Notes from a championship team

Fantasy baseball this year was fun! Winning is always fun but it was also great to get to know a different group of people. I was asked to join an already established league of mostly people from the northeast (New York, Baltimore, and that region).

Cheesehead's Awards:
* Best Closer: K-Rod (Francisco Rodriguez) – LAA (Papelbon runner-up)
* Best Power Hitter: Ortiz – Bos (Berkman and Hafner runner-ups)
* Best Early Season pickup: Jonathan Papelbon – Bos (April 11)
* Best Mid-Season pickup: Jered Weaver – LAA (June 12)
* Best Late Season pickup: Frank Thomas – Oak (when he got hot and Hafner went on the DL)
* Best Trade Bait: Chris Shelton – Det, when he was hot I got Zambrano and BJ Ryan for him and Guardado (traded on April 20th). Zambrano and Ryan went on to be premier players for me and Shelton and Guardado dropped off the face of the earth after the trade!
* Most elusive stat: Holds – I scrambled for those all year.
* Most volatile position: Relief Pitchers (see “Most elusive stat” above) and Shortstop (Peralta, Furcal, Glaus, and Hanley Ramirez all played there for me).
* Biggest Risk: Picking up Clemens early and taking up an important roster spot for so long with no production.
* Best move I didn’t make but should have: Picking up Scot Shields one day earlier. I decided not to pick him up on one day and changed my mind the next day. When I went to grab him another picked him up and kept him all year.

General notes:

• All of my positions had a player in the top 5 final rankings.
• I squeaked by in the Starting Pitcher department. Zambrano was the #5 starting pitcher in the final rankings. Schilling was out of the top 10 and Zito rounded out my best three on down the list.
• I was too loyal to Pudge (could have upgraded him in July or August) and Mark Buehrle. I’m not kicking myself for keeping Dontrelle Willis all year – it’s tough to give up a 22 game winner with an ERA under 3 from the year before.
• I had 7 players in the top 20 final overall rankings for our league – Ortiz (7), Berkman(11), Utley(13), Papelbon(14), Guerrero(16), A-Rod(18), Crawford(20).