View Full Version : MoFo Fantasy Baseball - The Playoffs
Well, the regular season is in the books:
http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/movieforums
We've got six playoff teams:
Springfield Isotopes (Yoda)
The 'Roid' Ragers (PW)
TONGO (TONGO)
The Clueless Clowns (Sedai)
Dirt-Stars (mikey's friend)
Dodgers (mark f)
The top two seeds, PW and I, get a first-round bye. The other four all start playing today (always loved that about baseball; the playoffs starting so soon after the regular season). A quick rundown of each of the playoff teams, in order:
Springfield Isotopes
223-153-42, .584 winning percentage
I started the season with three straight losses (the opener a 15-3 drubbing from Sedai) and four out of my first five to fall seemingly out of contention quite early. Then, starting in Week 9 I rolled off 11 straight victories, followed by a tie with Mark, followed by two more victories. This means I haven't lost a series in three and a half months.
I'm putting modesty aside here and saying that I feel pretty good about that. During this streak I've played .684 baseball, and since Week 13 (when the big victories started), I've been playing at a .735 clip, which is, by most metrics, insane.
But as we all know, the playoffs are another story, both in real baseball, and in the fantasy kind. Grady Sizemore is out for the year, Jimmy Rollins has had a very sub-par season, and Chad Billingsley has faded down the stretch.
Biggest Surprise: Tough call. Matt Cain (13-4, 2.51 ERA) has been unbelievable, but Carl Crawford has had a pretty big comeback season, too.
Biggest Bust: tie between Sizemore and Rollins, my first two picks.
Best Pickup: This one's easy: Ben Zobrist. Though I was glad to grab Aramis Ramirez, he's only played the second half, and Zobrist has come out of nowhere to play very well at a tough position to fill.
The 'Roid' Ragers
200-162-56, .545 winning percentage
Steadily good all season long; no win streaks above four (and every other only at two), but without consecutive losing weeks at any point during the year. There's almost nothing to say about the schedule: just a loss here and there, peppered by two straight wins inbetween pretty much all season long. Just playing strong baseball all year, and it lands him the #2 seed and the coveted bye week in the first round. Oh, and he had 9 more ties than any other team.
PW's team made a whopping 48 roster changes, a dozen more than the next-busiest team. Solidly drafted and well-tinkered with, the result is a workmanlike effort that has paid off well.
Only real drama came in the season's last couple of weeks, where he had to fend off TONGO and Sedai's Clowns for the #2 spot, which he did with a scant 1 game margin over the former, and a 2.5 game margin over the latter. The 2-4 spots were awfully bunched up, and it wouldn't surprise me if securing this spot just ahead of the others vaults PW's team into the title game.
Biggest Surprise: Probably Jason Marquis. He hasn't been amazing (14-10, 3.75 ERA), but he's having a career year, racking up tons of wins and throwing with an ERA about seven-tenths below his career average.
Biggest Bust: Gotta be Vladimir Guerrero, who's played fairly well, but missed about half the season. Runner-up goes to Aramis Ramirez, who missed the first half of the year as well.
Best Pickup: Hands down, Chris Carpenter (15-3, 2.28 ERA) who has been stunning. What kind of idiot would drop Chris Carpenter, you ask? You're lookin' at him. I actually snagged him off the waiver wire myself, but gave up on him way too quickly. D'oh. Probably the pickup of the year.
TONGO
207-171-40, .543 winning percentage
One of just two teams not to make a roster move, the evil TONGO abandoned his team for no apparent reason (boo!), but still finished with a solid season. Just goes to show you how important patience and drafting is in fantasy baseball: he was probably helped by the moves he didn't make, while the rest of us panicked too easily and did stupid things like, say, dropping Chris Carpenter to keep the immortal Max Scherzer. Not that I'm bitter. Ahem.
TONGO's path to the playoffs was fairly uneventful, save for a 6-game winning streak in the middle of the year that vaulted him to the top of the standings for a time, if memory serves.
Biggest Surprise: Zack Greinke (13-8, 2.22 ERA). Snagged in the 15th round (#141 overall), he was the best pitcher in baseball over the first half of the season, and hasn't slowed much since.
Biggest Bust: David Ortiz. His numbers have crept up towards vague respectability, but he was absolutely brutal in the first 30-40% of the season, and his average is still just a couple dozen points above the Mendoza line. Not as terrible as he was before, but incredibly disappointing for a 4th round pick (40th overall).
Best Pickup: N/A. Boo!
The Clueless Clowns
202-169-47, .539 winning percentage
Sedai renamed his team with this self-deprecating moniker when he made a small error on one of the season's first days and didn't immediately realize that the scoring period lasted an entire week. The name become incredibly ironic when he plastered me 15-3 to start the season, and went 5-1-1 in his first 7 weeks. This run includes a 17-0 slamming of Mark's Dodgers, which was the only zero-loss series for any team this year.
The Clowns swapped between wins and losses for the next month, but held onto the #1 seed for awhile on the strength of those two killer series' early on. Sed's squad then proceeded to drop five straight (though most by only a few games), keeping him in the playoff hunt but removing him from the top of the standings.
Still, he was among the top four seeds basically all year long (this might even be true literally!) and won four of his last six.
Biggest Surprise: Josh Johnson (14-4, 3.04 ERA). Without question. Seds snagged him in the 18th round (172nd overall).
Biggest Bust: Josh Hamilton, who was his 1st round pick (9th overall), and who's managed just 10 HRs and 49 RBIs after putting up 32/130 last year. He's also hitting about thirty points lower.
Best Pickup: Brandon Inge. Thought he's dropped all the way to .233, snagging a catcher who hits 27 homers (thus far) and 74 RBIs off the waiver wire is a heckuva steal.
Dirt-Stars
191-189-38, .502 winning percentage
Don't know much about mikeython's friend Tony. His team's been decent all year long; a four-week losing streak around the middle of the year represents the only time he's won or lost more than two in a row all season. Played decently, made 13 moves, and he's in the playoffs. Well done, Tony.
Biggest Surprise: Ted Lilly (10-8, 3.17 ERA). His numbers aren't eye-popping, but his ERA's been a full run under his career average and Tony nabbed him in the 16th round (154th overall).
Biggest Bust: Not really a "bust," but Chipper Jones has only played in 121 games and though his numbers are decent (16 HRs, 63 RBIs, .281 AVG), he hit .364 last year in the same number of games and .337 the year before. A good case can be made for Geovany Soto, who threw up a 22/86/.285 season last year and has managed just 9/33/.218 this year. Ouch. Tony took him in the 4th round (34th overall), too. Double-ouch. Given that he and mikeython are Chicago boys, let this be a lesson on the fantasy dangers of homerism.
Best Pickup: Coincidentally, his best pickup may be Derrek Lee, the guy he picked up when he dropped Soto. This is mitigated by the fact that he drafted Lee and dropped him first...but he did that to pick up Justin Upton, who's another great candidate for this category.
Dodgers
183-190-45, .492 winning percentage
It's been a long, crazy road for Mark's Dodgers, but he made it. Though he actually went 4-7 in his first 11 weeks, it was a lot worse than it looks; the 4 wins were a combined 8 games over .500, and the 7 losses were a whopping 39 games below, almost half of which comes from the aforementioned 17-0 loss to Sedai.
But the Dogers improved and played just under .500 for the next month or so. Then Week 16 hit, and Mark's team made a run. He went 74-45 (a .621 clip) over the season's last 7 weeks, winning 4 of his last 5 to secure the final playoff spot on the last week of the season.
It's often been said of both baseball and football that the key is to merely get into the playoffs and peak at the right time. If this is true, then Mark's team could be a big spoiler this year, as he's definitely surging. And the big jerk was the only guy over a three and a half month span who I didn't beat. Our 9-9 tie in Week 20 has forced me to replace "winning streak" with "unbeaten streak." How dare you, Mark. How dare you!
Biggest Surprise: It's not really a "surprise" that Joe Mauer can freakin' rake, but he's been arguably the best player in all of fantasy baseball this year. Mauer's hit an absurd .366, but has also slapped 26 homers and driven in 80 runs, all career highs (save for the RBIs, which will be by the time the season ends). And though he wasn't some late-round sleeper, Mark got him in the 6th round (58th overall).
Biggest Bust: Brandon Webb. Taken in the 2nd round (18th overall), pitched one start, got shelled, and was shut down for the year.
Best Pickup: Two great candidates. J.A. Happ (10-4, 2.77 ERA), who Mark picked up recently, and Todd Helton, who's hit a solid 14 HRs and driven in 75 runs, but also hit a fantastic .325.
That's everyone. Great regular season, guys, and I loved the seeding drama late in the year.
By the by, here are the matchups (starting today!):
The Clueless Clowns (#4) vs. Dirt-Stars (#5)
Winner plays yours truly next week.
TONGO (#3) vs. Dodgers (#6)
Winner plays PW's 'Roid' Ragers next week.
Good luck! :)
Few other fun facts:
Teams with the best record in each category. Hitting/fielding:
Runs: Clueless Clowns (14-7-1)
Home Runs: Clueless Clowns (14-4-4)
RBI: Dodgers (14-6-2)...followed by the Clowns again at (14-8).
Stolen Bases: Springfield Isotopes (17-4-1)
BB: Dirt-Stars (16-5-1)
Ks: vitosafagmo (17-5)
E: Springfield Isotopes (12-5-5)
AVG: Dodgers (14-8)
OBP: Dirt-Stars (15-7)
SLG: Three-way tie between Chillax FM, 'Roid' Ragers, and Clueless Clowns, all at 13-9.
Pitching:
IP: Springfield Isotopes and 'Roid' Ragers (both 16-6)
W: Springfield Isotopes (13-6-3)
L: Clueless Clowns (14-4-4)
SV: 'Roid' Ragers (15-5-2)
BB: vitosafagmo (16-4-2)
Ks: Springfield Isotopes (18-3-1)
HLDs: Flying Mongooses (14-5-3)
ERA: Springfield Isotopes (16-6)
WHIP: Chillax FM (13-8-1)
Based on this it looks like Seds had the strongest offense, and I probably had the strongest pitching. But wins and losses and still subject to luck, of course. The numbers change a little when you look at raw totals (http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/152165/headtoheadstats?pt=B&type=stats).
By the by, PW's team led in home runs (209), and though I haven't checked every series, I think he and I are tied for the most HRs in a single series (15).
Powdered Water
09-07-09, 05:10 PM
Nice. Good stuff Chris!
That's pretty interesting that my team didn't win hardly any of the major categories. I haven't looked but I imagine I'm right in the mix for several of them. I had a lot of fun tinkering and am already looking forward to next year. And I didn't realize that it was you Chris, that dumped Carpenter. I feel a lot better about Ramirez knowing that. :D
After getting used to some of the little Yahoo quirks I'm willing to give them a go again next year if everyone else is. There is something to be said for keeping up the profile and trophy case in one server. And since I was the one doing the most bitching I would assume it probably won't be an issue to most of you if we stay at Yahoo. But, whatever you guys decide is fine of course.
I can't wait until next week. I have several guys banged up and out for the season but I've already made some pickups to replace them and feel pretty good about the new guys.
Congrats to Mark for putting together a nice run to end the year and for making the playoffs. The way the Cubs had been charging for the last month or two I thought he was a lock to get in, so good job buddy.
You are correct, sir. Going by raw totals (rather than wins-losses in each category), you were 2nd in Runs, 1st in HRs, 3rd in IPs, 3rd in Saves, 3rd in BB (pitchers), 3rd in ERA, and 1st in WHIP. You were 4th, 5th, or 6th in a whole mess of categories, and only near the bottom in a few, I think.
I think I probably agree with you about Yahoo. It's convenient to use the same place, it's free, and it figures to be around forever. We can improve the experience by planning a little more, and everyone being familiar with it from last year will help a lot. The only rule that particularly bugged me was the idea that you can't pick someone up and start them the same day, but that's not a total deal-breaker for me.
Powdered Water
09-07-09, 08:32 PM
I agree, and I suppose the easiest way to deal with that is to increase the bench size (I mean, :laugh: one of the other Football leagues I joined has 10 bench spots!) and that would probably take care of most of it. I did mention this issue to Yahoo in my little feedback thing I sent them so, maybe if enough people complain about the same thing then maybe they will see fit to tweak it. Or at least have some kind of option the league owner or commissioner can change before creating the league. Yahoo's been doing this for awhile now and I think they listen to their users. We'll see. It is a good site and free as you mentioned. I like free.
Powdered Water
09-09-09, 10:11 PM
WTF? I just lost another guy for the season. Pena broke two of his fingers. And Lincecum got scratched the other night. This is getting a little ridiculous.
Just two days left in the first round! Sedai's Clueless Clowns hold a big lead over the Dirt-Stars, and look well on their way to the second-round. Mark's Dodgers have held a solid lead over TONGO's, uh, TONGO, most of the week, and leads 10-8, with several categories still up in the air.
Both teams have two starters left to go, though Mark's case is tricky, because his two (Guthrie and Sabathia) are throwing against each other tomorrow. That game could end up deciding the series.
If Mark wins, it'll be Isotopes-Dodgers and 'Roid' Ragers-Clowns in the second round, otherwise it'll be Isotopes-Clowns and 'Roid' Ragers-TONGO. All of this is assuming the Dirt-Stars don't swing four categories in the next two days.
Well, it's just about official. Just a couple of games still going, and both Sedai's Clueless Clowns and Mark's Dodgers are up 12-5, so I think we can assume they're both moving on.
This means Mark and I will head off starting tomorrow, and Sedai's Clowns will play PW's 'Roid' Ragers. Some quick notes on each:
Springfield Isotopes vs. Dodgers
http://www.movieforums.com/upload/isotopes.jpg http://www.movieforums.com/upload/dodgers.jpg
Season Series: DEAD EVEN (27-27). Week 2, Dodgers win 10-8. Week 11, Isotopes win 10-8. Week 20, 9-9 tie.
Last Month of Season: Isotopes 48-18, Dodgers 42-25.
Probable Two-Start Pitchers: for the Isotopes, Verlander and C. Lee, and for the Dodgers, Baker and Jiménez.
The 'Roid' Ragers vs. The Clueless Clowns
http://www.movieforums.com/upload/roid_ragers.jpg http://www.movieforums.com/upload/clueless_clowns.gif
Season Series: Clowns lead (21-11). Week 6, Clowns win 13-5. Week 15, Ragers win 8-6.
Last Month of Season: Clowns 28-38. Ragers 38-31.
Probable Two-Start Pitchers: For the Ragers, T. Lincecum (most likely, but not for sure) and R. Oswalt, and for the Clowns, J. Weaver.
The two-start pitchers are largely a result of luck, of course, but they could be crucially important, and they certainly reward teams with more ace pitchers, I'd say. Anyway, PW could benefit the most from this, with Lincecum going twice.
Good luck to everyone! :) It's been an interesting season and it got very exciting over the last few weeks. Really glad to see some of the more involved, active teams playing for the title, too. PW was first in transanctions, Seds was third, I was fourth, and Mark was fifth.
Powdered Water
09-13-09, 08:49 PM
It will be a miracle if I pull this out. Almost half my regular guys are out. Still got some solid pitchers though. Should be fun. Oh, and I'm pretty sure Seds and I split this year. I think I won 8-6 the second time we played. No biggie though.
Yeah, I was basing the "Clowns lead" thing on the combined wins and losses in those two series; I detailed each series just after.
I think you'll be okay, but you're right, it's probably going to come down to your pitchers. That and whether or not Pujols almost single-handedly wins a couple of categories. Your best bet is likely dominating most of the pitching categories and squeaking out a few on the offensive side. That's not too far from what I've had to do for a fair part of the year, though the offense has picked up as of late, too.
But hey, it's a single week of baseball. Absolutely anything can happen.
Powdered Water
09-13-09, 09:45 PM
Oh I know, I was just mentioning that I actually won the second time we played. I think you've got it backwards. I won 8-6 so our series is slightly closer than you have it now. This is terribly important and could mean almost everything. :p
Anywho, having Lincecum go twice this week wouldn't bother me a bit. We'll see, his back is troubling him and you know what a crap shoot those can be. Same goes for Oswalt, his back is bugging him too. Not good.
Even though TONGO only has one player going this evening, it's Ichiro so I won't count any chickens yet. Remember, TONGO got the first draft pick (Hanley Ramirez), so there must be something good about that and having the computer pick for you. If I do make it in, I have some problems with my starting pitching. Three (Wolf, Jimenez and Happ) of my starters missed their turns against TONGO. OK, let's see what happens tomorrow. :cool:
OK, I'm in, but it looks like I'm playing the other Chris starting tomorrow and his 'R Rs. Isn't that correct based on the brackets?
Er, okay, my bad. I assumed it was going to stay seed-based, but apparently not. That's kinda weird/goofy, but I don't mind, other than having to go back and edit my little breakdown post at some point. :laugh:
Seds and I, it is. Good luck man!
Good luck to you, too! :)
My roster is thin this week, with multiple people off on multiple days. I hope to at least put up a decent battle, but Chris has emerged as the elite owner over the months.
Go, underdog! ;)
Okay, let's try this again. :laugh:
Springfield Isotopes vs. The Clueless Clowns
http://www.movieforums.com/upload/isotopes.jpg http://www.movieforums.com/upload/clueless_clowns.gif
Season Series: Isotopes lead narrowly (26-24). Week 1: Clowns win 15-3. Week 10: Isotopes win 10-8. Week 19: Isotopes win 13-1.
Last Month of Season: Isotopes 48-18, Clowns 28-38.
Probable Two-Start Pitchers: for the Isotopes, Verlander and C. Lee, and for the Clowns, J. Weaver.
The 'Roid' Ragers vs. Dodgers
http://www.movieforums.com/upload/roid_ragers.jpg http://www.movieforums.com/upload/dodgers.jpg
Season Series: Ragers lead narrowly (17-15). Week 7: Ragers win 11-3. Week 16: Dodgers win 12-6.
Last Month of Season: Ragers 38-31, Dodgers 42-25.
Probable Two-Start Pitchers: For the Ragers, T. Lincecum (most likely, but not for sure) and R. Oswalt, and for the Dodgers, Baker and Jiménez.
My roster is thin this week, with multiple people off on multiple days. I hope to at least put up a decent battle, but Chris has emerged as the elite owner over the months.
Go, underdog! ;)
The days off are rough, and they kinda suck because it's pretty hard to account for all of it if it hits you a certain way.
Our matchup should be fun, but honestly, I'm pretty intrigued by PW and Mark's, because at first glance it would seem as if it's all pitching on PW's side and all offense on Mark's. This might be one of those series where both sides dominate their end, and the winner is the one who dominates more thoroughly and squeezes out a couple of wins in the other team's categories.
Powdered Water
09-14-09, 10:29 PM
I bet the seeding is something you may be able to tweak next year when you're setting up the league Chris. You should be playing the lowest seed in this format in my ever so humble opinion.
Anyway, all my talk about a potential power outage and of course my team has already hit a couple of taters. :laugh: Baseball is a goofy game.
Most playoffs have the brackets set up in advance. Normally the number one team is placed against the lowest high number team (in our case, #4/5) while the number two team gets the highest (#3/6). This shouldn't have come as a surprise since Yoda says in the initial post that the winner of my series will play the Prep H team. :cool:
In this case, yeah, but in most real-life formats obviously it depends on which seeds emerge, and the higher seed plays the lower from the remaining teams. Maybe that's a little too complicated for a free league? Dunno. No biggie either way, though. At least, I'm saying it's no biggie now; if I lose and compare my stats and it turns out I would've won against Mark instead, I'll probably throw a virtual fantasy hissy fit. :D
One thing's for sure. Every single NCAA Bracket (say basketball) has the entire brackets drawn up well in advance. They definitely don't tweak them based on the way the teams win and lose. Does it really matter when a team beats the other team? In reality, no, but I can understand that it might get you in a fantasy league, but you have to remember, this is my first one, and I spent the first four months with a sore ass from all the bites. :cool:
Aye, the NCAA does it that way. NFL does it differently, though. I believe MLB does, too. Any dreams the NCAA might have had of changing to match them obviously goes out the window once people start having fun with brackets. :) They'd be insane to kill that. Makes more sense then, anyway, since those seedings are based on votes rather than strictly on regular season performance.
Don't forget that Derek Lowe's on your bench (but scheduled to start tonight), Mike. :)
Interesting start; pitching's been good on my end, but Mike's team is winning in AVG, OBP, and SLG. Neither of us has a single home run yet.
Wow, just under halfway through the week, and both series' are very close.
I'm up on Sedai 10-8, and each of us have several categories that could easily change hands before the week's out. I got a crucial shutout out of Cliff Lee, which is very big, not only because of the timing, but because he'd struggled his last three starts. Mike's got Beckett going tonight, and I've got Hernandez going against the Yankees tomorrow. Both very big starts for each of us.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers are up on PW's Ragers 10-7, though some of the margins are razor-thing, and both Saves and Stolen Bases are tied. As expected, PW's pitching is leading the way, and Mark's offense is holding up his end. Mark's Dodgers have Happ and Guthrie going tomorrow, and the Ragers will be trotting out Marquis and Buehrle.
I have not one, but two of my power players out for the rest of the week. Leave it to Jorge Posada to get into a fist fight during fantasy playoffs! Suspended for four games.
Youkilis is down for the count with back spasms.
I made some kooky desperation moves, like tossing my first round draft pick, who was a big ol' bust this year. I just have to post the innings with my hitters to have a chance. I plugged in a guy I have never heard of. Hope he does well!
I expect Chris's superior baseball/math skills will win out in the end, with the series going to him in a close victory. I need a lil luck here this week...
I did manage to plug Lowe in in time...
Dropping Hamilton could be pretty shrewd at this point. Anything goes this late in the game.
I wish math had a lot to do with it. :laugh: Sadly, I've noticed that in baseball all the poking around and looking at numbers really just serves to give me a slightly better idea of what's probably going to happen anyway. It hasn't changed my lineup decisions much, unlike football. At this point we've all got our teams laid out, and the only real strategy comes in deciding whether or not to play a starting pitcher late in the series by figuring out how many categories he'll help/hurt in, but I can count on one hand the number of times all season I've found myself doing that.
Aye, I saw you got Lowe in. He only pitched 2 innings for some reason, though.
The Youk thing is really rough. Lots of players going down, though I assume some of the injuries are either a) teams playing it safe because they're out of the race, or b) teams playing it safe because they need guys healthy for the playoffs. Definitely mucks about with our playoffs a bit.
Yeah - Lowe left because he had a blister! I mean...come on! Of all the times to be putting on a skirt...
Le sigh...
I seem to remember Curt Schilling bleeding all over the mound in one game... yeah, it was the World Series... but our playoffs are just as important, right? ;)
Meanwhile, my lights-out closer, Heath Bell, has stated he intends to improve on his least couple of rough starts by shaving off his goatee...
I am starting to wonder about baseball...
After the shave, he was back to lights out on Wednesday...
Whatever works!
Powdered Water
09-18-09, 01:38 AM
Wow. Mark and I seem to have a really tight game going this week. It is as it should be yeah? Looks like the next 3 days are going to be a lot of fun to watch the old stattracker. Good luck Mark.
Good Luck, Bro! (That's a skinny version of me!)
http://www.ourspace.biz/content_right01/profile_images/Good_Luck/budda_good_luck.gif
Seds snagged the lead last night, and it's up to me to take it back. Both series very close!
I've got Felix going tonight against the Yankees. He's been pretty poor against them in his career, though it's only through four starts. And he's Felix, so I gotta start him.
C'mon, F-Hern, or whatever.
Powdered Water
09-18-09, 08:42 PM
They call him "King Felix" 'round these parts. Not really my bag, but you know, everybody has to have some goofy nickname in Baseball.
I know, I was trying to avoid using it. :D But really, I mean, isn't F-Hern catchier? Am I right? Hello? Anyone?
Ah, to hell with all of ya'.
Hell's Wireless is temporarily shut down.
F-Hern! 9 innings pitched, 1 earned run, 1.00 WHIP, against the Yankees, no less. Sadly, thanks to a sacrifice fly and a lack of run support, Seattle trails 2-1 and he stands to take the loss if they can't score in the 9th. Now that's just silly.
Still, Franklin got a win tonight, Crawford went 4 for 5, and the Isotopes as a whole have a 1.200+ OPS on the evening, so I've managed to pull ahead in several categories. A few are too close for comfort, but tonight's definitely been a big night.
Meanwhile, Mark and PW are still neck-and-neck, with all four of their combined starters either struggling or leaving the game early. PW leads 10-9 at the moment, but I count literally a dozen categories that are extremely close, with one or two others that have just a shade of breathing room. It's really, really close.
Powdered Water
09-19-09, 01:45 AM
Ichiro just homered. Game over.
Just saw it on GameChannel. I glanced over and saw it in the window. Sick! With two outs, too. Sweeney pinch-hits, smacks a double, then Ichiro wins it. Poetic justice, I tell you. Very big deal, as Sedai and I were tied in wins and I was up just one in losses. That's a multi-game swing ("swing" both literally and figuratively) if it ends up being the difference in each category. Insane.
Oh, Seds you probably already heard this, but Youkilis was back in the lineup tonight. He's less than 100%, but 80% of Youk is better than 100% of a lot of other players. :)
Yeah - My team just doesn't seem to be playing or something. I am not posting many stats at all over the past couple of days. I am WAY too far behind on pretty much everything at this point.
Twas a good season!
Congrats Yoda!
Since this was my first year, I was really counting on losing, as I have a lot to learn. I just should NOT win this thing, as I am pretty much just taking swipes in the dark as far as strategy. There is a quite I bit I need to research and figure out, and i really had no idea on how to leverage wins in any given category. I just picked players and counted on them to do well.
Perhaps after the season is completely over, we can chat about what sort of moves managers need to make at certain points during the week etc.
It also seemed like I had a lot of players taking multiple days off this week, which was odd.
Powdered Water
09-19-09, 01:42 PM
I guessing that a lot of teams are resting guys Mike. This may be the most anti climactic end to a Baseball season that I can remember seeing in quite a few years. The closest race right now is what? Like, 4 games yeah? A lot of the good teams are giving their regulars time off right now which affects us big time.
Yeah, that kinda stuff definitely happens (guys taking multiple days off). It can be annoying.
I can't help but feel this congratulations is some kind of reverse-jinx, but I'll assume the best and say thank you, and thanks for a great, hard-fought season. With the standard caveat that it's not quite over, of course.
That said, you did a genuinely awesome joke, Mike, particularly given that you'd never played before. My first fantasy league was when I was 14 years old, and I've played in lots of different types of leagues over the years, and I still got my butt whooped in the last one I played in before this. It's a really weird game sometimes, but it can be very satisfying, too.
That said, I definitely made some errors in judgment as Commissioner. Most leagues play with far fewer categories, which reduces the amount of unpredictability, at least somewhat. I'd merely gotten used to the more category-heavy formats over the last few years. Next year we should talk about going to a standard 5x5 league, or maybe a slightly altered 6x6 (IE: 5 or 6 categories for hitting and pitching, each).
I would love to talk strategy after the season and all that, for sure. :) But reducing the categories next year will make things a lot simpler and more fun for everyone, I think.
Powdered Water
09-19-09, 06:23 PM
Ooooo. Carpenter just wiggled out of a bases loaded jam.
Powdered Water
09-19-09, 07:45 PM
Bah! Your boy Franklin comes in and blows the save Chris and St. Louis then bails him out and then he gets credit for the win. Bah!
In the parlance of our times... "Bogus Dude!"
Another reason why wins are a pretty silly stat. Not as silly as saves, though.
Anyway, in addition to Franklin giving up a run, Verlander got kicked around, so now Sedai's right on my tail in both ERA and WHIP. He's close in one other category and a little bit further back on maybe two others, and he needs to swing about four categories total. Still looking pretty good, but it's definitely closer than I'm comfortable with.
Just so I get an official gripe in, my team thus far is 3-20 with 11 strikeouts. My offense started out today ahead in Ks and now I'm 10 behind, not to mention all the various averages in free fall. Anyway, we'll see what happens. Good luk, all.c
Yeah, I took a look at your series and saw the huge offensive disparity today (in terms of raw hits). That said, you're up 6-0 in runs (which gave you the lead there), 2-0 in HRs, 3-1 in RBI and 6-2 in BB. But BB and RBI were probably in the bag already, and the HRs just gave you a little breathing room.
It's 11-8 right now, but you've got Sabathia going against the Mariners this evening, and that could be big for you. If he tosses 7 strong innings and wins the game you'll probably take the lead in IP and WHIP, tie in Wins, and draw close in Ks, which would give you a 10-8 lead heading into the last day. Either way, it'll present you with some very interesting choices, given that you both have three starters lined up to go tomorrow! The strategy involved in deciding which of the three in which combination are likely to help you in the most number of winnable/losable categories is kinda insane.
I can't adequately emphasize how flippin' close this series is.
Powdered Water
09-19-09, 10:05 PM
C. C. Sabathia is going to gets his lunch served to him cold tonight... err, dinner I mean. Yeah.
And not dinner that's supposed to be cold, like lunch meat or anything, right?
Powdered Water
09-19-09, 10:13 PM
Word. Portly fella is going on a diet. Is what I'm saying.
Trash talkin' at the very end? HA! I'll admit that "Revenge is a dish which people of taste prefer to eat cold", but how do you know who's getting their revenge? Besides, maybe we need to figure out how many Sicilians are on the Mariners and how many are on the Yankees and go from there.
You know what? This Fantasy Baseball is Kinda Fun when you're not tearing your hair out. :cool:
Powdered Water
09-19-09, 10:48 PM
I know right? Wait till tomorrow Mark it will be even worse. Or better depending on your point of view. :)
How come my Texas reliever Wilson didn't get a hold? He seemed to do everything my buddy George Sherrill did to get his two holds.
Powdered Water
09-19-09, 10:58 PM
He did. Holds take awhile to register for some reason.
Thanks, and I hope you're correct although I have no reason to doubt you, unless it's some form of trash-talking. Now, I officially hate the Boston Red Sox because I believe I would have gotten about 10 more saves (including one tonight) if they hadn't scored about 50 runs in the 8th inning when it was entirely unnecessary. Harumph!
Yup, the hold came through shortly after. A few stats take awhile, particularly the goofy, nebulous ones like holds.
Looks like PW flipped a couple of categories; Runs, and I'm not sure what else (AVG?). Makes the contest look a little lopsided, but it still isn't. Particularly with Sabathia, who's one out away from 5 scoreless innings and, with a 6-0 lead, is almost certain to get the win. It's gonna go right down to the wire tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Soriano gave up four flippin' runs in one inning and my ERA's skyrocketed, though both Weaver and Pedro had poor outings, which might end up being fairly important. Even so, Seds is right on my tail in ERA and WHIP all of a sudden (I had a huge lead in both 48 hours ago), and I'm up in Runs by just one. That's three razor-thing categories, and Seds only needs to flip four to win.
Just so anybody who cares knows, the score between PW and me is not 9-9, it's 10-8, PW. For some reason, Yahoo credited me with two Ks for Sabathia when he wasnt even pitching in the 8th inning (drat, I wanted him to get his portly ass out there too). Even so, I'm thankful that I got this close. Best of Luck tomorrow, Compadre.
Powdered Water
09-20-09, 06:30 PM
How fitting would it be if Mark's team not only beat my ace in fantasy but also in real life and propels his team to the World Series? Well, its happening. Sigh...
Powdered Water
09-20-09, 07:05 PM
Wow. And Lincecum is out of the game and my team surrenders the lead. Well played Mark. I don't have much of a chance left. Your pitchers have been phenomenal today. Good job.
Wow, I didn't realize Lincecum was pitching against the Dodgers. That must been an insane game for Mark to be watching.
Not over yet, but Mark's definitely sitting pretty good here. He's about to get a win and go up 11-7, which means PW's gonna have to flip a couple categories somewhere. Runs are a good candidate (down 27-26), as are both ERA and WHIP, though the latter's gonna have to be won or lost based on relievers.
Speaking of which, looks like Morales is in the game!
Powdered Water
09-20-09, 07:53 PM
Kind words but this baby is over. Good win Mark. Congrats on your fabulous run to end the season. You too Chris. It seems fitting that you should both play eachother for the title.
Thanks but I'm not accepting anything until Pujols' game is over.
Mark's right. You've got Pujols going tonight and you're down by one run. If he puts up two runs, you tie 9-9. It's far from over.
I'll go look into tiebreaking procedures, but I'm pretty sure it's related to bench totals.
Powdered Water
09-20-09, 08:15 PM
Uh, not to be a nudge. But I'm ahead in Runs and down 3 right now 11-8. How Pujols will make up 3 spots is beyond me. I have a shot at OBP but not much else.
Well, the first playoff tiebreaker is team ERA, so Pujols will have to flip a second category. A few rough calculations shows that the gap in OBP is too big, so I presume the same goes for SLG, so that might be it after all. But wow, coming down to a tiebreaker, potentially!
Pretty insane, the whole thing. The ERAs and WHIPs are so close that any other potential pitchers could swing the whole thing, but it looks like everyone's played already.
EDIT: sorry, you're right, I misread one of the categories. Also, in my defense, my StatTracker also thinks the Colorado game is still going on.
Powdered Water
09-20-09, 08:23 PM
Yeah my main hope was in my pitching and my ace got hammered today. I lost both the ERA and WHIP in about a 5 minute span. I could have survived the Wins category, but not all three.
Yeah, it was actually pretty improbable. My money was on you mainly because of Lincecum, and the general disparity between the pitchers going today. Pretty crazy for Lincecum to get killed today. A couple of scoreless innings probably swing ERA and WHIP.
Great season PW. You put yourself in a fantastic position to play for it all, which is all we can really do. Congrats to Mark, whose voodoo doll I'll be stabbing mercilessly by this time tomorrow.
By the by, Mark and I each have one pitcher likely to pitch twice during the final series: Kuroda on his end, and Cain on mine.
Powdered Water
09-20-09, 08:33 PM
Thanks, I had a lot of fun and look forward to next year. I'm going to go and cry in the corner now.
That's just a side effect from the 'roids.
Powdered Water
09-20-09, 08:40 PM
I wish. My football team stinks. The real one. My fake one I think, (I hope) will be OK. But my real team... meh. I'm drained. Think I'm gonna go watch a movie or something.
Yay Chris!
Nice work, man! I am glad you won, as you deserve it. You worked your team up to the powerhouse it is with savvy moves all season.
On to the third place game for me! :)
You are, as always, Mike, far too kind and incredibly gracious.
Good luck to Mark. Gotta admire the late season run all the way to the championship. Definitely peaking at the right time. Today's probably going to be ho-hum, as there are only a handful of games going on.
Well, I got rid of both of my shortstops. Scutaro is out all week with an injury and Peralta is in a humongous slump. Hopefully, Erick Aybar can do something. I also picked up Ronnie Belliard because he's playing more than Hudson at 2B. We'll see if this affects my team at all. Good luck, Chris.
Same to you, Mark. This should be fun. :)
Professional athletes can't be caught dead saying this sort of thing, but as a fan (or in fantasy), I don't mind saying that sometimes just getting to the "big game" is about 90% as fun as winning it, so I'm pretty happy with my season as-is. Should be a blast following it all week long.
If I had to pick one thing I'm worried about in this series, other than Mauer completely going off, it's Kuroda, who's got two starts against the Nationals and Pirates. Youch. Can't ask for better matchups than that, really.
Powdered Water
09-22-09, 11:37 PM
Good luck to you in the third place game Mike. Should be fun. Looks like we already have a pretty close game going.
Good luck to both of you guys too.
So, PW, do you know why Aardsma didn't pitch the 9th inning tonight? He's one of my closers and this other guy picked up the save instead.
Powdered Water
09-23-09, 12:42 AM
Sure don't. They did call up a few guys so maybe they're just trying out somebody? I haven't caught too many Mariner games this season to be perfectly honest. I have issues with my home team. I keep tabs on them but I don't watch them a lot. I guess I'm a fair weather fan. But I have my reasons.
Well, as expected Kuroda was lights out. Less expected is Matt Cain not only getting rocked, but staying in the game long enough to get really, thoroughly, completely rocked. I was off to a really nice start with three different relivers tossing scoreless innings (two of them picked up saves), but Cain wiped it out and then some by giving up 7 earned runs in less than 3 innings. Ouch.
That's huge for this series. The rest of my starters are going to be starting out in a big ERA and WHIP hole, made worse by the fact that Kurado gets to pitch against the Pirates later on.
That said, my offense is off to a really fantastic start in most of the power categories. I might have to take a fair number of offensive categories unless the rest of my starters step up big time.
Well, apparently the Washington Nationals are bad enough that even Chad Billingsley, who's been knocked around pretty much every time he's pitched over the last 4-5 weeks, can shut them down. He's retired the first ten batters, striking out six. And I wrote that last sentence before the 10th batter was finished batting (because the 10th batter was Willie Harris), and then watched it come true before posting this.
JINX!
I sure hope our World Series doesn't come down to that official scorer in Washington giving Andre Ethier an error on the final play of the Dodgers-Nationals game. With the score tied and one out, the Nationals had runners on first and third, and the Dodgers outfield was playing in shallow. A pinch hitter hit a ball over Eithier's head but he backed up far enough to get his glove on the ball before it bounced off. The guy on third had to score no matter what; with Eithier backpedaling, even his arm could never throw the runner out at home. So the scorer gives the batter a sacrifice fly, but to justify the fact that the runner made it to first base (basically after the game was over), he gave Ethier an error, and this apparently happened very late because there was still no error up when I went to bed last night. I realize that it probably came down from on high that Ethier had to get an error, but first of all, I'm not so sure that it was a legit error, and second, as I said, the game was over as soon as the batter hit the ball.
I admit, that'd be a bummer of a way to lose. I'm sure this stuff happens, though, but we don't see most of the games, so we don't have to know about most of it.
Anyway, Mark and I definitely have a series going here; it's 10-9 at the moment. Billingsley looked to be bailing me out with 5 no-hit innings, but he was walking too many guys, and a 3-run bomb turned a stellar outing into merely a pretty good one. 6 innings and 3 ER, but his WHIP was good and he struck out 9.
Still getting my butt whooped in ERA and WHIP, but I have Verlander and Hernandez going today. Big, big day. If I don't get solid numbers out of both of them, I can probably kiss a couple of pitching categories good bye. Mark's got Happ going against Milwaukee.
It's probably going to be pretty close all the way through Sunday. I still feel pretty good about my chances, given the margin I have in some of the categories I'm winning versus the margin in some of those in which I'm trailing. Then again, this could be a false sense of confidence; I haven't lost a series in four (!) whole months, which is probably heavily skewing my sense of my own team.
How exciting!
Hell of a game you two have going on, for sure. Not so close over here in the Bronze Series... Looks like I could end up with another trophy for me case! :D
Mark and I are really slugging it out. He pulled closer in a couple of offensive categories last night and got a decent win out of Happ, and I got a very big day out of my two starters. F-Hern went 8 innings giving up 3 ER, and Verlander went 7 giving up 2 ER. Not exactly mind-blowing, but a big improvement that makes a win in WHIP eminently plausible now, and makes a win in ERA at least in the realm of possibility.
The crazy thing is that they struck out 11 batters each, which is insane. Billingsley struck out 9 the other day, too, and Soriano has 4 in 2 innings. So, the staff as a whole has a ridiculous 43 Ks in just over 30 innings.
Saturday should be huge for both of us; Mark has four starters going. He's got lots of decisions about the tradeoffs involved; winning IP, maybe making an outside run at Ks, but possibly losing L and opening the door for a couple of bad starts to put ERA well within reach again. The permutations, strategically, are pretty crazy.
Powdered Water
09-25-09, 09:22 PM
Wow, well, it appears congrats is in order to you Mike. My team has just fallen apart the last few weeks. Bad timing. I still have a few decent pitchers to go but unless someone on my team figures out how to hit the ball pretty soon I'm forked. Yeah, forked. No homers this week? Really? Sheesh!
Yowza, Sabathia killed for Mark today. 7 innings, no runs, 1 hit, 2 BB, 8 Ks, and the win.
Wolf, Jimenez, and Baker still to go. Mark's almost certainly taking IP as a result, but my ridiculous K numbers will probably keep me ahead there, even with his pitchers stacking up all these innings. I can formally kiss ERA goodbye now, but WHIP is still way up in the air.
That said, even losing IP I'll lead 10-8, so Mark's going to have to hang onto most categories and flip a few of the closer ones. The closest are HLDs, Saves, E, OBP, and RBI.
I'm not in a bad position, based on the margins. If I lose it'll probably be close, as I've got 5-6 categories not exactly locked up, but pretty well in hand, whereas most of the categories I'm trailing in are within reach. It's going to be a lot closer at the end of the day than it was at the beginning, though, so it seems like we'll have to wait until the very last day, tomorrow, to see how it all shakes out. Best of luck, Mark. :) It's been quite exciting so far.
Oh my, Mark's hitters just went insane and -- with a big assist from my own anemic offense today -- flipped AVG, OBP, and SLG. The latter is particularly surprising, because I came into today with a lead of more than 100 points.
Mauer: 2 for 4. Cantu (Cantu!), 3 for 4. Belliard (!), 3 for 5. Helton 3 for 4, and so on.
Big, big day for the offense. We're going to go into the last day with half the categories easily within play.
I seem to be having lots of problems with Yahoo today. They wouldn't let me change my lineup (well, actually, they did, but then they reverted it back to the previous one), and now they say yesterday's games and stats never happened. So basically there's no way to exactly tell how the teams are doing because they aren't even remotely accurate.
I had already figured out that I was down 9-8 before Yahoo recently and anticlimactically updated their stats. I think the Series boiled down to the 8th and 9th innings of the Texas-Tampa Bay game where I had a chance to get a hold, but Chris's two Rays came through huge, along with Rollins getting another double at about the same time. That, along with some anemic batting from Ethier and Werth kept me from catching up in the slugging numbers. So Congratulations to Chris for lasting through this sucka and taking the Crown.
I posted this about three months ago. (http://www.movieforums.com/community/showthread.php?p=545466) :cool:
So why are the stats still live? Do these series keep going or something?
Good season, all! :)
Thanks, Mark. :) A great season to you, as well, and to everyone else who participated.
I had the same scoring issues you did; at first I thought I was up huge, then I thought I'd lost, then I realized I'd barely won. It was a bit of a roller-coaster ride.
The holds thing is interesting; when I realized I was going into the last day with a 4-1 saves lead, and that we were tied 2-2 in holds, I picked up like 2-3 middle relievers (all among the league leaders in holds) and started all of them, but still didn't get one. It was kind of fun to realize that I could drop all sorts of players if necessary to chase a few categories.
Anyway, it was a pretty crazy finish; I fell just short on IP and WHIP, and as you say, SLG was the big thing that changed on the last day. All those homers made the difference. It was fitting to have yet another photo-finish.
Thanks again for a great season, guys. I've got lots of ideas about how to improve things next year; namely, cutting down on the number of categories. I think that'll go a long way. :)
You know what? I think Sedai is right. I just checked and it says that Week 25 goes through October 4! I would have sworn it said Sept. 27 before. I think we're still playing.
Wow, I think you're right. I saw "Final" and didn't realize that meant "Finals."
:eek: It's a two-week series.
Well, now I feel pretty stupid. Pretend I never gave any sort of gracious victory speech or drank champagne or drunkenly sang along to "We Are the Champions."
Oh crap! Glad I checked my line-up this morning!
Ill!
It seems managers are starting to sit their big guns as they look ahead to the real playoffs. Jeter, Texiera, and Beckett are all scratches today... Not good!
Crawford isn't playing today, either, but it can't be playoff rest. Boo. Hope they're not shutting him down or something.
Pretty kooky to have the season end this way, but part of me admits it's kind of cool, because it'll force all of us to get a little creative, too.
Powdered Water
09-30-09, 09:41 PM
Crap, I didn't know this was still going on. Oh well.
Still going on! Three days left. Feels like we've been playing forever.
I've managed to get my lead up to 13-6, but the three hitting percentage categories -- AVG/OBP/SLG -- are still in play, with the first two being more or less tossups. RBI, hitter Ks, Ws, Ls and HLDs are still very close, but it look like I'll only have to hang on to a handful of these to win.
Finally got that third HLD yesterday, but Mark promptly got two saves, to pull within one. D'oh.
Mark has three starters going today, so he'll take the lead in IP, but we both have four going over these last three days (I think), so that should be pretty close, unless a couple of guys get rocked, or go the distance, and I don't see the latter happening much at this time of the year.
Down the stretch they come...
The pitching all depends on who locks up their playoff situation and when.
Not to worry PW - Lots of our players are getting removed from line-ups/rotations as real world playoffs approach, and managers want fresh blue chip players ready to go. My pitchers keep getting pushed back/skipped, and teams like The Yankees aren't playing starters in some games, so power isn't playing like it should, either.
I am slotting the people I think will play the most and holding my breath!
More stars sitting; A. Ramirez, J. Rollins and C. Crawford all out today. Meh.
Thankfully, Detroit's going down to the wire, which means Verlander started today, and he's been lights out so far.
Well, it's finally over. I think. :laugh:
No use in repeating anything, so I'll just reiterate that, when all was said and done, and with all the little quirks and problems, I still had a really good time, and I loved all the drama and competition. I love Sedai going from being so despondent he changed his team name, to 3rd place. I love PW winning steadily all year, making 50% more roster moves than anyone else, and holding everyone off for the second Bye week spot. And, of course, I love Mark making a late season run, sneaking into the final playoff spot, and fighting down to the wire in the Championship.
And, I gotta say, bravo to Mark for really playing his lineups well the last week here. He outworked me on the waiver wire and tossed a ton of at-bats and innings at me. I underestimated just how much time some of my hitters would miss, and Mark overtook me in Runs and RBIs as a result, the latter largely thanks to A-Rod's massive 7-RBI effort yesterday.
It was a great season and I think chopping the categories down and going with a more traditional setup next year will make it even more enjoyable. :) I hope you'll all come back next season.
Will do! Thanks for managing the league!
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