for money and a lot of really good lawyers, buyer Beware I
say.....I like to refer to Kobe as the class B felony OJ Simpson of LA.

Ron Artest - Shouldn't have to say anything about this guy.

Dwayne Wade - Dwayne Wade is the victim of what I'd like to say is guilt
by association. Last year when Pat Riley exctracted the blood from Stan
Van Gundy in what could only be described as an NBA voodoo ritual, My
first response was: "Riley will get his". Riley's win at all cost
philosophy will put many years between this last championship and his
next one. If he even comes close to winning again is up for debate.
While he won last year, his questionable character has lead to some
pretty bad Karma for his players. While I'm not ready to stay away from
Wade for a life time, one could argue that Riley sentenced Wade to major
shoulder surgery with his mob tactics in the firing of his coach.
Concurrently, he sentenced some unsuspecting fantasy owner to an Alamo
type of pummeling right around playoff time.

David West - He Belongs to my "Something going on with the team" curse
genre.

With the downfall of Peja, Paul, West and other various and sundry
players on the Hornets, one can be only conclude that someone on that
team or affiliated with that team has some issues. Is the uniform guy
looking at Kiddie Porn on his free time? Something is up here and it
merits some attention.

I could go on and on. But Man I feel for you. Not as much as I feel
for those having to endure the level of suckage coming from the Bullets
this year. For future I highly recommend (as I will be doing) giving
consideration to the "curse factor" in your future fantasy transactions.

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Officially Cursed Status?

A recent posting from the Cornerstone Conference by another owner......

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I feel like things between the Lord and myself are good. I have a great marriage, good job, enjoy being part of a ministry, but when things are going this wrong, (a friend of mine tells me), I have to examine my life and ask if there is some sin in my life that I am not surrendering.

Although I no longer have Shaun Livingston on my fantasy team, I drafted him fairly high this year, as the heir apparent to the up and coming Los Angeles Clippers. After his injury the other night, which was the about the most disgusting thing I've seen (rivaling Joe Theismann or Napolean what's his name from the Raiders), this has capped off an injury plagued season beyond belief.

To date, my injuries have been:

Yao Ming (a killer)
Carlos Boozer (could be expected)
Lamar Odom (still at 70% some nights)
Dwayne Wade (hurt enough to cry)
Ron Artest
David West (double double king last year)

I have yet to have boils or my family lose their life, but in terms of fantasy basketball which I have enjoyed for years, WHAT IS GOING ON?

"Though you slay me (and Yao, Ron, David, Dwayne, Lamar, Carlos and Shaun), I will trust you."

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