Why I hate fantasy baseball, but love it too.

Paul's written several missives about his hatred for the fantasy baseball racket which regularly provides those who play great consternation. I share his frustrations, but I diversify my portfolio by playing in several leagues. Thus, when one club is struggling due to buffoonery or circumstances beyond my control, another may be riding high. And such is the case in two of the, yes, seven leagues I am engaged in.

For example in the league I am playing in with Paul, my season has been very frustrating. I had a pretty good draft and made a quality trade with Paul before the season to bolster the lineup. But Barry Bonds hasn't played a lick this season, Mark Loretta has been out for an extended period and has been replaced by Robert Freel's occassional play and 9 RBI. Javy Lopez will also miss a good chunk of the season. And Lance Berkman, who started the season on the DL as a result of ACL surgery has yet to really do anything since returning to the lineup except play enough games at 1B to make him eligible at two positions now. Whoop-de-do Basil! And while my pitching staff has been brilliant, it suffered a setback a month ago when Odalis Perez joined the injury parade. He still isn't back pitching, but last week Josh Beckett joined him on the DL with this ridiculous and recurring finger blister problem that shelves him from time to time.

But, hope springs eternal for my Fresh+Jive squad. Last week I was able to bolster my already-strong pitching with a trade for Freddy Garcia. He'll help pick up the slack for the Beckett-Perez problem. The other good news is that somehow I managed to find both Todd Helton and Scott Rolen on the waiver wire. Now Helton is off to a very slow start and has no one to protect him in a weak Colorado lineup, but it is hard to imagine him hitting in the .250s all year. Rolen has spent the majority of the year on the DL, but again it is hard to imagine him not regaining his All-Star power form. And even though I'm already set at 1B and 3B, these guys were worth a gamble and could make for nice trade fodder down the line. One of the keys in fantasy baseball is to play for the long haul, and while I'm currently sitting in eighth place (out of ten), I'm only 7.5 games off the pace in a pretty competitive league.

But I mentioned another league, too. In that one, I have been in first place since the get-go. Nate Colbert's Twinbill has been pretty dominant, sporting a 70% winning percentage and leading the second place club by a mere 19 games.

But in that league I've also been faced with a little bit of a dilemma. The hitting on my club has been truly electrifying, with Bobby Abreu, Melvin Mora, Richie Sexson, Brian Roberts, Pat Burrell, Troy Glaus and Carlos Delgado playing lights-out. But I've been forced to slowly whittle-away at my bench because top-of-the-line starting pitching keeps hitting the waiver wire. I started out with Mark Prior, Ben Sheets, Curt Schilling, Livan Hernandez and Rich Harden as my starting five. Not too shabby. But through waivers, I have since added Javier Vasquez and John Garland who are off to fine starts and have helped me overcome the lengthy DL stints of Sheets, Schilling, Harden and now Prior. Eventually, they will come back and pitch, but my question was always "Who to cut when the time comes?" Well, that problem just got a little bit tougher when I was forced to add Kerry Wood yesterday. A former All-Star, Wood's also injured and is injury-prone, but he's on a minor league rehab assignment and should return next week. So just in case you are counting, I currently employ six starters who have appeared in the All-Star game, one who will surely make it this year (Garland) and one who will almost certainly make one in his career (Harden).

Of course four of them are currently on the DL. But again, you take risks on quality players, and endure some production shortfalls to hopefully reap the rewards in the second half. Those rewards could come in the form of elevated production and/or trade returns. But of course, this is also a situation where a 19 game lead makes such gambles possible.

Interesting stuff. At least to me ;-)