As a general rule, on grounds of not boring the audience, I don’t write that much about my fantasy baseball teams other than an annual roundup of my draft (which I was too busy to get to this year) and the occasional aside about who I do and don’t own as a way of explaining who I’m watching more closely. But permit me here a moment of despair.
I have three teams – an AL-only traditional Roto team and two AL/NL Yahoo autodraft teams. At this writing I’m tied for fourth in the former and in first and second in the latter two. The roto team is my ‘main’ team, consuming the most effort because you have to dig much deeper on AL rosters to fill out your squad. My active lineup this season has featured such luminaries as Denard Span, Joe Inglett, Brian Buscher, Guillermo Quiroz, Morgan Ensberg, Shawn Riggans, Andy Marte, Jonny Gomes, Chris Shelton, Willy Aybar, Brandon Boggs, Ben Broussard, Jose Vidro, Grant Balfour, Ryan Rowland-Smith, Jason Jennings, Sean Green, Dustin Moseley, Arthur Rhodes, Jesse Carlson, and Ross Ohlendorf.
Anyway, thus far I have survived the injury to my $27 ace pitcher, Erik Bedard (thank you, John Danks, Dice-K, Joakim Soria and BJ Ryan). I have been surviving the injury to my $38 top offensive player, Carl Crawford. I have been surviving the injury to the revived Joe Crede, and disappointing years from Nick Swisher and Adrian Beltre.
But if Ian Kinsler is out for the season with a sports hernia, I am even more thoroughly doomed than the Rangers are. Kinsler’s batting .319, he’s leading the majors in hits, he has 18 HR, 26 SB and 71 RBI, and he’s been on fire in recent weeks. He and Crawford account for more than half my team’s steals.
This has been an unusually busy summer for trades and an unusually busy August, in particular, for injuries. In both real and fantasy baseball, the healthiest will have a huge leg up to outlast the competition.
4 thoughts on “Roto Rooting, Down The Drain”
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I threw in the towel in my league last week (we can trade draft pix for next year & have renewals, so you can indeed ‘rebuild’). Having both Chipper and M. Bradley on my team, continually day-to-day with various leg problems, decimated my sseason.
I was a full player behind the league leader in at-bats….no way can you win numerically with that kind of reduction in play.
Crank,
Have you read Sam Walker’s Fantasyland? I just read it and it was very funny. Anyone who has not played roto may not enjoy it as much, but there were several laugh out loud moments.
I too am feeling the Kinsler blues. So far I am treading water (thanks Willie Harris) and holding on the first place, but it is going to be a fight down the stretch.
Crank, you’re unbelievable. Three roto teams . . . plus three children, one wife, one very active blog, and one very demanding career as a lawyer in a major firm.
Honestly, how many hours of sleep you get per night? 3? 4?