I am on a fantasy high. Fantasy baseball 2009, ladies and gentlemen, has begun.

Baseball and mathematics – it doesn’t get much better than this. And my absolute favorite part of the fantasy baseball season is the preseason draft. My league’s draft was this past weekend and I have been giddy with excitement for the past month in anticipation of the big day. I scoured the Internet, read all the articles, perused all the player projections, created and refined countless spreadsheets and draft-day cheat sheets, formulated my strategies, and participated in more than my fair share of online mock drafts. And I think it paid off.

This is my seventh year in this very competitive league. I still remember back in 2003 when Barry Bonds, John Smoltz, and Kerry Wood helped carry my team to their very first championship victory. I’m now coming off two straight years of first place finishes so expectations are high. Anything less than the stellar team that I managed to draft would have been a disappointment. But just check out the talent that will undoubtedly score me the league’s first ever hat trick:

I understand that very few of you will be interested in this, much less have any idea of what I’m even talking about, and to you I apologize. But I doubt you’re still reading, having given up after the mention of “player projections”.