Paper and Grass
Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 10:25 am
'Once there was light in my life,
Now there's only love in the dark'
This line from 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' describes the feeling some of us have from our draft to players taking the field.
We have so much hope and thoughts in our heads about how each player will perform...
Then they ruin it all by taking the field
Our expectations are almost always dwarfed by reality. It's the nature of the beast. Worse, we could be blindsided by players not even involved with our fantasy team.
Last year, on his way to winning 24 games and becoming Cy Young and MVP, Justin Verlander was followed in games by Jose Valverde. Valverde was an amazing 49 of 49 in saving games last year. Verlander and Valverde drafters, both, could not expect close to those results this year. Then again, they didn't expect the bite in the ass to come on the first day of the season.
Sometimes, it's not even a player off our roster who hurts us. The other day the Jays and Indians played a 16 inning opener.
The Jays moved ahead in the 16th inning and Santos owners are eager to rack up their first save.
Wrong.
The Jays wait one out before bringing in Santos. Robbing owners of a save.
We never pictured that when taking a closer.
It could be worse. We picture Chris Perez getting blown up, we've seen it. Still, that doesn't help Masterson owners.
What we couldn't picture is Mariano Rivera looking like Chris Perez and robbing CC Sabathia of an undeserving win.
The youngsters who play so well in the minors leave some drafters drooling. Some, give us a look see in the Majors and put a proverbial carrot in front of our nose. Hosmer, Lawrie, and Dee Gordon are a combined 1-20.
But like them, the season is young and they won't be facing number one pitchers all year.
Like a boxing match, we're in the first round. We're feeling out our teams. Way too early to even know who our enemies are in each league. Near the end of the season, we can take heart that our closest rival owns Rivera or Perez. Now, we can only be happy that we don't.
The other 14 teams in our leagues are chopped liver right now.
We don't care what they look like.
We got enough problems with our own team.
That same team that looked so good when we drafted them.
When we exit a draft, most of us have the same feeling.
A feeling that THIS may be the team.
The team that will be remembered for a long time.
The Best team on paper.
We forget in the after glow, that the game is played on grass.
Now there's only love in the dark'
This line from 'Total Eclipse of the Heart' describes the feeling some of us have from our draft to players taking the field.
We have so much hope and thoughts in our heads about how each player will perform...
Then they ruin it all by taking the field
Our expectations are almost always dwarfed by reality. It's the nature of the beast. Worse, we could be blindsided by players not even involved with our fantasy team.
Last year, on his way to winning 24 games and becoming Cy Young and MVP, Justin Verlander was followed in games by Jose Valverde. Valverde was an amazing 49 of 49 in saving games last year. Verlander and Valverde drafters, both, could not expect close to those results this year. Then again, they didn't expect the bite in the ass to come on the first day of the season.
Sometimes, it's not even a player off our roster who hurts us. The other day the Jays and Indians played a 16 inning opener.
The Jays moved ahead in the 16th inning and Santos owners are eager to rack up their first save.
Wrong.
The Jays wait one out before bringing in Santos. Robbing owners of a save.
We never pictured that when taking a closer.
It could be worse. We picture Chris Perez getting blown up, we've seen it. Still, that doesn't help Masterson owners.
What we couldn't picture is Mariano Rivera looking like Chris Perez and robbing CC Sabathia of an undeserving win.
The youngsters who play so well in the minors leave some drafters drooling. Some, give us a look see in the Majors and put a proverbial carrot in front of our nose. Hosmer, Lawrie, and Dee Gordon are a combined 1-20.
But like them, the season is young and they won't be facing number one pitchers all year.
Like a boxing match, we're in the first round. We're feeling out our teams. Way too early to even know who our enemies are in each league. Near the end of the season, we can take heart that our closest rival owns Rivera or Perez. Now, we can only be happy that we don't.
The other 14 teams in our leagues are chopped liver right now.
We don't care what they look like.
We got enough problems with our own team.
That same team that looked so good when we drafted them.
When we exit a draft, most of us have the same feeling.
A feeling that THIS may be the team.
The team that will be remembered for a long time.
The Best team on paper.
We forget in the after glow, that the game is played on grass.