As of today, the first month of the MLB season and with it the first month of the NFBC fantasy season are in the books. It's still too early to either celebrate with a Yoo-hoo shower if off to a hot start or bury your fantasy team if off to a slow start. However as pointed out by others on a couple threads recently, more than enough time has passed to get a handle on your fantasy prospects, the strengths and weaknesses of your respective teams, and what you need to do to sustain a good start or stem the tide of a bad one. With one month in, the following are the current standings both good and bad for my various teams in the various formats I've entered and a couple quick thoughts and feelings I have on each.
PREMIUM LEAGUES
Diamond League - 11th Place 60.5 pts
Ultimate Auction - 10th Place 67 pts
MtM Super - - 6th Place, 89 pts
Ummm, ugh!!! Just pure ugliness.
Two thirds of my total fantasy investment is tied into these three teams, two thirds of my total fantasy investment looking like a poor bet for a decent return right now. At least I have my excuses set up already. I had to drive 4 hours each way through Friday night NYC rush hour traffic to get to the MtM and didn't sleep the night before in Vegas prior to the Diamond and Ultimate Auction.
Yeah, that explains why these teams suck. Yeah, that's the ticket.
In all seriousness and with all joking and weak alibis aside, it's been a poor job by me thus far. But.... it's still early. Plenty of time to resurrect the hopes and excitement I had for these teams when I first signed up for them.
Of the three, I think my best prospects lie with the MtM. Not only because my current standing for that team is better than the other two, but also because I've remained somewhat competitive with numerous players that should be carrying my team hitting bumps in the road. Albert Pujols has contributed very little to date and I have to believe that will eventually change. Josh Hamilton and Brandon Phillips have both spent time on the shelf, while in my lineups. Carl Crawford was an early pick that contributed nothing. Johnny Damon was an early FAAB that is only now ready to help out. And my top two pitchers, Cliff Lee and Dan Hudson are both on the DL, but both should return in the coming weeks. If I can hold on until all these players are back and performing up to speed, maybe I can improve my standing in this league.
The team I'm most concerned about unfortunately is the Diamond. Sure, I've had a few injuries here and there and there are also players that haven't performed as expected to date, but it's more than that. The team is lacking in team speed or at least productive speed in the form of stolen bases. Yet the power is also lacking. I focused on starting pitching while waiting on closers, but the starting pitching hasn't produced (and went almost the entire first two weeks before its first win), and the closers I waited on, Heath Bell and Frank Francisco, have increased my ERA and WHIP in lieu of my saves totals. The team construction is poor, but hopefully fixable. Still a lot of time, but also a lot of work to do.
MAIN EVENT
1st Weekend Online - 3rd Place, 97.5 pts, 89th Overall
2nd Weekend Vegas - 7th Place, 81.5 pts, 186th Overall
If there's any evidence in my teams that we're still extremely early in the season, it's the drastic movement my Vegas Main Event team made in both the league and overall standings over the weekend. Unfortunately, the movement was all downward. On Friday, my team stood first in the league with over 105 points and was in the top 50 of the overall. Today only 4 days later, it's lost 25 points and 6 spots in the league and over 130 spots in the overall.
Yikes. I had a bad weekend, but still!! Hopefully, if I can drop that many points that quickly, I can gain them back just as quickly. If I can hang tough for a while, there might be potential reinforcements on the way. This team has Lorenzo Cain, Mike Morse, and of course Kevin Youkilis recovering from injuries, Mike Carp just returning, Trevor Bauer and Roy Oswalt stashed, John Jay just picked up in FAAB this Sunday, and Jesus Montero likely to be catcher-eligible in a week or so. That's a lot of "potential" firepower that could be available later in the season. We'll see if it comes through and can help.
My other Main Event team has been steadily climbing the league standings this past week or so and just got back into a cash spot. With both Allen Craig and Carlos Quentin getting healthier, Justin Upton starting to produce, and Jon Lester stemming his tide of horrible starts, I was starting to feel pretty good about this team....until yesterday. Yesterday this team lost Evan Longoria for up to two months. Ugh. Big hit. Well, I just picked up Alex Liddi. I just have to hope he proves a capable stand in.
12 TEAMERS
Vegas 3/30 XII - 1st Place, 94 pts, 3rd Overall
Online 3/24 XII - 2nd Place, 85.5 pts, 23rd Overall
Online 3/27 XII - 3rd Place, 82 pts, 44th Overall
Vegas 3/31 XII - 5th Place, 69 pts, 122nd Overall
Online Championship - 6th Place, 63 pts, 510th Overall
Last year I tasted my first success in the NFBC's 12-teamers as both of my Live DP teams were competitive with one even winning its league and finishing 5th in the overall. I tried to emulate that formula this year with different degrees of draft success, but so far so good on the results in the standings. Each of my 12 teamers are in the top half of their league standings with one 3rd overall in the XII. We'll see if the results hold up and if I can improve the standings on some or all. Of course no matter the formula, none can withstand pitching blowups. Thanks to Luke Hochevar (4 IP, 12 hits, 9 ER, 3 walks) and Jon Niese's (3 IP, 6 hits, 5 ER, 2 walks) stellar outings today, I have a feeling my team that WAS in 3rd overall today might be a bit lower on the list come morning.
SPECIALTY LEAGUES
NFBCK Keeper League - 8th Place, 77.5 pts
AL Auction - 8th Place, 57 pts
Not much to say about either of these teams, except that I have a lot of work to do for each. It'll be a helluva lot easier fixing the Keeper team than the AL Auction team considering what's available in FAAB. I was warned that FAAB in an Only league is a barren wasteland, but nothing could have prepared me for this. When Josh Tomlin's been my only significant pickup all season, I had to bid 160 to win him, and there was at least one other triple digit bid as a runner up
, that's all you really need to know. It's rough sledding out there.
SLOW DRAFTS
150 Slow Draft - 1st Place, 137 pts, 1st Overall
150 Slow/Fast Draft - 2nd Place, 102.5 pts, 110th Overall
Max's 1000 Slow Draft - 10th Place, 73.5 pts, 448th Overall
The slow draft for which I lead the overall was my very first draft of the year. I should have just stopped there.
Lord knows my Sundays would have been a lot easier.
In all seriousness, it's very unlikely I hold on. I did a very poor job in providing depth for this team. In fact so poor that up until this past week, I've been forced to start Clint Barmes for this team....at Utility.
Still, it's a real proud moment to find yourself on top of 1050 of the best players in the world, even if only for a day.
One month down, five months to go. It'll be interesting for me to look back later in the year at where I stood today and how these teams end up when all is said and done.