Round 3 and Round 4
.406 Club Dynasty Fantasy Keeper League

Straight to the business at hand.

With the 41st and the 56th picks of the .406 Club Dynasty Fantasy Keeper League, the Dublin Sharks, of Dublin, Ireland, managed by DaddyMac22, selects Carsten Charles (C.C.) Sabathia and Jonathan Robert Papelbon. Thank you.

Taking a quick jab step backwards, here's the science. I joined a great Red Sox Forum recently and they decided to run a five year Fantasy Baseball keeper league. What this means is we draft around 30 players each, and then keep those players for five years, unless we decide to trade or drop said players, or unless they get all 'Cincinnati Bengals' on their owners and end up in some correctional facility or other. I think at that stage they are either cut from the league or given an engagement to Brittney Spears, not sure which.

The above picks leave the Dublin Sharks looking a little like this so far.

9. DaddyMac22 - Manny Ramirez (OF-BOS)
24. DaddyMac22 - Vernon Wells (OF-TOR)
41. DaddyMac22 - C. C. Sabathia (SP-CLE)

56. DaddyMac22 - Jon Papelbon (SP/RP-BOS)


I really think I got a pretty nice steal in Sabathia. His career stats are excellent for his age (a relatively young 26). For a start (and a good one at that) Sabathia has more career wins than any other active pitcher under 26 years old. In a 6-season career, he has compiled an 81-56 record with 933 strikeouts and a 3.95 ERA in 1,165.1 innings.Those numbers work for me. They show stamina, power and ability.

His 2006 season stats were a knockout. In 2006 he led the major leagues in complete games (6). He also led the AL in shutouts (2), had the 3rd-best ERA in the AL (3.22), and was 6th in strikeouts/9 IP (8.03) and 8th in strikeouts (172). A little bit of everything there, showing consistency normally not seen in a pitcher of his young age. Sabathia figures to shine for the Dublin Sharks for the duration of this five year keeper league.

On top of everything else, I just like the guy. He has personality. In 2000, on the days he was pitching he always went to Wendy's and got a Big Bacon Classic and super-size fries. Now that's a guy I can work with.

I think that is going to be a feature of the Dublin Sharks. To play on this team you have to have character. Manny, Vernon and C.C fit right in, bringing me to my next pick, Jon Papelbon. I am absolutely delighted to get Papelbon on board sitting nicely as my number two guy behind C.C. He is talented, fearless, durable and very young. Plus he has oodles of character.

People sometimes forget in discussion about Papelbon's future possibilities just how incredible a 2006 he had. The 25-year-old closer finished 2006 with one of the most dominant seasons ever for a rookie pitcher. Papelbon saved 35 games, struck out 75 batters in 68 innings, and held opposing batters to a minuscule .167 batting average. Those are just dominating statistics.

Whilst I am happy with the picks so far, I definitely need some luck in the next couple of rounds, I have a couple of guys ear marked but have to hope they drop as low as my next two picks, 73 and 88. Any suggestions? Leave me a comment. As always, you can view the entire draft here.

Comments

Unknown said…
You are a good writer. Keep on blogging the draft.
Cormac said…
I would say thank you, but you are probably one of the other owners in the league who is benefitting from my horrible picks, trying to get me to waste more time on this blog and less on my selections! For shame!

Schadenfreude! I think it's called!