Vandals League: Melky Way McDingerberries

Our contributor and my good college buddy Charlie invited me to participate in a fantasy baseball league this year. Initially, I thought it would be too much of a responsibility, having to change the lineup virtually every day for the stretch of the 162-game season. He made a solid point that I could use fantasy baseball as a means of getting closer to the sport, helping me generate good content for the blog. He made a great point, so I accepted his invitation.

The majority of people in this league are friends from college. In my opinion, the best fantasy sports leagues are those which consist of people who all know each other personally. It always makes for some good-humored trash-talking with a little friendly competition at the same time.

Coming up with a creative and clever fantasy team name is something I consider to be “serious business.” All that really matters, in the long run, is being the champion amongst all of your buddies, but having the best team name and logo is a competition in itself. As a designer, I have a leg up on the competition right out of the gate.

Humor plays a big role in having the best team name and logo in a fantasy league with your buddies. After passing up several ideas that were either too offensive or lame, please allow me to introduce you to the Melky Way McDingerberries, named after Melky Cabrera who is one of the better guys on the team. Here is the order in which I picked my team:

Kris Bryant
Chicago Cubs, 3B/OF

Justin Verlander
Detroit Tigers, SP

Buster Posey
San Francisco Giants, C

Mike Moustakas
Kansas City Royals, 3B

Javier Baez
Chicago Cubs, 2B/3B/SS

Hanley Ramirez
Boston Red Sox, 1B

DJ LeMahieu
Colorado Rockies, 2B

Jose Ramirez
Cleveland Indians, 3B/OF

Joc Pederson
Los Angeles Dodgers, OF

Randal Grichuk
St. Louis Cardinals, OF

Melky Cabrera
Chicago White Sox, OF

Jharel Cotton
Oakland Athletics, SP

J.A. Happ
Toronto Blue Jays, SP

Andrew Benintendi
Boston Red Sox, OF

Asdrubal Cabrera
New York Mets, SS

Cam Bedrosian
Los Angeles Angels, RP

Ty Blach
San Francisco Giants, SP

Dan Otero
Cleveland Indians, RP

Addison Reed
New York Mets, RP

Tony Watson
Pittsburgh Pirates, RP

Hector Neris
Philadelphia Phillies, RP

Brett Gardner
New York Yankees, OF

Marcus Semien
Oakland Athletics, SS

Max Kepler
Minnesota Twins, OF

Nick Markakis
Atlanta Braves, OF

I have never participated in a fantasy baseball league and to be honest I did not do much research prior to draft time. This made it difficult for me in terms of drafting players in an order that sets me up for success. I had to rely primarily on last year’s stats and projected stats for each player.

One big mistake I made was waiting too long to acquire pitchers. By the time I realized I made this mistake, most of the remainder of my picks had to be pitchers. If you look at my draft order above, you will see that I picked a grip of pitchers one after the other.

It will take some time for me to fully understand the finer details of what makes a winning fantasy baseball team, but with 162 games in a season, I have some time to figure out what to do and what not to do to hopefully put myself in position for the top spot.

It feels good to get back into baseball. I’ve never had a favorite team, but I always imitated players when I played with my friends growing up. As the season gets underway, I’m going to try my best to have at least one article up every week, recapping my successes and downfalls.