My Nemesis

Jason Budden: Un-Common Sense?

Why do I torture myself? Year after year I make the same mistakes. I don’t learn and in the end, it just leads to constant suffering. I’m talking about Fantasy Baseball, or as I like to call it…My Nemesis!

Fantasy Football and me are boys. We get along great. I check in with Fantasy Football a few times a week during the NFL season and our relationship always seems to be positive. Even when we fight, it is normally just for a week and then we’re great pals again once Sunday rolls around. And come December, we always make time to celebrate a few championships together. Fantasy Football takes a vacation during the first half of the New Year and then we reconnect again in late summer.

I’d even call Fantasy Basketball a good acquaintance. We get along great, but at times Fantasy Basketball struggles because I spend so much time with Fantasy Football. In the end, come March, things are always back on an even keel. We’ve had some good runs and in the end, we appreciate each other.

But Fantasy Baseball clearly hates me…and these days, I hate Fantasy Baseball. After a rough year last year, I thought we had made our peace this winter. We put in a lot of extra time researching players and preparing for the start of the season, but it seems to all be for naught. It was like a charade that Fantasy Baseball was playing with me. Trying to get my hopes us so that I’d come back and try to re-kindle the relationship. Fantasy Baseball has a way of pulling me back in each spring, even when I tell myself that I’m not going to get fooled again.

Too late…I’m stuck to rot out the rest of the season in the bottom of the league, waiting for David Ortiz to get healthy, Alex Rios to start hitting and Jimmy Rollins to figure out what has gone wrong.

Next year, I’ll be smarter. Next year will be the year that Fantasy Baseball and I can finally bury the hatchet. Next year, is our year…

Jason Budden is the Vice President of Operations and Marketing at Baseball Factory. Jason joined the Baseball Factory in 1997 while still a junior in high school. After going through the Baseball Factory's college recruiting program he was placed at Johns Hopkins University where he played two years of college baseball before graduating with a degree in Economics. After working part-time at the Factory throughout college, Jason joined the team as a full-time employee in January 2002 when he was promoted to Director of Marketing. He currently oversees all marketing projects and sponsorship opportunities at Baseball Factory. He is also in charge of development and marketing for Baseball University, the leader in online baseball education and a division of Baseball Factory.

Short & Sweet

Jason Budden: Un-Common Sense?

With the holiday weekend, I wanted to keep it simple, so here's a few random notes of interest.

Short

Jon Rauch is 6’11”, the tallest player in the big leagues. David Eckstein is 5’7”, the shortest. Estimating a 6’11” wingspan for Rauch, and Eckstein standing at 5’0” when crouching down in his batting stance, Rauch would release the ball a good 4 ½ - 5 feet above Eckstein’s head when delivering a pitch to the Blue Jays shortstop. (Eckstein comes off the DL on Tuesday, May 27)

Jimmy Rollins (5’8”) is on pace to tie the Major League record for doubles in a season, and that is with an early season stint on the DL. Rollins is hitting .321, which is 43 points higher than his career average, and has 14 doubles on the season in 29 games played. With 109 games remaining in the Phillies’ schedule, Rollins is on pace for 67 doubles. At the same time, the ankle injury that sent him to the DL is clearly still affecting his power. He has hit only one homerun in the 17 games since returning from the DL and is currently on pace for 14 homeruns this season (he hit 30 in 2007). If he keeps hitting .321 with a double every other game, the Phillies shouldn’t be too concerned.

Sweet

Magglio Ordonez is up to it again. Over the past week, he is hitting .478 (11/23) with three homeruns, seven runs and nine runs batted in. Twelve games into the season he was hitting .234 with one homerun and three RBI, but he has turned it on and has raised his average to .328. The Tigers have not followed his lead, but it is still early.

How sweet it is? Just ask Scott Kazmir. He has recovered quite nicely from the strained elbow he suffered to start the year. Since returning from the disabled list, Kazmir is 4-1 with a 1.50 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 32 K’s and only 10 Walks. Last week he went 2-0 striking out 18 batters in 14 innings while giving up only seven hits and two runs. During that stretch, the Tampa Bay Rays are 5-1 and recently moved into first place in the AL East.

Finally, talk about "Sweet," the NCAA Division I Baseball Championship bracket was announced over the holiday weekend. 64 teams are still alive to dogpile in Omaha.