Did He Call Me Sheepish?

[DOUGHBOYS]

We have skirmishes on these Message Boards. All of them stem from disagreements. Whether it is the philosophy of what a 'slow draft' really means or the 'value' of Mike Trout or the term 'value' itself.
We'll fight for our beliefs.
As a result, sometimes personal things are said and names are called. Over the course of my life, I've been called every name in the book, and some not in any book. This got me thinking about the worse name we can call a fantasy player.
What name hurts the worst?
A lot of us only communicate online, so names like 'ugly', 'gay', 'fat' are more or less, guesses.
Universal names can be called like anything starting with ass. Asshole, assface, ass, ass-chin.
Now before I go on, 'Ass-chin' is somebody that has a cleft chin, clearing that up so I don't get a pm or response from Asians who feel politically correct slighted.
There are the blank-head names. Shithead, asshead, shit for brains. But again, these are names we've all heard before.

So, what really hurts the fantasy player?
There is one thing that none of us want to be called. A name that infers that we aren't smart enough to do what we do.
A name that insinuates that we need Ron Shandler, or Todd Zola, or even Gekko to do our thinking for us.
That name is 'Sheep'.
It gets under our skin. We play in a game where we think we know the player pool better than the next guy.
If called a Sheep, we are thought to be devoid of our own thinking.
We instantly become The Yahoo Kid' with all of his magazines stacked in front of him.
We can combat a 'Shit for Brains' name calling with a 'Your Mom left her bra here, I'll make sure it gets back to her by putting it in your mail box', but Sheep is tougher to battle.

In a way, we are all sheep. We may not be a Sheep in the universal terms. We may not read Shandler or go to the Mastersball site, or have a stack of magazines, and still be considered Sheep.
Last year, Mike Trout was an afterthought. A guy we could get later in any draft.
Then Voila! He has the best year of any fantasy player and he is at or near the top of most every fantasy list this year.
More than writers, the stats themselves make us Sheep.

I received a lot of terse e-mails and PM's last year when I wrote a 'top 10 Busts' piece for 2012. Admittedly, I missed with Prince Fielder, but got most of the others right. It was my way, I guess, of showing that adp is not always right. The fact is, ADP is NEVER right.
I'll hunt down that piece and do another one for this year as well.

But, back to adp never being right. Do you honestly believe that Miguel Cabrera, Ryan Braun, and Mike Trout are going to have a 'heads above all else' fantasy year? Are there years going to be soooo much better than everyone elses that we just HAVE to be in the top 3 of every draft?
If so, then we are Sheep.
Last year, the top adp players were:
1. Matt Kemp
2. Albert Pujols
3. Miguel Cabrera
4. Troy Tulowitzki
5. Jacoby Ellsbury
6. Adrian Gonzalez

Granted, without the PED accusation, Ryan Braun would have been on this list.
Still, five of the six players did not return the favor for their drafters. They did not live up to their billing.
Tulowitzki has dropped to the second rounds of drafts. Ellsbury and Gonzalez have slipped to the third.
Not only are we Sheep to the stats, we are Sheep in the sense of 'Last stats, best stats.'
We'll penalize Kemp, Tulo, and Ellsbury for being hurt last year. We don't penalize Trout because he played the year.
Yet, we know that the chances of Trout getting hurt are good.
One of my first fantasy rules is that the more a player moves, the better chance of getting hurt. Most of this movement comes on the basepaths or defense.
Kemp, Tulo, Ellsbury, and Trout all move a lot. Cabrera, Pujols, and Gonzalez, not so much.

We make our lists, knowing the injury history of a player. If a player, like Ellsbury or Tulo, shows continued tendencies to get hurt, we penalize them more.
They're like dating a beautiful girl who likes to cheat on you. We may forgive one time, but twice, and we show them the door.
Trout is that beautiful dame who has yet to cheat on us. But, then again, drafting him with the first pick makes that relationship sooo much more serious.

In the end, stats make us Sheep. Experts, writers, and sites see the same things we see. Then, we all make our rankings.
The rankings all seem similar because of what we saw.
I host an e-mail draft that begins as the last year ends. Before these writers, experts, and sites can tell us who is the best, we are drafting.
Do you know who the first three players taken in the draft was?
1. Mike Trout
2. Miguel Cabrera
3. Ryan Braun

Baaaaaaaa.

[Edwards Kings]

Great as always, but what about that class of fantasy drafter you didn't mention...the one whose mind is made up so don't bother with the "facts"...the fantasy mule! Just sayin'....as for myself...baaaaaaa!

They're like dating a beautiful girl who likes to cheat on you. We may forgive one time, but twice, and we show them the door.

[Edwards Kings]

"Jose Bautista said Friday that his surgically-repaired left wrist is doing great and he's already swinging a bat at full strength.
That's nice to hear. Bautista underwent surgery on the wrist in early September, but it appears that he'll be ready to roll once spring training gets underway. That said, it's a legitimate concern that all of his power might not return. Expect the two-time AL home run leader's draft stock to be down a little this spring."

So, Bautista is healthy. Up he goes on your draft list. Baaaa.

[viper]

my word for the same thing is "lemming". They are true "follow-the-leaders" even over the cliff.
Again, another great article.