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Monday, July 21, 2008

MLB Headlines Week 16

Usually I have some preamble to this post where I bore people with one of my diatribes, but honestly, I got nothing week. I did watch some of the British Open this weekend and there was this one golfer wearing a white, heavy shirt and pink pants. He looked like a grandma. And it's impossible to look tough or cool when your pumping your fist after a birdy while wearing pink pants. I'm sorry, you just can't pull it off.
Anyway...

www.mlb.com Headline of the Week:
See-saw game swing Cards' way on Miles' slam

I just like it because it seems overly complicated.

Dr. Bitz:
July 20th, 2008 - Rangers 1 Twins 0
Perkins perfect through five but Vicente's victorious

July 20th, 2008 - Mets 7 Reds 5
Reds met their match against New York

July 20th, 2008 - Dodgers 6 Diamondbacks 5
Lyon declawed in the ninth

Teebore:
July 20th, 2008 – Rangers 1 Twins 0
Texas Rangers lock up surging Twins offense to stymie sweep.

July 20th, 2008 - Indians 6 Mariners 2
Cleveland pushes Seattle over the Cliff as Lee pitches complete game.

July 19th, 2008 - Rangers 2 Twins 14
Titantic Twins Twosome use power to tower over Texas

Voting is to the left. I won last week so if I lose this week it's just because people feel sorry for Teebore. On to the Sunday Fantasy Domination.

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11:51 PM: It's a grudge match this week. Teebore and Dr. Bitz are going head to head. And Dr. Bitz is dominating! I guess my key to this week is the fact that there has only been 4 days worth of games this week due to the All Star break. Apparently my team can do well in half a weeks time without the other half evening things out. Anyway, keeping in mind this week had a limited number of games, the scores are a bit low:

R HR RBI SB AVG W SV K ERA WHIP
Me: 15 3 17 1 .373 3 6 27 2.83 1.15
Him: 7 0 5 0 .205 1 2 8 4.09 1.27


In the pitching department I was left with a choice. Either I keep with just relievers today and hope his 4 starting pitchers can't beat ERA and WHIP but probably lose Strikeouts and maybe Wins in the process or a I pick up a couple of pitchers to combat him. I picked up a couple of pitchers but we'll see what happens. I picked up Tim Wakefield and Vincente Padilla. Padilla was more of a hedge my bets pick up, since he's facing the Twins. If he sucks, it's good for the Twins. Anyway, all pitching categories are up for grabs right now except saves. Saves is mine. Hehehehe.
The hitting categories should mostly be mine too. Although Stolen Bases is up for grabs. Other than that I should be safe. Home runs could get a bit dicey though. My prediction? I win the week 5-4. (I lose Stolen Bases, Strikeouts, ERA, and WHIP and tie wins.) But let's see what happens.

12:24 PM: First batter of the day is Alex *Expletive Deleted* Rodriguez. He singles to left.

12:31 PM: Well, my lead in steals didn't last very long. Jose Reyes already stole once. Awesome.

12:35 PM: Carlos Delgado singled. He's been a nice pick up for me so far.

1:15 PM: Went out to get some lunch. I come back and Teebore has another steal. Not happy about that. A-Rod and Delgado combine for an RBI and Run. I am happy about that.

1:35 PM: Brandon Phillips has an RBI single and stole a base. Steals are tied. Me likes. Both Quentin and Dye singled and have scored. That's more or less a mixed blessing. It's good for me fantasy-wise, but it is the White Sox.

1:40 PM: Teebore's pitchers are struggling. Which makes me happy. Three of them have so far pitched a combined 11 innings, 7 strikeouts, 9.00 ERA, and 1.91 WHIP.

1:42 PM: Albert "Hehehehehe" Pujols is on the bench. 3 days after the all star break. Apparently his 4 RBI game last night wasn't good enough.

1:51 PM: So I'm watching Padilla, the pitcher I picked up, pitch against the Twins, and I think he has the greasiest hair I've ever seen. He must squeegee an entire deep dish pizza on top of his head every morning.

1:52 PM: Carl 'Garbage' Crawford got an RBI, but what I really need is a steal. That's why I drafted him in the first place.

2:10 PM: Perkins has a perfect game going for the Twins through 5 Innings. I probably jinxed it. But I am amazed how Dick and Bert NEVER shy away from talking about how the pitchers perfect so far. I wonder if they've been jinxing the Twins pitchers all along.

2:13 PM: Brandon "Awesome" Phillips just pulled a double whammy. He homered off of Teebore's pitcher Pelfrey to give the Reds the lead but after another Teebore Pitcher, Volquez, was out of the game and not in line for the Win. Awesome. Phillips now has a home run and a steal. That's what certain people in the biz call a combo meal.

2:15 PM: By the way, I apparently missed that Jason Giambi's mustache hit a home run. So Teebore had closed the gap before Phillips bailed me out.

2:16 PM: Ahhh...the Joys of fantasy baseball. Teebore was on vacation this week and gave me his user name and password to modify his line up for pitchers and trusting me not to trade Jose Reyes and Ryan Braun to me for Johnny Cueto. Anyway, Jim Thome was on his bench and Alex Rios was in the line up. I wasn't sure which way he wanted it so I just kept things like he had it and only messed with his pitchers. Thome was doing well the past few days but was on his bench.
Teebore got in last night and apparently decided to put Thome in the line up and bench Rios. Rios' line so far: 2 for 3, 1 Run, a home run, 2 RBI. If Teebore got in today instead of yesterday, those numbers would've been his. Of course, only time will tell if it even matters.

2:24 PM: Some no-name Ranger homers off of Baker. There's goes the perfect game, no hitter, and shut out...lame...

2:26 PM: Kevin Gregg, the Marlins closer, is on Teebore's team. He came in in the top of the 9th of a tied game and pitched a perfect inning. I'm scared of a vulture Win here.

2:28 PM: Carl 'Gold' Crawford doubled. I was hoping for a steal now but I see there are two outs so he won't attempt one.

2:31 PM: Besides hedging my bets, part of the reason I pick pitchers going against the Twins is because the Twins strike out a lot. Well, Padilla has pitched 5 innings and has no Ks.

2:32 PM: *phew* The Marlins didn't score in the bottom of the 9th and now Gregg is being relieved. No win for him.

2:37 PM: Jose Reyes just made an error. I think they should take a steal away from him for that.
2:41 PM: Alex Rios now has a stolen base as well. Ouch, that one might actually cost Teebore half a category.

2:43 PM: Pelfrey was pinch hit for. If the Mets don't score here Teebore can't get a win from him. Cross your fingers!

2:45 PM: "The Other" Reyes singled. Let's hope he doesn't score.

2:47 PM: All right! Mets fail to score. That means Teebore had Edison Volquez and Mike Pelfrey pitch against each other and neither came up with a win. I'm sure I'll be hearing about that next time I see Teebore.

2:49 PM: Apparently the Twins used up all their runs yesterday. I had a feeling something like this might happen. That's another reason I picked up Padilla. (How many reasons do I have now?) I'd like to see the Twins win though.

2:58 PM: OK, Padilla's out of the game. Time to start scoring some runs, Twins!

3:06 PM: In Cincinnati, it's a tie game going into the bottom of the 9th. Brandon Phillips is up to bat. I need a single or a walk from him. Because if he's on first base you know he's running.

3:10 PM: And Phillips lines out. Darn.

3:30 PM: Stupid mickey frickin' Royals can't keep the White Sox under 6 runs.

4:01 PM: Troy Glaus homered for Teebore and Ryan Braun stole a base. Teebore's making a late surge.

4:32 PM: And now Chris B. Young stole a base. Steals are officially out of reach.

5:00 PM: Hey, the White Sox lost. Makes the Twins loss a bit easier to swallow.

6:16 PM: I'm back from playing Psychonauts. Teebore is certainly making a go of things. Now Ryan Braun has homered and has a whopping 5 RBIs. But it's not enough and his game just ended. Teebore has not more batters going and I'm going to win 4 of the 5 batting categories. Still, a 10 Run, 3 Home Run, 11 RBI, 4 Stolen Bases day for Teebore is huge. Although I guess it's too little too late...not that I'm complaining.

6:18 PM: By the way, I decided to take Wakefield out of my line up. Teebore still has Garland going but I was up by 3 Wins and 11 strikeouts. So if I played Wakefield it would be to solidify Strikeouts but risking ERA and WHIP. So far it's working out. It's the 5th inning, Wakefield has a 4.50 ERA and no Strikeouts and Garland has a 3.60 ERA and just four strike outs. I'm still up by 7 Strikeouts and it looks like I'm going to win the category. But we'll see.

9:13 PM: Alright, all the games are over. Here's how it all ended up:

R HR RBI SB AVG W SV K ERA WHIP
Me: 22 4 24 2 .393 4 6 27 2.27 1.07
Him: 17 3 16 4 .257 1 2 22 6.81 1.57


That's right, 9 and 1, baby. Too bad Teebore and I didn't wager this week. I'm also lucky that Teebore got home on Saturday and changed his line up. Because that Alex Rios Home Run would've tied home runs.

Nemesis of The Week:
Ryan Braun had 3 Runs, a Home Run, 5 RBI, and a Stolen Base with a .462 Average. That didn't make me happy. And the fact that Teebore got Braun for Chone Figgins upsets me even more.

Savior of The Week:
I picked him up at the start of the week because he's supposed to be a good second half player, and Carlos Delgado has so far delivered. 3 Runs, a Home Run, 5 RBI, and .615 Average. If he keeps on that pace for the rest of the second half, I'm a happy fantasy owner.

The Moral of this week's story is it's really hard to go 10-0. Especially when your opponent has 4 steals in a day. But in the end, if I did go 10-0 on this shortened week it would be a little like pitching an 8 Inning No-Hitter. It's just not the same.

1 comment:

  1. I have to say, considering how much you were dominating me, your analysis is more than charitable, considering you had me dominated in Runs, RBIs, and saves and had pretty healthy leads in everything except steals and homers.

    You apparently had more faith in my team than I did, because when I got back in town and looked at the scores, my expectations went from "let's try to win" to "let's at least not get shutout."

    So, mission accomplished thanks to my speedy team on Sunday.

    Sunday was a great day for me, but unfortunately it was preceded by 2 1/2 dismal days that buried me so deep a great Sunday couldn't pull me out. Also, my pitchers managed to categorically suck (grumble gumble...2 pitchers, 1 game, both manage to not win...grumble).

    As I told you earlier, the Rios/Thome switch wasn't so much that as a Glaus/Rios switch, and since Glaus did what I picked him up to do (hit a homer) and Rios got benched because he has less homers than Mauer on the year, I can't be too mad that Rios hit one whilst on my bench. At least his replacement hit one too.

    Sure, I could mad that some of my other players didn't hit a home run to at least tie the category, but hell, that's true every week.

    What's Psychonauts?

    ReplyDelete

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