With opening day finally here, I have been giving some serious consideration to the state of my teams to start the year. I am in 5 leagues this year, and two are extremely serious roto leagues. So below are my thoughts, or issues that I am dealing with, on these teams.

Fantasy Gameday Keeper league - 12-team, roto, 27-man roster, 6×6 (Walks, Holds) 3 round keeper inflation each year

This is going to be the best league that I am in this year. I can just feel it. I started this league with 11 other very smart and diligent owners. The keeper rules, and a minor league system, set this league apart from the others. However, I am already dealing with injuries in this league. I have Curtis Granderson on the DL. I have also lost Cameron Maybin due to being sent down. Normally I would drop Maybin like a bad habit, but he has solid keeper value. Since I drafted him in the 22nd round he will only cost me a 19th round pick next year. My major issue at the moment is at shortstop. I was only able to draft one SS in the draft… Felipe “I am going to cry and not win the job” Lopez. Just great! Now I have Jeff Keppinger starting at shortstop. Not that this is a horrible thing, but his starting job should only be temporary. You lousy FukuHomies… You will pay for stealing Yuniesky Betancourt from me in the draft. Wait… Never mind, you dropped him… Thank you! I will need more time to see how my pitching staff develops.

Fantasy Baseball Writers League - 12-team, roto, 5×5, 26-man roster

This is another serious league with some heavy hitters. We are playing for bragging rights, as the winner gets his site plastered across all of the others as the champion. Once again, I am dealing with injuries. Of the players I drafted, I have lost Rocco Baldelli and Scot Shields to injuries. I have dumped Luis Castillo since he is slow to rebound from off-season knee surgery, and had Brad Lidge on the DL. I also drafted Colby Rasmus, who I have dropped since being sent down to the minors. At least all of the players that I have dropped were drafted in the 21st round and later. Speaking of dropping a gift from heaven… one of the owners dropped Mark Teahen for Gerald Laird when Salty was demoted. I used a waiver claim on him, because he was a definite improvement to my team. Never hang on to a top waiver wire priority like it is your first born child. Use it when you have a large need. Once again, I will need more time to determine where my pitching is.

Work League - 8-team, H2H, 21-man roster

I know this is a very shallow league, but it is filled with a lot of friends. So it holds a special place in my heart. Besides, I am the 2 time defending Champion. As with any shallow league, my roster looks like a lot of all-stars waiting to happen. However, so do the others. This league also goes crazy with player movement. One owner has already traded half of his team, and another has been streaming 5-6 position players during these first few games. The best part… they are facing each other this week. We will need to see where my offense goes, but my pitching is what I built my team with. Here is my current starting staff: Erik Bedard, Justin Verlander, Dice-K, Tim Lincecum, Rich Hill, Dustin McGowen, Phil Hughes, and Rich Harden. Oh, and I have Brad Lidge in this league as well.

Mafia League - 12-team Roto, 5×5, 27-man roster

This league is a typical league with one major difference. They overvalue saves. Most of the players in the mafia league are people who listen to the Fantasy 411 on MLB radio. The two hosts preach that you have two top notch closers coming out of the draft. So when you have a league full of players that want to use that strategy, you get all decent closers selected by the 11th round. As some of the long time readers will remember, this is the league where I was unable to draft a closer out of the draft. Well… this year I picked two solid closers. Except there is one HUGE problem. I drafted Lidge and Chad Cordero, and neither of them have pitched this season. However, I did get the save from Riske on opening day! Otherwise, I feel that my offense is balanced with power and speed.

Fun H2H league - 8-team, 22-man roster

This league was started by my friend Duzzy, and I joined to help fill out the league. This league has plenty of additional stats like Quality Starts, K/9, Innings Pitched, Total Bases and walks. So once again I loaded up on pitching, and came away with Dan Haren, John Smoltz, Rich Hill, A.J. Burnett, Dice-K, Matt Cain, Ian Snell, Matt Garza, and Oliver Perez. I even have 4 closers with Joe Nathan, Rafeal Soriano, Joakim Soria, and (yet again) Brad Lidge. But don’t think I sacrificed my offense for pitching, because my top three picks were David Wright, Grady Sizemore, and David Ortiz. This league should be a lot of fun.

Looking at all of my teams, I cannot believe that I have Brad Lidge on four of them. What was I thinking? To be honest, two of the drafts he fell later then I thought he should. For example, the “Duzzy” league, I drafted him in the 20th round since it was just after he had his surgery. We will see how it all pans out.