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Powdered Water
05-31-09, 05:42 PM
And no sooner do I say that, then The Marinators just start shelling your guy. Sorry Seds, didn't mean to jinx it for ya.
mikeython1
06-01-09, 02:00 PM
Just recieved a severe beat down by PW. I dropped from 3rd to 6th. WTF! I want some revenge!
Lost 11-8 here...not a bad loss, but I was winning most of the week and thought I had it in the bag. Meh.
Sizemore on the DL, too, but at least now I get to play Cruz, who's killing the ball.
Powdered Water
06-01-09, 09:58 PM
Yeah man, my team woke up yesterday and started smacking the ball all over the yard. If Molina hadn't come off the bench at the end of the day for you Mikey I would have snagged the RBI battle too. Yes. I am greedy. :D
So, I'm right back in the chase for The Clowns. I don't really understand how Yahoo figures their games back though. They say I'm a game back but that doesn't seem right when looking at the standings. I'm 5 back in the win column and 3 back in the loss column so doesn't that make me at least 4 back? Or 3.5?
Whatever, I'm about done trying to figure Yahoo out. I love their Football format but their Baseball is really confusing.
Now watch, this week I'll get my ass handed to me by the absentee owner and his Mongeeses... Pfft. I hope I win 20 to nothing. :p
You're five back in the win column, but three ahead in the loss column, so that makes you one game back. Just ignore the ties in the standings.
Powdered Water
06-01-09, 10:12 PM
Oh! I'm such a tool. I thought I was back in the loss column too. My God... Thanks Mark, now all is clear.
Powdered Water
06-01-09, 10:44 PM
Nice pick up of Kuroda Mark. It sometimes is nice to have that home town insider edge eh?
That would be how I landed that guy named Adam Jones who is just destroying the ball this year. Sigh... He should still be playing for the Mariners though. It's tough being a sports fan sometimes.
Sayonara Josh Hamilton! :(
Could be out for two months...
Now begins the time of Shin Soo Choo!!!! ;)
At least it's a lot more fun to say.
Meanwhile, Max Scherzer, who I started the year with, had three strong starts in a row, including back-to-back 10K games. I snag him, and he promptly gets rocked. Of course he does.
Still, I'm crazy thrilled with how my pitching has panned out. Cliff Lee turned it around quickly, Verlander and Billingsly have been tremendous all year, and Cain has been much better than I'd hoped.
Now, if only I could get that average up. Sizemore was playing through an injury, Fielder, Rollins, and Holliday ALL started slow (only Fielder has really recovered), and Atkins/Hendrick have been just horrible. I've ditched the latter for Freddy Sanchez, which should help, but given the pitching I've gotten it's sad that I've done as poorly as I have.
My pitching is starting to slide, big time. Actually, I just need them to play a game or two...how can I still have 0.0 innings pitched on Wednesday? Are all my closers benched or something? I have three starters going today, at least. So far, Santana is a bust, as well...
This is a big weekend! Santana and Millwood both delivered for me yesterday. I was worried those two clowns would blow my pitching stats. I could lose a couple of the hitting categories if Vito's power goes off in these last two days. I need every point I can get, with second place just 1 game back!
Powdered Water
06-06-09, 01:21 PM
I wouldn't be too worried. As predicted I'm having all sorts of problems with team absent, AKA the Mongeeses.
Due in large part to a one Mr. Ian Kinsler. What's an Ian Kinsler? And why is he singlehandedly whipping my ass?
Looks like I might hang on for this one...32 innings pitched, 3-0, with a 0.52 ERA (!). Got Scherzer and Lester going today, so that should rise a bit, but my opponent's got an ERA of 3.00 or so, so I ought to be able to hang onto the lead. Amazingly, I'm losing in whip (something like 1.09 to 1.03). Go figure.
Was going to bench Sanchez in favor of the stunning Ben Zobrist, but then I saw that Freddy's hitting over .360 in 30+ career at bats against Roy Oswalt, so I think I'll leave him in.
Powdered Water
06-07-09, 01:03 PM
I'm benching all of my starting pitchers today. If I am forced to play against absentee owners then I'm going to do everything I can to preserve the wins that I already have locked down. It won't let me bench all my relievers or I'd do that too. When I face TONGO I'm going to be even more selective on which starters go so I can try to get all of the games, depending on how many pitchers he actually still has pitching for him.
It's not an unfair strategy, absent owner or not. It's a little lame that they've both put us in this position, but it's definitely normal to bench some pitchers if you stand likely to lose more categories than you can gain from their start. Of course, usually it's a much tougher call than it is now, when he's got so many guys benched, but yeah...
Powdered Water
06-07-09, 03:54 PM
Paying off so far. Daisuke got shelled early. I'm so smart it hurts. Still going to lose ground to Seds however if it stays the way the score is right now. His team is just dominant and is going off again.
Powdered Water
06-07-09, 05:57 PM
Ooooooooh, Seds and I are both at 13 up and 5 down right now. I'm getting a little worked up!
The longer the season goes, the more I'm digging this.
Gah. I may have won 9-6 this week, but it was a frustrating victory.
I went into the last game last night up .343 to .340 in OBP with two players left in the final game. OBP dropped about 1 point per at-bat, so I'd hang onto the win (or at least a tie) as long as they didn't produce three straight outs to end it. Which, you know, they did. So I lose .340 to .339 there.
Worse, and potentially in error: we were tied in RBIs, 32-32, when Matt Kemp grounded into a double play that drove a runner in from home (and, of course, didn't end the inning). No RBI! I know a simple ground out gets you one if a run scores; is it different for a double play, or is it a scoring error? Either way, it cost me another win.
All the more frustrating, because my pitching exploded; 51 innings, 4-0, a ridiculous 0.88 ERA. Should've been a blowout week, but it was not to be.
Looks like I might not get Doumit back for another month, too. And Sizemore's still out. Meh. Just clawing my way back to respectability, and still waiting for Rollins and Atkins to remember how to hit.
Powdered Water
06-08-09, 09:49 PM
Worse, and potentially in error: we were tied in RBIs, 32-32, when Matt Kemp grounded into a double play that drove a runner in from home (and, of course, didn't end the inning). No RBI! I know a simple ground out gets you one if a run scores; is it different for a double play, or is it a scoring error? Either way, it cost me another win.
I know we could look it up and get the answer but off the top of my head I want to say that's because it was probably a Fielder's choice. I know that takes away hits so I don't see why that wouldn't explain no RBI too.
I'm kind of bummed about one of my guys as well As-Cab (as I like to call him) from the Indians was having a very respectable year and now he may be out for a very long time. I'm bummed. I may have to drop him at some point. But HELLO Clint Barnes! He has only been a 'Rager' for a few days now but he is making an impression. :yup:
Well, you don't have to get a hit to get an RBI; ground outs still produce them, I believe, and I'm certain that sacrifice flies do. I'm just wondering why this would be different, I suppose. Not that it's likely to be a big deal, but it was a bummer to see it happening live, do a little victory dance in my head, and then having to mentally retract it. It was almost scarring.
Powdered Water
06-08-09, 10:11 PM
Right, its like the infield fly rule. Runner's out no matter what. FC goes down as FC and no credit goes to the batter. I think. Baseball has a lot of rules. I'm probably getting this wrong.
I'm not sure if it's wrong, but I know that a runner being out on a play doesn't usually stop them from getting an RBI. Sac flies produce RBIs, and I'm nearly certain "normal" ground-outs do. Really, anything the batter does to get the run across. Maybe there's a scorerer's interpretation clause, and whereas a groundout can be seen as somewhat productive, they can deny an RBI for something as severe as a double play, even if it knocks in a run. That's the only way I can make sense of it, given the other circumstances which I believe produce RBIs.
Or I could just go look it up. ;) That might not settle it, though. The baseball rule book can be surprisingly confusing.
Powdered Water
06-08-09, 10:37 PM
Yeah, all what? Like 1300 pages of it? :laugh: Can't imagine what would be confusing about that. Probably easier to look up what the official scoring was in the box score and then try to interpret that.
I only bring up the Fielder's choice thing because I've seen it a few times. Not necessarily the same as your situation but similar. You're right though, unless something else happened somebody should be getting credit for the RBI no matter what the scoring was; now that I think about it more.
Another week of Fantasy ball in action! Chris and I are head to head again, and it's a good series so far. I am in the lead right now, but anyone can take this one. I have great top end pitching, but it falls off fast into mediocre territory with a couple of shaky starters in Millwood and Santana. Hamilton has left a hole in my hitting, but hopefully my other monsters like Texiera and Ibanez can produce well enough to cover the shmucks I have to play instead of Hamilton.
Yup, and after your great pitching performances last night, I'm almost handing you a number of categories by my failure to set my lineup this morning. I left Verlander on the bunch and he's in the 9th now, having given up a single run, striking out 7, and allowing less than a baserunner an inning. Ouch.
Powdered Water
06-14-09, 11:30 AM
Man. My team is hitting some serious taters this week 15 already! Sheesh! They hit 6 in one day. 4 Yesterday! Love that.
Hey Tongo, you know you're in third place right? Now that you're back you should check your lineup I think you need to do some updating.
Seds took an early lead, but we're neck-and-neck now, and I've got three of my best pitchers going today. I think I've got a good chance to eek out a win, particularly if I can get a handful of stolen bases today. To that end I've fiddled around with my lineup (since I don't have a hope of winning HRs or RBIs, anyway). I've got two Buccos in the lineup today, going up against Dontrelle Willis.
Nice win last week, Chris - Very close series.
Meanwhile, this is starting to feel like last year's FFB season, as my team is getting plagued by injuries. My power hitters are dropping like flies, with Ibanez joining Hamilton on the DL, possibly for some time. Jeter is hurt, as well, and Youkilis forgot how to hit, it seems. I am going to have trouble winning any hitting categories over the next couple of weeks, methinks.
Aye, good matchup. Nearly a wash.
Doing better this week, though the pitching on both sides (my own and Mark's) has been pretty poor thus far. Still, if I can hang on for a big win this week, I'll have nearly clawed my way back into .500, and with it, contention.
Picked up Aramis Ramirez, too, a few weeks before he figures to come back. Sucks using a roster spot on him, of course, but my lineup's become pretty firm, and if he's half the player he usually is when he gets back, he'll be a huge upgrade over the anemic Atkins, who's been killing me all year.
Powdered Water
06-20-09, 01:01 PM
And in classic Seattle fashion my reign in First place looks to be very short lived. We have a hard time with success here in the Great Northwest. What can I say. My team is getting beat like a drum this week, that's for sure.
I'm a tad bitter about your Ramirez pick up their Yods, At the time I dropped him because I really couldn't hold onto him because of another injury that wasn't going to last as long as his. It's kind of Yahoo's fault as they only allow you to have two guys on the DL, which again is a little bogus. Obviously I had hoped to maybe pick him back up in a few weeks when he got a little closer to playing again. Oh, well.
Mike Lowell has been doing a pretty nice job for me since Ramirez went down so it is what it is.
As much as I share your hatred of lots of Yahoo's quirks, I think the DL number is fairly standard; at least, it has been in my experience. Not that it doesn't kind of suck, though some of these rules should feel restrictive. We should definitely increase the bench spots next year, though. We're learning a lot of frustrating lessons, sadly.
Anyway, I figured a few people were keeping an eye on him, so there was a bit of a cost/benefit risk/reward ratio thing going on, where I had to weigh how long I'd have to use up a valuable bench spot against how well he might step in. The funny thing is, I definitely would have waited another week if Atkins hadn't been so flipping terrible.
Powdered Water
06-20-09, 01:48 PM
It's cool Duder. I almost picked him back up last week when I purged several guys who I wasn't using, he was still so far out though. Last I read he wasn't even fielding ground balls yet much less swinging a bat. That's probably changed by now though. No biggie.
More bench spots would be nice, at least then we'd have some more options when more than two guys get hurt.
Yeah, I'd definitely be in favor of another bench spot or two, though it greatly depends on how many teams we have. In a league like ours, there are tons of good players available. We might not care so much about only having a few spots if we had, say, 14 teams and there wasn't nearly as much talent floating around on the waiver wire.
And yeah, the Ramirez thing is still a big gamble. It's not like he's necessarily going to come back and be his old self. But that's how bad my 3B situation was becoming; Ramirez can suck for awhile and not be much worse than Atkins.
Of course, around that time Doumit should be back (finally), so I can play him at C and move Sandoval over to 3B, I suppose. Decisions, decisions.
Powdered Water
07-01-09, 09:55 PM
I've decided that Albert Pujols is a pretty decent player.
He's good at that whole baseball thing.
Meanwhile: slow but steady victories has me flirting with mediocrity. I'm kinda happy about this, but on the flip side I've been on the verge of big wins a couple weeks in a row and had to settle for small wins. Grr. Hopefully this week I finally finish strong and get back around .500.
Powdered Water
07-01-09, 11:13 PM
I sent Tongo a pm to let him know he's in first place and got no reply so I don't know what his deal is. I told him he was talking out of his ass in the Micheal Jackson thread so maybe he's sore at me. Whatever. His team is kicking butt again this week so I guess it's up to Seds or myself to take him down.
I traded a few PMs with him a while back and he said something about only being excited about football. Dunno why he would join, then, but he seemed apologetic about it.
The participation thing definitely matters less here, though, to be sure. I'm having a good time but the Yahoo settings are just too weird and we've had so many new players, so I don't feel too bad taking a "live and learn" approach, having a good, casual time this year, and making adjustments accordingly for next season.
You all do know that I'm winning this sucka, correctomundo? :D Mark these words!
Woot! The comeback is in full swing. I lost my first three series' (the first one 15-3) and started out in a huge hole, but I've won five straight now and have clawed my way to .500 and, for the moment, fourth place. Meanwhile, common sense would suggest that Sizemore and Rollins cannot possibly play as badly in the second half as they did in the first, and I've got both Aramis Ramirez and Ryan Doumit coming off the DL. I'm all set for the stretch run!
Should be very exciting. Still a big gap between myself and the top three spots, though; less than 9 games separate the three of them (TONGO, PW, and Sedai), and it's another 16 to get down to where I am. So there's a lot left to do. Still, nice to not have a losing record for the first time all year, even if it is July!
Damn! Another failed week for my team, as more injuries and snafus plague the Clowns. Of course, the guy I had snagged as a sub for an injured player got injured the day after I went on vacation, so that slot didn't play at all over the past couple of weeks. Bummer. My pitching has gone right in the dump, as well. Why did I draft Lowe, again?
;)
Looking forward to the next part of the season!
As happy as I am about my position, I still think I might toss a few crazy trade proposals at you guys. I can probably afford to trade a starter (possibly Cain, who I really lucked out on getting) and would still like to trade some OF depth for an upgrade elsewhere. I'll poke around and make some offers, I think.
Powdered Water
07-08-09, 01:03 AM
Gah... I'm already in the hole pitching wise this week due to lineup gaffs. I'd have one more win already. Bah!
Nice av PW.
Am I still winning? Whats sad is Ive done absolutely nothing with my team all season, and I heard I was in first place. Im serious I havent even logged onto my acct...I dont even know who's on my team! Its just not right.
Ok heres what Ill do. Ill trade every one of my players out to all of you equally. Just give me the o.k., and Ill figure out how to do it. I wish to save all my karmaic energies for football, and you all have been diligent on the fantasy baseball so one of you should win. If y'all are for it Ill do so after work.
I think you shpuld keep your team intact so we can see what happens during the entire season.
It's all good, man. Still a long way to go, and I am back in action adjusting my team daily, after being on vacation for two weeks. My team slid out of first during that period due to negligence, but I am back for the attack!
Yeah, please don't start dishing players out. I mean, I won't lie; it's a huge bummer that you signed up and then decided you didn't really want to play, but I've been playing fantasy baseball for a long time, and it's not really weird or a problem that your team can do well without being managed. It's really very different from fantasy football, where there are so few games that you need to heavily analyze matchups, and where the waiver wire is so crucial.
That stuff matters here, but not as much. Most of your roster is going to be the smartest play in 95% of your games, anyway, and it's the kind of game that, because of the sheer number of contests, you're just as likely to over-manage as under-manage (for example, if you'd been paying more attention, you might have dropped David Ortiz and not gotten to enjoy his brief mini-resurgence).
Now, it's still weird that you're in first, don't get me wrong. But your team auto-drafted guys like Greinke and Broxton and Figgins, who're having better-than-expected seasons (the first two, particularly). So, it happens. I'll be more surprised if the team continues playing at this level, as injuries and sub-par performances will inevitably mount at some point.
So, yeah, it's not unheard of. It's an auto-drafted team and, being baseball, most of your best lineup is already in there. It's not too weird.
Yeah, what he said! ;)
I tend to over-manage.
Powdered Water
07-08-09, 08:55 PM
Me too... :D
I'm not stopping though, I don't have a problem. I don't!
mikeython1
07-08-09, 09:19 PM
All of us are obviously online a lot so let me ask you this have you purchased the Stat-Tracker? If yes then how often do you stat-track? Mine is on all the time whenever im online. I usually check every 20 minutes or so, sometimes more if I have a pitcher starting.
If I'm online, I've got it up there. It's more addictive than MoFo.
Yeah, I bought it at the start of the year. I probably check once or twice a day, usually in the evenings.
Powdered Water
07-09-09, 12:21 AM
Oh yeah, I always have it on. Not to the extent that I do during football season. My God... during football season I'll have about 8 or 9 separate windows open on NFL.com with each game running. So far I just run the Baseball stattracker by itself. As we get towards the end of the year I may open up some games on MLB.com but we'll see.
I must have StatTracker for all fantasy activity!
Powdered Water
07-09-09, 10:45 PM
Yoder is just licking my ass right now... err, kicking, kicking my ass. I've still got some heavy pitching coming up though and my team always seems to perform well during the weekend so we'll see if I have to hold off on my next shipment of 'Roids'.
Yeah, it was just 10-8 at the start of the day, but it's all the way to 14-3 now, which is pretty insane. I have a lot of small leads, though (HR, RBI, BB, OBP, SLG, L, ERA, and WHIP), so I'll be hard pressed to keep it like this. And as you alluded to, you've got Lincecum on the mound right now.
I've got three starters going tomorrow, so that'll probably end up determining a couple of categories one way or the other. We shall see.
Yoder is just licking my ass right now... err, kicking, kicking my ass.
I really matched your meat.
Well, uh, Lincecum's got a no-hitter going through six. So...yeah.
Powdered Water
07-10-09, 01:51 AM
He's out now but still in line for a W.
Freaking Yahoo is just killing me. I have set my pitching lineup three days in row and it keeps defaulting back to what it was two days ago. Wtf? How many times do I have to change it so it sticks?
Odd; that doesn't happen to me, as far as I can tell.
Powdered Water
07-12-09, 01:45 AM
Yoder is still just kicking my ass... Gonna be the worst loss of the season for the 'Ragers' if this keeps up. Bunch of losers. Cuts may be imminent. :laugh:
Well, I ended up hanging on for a pretty big win, which makes six in a row. I'm not gonna lie; it's a lot more fun to be doing well after having the crap kicked out of me so often earlier in the year. Pretty insane to see that I'm still a significant way back from some of the other teams even after all this. Just goes to show you how insanely behind I was to begin with.
Anyhoo, as some of you probably noticed mikeython and I completed a pretty big deal the other day. It's only the second trade of the season, and certainly the biggest; Pablo Sandoval and Jon Lester for Felix Hernandez. mikeython had inquired about Sandoval, I made a counter-offer, and he accepted. That was it. Surprisingly easy.
It definitely hurts to give Sandoval up. I grabbed the guy off the waiver wire and he's going into the All-Star Break hittnig .333 with 15 HRs and 55 RBIs in his first full season; as a catcher! In fact, numbers-wise he's been the second-best catcher in the Majors so far this season. And he's eligible at 1B and 3B, too, which is ridiculous.
So, I'll miss ol' Pablo. But I've got Doumit coming back from the DL, so I'm not losing all his production, just the difference between his and Doumit's, which should be big, but not massive.
Couldn't pass up the chance to snag a third elite starting pitcher, though. This looks like the year Felix Hernandez has finally put it all together. Granted, I "bought" him at what's likely to be the height of his value (he's put something like half-a-dozen great or very good starts in a row together), but if he's even nearly as good in the second half as he's been in the first, I'll be pleased with the deal.
So, we'll see how it all shakes out, but this strikes me as a pretty solid, mutually beneficial deal. If nothing else, it feels awfully good to be able to trot Felix Hernandez, Chad Billingsley, Justin Verlander and Cliff Lee out there every week.
Powdered Water
07-13-09, 11:12 PM
Yeah, I'm still stinging from the loss. That was an ole fashioned ass whoopin'. Thanks for that, I guess... Its still only my fourth losing week of the year so all in all its been a really productive year for me in my first go around in FBB. Its definitely getting more intense and fun as time goes on. I know I'm guilty of over managing but its just too damn fun screwing with my lineup that I can't help myself!
Funny thing is I actually had a pretty decent week, I just couldn't keep up with you. Your team is on fire right now! Which is cool, because this is just like FFB. We all were really succesful at that too and its fun to be able to trade some barbs with folks you actually like to talk to everyday. :laugh:
Yeah, your team played quite well, and I won a lot of close categories. So it goes. You're still ahead of me, and there's a real good chance we'll get to settle this here feud in the postseason. :D
I might over-fiddle a bit over the coming week or two, myself. I'm still open to any sort of trade, if anyone's interested. My pitching is actually my strong point (still couldn't pass Hernandez up, though), so I'd probably want to move someone like Matt Cain of Cliff Lee for a bat, or else package one of them with a hitter for an upgrade somewhere.
Meanwhile, I had both finalists in last night's Home Run Derby (Cruz and Fielder). Woot.
I don't know if this is happening to anybody else, but as of right now, when I go to Yahoo Fantasy Baseball, it says my team has 11 errors today! Now, it's true that I somehow have 12 strikeouts (although I'm going to research that too), but my team has absolutely NO errors, so I think it's somehow tied into the Ks. Does anybody else have this weird problem?
Think it was just a glitch; looks like it's at 0 now.
By the by, in case anyone didn't see the notice on the MoFo Fantasy Baseball website (http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/movieforums), normal innings-pitched requirements and the like are waved this week on account of the All-Star break, though at least one appearance is required to win ERA and WHIP.
Powdered Water
07-19-09, 12:54 AM
My team was just absolutely smoking hot yesterday! Today, not so much. 1 run and 1 RBI... :laugh: Mike Lowell just got off the DL and now I don't think I can play him. Barnes has been superb and Drew is getting back to his all star form of last year. What to do, what to do...
The good news is I think my pitching staff is the bee knees and I hope to be able to ride these guys hard for the rest of the year.
Yeah, your team had a pretty sick day. Nicely done. :up: Particularly over Sedai's team, which has been really good so far.
That said...freakin' dang! After getting my ass kicked to start the season, I'm now on a 7-game winning streak, which I believe is the longest of any team so far. Craziness. The first few were just by a few games each, but the last three have gone 14-4, 16-2, and 13-3. That's 43-9 over the last three weeks, which is absurd. Believe me, I'm as surprised as anyone else.
Anyway, I'm still in fourth, but since two of those big wins came over teams above me, check out how insanely bunched together we all are:
TONGO's in 1st. PW and Sedai are both 1 game back. And I'm 3 and a half back. Less than four games separate all four of us.
What a freaky league. It's hard for me to get too worked up about it, since a couple of owners aren't really managing their teams and we just sort of stumbled into this for fun (next year, we'll be all over it). Still, nice to have a little drama going.
Powdered Water
07-20-09, 08:33 PM
What's the minimum manager requirement? Is there such a thing? I'm hopeful that we'll have more hands on owners next season but if not what is it? 10? Or does it have to be at least 12?
I'm hoping that I can wear Pike down and get him to try it out next season. Maybe Mark could help me, I think he'd have a blast. A guy that loves Baseball as much as he does really should try this out at least once.
I think anything below 10 isn't worth bothering with. From what I hear 10 or 12 is pretty common. I'd greatly prefer 12, if we can manage, as it'd force all teams to scrounge a bit more.
Oh yeah, I'm having a wonderful time. :D I bet I've lost more categories by one than anybody else times two, and several on the last at bat of the last flippin' game of the week! That's why I'm due! I'm ready to shred (or surf) my way through all competitors, even if I apparently don't have enough time because the season is shortened, or what? I really don't understand the "post-season" at all.
Powdered Water
07-20-09, 10:48 PM
Still plenty of time Mr. Eff. Keep a tinkerin'.
Powdered Water
07-21-09, 09:40 PM
See that Mark? Squeaky wheel gets the grease and all that. Just kicking me around like I deserve it right now.
It appears that PW's Buehrle just pitched a perfect game.
Aye. And who else saw that catch DeWayne Wise made? It was over the fence! And he bobbled it coming down! Unbelievable. The catch, by itself, is one of the best you'll ever see, but factoring in the circumstances, and it's borderline historic. Incredible.
What's really crazy is that Wise had just entered the game as a defensive replacement. Good call there, Ozzie.
I officially hate my power. They have all just shut right down for what seems like WEEKS. Arg!!
Powdered Water
07-26-09, 07:39 PM
Looks like Yoder will be in second place after today. Nicely done Chris. You are on a phenomenal run. And Mark has been knocking me around most of the week. His team just went off power wise. My pitching is the only thing that is allowing me to eek out a few wins this week. Nice job Mark!
Yeah, pretty crazy. Still really close in a couple of categories, though.
Pretty crazy that Mark managed to have a strong week against you even against Buehrle's perfect game, though you are winning pitching categories 5-3. Looks like he had four (!) batters with multiple homers this week.
Still gonna be a huge jumble in the top four spots, though.
Powdered Water
07-26-09, 07:57 PM
I keep screwing around with my lineup and it doesn't help, like, at all. I really have learned an important lesson I think about the difference between FBB and FFB. Patience (which I don't really have) is a lot more important in FBB.
I dropped Ramirez and Abreu. Both bad decisions and next year I'm going to think a lot longer on it before I dump guys like that.
You're completely right about the patience thing. The sheer number of games really changes it; baseball's just so day-in, day-out. You need to wait a solid month or two before you have an idea of what you've really got, I think.
That said, even dropping guys like that can be perfectly defensible when you consider the value of the roster spot, and decide just what kind of dropoff you're looking at. I've hurt myself in other fantasy leagues by snatching up injured guys to prepare for a second-half surge, only to dig myself too deep a hole in the meantime. Not to mention that injured guys often re-injure themselves, or don't come back at 100%. So, yeah...lot of long-term planning involved. Fewer ups and downs from week to week. Definitely still a lot of fun for me, but in a very different way.
Powdered Water
07-26-09, 08:23 PM
Yeah, I'm in the same boat with Vlad right now. I didn't drop him and waited patiently for him to return to the Angels and he goes and gets hurt again. I dropped the wrong guy I guess... :laugh:
He is still not set to come back for probably another two weeks.
Powdered Water
07-29-09, 12:21 AM
Is this the Lost and Found? I'm trying to locate my power numbers? I seem to have lost them.
They're in the same place as my pitchers' talent. :D
Got a few days yet for both of us to find our missing stats, though. Friday is about when I start to worry about a given week, if it's not going well.
My power went bye-bye, like that guy's mind in Ghostbusters.
Guess how many homers I have so far this week?
Z E R O
/cry
I'm not sure if I have a chance to topple TONGO this week, but things are looking up compared to a few hours ago. Today my team is batting 20-37, a .541 avg, and my three benchers batted 5-9, which would have raised my average up to .545. Every one of my players has had a hit and my team slugging average is .865, and my benchers slugged at 1.091! I don't recall a day all season where every one of my players played and did that well. It almost makes up for my anemic first four days. What do you guys recall, if anything, about your team's hottest day?
Wow - Just 1 game separating the first three teams! What a tight race.
Yeah, crazy tight. Very exciting stuff!
Meanwhile, looks like PW's getting Vlad back. Huzzah for that. :) I take it you're excited?
Won my 9th week in a row, which I suppose means I've won against every other team in the league consecutively. Another big win, too (13-4). I'm 67-19 over the last five weeks, which is insane. If my record over that span were a little worse I'd let myself believe I deserved credit for it, but lately it's been so crazy that I have to admit a lot of luck must be involved. The season does ebb and flow in strange ways.
Still thinking we'll make a ton of changes next year; possibly a new site, and definitely far fewer categories. Last couple of leagues I've played in used a lot of them, like this one, but lots of leagues just have 5 for hitting and 5 for pitching. I'm sure there'll be lots of discussion about how many to pare down.
My team has returned to its recent form - AKA THE SUCK. People just aren't hitting!
WBadger
08-05-09, 01:19 PM
Last night was ridiculous for the Brewers... 4-17 :mad:.... ever since July we just can't win games. Mostly becuase of our inconsistent pitching, Gallardo is (usually) the only pitcher to pitch a decent game. Luckily being in the NL Central we're only 5 GB but still....
Lost series' to Pirates, Padres and tie a series with the Nationals. :o
Powdered Water
08-05-09, 09:14 PM
Yeah, I'm very happy to get Vlad back. I really like Nyger Morgan however. I'm sure you're pretty familiar with him Chris. So, I sat Pena tonight and of course he promptly hit a two run tater. I've sat Pena twice this year and he's homered both times I've done it. Friggin' guy is killing me. He strikes out a lot and his average is just barely above the Mendoza line but he still has a lot of jacks! Pfffftttt!!!!
I'm not sure what to do, I may have to keep sitting him for awhile and see how Vlad plays.
Powdered Water
08-06-09, 10:36 PM
My team is just going off! As soon as my pitching catches up towards the end of the week, I hope... nay, I expect to have a serious win on my hands here. I need one to get back into the top three. Why do I want to be in the top three you ask? Why the heck not? Isn't that what this gig is all about?
Nice. :up: Yeah, it's crazy how much our placement figures to fluctuate at the top now. It's insanely close.
D'oh, I didn't even realize Blanton was available! Great pickup, PW.
Powdered Water
08-07-09, 09:03 PM
That's because he was about 7 pages in. :p
I may need him because Oswalt may be out for awhile so we'll see. The Phillies are playing pretty well right now so even if he isn't real good he may still be able to pick up some W's.
I'm a little surprised Gavin Floyd is available as well. I didn't like having two pitchers from the same big league team on my team awhile back so I passed on him but I bet someone will grab him before too long.
Seds has taken sole possesion of first place with a big win this past week. My winning streak barely continues; I was behind late in the week and eeked it out 10-8.
Seds and I square off this week for the pole position! Quite a big series at this point in the season.
PW and Tongo just 6 and 7 games back, respectively. Top four spots still all bunched up!
Powdered Water
08-11-09, 11:10 PM
My reliever last night had a 108 ERA. That's uh, not good.
And of course, during this big week and this top dog match-up, half my team is down. Both players with Catcher eligibility are banged up and sitting out multiple games this week. Youk is suspended for five games. Jeter is taking days off, as he is banged up, as well. I have two second base people, and they always seem to have the same day off!
Hopefully I score at least a few categories this week! :D
Yeah, I'm not doing bad, but I've been fairly lucky. Your first few pitchers killed, but Nolasco ruined pretty much everything they did with something like 9 ER, I think. Then I got killer starts out of Lee and Verlander. Still, a few of our categories are very close.
I hear ya', on the players being out. I haven't had it too bad, but Cruz was out a few games before I even noticed.
Biiiig series here, winner almost certainly in first (definitely, in your case, since you were first coming into it), so how it wraps up over the next few days should have a lot to do with seeding at the end of the year.
Yeah, I shipped Nolasco right after that debacle the other night. I was never 100% on the guy, but he had a few solid outings for me. I took a chance and added one of my favorite pitchers of all time, Pedro Martinez.
I saw that. Could be a good move, depending on what you end up needing.
The whole Pedro thing is kinda surreal to me. It's weird how many of these former superstars don't really retire now, but just sort of hang around and maybe re-sign here or there, because (presumably) their pride won't let them accept less than a certain salary, even though they clearly aren't worth as much. I guess it's just hard to let go. Particularly when they're really less than halfway through their life in a human sense, but completely done, career-wise. That's gotta be weird.
I don't really want to moan (like hell, I don't), but my esteemed opponent has a player (Dustin Pedroia) who committed an error yesterday, and it was temporarily up at the Fantasy Baseball Matchup page yesterday, but it disappeared yesterday and still isn't credited. I really need every win I can get if I'm going to make the playoffs (top 6 teams go), so does anybody know any way I can get this corrected?
I've just written Yahoo about it. No idea how good they are about handling such things, but I'll let you know as soon as I hear back.
Seds has taken sole possesion of first place with a big win this past week. My winning streak barely continues; I was behind late in the week and eeked it out 10-8.
Seds and I square off this week for the pole position! Quite a big series at this point in the season.
PW and Tongo just 6 and 7 games back, respectively. Top four spots still all bunched up!
Oh Im so glad I lost top position. If my team with me doing nothing all season to it won fantasy baseball Id surely be doomed in fantasy football. :eek:
ManOf1000Faces
08-17-09, 03:07 AM
baseball is a bad sport
no offense to the baseball fans
No it isn't, and you don't get to decide. You can decide if you like it, but not that it is "bad".
Maybe someday you will understand its complexities, which must just be a bit beyond you at this point...
Anyway - I got smashed this week, as expected, but hope to rebound with a solid series against The Dirt Stars this week.
I have had power issues ALL Season... Can't all these guys play at the same time for an entire week? ;)
I had ONE point this week...hilarious...
You had lots of power this week, though, it just so happens that we both did (10 homers each). And you doubled my wins even though your ERA was over 6.00. Who ever said baseball makes sense?
Anyway, as excited as I'd love to be, it's hard to think much of it, as at this point it's looking more and more like these matchups are just going to determine seeding.
Update on the scoring thing: got some still stock response from Yahoo (which is a duplicate of the page I found when searching for answers initially), but I was able to advance the process by sending them all the relevant information. I've jumped through a few of their hoops so we should have a response before long. I'll be sure to keep you guys posted.
Just heard back from Yahoo; they say that their box score is actually inaccurate, and that Pedroia didn't commit and error. MLB.com seems to confirm this:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=2009_08_15_bosmlb_texmlb_1
Thanks for trying, Chris.
Not at all. :) Sorry their box score got your hopes up, there, but at least we know it's accurate. And you still came away with a big win.
Man, you and I have quite a matchup going, Mark. You were kicking my butt before; I've made headway since, but it's 10-7 Dodgers heading into today.
The way it's happened is kind of interesting: my pitching has been absolutely dominant (36 IP, 1.49 ERA, 0.58 WHIP!), but your hitting has been just as good on the other end (you're winning every single hitting category!), and we're both within striking distance on a couple of categories that might swing things.
If I have any hope of catching up on categories like AVG, OBP, and SLG, I'll have to start soon, though. The numbers are based on relatively small at-bat totals, so they can swing in just a day or two, but I'm down a hundred points in AVG and far more in the other two. That's a very steep deficit to make up.
Mark has two big wins in the last two weeks (13-4 and 11-5), so I wouldn't feel too bad about my little streak coming to an end here. Should be fun to watch, though, particularly with the series' last day the same as the football draft. I'll be on make-believe sports overload.
Powdered Water
08-22-09, 10:55 PM
My freakin' team is just going off right now. 5 taters and Pujols hasn't even stepped to the plate yet tonight. Keep it up fellas, I need a big win from you boys.
Well, Mark and I are deadlocked 9-9, and the odds look good that it's going to end that way. His pitchers really killed over the last few days and he made a lot of the pitching categories interesting. Meanwhile, my team did the same with a lot of the hitting categories, but both of us seem to be hanging onto most of them, anyway.
I'll take a tie, given the shape I was in before, but it looks like I'm going to lose Runs by maybe 1 or 2, HRs by maybe 1, and RBI by just a few, which is tough to take.
Great series, Mark. A draw seems fitting. :)
Well, I didn't pay attention and had Cliff Lee on the bench. Lee, of course, pitched yet another gem.
I am not a smart man.
I am also not a smart man.
I keep making the wrong decisions on who to play in the power areas. A guy will be streaking, so I pull him off the bench and slot him; his streak ends immediately, with another streak (hitless) taking over. Also, my superstar third baseman with catcher eligibility hurt his knee, so I had to slot ANOTHER Yankee. :-/
OK, it's late enough in the season to say this:
Hamilton is a big ol' BUST this year. There he sits on my bench, with a terrible seasonal line...Glad Jeter is in inhuman mode to partially compensate.
Santana is out for the season, folks.
Dats gotta hurt!!!!
I forgot what thread I was in and thought you were talking about Santana Moss. :laugh: Whew.
Yeah, tough break for vito, but the season's almost over and he's in 10th, so it won't end up making a difference.
But seriously, just how wrong can things go for the Mets? This is almost supernatural.
So, so wrong... Just like last year!
Wow, my team's hit four homers already tonight and has 11 RBI in 29 at-bats.
Still close, though, at 10-7. But at this point, given how little you can reliably decide which matchup would be favorable, all that matters is getting one of the top two seeds.
The better I do against the Cubs, the better it'll be for Mark, who's up 15-4 right now and is looking to snatch a playoff spot from either them, or the Dirt-Stars. If Mark finishes with even 12-13 wins this week, he could be heading into the last series just a few games out of the last spot!
Powdered Water
08-28-09, 11:07 PM
I'm pretty bummed about losing Nyjer Morgan for the rest of the year. He's been terrific.
Yeah, that's a tough break man. He'd put together a great year. Worse for him; while I like him plenty, this is almost certainly his career year. He's about 29, I believe, and a big part of his game is based on speed.
He was a Bucco until recently, so I happened to learn a lot about the guy. He's an unusual case; he was a hockey player before, and got a really late start on baseball, which is one of the reasons he's as old as he is despite having only played for a couple of seasons (usually a sign of some minor league journeyman). Anyway, everyone here liked him, and his speed and defense made up for his hitting (which, this season, has actually been pretty good anyway).
His defense, by the by, was by some metrics judged the best relative to their position out of every single player in baseball through the first half of the season or so. Seriously! And given that he's a CF, that's not a convenient way of framing things, either. The guy's unrivaled in the field.
Meanwhile, Prince Fielder just hit another home run. That's 4 in his last 5 games and 6 in his last 11. He's now 10 RBI ahead of anyone else in the league and his numbers are surprisingly close to the man, the myth, the legend, Albert Pujols. He's within a stone's throw of King Albert in most major offensive categories, and ahead in RBI as mentioned before. Can't say I hoped for this kind of season out of him, but I'll take it.
Mark still has a big lead. The fight for the last playoff spot could come right down to the wire.
Powdered Water
08-30-09, 01:12 PM
Bah. This is starting to remind me of how the end of FFB went last season. My Catcher is banged up, Branyan is out for two weeks now. Adam Jones is banged up and Morgan is gone for the year.
Bummer.
I've been quiet lately, just waiting to see what will happen. Now I'm gonna sound like I'm whining again, but Andre Ethier stole a base about four hours ago. Both Yahoo and MLB say he stole a base and that should give me another win, but he's never been credited with the steal. Why is that? Now I'll probably cause myself to lose that category, not that I'm superstitious or anything like that...
Yahoo issues stat corrections basically every day, and lots of others take until the next morning to show up. If it doesn't show up under either I'll certainly put in a support request.
Meanwhile, things couldn't have gone much better for you over the last few days, Mark. Going into this week you were trying to catch either the Cubs (in 5th) or the Dirt-Stars (in 6th) for one of the two final playoff spots.
One of them, the Cubs, battled with me back and forth before falling behind in a good half-dozen categories today. Looks like I'm going to win something like 14-3. The other team ahead of you, Dirt-Stars, looks like they'll win, but only 10-8, which means the two will swap places in the standings.
Appropriately, you'll be playing the Dirt-Stars in the season's last week, and you'll probably be about 7 games back, which means you'd have to win something like 13-5 to overtake them. Tough to do in any given series, of course. Obviously a better bet is catching the Cubs, who will fall to 6th now and who I believe you'll only be a single game behind! So you'll only need to slightly outperform the Cubs to take that spot. Your chances here are good, as the Cubs are playing Sedai's Clueless Clowns, who have consistently been among the top four teams all year.
Very dramatic stuff! :)
Meanwhile, this week's big win gives me a very strong grip on the top seed going into the playoffs, though given that the top two get a bye, that's really all that's important (we can't hope to predict which matchups are actually better, I don't think). I might be far enough ahead of the third-place team for it to be almost mathematically impossible for me to fall outside of the top two seeds, though, so I think I'm safe. As it stands I should hang on as long as we're not looking at an 0-18 series on my end, and an 18-0 one from TONGO.
Quite a marathon, this fantasy baseball stuff, eh?
Tough week for me! Beckett has been off, and as usual, I had some power trouble. I hope to rebound this week, as I have some double dipping pitching, and my power is all coming back online...
It's still a big week even for the top teams in the standings, as you, PW, and TONGO are all within 3.5 games of each other for that second seed, and the last playoff bye spot. Definitely a big deal.
Meanwhile, looks like Mark got the SB credited, and that means he's just a half-game behind the Cubs for the last playoff spot. Wow.
Powdered Water
09-01-09, 12:05 AM
I may have made a serious steal by grabbing Chris Davis fresh up from triple A. The guy struck out so much nobody wanted him but he comes back and hits a tater last week and has two RBI's tonight. I'll take it. I need it. I hope I can hang onto that number two spot.
Is it weird that I have so many ties? I guess that's a good thing yeah? It means my team is in a lot of games right? Just seems weird.
Vlad just hit another one out too. I love/hate that he's up against the Mariners for the next three days. He's done a lot of damage against my beloved team but its all for the greater good.
With just two days to go, Mark's in pretty good shape. He's tied 9-9, while mikeython's Cubs are down 12-6, putting Mark up 3 games for the week and 2.5 games for the last playoff spot so far. Still several close categories in mikey's series, though, and lots of close categories in Mark's. This one could come down to the wire!
I have been keeping an eye on it, as well! Exciting stuff. Good luck to the both of you!
Powdered Water
09-05-09, 09:28 PM
This is really getting fun! I think I to need stay about where I'm at or better to hang onto the two spot going in to the playoffs. I am glued to my stattracker... out here, in the woods. (Actually that was one of the key arguing points as to why I was bringing my laptop camping... you know, "I gotta make sure I make the playoffs honey!" :D
Anywho, I noticed today that Yahoo has an option for us to send them some feedback on their league so I'm planning on sending them a few of my gripes (in a nice way of course) and I hope some of the rest of you do too. I kind of got used to some of their quirks after awhile and would actually like to keep using them for next year if perhaps they could address some of the more glaring things that need tweaking.
Yeah, baseball's always fun to me in the beginning and the end.
Anyway, Mark's in good shape, but it's definitely not over yet. He's up 11-5 but holds a tenuous lead in at least 6 categories, and with two starters going his opponent, Dirt-Stars, figures to take back a couple today, all other things being equal.
Meanwhile, mikey's Cub's are down big, 13-5, but they have three starters going today. He's way behind in several offensive categories, so he's going to need to scratch his way up to 8 or 9 wins on the strength of those three starts and come Mark drops just a few games, too.
Powdered Water
09-06-09, 02:39 PM
Crap. My team hit for a combined .125 yesterday. Not good. Now everything is a lot closer than I had hoped for. Oh well. I'll be watching the stattracker most of the day to see how it all shakes out.
Powdered Water
09-06-09, 09:29 PM
Hey Chris, help me out. Am I reading this right? If the games all stay where they are right now I'll be in second still, yeah? TONGO is 3 back and The Clowns so 3.5 So I'm good for the time being yeah? Man, this is so close. TONGO is at 12 to 5 and Seds is at 11-6 and I am at 10-6. vito still has two more guys to go tonight though... pucker time.
Powdered Water
09-06-09, 09:36 PM
Oooo... I may have caught a break! Blake is on the bench! Sweet. Fingers crossed!
Hey Chris, help me out. Am I reading this right? If the games all stay where they are right now I'll be in second still, yeah? TONGO is 3 back and The Clowns so 3.5 So I'm good for the time being yeah? Man, this is so close. TONGO is at 12 to 5 and Seds is at 11-6 and I am at 10-6. vito still has two more guys to go tonight though... pucker time.
Yup. If you're unsure you can go into the StarTracker and choose "Standings." The standings there will reflect the scores as they are at that given moment, which is helpful.
I thought I had it all figured out, but then I realized I wasn't accounting for the ties properly. Because of the ties, you can't always calculate how many games bck a given team'll be, because they require that it go by winning percentage, instead. Anyway, you were 3 games up on TONGO heading into this week, and 3.5 up on Sedai, so you're probably going to hang on, just barely, to that second seed.
Powdered Water
09-06-09, 10:13 PM
Oh wow. In all this time I've never clicked the little standings thing. That is really nifty. So that updates just like all the rest of the scores during the week too? Cool beans.
Well, it's official! I'm gonna go start a thread for the playoffs. Very exciting stuff in the last couple of weeks.
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