Meet The Generals

Since coming back to my own blog, I feel liberated on opening day to make a complete mockery of "real baseball" and finally reveal to our 1 season ticket holder what the Bob and Dan fantasy baseball entry looks like.

For those who don't know, we are in the most intense 16-dynasty fantasy baseball league in the world (with several members of the league also employed by Major League Baseball in some capacity (not players - people that actually are paid to know the game).

This means that it is pretty tough to take a bad team and make it better over the course of a few years, because you do not get the benefit of a redraft every spring. You get the rights to the players who you had when you bought the team (we did in July 2005) and you maneuver your 40-man roster either up and down depending on how smart/dumb you are.

Bob and Dan have proven to be out of our league. We took a 9th place team and have moved it to 14th in just 4 seasons.

But, this offseason, hope was in the air. We had plenty of flexibility and roster spots so we thought we had a big winter.

We acquired Lance Berkman, Andy Pettitte, Marlon Byrd, Placido Polanco, Melky Cabrera, Hiroki Kuroda, Leo Nunez, and Trevor Cahill to boost our team so that we can at least win division D (teams 13-16 from the previous year).

Then, spring sprung - and we lost arguably our 3 best players to some form of injury: Ted Lilly, Joe Nathan, and Lance Berkman. So, we spin our wheels and end up right back at where we started.

Our farm system is as strong as ever, but our major league team is going to need a bit of luck since we are down a closer. At some point this summer, if we are a closer away from contention, we will try to go get one, but for now, here is our opening day lineup.

Pray for us.

C Jason Kendall 1 2
C Rod Barajas 2 2

1 Mike Jacobs 1 2
2 Aki Iwamura 3 1
3 Garrett Atkins 1 3
SS Alexei Ramirez 1 1
MI Erick Aybar 3 1
CI Placido Polanco 2 2

DH Vlad Guerrero 3 4

O Kosuke Fukkodome1 1
O Carlos Lee 4 5
O Nelson Cruz 1 1
CF Melkey Cabrera 2 2
CF Marlon Byrd 2 2

Yes, Jason Kendall starts for us.

Ignore the first number (too confusing to explain here) and see the second number is their salary against a $61 salary ceiling (not a cap, but a luxury tax kicks in above that, so if you suck, stay at $61 or below).

With Berkman on the DL, Mike Jacobs starts, too. There is a reason we are in 14th place.

Here is our 1-closer-short-pitching staff:

S Andy Pettitte 2 2
S Vicente Padilla V 1
S Ricky Nolasco 2 3
S Hiroki Kuroda 1 1
S Jamie Garcia 3 1

R Luke Gregerson 2 1
R Kevin Jepsen 2 1
R Todd Coffey V 1
R Nick Massett 2 1
R Evan Meek 2 1

Clo Leo Nunez 2 1

As you can see, our league limits starts (162 per team) and utilizes holds and other middle relief metrics. We would have looked pretty strong here if Joe Nathan and Ted Lilly weren't broken.

Which brings us to our bench-

Disabled List (4)
1B Lance Berkman 6 7
SP Ted Lilly 1 3
RP Joe Nathan 7 9
SP Trevor Cahill 2 1

Bench (3)
CF Rick Ankiel 5 6
DH Travis Hafner 2 2
RP Kris Medlen 3 1

Farm System (8)
1B Logan Morrison
1B Eric Hosmer
3B Matt Dominguez
C Hank Conger
CF Aaron Hicks
C Jonathan LuCroy
3B Matt Gamel
3B Mike Moustakas

Yes, somehow Rick Ankiel is a $6 player. Don't ask.

Anyway, this is likely a post for about 4 curious souls, but there you have it - our best effort to move up to 13th and win Division D and earn some cold cash (I mean points).

Go Generals