Victory Speech

I ascribe my victory to those two skills necessary to win every Rotisserie league - luck and the lack of major injuries, which as I see it, is basically luck.

It began immediately following the draft when I replaced Colorado OF Jeff Baker with Pittsburgh 3B Freddy Sanchez. (One could say the luck continued as Jeff Baker was recalled in September and proceeded to hit his way into the Rox' 2007 plans.)

Another big factor was the way I constructed my team - $30+ players and $10 and under players. What this ended-up doing was preventing me from trading players because they were either 1. too expensive (Adam Dunn $38) and too hard to fit under either my or the other team's salary cap or 2. too valuable at their salary to trade i.e. $5 Ryan Howard.

John Bogle would be proud to see that limited trading activity.

Luck also helped me by putting other teams in disadvantagous positions when players were called-up to the majors. Dodgers catcher Russ Martin was recalled 20 minutes before the deadline with neither Dan nor Rob in physical position to take him.

Or causing other teams to hesitate like Steve did with Brandon Phillips. I was then able to trade a pool pick-up for a closer, Tom Gordon.

Which segues nicely into another bit of Roto luck. I didn't lose my end of my trades this year. Brandon Phillips continued to produce all season long and is now a more valuable player than Tom Gordon, but I got the saves from Gordon I wanted.

I dealt Juan Pierre for HR/RBI. Austin Kearns did nicely but not as well as Pierre did on Steve's team.

And so on.

Thanks. Hopefully, the luck continues next year. (Famous last words heard through Nevada. Or upstate New York. Or Eastern Connecticut. Or on the Mississippi River. Or..)