Manlio Rules

with all the fantasy drafting going on for football season, i thought i’d give a list of my 10 greatest and worst moments of football drafting. 5 good, 5 bad…

The 5 worst moments of my fantasy drafting career

5. Baseball 2003 season. Drafting from a ski trip in colorado, i somehow forget my cardinal rule of not taking 1B early, and draft Jim Thome in the first round. his first year in the national league is a tough one, and I wind up in 6th place out of 12 and out of the money for the only time in the 4 years of the Gamblers Anonomyous leage

4. Baseball 2004 season. Stormy and I draft a team together, my first experience doing so. in the middle rounds we’re looking at miguel cabrera, high on my list, and Ryan Klesko. Stormy swears that cabrera will be around next pass, so we draft klesko. Cabrera goes 3 picks later, and klesko hits 3HR’s that year. i fully believe that this was the difference between our 3rd place finish and a potential 1st place trophy.

3. Football 2002 season. my first season of fantasy football in a really deep 16 team league. this entire draft was a disaster, i think i finished in 12th place. i don’t even remember who was on my team, i think it was stephen davis back in his redskin days and travis henry in his rookie season.

2. Football 2005 season. in my first draft of 3 leagues, i am unable to make it online, so i use the robot. the robot proceeds to draft 4 defenses, 3 QB’s, and 2 TE’s, without taking a kicker, or any backup RB/WR’s.

1. Baseball 2003 season. deciding that pitching is the key, i take Bartolo Colon, Wade Miller, and Mark Buerhle among my first 7 picks. All of the are .500 or below at the break, i trade buerhle before his amazing 2nd half, and my team never recovers.

The 5 best moments of my fantasy drafting career:

5. Baseball 2005 season. Everyone had given up on Pat Burrell. not me. i grab him in both leagues with a mid (12 or so) round selection and ride his productivity to early season excellence.

4. Baseball 2002 season. i grab a former LA 5th starter named Eric Gagne as a backup 3rd closer, and ride his breakout season to a sole 1st place finish.

3. Football 2004 season. my first 5 picks are: LT, TO, Vick, Andre Johnson, and Thomas Jones. this is an amazing setup for exactly 4 weeks, until Vick falls apart and Grossman goes down, ruining TJ’s effectiveness. still a brilliant 5 rounds of drafting.

2. Football 2003 season. I am unable to make the draft and at the last minute have to use the robot, setting my list frantically with help from classmates. the robot ends up taking Tom Brady, Torry Holt in his breakout year, Stephen Davis in his carolina resurgance, and a few other brilliant picks. Lyandra remarks that i’m “drafting well”, not knowing that it’s a machine.

1. Baseball 2001 season. In the last few rounds of the draft i take Mark Buerhle, at that time a middle reliever rookie for the white sox who even stormy (a rabid chi sox fan) isn’t aware of. i win the award for “only player never heard of” drafted that year, and buerhle joins the rotation later that year and wins 10 games. later picks in that draft also include Eric Milton in his 15 win season for the twins, Jon Lieber during his 20 win season for the cubs, and Jamie Moyer for his first resurgence year.