In a league with only four keepers, Yasiel Puig was not drafted this year. It’s safe to say that he probably will be on a team within a year or so. By Owen Main

In this week’s podcast episode, Owen sits down with Jesse Pereira, the commissioner of the fantasy baseball league he and Andy are also in. We get into some mental parts of the draft, why Jesse thinks Owen picked some regression candidates, and why Owen has a much better chance than he has in the previous few years.

A breakdown of a few key players on each of the teams in the league that everyone who plays fantasy baseball will enjoy.

Who do YOU think is the most overrated player in fantasy this season?

I got kicked out of my fantasy football league.

LaDainian Tomlinson used to be a SURE THING in fantasy football. There are no more sure things, including me keeping up with my fantasy football team… By Dirk [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Fellow fansmanshipper — Andy Stevens — is our league commissioner. He offered me a trade early in the season that seemed like a good one so that he could get Green Bay’s defense. I widely ignored his request. It wasn’t really purposeful. I just wasn’t in the habit of checking things and never could quite get there. Also, I didn’t change my team’s lineup for at least 3 straight weeks.

So, about two weeks ago, Andy took control of my team. I was notified via email. I no longer had control of “Sneaky Sneaky” in the California Penal League, or whatever it was called. I can’t even see it on my Yahoo! profile anymore. It’s gone. Like it never even existed.

Do I feel guilty? — a little. I’ve fielded an efforted — if mediocre — team for the past 6-8 seasons. There’s an amount of pride in that. Here’s my take on the NFL and especially fantasy football: the players and product on the field are amazing, but for a casual fantasy football player, it’s become harder to compete. There are no more “guarantees” at the running back position and there is so much information out there that someone can spend time researching and have a huge advantage. There are far less “gut feelings” that are right.

Because I generally enjoy gut feelings paying off, and with no time to research (among other reasons I’m sure), fantasy football league had generally out-grown me. I could no longer keep up.

I’ve talked to Andy since then, but my banishment hasn’t come up. It’s probably because I don’t really have the time or energy to care and because he understands. And I think I’ll just stick to baseball from here on out.

Also, to the rest of the guys in that league, sorry. It’s been a busy year — on the road for over 100 days already and trying to build this site in my spare-time. So Sneaky Sneaky turned into a ghost ship.

It’s been a fun 2012 so far. It just hasn’t been one that I’m able to keep up with my fantasy football league. I guess it’s not my league anymore…

And, in case you were wondering whether I’ve been paying attention to the NFL, I’ve been paying enough attention. This is the perfect time for Super Bowl picks. In the NFC, the two options are the Falcons and Giants. I’m going with the Falcons this year. In the AFC, things are a little freakier. I think the Ravens are a dark horse for the AFC championship game, but I’m picking the Texans. You’re welcome. Now back to work.

If we missed anyone who is “from around SLO County,” let us know and we will make amends next time. Happy listening.

1) I really wanted a chocolate shake and they agreed to stop on the way.

2) I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

3) The third, and possibly most important reason I went was because I wanted to explore what the trade market was like for Yankees slugger Mark Teixeira.

In our fantasy baseball league (Trash Talkers Unanimous Fantasy Baseball), you can keep a player twice. This being the third season of the league’s existence, many players have now been kept twice and are in need of dealing. Teixeira and Felix Hernandez are my two keepers that I can’t keep anymore and I need to get something back for them before the season ends.

Usually, I’d post something on the league’s message board, but who better to bounce trade ideas off than the co-commissioners who also happened to be the gentlemen I was going to the movie with?

In the car, I steered the conversation toward Teixeira (whose 32nd birthday is today), how great he is, and who I could get for him in a trade. When we sat down at the theater (one empty seat between each one of us…) all I wanted to do was talk fantasy baseball.

And when the movie came on, all I could think was, WOW! If these people in this future world had sports and fantasy baseball in their lives, there probably wouldn’t be the need for them to kill like 23 teenagers a year….

Sports are a cultural mirror and outlet for people around the world. Long ago, gladiators fought to the death in front of thousands of adoring fans (or was that just a Russell Crowe movie?).

Natives to North and Central America played an early version of basketball where the loser was sacrificed to the Gods.

While our sports and games have become less lethal over the years, what they represent is the same. Fans get a sense of belonging, somewhere to yell and express emotion with far less judgment than in real life.

Fansmanship’s Luke Johnson waxed poetic on the subject in describing riotous, beer-guzzling gangs of fans, gagging on trash talk and name-calling, in order that as they victor, they might swell with superiority.

In other words, a collective experience of victory, emotion, and the rush of combat without the consequences.

Many of these values are identified in The Hunger Games as a means of political control. When one of the districts riots about the game in the movie, images of Detroit or more recently Lexington are evoked. The viewer realizes that, while we don’t kill the losers of our sporting events, the fans of the events have a shockingly similar amount of emotion entangled in the outcome. For evidence, all you have to do is search YouTube for “soccer riots,” or search the news for “Brian Stow.”

Despite these too-common acts of social discord, I am thankful that I live in a time and place that lets the “acted out” violence or adversity take place on the field, court, or gridiron and that generally people do not get killed on or off the field.

And maybe, someday soon, someone will make me an offer Mark Teixeira.