Fantasy baseball diary?

[bleach168]

No, and everytime they seem to set a date, there's just another devastating delay.

[NZF]

Util - Edgar Martinez
Bench - Jeromy Burnitz (plays over Edgar when at Coors)

Whoops Gar not even playing today and Jeromy has gone crazy away from Coors.

Sorry Bro couldn't resist that one

[bleach168]

Util - Edgar Martinez
Bench - Jeromy Burnitz (plays over Edgar when at Coors)

Whoops Gar not even playing today and Jeromy has gone crazy away from Coors.

Sorry Bro couldn't resist that one

[bleach168]

Blast from the past? Just thought I'd give an update.

My team has been playing pretty poorly lately. The only thing keeping me alive has been 3 great spot starts in the last 3 days. Somehow, I manage to begin the day tied for first place.

Then my entire offense produces this line today:

3 Runs, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 Steals, .216 OBP (37 plate appearances)

Quite easily my WORST performance of the year.

My bench went .176 OBP with only 1 run so no help there. My pitching also had a subpar day ending up with 1 win with a 4.30 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP.

Still, if Randy wins his game tonight, I will only be .5 pt out of first tomorrow morning. Of course RJ will win though, that's how my luck is going.

I've picked up 14 players to push me in the cats I need for tomorrow.

Wish me luck.

[Madison]

Good Luck!

[bleach168]

Thanks Madison... IT WORKED!!!

Season Wrapup Post

Somehow I won. I shouldn't have but I did. Take a look at the 2nd place's team, Harper:

C - Varitek
1B - Konerko
2B - Random rotating crap the entire year
3B - Beltre
SS - Rollins
OF - Dunn
OF - Ichiro
OF - Hunter
Util - rotation of Glaus, Burrell, Garrett Anderson etc..

SP - Pedro
SP - Oswalt
SP - Buerhle
SP - Lilly
RP - Dotel
RP - Mesa
RP - Gordon

That's at least 220 HRs and 113 SBs. Combine that with a solid pitching staff and three RPs who get him 20 wins and 82 saves and you have a team that SHOULD win in a 16-team league.

So to examine the reason why I won, I have to first look at why he lost. Probably the biggest reason why he lost and this sticks out in my mind because it happened yesterday was because he maxed out his innings the day before the last day of the season. He pitched Oswalt and four relievers who ended up pitching 11 innings when he only had 10.1 to spare. I know that he knows about the Hail Mary trick too because I "taught" him that trick two years ago. I can't stress enough how much of an advantage his miscalculation gave me going into the last day. Simply put, it was very easy to figure out how many points I needed and from where I could get them with half his team factored out of the equation.

Going into the last day, I decided that SBs and Wins were going to be the battleground for the league championship. I was .5 point behind Harper in the standings but only one steal behind him. I knew if I could get one more steal than him, I would win the league. Also, I needed wins because it was a close race with two other people who were starting pitchers on the last day. I couldn't afford to lose any points. OBP might have been a problem for me too but as long as my team didn't choke again, I would be okay. I felt pretty secure about the other seven categories so I kinda ignored them although if I did REALLY bad in ERA and WHIP it would have been a problem. I stack my team with ALL steal threats picking up guys like W. Harris, A. Rios, and N. Logan. I also pick up Halama, Patterson, Contreras and Meche for spot starting.

So the day begins and first thing that happens is my J. Reyes gets a single off my Patterson. I have stattracker on and I notice my OBP goes up .001. It netted me 1 point in the standings! I was shocked! I had no idea I was that close to gaining a point. Now I'm thinking I should have kept my OBP guys like Walker and Rolen instead of dropping them for cheap speed. But then Reyes steals a base in the 1st inning which netted me another point in the standings! Ten minutes into the last day of the season, I'm in 1st by 1.5 points. Things are looking good. Still, I should have known I was so close in OBP and that's a mistake I won't make again.

On the pitching front, I start Halama and Patterson for the 10am starts. They have some difficulties and flirted with sending my WHIP up 0.01 which would cost me a point. When 11am came around, I had to make the decision to start Contreras or not. Halama was up by 6 runs and Patterson was tied in his game. I figured Halama's win would probably be enough so that at least I wouldn't lose any points in the wins category and since I was already up 1.5 points in the overall standings, I would not have to start Contreras. Contreras then goes on to pitch his best game of the year from my bench. Oh well. Halama ends up getting his win and even though they combined for a 5.79 ERA and a 1.50 WHIP, it wasn't enough to hurt me in the standings.

My AM batting crew of Reyes, Rios, Logan, Inge, and W. Harris produce 3 steals and a .524 OBP. When 1pm rolls around, I see I am up 2.5 points in the standings. Knowing Harper could not make up any points in the pitching categories, I realize that the only way he can beat me is if Ichiro (his last player for the day) goes 5/5 and gets 2 steals. I knew Ichiro can be inhuman sometimes, but I feel pretty safe benching the rest of my team and allow Ichiro an attempt at his miracle comeback.

Well, Ichiro couldn't do it and I end up winning the league by 2 points. An interesting sidenote, on the last day, Harper's pitching staff went 12.1 Innings giving up 2 runs, 4 hits, and 0 walks. That would have netted him enough points to overcome my 2 point advantage and win the league. But he maxed his innings yesterday and today's goodness doesn't count. Haha... so sad, too bad.

Finally, I'd like to thank the Cafe. Not only for the help in pickups but for the emotional support to keep me going during the rough times which were far too many this year (screw you Nomar). I'm not sure I would have won this league without the Cafe.

Looking forward to some good playoff action where I can root for my team. Go Astros!

[Madison]

Wow . Now that is a really close league. Glad to hear you were able to pull it off!