I would like to make an early season prediction.

Winner of the Carter division will be...........................................................................Sexy Underpants.

It certainly won't be me... what with the 20th overall pick and such. *grumble*

Say, I owe someone about $9 I think.

I had 19th pick in Carter last year and finished middle of the pack after deciding I wouldnt make the playoffs, enduring lots of injuries and trading away some talent for next year (Clearly that backfired since we lost the rosters and didn't do keepers). So I'd say that your success is largely up to you, picking 20th isnt the end of the world.

To me the hard part of a snake draft is being near or on one of the ends. It's tough to have up to 20 picks made between picks (even if you get two in a row). If a position starts flying off the board there's not much you can do about it.

I'd say that's the reason I finish in the middle of the pack each year, but that's more because I'm not that good.

Barfield has a few interesting names at the top of the draft. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

Krengel,

why do you owe someone $9. Is there a fee we need to pay to someone for participating?

I actually like to draft closer to the end, but thats in a draft where there are fewer managers(10). Maybe thats just cause i am used to drafting near the end.

I was told that each BBFL participant owes $7.50 (US) as their share of the Yahoo Fantasy Baseball Plus expenses. Assuming that's true, I'll be at the Dome on opening day if our patron (Carter devision) wants to arrange a meeting.

Without a doubt Pistol, that is the primary difficulty. It is almost impossible to plan ahead during the draft, because if there is a run on a position, you just have to wait your turn.

If you want to find a silver-lining, it is that given the helpless situation, some pressure is taken off, because you can just accept the runs, choose the best available talent and wait till the end of the draft to fill in since, for example, no one is likely to be stocking up on the 20th-23rd best catchers.

(No animals were hurt by commas in the posting of this comment)

I'll be forwarding extra dough to our coordinator to cover one additional subscription fee for any BBFL participant who may be financially squeezed enough to not have nine bucks lying around to spend on play. I know what it's like; I've been there. No need to claim it publicly or to me; just let Scott know that you'd like to be comped, and the first one who does will get the freebie.

I'd also encourage others who are comfortable to make the same offer. We get a lot of students on here.

All I need to know is where to send the money ($15 US, right?). E-mail me at cb4@cashette.com if you know. (Scott?)

I'll make the same offer as Craig. It's the least I can do, given that I haven't been able to get Scott to send me details on how to pay for last year's entry.

I still owe cash from last year too...

Where do I send my 15 bucks?

Can it be in GBP?

Not happy with your BBFL team from the draft? Want to try again? Spots are available in my private (free) Yahoo league. You'll be competing against 4 members of the Manter family (we don't trade amongst ourselves so there's no chance of cheating). The 12-team league is always challenging and active. Head-to-head scoring with these stats: R, HR, RBI, SB, AVG, OPS, W, SV, HLD, ERA, WHIP, K/9. A few BBFL teams have signed up for our league in past years and I think they enjoyed it.

Sign up for private league 119246; the password is "baseball".

Live draft tonight (Friday) at 8 pm Eastern.

PS - I'm the Eastern Shore Birds in Alomar BBFL, but I'm the Dismal Swamp Gas in my league.

Barfield finished in about 3 hours and 15 minutes last night. There was one team that apparently wasn't around, but the shot clock didn't go to the autopicks so we had to wait the full 90 seconds to get the pick. Otherwise it was pretty smooth sailing.

My team ended up a little better than I was expecting and better than previous years so hopefully I can get out of my 8th place rut. Usually I end up with Alex Gonzalez type players at the end, but this year I must have taken the right positions at the right time because I was still getting contributing players in the early 20s rounds.

I didn't expect to take 2 catchers, but when Jeff Mathis was around in the last round I snapped him up. The best part was seeing the frustration of the other owners who were apparently also trying to get him (never wait in a large draft!).

Mathis in the last round? Excellent. My favourite fantasy baseball moment was from my last auction in 1995. I started off the bidding on Jose Mesa (with the creative nickname Joe Table) at the lowest (50 cents in our league). There was dead silence (speculation had been that Paul Shuey would earn the closer's job), and I was ecstatic. It worked out well.

My feelings about last night's draft are mixed at best. I made a few mistakes (I always do), but all-in-all I got several of the players I targetted and I was able to satisfy my pre-draft strategy goals.

As a rule if I am drafting late, I go against the grain. Everyone started out with offense, so decided to go for pitching, and got King Felix and Harden as my first two picks (20th and 21st.)

My second goal was to try and draft young. Since just about every single 30-home run hitter was taken by my third pick that decision was easy. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the amphetamines ban and tight division races wear down the veterans and encourage development of the younger players.

Anyways, for anyone who is interested, here is my draft recap.

1. Felix Hernandez
2. Rich Harden
3. Huston Street
4. Felipe Lopez
5. Jason Varitek
6. Jeff Francoeur
7. Zach Duke
8. Ryan Zimmerman
9. Conor Jackson
10. Josh Barfield
11. Dave Roberts
12. Brian N. Anderson
13. Chad Orvella
14. Erik Bedard
15. Tony Graffanino
16. Kyle Farnsworth
17. Corey Koskie
18. Adam Eaton
19. Matt Lawton
20. Kaz Matsui
21. Alex "Golden Sombrero" Gonzalez
22. Edwin Jackson
23. Carl Pavano
24. Dioner Navarro
25. Frank Francisco

I had to autodraft as I live in Halifax and 9 est is 10 pm for me. Add given that I have a 1 year old who likes to rise at 5:30 am...well...let's just say I go to bed far earlier than I would like.

Having said that, I'm pretty happy with my team with the exception of my failure to put Jeff Bagwell on the "do not draft" list -- thus being stuck with a first sacker who is likely not going to play at all in 2006 AND having to choose from Scott Hatteberg or Eli Marero as a replacement.

So, if someone is looking for some pitching or outfiled help in the Carter Division, and have an extra 1B lying around, have a look-see at Molina's Sister.