THE JON: Founder and the most successful fantasy baseballer in the group. Favorite players owned, Vladimir Guerrero, Ichiro, Johan Santana and Roy Halladay. 
He loves you and he loves fantasy baseball. Favorite team, the Red Sox. Spends his day drawing hearts around Mr. David Wright and Mrs. Newspaperman Wright. 
THE OZ: Has been a buster ever since winning TheBaseballStars inaugural season. Favorite team, the A's. Best keeper, Alex Rodriguez. 
FREESANJOSE: The sworn enemy of The Jon, FreeSanJose is the most versatile of the group when it comes to team strategy. Favorite team, the A's. Best keepers, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. 
POIDOG: Makes the playoffs every year. Has never won a title. Favorite team, the A's. Best players, Jake Peavy and Miguel Cabrera. Still crying over the Dan Haren trade. 
I grew up in the area where “Just win, baby!” is the mantra. But don’t confuse me for a Raider fan – I grew up watching McGwire and Canseco bash forearms and good ol’ Eck notching saves. I grew up watching Montana and Young throwing TDs to Rice and putting on Super Bowl rings.
What I’m getting at here is that, when it came to sports, winning was something I came to expect.
Yet, if you look at my recent history in fantasy sports – specifically fantasy baseball – my exploits look a lot like the 2008 versions of the great teams I watched as a young’n. Rebuilding has been the order of the day for my franchise, too. For a few years now actually.
Before we talk about that, though, let’s go back to the beginning. The guys who invited me to join them on TheBaseballStars.com, we all play in the same league. The first year of our league, back in 2000, I ran away with the thing. It wasn’t even close.
Then in 2002 – the first year of our keeper league – I traded for the player I thought would be the best in the bigs for years to come, Alex Rodriguez. I gave up two keeper quality guys and a first-round draft pick to get him. I won the title that year. And it felt so good.
Sad to say, it’s a feeling I haven’t experienced since. In our keeper format, I’ve only been trying to keep up. I tried to build around A-Rod, but didn’t do it all that well.
I’ve had a slew of ehh-worthy keepers surrounding him. Guys like Bobby Abreu, Barry Zito and Richie Sexson. It was a lot like the Texas Rangers.
But this year, I think I have a chance to do pretty well again. Thanks to some trades in the past couple years, I’ve built a nice stable of young arms around A-Rod: Brandon Webb, Scott Kazmir, Chris Young and Tim Lincecum. I have another bat in Carlos Beltran, plus a few extra draft picks.
I’m more confident in my squad than I’ve been in a few years. I’m not calling my shot or anything, but at least I think I have a shot.
Why am I talking about all this? Well, here on TheBaseballStars.com, I plan to chronicle the successes and failures of my recent rebuilding efforts. I’m sure I’ll get called out every so often, since my very opponents write here as well.
But I hope you people reading this get something a little different out of it. Because I know there are people out there hoping this is their year, people just like me.
I don’t, with obnoxious spirit of a champion, thump my chest like The Jon. I’m not going to give you one of those almanac-ish explanations that you’ll get from Newspaperman. I’m just that guy whose buddies asked him to join a fantasy baseball league and he did, because it sounded like a good time.
There are guys like us in every league. We don’t go to sleep and wake up pondering whether we should finally give up on Brett Myers. No, we do our best to pay enough attention to what’s going on a day-to-day basis to be alert on the waiver wire and make good choices when it comes time to set our lineups each week.
This year, I’m just hoping the pieces fall back into place for me. I’m hoping I can find that championship spirit and maybe thump my chest a little.
Soon enough, I guess we’ll all find out.
Filed under: JustWinOzzie | Tagged: A-Rod, Al Davis, Barry Zito, Bobby Abreu, Brandon Webb, Carlos Beltran, Chris Young, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, Rebuidling, Richie Sexson, Scott Kazmir, sucking, Tim Lincecum, winning
“I’m just that guy whose buddies asked him to join a fantasy baseball league and he did, because it sounded like a good time.”
Are you kidding me?
When I joined this league in 2001 (a year after your championship) you were all about trash talking (not unlike The Jon), telling me how good you were in 2000 with Frank Thomas, Ivan Rodriguez and the like.
But then you sucked, you buried your head in the sand and kept quiet … much like me. Only I don’t suck, and I’m always paying attention to everything.
Now you’re right about one thing. This is just a game to you. You’re not fanatical about this crap like me and TheJon. You don’t call us in the middle of December inquiring about keepers for a season that is still four and a half months away.
But don’t go trying to fool the readers into thinking you’re “just one of the guys who got invited” into the league. You were one of the founding players of the league, the inaugural champion. You know baseball, you just sucked in recent years because you lost touch with the “youth movement.”
But you do have a good core of keepers and it’ll be interesting to see what you can do from here on out.
And yes, that was almanac-ish.
No, I’m not kidding you. The part you quoted is exactly what happened. I didn’t start the eague. I’ve never started a baseball league. I’m just a guy who plays.
Of course, I was proud when I won. Geez, should I have cried?
The rest you pretty much covered.
Don’t take out your RocketRoidRage out on me.
You’ll know when I take my RRR out on you. There will be a broken bat barrel headed your direction.
What do you want for Brandon Webb?
[...] tell you whom to pick to win. But I can tell you who I firmly believe helped me along the road to mediocrity and advise you not to call their name on your draft [...]