It's baseball time again!

Been a while since I've really blogged about baseball, but let's start shaking off the rust shall we?

Today was the first of two (possibly even three) fantasy baseball team drafts. I'll set this up in a TL;DR format for you all: Got invited into a 10 man dynasty league, didn't want to accept, finally accepted last minute, drafted a solid team.

My keepers coming into the year were about as strong offensively as one could want: Evan Longoria, Troy Tulowitzki, and Jose Reyes. This is of course with a gigantic injury asterisk next to it all. By June I could be fishing for draft picks next year if any (or god forbid all three) do significant time on the DL.

Adding to that core from the #8 draft slot I managed to miss out on some fantastic potential keepers (Harper, Stanton, and Posey namely) and still snagged Jason Heyward and Jay Bruce with my first two picks. Heyward's power and speed combo wasn't on full display in 2012, but it was a gigantic step forward from his disastrous 2011 season and I suspect his best is yet to come. Bruce, on the otherhand, made for a cheaper power grab since Stanton and Bautista were off the board. The price is high, but in a four-OF league he was far too tempting to pass up, especially if his AVG gets back up to the .270 range.

With the core of the offense fully locked in I decided to take a chance on some youngsters elsewhere. ZiPS is extremely high on Anthony Rizzo coming the year and I grabbed about five spots after Goldschmidt went off the board. 2B is usually a clusterfuck if one of the top-options isn't available, but thankfully I had the foresight to grab Jason Kipnis to handle keystone duties. His summer was undone by an awful August, but he's a legit 20/25 threat in that improved Indians lineup.

Other miscellaneous offensive pieces include the Montero's (Miguel and Jesus) at C, Lance Berkman and Brandon Belt holding down back-up 1B and UTIL duties, and solid role players in Hunter Pence and Dexter Fowler.

Having used an adapted LIMA strategy previously, I decided to try something similar again. This time instead of waiting and drafting bargain pitchers, I took seven starters that should average 200 innings each and grabbed five relievers who won't A.) bomb my ratios, B.) potential for K's and C.) could all get a shot to close if the door opens. The potential of injury is there (Huston Street), but the upside is as well (Bobby Parnell). Other options include David Hernandez, Ernesto Frieri, and Sean Marshall.

My starting staff is based off: Mat Latos, Adam Wainwright, James Shields, Brandon Morrow, Hiroki Kuroda, C.J. Wilson, and Derek Holland. Not a true LIMA "staff", but one that should do the trick.

This team should post strong numbers, not really hurt my team across the board and should contend for a title this year for sure. Especially if someone like Fowler can get scorching hot and increase his trade value.