I love baseball. I love fantasy baseball. I typically manage between three and six teams on a yearly basis over entire baseball season. None of this half season stuff! No Sir! I’m in for the long haul. One league that I’ve been in for three years is a franchise league. About 12 of friends and myself together through the power of the interwebs and a forum, pack and manage a the same team year after year. We manage our contracts both in length and monetary value. From original roster, we could keep however many players we wanted, and drop any number of players we didn’t want to keep.

We randomly chose our draft order. Instead of creating new teams from scratch, we chose a Major League team to start with. Unfortunately, I was unable to choose the Cubs as they were taken already; however, I was more than happy to end with the Philles. I renamed the team to the Cedar Rapids Bezerkers, for a more fun factor with my team. Needless to say I was pretty happy with their team. They had some good hitters to give me a base, and I could get some new pitching. It was determined that we’d work with a salary cap set the same for each team (Sorry Yankees!). From there, we had salaries for each player on our starting team. We started with what they were actually making at the time. We did this initial team draft three seasons ago, so for example, I dropped Pat Burrell because he wasn’t worth it to me as a fantasy player for $14 million a year.

We also inherited minor league players of the team, and we can protect up to 15 players on that team. This meant if they get traded (in real life), we can still keep them. For example, I protected Josh Outman and Michael Taylor, who were prospects with the Phillies at the time. They were involved in a trade to the A’s, but I still have them on my roster, and Outman now has Major League time with the A’s, so he’s getting his “paycheck” so to speak from me. We also go through a minor league player draft (where in our first season Jay Bruce was number one overall drafted). This also gives you some good trading chips much like the actual Major Leagues. I acquired Cubs top prospect Starlin Castro in a trade before the start of last season, and I’ll be reaping the benefits from it.

Of the teams that weren’t drafted, all those players went into the free agent pool, where we would bid on them through an auction. We could sign a player for up to four seasons and at a minimum of $.4 million per season. We’re just getting ready to start our fourth season’s auction with free agent players.

I took a few stabs in the dark on some players that first season we drafted and they worked out. Some of these guys were young players just getting a chance at everyday play, or some injured players coming back. On the flip-side, I’ve made some pretty poor decisions too on free agents (Milton Bradley. $30 Million/3 Years. I’m looking at you Jim Hendry).

Here are some of the better free agent signings I made the first season (before the start of the 2008 season, their contracts will end this season):

Cliff Lee: $.4 Million/4 Years. I knew some about Lee, when I bid on him. I knew he had one good season, then ran into injuries and control problems. I put out the minimum bid of $.4 million and would keep him under contract for the full four season. Well nobody else bid on him, so I got him for the maximum tenure for the lowest amount of pay, and he ended up going 22-3 that season as well as the Cy Young Award for the American League. He’s been pretty inconsistent fantasy wise since then, but his contract ends this season. If he ended up in Texas, where he didn’t pitch all that well, I was going to trade him for prospects, but he came back to the Phillies. In the end, I looked like a damned genius on that one.

Gavin Floyd: $.4 Million/4 Years. Yes, he’s been pretty inconsistent over all, but during that 2008 season he was 17-8 with an ERA under four. I saw a bit of Floyd (on TV) when he was coming up with the Phillies. This bid was purely speculation of a young pitcher getting a shot on a new team (He had just been traded to the White Sox). In the end, it’s been good production for the little amount of investment.

Ricky Nolasco: $.6 Million/4 Years. Another young pitcher who’s was just getting a full time gig. I knew of Nolsaco when he was a Cub in their minor league system. He was involved in the Juan Pierre trade, and he was highly talked about as the “pitcher of the future”. He’s been putting together pretty decent seasons, and he’s got dominating stuff. He’s on the cusp of something great in my opinion. For the money spent. It’s been good.

Ryan Ludwick: $.4 Million/4 Years. I saw him swing the bat on when he was a bench player for the Cardinals, so he was just another stab in the dark. In 2008, he ended up an All-Star and won a Silver Slugger award. He’s been on my bench mostly since that season due to a glut of outfielders on my roster. I might be looking to trade this season if somebody needs an OF this year. Now that he’s in a pitchers park (San Diego), I don’t foresee him having a killer fantasy season.

Josh Hamilton: $12 Million/4 Years. This isn’t obviously a steal, but compared to my horrible investmetns as you’ll see later, this looks like a pretty good deal. It’s no secret Hamilton is a superstar, but if he were a free agent now, I bet he’d fetch $20 million/year if not more in this league. He was sent to the Rangers before the start of the season in a trade with the Reds, and has started his string of All-Star appearances and he won the MVP last season. It’s hard to believe he only made $3.2 million this last season (in real life), and was only his fourth year in the Majors. Seems like he’s been around forever already. Had it not been for that pesky drugs and alcohol, he’s be so much further ahead than where he is now.

Carlos Quentin: $1.6M/4 Years. This was a quasi-stab in the dark. He was traded to the White Sox and was pretty much set to be an everyday outfielder. His stats weren’t the best with the Dbacks, but showed some decent power. In 2008, he was an All-Star and won a Silver Slugger award. Since then he’s fought his way through a few foot injuries, and his batting average has plummeted from .288 in 2008 to .236 in 2009 and .243 in 2010. There was a potential trade I could have made for him in the 2009 season, so I’m kind of kicking myself for that one, but overall, he’s been worth it.

OOOOOOOOOOOpppppps!

Erik Bedard: $24 Million/4 Years. Haha. Soooo….. I have 30 starts from him in the three complete seasons he’s been on my roster. He was 13-5 in the previous (2007) season with the Orioles. I figured he had to be in better shape going to a better team in the Mariners as a free agent. The team, and Bedard have since tanked. He’s off the books after this season (thank God)!

Russell Martin: $21 Million/4 Years Plus 5th Year Option. I ponied up after he had the good 2007 All-Star season. He had a pretty good season the first year on my roster(when I won it all), especially for a catcher not named Joe Mauer. Since then, he’s forgotten how to hit, and has been non-tendered by the L.A. Dodgers. He’s now the catcher in New York. Hopefully he comes through this season. If he picks it up this season, I’ll pickup his option. If he tanks, he’ll find himself looking for a new job.

J.J. Putz: $13 Million/4 Years. He was dominating in Seattle and I loved his chin music (his goatee), so I put down big money on him with an early large bid for him. He got hurt that season and the team tanked. Then he was traded to be a set up man. AWESOME! Last season, he put up good numbers as a set up man, and was on my active roster for the 2nd half of the season. Good news is that I might end on a good note with him. He just went to the Arizona Diamondbacks as a free agent, and should close this season.

Daric Barton: $5.5 Million/4 Years Plus 5th Year Option. I’m going to put this one under failure thus far, because I haven’t had him on my active roster since I drafted him. Last season, he sat on my bench a few times due to some injures, but never really give me stats. He was a “September call-up” for the A’s nearing the end of the 2007 season. He had four home runs in only 18 games. That translates about 35 home runs over the course of the season. In that short time, he also batted .347. He was pretty much all but guaranteed that spot next season, and I wanted to jump on that bandwagon too! It’s just never translated over in terms of fantasy stats. While he hasn’t been much of an investment in the grand scheme of things, he’s not been worth it at all. Last season, he was starting to get it, but it’s not where I want him to be fantasy stat wise yet. He’s only 25, so he could still have that shot, but that boat left shore on my team.

I plan on blogging more about my fantasy team this season. I’ll talk about my minor leageurs, in terms of acquisitions, trades, drafts, and the Phillies’ home grown talent. I’ll give you a run down of my free agency signings as well as my teams full depth chart once my roster is set. I hope you’ll enjoy it. This is the closest I’ll ever get to being part of a front office of a team, or being a General Manager for a team, so I’m having a good run at it.