I’m not this bad, am I?

When Max Scherzer had less than a good outing in his first major league start Monday, May 5th, I have to admit it brought a little smile to my face. The young Arizona phenom commanded a hefty price in the leagues that I’m in, more than I was willing to pay. Or a faster acting manager had already grabbed him the week before, so Max is not the guy who’s going to turn my pitching staff around!

In his major league debut, Max relieved in the third inning, and proceeded to retire 13 straight batters, seven on strike outs. Thus the hype started. It was just two years ago Max was leading the Missouri Tigers to the NCAA playoffs, then signed on with the Boras get all the money you can get agency. After an almost one year hold out (he signed the night before the next year’s draft, when the Diamondbacks would have lost rights to him), he showed the flashes of why Mr. Boras was able to get him all that money.

The bottom line is I wanted him for my teams, but I didn’t get him (expect for my Diamond Challenge team, where you can take anyone you want…and is one of the reasons it’s the best way to play fantasy baseball!). I wanted to root for the kid to do well, heck, he’s a local boy from St. Louis. But in fantasy, there’s no room for local favorites. If you’re a hard core fantasy player, you root for your players to do well, and everyone else’s to do badly. So now I have to put my hex on Max, and hope he turns out like this year’s other phenom, Johnny Cueto. And remember, those special players who can dominate at an early age are far and few between.

Being a hard core fantasy player is not easy. It’s really hard when I’m at Busch Stadium, dressed in Red, and rooting for a Cardinal victory. But when one of my pitchers is going against the Cardinals, or one of my hitters is up against a Cardinal pitcher, I have mixed emotions. I root for unearned runs, my players to do well and the Cardinals still win. Nobody ever said being a fantasy baseball team owner is easy!