Who Am I?

My name is JP Kastner and I have played fantasy baseball since 1985. While I play traditional Rotisserie style fantasy baseball, my passion is old school simulation games like Strat-O-Matic.  I only tolerate tracking meaningless statistics like RBI and Wins as it allows me to preach my gospel of pick up your dice because defense matters.

Am I any good? It is a fair question to ask.

I have been invited to play in the Tout Wars Mixed League for the past three seasons and have been invited once again for 2009.   I was originally invited by Trace Wood of The Long Gandhi and Fantasyland fame.  I had catastrophic injuries my first two seasons and finished tenth and eighth, but I did much better last year with a solid fifth. I also took part in the famed Tout Wars AL League auction in an emergency capacity in 2008. Dean Peterson of Stats LLC was stuck in Cincinnati so with only thirty minutes of preparation I took on Jason Grey, Lawr Michaels, Ron Shandler and the rest.  Although I didn’t run the team after the auction, it came in second.  I also attend the National Fantasy Baseball Championships.

I  run the Strat-O-Matic Baseball On-Line Experts (SOMBOE) league using The Sporting News version of the game.  Many of the greats of Tout Wars also play in that league. In six seasons, I have five winning seasons, four division championships, three World Series appearances and one World Series win.  I also won the World Series of a 1969 replay of the Sporting News that had many Tout Wars participants.

Although I play in all these expert leagues, I still play in my trusty home league, The Natural. I’ve played there since December of 1993.

I have written for CREATiVESPORTS for the past seven years and both the Fantasy Baseball and Fantasy Football Guide. I have made appearances on XMRadio, MLB.com, CBS Sports, and the USA Today.

So, it is probably fair to say that I’m pretty good.

Doug Kurzeja grew up a Cubs fan on the far south side of Chicago, but that still has not ruined his love of baseball.  At the age of five he was selected to his T-ball all-star team and showed such a passion for and knowledge of the game that he was allowed to act as manager for one inning.  He began playing in casual fantasy baseball leagues with friends and family in high school but the hobby became a full-on addiction in 2003 when he was invited to join the Midwest Strat-O-Matic league (MWSTRAT).  In seven seasons in the 30-team MWSTRAT Doug has lead his team to four playoff appearances and three 100+ win seasons.  Doug is a contributing writer for rotowire.com and Hacker’s Central Online, a golf course rating website.  He and his wife live in Madison, Wisconsin.