Real life and risky moves make Fantasy Baseball hard work
Thursday, July 29th, 2010In March Action81.com’s Emmet Ryan took part in the first ever fully live Fantasy Baseball draft to take place in Ireland. This is the latest of a series of regular updates on the form of the Belfield Hole-in-Sox in 2010.
After rising to fifth place in the Fantasy Baseball League of Ireland, the Belfield Hole-In-Sox endured a slump over the past six weeks, dropping as low as eighth before stabilising at seventh as we enter August. Recent events however have drawn plenty of attention for my first-year squad. First however, to the slump.
There’s this thing called work
As many of our readers are aware, Action81.com is not my day job. I do have a day job I love but it’s been particularly busy of late. With this being a particularly busy time of year for the firm I work for, my outside interests have taken a back seat as I logged more hours in work.
The on-field results for the Hole-in-Sox were shocking. Several players, as high as three at a time, were listed in my starting line-up despite being on the DL. The minor adjustments which boosted the Hole-in-Sox approaching mid-season weren’t made and with it the team’s form took a tumble. As I want to make a good fist of my first season I realised it was time for action. That’s when all the trouble began.
A matter of value
This evening I completed a trade that sent Josh Johnson, the best pitcher in the National League at the moment, to the team in fifth spot. In return I got Adam Dunn, a reliable hitter, and Alex Gonzalez, a less reliable player who is still an upgrade for my squad. Unfortunately this didn’t sit well with the league as on the face of it I don’t appear to be getting full value for Johnson but, with all these things, it’s all about perspective and motivations.
For example, back in February I was involved in a debating competition in Limerick. My partner, Greg, and I entered our last round in full knowledge of what we needed to do; win or go home (well it was actually get drunker faster as we weren’t going home until the next day but you get my point). In a four team room we were in situation where, based on what we saw before it was our turn, we had two simple choices. Take a cautious line and likely finish in one of the middle positions or take the big gamble. By going ballsy the odds of coming last increased dramatically but it was also our only way to have a shot at winning.
Given the context there was only one choice. And besides, would you expect men who dressed like this to play it cautious?
I didn’t think so. When Knuckle Balls II sent me their initial couple of offers for Johnson they all reminded me of the cautious options we had in Limerick. They would have no substantial impact on my position in the grand scheme of things. Then the team owner delivered an offer that could impact my position. I hit accept and all hell broke loose.
A string of emails followed as one of my fellow owners took issue with what I was getting for Josh Johnson. It was a fair grievance to have as the League Commissioner can veto trades where one owner dumps talent to help another boost his squad. The owner wanted my trade vetoed as he was concerned that the deal mightn’t be equitable between the two side. This meant I had to explain why I was making such an extraordinary move.
Secondly I looked at the situation with pitching. I have potential on the bench to make up for the loss of productivity from Johnson over the next couple of weeks. Now there’s a good chance that potential will blow up in my face but bear with me. I currently lie in seventh on what is a rotisserie scoring system. As it stands I am far more likely to make gains in batting categories. If I was content with staying seventh then I wouldn’t have traded. Instead I fancied making the moves to try and finish higher up the table. In those circumstances it’s worth having a punt hoping for an upturn in production. I made the call, the commissioner approved, and the trade was cleared.
That said in case you were wondering, we took a fourth (and last) in that debate. Big risks don’t always pay off. On the upside, I did get rather hammered that night.
[...] followers of this series may recall the stir I created when I sent Josh Johnson packing in a trade for Adam Dunn and Alex Gonzalez shortly before the [...]
[...] Trade. I sent Josh Johnson, an exceptional pitcher, to Knuckle Balls II in exchange for the decent bats [...]