OUR PLAYERS

[DOUGHBOYS]

No matter how many teams we have in fantasy baseball, even if only within the NFBC, we all have...OUR PLAYERS.

OUR PLAYERS are the players we drafted on most of our fantasy teams. The players that made us hold our breath during drafts, praying that the folks in front of us wouldn't draft them. All of us have them. Some drafters like to call them 'sleepers'. Thinking that they think much more of their talents than what the average fantasy player thinks of that player.
Some, will overdraft this player making sure he is securely on their squads. Others, like to finesse these players, thinking that, 'Not only am I gonna get this player, I'll get him as a bargain too.'

Sometimes, not very often, we don't even know, ourselves, how much we like a player. We'll start looking at our rosters and notice how often this guy is already on our teams. For me, before the Main Event drafts, I have to have a little talk with myself ( a lot of stupidity in that conversation) and decide if it is circumstance that this player has landed on my teams or if subconsciously, I really love this guy.
It happened to me this year.

After my super early drafts, I started taking Freddy Freeman in almost every draft. I liked him, but I didn't know I liked him THAT much. I felt he had enough potential to be a top three rounder in next year's draft. At 7-9 round prices this year, I considered that a bargain.
After I had the talk with myself before the Main Events, I knew that Freeman would probably be on both teams, and he is.

At times, Freeman has looked to fulfill my expectations. Then, there are times like now when I want to disown him. He is still a young player feeling his way. And we have to have more patience with younger hitters. Sometimes I wish I could just draft players that have five-six years experience throughout the draft. No worries about young players finding their footing or older players not getting hurt again and again, but these are the players that are the most sought after and usually not bargains unless having issues.

We haven't had much of a barometer to judge players. A quarter of a season means little in the grand scheme of things unless really thinking that the Indians and Orioles will be duking it out to play the Dodgers in the World Series. What we see are flashes. We see what Josh Hamilton and Matt Kemp can unleash if playing at full capacity. We see that hitters, for the most part, are getting dominated (again).
We are reminded that injuries can bring us to our knees and make us do strange things on Sundays with FAAB.

And while we will all be affected by these injuries, we hope it doesn't happen to OUR PLAYERS.
OUR PLAYERS are the core of our being. We have to take a look at almost every team we have when an injury happens to OUR PLAYERS.
It's not pleasant. It happened to me last year.
Hopefully, your players, which are really OUR PLAYERS are all healthy and playing well.
Or at the least, like Freeman, give glimpses of hope and possibly something to look forward to for the duration of the season.

Who is the OUR PLAYER for you?
How's he (they) doing?

[Raskol]

Great idea, Dan! For me, after doing about 37 Slow Drafts, a few players "just happened" to be on most of my rosters. Some worked out, others....not so much. Here goes:

Hank Conger: I thought he was a great sneaky 3rd Catcher and could fill in for one of my two starters when the inevitable injury struck. Well, injuries struck alright--to my starting catchers and to Conger. Wasted pick in rounds 25-30.

Joe Nathan: So far so good and yes, I'm knocking on wood. Not Kerry Wood, just regular old wood. Nathan was being drafted well after the top tier guys (who all, except for Paps, are pretty much injured or unemployed) and would have more Saves if the Rangers didn't score 11.5 runs per game.

Carlos Santana: Every year, I tell myself that I won't draft a catcher early, and every year Bryan talks me into it. Carlos is panning out pretty well but there are many catchers drafted much later who are out producing him. It's a long tour though, and my money is on Mr. Abraxas to put up the numbers to justify his cost.

Magglio Ordonez: What can I say? So much for the comeback.

Bartolo Colon: He was cheap, he can't be trusted, his team stinks but every now and then he tosses a pretty good game.

Billy Hamilton: He was cheap, he may not play this year, but 100 SBs don't happen very often. If only we could count minor league stats!

I'm sure there's more, but that's all I can think of right now. I'm leaving the Premature League out of this discussion.

[Bronx Yankees]

Funny, but my four teams vary quite a bit in terms of my early round picks. I did get Votto in two drafts (at 11) and Pedroia in two drafts in the second round, but otherwise lots of variation. I did seem to gravitate to certain players in later rounds, usually viewing them as bargains. Some worked out well; others, not so much. These players are or were on at least three of my four teams: Derek Jeter, Kendrys Morales,Michael Brantley, Juan Rivera, John Danks.

[OaktownSteve]

I think Freeman is a classic example of how frustrating this game can be. I think Freeman was a good pick where he was going during draft season. I saw him play a lot last year and my read was good command of the strike zone for a young guy. Not pull happy. Would have some developing power. And everything goes according to plan. He finds his swing, tears it up for a couple of weeks and then all of a sudden after a windy series in Denver he can't find a pair of contacts that works. Dry eyes. Blurry vision. No way to see that coming (pun intended). Just bad luck.