My last text to friends from the airport in Las Vegas before heading home to San Francisco...
I think my blood is 62 percent vodka and Red Bull.
I was out until 5 AM or later each night.
I only forgot my name once.
I talked to ladies.
Only a few were "professionals."
I lost out on an award, but Fantasy Alarm won.
I ate a little at a buffet because of stomach woes Thursday.
I went back the next day and crushed it. Four plates.
There was also a little thing called the Fantasy Sports Trade Association event in Vegas last week, the bi-annual conference for the industry, and part of that event was the first fantasy baseball experts draft of the season. There were 13 participants in the mixed league draft. Here they are.
1. Steve Gardner & Howard Kamen, USA TODAY Sports
2. Glenn Colton, Rick Wolf & Stacie Stern, “Colton and the Wolfman”
3. Ron Shandler, BaseballHQ.com
4. Charlie Wiegert, CDM Sports
5. Anthony Perri, Fantistics
6. Greg Ambrosius, NFBC
7. Todd Zola & Lawr Michaels, Mastersball.com
8. “Dr. Roto” Mark Bloom, Scout Fantasy
9. Chris Liss, RotoWire
10. Jeff Paur, RTSports
11. Jeff Mans, Fantasy Alarm
12. Ray Flowers, SiriusXM Radio
13. Nando DiFino, RotoExperts
The league included 29 rounds with 14 hitters and nine pitchers starting (six bench spots). Here is the team I put together (round taken in in parenthesis).
C: Matt Wieters (9), Nick Hundley (28)
1B: Eric Hosmer (13), Adam LaRoche (15)
2B: Robinson Cano (1)
3B: Anthony Rendon (2), Brett Lawrie (14), Pedro Alvarez (17)
SS: Jose Reyes (4)
OF: Carlos Gonzalez (3), Jay Bruce (6), Shin-Soo Choo (8), Melky Cabrera (15), Adam Eaton (17)
SP: Adam Wainwright (5), Alex Cobb (7), Tyson Ross (10), Chris Archer (12), Derek Holland (20), Matt Garza (21)
RP: Jonathan Papelbon, Addison Reed (18), Francisco Rodriguez (22)
Bench: Curtis Granderson (23), Shane Greene (24), Sergio Romo (25), Tyler Clippard (26), Josh Rutledge (27), Addison Russell (29)
FOR THE FULL RESULTS CLICK ON THE LINK TO THE RTSPORTS PAGE.
HITTERS
It will need to be a year of rebound.
The following list of players all had their 2014 season curtailed due to injury with their production being reduced to disappointing levels. But, take a look at the production of each player in 2013. Their current ages are listed in parenthesis.
Carlos Gonzalez (29 yrs old) .302-26-70-72-21
Jay Bruce (27) .262-30-109-89
Shin-Soo Choo (32) .285-21-54-107-20
Pedro Alvarez (27) .233-30-100-70
Matt Wieters (28) .235-22-79-59
Many folks saw those players as "bad" selections. As you can clearly see all are a year removed from significant fantasy success, and only one of the five men is in the 30's. Right now the squad might look a bit thin when viewed through the prism of 2014, but if you broaden that outlook a bit it's clear that too many are being too quick to pass judgment on that five-some.
By the way... I also really could use a Rockies deal of Wilin Rosario to open up 350 at-bats for Hundley in Colorado or I'm in trouble with my second catcher.
Hosmer and LaRoche, young and old, give me a strong first base duo. I could see 45 homers and 180 RBIs from the lefties.
I was castigated for taking Cano in the first round. Why? I know he hit 14 homers last season, but the Safeco thing has been overblown (he could return to 20 homers this season). How many second basemen, in the history of baseball, have had 82 RBIs in 6-straight seasons? The answer is six men. Since 2009 Cano has hit .314. Only two men can better that (Miguel Cabrera .331 and Joe Mauer .320). During that time Cano's hit .313 or better five times (he hit .302 in 2011). He's only 32 years old.
Rendon drew some eyebrows at the draft. Why? How many players hit .285 with 20 homers, 15 steals, 80 RBIs and 110 runs scored last season? Rendon and Mike Trout. It was also Rendon's first full big league season, and he qualifies at 2B and 3B. So does Lawrie. That gives me two guys who can play 2B, 3B, middle infield and corner infield. That's some nice flexibility (Alvarez will qualify at 1B early in the year as well).
Reyes doesn't need to steal 40+ bases. All he needs to do is play. If he's out there 140+ games with those sluggers behind him in Toronto, success will follow. You know that he hit .287 with 30 steals and 94 runs scored last year?
Cabrera signed with the White Sox, and he an Eaton give me two strong 4/5 outfield options. I went with Eaton for his combination of batting average and stealability. Some might have missed that he hit .300 with a .362 OBP and 15 steals last season despite being seemingly injured all season long.
PITCHERS
You have to play your draft. I'm not in love with taking an SP in the 5th round, but 12 starting pitchers 
were taken in the top-50 selections, so I had to roster a guy. Wainwright has concerns coming back from elbow surgery, but cautious optimism is warranted given his track record.
Cobb will break out this season. The last two years his K/9 is over eight, and he's one of the best ground ball arms in baseball (56.5 percent for his career).
Dang near went Alex Wood over Ross. All I'm looking for is a repeat effort from Ross. Hope his forearm is sound.
Archer is better than many seem to think. Last season he posted a 1.50 GB/FB and a 8.00 K/BB ratio. The key is walks. If he can get back to the 2.66 per nine mark he posted in 2013 then we'll have something.
Holland is a solid 5th SP in this league. He was hurt last year limiting him to 37 innings, but here are the numbers over his last 39 outings: 3.13 ERA, 1.25 WHIP with a 7.70 K/9 mark.
Garza has injury concerns, but when on the bump there just aren't many that are more consistent. Since 2008 his WHIP has been between 1.18 and 1.26 every season. Been three years since he threw 170-innings though, and his K-rate was down last season (6.94 per nine).
Papelbon might be dealt. He will still be the closer for his new team you would have to think. He's had at least 29 saves in 9-straight seasons. No other active pitcher has a current streak longer than four years (Craig Kimbrel).
Reed lost seven games with a 4.25 ERA. He also recorded 29 saves for a third straight season while posting the best K/9 rate (10.47) and BB/9 rate (2.28) of the last three seasons. No way his HR/9 rate will be 1.67 again (career 1.12).
K-Rod doesn't have a team yet but who can't seem him signing somewhere to close after racking up 44 saves for the Brewers last year.
BENCH
Granderson hit 20 homers last season, and studies have shown that number could have been 28 if the fence changes at CitiField were enacted last season.
Greene posted an impressive 1.78 GB/FB with a better than 50 percent ground ball rate. He also struck out 81 batters in 78.2 innings.
Romo is washed up. Really? Why do you think that? He had a 0.95 WHIP, 4.92 K/BB ratio, more than a strikeout an innings and had a four year low with his line drive rate. He also had a 1.80 ERA and 0.85 WHIP in the second half.
Clippard has been, arguably, the most effective middle reliever in baseball since 2010. He's certainly the most durable making at least 70 appearances covering at least 70-innings in each season. He could see some work in the 9th inning, but why on earth would the A's remove Sean Doolittle from that spot?
Rutledge could go 15/15 if the Angels just let him play. Will they? Rutledge will likely be a batting average drain regardless, but he qualifies at shortstop and is slated to play second base.
Russell or Tim Lincecum? I totally should have gone Lincecum, right? In the end I took a shot on Russell. If he stuns and breaks camp with the team I'll have a steal. If not, I'll likely head to the waiver-wire to boost my staff.
OVERALL
I need former stars to rebound.
I need help at catcher.
I need to make a strong add off waivers at the starting pitcher spot.
I merely need a little luck to have a strong bullpen.
I feel great about my team batting average outlook.
I feel like I picked up power in the middle rounds.
I really like the fact that I was able to roster lots of roster flexibility on the infield.
We'll see how it turns out, but I like the way this squad came together.