How fantasy baseball has changed the way I watch the game

So what exactly am I hoping will happen when Barry Bonds faces Jake Peavy with runners on first and third. At the beginning of the season, it was a no-brainer: Three-run homer. Boom. But now that I've traded for Peavy, this is the sort of match-up that gives fantasy baseball managers fits.

I wouldn't mind the three-run homer, because who can't use the RBIs? But seeing as how pitching is an area of weakness for me (hence the Peavy trade), I might like to see Peavy strike him out. But of course, what if Barry leaves those runners stranded, and they still come around to score later? That's the worst of both worlds -- no ribbies for Barry, a couple earned runs for Jake.

And this little conundrum, played out about a dozen times a night thanks to ESPNews and that fantastic crawl on TBS, is multiplied several-fold when the pitcher in question is on a team I'm rooting for, usually the Red Sox, but sometimes the team I've selected in my weekly eliminator pool.

As you can see, fantasy baseball is slowly driving me mad. If you ever hear a baseball fan talking about "taking in" a game, implying some sort of leisurely three-hour pursuit of relaxation, then that baseball fan is clearly not a fantasy baseball manager.