Rising From The Ashes To Write Again

Knock, knock. Who's there? COSFBA. COSFBA who? Exactly.

If COSFBA fell in the woods would it make a sound.

The above attempts at humor adequately sum up my personal reasonings behind walking away from this blog I held so near and dear to my heart. I was simply tired of working so hard to have my work seen by "the masses" and yet knowing the reality of the situation was only a small core of very loyal friends and followers were truly the ones coming back on a regular basis.

Constantly being told how great my content was by respected peers but not seeing the readership grow was a hard pill to swallow. And I'm not going to lie about something else that made it hard to keep doing what I was doing as COSFBA...I knew I was better than so many others with dramatically larger followings simply because they had words like "fantasy", "baseball" or "expert" in there site's name or an army of writers simply chugging out "content" for content's sake.

I'll take ownership of two "fails" with my blog. The first being the shortsightedness when it came to naming this blog. I never thought it would become anything bigger than a personal journal of my own rants and raves about the game I grew up loving (baseball) and the obsession I have for playing fantasy baseball.

The second "fail" is directly related to why I shut down COSFBA. In my desperate attempt to grow readership, I reached out to as many writers as possible who were willing to bring their voice to COSFBA in a last-ditch effort to save what I felt was a failing venture. Some of the invitations I handed out turned out to truly be positive but the majority weren't. And that was a learning experience I am soon not to forget. I know this comes off as bitter, maybe even childish, but I hold myself to a high standard especially when my name is attached to the overall identity of this site.

Okay. Enough about the past. This article was supposed to be about the future of COSFBA and me as a player in the fantasy baseball writing realm. Those of you who have taken the time to get to know me personally may recall that 2012 will be the year baby number four comes into the world in the Aubain household. As I started to toss around ideas in my head for the next generation of a baseball/fantasy baseball site, I kept coming back to the fact that I have no idea what kind of time I'm going to have to dedicate to all the great and truly aggressive ideas I was putting down on paper.

So, after some serious soul-searching, I've come to the realization that 2012 is probably not the best year for me to jump into the new venture of trying to build something again from scratch that I'd be proud of. With "time" being an unknown, I know I'd wind up being one of those bloggers who constantly post updates and apologies about lack of content because life simply got in the way of a hobby. That's unacceptable to me.

Now comes the fun part. I'm looking for an opportunity, the right opportunity, to join an established baseball and/or fantasy baseball site with a loyal following of readers who would be interested in what I have to say. What would I bring to the table? This entire site is my résumé. Even the articles not authored by me were ideas I had in my head but no time to write them all down myself.

Is your site or one you know of going through a major redesign this offseason and would benefit from additional content from an established writer? Are you a baseball-centric site looking to branch out and attract a fantasy baseball crowd? Is there a specific thing I did well on COSFBA that you'd love for me to bring with me to a new venture?

If you answered yes to any of these questions or have ideas of your own on how I could fit in on your site or others you know are looking for additional contributors, please contact me via email at COSFBA@gmail.com. I'm willing to consider any opportunity offered to me which makes sense to both parties.

Thanks again for making 2011 an incredible season and hopefully the information and advice I gave out on COSFBA kept you entertained while helping you succeed in your fantasy baseball leagues. I'm truly excited to see what 2012 has in store for me.


Sincerely,
Daniel J. Aubain @COSFBA
Owner, Founder, Editor, Lead Writer and Mastermind behind all things COSFBA

COSFBA Closes Up Shop

There comes a time when the effort you put into something isn't equal to the satisfaction you receive back from doing so. That time has come for me with COSFBA.

COSFBA was never meant to become anything other than a place for me to talk about fantasy baseball, mostly to myself. If you're not familiar with the history of this site, I dedicated an entire page to it called, "What is COSFBA?".

I never really put much thought into the name of this site but I honestly wish I had because getting people to notice my work was even harder with a name most never took time to remember.

I wanted to take a moment to thank all of the guest writers and contributors who shared their work on COSFBA. I'll honestly admit most were very successful but some were not. Live and learn, I guess. I promise you I won't make those same mistakes next time. That's right...next time.

I'm shutting down COSFBA to focus on creating "COSFBA 2.0" (if only the name was that easy). I know I can be successful in the fantasy baseball blogging game but I can't keep battling against a bad blog name. Oh, and the overall focus of version two will be baseball...everything and anything...with my personal focus on the fantasy side of the game I've spent the majority of my adult life obsessing over.

So this should not be considered a "goodbye" by any means. Consider it a "see you soon". And don't worry. It will be easy to recognize me. I'll be the one dominating plenty of fantasy baseball leagues in 2012 and beyond.

Peace out!
Daniel aka the Colorado Springs Fantasy Baseball Addict

COSFBA Goes Home

I pride myself on being a daily blogger. It's more about the commitment to myself than others. But sometimes life gets in the way of a hobby or passion. I'll be spending a few days back in the New Jersey/New York area with family and friends celebrating my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. Quite the milestone and a worthy excuse to skip a few days of fantasy baseball coverage.

See you all next week.

~Daniel

Happy Birthday To Me! Trade Deadline Edition

Every year, Major League Baseball delivers me the best birthday presents ever...blockbuster trades. You see, I have the extreme pleasure of being a baseball/fantasy baseball/Yankees fan whose birthday falls on July 30th...the eve of the Trade Deadline. And it looks like my presents are starting to roll in early this year.

The Francisco Rodriguez-to-Milwaukee trade on July 13th came a couple of weeks early, you know, like the card from your aunt or grandmother that includes a $5 bill, even though you're turning 40 and five dollars can barely buy you a foofoo, non-fat, mocha-choca latte you've come to love over the past few years of your life. Ok, I think I've said too much about that.

This trade did give fantasy baseball GMs plenty to talk about, too. What would K-Rod's role be with the Brewers and how would that effect John Axford's role as their current closer. Who would close for the Mets? Would it be the young fire-baller, Bobby Parnell or the gritty veteran, Jason Isringhausen? I'd say this kind of trade was just the sort of thing to get me excited for the weeks ahead.

Fast forward to July 27th and you've got the kind of present I'm talking about for a 40th birthday. It's like the wife just handed me the "emergency" credit card and told me to go to
Best Buy to by myself something pretty. And by pretty, I assume she meant something with the letters HDTV in it.

Chicago White Sox trade Edwin Jackson and Mark Teahen to the Toronto Blue Jays for Jason Frasor and Zach Stewart. Then the St. Louis Cardinals trade Colby Rasmus, Trever Miller, Brian Tallet and P.J. Walters to the Toronto Blue Jays for the aforementioned Edwin Jackson, Octavio Dotel, Marc Rzepczynski and Corey Patterson. I haven't seen that kind of hot, three-way action since the last time I unexpectedly got a free preview weekend of Cinemax! My computer Twitter'ed all over itself. The fantasy baseball repercussions of trades of this magnitude are still being felt across the airwaves of talk radio and in 140-characters-or-less blurbs.

And the day wasn't even done delivering me presents, yet. News of the Carlos Beltran-to-SF Giants-for-prospect(s) trade had everyone on Twitter speculating for hours until it was announced the uber-prospect was Zack Wheeler. Quick! Get me some Gatorade, caffeine and oysters. This could be a long and exciting day.

Late news broke of a Wil Nieves-to Atlanta trade as a result of the Braves having to put All-Star catcher Brian McCann on the DL. Come on. Really? This kind of trade is the equivalent of receiving a birthday card from your boss. You both know he didn't want to but his secretary made him do it anyway. Thanks for nothing, boss man. At least include a gift card next year.

Thursday, July 28th, got us back into the spirit of gift giving for my birthday with a Kosuke Fukudome-to-Cleveland trade. There could be some positive benefits to this deal for Fukudome (.282 BA vs RHP) in deeper, mixed leagues and AL-only ones. I won't be sending a thank you card for this trade, though. I deserve better.

So here we sit, heading into what's expected to be a weekend filled with buyers buying, sellers selling and some teams leaving their fans wondering what the future holds for their home teams. As a life-long New York Yankees fan, I know there's a present or two headed my way. The only question is, "What's in the box?"

Partnership With DraftStreet Announced

COSFBA is always looking for ways to provide our readers with unique and engaging content and now we've partnered with DraftStreet to introduce you to the latest and greatest in fantasy sports gaming.

Whether the grind of a season long fantasy league has you worn down, you're team is already knocked out of the race, your best player just got injured, or your cruising along and just don't feel like waiting until October for your degenerate friends to pay you out - log on to DraftStreet and experience the future of fantasy sports.

DraftStreet offers daily and weekly leagues, all day - every day, where you can compete in competitions for cash and get paid out that very same night.  Read more about them here: DraftStreet Partnership.

This Friday (6/24), COSFBA will be hosting a free-to-enter $150 giveaway tournament with the top 4 places taking home cash.  We'll have more details on this shortly.  In the meantime, click here to sign up for DraftStreet today and play in their free games to practice so you have the best chance at beating me and our fellow COSFBA enthusiasts to take home some money come Friday's competition.

COSFBA Readers/Followers Leagues Are Now Open For Business

The beginning of February is always an exciting time for fantasy baseball players - free agency is winding down, rosters are taking shape, players are reporting to camps, keeper selections are due and new fantasy leagues are forming.

Over the last few years, I've dedicated myself to creating FREE, competitive leagues (on ESPN) filled with mature adults looking for a unique, fun experience and have been very successful in doing so. I like Head-to-Head leagues with lots of teams, large rosters and more than the standard 5x5 scoring categories so those are the kinds of leagues I've created.

I've already filled one 14-team league for 2011 and am filling up a second one with more readers of my blog and Twitter followers. I plan on occasionally writing about these leagues too and will be asking league members to get involved too. I've met some really great people over the years through my leagues and look forward to meeting many more (especially in the Colorado Springs/Denver area).

If this sounds like the kind of league you've been looking for and would like more information, please send me a message by visiting the "Contact Me" page on my blog at http://goo.gl/y81z1.

Looking forward to hearing from and competing against some new people now and for years to come.

Thanks,
Daniel

Finding Keepers: Milwaukee Brewers

The Milwaukee Brewers had a very productive offseason, acquiring two very exciting young arms but it remains to be seen if they gave up too much in doing so.

OF Ryan Braun is at the core of this team's offense and finished the season as the 13th-ranked fantasy player with a .304/101/25/103/14 line. It's hard to find fault with those numbers even though each was below his career average (per 162 games played) of .307/111/36/118/18. The Brewers are a team that injected a lot of optimism and energy into their 2011 season and I'd expect a player like Braun to benefit from that and produce another MVP-caliber season.

Okay, enough beating around the bush. Acquiring SP Zack Greinke from the Kansas City Royals sent a message to the rest of the NL Central (and all of baseball) that the Brewers were ready to make a run at winning now even though it meant sacrificing a few young players. Greinke is one season removed from winning a Cy Young award while on a very bad team. I look for him to regain his dominance and you should too by making him a keeper selection in all fantasy baseball league formats.

OF Corey Hart seemed to figure it all out after a horrific 2009 and wondering if he'd even be a starter in 2010. Merely a late round afterthought in most drafts (ADP 232.7), he rebounded to produce a .283/91/31/102/7 line, which was good enough to finish the season as the 17th-ranked outfielder. Hart is a two-time 20/20 player but has seen his stolen bases slip to just seven last season. It would be great to see him produce a 30/15 season in 2011 but regardless of the stolen bases deserves to be a keeper.

It's hard not to call a player that was drafted with an ADP of 8 and finished the season ranked 100th overall a disappointment, but I'm sure that's exactly what most 1B Prince Fielder owners would say about his 2010 performance. Fantasy managers were definitely expecting big things from Prince after his .299/103/46/141/2 line in 2009 but would be foolish to think he's not going to put up monster numbers again, especially while seeking a mega-millions type contract. If he were made available in a keeper league, I'd be questioning if the league was even worth playing in.

Finding Keepers: Minnesota Twins

Question: Who was the top-rated fantasy player on the 2010 Minnesota Twins? Mauer? Morneau? Liriano? Capps? Cuddyer? Span? Pavano? Thome? Answer: None of the above.

OF Delmon Young was the Twins highest-ranked player on ESPN's Plater Rater, coming in at 56th overall, with a .298/77/21/112/5 line and even garnered some MVP love with a 10th place finish in the balloting and receiving as high as a fourth place vote. At just 24 years old, Young's potential is enticing enough to keep him on your team's roster for the 2011 season and hope for even better numbers to come.

C Joe Mauer continues to be the most productive catcher in baseball even though his home run total dropped significantly in 2010. Mauer has only reached double-digits in two season: 13 in 2006 and 28 in 2009. His career average for home runs per 162 games played is 16, which is fantastic for a catcher with a career batting average of .327. Lock him up as a keeper and enjoy being the envy of the owners that are struggling to draft between Chris Iannetta and Mike Napoli.

Is this the season that SP Francisco Liriano breaks out to become the fantasy baseball stud we all envisioned after his incredible 2006 season? Here are some encouraging stats that make me think so. In 2010, Liriano made a career high 31 starts covering 191.2 innings pitched and produced 14 wins. He stuck out 201, allowed 184 hits and only surrendered 9 homers. His 3.62 ERA and 1.26 WHIP were both below his career averages for those stats. He's 2+ seasons removed from Tommy John surgery, still just 27 years old and plays for a team that wins ballgames. I see no reason why Liriano can't 16 or more games in 2011 and validate using a keeper selection on him.

COSFBA Goes Yard

This offseason, I'm dedicating myself to taking COSFBA to the next level as a legitimate source for fantasy baseball news, advice and opinions. Here's some of the things I've accomplished so far:

1. Purchased a domain.
2. Cracked the 200 followers mark on Twitter with @COSFBA.
3. Made it easier to connect with COSFBA on Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo! and via Feedburner.
4. Added the feature to become a friend of this blog and follow it publicly.
5. Continuing my series of articles, Finding Keepers, geared towards identifying keepers on each major league roster.
6. Joining a sports bloggers network geared at exposing what I do to a larger audience of readers and maybe making a few bucks in the process.

The sports bloggers network I chose to join was Yardbarker, and happily they accepted me. Yardbarker has a great lineup of fantasy baseball bloggers, many that are also fellow members of the Baseball Bloggers Alliance, so take a moment to check them out.

One of the last things I'm hoping to accomplish soon is a brand new logo and possibly some more tweaks to the lay out of the blog that will incorporate Yardbarker a bit more seamlessly. So keep an eye out for those changes and be sure to spread the word of COSFBA through the share options below.

Sincerely,

Daniel

COSFBA's 2010 Word Cloud: 11/01/2010

 I used a website called Wordle to create a "word cloud" based off my website's feed, summarizing my coverage of the 2010 season into a picture.

Click the image to enlarge. Enjoy!

500 Unique Visitors!!!

I know something like "500 Visitors" might not seem like much of a milestone to celebrate, but for this guy it is. Very much so!

I tried in March of 2008 to start up a blog dedicated to my love and passion for fantasy baseball and it failed miserably. There was no Twitter or Facebook at that time (all I had was a Yahoo! Group) and no one was reading what I wrote but me.

Soooooo, I wanted to take a moment to thank all of you that have visited my blog and have even liked it enough to return again and again. Each visit is a tiny bit of validation that what I do and the perspective in which I do it is appreciated on some level. I'm just a regular guy doing what I love and feel passionate about doing.

Feel free to leave a comment or email me with some feedback on how to make this site more interesting and worth visiting over and over.

Thanks again and stick around for the drive to 1000!

Sincerely,
Daniel aka daCommish

200 Visitors!

I just wanted to take a moment to celebrate a personal milestone for COSFBA. 200 VISITORS is a big deal to me. It's nice to know that I am no longer writing about fantasy baseball for myself and that hopefully others are appreciating what I do.

I'd really appreciate some feedback to those of you that are popping through my little, tiny corner of cyberspace.

Sincerely,
Daniel aka daCommish

COSFBA on Facebook

If you live in Colorado along the I-25 corridor and enjoy playing fantasy baseball, be sure to check out COSFBA on Facebook, too!