It's that time of the year for a draft

No, not a fantasy draft, Tribe Cards' Giveaway From Outer Space Thingy. Basically David from Tribe Cards is an inveterate pack ripper but doesn't want to have all that junk cluttering up the house. David's going to rip a pack of cards every day during the season. Then he gave us all an opportunity to select players in a fantasy draft format and if that player is pulled he'll send 'em to us after the season's over. If ya missed it, sorry. I mentioned it on Twitter at least twice and you should already be following Tribe Cards anyway! Here's the list of my picks mainly because it's an excuse to show off some Braves on the blog.

Initial Draft - #1 Pick Jason Heyward

True facts: Jason was not my #1 choice. That was Chipper Jones and he went #2 overall and was so popular he even got picked twice. I am quite happy with Heyward as my backup #1 choice though. I actually did pretty well considering there were over 40 people in the draft. Got 6 out of my overall Top 10 and three of those I missed went in the first round. You want to know who was the overall #1 pick in the draft? Dontrelle Willis. Not even kidding.

#2 Pick - Hank Aaron

If you're going to pick a legendary player early in the draft you may as well go large. Hank is in a surprising number of sets, at least as an insert.

#3 Pick - Kris Medlen

You know how loopy I am about Heyward? Kris is the pitching version of that obsession. I'm still kicking myself for not completely wiping out Check Out My Cards last summer when his cards cost pennies.

Pick #4 - Phil Niekro

Phil was my favorite pitcher as a kid and my first lesson in Baseball Is A Business as the Braves let him walk away to the Yankees to win his 300th game. He's also in a whole bunch of junkwax and Legends sets.

#5 Pick - Freddie Freeman

I've been so laser focused on my Heyward and Chipper and Medlen collections I've been neglecting Fab Five Freddie. I need to correct this before he goes off and becomes the premier first baseman in the NL.

#6 Pick - Reggie Jackson

Blogger ate my Reggie quip and I can't remember what I wrote now. Probably something about killing the queen.

#7 Pick - B.J. Upton 

Justin is probably the better player but I just like Bossman Junior better. Maybe it's because he used to play for the Rays and I like them a whole lot better than the D-Backs. Maybe it's because I pulled a whole bunch of B.J.'s cards back in the day and I hardly ever pull Justin Upton cards. Maybe it's because B.J. has a mustache and Justin doesn't. Yeah, that's it, I'm going with the mustache theory.

#8 Pick - Satchel Paige

There is a shameful lack of contemporary Satchel Paige cards out there but if David manages to pull one I WANT IT. Best pitcher ever in the history of the game period full stop no arguments.

#9 Pick - Justin Upton 

I don't want to say anything or even think it because I'm terrified of jinxing it but the way Justin looks this spring training he could have a monster season. Wait, no! I didn't just say that! I mean... he might turn into a monster and become a werewolf! And get suspended for eating an umpire during a night game under a full moon! (please be Sam Holbrook) And ruin the Braves' season like Braves seasons are always ruined because Braves fans deserve ruining AND I JINXED NOTHING DAMMIT, NOTHING

Here's my entire draft lineup, I'm kinda surprised I got as many as I did, Especially since Bip was a second round pick.

Mascot Supplemental Draft - Rangers Captain

When David did the pack rip giveaway last year, I wasn't very interested in cards at the time but I wanted to participate. Of course I requested all pony cards. Can you believe I actually got one? I chose Captain again because Chief Noc-a-Homa is no longer socially acceptable nowadays and the cheap Mr. Met knockoff the Braves have now just makes me sad.

Second Chance Draft

David did a short 6-pick second chance draft for anyone who missed the initial offering. I got five out of six, missing out only on Warren Spahn.

Pick #10 - Andrelton Simmons

Before last year's spring training, I was all "I guess Pastornicky's the new shortstop". Then after last year's spring training I was all "why isn't Simmons out opening day shortstop?" Then around the All-Star break I was all "Pastornicky who?" and now after seeing him utterly dominate the shortstop position I'm all "Rafael Furcal who? Ozzie Smith who? Honus Wagner who??" Yeah, I know, I'm Jinxey McJinxerson today.

#11 Pick - Julio Teheran

Having three blue chip prospects is a nice problem to have. Trading away two of the prospects and keeping the right one is even better than that. It's funny to see Julio plummet down Top Prospect lists because he actually played in a Major League game and isn't fresh and new anymore. I don't care about that, Julio is damn good and that's all that matters.

#12 Pick - Mark Lemke

I left Mark off the original list because, really, who the hell besides me is going to pick Lemke? Seeing the number of Braves fans in the draft scared me straight. Gotta pick Lemmer.

#13 Pick - Bobby Cox 

Thanks to Topps' seemingly random decisions to include managers or no managers in their flagship, Bobby doesn't have as many cards as he probably should. Any Bobby's a good Bobby though.

#14 - Marquis Grissom

Marquis was a last minute addition to my draft list and why not? I was collecting Grissom cards back when he was an Expo. I'm thinking I need to build up my stash of cards of the only guy who caught the last out in a Braves World Series victory in my lifetime. We never shoulda traded Marquis. If the Braves are still shut out of World Series wins a hundred years from now the drought should be called The Curse of Marquis.

Contestants can still claim players throughout the season so I might pick up a player here and there. Who wants to bet I pay more attention to this thing than my actual fantasy team?

Football League Fillers

Calling out for some fantasy football league players interested in a league....

Waxaholic

and

Thoughts And Sox

need players to fill out their leagues. Both have 9 in them now which means we can't draft until we get an even number of teams so go click on those links and beg for an invite.

I will be sending the winner of both leagues one of those small flat rate priority boxes full of football cards to get them the hell out of my house as a prize.

B.A. Benny needs one more player too, but I just signed up for Canuck's and Adam's leagues and I can't take on a third.No box of cards for that league, but Benny linked to another contest at No One's Going To Read This Blog so click and you might yet win some swag.

Blaster Box Fantasy Team

I'm pretty old school when it comes to cards. One of the things I used to do with the very first 1981 Topps cards I had as a kid was to rip open the packs I got on a trip to Matthew's Super Market with my grandparents and to sort out the cards into teams. One player at each position. If I didn't have a second baseman, then one of the 7 outfielders I pulled would end up becoming one with the aid of a well placed scribble over the OF and 2B written beside it. Don't give me that look, I was nine and 1981 Topps looks better with some slight embellishments. 

I still do this. I am not ashamed to admit this. Part of the reason I head up the BRING BACK TOPPS TOTAL!!!!1 movement is because I used to buy $10 blasters of that stuff frequently so I could build teams out of the packs on those long boring nights at work. Hey, there was a baseball game on the back, you were supposed to make teams out of them. I'll still do it with normal packs too. Topps and Upper deck aren't great for this anymore since they are broken up into series, but it's doable. For optimal team building pleasure, you need a fairly large set all in one series. Right now, Heritage is one of the better sets for this although 2010 Upper Deck is pretty good too. I've picked up a few Heritage packs here and there and I went through them this morning seeing if I could build a good team out of them. Out of 9 packs, I put together a pretty formidable fantasy lineup:

C Jorge Posada
1B Ryan Howard
2B Brandon Phillips
SS Miguel Tejada
3B Evan Longoria
OF Ryan Braun
OF Adam Lind
OF Andre Ethier
DH Prince Fielder
RHP Justin Verlander
LHP Cole Hamels
Manager Ozzie Guillen

Now that's a nifty little lineup right there with a feisty skipper to lead them to the promised land. The only way you could get that lineup in a fantasy league is if over half the owners in the league slept through the draft. I've got fantasy baseball on the brain right now because I'm in the middle of an e-mail draft that's been dragging out for a while. So far I have Braun, Tulowitzki, McCann, Sizemore and Zobrist in that draft which ain't too bad. Too bad there isn't a way to combine a fantasy league with ripping packs... Or is there?

Presenting Dayf's Most Recent Ridiculous Excuse To Rip Packs

What if we could combine a fantasy draft with ripping a blaster? We could open that puppy up and build a team to compete with other weirdos who like to do this sort of thing. You got your blaster in my fantasy draft! You got your fantasy draft in my blaster! Let's do this! 

If you are interested in

1. buying a blaster of 2010 Heritage
2. ripping it open with no hesitation or remorse
3. sorting out the cards by players and building a fantasy lineup
4. competing against a few other whacko people doing this
5. anteing up a few cards to use as prizes

Then leave me a comment expressing your interest.
Full details tonight if people actually want to do this.

ATTENTION: Anyone in the Punk Rock Paint Fantasy Baseball League

If you're in the league, log into Yahoo now. The draft is in an hour.

that's 8:45 PM Eastern.

7:45 PM Central.

6:45 PM Mountain.

5:45 PM Pacific.

I don't want to be doing this by myself, people.

Get it in gear, fellow managers...

Fantasy Team Uniforms

Note - 5th Blog Bat Around posts due tonight! Send them to me by midnight and you're on the post with a short summary. After midnight, I'll put 'em on the post, but no guarantee of a summary. Get 'em to me after the post is up and I'll try to add it on it on after the fact. Basically If you're late, I'll get it on the post, but I might not actually read it. I know, you're heartbroken. Get 'em in folks!

PunkRockPaint was able to convince me to join his Baseball Bloggers Fantasy League, and the draft is tonight. I am woefully unprepared and will end up basically drafting my team by randomly picking cards out of my stars box. Don't be surprised if you see Corey Koskie, Curt Schilling and Oil Can Boyd in my starting lineup. The Punkster offered to create some custom uniforms for everyone in the league but that was not necessary in my case.

Chico's Bail Bonds has to have their Bad News Bears unis. Plus here's Kelly Leak showing off our special Alternate Sunday uniforms:

You have to admit Jackie Earle really knows how to fill out a uniform.

Update: the results are below if anyone cares. You'll have to click on it to see what I got.

My thoughts: I should do ok in HR and AVG, but I'll get killed in SB. I like how the pitching staff ended up. I won't be hurting for strikeouts, that's for sure.