Kirby Puckett Wants YOU to Play Fantasy Baseball

It's that time a year again! It's the time of year where all your based-ball related fantasies play out over tables of meticulously scrutinized data, all for mere bragging rights over your friends-turned-enemies. To make a long story short, some friends of mine are short a few participants in a fantasy baseball league that we do every year and time is running short. Please leave a comment here or send me an email if you might be interested in joining up with a NL-only, head-to-head league that ohbytheway just happens to be holding its draft tomorrow night. Before you go off all commenting half-cocked, here are some things to think about in bulletpointed fashion:

• Like any good fantasy league, in order to be successful you must actually commit to playing out the full season. This is probably the most difficult thing about fantasy leagues in general.
• You'd just be playing for bragging rights over people you've probably never met and never will meet. That being said, there's something to be said for "winning the internet" as the kids say these days.
• If you are interested, it's possible that the slots will fill up anyway and we won't be able to invite you. That being said, all participants are welcome. I will try my best to get back to you by the end of today if there is a spot for you, so you have some time to prepare for tomorrow night's draft (7:15 PM PDT). I appreciate everyone that reads and comments on the blog (especially you, mighty spambot overlords) and it would be fun to be able to compete against you over the next six months.

Now that that bit of business is out of the way, here are some trading cards brought to you by reader Kary from WI. Kary sent over some crucial 1985 Fleer needs, including Kirby Puckett's rookie card, Mike Schmidt and Dale Murphy. There were more, too, but I'm just name dropping here.

The other half of the package was a bunch of Blazers basketball blasts from the past. It's been a rough season for the current Portland squad, but that doesn't stop these late '70s/early '80s gems from being a funky smash. Also, there really needs to be a retro uniform night featuring the classic lowercase home jerseys.

Here's a sweet sky hook from Ronnie Brewer's father, Ronnie Brewer.

Who doesn't miss the Sonics? Downtown Freddie Brown forever!

My Cardboard Junkie 2010 Topps Heritage Blaster Fantasy Baseball Team

I haven't chosen a team name yet, but I will have a poll up in just a few moments. You can decide!

C - Joe Mauer

C - Jorge Posada

1B - Mark Teixeira

2B - Brandon Phillips

SS - Asdrubal Cabrera

3B - Mark Reynolds

OF - Matt Kemp

OF - Carlos Quentin

OF - Julio Borbon

CI - Derrek Lee

MI - Jose Reyes

OF - Jay Bruce

UT - Joey Votto

P - Wandy Rodriguez

P - Johnny Cueto

P - Jake Peavy

P - Edwin Jackson

P - Ryan Dempster

P - Andy Pettitte

P - Francisco Rodriguez

MGR - Ozzie Guillen

Team - Minnesota Twins

SUPAR MOJO BONUS - 6 points for the stamp card! Hooray!

Some notes:

• Choosing the Mauer All-Star SP over the Jacoby Ellsbury New Age Performer was rather difficult, because Ellsbury steals a ton of bases and my outfield was fairly weak. However, Mauer is on a different plane, offensively, than anyone else at his position and he's easily the most coveted player I own on any of my other fantasy teams.
• I took a gamble on Jose Reyes. I would have had a harder time leaving him out altogether if there weren't bench slots. I literally had no other choices at 2B besides Phillips, but had plenty of shortstops to choose from.
• Jay Bruce? I know. Ugh.
• I only have one closer, because... that's all I got. Ideally, in a team with 7 pitchers I'd probably go with two closers, but I don't exactly get to rub out someone's position and make them a closer and expect them to actually get save. It'll be just my luck if, say, Gil Meche gets converted to closer and ends up with like 40 saves for... oh, who am I kidding? It's the Royals. No one is getting 40 saves for that club.
• I took Ozzie Guillen over Manny Acta (Cleveland) and Bobby Cox. Cox isn't going anywhere and I think the Braves have a fairly decent chance of being decent this year with all of their young talent, but I wouldn't be surprised if the White Sox finally get tired of Guillen's act and give him the shove out the door. I don't think Acta gets fired because it's his first season with Cleveland and he's supposedly a great guy and all, but I bet Cleveland does continue to lose a fairly sizeable chunk of games.
• I picked the Twins as my team because they're usually in the playoffs or at least knocking on the door. It was a safe pick, I suppose.
• Isn't it awesome to be talking about baseball again? Cardinals play tomorrow (or later today for some of you) at 10:00 AM PDT/noon CDT on ESPN. Go Cards!