Jorge Cantu is on my fantasy team.
We've all had battles with Draft Day insanity. We've all teetered on the brink, only to fight the battle against lunacy and eventually overcome it. But on March 29, 2009, I lost that battle.
I felt like the Narrator in Fight Club.
We've all woken up and not remembered things the night before. We've all woken up with a strange woman in our bed and not sure how she got there. She's not breathing and our hands are covered with her blood, but we don't know what happened. Well, I woke up with BJ Upton in my bed and his blood all over my hands and damned if I know what happened.
I pick 9th our of ten teams (again). My first two picks were - as anticipated - Howard and Utley. 3rd round I was hoping for a top OF, but they were all gone, so I took the best available hitter, Justin Morneau as my CI. Here's where things began to run amuck.I did several pre-draft simulations. In every one, my 4th round pick was a tough choice between Youkilis and Aramis Ramirez. I wanted a Third Baseman there, because the position is top heavy and I wanted a top tier guy. It's a tough choice and I hadn't been able to firmly decide before the draft. I remember 30 seconds being left on the clock and only those 2 names in my queue. I then remember looking at the FA list and seeing BJ Upton at the top. The next thing I remember is seeing that Aramis Ramirez was drafted.
It was like I woke up or something. But I hadn't fallen asleep. Had I? "Oh well," I thought. "I guess I drafted Ramirez." But that's when I realized that Ramirez had been drafted by someone else. One of the teams after me. I figured I'd taken Youkilis, but then he was drafted next. I didn't understand what had happened. I clicked on my team and there he was. Sitting on my roster was a player I hadn't once considered drafting in the 3 weeks and 6o seconds leading up to my 4th round pick. Yet there he was. Sitting in my outfield. BJ Upton.
I wanted to get a shovel and a trash bag and head out into the woods to bury this mistake like so many others. But I couldn't. He was there on my roster and he wasn't going anywhere.
Now I know what most people would say, and they're right. This pick will not ruin my team. Upton is a good player with 25-40 potential. And my next two picks of David Ortiz and Dan Haren (It's a 6x6 H2H league with OPS and K/BB ratio as the extra stats) made me feel confident that this runaway train was now under control.
But it wasn't. The drunk conductor was just at that stage of drinking when you suddenly and temporarily feel almost sober. But are one drink away from speech slurring, cousing kissing and passing out. My conductor poured that drink. And he made it strong.
The remainder of my draft was a blur. Not because it was going quickly, but because I literally don't remember it. I don't remember what I was thinking, just that someone Stephen Drew with pick #66 when I wanted to take him early at #69. After that, the train jumped the tracks, killing hundreds.
In the end, my roster had players like Ibanez, Jeter and Cantu. Players who end up on teams that I make fun of. It wasn't good. I'd even drafted Votto, whom I love, but can't play, because Howard, Morneau and Ortiz eat up those roster spots. That was a smart pick.
When it was over, I looked at my roster as though someone else had drafted it. I didn't recognize it. It felt auto drafted. By a retard. But it wasn't. These were my players. And they aren't going anywhere. Until I start making make bad trades. Which will be soon.
The moral of the story is this. Stick to your plan. If you don't, you may end up with Jorge Cantu on your team. And nobody wants that.
No comments:
Post a Comment