MoFo Fantasy Baseball - 2018 Regular Season

Yeah, it's been nuts. Pretty fun! A month ago I figured PW was a big favorite. A little over a week ago I was pretty sure I was going to. Starting about two days ago, I decided it was probably going to be you, which is the most likely outcome going into this last day.

Partially because this is a metaphor for my offense the last couple of days:

Oh man. I'm gaming out possibilities and I see a very plausible way for us to all finish at 104 points.

That would be pretty nuts. I would prefer to have 104 and you two have 103. That has a nice ring to it.

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

It's very, very hard for me to win outright, I'm going to finish just shy of another point in a pretty staggering number of categories. Not starting Suarez today would've given be some plausible paths but at this point a co-championship is close to my upside, which is probably 104.

I'm definitely seeing multiple paths where you both finish below 104, though...ain't over yet.

HUGE for Tim just now, Ray leaves the game with two runners in scoring position and nobody out and neither scores. Could've easily cost him a point in ERA there.

BTW, there's a four-way tie at Quality Starts with 95 right now, including the two people at the top of the standings.

This pile-up is happening in the bottom half of the category, too. Setting lineups matters, all year, for everyone.

Adam left Carrasco on his bench and right now that's a one-point swing, all by itself, for PW. Ow.

My little pitching gamble is paying off so far. Go Roids!

I assume you mean throwing a bunch of starters out. Yeah, I was a little surprised you went for it, because you were very vulnerable in the rate stats and a lot of starters get pulled shy of six innings on the last day, but two of them got that far and literally none of them have given up a single run. That's crazy.

23 scoreless innings on the final day of the season. Insanity.

I was always gonna go for it. This is so much fun. I was a little surprised I had as many decent choices as I did. So far today is a microcosm of my second half. I spent most of last night and most of the morning reading about pitching and now my offense is tanking again. I need an assistant coach to help me with the other side when I'm focusing on the other.

Hey guys. Get a hit or two, eh? Please?

You mean like Gio? He was a coin flip, I'd say. Can argue it either way since the Brewers were still playing for something. Anderson, on the other hand, was a Hail Mary. That game is in Colorado, the over-under on it was above 11, and he's been bad pretty much all year. Nationals didn't really sit anyone either! But somehow he goes 7+ without a run. Baseball is weird.

Stacking guys the last day makes a lot of sense if you know you need Ks and QS and don't have much exposure elsewhere. In this case there was a ton of exposure, though. You're in a massive Holds pile-up, so rolling with a starter over a reliever represents a big opportunity cost. Very relevant with Morton, who was never going to pitch long enough to get a QS. One iffy starter blowing up (one of mine did) could not only lose a point in WHIP, but lose it to Tim.

Looking unlikely to matter at this point, though...very close to over...

I love guys on teams in big situations. Gio, Anderson and Hill were all pitching for good teams and for playoff seatings and what not. And Gio has been quite good for Milwaukee. I was just hoping to get zeroes from Morton. I'd really almost given up on Holds to be honest. But I've been hunting for that little QS swing for a minute and it looks like I got it and in dramatic fashion on the last day.



I don't pretend to make sound decisions. I go with my gut a lot. Probably too much. But, this is supposed to be fun. So I have blast playing sort of fast and loose.

Anderson is on a good team, they're just good in spite of him. But yeah, look, a "sound" decision versus a risky one is maybe a 65/35 instead of a 35/65. It adds up over the course of a season, for sure, but on a given day it's pretty random.

Why do you say you'd given up on Holds? There are two teams just two Holds back, though two in a day is moderately unlikely. The real opportunity is just above, where literally each hold bumps you up another level! That's crazy opportunity.

I should know, I targeted that scrum a month ago, though I had a ton of near-misses over the last few weeks that stopped me from breaking into it. Guess I should've shifted those gears a few weeks earlier.

Pretty sure that's in. Don't see anything in the games left that can plausibly change the outcome.

Congratulations, Chris.

Looks like Molina getting hit by a pitch might've just got me a run to give me a tie for second, too. We'll see where the dust settles.

Just in the last day or two really. They are just plain hard to get! Partly my fault though as I make too many moves sometimes and I probably missed out on at least five or so. I know there was a day that I dropped two guys and they both got Holds that night. I stopped going back and checking after that. I mean, the entire league is pretty much averaging a Hold every 3 games. So, I mean, I didn't give up on them per se. They were just slow coming this year. Maybe that's how they always are gonna be.

I imagine you're aware, with the exception of one year you've finished in first or second EVERY SINGLE YEAR! How the hell do you manage that, exactly?

Yeah, it definitely feels more random this year. I think bullpen usage has changed a bit. And I definitely had exactly what you describe happen a bunch of times this year, too.

I'm still happy with how I played it: I was within striking distance without dedicating much time or much in the way of pitching slots to it, so in theory rolling out five, six, or even seven guys compared to the three or four I had most of the year should've produced more than it did over the last month. Just a run of bad luck, I guess. I remember several instances just in this last week where guys came in and didn't quite hold the lead, and right now those are pretty much the difference between 2nd and 1st. So it goes.