Fantasy baseball 1st quarter in review

Ugh...

It has not been pretty. So we have about 1/4 of the games out of the way and Logjammin is tied for 10th out of 12. My roster reads like an all-star list of what players are mysteriously slumping hardcore. People in my league are not biting on any but the most marginal trades. To add insult to injury I am saddled with three Red Sox.

Not good.

So here's the rundown...

My catchers thus far have been a disaster. My original draft pick of Mike Napoli has not worked out at all and he has since been dropped in favor of the Pirates Ryan Doumit... who is also slumping. I have no idea what happened here. Napoli has shown 20 homer power over the past couple seasons and absolutely mashed in spring training. The Angels promptly sat him down as soon as the season started and played defensive catcher Jeff Mathis instead. Mathis eventually was injured giving Napoli the full time at bats he needed. Napoli took advantage of that by batting about .230 and may lose the job again as soon as Mathis comes back.

At first my plan was to draft a DLed Berkman and use Konerko to fill in. That actually has been something of a success as Paul went on to be the early home run leader. He has since stopped mashing but is still hitting. It's nothing more than a stat correction as he was extremely lucky in his HR/FB ratio and unlucky in his BABIP. Yeah, I'm a stats nerd. And despite a slow start from Berkman he appears to be hitting his stride.

Second base was a complete failure. Rookie phenom Gordon Beckham appears to be experiencing something of a sophomore slump as he hasn't even sniffed .200 in some time despite a lot of patience from Ozzie Guillen. I recently gave in and benched him in favor for Orlando Hudson who was about the only decent available 2B on the waiver wire. It could work out as Hudson is a good AVE/OBP guy who bats in front of Morneau and Mauer. If Beckham is still this awful I may have to consider cutting him altogether.

Third has been ok with A-Rod. He isn't mashing taters the way I expected but he is hitting well and piling up the RBIs. Yet another slugger who's power dropped off in the wake of steroid scandal? hmmmm...

Short has been a mixed bag with dreamy Derek Jeter. He started off the season on fire but has since cooled off. I'm not looking for a replacement as there really isn't one and I expect that Jeter will heat up again soon.

The outfield oddly enough has been the strongest part of my team. Unfortunately this isn't saying much. First of all fucking Jacoby Ellsbury has been DLed most of the season but should be returning soon... possibly tonight. So there goes my assumed source of Rs, SBs, and AVE. Abreu and Span are doing what I wanted them to do by scoring runs, stealing a couple bases, and hitting the occasional dinger. However, they too, like every single other friggin guy on my team is hitting horribly. I recently picked up hot rookie Boesch of the Tigers to fill in for Ellsbury but he will most likely be cut as soon as the Jacoby comes off the DL. I also grabbed Luke Scott for his super streakiness although, with the way the rest of the season has gone, he will probably cool off now that I have him.

Again I must remind you that my team was built around getting on base and scoring runs. The fact that almost every single guy that I drafted is at least 20-40 points below their career batting averages is unbelievable. I have never dealt with this level of suck in all my team playing this silly game.

My pitchers are not much better, if not worse. My two "aces" Beckett and Haren have both started off extremely poorly. It kind of makes me want to punch myself. Nolasco and Liriano have been solid, probably my best two at this point. Gavin Floyd and Ted Lilly are kind of chancy and each time I throw them out there I'm basically rolling the dice. I got a bit lucky early on by picking up Brad Penny and Jaime Garcia but I immediately traded them off, along with Tim Hudson, for Jon Lester and Javier Vazquez. Those three are great pitchers and I may have gotten fleeced but there was little strikeout potential like I have with Lester/Vazquez and I needed to clear out some roster space. Lester is up there with Nolasco and Liriano to give me a solid core but Vazquez is a train wreck. If he can finally get himself settled down then he could also help out big time with Ws and Ks.

My closers are shit. Bailey, Franklin, and Qualls have been much less than I expected. I have to lay the blame of two of my losing weeks squarely at their feet. This past week all three of them finished with ERAs over 5, no saves, and 3 losses. The other guy beat my three closers with only Leo Nunez. Awesome.

I recently sent a twitter message of my roster to FOX analyst John Halpin asking if he had any suggestions on what I should do. All he said was "Cry, and hang on. Gotta get better."

That's really encouraging.

It's really all I can do, however. People in my league are not trading and there's no quick fix as a free agent. All I can do is think of last year, when I was in last place around the mid way point and managed to come in first place (pre-playoffs of course). Unfortunately, I had a lot more to work with then. Now, not so much.

Maybe I should pay more attention to wedding plans instead...