We all make mistakes. We are all human. And there is nothing wrong with that. Like a lot of people I do struggle with admitting my mistakes.  I’d always find a reason why it wasn’t really my fault. I did it so often that a couple of years ago a girlfriend of mine gave me one of those framed picture quotes for a gift. I remember that day like it was yesterday. There was no occasion so it caught me off guard. She came by my place and handed me a gift box. I was grateful for her to do something like this and was excited to see what was inside it. I opened the box to see a framed picture that was wrapped up. I removed the protective covering to read what was a framed quote in black bold lettering. It read, “The best way to learn from your mistakes is to admit them rather than to blame them on someone else.”  I looked at her and we locked eyes, instantaneously we smiled at each other. She asked me what I thought. I looked into those beautiful brown eyes of hers and. said, “This has to be the dumbest thing anyone has ever given me! Are you kidding me? If it isn’t my fault then why would I blame myself for a mistake that someone else made?” After a twenty minute argument that concluded that in us not being together anymore…. which for the record was entirely her fault. Faith has brought me back to that very quote. 

 

After watching Aaron Judge hit his 61st home run the other night, that frame caught the corner of my eye and yes I still have that frame because of a hole I made in my wall trying to put up some shelves. After seeing multiple replays of that one dude who dropped a bag of money when he didn’t catch that home run ball, I realized something – That poor guy who didn’t make the catch totally did what I used to when I was a kid: he blamed his glove! Along those lines, it wasn’t my fault that before this season I predicted Aaron Judge would regress to the point that he, Joey Gallo, and Giancarlo Stanton would compete on who would strike out the most in what I dubbed “The Great Strikeout Chase.” Yeah, I know I didn’t put much thought and creativity into that either. Well, two out of three isn’t bad… that is a lot better than any of their batting averages. Badum Tsss… Ok. I’ll stop.  In any case, It dawned on me though that it wasn’t my fault that that prediction was wrong! It was Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman’s fault! Think about it! If they had just offered Judge the contract that he was looking for I guarantee you he never would have eclipsed every one of his career highs in every major hitting category this year. Extra motivation to make a lot more money is a beautiful thing sometimes. Just sayin’.

 

So with that said, I thought I’d end the 2022 regular season going over the 22 “mistakes” I made this year and the reasons why they were not really my fault. 

 

22. Taking Hunter Greene in the third round of the D1S midseason redraft. So this draft was  with some of the smartest guys in the fantasy baseball industry. Much smarter than me! Now, have you ever done something out of the ordinary to impress people that you really want to gain their respect? Well, I totally did that by drafting Greene in the third round. After the pick I saw a couple of those guys point it out in the group chat and how it was a bold move which is what I was going for…but, now that I think of it,  none of them said it was a good move either. So I’m blaming those guys for making me pick Greene. I just wanted your acceptance guys!! I figured either I’d be a genius for the move and get my kudos or I’d have to block all those guys on Twitter so I don’t see any mentions of it as one of the dumbest moves they’ve seen this year. Hey guys! Your tweets can’t hurt me now!!  

 

21. Not bidding enough to pick up Luis Arraez off the free agency pool in my TDG Fantrax League in the beginning of the season. I had this guy drop in my lap after Ross Jensen (@RossJensen12) talked about how great of a hitter he will be this season on one the TDG Slack threads. He compared him to Tony Gwynn for God’s Sake!  In my infinite wisdom I decided to bid only $11 of my imaginary money. We start with a $1000 budget so why would I only bid $11? It isn’t like I can spend this imaginary money at the strip club? Or can I? This falls on being old and my parents for teaching me to be frugal with my money. Hey Bob! (@BobOsgood15) Can you let me know where I can spend that remaining $250 I have from my budget? 

 

20. My Nestor Cortes analysis in the preseason rankings of starting pitchers on TDG. At number 109 in the rankings I had no clue Cortes could find a way to be even better in 2022. THE DYNASTY GURU’S 2022 TOP 200 DYNASTY LEAGUE STARTING PITCHERS, #51-130 – The Dynasty Guru I thought he wouldn’t even make the Yankees’ rotation and figured the more tape the league got on him the more likely hitters will get past the funky deliveries and light him up.  Unless you are a Yankees fan or related to Nestor Cortes you didn’t see this coming either so don’t blame me! Blame all the other gurus who had ranked at #109. I thought if I wrote about pitchers that far down on the list I wouldn’t have to worry about something like this! 

 

19. My “Salsa Verde” (“Green”, for you non-Spanish speaking folks) from the Roundtable Bold Predictions piece that Riley Greene and Hunter Greene will be the Rookie’s of the Year in their respective leagues. Bold Predictions – The Dynasty Guru You see what I did there…if not, I can’t help you. Yeah I didn’t realize I had a crush on Hunter Greene either. I blame the Reds for being the Reds. The kid threw a no hitter and they still lost. As for Riley Greene, I’m blaming the Tigers for being the Tigers. Don’t tell me they have no clue what they are doing. At least they finally got rid of Al Aliva as their GM. He wasted a lot of that Little Caesar’s crazy bread money on a lot of nothing the last couple of seasons.

 

18. Also from the Roundtable Bold Predictions piece in April: Bold Predictions – The Dynasty Guru my “Spicy Nacho” prediction that Cody Bellinger would win the NL Comeback Player of the Year to complete the trifecta of major regular season awards. (to go with his Rookie of the Year and MVP) I thought when I saw him in Spring Training he had made the necessary adjustments to return back to his MVP form. Yeah, I’m still not blaming myself. I’m blaming Cody’s parents because they spawned what I believe is the interpretation of what the prototypical Dodger player would look like if was made in a lab. I mean the dude has Dodger blue colored eyes! He just looks like that guy that is good at everything, the prom king, the valedictorian, Mr. Popular, who plays the guitar while he hangs out on the beach singing a John Mayer song to your girl, and in his free time he plays baseball at an MVP level. You can’t blame me.. .look at those eyes! Dodger Blue Steel!!!!

 

17. From the Rockies Triple Play piece I stated that Kris Bryant will make Rockies’ fans forget about Nolan Arenado. TDG’S Triple Play: Colorado Rockies! – The Dynasty Guru Yeah I got to blame not only my everlasting love for all of the players from the 2016 Chicago Cubs, but my everlasting hate for the Cardinals. Also, KB has to be up there with Bellinger as the most handsome player in the major. Yeah I’m seeing the theme too. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. Don’t act like you don’t see it either. I spent the last ten minutes looking into those eyes of his from the picture in the Triple Play piece. I was so mesmerized that I forgot what else I had to say about this prediction. Oh yeah! I was wrong.   

 

16. Corey Seager will fall off a cliff and not do anything this season to justify the contract the Rangers gave him this offseason. I love to say this is the last one from the Bold Predictions piece from earlier this year, but it isn’t. Yeah, these predictions were a bit of a train wreck! I can’t believe myself that I got all of these wrong! Well, maybe it isn’t that far-fetched if you really follow my analysis this year. Bold Predictions – The Dynasty Guru Seager didn’t necessarily light the league on fire, but he did put up good numbers after a slow start and definitely didn’t fall off a cliff this season. This mistake falls on Google!  I didn’t realize how handsome the kid is and if I saw during my Google search how good looking he is…let’s say that probably would have changed everything!!! Again, not that there’s anything wrong with that.

 

15. David Bednar will be the next lockdown elite closer in the Risers and Fallers for Relievers in May. TDG 2022 RISERS AND FALLERS: relief pitchers – The Dynasty Guru David Bednar, who has flashed elite stuff since becoming the Pirates’ closer last season, was a guy I  thought would become the most coveted trade piece by every contender at the trade deadline. This prediction looked good in the beginning of the year, but a couple stints on the IL for his back changed that. He just didn’t look the same and had a Pirates type of year. I blame Father Time because at the age of 27 that is when stuff like back pain starts to happen. Don’t laugh, you damn kids! It is coming for you too! 

 

14. That Pedro Leon will be pushing the Astros to call him up and become the missing piece in their lineup as well as their starting CF for a playoff run. From the Astros Triple Play I tabbed Pedro Leon as the next fantasy juggernaut who will become a 30/30 player in the next three years after this season of course. TDG’S Triple Play: Houston Astros! – The Dynasty Guru. But, he’d force the Astros to call him up with a stellar performance this season in the minors. Well, that didn’t happen because obviously the Astros are using a lot better buzzers (that must be a lot tougher to catch!) so they didn’t need to call up Leon this season. As Shaggy said, “it wasn’t me!” 

 

13. My guy Nate Pearson was a must-have free agent pickup to your fantasy team around midseason in the piece, Target Players for Rebuilding Teams. Target Players for Rebuilding Teams – The Dynasty Guru I honestly could have gone with any of the guys I picked. (except for Andrés Muñoz). But, I have to single out Pearson because I have no clue where he is? They keep saying he has an injury to his lat? The guy looks like he is 80 lbs!? Can guys that small have lats? I don’t think so? And if he somehow does it has to be the damn Blue Jays trainer’s fault for probably making him do one arm dumbbell row exercises because now when I just think about that exercise my lats start to hurt so I refuse to say this is my “mistake” and I am 99.9% sure I just jinxed poor Andrés Muñoz! Damn it!  

 

12. Adbert Alzolay will be the ace of the Chicago Cubs pitching staff this season. Again, from the Starting Pitcher Dynasty Rankings THE DYNASTY GURU’S 2022 TOP 200 DYNASTY LEAGUE STARTING PITCHERS, #51-130 – The Dynasty Guru before the season started. I wrote, “He (Alzolay) has electric stuff that makes him an ace along with a willingness and ability to reinvent himself to be a better pitcher.” I got to lay the blame on the Chicago Cubs fans excluding myself of course! They were sipping all the Cubbie Blue Raspberry Lemonade Kool Aid when this kid was called up to the majors two years ago by giving him a standing ovation after his first start. They somehow sucked me into it thinking that he will figure it out this year. Maybe next year… f*ck I say that a lot being a Cubs fan. 

 

11. Elehuris Montero is someone you need to pick up for the stretch run this season. Yeah if you are asking who(?), I really can’t blame you because I forgot he was one of the guys I’d pick up in the TDG Roundtable Stretch Run Pickups piece in mid August.Target Players for Rebuilding Teams – The Dynasty Guru ! I figured Montero, who was going to get regular playing time, showed good offensive traits with solid fantasy numbers in the minors, and got to play home games in Colorado would lead to good fantasy numbers. It didn’t happen. Montero struck out at a 32.2% clip and because of that he never got steady playing time. This prediction was a Hail Mary and ended up being returned for a pick 6. Phil always has to show me up by picking players I never even heard of!! I really think he makes guys up. 

 

10. Yu Darvish will win the NL Cy Young and be the guy the Padres lean on to get past the Dodgers in the playoffs to make the World Series. That was my thinking when I traded for him before the season started in one of my CBS fantasy leagues. I gave up a haul of prospects that I don’t want to talk about to go all in this season. When it comes to pure stuff everyone who knows baseball says Darvish is the king of the castle. Don’t get me wrong he has had a great year and the last seven games he has shown elite stuff. I just thought this year he’d not have as many games in which he just got shelled or had erratic control issues in which he got pulled in the second or third innings of some games. He still can fulfill the second part of my prediction with the Padres securing their Playoff spot. He just didn’t help my fantasy team as I had hoped. With that I blame AJ Preller (Padres GM) for trading away Darvish’s personal catcher Victor Caratini before the season started for pretty much nothing to the Brewers. Caratini and Darvish had been battery mates along with a strong bromance since their time with the Cubs in 2018. I believe that is why Darvish had a couple dud starts in the beginning of the season to get used to a new battery mate before he started to pitch like the ace he is….(Darvish has had a great year!?)

 

9. The Cubs. As the iconic Rodney Farva said in the movie Super Troopers, “I just lost a buck…. to myself!” Every year I get suckered into putting some money on the Cubs to win it all before the season starts. But, this is never my fault because my parents had to raise me not only to be a Cubs fan, but also to have an optimistic view in life so why wouldn’t I think they can win it all in the beginning of every season? Thanks mom and dad! Joke is on you! I bet the money you gave me to look into taking that journalism class online.  

 

8. The Juan Soto trade. In what has been proclaimed the best literary piece ever published on The Dynasty Guru (by an “unknown source”) The Juan Soto Quandary – The Dynasty Guru I stated that I thought for sure the Padres would give up their entire farm system for Soto… I was kind of right, but I got to blame my guy Mike Rizzo for not turning the screws to get the entire Padres Double-A team as well as the prospect haul he got for Soto. By the way click that link to that Soto piece so I can get the views… Don’t just skim over it! I didn’t spend that time copy and pasting for no reason a**hole! Also, Thank you for your support…I do this for you…the followers!

 

7. That Schwarbs aka Kyle Schwarber will win the NL MVP in his first season in the city of Brotherly Love. Yes! Five out of five of my Bold Predictions were wrong! (I did also incorrectly predict that Gerrit Cole will win the AL Cy Young. I don’t even want to talk about that one.)  Maybe next year if TDG allows me to write another one of these, go to a betting site and take your life savings to bet against all of them. Yeah…who am I kidding? I’m sure I won’t be writing for TDG after this either. I did get it partially correct so maybe that is something? Bold Predictions – The Dynasty Guru I stated for my boldest prediction, the Flamin’ Hot Limon , “Schwarber will have the most home runs in the NL.” But followed up with, “He will be a top ten fantasy hitter and get more NL MVP votes than his new teammate Bryce Harper.” I knew I should have stopped at the first part, but it wasn’t my mistake.  My sister is a Cubs fan as well and all I heard is how great this guy is and it must have seeped into my subconscious when I wrote that. I knew I shouldn’t have based that on how attractive my sister thinks a player is…I should only use who I think is attractive when picking who will have a good season.

 

6. Albert Pujols won’t even come close to finishing his career with 700 home runs. It is mainly what I kept screaming at my TV whenever Pujols went up to bat. The man ruined my life for eleven long years during his first stint with the Cards so don’t get mad and blame me for this. If anything it is that evil Super Mario looking Arte Moreno who gave the ok to release Pujols last season so he can find his way back to the Cardinals and continue to ruin my life. You were paying the guy anyway Moreno! You could have had Pujols working concessions or something. I’m sure he would have done it with all the money you paid him! I sure would have! 

 

5. Fernando Tatís  Jr. will come back from injury and lead the Padres to a World Series championship! Sorry that is not my take or prediction.. It probably was poor Taylor’s (@TCasesLoaded) hopes and dreams that this would happen this season. Sorry Taylor but I live in misery so I need to drag everyone down with me. I blame you for being one of the nicest guys I know! Again not my fault. You made me go there!

 

4. Matt Brash is the reincarnation of (the 20 Ks in a game) Kerry Wood this season. Once again from the preseason Dynasty Starting Pitcher Rankings .THE DYNASTY GURU’S 2022 TOP 200 DYNASTY LEAGUE STARTING PITCHERS, #51-130 – The Dynasty Guru Yeah this was the only ranking piece I did before the season and I agree it should be my last. It ranks this high because I had huge expectations for Brash this season. I saw maybe thirty clips on Matt Brash and all I saw was Kerry Wood. Unfortunately, this season Brash was the 2004 and 2005 version of K Wood. Plenty of time to turn it around of course, but this season didn’t go according to plan like I thought. I have to blame Mina Kimes, who, by the way, is my favorite ESPN writer, personality, and analyst! But, she jinxed my guy Brash from all her raving on Twitter about the Mariners this season. It is the only explanation I can reasonably come up with. Without blaming myself of course…. Min had to have brought him bad mojo. Actually, no…I’m just kidding Mina…I can never blame you! I had to choo-choo choose you because this is just a shameless way to get your attention! Soooooo Mina, do you like……. stuff?

 

3. Dropping both Gunnar Henderson and Corbin Carroll from my fantasy teams this season. Yes, this one stings and probably hurts me the most. Well, next to when I found out Mina Kimes is married. (please don’t block me Mina! I had to check…we can still be friends!) But, yeah this type of hurt will probably last for at least the next ten years? I’ll have to watch these two guys become elite fantasy players on someone else’s team and probably will cost me some money in that league. AND if I have to see one more tweet from Ross (@RossJensen12) on how great these two are and how great they will be one more time!!! All the blame goes on him for not personally letting me know about both of those guys. I mean this was before he knew me…but, he should have somehow told me. Don’t ask me how!

 

2. Juan f*ckin’ Yepez. If you were anyone.. My friends, my fellow gurus, you the readers, my mailman, my dog, the dude who barks at people at the Walmart near me… I told EVERYONE that Juan Yepez was the next generational player to haunt my dreams from St. Louis. I was the conductor of this hype train before the season started and tied a number of people to the tracks with this take. Like my fellow Cubs fan Phil (@barrington_phil) who knows a ton more about baseball than I ever will! We messaged each other about this guy after I wrote about Yepez in the TDG Roundtable On Rostering Rival Players for Fantasy.TDG Roundtable: On Rostering Rival Players for Fantasy – The Dynasty Guru. Well, I actually used fellow Guru Patrick Magnus’s @TheGreenMagnus research and piggy backed off of it. Yes, that is my term for using other people’s work who are a lot smarter than me to make myself sound smart. And to compound that after that piece was published I chatted with Phil Barrington on Slack about how he had to hold on to this guy and not make a trade he had been debating to do. I probably sounded like a used car salesman who needed the sale to feed my starving family. I told him that Yepez was primed to break out this season and put up insane numbers after getting called up. I told him he is the next Albert Pujols! Now, in case you didn’t hear this and didn’t just pull that out of my ass. Albert Pujols actually said that in an interview with Eduardo Perez on ESPN Sunday night baseball game! So taking this all under consideration I need to lay the blame on both Phil and Patrick!!! You BOTH know a LOT more than me about baseball! Magnus for letting me use his work that made me believe I knew what I was talking about and Barrington for listening to me. You should have known better and told me that I have no clue what I’m talking about buddy! 

 

1. I can easily go with my Aaron Judge take because that is an all time bad take, but I reflected back on all of these “mistakes” made this season and realized I should own up to the “mistake” that got me to write this. I really will never learn from my mistakes if I don’t take accountability for what I say. So I just want to use this #1 spot to correct that mistake by telling my ex-girlfriend Nicole who gave me that frame by saying, 

 

“This is your fault! I realized I should have thrown that damn framed quote a long time ago!  If you didn’t give me that dumb frame with the even dumber quote. I probably wouldn’t have come up with this idea to point out every mistake I made this season! How can that help anyone! Mina Kimes would have never given me that damn thing!” 

 

Ahhh…I feel so much better!! I feel that was a huge step admitting that! Serenity Now.