At the onset of this season, Clave thought it would be a really good idea to start a traditional one year 5×5 roto fantasy baseball league where we could be challenged by seven of our readers, to match their fantasy baseball wits against ours! Collectively us Crackerjacks have a lot of experience in customized fantasy baseball leagues, but surprisingly VERY little in a basic 5×5 roto style fantasy baseball league. So, we weren’t quite sure what to expect. But, rest assured, none of us want to lose any fantasy baseball league we play in!
Starting in a snake draft, it was going to be an interesting season. I’d like to point out how TERRIBLY AWFUL my first two picks were in hindsight. I took Dustin Pedroia third overall, and although I touted him highly before the drafts this year, and he is in fact my favorite player in the league, I should have known better. Pedroia should NOT have been a top 3 pick as I may have been able to steal him in the second round. Instead of waiting on Pedroia, I compounded the mistake by taking Tim Lincecum in that round. *Sigh* Enough said, let’s move on.
Clave started off like a guy who knows what he is doing by selecting Albert Pujols and Ian Kinsler, while Dixon selected Robbinson Cano and Carlos Gonzalez. True to our word, we were clearly building our teams around our favorite second basemen.
I have to say that I was supremely jealous of DQ Blizzards owner Daniel Quievryn who after three rounds had Miguel Cabrera, Justin Verlander and Andrew McCutchen. I’d say he won the first 3 rounds of the draft EASY!
Right out of the gate the Ottawa Economists, led by Cory Timmons, took a commanding lead, even noted on the message boards by Clave:
The Economists are in the top 97% of teams nationwide, just missing the top 50. Needless to say that is pretty impressive!
Even more impressive than that was LA Jeffery owner Jeffrey Tan challenging me for the most transactions title! He made some huge trades right out of the gate and made me realize that I was NOT going to control the transaction market in this league without a fight.
Second Half Standings
But alas, here we are at the midway point and all is right with the world. Clave is atop the league with a terrific 85 points, which puts him in the 99th percentile and double digit points out in front of second place, which happens to be yours truly. (I just happen to be double digits ahead of LA Jeffrey in the transaction race!) Crackerjack Dixon is in the meat of the pack with teams #3-6 spanning between 60-56 points. He could finish anywhere between third and seventh, and it wouldn’t be a surprise.
It should be a pretty interesting rest of season in the Crackerjack reader fantasy baseball league.
Will Clave’s Barn Walkers hold on to their stranglehold of first place? Will Jeffrey Tan dethrone Nash as the king of transactions? Will Dixon – or one of the readers in the bell part of the curve – make a second half surge for the top spot?!
Only the second half of the season will tell…
