A surging Cleveland Indians and podcasts like Short Hops and Rotowire Sports led me to a fresh passion for baseball over the past six months or so. Everything is so much easier for foreign fans now with the internet and MLB.TV
Somewhat nervously I decided to give fantasy baseball another go after an 11 year break. Only after the season finished I went back to an old post and found I had won my league back in the day. This time around I tried both an old fasioned Rotosserie league and at the last minute, a Head to Head league.
As per the screenshots below, I came 5th in both these 12 team leagues. In hindsight the head to head was a lot more fun and I had some genuinely nailbiting moments on the Monday mornings which ended each week.
I won my final consolation playoff game 10-0 but I blame a midseason slump where I forgot to keep aggressively trading for in-form players and had some bad luck too.
Next time I will avoid dual catcher leagues (it’s hard enough finding a single catcher who plays 90% of games, let alone two). I’d also be very happy to skip on Saves for Saves and Holds…I missed a lot points that way.
I really have no idea why I did so terribly in ERA and WHIP (in both leagues really) and put it down to picking pitchers with high strikeout numbers instead and choosing in- form players over more seasoned types who play themselves into form as the season progresses.
I still had a blast, but it took up a fair bit of time on the tram. I missed out on the fun of having someone to talk about it with, so I might try joining a social league next year if they exist. Ultimately I would like to attend a live draft but I need to know the players a lot better first. I’d love to watch a few games again in person oneday.