We went with TQStats this year, whom I'd been with for the last several seasons in another league. It was a rocky start to the year from a commissioner standpoint. The TQ system did not have all of the bugs worked out when the season started, and stat updates were spotty. One Sunday night, I had to take all of the league's reserved (and DL'ed) players off of the DL, and put them back on agian due to some malfunction in their system. As the season went on, they got most of the bugs straightened out, and I got to whittle my Sunday evening transactions to about two hours.
Coming out of our draft, almost everybody overspent on Day 1. We had one owner who held back, and he was able to grab some great bargains on day 2. I thought for sure I was toast...much more so when the Sombreros started near the bottom of the pack. What surprised me was that my cheap starting pitching was really holding their own against other staffs that cost three times as much. I don't think I spent more than $9 on a starting pitcher. I did come out of the draft with 2 closers, and then Al Reyes started picking up saves for the Devil Rays. Having three closers in a 12-team AL legaue is a great luxury. I don't think I'll have that again any time soon.
I traded Todd Jones for Joe Borowski and some change, and later traded Borowski for Ervin Santana, Fernando Rodney and Juan Rivera. That trade almost blew up in my face, but I was still able to win the Saves category by a comfortable margin. Rivera will be a nice $2 piece next year if he remains in Anaheim. My draft strategy was to place high in all five offensive categories, and I did that, while nailing down saves, and finishing respectably in everything else except wins. When your starting pitchers throw for the Royals (Meche), White Sox (Vazquez) and Blue Jays (Marcum), you can see why we were near the bottom in wins.
We also overcame the loss of Mark Teixeira to the NL before the trade deadline. I was never able to fully replace his power, but we managed to stay on top due to a career year from Mike Lowell, and a nice season from Jose Guillen. My first round pick in the minor league draft was Dustin Pedroia. I almost dropped him after the first month, but we all know what he did from May on.
Coming down the stretch, we saw our points lead go from double digits to a virtual tie in a matter of days (now I know how the Mets feel). It's nice to have a team pull it together in crunch time, even if they are only your fantasy team...
Here is my season-ending roster:
C Pierzynski $10
C Suzuki $6
1B H. Kendrick $26
2B Pedroia $6
3B Fields $6
SS B. Harris $6
MI Figgins $32
CM Glaus $21
UT Lowell $16
OF M. Cabrera $3
OF Gomes $6
OF J. Guillen $9
OF Markakis $17
OF J. Rivera $2
SP J. Vazquez $7
SP J. Washburn $2
SP Marcum $6
SP Meche $3
SP E. Santana $9
RP R. Perez $6
RP A. Brown $6
RP A. Reyes $6
RP M. Rivera $36
I also have Baldelli, Crain and Liriano on reserve, with Brandon Wood and Ian Kennedy in my minors. We can keep 14 majors and up to six minors, so next year is looking good, as we were well under the saslary cap with the departure of Teixeira. I don't expect repeat performances by some of these guys, but it was definitely nice to win ONE.
Oh, my other team finished 8th...
