My First Fantasy Baseball Draft

Friday night, I participated in my first fantasy baseball draft. For the last couple of years, I've been wanting to have a fantasy team, but for one reason or another, I never did.

About a month ago, I saw that my friend Joe had openings in his fantasy league and I decided to join. I had no idea what to expect, but I figured it would be fun, and something I could add to my list of things to write about.

So Friday night, I headed over to Joe's for the draft with nine other people. Most of the guys came with their fantasy stat sheets or had their laptops so they could better decide who they wanted on their team.

I just came with myself.

There were 10 of us, and we picked a number out of a hat to decide the order that we picked in the draft. The guys were nice enough to let the lady pick first, and by some stroke of luck I picked No. 1.

Not bad for my first pick.

The way it went was we pick in order 1-10, and then would go in reverse. The great part about having the first or the tenth pick was you got to make two picks at once, while everyone else only got one at a time.

When it was time to make my pick, I knew who I was going to go with.

"Hanley Ramirez", I called out, and the room was filled with grunts.

Yeah, it was pretty sweet landing the No. 1 draft pick.

We drafted our teams for 21 rounds. I shared some of the stat sheets with the two guys I was sitting next to, which was really helpful.

I consider myself pretty knowledgeable about baseball. Still, I can remember a time when I only really knew the players who were on the Yankees, and now my knowledge is definitely more wide spread.

What always impresses me about guys that like sports is that they go beyond the players on their team, or their league for that matter. They always seem to know who just about every player in the league is, their stats, etc.

This group of guys were no different. They knew the info on almost every player in both leagues, and I figured if I really want to compete in this league, I've got to get up to their level.

Despite being less prepared than the rest of the group, I still think I drafted a great team. There's a lot I have to learn about trades and dealing with injuries throughout the course of the season, but I'm really looking forward to it.

This is what my first fantasy baseball team looks like...

1B-Derrek Lee

2B-Dustin Pedroia

SS-Hanley Ramirez

3B-Mark DeRosa

C-Chris Ianetta

OF- Matt Holiday

OF- Curtis Granderson

OF- Justin Upton

SP- C.C. Sabathia

SP- James Shields

SP- Chien-Ming Wang

RP- J.J. Putz

RP- Mariano Rivera

BN- Adrian Beltre

BN- Dioner Navarro

BN- Shane Victorino

BN- David DeJesus

BN- Zack Grienke

BN- Bobby Jenks

BN- J.P. Howell

BN- Jesse Litsch

Hopefully, my team proves to be as great as they look. I definitely plan on doing updates of my team throughout the season, and I'd appreciate any advice along the way.

I really have to thank the guys in my league for their help and patience, it was greatly appreciated.

Here's to an excellent season.