With March coming to a close and April just around the corner, it is a sign that spring is here and also that the baseball season is about to start! Normally, I would only follow my favourite team (the Toronto Blue Jays) during the MLB season, however, I find it much more interesting when I participate in some form of sports pool. In this way, you can draft your favourite players and follow different teams during the season. I definitely enjoy playing baseball actually (well softball to be exact), but because of my odd work schedule, I might have to forego participating this season, so I’ll have to find my enjoyment for the game through a fantasy baseball pool. After playing a couple of years, I found that it was definitely important to draft a balanced team. Because the league I play in is a “Head to Head” format, teams face off against another team each week and earn points on different pitching and batting categories. If teams are too centred on hitting categories, they may concede in many of the pitching categories and vice versa. That is why players who are well rounded are more highly sought after.

Last season, I thought I made a critical error in choosing Matt Holliday (player for the Colorado Rockies) in the early rounds because the Rockies weren’t considered a great team, but I was completely surprised when the Rockies made it to the World Series last season and was lead by Matt Holliday (who was having an MVP-like season). This year, I was hoping I made a good decision in choosing Johan Santana as my first pick, because he was a great pitcher in the stronger American League, but now he’s been traded to the New York Mets, hopefully he’ll do even BETTER in the weaker National League. We also placed a small wager on the pool ($10/team) in order to make it more interesting and have people actually try to participate for the whole season. Anyhow, with the new season only a few days away, I’m hopeful that THIS will be my season! (though I say that every year….lol)

-Stephen