I'm fascinated to watch the progression, so far no surprises in the top picks, all franchise players for the decade. Kevin, the way a keeper league works is you choose which players to keep at the end of the 2001 season. Drafting Ichiro them now gives you the option of keeping him for 1 season, 9 seasons, or anywhere in between.
It will be interesting to see when the first wave of speculative picks come in (guys that weren't factors in 2001 but will later become big deals).
I'm from the Bay Area, I watched Bonds in person all through those years. Big Head, Big Arse...ginormous presence. That salary is freakish...and as scary as his 2001 card is (73 homers in the best pitcher's park in baseball)...I think 2002 is even better! My favorite Bonds moments were actually not even homers, they were intentional walks. Opposing managers and pitchers would pee all over themselves on a daily basis during those years, trying to figure out what to do. They would start micromanaging three batters prior to Bonds because they were so worried. Here are the moments:
1. Bruce Bochy, managing the Padres at the time, intentionally walked Bonds in the ninth inning of a 1 run game. Not unusual. What was unusual (maybe unprecedented) was...he was the first batter of the inning. Never saw that before or since. The Padres won.
2. Bobby Cox just hated Bonds, you could tell. He was always wobbling around, cursing to himself after Bonds took Maddux or Glavine deep. So mad. One game, Bonds came up in a close game, late, with the bases loaded. Cox had already made like 3 trips to the mound and several pitching changes that inning. He took off his cap, walked out onto the dirt and yelled out to the pitcher, who looked at him, flabbergasted. He yelled again and waved his hat around like a fly swatter. They intentionally walked him, with the bases loaded.
...praying Santiago is available at #11...