There are a few things that are synonymous with my everyday morning routine. One of which I can’t mention in this article and the other being reading with large amounts of coffee.
It’s the one time of day I get the most in. I try to take in small passages of books I have laying around, while also taking in as much sporting news (the news not the site, although the I do frequent the site) as I can, since most of it is always fantasy relevant anyway.
Among my internet travels, there is always the layover in fantasy world.
I check my teams, read the updates, follow the links, read various columns, advice, opinions; basically whatever I can get my hands on in the short time I have.
The point to all of this is, the 2010 fantasy baseball season has been a bitter sweet ride to say the least. On the upside, there have been a ton of new faces breaking out left and right, which is enough player news to follow for even the casual fan.
But it’s the downside that has basically crapped in my Wheaties all year long.
At the beginning of the 2010 season, I had a solid team and a very good draft with a healthy mixture of power hitters, base stealers, and guys who have always been runs scored producers. My pitching staff wasn’t top notch, but it wasn’t bad either, and even my relief pitchers were pretty good.
Then it happened; the horrid injury bug.
It happens every year, even to the best of managers, but not in the fashion where 50% or better of your team occupies more bench space than the nails that hold it together.
First came the injury to SP Brandon McCarthy who, by the way, I was big on. The reports weren’t good, and the quick move was simply to drop him and pick up SP Randy Wells who I rode a lot last year with success.
Not quite the same result this year as 2009 though, eh? But in his defense, I gave him more than a couple of chances, but it has been the Cubs who refuse to supply any of their pitchers with run support.
Then came the hard decision to drop 1B/3B Mike Lowell who didn’t even have his first game until April 10th. But it was particularly hard dropping him since he was a multi-qualifier. So instead, I picked up SS Ian Desmond…we’ll get to that later, though.
Next up was the Brian Roberts fiasco that was doubled up on by his interim replacement Eugenio Velez that really just turned into a messy situation that I am not proud of, but a good scientist will always take chances for the sake of research.
After that, I lost RP Takashi Saito which I didn’t really feel was a bad thing since I already was equipped with Jose Valverde and Andrew Bailey in my bullpen, so I simply dismissed this bump in the road.
Then it was SP Justin Duchscherer who I happily replaced with SP Brandon Morrow in May; the one lone highlight of this crappy season.
Everything got really quiet after that and things really started picking up.
I was winning week after week with a team that didn’t look like much on paper, but properly managed produced wins.
It amazes me the level of Bi-Polarism in fantasy sports, it really does.
When June came traipsing along, I lost SP Jamie Moyer who was eventually replaced by a red hot Jake Arrieta and John Ely (at the time they were hot anyway) only to have both pitchers seemingly forget how to pitch, and leave my roster in utter embarrassment.
Then within a near fortnight (between 6/20 and 6/30) I lost SPs Joel Pineiro and Derek Holland and ancillary players David Eckstein and Daniel Nava.
At this point, I was beginning to grimace every time I clicked on the My Team link and took my frustration out on my roster.
C Geovanny Soto was too busy hucking back Subway subs and hitting more air with his bat than balls, so I axed him only to wind up with C Carlos Santana who is now, ironically enough, on the freaking DL.
SS Ian Desmond was as useful as a broken hammer and was sent to the waivers after months of hope he would get better; Randy Wells was a nice toy in 2009 but nothing but heartburn in 2010—enter in Wilson Valdez who I also later axed after he too forgot how to hit.
Then, after learning of the trade between Philly and Houston I felt J.A. Happ was a nice add in my DL riddled roster, but the baby face wonder boy is walking a fine line with me right now.
Then as if all of that wasn’t enough (did I mention this is completely truthful, and not made up?) OF Chris Coughlin’s injury wound up making me feel a little like this, and SP Carlos Silva’s brilliant year was apparently derailed by some strange heart issue…I mean really?
And to top things off, I lose 1B Ryan Howard and the best I could get off the waivers was 1B Mike freaking Sweeney folks.
I also forgot to mention Dallas Braden’s injury and Placido Polanco’s penchant for injury this year.
My flirtation with being in the top three now has me in seventh; just inches away from the wildcard at the moment, with no relief in sight, and my beautiful team has been left in ruination; a constant reminder of what could’ve been.
Luckily for me though, I have another team on MLB.com where I am in first place!
The moral of the story is simple: There is no planning or clever approach or heightened intelligence in Fantasy Sports that can out-duel the injury bug. If I actually make it to the playoffs, it will be a miracle.
