Talk About Getting Owned

So I had my first fantasy auction draft the other day, and it was undoubtedly one of the best times I've had sitting at a table and talking smack about obscure baseball factoids. Of course, I was also there for eight hours, and my draft went pretty shitty (compared to everyone else). First of all, let me say that this was my first auction, not to mention the first auction of 95% of the league, so we really had no idea to budget. Second, I think I was just so pumped the auction worked that all my planning went to shit. Seriously, the only things that went right for me were that I managed to grab Brad Wilkerson and Aaron Rowand because of my deep-seeded belief that they're giong to have great years in their new homes. I also managed to get some decent youth in the bench and minor league portions of the draft. Here we go:

Catcher 1: K. Johjima
Catcher 2: Y. Torrealba (dropped for J. Willingham)

1B: A. Pujols
2B: J. Cantu
3B: M. Cabrera
SS: D. Jeter

Corner Infielder: K. Youkilis
Middle Infielder: D. Eckstein

OF: W. Taveras
OF: B. Wilkerson
OF: A. Rowand
OF: C. Patterson (dropped for R. Ibanez)
OF: B. Anderson

UTIL: J. Gomes

P: R. Oswalt
P: D. Turnbow
P: C. Capuano
P: J. Beckett
P: J. Papelbon
P: J. Crain
P: O. Perez
P: J. Patterson
P: S. Shields

Bench: B. Hall
Bench: M. Murton
Bench: J. Verlander
Bench: R. Cedeno
Bench: M. Delcarmen (dropped for Rafael Soriano)

Minor Leaguer 1: Justin Upton
Minor Leaguer 2: Dustin Pedroia

A couple things. First, I had a couple total fanboy moments (see: Papelbon, Delcarmen, Youkilis, and Pedroia). Second, I'm in the process of trading away Jeter, as my policy is "No Yankees." No exceptions made. I was trying to drive the price of Jeter up when the token Yankee fan decided he could pay $41 for Rivera, but couldn't pay $24 for Pvt. Intangibles. I only really overpaid for one player, that being $50 bucks for Albert Pujols (don't forget this is a keeper league), and it's something I'm ok with. Otherwise, I simply found myself running out of money in the later rounds, leading me to shout random names at the top of my lungs followed by a $1 price tag, hoping I would be able to expedite the process and get to the bench round.

While I don't see myself really competing this year, I am excited about the future, as a number of these guys are slated to become legit ballplayers over the next 12 months or so. Or at least, that's what I tell myself.

In any case, this was really freakin' fun. More fun than watching Julian Tavarez cage fight Joey Gathright, or Tony Graffanino waive his way back to KC.

Just repeat after me: Opening Day is only 5 days away."