Well, I’ve experienced my first Baseball Fantasy Draft
I'm doing the Yahoo! Fantasy Baseball league (cause A) it's free and B) It's casual and that matches up with my experience).
It went pretty well for my first time I guess. I got stuck in the bottom of the draft order so that didn't help too much (all my top top picks were snatched up before I had a chance to pick up anyone). Then for some inexplicable reason I picked Jim Thome of the Phillies as my first pick. I also missed a great opportunity in a later round by not picking Rentaria when I had the chance. On the positive side I got Gagne, Reggie Miller and a few others I like. I also picked up B. K. Kim as a relief pitcher even though he's a starting pitcher now. Strange how the folks at the Yahoo! Fantasy Sports site didn't pick that up. I decided to pick up Matt Williams just because I like him so much and I think he has a chance to have a monster season if he stays healthy.
All in all I think it went pretty well, especially considering my inexperience.
I spent quite a bit of time preparing for it and had all sorts of stats laid out within easy access so I could try to make good decisions when the obvious choices were gone. There was even a bit of drama as I spilled a half empty diet coke on my keyboard 10 minutes before the draft was to start. (There seems to be a lot of liquid/keyboard incidents in my life lately.)
We'll see how the season pans out. It's already been worthwhile though as I'm already more interested in the American League now that I have a few AL players on my team. As a side effect of preparation for my fantasy draft I'm more aware of the players to watch this season then I've ever been before. Hopefully this will make the season more fun to watch.
