I'm interested in people's personal philosophies and how that bleeds into the realm of fantasy baseball. An example would be a Red Sox fan never drafting any Yankees players for any reason, ever! Or if you ban any player that's been involved in the whole steroids mess? Avoid Ranger pitchers because of the ballpark factor?
)? NO! But if Myers is in the midst of a nice run of games pitched and he is available on waivers, I will be the guy picking him up and streaming him.Another example is that I tend to systematically avoid Pittsburgh Pirates' starting pitchers. How can I draft pitchers that are in the midst of a 17-season losing streak? They always seem to have pitchers with lots of potential (Duke, Maholm, Ohlendorf) but falter. Until the stats prove otherwise, I'll avoid the whole lot.
So, that's just the sort of commenting I'm hoping to gain from this debate. Chime in and be heard in this initial installment of COSFBA's "Fantasy Debate". I handed out a bunch of personal invites on Twitter and hoping many of those "experts" will give an opinion on this matter.
UPDATE: Be sure to expand the comments to see some more opinions on this topic.
I could care less about who is on my team, so long as my fantasy teams win. I think that "homers" (people who fall in love with players from their favorite teams) are actually ripe for the pickings when it comes to making trades. Nothing beats making a Yankee fan overpay for a Yankee! As for personal feelings...who says that I have to love a guy to have him on my team? Are you telling me that people out there would have passed on guys like Barry Bonds just because he was a jerk? I thought Bonds was an ass, but I did enjoy his 50-70 HR on my team for years!
ReplyDeleteFrom a fantasy perspective only, I don't care about personal issues/deficiencies with players. I will take them on my team if they can help. If the player were to do something really egregious, they would be suspended and wouldn't be available anyway.
ReplyDeleteNow, I am a Red Sox fan. Pedroia and Ellsbury are currently on my team. If they are available, and it makes sense, I would certainly take them over another player of the same caliber. It makes it more fun for me. But, I don't let my Boston fandom blind me. ARod and Jeter were members of my championship team last year and I had no problem with that.
So, I think if you like a team or player from a fan standpoint and you can get them for your team without sacrificing your chances I say go for it. This game is all about having fun anyway.
As a Met fan, no matter how the draft has fallen, I have never owned Chipper Jones. I just can't root for the guy because he has been a Met killer and I hated rooting on the Braves. That being said, it's more about him. I have plenty of other Braves and Phillies on my teams and I actually reached on a few. I think this makes it more fun as you may have that choice to draft a player you can't stand or don't like team he plays for the, but jostle your strategy to get a different player to move around the ones you really can't stand. That is where my fan feelings sometimes get in the way of being a fantasy owner. I think it is still fun and can still build fantasy champions. Now I won't reach for Met players though.
ReplyDeleteNow if I can mix a snippit of Football here, as a Bronco fan, I have never and will never own a Raider!