Fantasy Baseball is Frustrating!

It is inevitable during every season I get absolutely fed up with fantasy baseball and if I didn’t love my MacBook Pro, I would take my computer and toss it across the room in absolute frustration. Let me try to explain to you my frustration, I know for a fact many owners out there in the fantasy world are going through the same situation as myself.

Currently, the league that is frustrating me the most is a league which is made up of friends and friends of friends. The level of talent and knowledge of fantasy baseball ranges from low to high so there in lies the problem I mentioned above. The low level talented fantasy players don’t understand the world of fantasy baseball and how to win. What frustrates me the most is with the area of trading players. When I begin trading negotiations by writing on the message board that I have some players to trade I usually get nothing as a bite in return, unless it’s a trade offer that is so clearly in their favour that I would be absolutely asking for a last place finish. It is pretty clear that these guys want to make a trade where they benefit and I suffer. Looking at the situation I think most of the guys in the league are more afraid of making a bad trade that comes back to haunt them but no one has the ability to predict the future and if they did have this ability they surely wouldn’t be wasting their time with a fantasy baseball league which has no prize except bragging rights for the next year.

Going back to the actual trade negotiations. It is like waking up one morning and not being able to check your fantasy roster because the internet is out...it is out of my mind frustrating. All I get in trade negotiations is guys who want to take my best players and give me their “best players” which happens to be some guy who has a 5 game hitting streak for my proven year in and year out players like Carlos Lee or Derek Jeter. I always follow the philosophy of everyone is available to be traded from my team as long as I get the right value in return. In the end they basically want to get something for nothing. Does this even happen in the real world?

Another point I want to make is why people trade in the first place. You trade in fantasy baseball to improve your team, that is the bottom line. So, looking back, I guess you can say my league members are trading using the right mindset, improving their team by giving me a scrub for a proven fantasy baseball stud. But, if you think like my league members do, you will never be able to make a trade. Before even making a trade it is a wise idea to look at your team, with an unbias eye, and see where you need help and where you are strong. In my case I was at the top or near the top in pitching catgeories (SV, K’s, ERA, and WHIP) but I was weak in plenty of hitting categories especially the power ones (HR and RBI). As, an educated owner would do I wanted to find teams that were in need of saves and that had some power. There were plenty of teams who fit this build. I immediately started to send out offers...I got nothing but rejected trades, nothing new here. After a few more attempts are making a trade I came to the conclusion I would have to deal Lincecum/Wagner/Lyon for a guy named Nate McClouth. Can I say f*cking frustrating. These guys, apparently, want to win but they don’t want to do anything about it. I can’t stand these guys and which makes it worse, when I ask them about trading and wanting to win, they tell me they do and that my offers are unfair. I usually just clock the close button on the MSN Messenger window when they say this so I don’t tell them they are complete waste of time when it comes to my fantasy knowledge. Yes, I know I sound a little full of myself but it is true, I know more about fantasy baseball then they do.

If you look back at the teams who have won the fantasy championship or just looking at the final standings you will see that I am always in the top 3 and I always compete year in and year out. So, why should these guys in the league ever look at how I manage my teams and maybe do something similar to me compared to their petty little tactics of trying to steal players from me.

Since this is a keeper league some of my league member think that just because they were a keeper from last year that they will be a keeper this year. Every year is a new year filled with new chances and opportunities. When I asked if one of their players was available, Alex Rios, his response was, “He is a keeper and I would expect a keeper in return.” What the hell does that mean? The guy was hitting nothing except air and was finding himself walking to the batters box and walking right back. This same guy needed saves and well, I offered him closers...still no deal. This keeper deal even goes deeper than just trades. Guys in my league are always looking to the future and always hoping to win in the future, well, it might be a good idea to look in the present and finally win a championship for once. Why play this fantasy thing if you are always going to finish bottom 3 and hoping a prospect is going to pan out. It is just not fun if you play like this. I will trade all my best guys to win a championship EVERY SINGLE YEAR. I don’t care who they are, if it can make me the champion at the end of the year, I will do it!

The owners in this league are friends I have known for almost 15 years of my life. This is why I know the next part. These guys don’t want to look stupid and make a trade that finds a way to backfire for example an injury or something random that most would call life. Before making a deal, you look at the stats, trends, and every piece of information available to you but in the end it’s all luck after that. If you make a trade and it is justifiable when the deal was made there is nothing else you can do.

What makes trading players even harder is the fact everyone in this league, except me, thinks their players are the best players in this entire world. Come on, just because they are on your roster does not mean they are great players. Another difficult thing to overcome is the fact they think all my players are crap but for some odd reason if I drop one of my players they immediately pick them up off waivers, crap players? I think not! This is so frustrating that in one year I offered to trade for Chris Carpenter (before his injuries) and the owner wouldn’t deal unless I packaged 3 of my best hitters, I basically told him to screw off. Okay, I said more then just that. The next year I had Carpenter and I wanted to trade him to the same owner but he offered me nothing in return except for a scrub hitter who was off to a hot start. Nothing had changed about Carpenter except he was a year older and wiser. Proof, my friends are complete retards when it comes to fantasy baseball.

This little rant has taken up some of my time and I think it is time for me to stop and return to doing something more interesting. The lesson here is don’t go out and try to steal players in fantasy baseball, it makes you look stupid and it also ruins the league. Go out and trade to improve your team, not to rip other teams off. Make sure to enjoy fantasy baseball and try to win, if you are content with finishing bottom 3 then I honestly don’t know what to say to you except, why the f*ck do you even bother signing up for a fantasy league.

My friends don’t know I have this blog but if you are reading please smarten up and realize that you are going about this the wrong way. I’ll see you guys when I look down on you when I’m at the top of the league.