So I did the draft for our rotisserie league on Tuesday night. Not my best draft, but I think I did okay. You can catch the current standings in our league here. I manage the Zephyrs. As of this writing I’m in first place!

So, highlights: I have a high RBI team going with Mark Teixeira, Hank Blalock, and David Ortiz. I got some cheap role players in Jose Lopez, Dan Johnson, Nick Swisher, and Mark Kotsay. I should also have better luck in the ERA and WHIP categories this year with Felix Hernandez, Curt Schilling, and Mike Mussina. That’s always been a downfall for me, so I’m looking forward to some good pitching.

You can click on each team name in the standings to see who manages the team and what players they have. After seeing Alex Rodriguez go for 39 and Vladimir Guerrero for 41, I fell pretty good that none of my players were over 22. That should bode well for building a good, inexpensive team for next year, too.

I feel like I’m channeling Billy Beane.

UPDATE: After a little fiddling, I figured out how to make our league’s standings show up on the left hand side of the blog. Thanks to WordPress Widgets!

No, I’m not nuts. Well, at least not in regards to that headline. This refers to the fact that baseball season has started and we get another year to cheer on the Mariners.

I have been involved with a fantasy baseball league for several years, now, so the beginning of the year is always exciting. We will be drafting our teams on April 11. I’ll give an update here when we’re done to let you know how I make out.

I actually think there’s some optimism for the M’s after two pretty bad years. The defense looks fantastic. Beltre and Sexson at the corners are solid defenders. Lopez has moved to second and actually looks like he’s feeling comfortable there. Betancourt at short is magic. You really have to watch him a while to understand just how good he is. And, he’s only 24.

In the outfield, Ichiro is still Ichiro. Ibañez is average as a defender, but he doesn’t leave a huge hole in left. Reed is turning into a heck of a center fielder. I heard that he trains with Darin Erstad in the offseason. It shows.

Finally, my new favorite player is Kenji Johjima. He’s our starting catcher and is here fresh from Japan. He has been hitting well, catching well, and thrown out a few baserunners already. Such fun.

The offense looks pretty decent with some pop in most of the lineup and some great contact hitters at the top and bottom of the order.

The pitching, as always, is the question mark. Moyer is always good for 15 or so wins. Piniero has the skill, but can be a head case. Washburn showed some good stuff and should eat up innings. Meche is another head case and Hernandez has amazing stuff, but he still has some lessons to learn. The bullpen is shaky at best after Soriano.

Bottom line: It’ll be a bumpy year, but I don’t think we’ll be at 90+ losses again. This team is better than that and it should show in the record. The really good news is that the team is young and shouldn’t change much for a couple of years. They have a chance to become very solid without a lot of churn.

No, you haven’t misread that headline. No, I’m not going to try to claim that chess is a sport (we can have that argument later).

I’m talking about Mike D’Auria. One of many legitimate athletes from my alma mater.

I have to admit that I’m still amazed anyone could put that much time into a sport and still do well in classes there. I was up to my ears in it and had a hard time just keeping up Star Trek. Way to go, Mike!

He was one of my favorites when I was growing up and always seemed like a class act. This story just makes him all the more loveable to me.

truehoop.com pointed to some research on political donations of famous sports stars. Clyde Drexler is listed as donating $2000 to the Bush/Cheney campaign in 2004.

Way to go, Clyde.

I’ve been a Seahawks fan since the Dave Kreig and Steve Largent days of the mid-80s. It was painful to watch them through the 90s and in the pre-Holmgren days. Last year was the beginning of a payoff for all of that suffering, though. To have actually made it to the big game was the first step.

This was the next: MVP agrees to 8-year deal

As far as I can tell, they’ve kept the core of this team together: Hasselbeck, Alexander, Jones, Hutchinson, Jackson, Engram on the offense and Winstrom, Fischer, Bernard, Tatupu, Hill, Trufant on the defense.

It sure looks like they have a good shot at avoiding the usual Super Bowl loser slump. Here’s hoping I’m watching them again next February.