Cafe Challenge 2010

[Half Massed]

Just like Lebowski, I was forced to sit out the draft without the benefit of pre-ranking thanks to not being able to enter the draft room. Fortunately, the autodrafter actually did a pretty good job with my team. My offense is well balanced and almost everyone in the starting lineup are guys I like or at least are indifferent too this year. The most obvious hole on my team is saves, as no closers were drafted for the team, but other than that I'm feeling cautiously optimistic about this team...

I will say that I've never had an OF this good before. All four guys (if you include Markakis at UTIL) are guys I've taken or would have taken as a #1 OF in other leagues.

[mrmarley]

2 months in and StickySpice, one of the rookies, has led the league for 7 of the 8 weeks:



The projected end of season standings look a little different but still show the rookie at the top:

Projected Finish:
Rank	Team		Total
1	Sticky Spice	91
2	Kolb Saves	88
3	AKhomebrewer	75
4	MrMarley	72
5	TenBagger	70
6	NZF		64
7	SWCarter	61
8	bleach168	58
9	Big Lebowski	55
10	Tribe-Fan	52
11	Scooter1027	47
12	Half Massed	41

Complete Rototracker Link

Cumulative stats by week:



My team is full of mostly overachieving bats and underachieving pitchers up to this point:
Batters
C: Ryan Doumit (C)
1B: Adam Dunn (1B,OF)
2B: Alberto Callaspo (2B,3B)
3B: Adrian Beltre (3B)
SS: Hanley Ramirez (SS)
CI: Ryan Zimmerman (3B)
MI: Dustin Pedroia (2B)
OF: Torii Hunter (OF), Jay Bruce (OF), Alex Rios (OF)
Util: Andres Torres (OF)
BN: Yunel Escobar (SS), Brett Gardner (OF), Ty Wigginton (1B,2B,3B), Carlos Santana (C) NA, Curtis Granderson (OF)

Pitchers
SP: Jeremy Bonderman (SP,RP), Dan Haren (SP)
RP: Heath Bell (RP), Ryan Franklin (RP)
P: Manuel Corpas (RP), Luke Gregerson (RP), Ricky Nolasco (SP)
BN: Derek Holland (SP,RP), Mike Adams (RP), Will Ohman (RP), Gavin Floyd (SP)
DL: Michael Gonzalez (RP)

[AKhomebrewer]

Interesting first couple of months.
For three years in this league I've always been a playa on offense, but with a rotation that's ranged from mediocre down to dog poo. This year it's the exact opposite, though I don't recall any conscious effort to overcompensate at the draft.
Hopefully I can move the BA up 20 points or so into the .270s over the next few months, which should drag some counting numbers along. But Nelson Cruz's revolving door to the DL and my investment in the hibernating Phillies' offense (Howard, Ibanez) is slowing the charge at the moment.

Kudos to Sticky Spice for carrying the hot start through May. "Rookie" is a relative term when adding talent from the Cafe.

[Scooter1027]

Man, I'm that depressing olive green line that starts at the top and just progressively declines each week down to 2nd to last. What a disappointing team. I was really happy with my draft too. Injuries have hurt, particularly J-Roll and Man-Ram, but that's no excuse. Ah well, you never know how it's gonna turn out sometimes. Hopefully I can rally a little from here on out.

[Sticky Spice]

Hey, you don't see an asterisk on Ichiro's ROY award do ya?

[mrmarley]

2 more months gone by, Kolb has taken the lead and is running with it. 1st two tables below are the current standings and then the next two are adjusted for max IP/games played...I'm way over IP, my final points will take a big hit:

[mrmarley]

'Grats to Sticky Spice for taking home the championship. Best 3-way final race since the league started (my team crapped all over themselves, as usual...thx Haren and Nolasco):

Final Tracking Spreadsheet





Sticky's roster as of 8/29, before any end of season roster churning might have been done:

Batters
C: Kurt Suzuki (C)
1B: Adam LaRoche (1B)
2B: Kelly Johnson (2B)
3B: David Wright (3B)
SS: Derek Jeter (SS)
CI: Kila Ka'aihue (1B)
MI: Gordon Beckham (2B,3B)
OF: Nick Swisher (1B,OF), B.J. Upton (OF), Michael Bourn (OF)
Util: Ian Stewart (2B,3B)
BN: Drew Stubbs (OF), Buster Posey (C,1B), Colby Rasmus (OF)
DL: Justin Morneau (1B)


Pitchers
SP: Hisanori Takahashi (SP,RP), Matt Cain (SP)
RP: Jonathan Broxton (RP), Ryan Madson (RP)
P: Aaron Heilman (RP), Sean Burnett (RP), Neftali Feliz (RP)
BN: Jaime Garcia (SP,RP), Hiroki Kuroda (SP), Bobby Parnell (SP,RP), David Price (SP), Ted Lilly (SP), Jeff Niemann (SP)

[AKhomebrewer]

Great competitive balance in the league this year, but that's nothing new.
That three-team pennant race, though, was unreal ... Sticky Spice, NZF and Kolb Saves each held the lead at one point IN THE FINAL WEEK OF THE SEASON. I've only played since '89, but I haven't been in a league that produced that before.

My excuse: Too much extended DL time for four of my top five draft picks (Howard, Tulo, VMart, NCruz ). Pitching was OK, and made a decent run on offense in Sept., but too little, too late. Hope to try again next spring ...