Fantasy>reality

The White Sox are an unqualified mess. After taking a 2-0 lead in the top of the first against the Blue Jays, they decided to take the rest of the day off. The only players who are earning their cheddar are Mark Buerhle and Paul Konerko. The team's hitting .250 with a poor 234/105 strikeout to walk ratio. Carlos Quentin will be off for two days due to a heel injury, and Jermaine Dye has just appealed a two-game suspension.

The Sox, at their best, can be a division winner. Right now they're not getting the breaks with injuries or pitching. Gavin Floyd looks smart for signing that extension, because he's been awful lately. Jose Contreras took a voluntary trip to Charlotte, but at least he has the injury excuse.

My title may have been misleading, because my fantasy baseball team is nearly as bad as the Sox. I have three guys on the DL and two in the minor leagues. I think Matt Wieters will get the call up in the next few weeks. David Price, I'm less sure about. I had a surplus of outfielders until Ryan Ludwick got hurt, Quentin hid being hurt, and Andre Ethier slumped right when Manny decided to get himself suspended. John Lackey made his debut with a whopping two-pitch start. He got ejected for hitting the first batter. Hey may stay on my bench.

I always enjoy the rookie draft portion of fantasy football. It makes us all believe that we are real general managers, and we wheel and deal like we are Belichicks. Maybe the Cleveland version. When my 3.12 pick came up this morning, I started to research players and wasn't excited about any of them. I have a championship team with no immediate needs. I'm a little too aware of the bust rate for rookie picks. Luckily, I had two trade offers. I ignored the first and was about to pull the trigger on the second. I was offered three picks for 3.12, the first of which would be only ten slots after my original pick. The owner making the offer took over a bad team and acquired a lot of draft picks, so he was trading up to make up for the excess. Before I made the deal, I noticed that another team offered me a 2010 2nd round pick. It was another no-brainer. This pick could be up to 23 slots higher than my 2009 pick. I took that deal. Even though making a pick would not be earth-shattering, it was a slow news day that I didn't get to pick anyone.

I have three candidates left for my owner vacancy in zealots 34. I will have a winner by tomorrow. I'm giving one guy an extra day to respond. I was impressed by the other owners. My weirdest moment of the weekend was asking a total stranger why he dropped out of a fantasy football league. It's like asking a guy why he stopped playing team trivia and he comes back at you with some sobering personal situations that of which frankly I had no right to inquire. The best part about the owner search is talking to current league owners and having pointless 20-minute conversations about rookie picks past and present. It's fascinating to us and only us.

To conclude, I told my dad last night that I'd rather watch an NFL Network replay of any Titan game from 2008 than any baseball game. It sounded extreme but I stand by my opinion. I feel like I'm one bad White Sox and fantasy baseball season from throwing in the towel.