Quirks and Oddities in Our Management
Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2016 9:34 am
We all have quirks as fantasy owners.
One fella I know in the NFBC puts in his Main Event lineup, then bets against that lineup in the daily game.
A certain pig farmer once wrote that he liked drafting west coast players because that was when he watched a lot of baseball.
An NFBC reptilian-type says he never watches a game, only follows the numbers.
And still another only watches the live scoring feed from the NFBC and his beloved Texas team.
Most of us have some kind of 'different' way to watch our hitters and pitchers accumulate their statistics.
For myself, I can't watch my pitchers.
I can watch my hitters and will even turn the channel going 'hitter hunting'.
To me, if a hitter makes an out...."No big deal, get 'em next time."
I wish I had the same attitude for my pitchers.
I don't.
Way back in 2005, my NFBC team was contending for the Main Event Overall.
I hung onto every pitch.
I would yell at the tv. Even a two-ball count was enough to raise my blood pressure.
"Brett Myers, you can't beat Andruw Jones inside!" "What are you thinking?"
Myers never listened to my ravings.
Later, Myers would find something he could beat...his wife.
At the time, I was coaching a Little League team.
My wife wondered how I could have so much patience with kids and so little with my fantasy pitchers.
"THEIR ADULTS! THEY SHOULD DO THE RIGHT THING!"
Of course this made little sense, since ALL baseball players are trying to do the right thing.
We just want the players we own, to do more right things than others.
I quit drinking alcohol when our kids were two years old. They were becoming more aware of the world. My dad was a brutish alcokolic and I did not want to follow in those footsteps.
Besides, I didn't like myself when drinking.
And I realized one day while watching a pitcher of mine getting beat up, anger rising, that fantasy baseball was bringing out the worst in me, as alcohol would.
I didn't like myself while watching my pitchers.
I decided to quit watching my pitchers altogether.
Why put myself and whoever was around me throuugh it?
If a pitcher of mine was throwing in the same game, I did not watch my hitters either.
Cold turkey.
It was a great decision. I don't watch them to this day.
I probably could. I've mellowed over the years.
Truth is, it has become more of a ritual or quirk now.
I may record a game and watch after results are known to 'scout' a pitcher, but never 'live'.
My wife enjoys reading. I enjoy watching baseball and we spend a lot of our nights together that way.
I still talk to the tv.
But never in anger or misery.
If I talk to the tv, it is rarely about fantasy. It is usually a stupid thing said by a broadcaster (Tim McCarver says so much stupid stuff that I avoid Cardinal games he works) or lack of playing the game correctly (Puig boners), or bad calls.
In other words, I watch games like Joe Baseball Fan.
NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS POST ALERT!
The other day, I was watching the Cubs game. Alex Wood was throwing for the Dodgers. If you've ever seen Wood, he has one of the oddest deliveries in baseball.
Jim DeShaies, the Cubs analyst said something to the effect that if Elaine from 'Seinfeld' tried to pitch, she would look like Alex Wood. Had me laughing for innings.....
Back to the post...
This isn't the only quirk.
When draft orders were announced back in the day, I would look from the bottom up.
In this way, I was hoping not to see my name till reaching number one in a league.
I miss those days.
When seeing a box score after a game is over and seeing a high score for the team that my pitcher was facing, I'll look at the errors column first to see if having a chance that those runs were unearned.
At one time, I thought the worst thing I could see from a hitter's box score was 5-0-0-0
Worse, is a 1-0-0-0 with that player replaced.
Usually meaning that our player was hurt.
So, I'll check a source, hoping that my player was thrown out of the game. Not hurt.
And if hurt, not too severely.
Crossing fingers till finding out.
I used to know a fantasy player who had to have at least three Atlanta Braves in his lineup.
We've lost touch over the years.
But, I wonder who those three Braves would have been this year.
Aand smiled as I thought that he would have little competition in obtaining those Bravo's.
In an opposite sorta way, I know a Yankee fan who NEVER drafts a Yankee.
Not wanting to mix business with pleasure.
A long time ago, a fella wrote on these NFBC Message Boards that we were all lightweights.
That he played in a league with (best guess, hard to remember now) 12 categories for hitters and pitchers.
He theorized that the more categories a league had, the smarter the fantasy player.
He really believed that.
He took a beating on the Boards and in NFBC Standings that year.
What about you?
Do you have an odd quirk or superstition for your NFBC teams?
Stories from the past?
One fella I know in the NFBC puts in his Main Event lineup, then bets against that lineup in the daily game.
A certain pig farmer once wrote that he liked drafting west coast players because that was when he watched a lot of baseball.
An NFBC reptilian-type says he never watches a game, only follows the numbers.
And still another only watches the live scoring feed from the NFBC and his beloved Texas team.
Most of us have some kind of 'different' way to watch our hitters and pitchers accumulate their statistics.
For myself, I can't watch my pitchers.
I can watch my hitters and will even turn the channel going 'hitter hunting'.
To me, if a hitter makes an out...."No big deal, get 'em next time."
I wish I had the same attitude for my pitchers.
I don't.
Way back in 2005, my NFBC team was contending for the Main Event Overall.
I hung onto every pitch.
I would yell at the tv. Even a two-ball count was enough to raise my blood pressure.
"Brett Myers, you can't beat Andruw Jones inside!" "What are you thinking?"
Myers never listened to my ravings.
Later, Myers would find something he could beat...his wife.
At the time, I was coaching a Little League team.
My wife wondered how I could have so much patience with kids and so little with my fantasy pitchers.
"THEIR ADULTS! THEY SHOULD DO THE RIGHT THING!"
Of course this made little sense, since ALL baseball players are trying to do the right thing.
We just want the players we own, to do more right things than others.
I quit drinking alcohol when our kids were two years old. They were becoming more aware of the world. My dad was a brutish alcokolic and I did not want to follow in those footsteps.
Besides, I didn't like myself when drinking.
And I realized one day while watching a pitcher of mine getting beat up, anger rising, that fantasy baseball was bringing out the worst in me, as alcohol would.
I didn't like myself while watching my pitchers.
I decided to quit watching my pitchers altogether.
Why put myself and whoever was around me throuugh it?
If a pitcher of mine was throwing in the same game, I did not watch my hitters either.
Cold turkey.
It was a great decision. I don't watch them to this day.
I probably could. I've mellowed over the years.
Truth is, it has become more of a ritual or quirk now.
I may record a game and watch after results are known to 'scout' a pitcher, but never 'live'.
My wife enjoys reading. I enjoy watching baseball and we spend a lot of our nights together that way.
I still talk to the tv.
But never in anger or misery.
If I talk to the tv, it is rarely about fantasy. It is usually a stupid thing said by a broadcaster (Tim McCarver says so much stupid stuff that I avoid Cardinal games he works) or lack of playing the game correctly (Puig boners), or bad calls.
In other words, I watch games like Joe Baseball Fan.
NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS POST ALERT!
The other day, I was watching the Cubs game. Alex Wood was throwing for the Dodgers. If you've ever seen Wood, he has one of the oddest deliveries in baseball.
Jim DeShaies, the Cubs analyst said something to the effect that if Elaine from 'Seinfeld' tried to pitch, she would look like Alex Wood. Had me laughing for innings.....
Back to the post...
This isn't the only quirk.
When draft orders were announced back in the day, I would look from the bottom up.
In this way, I was hoping not to see my name till reaching number one in a league.
I miss those days.
When seeing a box score after a game is over and seeing a high score for the team that my pitcher was facing, I'll look at the errors column first to see if having a chance that those runs were unearned.
At one time, I thought the worst thing I could see from a hitter's box score was 5-0-0-0
Worse, is a 1-0-0-0 with that player replaced.
Usually meaning that our player was hurt.
So, I'll check a source, hoping that my player was thrown out of the game. Not hurt.
And if hurt, not too severely.
Crossing fingers till finding out.
I used to know a fantasy player who had to have at least three Atlanta Braves in his lineup.
We've lost touch over the years.
But, I wonder who those three Braves would have been this year.
Aand smiled as I thought that he would have little competition in obtaining those Bravo's.
In an opposite sorta way, I know a Yankee fan who NEVER drafts a Yankee.
Not wanting to mix business with pleasure.
A long time ago, a fella wrote on these NFBC Message Boards that we were all lightweights.
That he played in a league with (best guess, hard to remember now) 12 categories for hitters and pitchers.
He theorized that the more categories a league had, the smarter the fantasy player.
He really believed that.
He took a beating on the Boards and in NFBC Standings that year.
What about you?
Do you have an odd quirk or superstition for your NFBC teams?
Stories from the past?
