One Week
How can I help it if I think you're funny when you're mad
Trying hard not to smile though I feel bad
I'm the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral
Can't understand what I mean?
Well, you soon will
I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve
I have a history of taking off my shirt
Yes, those are the lyrics to the Barenaked Ladies song "One Week". Why I pasted them there, I don't know. I think the bridge is funny. There is about one week left in the baseball season, so I figured I'd paste the "One Week" lyrics there, that's the way my mind works.
This has definitely been the craziest baseball season for me personally. I went from almost nothing to an established fantasy baseball writer, and my Oakland A's went from decent to quite terrible.
I began by starting my own fantasy baseball blog, something I strongly recommend no one do unless they have some niche to exploit like PITCHf/x or injuries or something of the like. Whether it was some luck and mostly skill or mostly skill and some luck that got to me to where I am is still unclear to me, but the results are more important than the process to me.
In fantasy baseball terms, it was my worst year ever. I finished second-to-last in one league, something like 8-out-of-12 in another, and was in dead last on July 26th in a final league. I've heard of people making miraculous comebacks, but I've never made one myself until now. As of Saturday September 19 I am in second. Fueled by a surging-at-the-right-time Jimmy Rollins and Kelly Johnson, and boosted by the great pickups of Andre Ethier, Ian Stewart, and Chris Davis, my hitting was able to blast its way up the standings. It is quite an accomplishment, although my current second place seed is highly volatile, many stat categories are extremely close. Even still, I'm confident my team will come through in the end. I just have one of those feelings.
By established writer, I'm referring to writing for this site and also now the Hardball Times. For readers here, that means I now have access to a PITCHf/x database, thanks a trillion to Josh Kalk, so I'll be looking to include that data into my future editions of Outside the Box.
If you do wish to start your own fantasy baseball blog or blog of any sort, make sure you can write well, design a web page to stand out (notice the difference between MLBFO and "Blogspot" blogs), and have plenty of free time. If you do know somebody in baseball you can interview or if you played in the minor leagues or something like that, then all the better. Speaking of interviews, I do know a few people in the majors, so look forward to that this offseason.
Paradoxically, so far this looks to be a great fantasy football season for me. I'm in the top 3 in my three leagues. Aaron Rodgers is my QB in two leagues and Jay Cutler is mine in another. If you want my quick take on the fantasy football situation, a lot of people thought the RB-RB strategy was dead, something I am a huge supporter of. Get this, in one of my leagues I went RB-RB-RB-RB-RB, yes that's a first five rounds of S-Jax, Marshawn Lynch, B-Jacobs, Reggie Bush, and J-Stew. This league starts two RB's and two flex's so, yes, I can't start all of them but my RB depth is huge. What everyone thought to be relatively weak QBs in Eli and Rogers has turned out to be one of the best and my WR's are holding their own. I am currently in second and looking very strong. I would not want to play my team.
That is a good question to ask yourself of any of your fantasy teams, "Would I want to play against my team?" If the answer is truthfully "no" then good for you.
Transitioning back to baseball, with this increased readership comes some responsibility. If I write a good article, I barely get any recognition for it, but for whoever's sake, if I make an error or "stupid" prediction in one sentence of one article, I get jumped on pretty quickly. It's a tough crowd you guys are.
In a recent Hardball Times article, I linked to Razzball's rankings and then the next day or a few days after, they mentioned The Hardball Times (I) linked to them. They thought it was awesome. I thought it was awesome that they thought it was awesome. No, they are not paying me for any of this if you were wondering.
I'll conclude this personal piece by saying maybe starting a blog isn't such a bad thing. We're living in an age where creativity is highly valued. Work on some designs, write some creative articles, and interact with new people. These are good skills to have in today's world and practicing them is the best way to improve them.
This what I'm thinking about. Enjoy your weekend.
Trying hard not to smile though I feel bad
I'm the kind of guy who laughs at a funeral
Can't understand what I mean?
Well, you soon will
I have a tendency to wear my mind on my sleeve
I have a history of taking off my shirt
Yes, those are the lyrics to the Barenaked Ladies song "One Week". Why I pasted them there, I don't know. I think the bridge is funny. There is about one week left in the baseball season, so I figured I'd paste the "One Week" lyrics there, that's the way my mind works.
This has definitely been the craziest baseball season for me personally. I went from almost nothing to an established fantasy baseball writer, and my Oakland A's went from decent to quite terrible.
I began by starting my own fantasy baseball blog, something I strongly recommend no one do unless they have some niche to exploit like PITCHf/x or injuries or something of the like. Whether it was some luck and mostly skill or mostly skill and some luck that got to me to where I am is still unclear to me, but the results are more important than the process to me.
In fantasy baseball terms, it was my worst year ever. I finished second-to-last in one league, something like 8-out-of-12 in another, and was in dead last on July 26th in a final league. I've heard of people making miraculous comebacks, but I've never made one myself until now. As of Saturday September 19 I am in second. Fueled by a surging-at-the-right-time Jimmy Rollins and Kelly Johnson, and boosted by the great pickups of Andre Ethier, Ian Stewart, and Chris Davis, my hitting was able to blast its way up the standings. It is quite an accomplishment, although my current second place seed is highly volatile, many stat categories are extremely close. Even still, I'm confident my team will come through in the end. I just have one of those feelings.
By established writer, I'm referring to writing for this site and also now the Hardball Times. For readers here, that means I now have access to a PITCHf/x database, thanks a trillion to Josh Kalk, so I'll be looking to include that data into my future editions of Outside the Box.
If you do wish to start your own fantasy baseball blog or blog of any sort, make sure you can write well, design a web page to stand out (notice the difference between MLBFO and "Blogspot" blogs), and have plenty of free time. If you do know somebody in baseball you can interview or if you played in the minor leagues or something like that, then all the better. Speaking of interviews, I do know a few people in the majors, so look forward to that this offseason.
Paradoxically, so far this looks to be a great fantasy football season for me. I'm in the top 3 in my three leagues. Aaron Rodgers is my QB in two leagues and Jay Cutler is mine in another. If you want my quick take on the fantasy football situation, a lot of people thought the RB-RB strategy was dead, something I am a huge supporter of. Get this, in one of my leagues I went RB-RB-RB-RB-RB, yes that's a first five rounds of S-Jax, Marshawn Lynch, B-Jacobs, Reggie Bush, and J-Stew. This league starts two RB's and two flex's so, yes, I can't start all of them but my RB depth is huge. What everyone thought to be relatively weak QBs in Eli and Rogers has turned out to be one of the best and my WR's are holding their own. I am currently in second and looking very strong. I would not want to play my team.
That is a good question to ask yourself of any of your fantasy teams, "Would I want to play against my team?" If the answer is truthfully "no" then good for you.
Transitioning back to baseball, with this increased readership comes some responsibility. If I write a good article, I barely get any recognition for it, but for whoever's sake, if I make an error or "stupid" prediction in one sentence of one article, I get jumped on pretty quickly. It's a tough crowd you guys are.
In a recent Hardball Times article, I linked to Razzball's rankings and then the next day or a few days after, they mentioned The Hardball Times (I) linked to them. They thought it was awesome. I thought it was awesome that they thought it was awesome. No, they are not paying me for any of this if you were wondering.
I'll conclude this personal piece by saying maybe starting a blog isn't such a bad thing. We're living in an age where creativity is highly valued. Work on some designs, write some creative articles, and interact with new people. These are good skills to have in today's world and practicing them is the best way to improve them.
This what I'm thinking about. Enjoy your weekend.
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