Most of us judge ourselves on what our Main Event team is doing. I'd judge myself harshly. I can whine about losing Posey and having other injuries, but those happen and are a part of the game we cannot control.
When I think back about what could have been, my thoughts always go to the underperformers that I thought might be a valuable piece to the team.
Angel Pagan, Joey Votto, and Nick Swisher were misses. I know most don't think of Votto as a 'miss', but I expected an even better year than last year. One that would have put him in the top three drafted next year. Instead, his numbers are closer to Hunter Pence.
I also think of the things I could have controlled. Sitting a pitcher who throws a shutout and benching players that had a good week. I know it happens to all of us, but it is no less galling.
Yesterday was one of the most important FAAB's of the year for most of us. It set us up (or down) for all the changes coming during this week with the trade deadline.
Most likely, Florida and San Diego will have new closers. The possibility for new closers also exist in Kansas City, Tampa, Baltimore, Toronto, Seattle, and the Mets.
Other pieces are still out there too. Beltran moving creates a hole in the Mets outfield. And sellers like Kansas City, Houston, Seattle, Oakland, and Baltimore will have to re-stock after trading players to contenders.
There will be a lot of unworked puzzle pieces going into next week. It all should be interesting and make for a great week on the baseball side, while the Dark Side revs up its engines as well.
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On another subject. most of us know that the NFBC is like a big family. Most of us started in a local league where the comraderie is great and then moved up to being Yahoo kids, trying to take down faceless competition.This all led us here to the high stakes game of the NFBC.
We're as close to a local league as can be, though we are spread across the states and in other countries. Some of us meet at the live events, while some keep up with pm's and e-mails.
During the last week or so, it has been my pleasure to have driven 90 miles or so to meet with NFBC'er Matt Anderson. Matt was vacationing in the area, shot me an e-mail and we kicked over some of the happenings in baseball and the NFBC over lunch.
Thanks for the lunch, Matt!
And, for some of those privy enough to know, it did not cost over $15.
I've also talked with Shawn Childs (not name dropping ) I had not seen Shawn around the Boards in ages and wanted to know how he was doing.
Shawn's doing well, and like most of us, trying to grind his way to some cash.
He is contemplating posting something in the near future that should be of interest to a lot of us, so look for that.
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Next month, I start preparing for the Pre-Mature E-Draftulation League. This league starts as the last pitch of 2011 is thrown.
A lot of question marks at this stage of the game for that league.
Where will Strasburg, Johan Santana, Bryce Harper, Posey, Morneau, Kendrys Morales, and Wainwright go?
It should be interesting stuff.
The 15 players that are in the league this year will have first rights for the draft again this year. All open spots will be addressed on these Boards at a later time.
Or Josh Johnson in R4. My goodness, no wonder I'm putting all my energy to just stay out of last place.