I often picture myself reading fangraphs.com like an elderly gentleman would read the Sunday New York Times. Brandy in one hand, a fine cigar in another, and Ottoneu's Pick Six playing the role of the Sunday Crossword. I'm a regal gentleman, you see. I do regal things like start condescending sentences with "Back in my day"
Back in my day, people didn't comment on fangraphs articles. Fangraphs was basically David Appleman posting mind-blowing graphs and more importantly, making fangraphs.com the go-to source for Batting Average On Balls In Play data. When fangraphs acquired Marc Hulet as a writer-to-be-named later, I nearly lost my mind. Marc was Canadian and posted to the very regal, very Canadian, statistically-minded Blue Jays Blog, battersbox.ca
So, while I was reading fangraphs in the aforementioned way, I stumbled across a Derrek Lee article. Derrek Lee was one of my very first keepers in my longest running fantasy baseball leagues, so I still view him as a can't miss prospect and not a 36-year old veteran. My team is actually littered with prospects from the Baseball America Top-100 of '97 and '98.
In a league where you basically keep everyone, Adrian Beltre (3) is still holding it down strong in my dynasty league and I released Paul Konerko (2) last year (ouch). Kerry Wood (4) is long gone and so is Miguel Tejada (10). Players like Eli Marrero, Matt Clement, Ben Petrick, Wade Miller, and Gil Meche probably robbed me of about sixty hours of my teenage years and then there was Ramon Ortiz, who by all accounts, would've resulted in an ulcer had I been 10 years older.
But Lee's almost-power (for the era) and quality speed made him a steadfast contributor to my fantasy squad at first base. So, if the price was right (and not $8M/year) I could totally get behind the idea of Toronto bringing in Lee to split ABs with Adam Lind and Edwin Encarnacion.
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