What's in a Blog? -- Worm's Deeply Personal Tale of an Offense Scorned

Written by Worm on July 03, 2006

So, the Rotogods re-invention as a blog driven by Xach, our visionary leader, is still coming along rather slowly. Don't worry, I'm sure we'll work it out eventually, and then someday you'll be able to tell your grandchildren you were there in the early days of Rotogods.com, back before it was streaming live straight into the brains of 3 billion Americans and Chinese.

Until then, let me just share my frustration in this dynamic and challenging game of fantasy baseball. It has so many twists and turns, and one can only hope for the perfect season, and rest easy in the knowledge that it will never come.

I came into draft day as well prepared as I could hope this year, notwithstanding forgetting about Brian Roberts' injury last season. As the draft proceeded, I took advantage of the opportunities that presented myself, and developped my basic plan for the coming season. I started building my team around a set of solid, but unspectacular keepers, and was able to snatch some solid pitching options in what I thought were good spots, nabbing a starting five of Randy Johnson, John Smoltz, Dan Haren, Chris Capuano and Javier Vazquez.

So far so good. As far off as Randy has fallen, and the recent slide of Vazquez, they're pretty well offset by the nice performances turned in by Capuano and Haren, who came at quite a nice spot in the draft. I've often found it difficult to negotiate the acquisition of top-level pitching in keeper leagues, sometimes paying too much for a supposed ace that can no longer get it done, and other times trying to get by without overpaying, and winding up wit a bunch of middling pitchers. Having an okay staff will get you some points, but you really need some star performances if your pitching numbers are going to help you win a championship. I at least feel I've done okay in this respect.

Where I really swung and missed was on my offense. I was filled with optimism and enthusiasm in drafting Adam Dunn, who is a very risky player in a league that counts strikeouts. Much of the rest of my offensive drafting worked around the selection of Dunn, seeking players that could do the things he couldn't, hit for high batting average and not strike out a lot. As such, I wound up with quite the balancing act, and could only hope for the best results if some of my injury prone players (Mike Sweeney, Dave Roberts, Sean Casey) were able to log around their usual number of games or better. Even after losing a couple of these players to injury, my plan still seemed to be holding up, as some smart and timely pickups helped cover for weak areas in my lineup, and a number of my hitters were performing at the tops of their abilities.

Sadly, this came crashing down all around me, along with my dreams of being able to build a championship offense around Adam Dunn. Not only did Dunn go on to perform significantly worse than I expected after an initial hot start, injuries and slumps continued to mount to the point where I was being forced to start hitters I knew I couldn't expect anything from. The recent slump and injury to Morgan Ensberg was a clincher for me. Unable to count on the power offense he had been putting up for a year and a half, my offense was officially broken. So I threw it away. Somebody trade me Albert Pujols, please.

Wasn't that interesting? Oh fuck off, it's a blog, right? I thought that was like a diary that you just can't keep everybody in the world from breaking into and reading. Just go back and read the first paragraph again, it'll make you feel better. I'm going grocery shopping.

-- Written by Worm on July 03, 2006