Friday, October 07, 2016

Sean's Fantasy Baseball Championship

I know that you don't care about my fantasy baseball team; however, since this is my blog, I feel the need to document my recent title. Enjoy! (Or skip this post and scroll down to read others.)

After being in the same fantasy/rotisserie baseball league since 1992, I finally won in 2014. I wrote about my historic victory from two years ago and noted that I traded my future to win the championship. It was entirely worth it. (The Pittsburgh Pirates might also want to try this sometime.) In 2015, I went in an entirely different direction. Knowing my team wasn't going to win part way through the season, I traded many assets for cheap keepers. I finished in 11th place out of 12 teams but felt optimistic about the 2016 season.

In the auction league draft this season, I spent big money on Jake Arrieta, Ben Zobrist, Stephen Strasburg, Yasmani Grandal, and Andrew McCutchen. With my team challenging for 1st place, I acquired Ryan Braun and Carlos Gonzalez. Free agent pick-ups of Keon Broxton of the Brewers and Alex Dickerson of the Padres were pleasant surprises. I also got amazing production from holdovers Freddie Freeman, Justin Turner, DJ LeMahieu, Freddy Galvis, Ichiro, Tanner Roark, and Tony Watson. In addition, I really enjoyed watching Jameson Taillon came up from my and the Pirates the farm systems to pitch well.


So now, I've won 2 championships in 3 years and along with 2nd place finishes in 2011 and 2012, that's 4 top-2 finishes in 6 years. Olli Maatta of the Pittsburgh Penguins is also Finnish. In my mind, this is a fantastic run. Considering the amount of time I've spent reviewing baseball box scores, trying to select free agents, and contemplating trades (I probably need to spend more time on draft preparation), I'm quite proud of this accomplishment. This ranks up there with other life accomplishments.

Anyway, thanks for making it all the way through this blog post. Stay tuned for future posts about my new role as soccer coach for my son's U6 team, my long-awaited thoughts on Paw Patrol, and my hope to get media credentials for the 2017 Academy Awards. Yes, really.

3 comments:

Rob Meigs said...

Let me know if you want any u6 coaching plans / activities. Sharks and minnows was always a big winner.

Eric Freed said...

Congrats, Sean! I led a fantasy baseball league from the mid-90s thru 2004 at my office, and we were fanatical about it. Those were the days before stat services were common, and the entire league business, from the draft, compiling stats, and tracking rosters, was done manually by yours truly. I never won my league championship. I took a break for 5 years, then joined an online league, which I've continued with ever since. I finally won a championship in 2010, then again in 2012, and yet again in 2014, with a second place finish in 2015. The league disbanded this year (which is a crying shame since it is an even year...I was on track for another win!).

Just this morning, I watched an ESPN 30 For 30 episode about Rotisserie Baseball ("Silly Little Game") and it brought back those feelings I had when we started the league, and the excitement of draft day, and how consuming it would be. We would talk about baseball all day, every day.

Anyway, congrats on your championship from the former manager of the Fearless Fireflies of the JBF Longballs League.

Sean said...

Thanks Rob and Eric!

Eric - That's really impressive that you did stats by hand for so many years. Our league did stats by hands for a few years (though not by me) and then we "hired" a guy to do it for us. He sent us weekly e-mails, and that was by far the most important e-mail I received each week. (This is when the only people I knew that had e-mail were also at college.) I do miss the live drafts!