Cleat Marks #5

[WebHamster]

This thread contains comments on Madison Jones's Article "Cleat Marks #5", which was posted in the Cafe's Articles section on April 17, 2008. The full article can be read here.

[Grounded Polo]

Pretty solid article, your writing style is very smooth.

Championships definitely are not won in March. The first 5-6 rounds of any draft are really just trying to dodge bullets like Chris Carpenter last year. I know that on one of my winning teams, it was loaded up with bums like Rocco Baldelli, Felipe Lopez, Travis Hafner, and other terrible picks. It's not easy to get your money's worth for all of your early choices. I've been playing for 10 years now, have had around 150 teams across several sports, and it hasn't happened to me yet. Most leagues are won by managing a respectable draft and grabbing some of those late round fliers and waiver wires that turn into fantasy gold. On one of my cafe teams, my 3rd, 5th and 7th round picks (Dunn, Russ Martin and Thome respectively) have been virtual nonfactors but I haven't bombed because of guys like Edison Volquez, Jason Kubel, Ervin Santana, Conor Jackson, and Stephen Drew who have stepped it up. They were all picked in the range of 212-308, where any fantasy owner is likely picking up those fliers and upside guys that make the difference. Who knows which guys will continue their success but there's still much more that goes into a championship than getting all the right studs.