The time is almost upon us. Tonight was another sign on the path to Opening Day, the annual Fantasy Baseball Draft. This year’s version was thankfully completed prior to the first pitch being thrown, which can’t be said for every season. This season has a much different fell than any other I can remember.
The last few pre-seasons have been filled with hope, the hope that we would finally topple the Braves and return to the post-season. At the very least we would be able to grab the wild card and see at least one meaningful October game. Prior to these recent years we knew we were down right terrible and didn’t give a second thought to those wild hopes. After all the failures I haven’t been all that excited.
Each of the other teams in the NL East has improved in some way. The Braves got Tim Hudson, my favorite pitcher up until the day he was traded. He was even the ace of my fantasy staff until tonight when I traded him. The Mets signed Beltran and Pedro, overpaying both but paying $100 million for something worth only $50 million still yields something worth $50 million. The Marlins got Carlos Delgado, and who knows if playing somewhere with a little more exposure than Toronto will have a positive or negative effect on him. Then there are the Expos/Nationals who don’t have any players but getting out of Montreal and not having to play in Puerto Rico has to be worth 15 wins.
That leaves our beloved Phils to sign Jon Lieber. Trade for Kenny Lofton. And? So essentially we have the same team as last year, just with a new coach. So it could go either way. My feelings have been that it will be a middle of the road year. The Braves will lead the way possibly chased by the Marlins or Mets with one of them staying behind to make a race for third somewhat interesting. I do however love stats, and predictions, especially those so mathematical that I can only assume that they make sense to someone. This is where Baseball Prospectus comes in. This site is for the Baseball nut even possibly above my level (not just meaning willing to spend $40/year, I’m not there yet). They have been leaking out some of their season preview during the week and strangely enough they have the Phillies winning the division. Now this gives me hope, their predictions are the best. Its possible that they are just doing this to get me to pay for the year subscription. So I’m not getting to excited. But there must be some reason that they came out on top. I guess I’m going to have to watch and find out.