Bean Ball

Baseball has been a constant in my life since I can remember. Listening to the Yankees on our red Milwaukee radio in northern Vermont, hearing John Sterling’s voice call out home run calls, playing wiffleball in the front yard, playing little league with my friends, and dreaming of playing in the big leagues – baseball connected me with my family, friends, and myself. As time has gone on, my love of the game has grown and shifted as I realized the intricacies of the game, the statistics and analyses, and all the different ways I can simply enjoy the sport that brought me so much happiness (This also happened to coincide with my realization that I was never going pro, which may or may not be related). However, fantasy baseball has never been a large part of my life. The closest thing I had done was drafting imaginary teams where my brothers and I pretended to be the players in our wiffle ball league. I had never tracked stats, made projections, or researched for players I liked and ones I did not for anything more than fun. This year, that is changing. 

I am currently a sophomore at the University of Notre Dame and studying Psychology. I love school and am excited to pursue a career in this field, but I also have a desire to learn and apply knowledge beyond it. Baseball often has served as my outlet for that itch. Last year, I watched my friend Holden (who will be involved in this platform as well) and his older brother Quinn compete against each other in their fantasy baseball league with their friends from home. They both quickly identified me as someone who could help them (I am an avid Baseball Savant frequenter, and neither had fully realized the site’s potential; they also had both committed the sin of believing in bWAR more than fWAR). As I began to help them identify players and make projections about who could be good, who could be great, who was clearly getting lucky, and all the outcomes in between, I had a thought: “I am way better than these two at this. Why am I not playing?” This led to the foundation of our new league, which includes many different guys from our dorm. This season is the inaugural season, and I intend to win. 

As I have prepared for the season, I thought, “Hey, I am spending hours scouring stats pages and identifying players as well as maintaining a respectable standing at school – why not add more to my plate and blog this whole experience?” And so that is what I am doing. Throughout this, I hope to a) share my thoughts on the game, b) give myself another creative outlet to use for the rest of the semester and the summer, c) document me crushing my friends, and d) maybe learn a few lessons along the way (I have a feeling humility will probably be chief among them). So, if this interests you, read along. This will probably be weekly, but no guarantees. My draft strategies and then recap will be up over the next week or so, so stay tuned.