Just one of them days

I knew it was going to be one of "those" days when a button from my pants fell into the urinal, luckily pre-stream. It's a rough time, what with the economy in a free-fall. I mean, when D.J. Hackett only can sign a two-year, 3.5-million-dollar deal, money is tight. On the other hand, the Raiders want to give Deangelo Hall more money than Asante Samuel, so the crazies aren't dead yet. Dan Snyder would be so proud.

I have a love-hate relationship with GDR. My dynasty fantasy baseball league in theory is the best kind of league. I get a combination of auction with contract years. There's a mid-season minor league draft. You get to set up a batting order and pitching rotation. There are middle relief spots to consider. There's a slight problem, though. The auction starts at noon on Friday and runs in 24-hour cycles. For part of possibly all three cycles, I'll be in the land of dial-up Internet. Few GMs have been in as precarious a position.

The FAB, or free agency blitz, has its own ebbs and flows. It's hard not to spend all your money on the first wave, when quite a few players get more than they are worth. In one league Pujols went for $25 million, or 1/4 of the cap. I have around 20% of my cap room locked up in David Wright and Carl Crawford. Suddely I'm wracked with remorse regarding the one-year extension for Francis Carmona. Because you have five SP rotation spots you need at least seven starting pitchers. I've been scouring the site for possible bargains. Usually we have four or five waves, and by the fifth most teams have no contract years or money so the few remaining owners can go on a bargain-shopping spree. I don't know if I want to put my favorite players out there in the first wave or wait.

My Cheeseburger in Paradise-fueled frenzy is almost at a close. I'll be sure to update you with tales of AOL over the weekend. Oh yeah, I still don't really care about the NCAA basketball tournament.