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With the Major League Baseball season starting on Thursday, I’ve been doing multiple fantasy drafts. As I mentioned here before I’m in a league where they do a “slow” draft that took just about a week to complete. Then on Friday I had my normal snake style league draft and then last night I had my auction league draft. I’ve been in these leagues for quite a few years now, but I’m still not a big fan of auction leagues and the “slow” draft as they call it really kills the flow of a draft for me. Do you have a type of draft that you prefer to do?

I actually do have one more draft tonight. It’s for our home run league and it’s just what you think it is. The only thing that matters in this league is how many home runs you hit. The draft is tonight at 7:00 p.m. and there’s still room for more people to join in the fun. It’s an easier league to play in as you only have to change your lineup once a week. If you’re interested in joining here’s the link to the league.

https://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/47904/invitation?key=fa810875609d5ba7&soc_trk=lnk&ikey=0f4aae3e7462328e

This year I am on the Shohei Otani bandwagon as I think he’s going to have a big year especially at the plate. Now if you’ve followed along with this blog before you know I don’t like all the hype that surrounds Otani, but I never thought that he was a bad player.

What I’m thinking for Otani this season is since he’s in the final year of his contract he’s going to put up huge offensive numbers. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him reach the 40-home run plateau this season. Now before anyone else says it yes, he’s going to strikeout a lot this season, but so is just about every other player in Major League Baseball.

While I still think that there are way too many strikeouts in the game of baseball today it’s been like this for quite a few years now and it doesn’t look like it’s going to change anytime soon.

Just imagine the contract offers Otani will receive on the free agent market if he’s coming off a season were he got close to 40-home runs and hit close to .290 while winning 12 to 15 games and having an ERA around 2.90. Otani hit 34-home runs last season and his ERA as a pitcher was 2.33.

Also, Otani will turn 29 years old in July, so he’s probably looking at a team offering him a 10 plus year deal. I’ve heard numbers thrown around that have said Otani’s yearly salary could be $50 to $60 million dollars a season when he gets a new contract.

Of course, numbers like that immediately bring to mind teams like the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees, the New York Mets and the San Diego Padres as all of these teams have and have been known to hand out big, big contracts to free agents. It’s also a possibility that Otani’s current team the Los Angeles Angels would be more than interested in keeping him and the Angels have handed out some big free agent contracts as well. The Angels do have one advantage as they can negotiate with Otani while the season is going on while any other team interested in him will have to wait until he reaches free agency.

The other interesting scenario in the Otani situation might be if the Angels realize that they’re not going to be able to re-sign him would they actually consider trading him. You’d have to imagine that they’d get quite a return for Otani even if he was just going to a team in a “rent a player” type of deal. If a contender was to acquire Otani at the trade deadline they’d probably immediate jump to the head of the line as the favorite to win the World Series.

Now the question would be, how many prospects would the Angels want in any type of trade involving Otani? And which team would have a farm system deep enough to make that kind of a trade?

Now Otani’s contract scenario is going to be something that’s talked about as soon as the start the season. The Angels open the season on the road Thursday in Oakland and Otani is going to be their opening day starter.

Let me know what kind of season you think that Otani will have. Plus, I also would like to know what the dollar value and how many years he will end up getting as a free agent. Then finally do you think that he stays with the Angels? Or will he be playing for another team in 2024 and if so, which team is that?

Every Major League Baseball team is scheduled to open their seasons on Thursday but will have to see if the weather cooperates with those plans. If weather does cause some trouble for teams trying to start their seasons on Thursday there are only five games scheduled for Friday, so those first games could be made up really quickly.

Just a reminder. In Wednesday’s blog I’ll be making my predictions for the upcoming baseball season, so I hope you’ll play along and make some with me.

Remember to look for me on Twitter, I’m @Burketime.