Fantasy Sports and Stuff
Updated 04/19/01 04:30:01 PM
Hi there and welcome to my fantasy sports page. Here is where you'll find some of my comments about fantasy sports and about my simulated sports college basketball teams, seperated by each team's logo, and of course...horizontal lines.
I am a fan of fantasy sports. Fantasy baseball, fantasy football, fantasy hockey...you name it. Well, I'm not a fan of fantasy basketball...I actually despise the concept and didn't want to play, but I was being forced to against my will. As a result, my team, the Rock City Crackheads, was the worst team in the league, and will continue to be until I'm gracefully allowed to leave. I do better in the other three, though. I run or co-run fantasy leagues in baseball and football. I had my best ever fantasy baseball season last year, though we look to struggle some this season. Fantasy football is an area I am very strong in. When I'm at a draft sober, I'm going to have a good team when I'm done, one that will contend for a championship, and one that actually won a championship two years ago. When I'm not sober...well...my teams don't come out so good. I just had my best ever fantasy hockey season this year, which I'll get into in a little bit. For now, though, here are some thoughts about my various teams.
The Rock City Crackheads, as mentioned above, were my FUBAR Hoops team. In the logo above, you'll notice various crackheads in the picture. What really sucks is that I was once a huge Darryl Strawberry fan...but that's a rant for another day. Anyway, the Crackheads. They sucked ridiculously bad...we lost 20 games in a row at one point. Much of this was due to the fact that our first round draft pick was Grant Hill, who played in I think one game, and another key player was Penny Hardaway, who played in almost as many. Really, though, the reason is because I don't like basketball that much and I don't know much about it anymore. It's hard to have a good team, or to care if you have a good team, if you don't follow the game. Being forced to play a game against your will will do that. Somehow, though, during the the last week of the season...we won our very first game! I was proud of my Crackheads, as much as I was proud of the my WCHL team, the Alaska Seal Beaters. Speaking of the Seal Beaters...
They won the WCHL Worsley Cup this season! Woo hoo! We beat two teams in the finals, since one of the teams kind of cried their way into a title game...but I beat him decisively in the end and won Alaska's first-ever Worsley Cup. I'm very proud of my Seal Beaters. We had several good players this season...players like Scott Gomez, Bobby Holik (don't believe what MJD says in my guestbook, he's 100% heterosexual...remember, MJD's favourite player in all sports is Ryan Leaf, so his views of heterosexuality are clearly skewered), Paul Kariya, Theo Fleury (even though he plays for an abysmal team and has a drinking problem), Jason Allison, Bill Guerin, Al MacInnis, and in goal, Curtis Joseph. All in all, a great season, finally winning a title in this league after being among the league's dormats for several years.
Being that football season hasn't started yet...no word on the Calgary Stampeders of WCFL yet. Don't worry, though...there will be, soon. No word yet on the Domino's fantasy league yet either, only that I will NOT be drinking Purple Motherfuckers, or any sort of alcoholic drinks, at this year's draft...I'm not risking getting a team like last year's again.
My first fantasy baseball team, the Edmonton Survivors of WCLB, isn't off to the best of starts, but we're a scrappy team that I think can pull off some upsets this year. They aren't nearly as bad as my abysmal 5-18 team of two years ago and this team has some potential, I think. You may say that not being as bad as a 5-18 team is kind of a backhanded compliment, but some people seem to think that this team is terrible. I don't think it's terrible at all. It's mediocre to below average...yes. It won't be in the playoffs this year, no. But we can win games. We have youth at every position except for first base. If we have good youth, we'll be good enough. My goal this year is to make it through the season without making a trade of draft picks or young players that are worth keeping (a lofty goal if you know my trading history) and have a foundation to build on for next year. I think we have some good players like Mike Piazza, Magglio Ordonez, Ryan Dempster, Johnny Damon, Mark Quinn, Darryl Kile, Ben Grieve, Neifi Perez, John Olerud, Corey Koskie, and Ronnie Belliard. Our weak spot is relief pitching, but next year we'll be in good position to draft a good one with actual picks, so I think next year could see a playoff team if we play our cards right this year.
My FUBAR baseball team, the Toronto Hosers...I haven't figured them out yet. I think they have the potential to be a very good team, but injuries to start the season haven't been kind to us. Chipper Jones started slow, but has started to come around for us. Vladmir Guerrero is a beast in right field, and Chan Ho Park has been a great pickup for us this season. We also added Kevin Appier, who we overpaid for by far too much in the auction, much like the Mets overpaid far too much for him in free agency, but he'll still be an effective arm, I think. Guys like Pedro Astacio, Darren Dreifort, and Jeff Weaver give us an army of arms we can go to battle with every week. In the bullpen, we have some good players like Armando Benitez, Robb Nen, and Ugueth Urbina...solid closers who give us quality points every time they pitch. We'll need to get some better than anticipated production out of our bats to be a good team, but our pitching should carry us far, I think.
I am also a fan of something new I discovered...it's a simulated college basketball game that's a lot of fun. It's ridiculously hard to explain, so follow the link on my Links page (see the link to the Links page? I'm helpin' ya out) to read about it, but it's a lot of fun and I've had some degree of success. I'm in Leagues 5, 6, 8, and 17. I've made the main National Title Tournament in League 6 with the Naples Renegades of Funk, in League 8 with the West Palm Beach BlueHawks and the Ames Radicals, and in League 17 with the Richmond Heavenly Bodies. The Renegades of Funk won't be returning to the NTT probably ever again, but my other teams look to compete. I have no images for these things, so you'll have to live without images as I talk about my teams...using horizontal lines to seperate my thoughts.
First, my League 5 update. My team, the Tulsa Big Black Dogs, have opened the season off mediocrely...we're 1-1. This is going to be another mediocre season for them, following up a 14-10 season. Their problem is that they aren't a good shooting team, so scoring is going to be a problem. We've got a lot of height, though, and we're good at rebounding, so we could make some noise, but I think a return trip to the RTT is in their future this year (the RTT is the third most prestigious tournament, out of four).
My experiment for my League 6 team, the Naples Renegades of Funk, is going well. My experiment is to recruit only players who are under 6'0" tall, thus giving me a team of midgets. I just want to see how important of a factor height is, particularly at the height positions, because the players I'm recruiting are good players...just small. So far, that is going well, with my first six recruits all coming in under 6'0" in height...by next season, I'll have 10 players under 6'0" and we'll see how we make out.
Two of my League 8 teams, the Ames Radicals and the West Palm Beach BlueHawks, made the NTT. I had said that West Palm Beach wouldn't be making the NTT short of a miracle...well, we got our miracle! I was happy. Ames had to back door their way into the NTT, but they made it. West Palm Beach played a really tough game in the first round, despite being a 15 seed playing a 2 seed, and in fact led by as many as 13 with 7:33 left...but we couldn't hold on, and the game was tied at the buzzer, and we lost by 5 in OT. Very disappointing in that we couldn't pull it out...but it makes me think that this team is on its way and could be back next season if recruiting goes well (and it has been).
As for Ames...we did win our first game, but we were way overmatched in our second game. We were playing the defending national champions, who had won 43 in a row, and had a lot more experience than we did, and played them tough...tying the game a few times late in the game, but we couldn't quite pull off the upset. We came close, though, and I think that they will be back again next year in the tournament and could very well contend for the title.
My last team is the Richmond Heavenly Bodies of League 17. This team has the most potential of any of them. We're in the League 17 Sweet 16 this year and could make it even further if we play to our potential. What's scary, though, is that this year I'm starting 3 freshmen, and still doing well. Next year, they'll be sophomores...and my senior class this year is terrible. I'm going to replace 3 bad players with 3 good players in recruiting since I'm doing well recruiting wise...I'll be so deep that some good players won't be able to play at all due to depth problems. They are a team to watch out for.
Well, that's all the fantasy and stuff goodness for one day. If you have any comments about the above, feel free to E-Mail me. Until then, have a good one...