Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

Well this week kicks off baseball season, this year I’m participating in two leagues- a more manageable plate than the three I did last year.

Yahoo! Keeper League - A-Roid’s Cousin

This is the regular league I drafted earlier last month with a bunch of people over at Am I Dreaming. It looks like a good group has been assembled but I don’t know what to say about the team I drafted. It looks ok in terms of power and batter average, but my pitching is an absolute mess:

• Chris Iannetta - C: He’s entering his prime and appear to be picking up some pop with his bat, I see him with double digit homers and an average that won’t hurt ya. For the price of a 12th round pick I love his potential upside- this is the pick I loved most in that draft.
• Albert Pujols - 1B:  What can I not like about him? He’s the man. He’s going to hit around 40 homers, drive in 120+ RBIs, and hit for way over .300. Somebody just hand him the triple crown right now.
• Alexei Ramirez - 2B: He’s a little bit of an unknown given that this will only be his second year in the majors after defecting from Cuba but he shows some glimpses of contributing in contact, power, and speed. For a position as thin as second base, the added shortstop eligibility makes me feel good about this potential breakout.
• Mike Aviles - SS: It looks like I went with the young, untested talent for my middle infield. Like Ramirez, Aviles is also coming into his second season after doing great in his first season in KC. Who knows what I can get expect for him-he could easily take a step back from last year, however his hot spring is telling me he may work out.
• Chipper Jones - 3B: Sure he’s 37 and a guarantee for spending some days on the DL, but I couldn’t pass him up in the 7th round. When he’s healthy he’s going to get lots of hits and if I handcuff him with a power hitter I’m going to get some production at the position.
• Carlos Lee, Manny Ramirez, Jason Werth - OF: Lee & Ramirez will both give me 30 HRs and .300 BA, Werth will do a little less than that but will contribute in steals. A solid outfield in my mind.
• Torii Hunter, Joey Votto, Adrian Beltre, Fred Lewis, Juan Pierre - Util/BN: Votto and Beltre are great bench corners to have and will provide some pop. Pierre, Lewis, and Hunter are my speed guys.
• Cole Hamels, John Lackey, Gil Meche, Wandy Rodriguez, Hiroki Kuroda, Brad Penny - SP: What bothers me about this group is the lack of power pitching. Besides Meche and WayRod (power pitchers that will also give my WHIP a hit), I have a collection of contact hitters that should do well in the ratios but we’ll see how I do in Ks. I’m not happy about Lackey’s injury status as well as Hamel’s elbow woes. Penny is a gamble- his skills are on the decline so he may be on his way off my team if I can find a solid arm.
• Matt Capps, Brian Wilson, Fernado Rodney, Takashi Saito - RP: I’m excited to have Capps, a closer I wanted to target late because I think he’s going to have another excellent year. Wilson is shaky but he’ll close games. Rodney and Saito were waiver wire pickups after Chris Perez and Joey Devine fell out of the saves picture. An ok group but it looks like holds are in the scoring system so I want to make sure I have someone that’ll keep me competitive in that category.

Tags: adrian beltre, albert jujols, alexei ramirez, brad penny, brian wilson, carlos lee, chipper jones, chris iannetta, chris perez, cole hamels, fantasy baseball, fernando rodney, fred lewis, gil meche, hiroki kuroda, jason werth, joey devine, joey votto, john lackey, juan pierre, manny ramirez, matt capps, mike aviles, takashi saito, torii hunter, wandy rodriguez

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

I wasn’t going to go overboard with it this year.

Too late.

This Fantasy Baseball season I was going to only play in one league- the Yahoo! league I play in with Sean and others ever year.

But this week I have drafts in all three of my fantasy baseball leagues, just as many as I had last year.

The preparation has been kinda crazy. I’ve already overwhelmed myself with books, websites, and binders. My draft prep has probably doubled- maybe even tripled compared to last year. However the prep this year has really helped me refine my process so next year it will be a lot more efficient and I’ll hopefully be reading a lot less. This year I bought the big three books: The Bill James Handbook, The Baseball Forcester, and The Baseball Prospectus. Next year I’m considering only getting The Baseball Forecaster.

I also ran across this amazing spreadsheet tool that I’ve been customizing for use this week. It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for to help me anaylze and take in all this info.

So this past Monday I drafted my first team thanks with my friend Sean.

I really wasn’t ready for my keeper league draft but it was now or never. The draft started at 9 PM- right when as I’m ending rehearsal in Dupont Circle. I arranged my friend Sean to draft the first few rounds as I talked to him on the phone. It was quite a sight to see me walking in DC with a bluetooth earpiece shouting out baseball players. I looked like one of those hotshot/douchebag stock traders except I was talking total baseball geek speak- not financial geek speak.

For those interested here’s how my draft went:

I’m most nervous about my pitching staff, but I’m liking my lineup so far. Now I’m not completely done my research for my other two drafts so I’m sure as I learn more about the players I’ll start hating my team more.

Well I got another draft after rehearsal tonight but it looks like another shallow league where I could probably draft a winning team with my hands tied behind my back.

Tags: adrian beltre, albert jujols, alexei ramirez, bill james, brian wilson, carlos lee, chipper jones, chris iannetta, chris perez, cole hamels, fantasy baseball, fred lewis, gil meche, hiroki kuroda, jayson werth, joey devine, joey votto, john lackey, juan pierre, manny ramirez, matt capps, mike aviles, torii hunter, wandy rodriguez

Originally published at The Definitive Dmbosstone. Please leave any comments there.

The Asian Sensation, no not me, I’m talking about Daisuke Matsuzaka. He’s the newest addition to the Red Sox rotation, creating a big buzz in his first season since arriving from Japan. But more on that later. I am going to talk about a lot of baseball in this post.

Monday I celebrated Tax Day and Patriot’s Day with dinner with my parents. After a very good meal we all looked at my Aunt’s and Uncle’s vacation photos. It was cool to look at them on my uncle’s PS3, it’s nice to know that $600+ gets you a machine that does a little more than play video games.

Tuesday I went to watch a little of the Braves/Nationals game, I really just stopped rooting for the Nats on the most part- I really enjoyed watching John Smoltz, Chipper Jones, and Andruw Jones.

Friday night I went out to Dupont Circle with Jennifer. We stopped by what is becoming one of my favorite stomping grounds, Buffalo Billiards. We watched the end of the Boston/ Yankees game and had some nice conversation. After Boston beat the Yankees, we took a walk to Adams Morgan and talked with the works over at Maggie Moos.

Yesterday I had dinner again with my parents (on their way back from Florida). We enjoyed traditional Vietnamese fare at Eden Center. I live only 10 minutes away from the place but you won’t find me there very often. However after discovery a bubble like drink I can buy there, I may stop by more often. I just said bubble like drink- sounds like I’m becoming more Asian by osmosis.

Today the weather was fantastic- it really felt like a lazy summer afternoon. I did some hardcore Costco shopping with my roommate Adam, and I enjoyed the Red Sox/Yankees game on ESPN. It’s always a treat to get to watch the Red Sox play, living here in DC it’s not a luxury I had back at FSC. Allow me to put on my sports anchor hat on so I can blog about the wonderful game.

I usually don’t recap or talk about games in detail, but I really enjoyed this matchup. It was Dice-K’s first game against the Yankees, and of course any new player in Red Sox Nation needs to understand the huge rivalry in play.

Matsuzaka hit a couple of the Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, showing that he understands how much we hate ‘em Actually he was probably trying to pitch to them inside, but I loved how ESPN showed a clip from Friday of Dice-K and Julian Tavarez (a player I first came to know as the pitcher who broke his hand after punching a cement wall). They were discussing how to handle the Yankees and you can see Tavarez pantomiming to Dice-K to hit A-Rod in the head. It appears that he took his advice to heart.

Other memorable moments, has to include one of the most amazing baseball moments I have seen (outside of the Red Sox winning the World Series or defeating the Yankees on their way) was the back-to-back-to-back-to-back home runs. I was checking some e-mail when Manny hit his first one, I thought, “good for him, he’s been having a slow start”. Then I saw J.D. Drew hit one and I told Adam and Burak (who I was watching the game with), “See I told you J.D. was going to come up big.” Then Mike Lowell hit one and I just started laughing and feeling sorry for Chase Wright (the rookie pitcher who was pitching his second major league game ever). Our other roommate Nick walked in to see what we were all hollering about and then Jason Varitek his a home run. At that point we were all laughing and cheering. I love the Red Sox.

Jonathan Papelbon closed out the game and was lights out as usual. I remember watching his first major league game back at FSC. I even think I blogged about it. Who knew he would become a whirlwind force in the bullpen. The other night the commentators on Fox made notice of his delivery: he stares at the ground and when he’s ready to pitch he picks up his head and turns and stares down the batter, a very menacing and intimidating look. I notice it now everytime I see him pitch, if you ever watch him take a look- wouldn’t it just freak you out if you were the batter?

Well I guess you could tell I enjoyed watching the Sox sweep the Yankees.

Baseball has really been a favorite sport of mine, I remember back when my neighbor and good friend Dave introduced me to the sport and eventually got me to play little league (a comical attempt at that). The love for the sport was revived with NESN in our dorm rooms and lots of fellow students who loved the Sox.

Makes me wanna pick up a bat and pick up a sport again. Hell I need a side activity right?

Tags: adams morgan, alex rodriguez, andruw jones, baseball, blog, braves, chase wright, chipper jones, costco, daisuke matsuzaka, derek jeter, dupont circle, eden center, girls, holidays, j.d. drew, jason varitek, john smoltz, jonathan papelbon, julian tavarez, mike lowell, nationals, red sox, seven corners, yankees