There’s a new breed of fantasy demon haunting me: The Guy Who I Almost Picked Up. Usually I wait until the very last second and change my mind. Then someone else grabs him and he’s amazing. A few fellers fall into that category in the early going. Here are a few who I had in my grasp at various times since the season started: Joey Votto, Ramon Vazquez, Ryan Ludwick, Emil Brown, Ryan Church and Edinson Volquez. Nothing other than a bizarre patience with the humps that I drafted has stopped me from owning each and every one. Meanwhile, I’ve already dropped Matt Garza and Garret Anderson and each are currently as good as they’ve ever been.

I’m starting to think it is time to shut this web site down. The more fantasy advice I start doling out, the worse my teams do. For now, as I fall into eighth place in my baseball league, I’ll just pretend everyone in my league just stole my tips. If you’ve been reading this space regularly and somehow still maintaining basic cognitive functions, you’ll remember that I finished in a tie for last place (with Greg, of course) in my basketball league the first year after we wrote a detailed fantasy hoops preview.

You know things are bad when you get a twinge of enjoyment out of the news that Ryan Doumit is headed to the DL. The first-place team in my league has him, and he’s way better than any of my guys. This is what the 2008 season has come to, already.