Okay, so its draft time too… so what.

Well, here I am, its about 15 minutes until the draft for Show and Tell with Sean Salisbury, the fantasy baseball league for sports bloggers. I said I would be live blogging the draft, and I know someone had to think to themselves “why would I want to read about a boring fantasy draft”. Well, you can get the hell out. Now.

The league is full of promise, and the competition who will be in my way of imaginary fame and glory are:

• donkey carnival
• fan iq
• hurricanes are for drinking
• just call me juice
• one more dying quail
• run up the score
• signal to noise
• sports gone south
• sports shows on mute
• the sports flow
• wbrs sports blog

I’ve struggled with some strategies for drafting my team, but nothing I think of that is clever would allow me even the slightest opportunity to field a competitive team. So far its down to two different somewhat lame strategies: only players younger than me (I’m 26), only players with both the letters ‘e’ and ‘a’ in their names (my initials). With either strategy though, I will probably have to waiver from it here and there and then makes trades later to complete the madness. While it’s always fun to have a theme or draft your guy, whenever you take guys earlier than they should go you wind up with a pile of jack squat when it comes to trade bait. I think I’ll play it by ear.

From looking at my opponents blogs though, it does not look like most will be drafting live… so hopefully I can mop up this afternoon and win this league right here and now with some keen draft moves… which means I have to be sharp and on my game, which does not really coincide with drinking time so that’s just not going to happen… its mediocrity for me!

–I got the 5th pick, not bad in a snake style draft… I kind of like the middle since then you don’t have to take fliers on guys well before you should if you are on one of the ends and have 20+ picks in between yours. 5 min to go, so I cracked open a beer and its time to get this started.

–Got Soriano in the first round… not part of either of my strategies but the guy can flat out play ball. At this point, the beer is flowing and there is no way I’m keeping a solid strategery. Maybe later on in the draft.

–Got both Sizemore and Atkins, guys I was targeting. Piece of advice: don’t drink and draft.. unless you want to have fun more than you want to win…

–V Mart…Francisco Rodriguez…Bob Saget! My draft is not going as planned. But then Bill Hall and Ben Sheets made for okay picks… still salvageable.

–Uuugh… Howie Kendrick. But I did not have a 2b yet, and I’m still without a 1b…Oh yea, but I nabbed CC Sabathia last round.. another guy I was hoping to grab.

–Wow. So much for live blogging when your site goes down. Its all those tubes of the internets getting clogged.

–Man, its all such a blur. Since last time we got together for some fun and games I took Alex Rios, Rich Harden and Hill, Adam LaRoche, Jose Valverde and Freddy Sanchez and I really don’t know how to feel about it. Right now I have had enough to drink where I don’t even have the ability to have foresight to know what I need. I’m really shooting from the hip at this point on.

–John Patterson: man I hope he holds up. Bj Upton: completely based on him making the team as an uber- utility guy… if not I now have 4 3b… awesome!… Cla Meredith.. Because why pay big bucks for a closer when you can get a closer in waiting.

–Jonathan Broxton.. see above. Matt Capps… I’m in a groove. DAMMMMIT! That’s what I get for not paying attention. The ONE guy I was trying to get… but at a good price… was Mark Teahen. F**k it all! Now I have to figure out a way to trade for him…But I did get Matt Garza.. so I’m happier now.

–Oh crap.. right.. the blog! Okay, catchers were going like hotcakes, so I grabbed Ianetta. With he is a doubles machine. Also Chris Duncan. With not much at 1b, and no realy backups at lf and rf he was an obvious choice…no one reads this, so Neshek is next!

–I got me some Neshek.. and some Tankersley too! Bill Bray. Its not only my Grandfather’s last name… its my 27th round pick.. Not bad for a good reliever. Ooooh. James Shields is available… and he’s mine. Cheap k’s.

–Mmmm. Tim Lincecum. Small guy, big league player. Hopefully he makes the team. And last, but not least, is the guy I seem to draft every year based on his peripherals, and I get screwed sideways every time….. and the survey says…… its Ryan Church!

So here is my final lineup.  Feel free to weigh in on how I did.  I’m actually pretty happy with my team, and with a trade or two I might be in business.

C V. Martinez

1b A. LaRoche

2b H. Kendrick

3b  G. Atkins

SS B. Hall

LF A. Soriano

CF G. Sizemore

RF A. Rios

Util C. Duncan

BN F. Sanchez

BN BJ Upton

BN C. Ianetta

BN Ryan Friggin Church

Starting Pitchers:

B. Sheets, CC Sabathia, R. Harden, R. Hill, J. Patterson, D. Bush, M. Garza, J. Shields, T. Lincecum

Relief Pitchers:

F. Rodriguez, J. Valverde, C. Meredith, J. Broxton, M. Capps, P. Neshek, T. Tankersely, B. Bray

That’s it folks!  Enjoy the NCAA madness and make sure to keep checking in for league updates.