Fantasy Baseball: The Home Stretch

This post is dedicated to Pittsburgh Pirates' center fielder Nate McLouth (pictured), one of the biggest surprises in baseball this season and a Godsend to many of my Fantasy Teams.

As you may well know, I am a bit of a Fantasy Baseball addict. As a matter of fact, I have seven (7) teams this year: six (6) on Yahoo! and one (1) on ESPN. I finally realize that this is a bit of an overkill. I will probably limit myself to only four (4) teams a year from now on (I'll try to limit myself, but we all know I'm not so great at that).

The Fantasy Baseball season winds down (or winds up) at the end of August in order to have playoffs in September. MLB's playoffs begin (and usually end) in October, and with only eight (8) teams making the playoffs, this would put quite a damper on most people's fantasy production. Therefore, Fantasy Baseball is over at the end of September. There are only two weeks left in the Fantasy regular season.

Here are the current standings for all of my teams in the 2008 Fantasy season:

ESPN
Cubby Bears - Detroit 135861
126 - 61 - 13
1st place in Division 2, 1st place in League

Yahoo!
Shamrocks - Big Willy's Baseball League
161 - 130 - 29
5th place, 18 games back

Let's Pet Puppies - Yahoo Public 198023
115 - 69 - 15
1st place, 5.5 games ahead

The Shams - Vitamin B Behind Me
81 - 96 - 13
6th place, 45.5 games back (1 game back from playoffs)

The Shams - NL Only (Rotisserie)
78.5 Points
3rd place, 2 points back

Murphy's Law - Our Other Teams Are Too Good (AL Only)
77 - 100 - 13
7th place, 49.5 games back (8.5 games back from playoffs)

The Rentals - Yahoo Winner 288574
110 - 58 - 12
2nd Place, 2.5 games back

Overall, it's been a good fantasy season. The two leagues I'm doing worst in are the two most challenging leagues I'm playing in as well. I hope to make the playoffs in the Vitamin B Behind Me league. The other one (Our Other Teams Are Too Good) is probably a lost cause, barring a miracle.
I expect to win my ESPN league and I hope to win at least two of my Yahoo! leagues. Come playoffs, anything can happen. It's a whole new ballgame.
The one I want to win most is the NL Only league. I had a comfortable (read: ginormous) lead all year long in that league, and over the last month, two other players have caught up to me. The three of us keep swapping the top spot day after day. I'm hoping that when the smoke clears, the league will be mine.
I'm starting to gain some confidence in my skill as a Fantasy Baseball manager and I look forward to the playoffs, but even more so to Fantasy Football season!!!