To quote Lincecum, "WOO HOO!"

Drafted roster:
1. Alex Rodriguez
2. Brandon Webb
3. Mark Teixeira
4. Dan Haren
5. Troy Tulowitzki
6. Nick Swisher
7. Huston Street
8. Asdrubal Cabrera
9. Kosuke Fukudome
10. Pat Burrell
11. Matt Cain
12. Geovany Soto
13. Jeremy Accardo
14. Kelly Johnson
15. Jacoby Ellsbury
16. Tony Pena
17. Joe Blanton
18. Kevin Youkilis
19. Mark Teahen
20. Eugenio Velez
21. Matt Garza
22. Joey Votto
23. Jonathan Broxton
24. Kurt Suzuki
25. Jay Bruce

Final roster:
C Geovany Soto
1B Kevin Youkilis
2B Kelly Johnson
3B Alex Rodriguez
SS Jhonny Peralta
LF Shin-Soo Choo
CF Ichiro Suzuki
RF Jermaine Dye
OF Pat Burrell
Util Jacoby Ellsbury
Util Joey Votto
BN Brian Giles
BN Akinori Iwamura

SP Brandon Webb
SP Matt Garza
SP John Danks
RP Joakim Soira
RP Brandon Morrow
P Jorge Campillo
P Armando Galarraga
BN Paul Maholm
BN Jair Jurrjens
BN Yovani Gallardo
BN Tim Wakefield
BN Cha Seung Baek

Trades:
Matt Cain for Jermaine Dye
Mark Teixeira and Dan Haren for Joakim Soria, John Danks, and Ichiro Suzuki
Joe Blanton for Todd Jones

Final result: 4th place

I got to pick first in the draft this year, so of course I chose A-rod. For hitters, I tend to gravitate toward high OBP, high SLG players. For pitchers, I go for young, strikeout guys. A lot of players like Pena and Bruce (this was months before he'd get called up) were dropped in the first week. Obviously, I was expecting great things from Eugenio. Yeah, that didn't work out. The biggest steal was getting Youkilis so late in the draft. Matt Garza and Joey Votto were also key picks that contributed all year. I picked a string of disappointing players in Tulo, Swisher, Street, and Asdrubal Cabrera. I'm pretty stubborn, so I hung onto the first three for a while. I didn't drop Swisher until August. I dropped street shortly after he lost the closer's job. I bailed on Fukudome pretty early after he started sucking. A week after I dropped Broxton, he became the closer. Figures.

I picked up Peralta, Campillo, and Galarraga pretty early in the season. Another owner dropped Peralta a few weeks into the season, and I quickly snatched him up. I also picked up Jonathan Sanchez mid-March and greatly benefited from his awesome June. Unfortunately, I hung onto him too long which killed me on more than one occasion. Greg Smith and Andrew Miller were big contributers in the middle of the season. My bench on offense was pretty much a rotating door, but one guy I kept picking up was Aki Imawura. He was pretty consistent with the hits and walks and was a good substitute for Kelly Johnson during his slumps.

The Cain/Dye trade definitely gave me a big boost on offense. I definitely got the better end of that trade (unfortunately for Cain). My homer and RBI totals took a hit after trading away Tex, but Ichiro solidified my shaky CF spot. Danks was just as effective as Haren was, and Soria eventually became my only closer. I made the mistake of chasing saves for most of the season.

My team started out slow but began to dominate after a month. I was in first place by July. I started slipping after the trade deadline and eventually dropped to sixth place. A lot of my hitters had big slumps (I'm looking at you, Pat Burrell), and I had to rely on my pitching to carry the team. I eventually resorted to rotating different starting pitchers in the last month, although I hung onto my main guys. My pitching pretty much imploded during the playoffs, so I barely missed going deeper each week. 4th place isn't so bad though. I started playing in this league about three years ago and have done better with each successive year. I'm looking forward to next season. First place next year!! Maybe.

We live in interesting times. When I was a kid, baseball players were mythical beings with whom my only contact was TV and baseball cards. It never occured to me that these guys had lives of their own. As far as I was concerned, Will Clark and Matt Williams sole purpose for existing was to play baseball. Thanks to modern media (and growing up) that's all changed. Now I'm "friends" on Facebook with future Giants stars (hopefully) Charlie Culberson and Wendell Fairley. And then I think about how I'm older than these guys, which boggles my mind. kuh-razy. I love Charlie Culberson's "About Me" section. It's like a third grader wrote it: My name is Charlie Culberson. I am 18 years old. I play baseball, like to hang out with friends and have fun. Good stuff.

Fukudome doesn't find racist T-shirts in Wrigleyville funny
http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/cubs/901817,CST-SPT-gordo18.article

shichinin no kyojin by ~n8dawg on deviantART

Click the picture to choose a design:

Also, Giants still suck. >:(

EDIT: 756!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And Giants still suck. >:(

I'm having way too much fun with this Pictaps thing. I started drawing MLB players for the heck of it. I began with Matt Cain and just snowballed from there. I apologize in advance for any nightmares I may incur.

Matt Cain:

http://roxik.com/pictaps/?pid=a772024

Barry Bonds: http://roxik.com/pictaps/?pid=a772424

Tim Lincecum: http://roxik.com/pictaps/?pid=a772388

David Wells: http://roxik.com/pictaps/?pid=a772352

Brett Tomko: http://roxik.com/pictaps/?pid=a772539

Dmitri Young: http://roxik.com/pictaps/?pid=a772303

Omar Vizquel: http://roxik.com/pictaps/?pid=a777045

EDIT: latest one, Brian Sabean: http://roxik.com/pictaps/?pid=a780640

Also:

I love the stats.

...can be seen here.

I'm going again tomorrow to get more cool stuff. Unfortunately, summer session for school starts tomorrow too. Blah.

I'm not a fan of the nickname the media has appointed for Matsuzaka Daisuke: Dice-K. First of all, it isn't really how you pronounce "Daisuke". Secondly, it gives broadcasters and sportswriters free reign to create all sorts of bad "dice" puns. Although I suppose it's better than hearing announcers attempt to pronounce his name without having an idea about how to say it.

It's fantasy baseball time again! Here's how one of my drafts turned out. I'm pretty satisfied with the results. I usually avoid big names and go for sleeper-type picks or lesser known guys, all the young players and relative newbies. I couldn't pass up the opportunity to pick up Vlad Guerrero and Chris Carpenter though. I also chose Matt Cain early because he's Matt F'n Cain. Hopefully I'll fare better this year after another year of experience. I'm ready to rock!

Spring Training games tomorrow!!!11!!11!

I'm not a true A's fan, but I like the A's. That being said, should I grow a playoff beard (or more accurately, playoff peach fuzz)? What do you all think?

Poll #837351 Playoff beard?
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 5

Should I grow a playoff beard?

After two years of watching the playoffs from home, the A's finally make their return to October play. It has been a while since the Bay Area has seen playoff baseball, ever since both the A's and Giants hopes were dashed on "Black Saturday" (of which I wll never speak again). Congrats to the boys in green and gold. Now that Harden is back, I think their chances of advancing deep in the playoffs went up considerably. Plus their offense seems to have picked up the past month, so it should be a competitive series against whomever they'll be playing. I look forward to it. However...

Watching the A's celebrate after clinching 1st place in the AL West, I couldn't help but to feel slightly jealous. I am first and foremost a Giants fan and couldn't fathom fervently cheering for anyone else. I like the A's and will definitely root for them in the playoffs, but I'm just not an A's fan. I've tried becoming one, but it's just not the same as watching the Giants. There's no emotional attachment whatsoever. I'm not going to be a bandwagon jumper and suddenly bleed green and gold. I'm keeping my alliances straight and just hoping to see some good baseball that'll do the Bay Area proud.

I have finally given up on the Giants' season. I held off for a long time when everyone else wrote them off and said they were done. I stayed with them, hoping they would eventually reward my loyalty by actually playing well. And they did for a while. But now having lost four in a row and two embarassing games to the Rockies, I've had enough. That's it. The 2006 Giants did much better than the 2005 version, and that's great. But it's not enough. I wish the season were over now because that has the potential to be very interesting. Let's go.

The Dodgers have a better record than the Cardinals. That is incredibly odd. And evil. So evil.

More than any other sport, superstition is fairly prominent in baseball. I'm not a superstitious person, but everything's different with baseball. Of course, correlation doesn't equal causation, but it doesn't hurt to stick with it. During the Giants' win streak this past week, I wore the same pair of pants and shoes every day and listened to nothing but rap. I also didn't shave. Those aren't the only superstitions I had, but I'm not going to go into further detail because you might think I have OCD.

Anyway Giants lost today, but that was mainly due to a bad performance of Brad Hennessey. Even when they were down 10 - 0, the Giants went down swinging and gave the Dodgers a brief scare. It's noice to see that the Giants have some fire in them, which they clearly lacked during their losing streak last week. We'll get 'em tomorrow.