Forgiveness

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DOUGHBOYS
Posts: 13088
Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:00 pm

Forgiveness

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Mon Jun 29, 2020 7:18 am

"Bless me Fantasy Father for I have sinned..."

"What was your sin, my boy?"

"I drafted Troy Tulowitzki again."

Back in the day, Tulo had a couple of wonderful years. Easily the top fantasy shortstop in baseball, Tulo was a difference maker.
But then, he found a super power even stronger than that of hitting a baseball.
Tulo became one of the best players in baseball at getting hurt.
Year after year, drafters were confronted with whether THIS would be the year Tulo could stay healthy.
Drafters weighed the snap of his bat vs the snap of a body part.
Almost unbelieving in Tulo's ability to get hurt, his descent on draft boards was slow.
It took years and years for Tulo to drop from the first round to double digits.
After all, we don't draft on what IS, as much as what COULD BE.

We have a player that sorta resembles Tulo in our game today.
Giancarlo Stanton.
Stanton could be a difference maker too, but like Tulo, his best skill is getting hurt.
And like Tulo, drafters weight what is against what could be.
In a current draft I'm in, Stanton was selected in the third round.
During the first Spring Training when Stanton showed off his getting hurt skills by not even having an at bat, Stanton dropped mostly to the sixth round and beyond.

Now, he is forgiven. Again.
He is forgiven partially because he has had time to heal.
He is forgiven mostly because he has less time to get hurt with the new season.
We are not asking 162 games from Stanton. Just 60.
Somehow, that makes him more draftable.
I don't get it.

Drafters are taking the plunge on Stanton and other players like James Paxton, Byron Buxton, David Dahl, and even Aaron Judge.
They feel with a shorter time frame, these players have a better chance of surviving the season.
As if forgiving their best skill of getting hurt because of a shorter clock.
Aaron Judge had a press release about taking batting practice swings.
Judge has had no games. All the rest he wants. Time to heal.
It's almost July.
And Judge is given props for taking batting practice.
The writing is on the wall there for all to see. No matter the length of the season.

If Fantasy Baseball resembles any game show, it would be 'Press Your Luck'.
Guys like Tulo and Stanton have been 'Whammys' to many a fantasy baseball team.
Still, we press our luck and keep drafting them.
Now, with the shorter season ahead, it seems even easier to forgive them for past sins.
And most likely, it will result in a conversation like the one at the beginning of this post.
Only in Fantasy Baseball, the Fantasy Father will not forgive.
He will laugh.
He has given fair warning, yet, we use other reasons such as the shorter season, as an excuse to forgive these players.
We forgive these players, but nobody will forgive us for drafting them.
Unlike 'Press Your Luck', these 'Whammys' are of our own choosing.
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!

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