Fantasy Baseball Part 1

I know next to nothing about baseball -- there's pitchers, batters and a catcher -- and even less about fantasy baseball, but i thought I'd give it a go, since the baseball season runs for a long time during the middle of the year when there is no regular season NBA or NFL action.

So, I'll post my initial lineup and thoughts, just for fun, and see if I've learnt anything during the season -- and maybe to see just how many mistakes I made along the way.

I first signed up for an ESPN league, since I like ESPN a lot more than Yahoo for various reasons, which I may detail in a separate post later (note to self), but I did not pay careful attention to the league draft rules. It said the league drafts at 5 AM (US time) but what happened at 5 AM was the ENTIRE league was auto drafted by the ESPN system. This means, since I did not rank players in any way, that I just got auto allocated all my players by the default rank for this year. Thankfully not all bad, because the system seemed to do a good job of giving me players in all required positions. Anyway, below is my initial lineup, which I did not actually pick at all !

Note, the format is -- (Draft Position) Player, Team Position [Projected Season Rank] -- with * meaning injured.

(3) David Wright, NYM 3B [3]
(18) Dustin Pedroia, Bos 2B [15]
(23) Nick Markakis, Bal OF [21]
(38) Brandon Phillips, Cin 2B [34]
(43) Kevin Youkilis, Bos 3B [39]
(58) Derrek Lee, ChC 1B [55]
(63) Mariano Rivera, NYY RP [60]
(78) Carlos Pena, TB 1B [74]
(83) Shane Victorino, Phi OF [78]
(98) Scott Baker*, Min SP [94]
(103) B.J. Ryan, Tor RP [99]
(118) John Lackey*, LAA SP [46]
(123) Kerry Wood, Cle RP [117]
(138) Ted Lilly, ChC SP [130]
(143) Ricky Nolasco, Fla SP [135]
(158) Mike Cameron, Mil OF [149]
(163) James Loney, LAD 1B [154]
(178) Brett Myers, Phi SP [147]
(183) Hiroki Kuroda*, LAD SP [172]
(198) Edwin Encarnacion, Cin 3B [186]
(203) Carlos Guillen, Det 3B [190]
(218) Jason Bartlett, TB SS [205]
(223) Adam Lind, Tor OF [220]
(238) Chase Headley, SD OF [228]
(243) Chris Snyder, Ari C [278]

As you can see, where I thought the computer did a good job, it actually almost went in order the whole way through, when you compare the draft to projected rank. Here's the good and the bad from the draft:

Good

• Lackey at 118 (projected 46), depends on injury though
• Good batch of pitchers with kind of early picks
• I've at least heard of: Wright, Pedroia, Youkilis, Rivera, Pena, Victorino, Bartlett (NY, Bos and last years World Series teams)
  

Bad

• Two 2B in the first four picks
• Two 3B in the first five picks
• Two 1B in the first eight picks
• Catcher in the last round, poor projected rank
• No spare OF players on the bench
  

A quick summary of the rules of the league, which seem to be the standard rules:

• Unlimited batters can be used
• 200 starting pitchers (SP) allowed, relief pitchers (RP) don't seem to count towards this
• Lineup: C, 1B, 2B, 3B, SS, 2B/SS, 1B/3B, 5 OF's, UTIL, 3 Bench's, 9 P's

Within the first few days of the season I've done a bit of an overhaul of my team. I'll check back in again in a month or two perhaps, and see how we're going.

• Jason Bartlett, TB SS [205] for Ryan Theriot, ChC SS [176]
  
• Chase Headley, SD OF [228] for David DeJesus, KC OF [194]
  
• injury listed pitcher for Clayton Kershaw, LAD SP [177]
  
• Edwin Encarnacion, Cin 3B [186] for Nelson Cruz, Tex OF [260]
  
• Chris Snyder, Ari C [278] for Brandon Inge, Det C [389]