By JIMMY D / Jimmy looks to make racket in his bracket | Jimmy's archive

It’s not really fair.

When Jimmy applies all his fantasy genius to a draft list, the other poolies don’t really have a chance.

So the past year or so in our office fantasy Yahoo! leagues, Jimmy has let the computer make his picks for him. That’s right. No draft list, no sleeper list, no night-before injury updates to make sure the Yahoo! computer is up to date. Just plays the hand the computer deals him.

Last season, the computer did a decent job and then Jimmy’s waiver-wire-scouring skills took over. However, a fade in the final two weeks of the season left Jimmy in second place after leading almost all season.

This year, the Jimmyville Jackals earned the top pick, which means cheering for Alex Rodriguez all season. If cheering for the Yankees isn’t bad enough, the computer stacked the Jackals with three Boston Red Sox players!
Ugh!

Oh well. Fantasy sports isn’t about who you like, it’s about who can do the job.

On paper, the Jackals look pretty balanced in this 10-team league.

A-Rod brings tons of power and RBIs to a key 3B position. Throw in Justin Morneau (1B, Twins) with the 40th pick and Manny Ramirez (OF, Red Sox) with the 41st pick and power and RBI production should be in good shape.

That trio can also bring a .300+ batting average to bear on the stats.

The second pick (20th overall) was Carl Crawford, the Tampa speedster who has not lived up to power-number projections in recent years. He’s another .300 bat and a lock for 50+ stolen bases.

More power and more stolen bases (33 last year) arrived with the 21st overall pick and Indian Grady Sizemore.

With the sixth pick at No. 60, the computer pegged Hunter Pence, the emerging power-hitting OF in Houston. In 110 games, he hit .322 last year, hit 17 homers and ripped off 11 bags for good measure. Projected over a full season, that looks pretty good for a sixth-round pick.

What about the pitchers? Jimmy was wondering the same thing when he saw his roster.

At No. 61, the computer picked Joe Nathan, a reliable 40-save, strikeout-per-inning closer who might have trouble finding games to close out with rebuilding Minnesota. Hopefully, he’ll get to close out some Francisco Liriano starts, after the computer picked the sparkling lefty, who missed all of last season, in the 13th round.

At No. 80, Carlos Zambrano joined the Jackals. His strikeouts went down and his ERA went up at Wrigley in 2007, but Jimmy sees him rebounding.

Next up was Miguel Tejada, a Jackal last year when nobody was certain if he was a steroid user or not. We still don’t know, but there is a lot more discussion about it. But with no suspensions announced, he was a good bet here to rebound from 2007. And important too at shortstop, which is never the strongest position.

With no second basemen yet, the computer smartened up and grabbed Dan Uggla of the Marlins at No. 100. He’s a 30HR/90RBI guy who strikes out way too much and hits for a low average, so we’ll need to keep an eye on him. If nothing else, his power numbers could be good trade bait during the year.

Another closer arrived at No. 101 as Bobby Jenks (another 2007 Jackal) was picked. He will have the same problem as Nathan – will the White Sox ever lead any games for him to close?

Same issue with the next pick. James Shields proved he was a quality starter for Tampa Bay in 2007, but wins will be hard to come by and wins is a key league category. After Liriano at No. 121, the computer stayed on starters with Brad Penny (another 2007 Jackal who faded bad, as usual, in the second half for the Dodgers).

Another closer with a question mark – oft-injured new Philly closer Brad Lidge – was the next pick. If he can stay healthy, he should get lots of chances in Philly, who boast the last two NL MVPs and could have a third if Chase Utley has a brilliant season.

Who is going to catch for the Jackals? Holding our Red Sox-hating noses, we watch Jason Varitek join the Jackals. We hope for 20 HRs and 70 RBIs from him at the bottom of that potent Boston lineup. We expect 15 HRs and 60 RBIs. We’ll watch the waiver wire for a backup here.

The final five picks offered an interesting mix of power (White Sox 1B Paul Konerko and Seattle OF Raul Ibanez and St. Louis 3B Troy Glaus) and pitching potential (Red Sox phenom Clay Buchholz) and closer potential (Arizona’s Tony Pena).

A tip of the fantasy baseball hat to the computer for putting three of the top 16 rated players in Jimmyville for the year. Good luck to the other poolies who can plan on eating Jimmy’s dust (or astro-turf shavings?) this spring and summer.

Stay busy, stay lucky.

jpoole@herald.ca