Why We Play the Game
Posted: Mon Mar 01, 2021 8:41 am
We've all heard it before. You see some 'crazy' picks like five pitchers to start a draft. Or selecting JT Realmuto at the end of the first round.
This is when we hear the "I wanna be in a draft with you" comments.
Which really, are stupid comments.
I've come to the realization that it doesn't matter who your competition in these drafts are, if they're NFBC players, it'll be a tough draft.
I was in a Main Event League with KC Cha and Shawn Childs last year. Both, NFBC hall of famers.
From the 2020 season, I came away with a new respect for KC. I didn't feel like he drafted the best team. In my eyes, I didn't think he would do that well in our league. Being a 60 game season, we have to come out of the gates and try to move to the front. KC's team floundered.
I wasn't surprised.
But here's the thing.
KC started making moves every week that improved his team. He had a bulldog mentality. Every week, even with FAAB money nearly gone at the beginning of September, he made several one dollar bids work for his team.
In the end, he made a team that should have finished in 12th place a fifth place team. I had more respect for that than if he had drafted a wonderful team and cruised.
Like KC, I didn't like Shawn's draft either. He went heavy pitching, light hitting. Very light.
Shawn's approach was the opposite of KC's. He put heavy FAAB money on players. His last large bid being on Tony Gonsolin.
Gonsolin was fine and helped many fantasy teams with a fine ERA and WHIP. Shawn HAD pitching though. He needed hitting.
He would finish near the bottom of the standings.
While I didn't care for either of KC's or Shawn's drafts, I felt KC's in-season management was superb while Shawn's fell short.
It's funny how we think of things from past drafts and really, I don't even know why I brought this up.
Except to say that even the best of drafters and in season management fellas can impress and fall flat.
We are all of high calibre in playing this game. Our approaches are what makes each of us our own player.
We shouldn't care who is in our drafts. They're going to do what they do. It's what WE do that counts.
Going back to the five pitcher guy starting the draft or the fella that takes Realmuto in the first round, they can be as lethal to our plans as the best of drafters.
We all have players we like. A Maverick drafter may select OUR players far before we want to draft them.
It puts a stake through our hearts.
In a recent Draft Champions, I was thinking ahead.
It was the 15th round in the draft. In my mind, I was charting the course for how I was going to play out the next few rounds.
I knew that in round 21, I was going to select a certain pitcher. A perfect fit.
At the same time, my pitcher was selected in.... the 15th round.
It's nice that another drafter thinks highly of the same player we do, it is. It really is. Asshole.
My first reaction is always the same. I give the middle finger to the screen that delivered the bad news to me.
This drafter was not necessarily a good drafter.
But his act in the 15th round made me adjust my plans for later in the draft. While other drafters were crowing that he had 'overdrafted' this player, I cussed him for it.
Bad drafters can hurt us as much as good drafters.
In the end, whether your competition is KC Cha, Shawn Childs, or Joe Blow...all of them can hurt us in one way or another.
The perfect draft?
Probably unobtainable.
What we would need is 14 drafters who do us the solid of drafting players that we never covet.
Whether those drafters are above average or merely average, THAT is what we want most.
And we want them to let some players we covet even fall a round or two.
Never happens, does it.
Even if happening four or five times in a draft, we feel fortunate.
It's why we keep drafting.
One of these days, we will get ALL the players wanted and they will ALL play up to our expectations. We know it.
That, that is why we play the game.
This is when we hear the "I wanna be in a draft with you" comments.
Which really, are stupid comments.
I've come to the realization that it doesn't matter who your competition in these drafts are, if they're NFBC players, it'll be a tough draft.
I was in a Main Event League with KC Cha and Shawn Childs last year. Both, NFBC hall of famers.
From the 2020 season, I came away with a new respect for KC. I didn't feel like he drafted the best team. In my eyes, I didn't think he would do that well in our league. Being a 60 game season, we have to come out of the gates and try to move to the front. KC's team floundered.
I wasn't surprised.
But here's the thing.
KC started making moves every week that improved his team. He had a bulldog mentality. Every week, even with FAAB money nearly gone at the beginning of September, he made several one dollar bids work for his team.
In the end, he made a team that should have finished in 12th place a fifth place team. I had more respect for that than if he had drafted a wonderful team and cruised.
Like KC, I didn't like Shawn's draft either. He went heavy pitching, light hitting. Very light.
Shawn's approach was the opposite of KC's. He put heavy FAAB money on players. His last large bid being on Tony Gonsolin.
Gonsolin was fine and helped many fantasy teams with a fine ERA and WHIP. Shawn HAD pitching though. He needed hitting.
He would finish near the bottom of the standings.
While I didn't care for either of KC's or Shawn's drafts, I felt KC's in-season management was superb while Shawn's fell short.
It's funny how we think of things from past drafts and really, I don't even know why I brought this up.
Except to say that even the best of drafters and in season management fellas can impress and fall flat.
We are all of high calibre in playing this game. Our approaches are what makes each of us our own player.
We shouldn't care who is in our drafts. They're going to do what they do. It's what WE do that counts.
Going back to the five pitcher guy starting the draft or the fella that takes Realmuto in the first round, they can be as lethal to our plans as the best of drafters.
We all have players we like. A Maverick drafter may select OUR players far before we want to draft them.
It puts a stake through our hearts.
In a recent Draft Champions, I was thinking ahead.
It was the 15th round in the draft. In my mind, I was charting the course for how I was going to play out the next few rounds.
I knew that in round 21, I was going to select a certain pitcher. A perfect fit.
At the same time, my pitcher was selected in.... the 15th round.
It's nice that another drafter thinks highly of the same player we do, it is. It really is. Asshole.
My first reaction is always the same. I give the middle finger to the screen that delivered the bad news to me.
This drafter was not necessarily a good drafter.
But his act in the 15th round made me adjust my plans for later in the draft. While other drafters were crowing that he had 'overdrafted' this player, I cussed him for it.
Bad drafters can hurt us as much as good drafters.
In the end, whether your competition is KC Cha, Shawn Childs, or Joe Blow...all of them can hurt us in one way or another.
The perfect draft?
Probably unobtainable.
What we would need is 14 drafters who do us the solid of drafting players that we never covet.
Whether those drafters are above average or merely average, THAT is what we want most.
And we want them to let some players we covet even fall a round or two.
Never happens, does it.
Even if happening four or five times in a draft, we feel fortunate.
It's why we keep drafting.
One of these days, we will get ALL the players wanted and they will ALL play up to our expectations. We know it.
That, that is why we play the game.