Fantasy Baseball: How not to build a fantasy sports franchise (Part One)

The measure of a baseball owner these days is how far one will go and how much they will spend in order to build a great team. The same ideal applies in fantasy franchises.

I am an unabashed sports geek who has been participating in fantasy franchise leagues for a half-decade now, anything from baseball to football to even golf. At one point in the fall of 2000, I was participating in twelve leagues: three baseball leagues, four football leagues, two soccer leagues, two hockey leagues, and one golf league.

Yes, I am one big sports geek - and damn proud of it, too.

This year is no different than the rest. After nearly winning the fantasy hockey league I was in, it was time to focus on fantasy baseball. My team, the Unsunken Battleships, was coming off of a sixth-place finish in the inaugural year in Big Dog Baseball, our league. I also was drawn to pick sixth in our draft, which isn't a bad place to pick.

Our league is comprised of fellow sports geeks like myself, most of whom I work with or have worked with in the past. After two teams folded and two expansion owners dropped out due to numerous reasons, we managed to scrounge up four expansion franchises. One of them is one of my buddies out in Boston, who was online for the draft. So all in all, two more teams joined our league.

The day of the draft came and there was speculation as to how everyone would draft. The first five picks went as expected:

Mt. Kournikova's Rough Riders: Alex Rodriguez

Pimp Daddy's Squad: Sammy Sosa

Bronx Bombers: Jason Giambi

Smitty's Brewdogs: Todd Helton

And then came the curve ball to end all curve balls. Pop Up Jones, now known as Steinbrenner's Stable, had the next pick. Now, on every fantasy baseball team I have ever owned, one of my pillars has been Montreal Expos right fielder Vladimir Guerrero, one of the best players in the game.

So my buddy, who shall remain nameless because he doesn't deserve to have his name in this column (just kidding, D), picks my boy Vlad. Mind you, he had just woken up and was late for the draft. I was hoping that he was saying it in a sort of groggy, half-waken haze.

He wasn't kidding.

So that left me getting ridiculed, royally peeved, and picking next. In our league, home runs are eight points a pop. Therefore, by default, I took Barry Bonds. Natural choice, am I right? I figure, I'm comfortable for now. The rest of the first round went as follows:

Pop Tarts: Manny Ramirez

Ghetto Blasters: Nomar Garciaparra

Smells Like Bologna: Randy Johnson

Hong Kong Cavaliers: Mike Piazza

The beauty of a "snake" draft is that the draft order is reversed forthe second round. The Hong Kong Cavaliers picked first in the second round. With my hopes dashed for obtaining my boy Vlad, I hoped that my other main staple from last year's team, Ichiro, would drop down by the time I drafted next.

Shafted again, this time by the HKC's. And once again, ridiculed like the class dunce. They're glad I have a sense of humor because I was tempted to rage as if I was an angry bull in a glass house. However, it wasn't my house, so all I could do was sit and stew.

But all hopes weren't dashed; I had an alternative plan if Ichiro was taken, and he was. My second pick was Jorge Posada, one of the only really marketable catchers out there. The rest of my first ten picks were as follows:

Magglio Ordonez

Miguel Tejada

Mike Sweeney

Barry Zito

Jeff Cirillo

Ray Durham

Jon Lieber

Robb Nen

Two of my first ten picks, Cirillo and Nen, are still on my team. How is that possible? Well, someone replaced me as team owner with the village idiot, who decided to make some horrible trades.

Stay tuned for part two.