My NFBC Season

[Navel Lint]

Hit where you are aiming;





Going into the draft I set statistical goals for my team, X amount of runs, X amount of RBI’s etc. Now that the season has started, I have set targets for my team to average each week to reach my overall goals. Of course other than setting my starting lineup I have no control over my players and whether or not they hit my targets, but it does give me an idea of how I’m doing. I have set targets for all the counting categories but I’m only going to look at the offence for now.



My targets per week are:

43 runs, 10 hr, 42 rbi, 6 sb



My team came up short during the first week.

40 runs, 8 hr, 35 rbi, 4 sb



Roughly only about 80% of my target. Some of the deficit resulted from injuries. I lost both V Martinez and D DeJesus on Opening Day. Another contributing factor was the amount of games played. There were more off days than a usual week because of Opening Day scheduling. Then there’s the most obvious factor, my team may not be good enough to reach these targets. I hope this is not the cause but it is something that I must consider. It will probably take a couple of weeks for me to get a full understanding of how my team is performing and how I can use my bench players or the free agent pool to accomplish my goals.



*********************************************************************



During the first week I had three managing decisions to make. Crisp or Pie in the OF, Kent or Cabrera at 2b, and Riske, Guardado, or Wheeler at P.



I went with Pie, Cabrera, and Guardado which I detailed in my last post. After looking at the numbers. It looks like I was 1-1-1. Cabrera slightly edged Kent, Riske outperformed Guardado, and Pie/Crisp was a toss up.



**************************************************************************



This week I made two free agent pick ups. My team is a little short in the OF. I have DeJesus who is hurt and Pie/Crisp that are both sharing playing time with the Cubs and Boston. I decided to make a bid on Carlos Quentin from the White Sox. He has been playing in left field and may stay there for a while if he keeps hitting. He was in danger of starting the season in the minors until Jerry Owens got hurt, now the Sox don’t seem to be in any hurry to get Owens back. I made a $35 bid on Quentin and topped another owner that went $34.



I also picked up Carlos Silva from Sea. I probably didn’t need this move but wanted to give myself another starting pitcher option based on opponents and two-start weeks. I bid $68 and won the bid by $57. I have $876 remaining.



********************************************************************





I made several lineup changes this week.

V Martinez 1B>C

A Huff BN>1B

C Crisp BN>OF

C Quentin FA>OF

J Kent BN>DH

C Silva FA>P

J Buck, C Blake, D DeJesus, F Pie, and E Guardado all to the bench.





Standings:

Satt 1: 4th place

Satt 2: 2nd place

Main: 1st place / 22nd overall

[Navel Lint]

How did I get there;





You gotta love April, everything still seems possible. You’re fresh from the draft and most everyone thinks their team has a chance to win. Two or three great days in a row from your players and you can move ten spots in the standings. It’s even more exaggerated in the main event overall, a couple of good days and you gain 500 points and 100 spots. The only problem is, it’s April.



You want to believe your team is that good: “I knew I had a great draft”. “Everything fell into place just like I thought it would”. “I knew Dye was going to have a good season”



Well, Dye might have a good season, but I don’t think he’s going to keep up that .429 clip that he’s currently hitting. Aubrey Huff isn’t going to go 4 for 4 everyday. Jason Isringhausen won’t save 78 games.



Even though I’ve played fantasy baseball for a long time, it’s still hard to remind myself that it is early. Very, very early!





Standings:

Satt 1: 5th place

Satt 2: 3rd place

Main: 1st place / 12th overall

[Navel Lint]

“A mans gotta know his limitations” – Callahan





Everyone not only thinks they can win, but honestly, I would bet that almost everyone has thought about how they would spend the $100,000. I know I have. Realistically though, as a rookie in this event my goal was to “cash” in my league. Now I have to admit that my goal has changed.



This past week I had a very good run. Almost everyone on my offense contributed something and my pitching was awesome. Putting the two halves of my team together I was lucky enough to be the week 2 high scorer in the main event overall. It was a good week but it still takes a lot of luck. I know that other teams out there scored more runs or hit more homers or saved more games, I just happen to be the one that did all of those things in the lucky right combination.



So even though I know luck is a factor in my “win”, I felt very proud of this accomplishment. I am well aware of the competition which I am up against and anytime that you can lead this group of players you must have done something right. Even if only for a week.



My place in the main event overall was also fun to look at. For one day, Friday, I was number one. I know it’s only the second week of April, but as I have already stated, when participating at this level, first place is an accomplishment no matter what time of year.



When combining my week 2 win and my place in the overall, I have set my realistic goals higher. Initially I was hoping to finish top three in my league. Now I have bumped my goal to win my league and finish top 10 overall. I do this knowing that it is still early in the season yet I am confident in the methodology I used to create my team. My hope is that my team will continue to produce as they have already for the next couple of months and that I will be able the set my goals one notch higher.





Standings:

Satt 1 : 5th place

Satt 2 : 5th place

Main : 1st place / 7th overall

[Navel Lint]

‘You can’t always get what you want……….you get what you need’ - Rolling Stones;





I made one move for week three. I benched pitcher Scott Baker from the Twins. I replaced him with my newest FAAB pickup, Manny Acosta. Acosta was actually my conditional bid for the week. I had placed a $49 bid on Cameron Maybin. I was beat by a $109 bid.



I wanted Maybin. But since I was waiving Eddie Guardado who was placed on the DL, I thought I would take a shot at another setup man, Acosta. P Moylan was already on another roster and there was not anyone else out there that interested me.



Once I won Acosta, I had to decide what to do with him. I figured his only value to me would be this week while Soriano was still out, so I put him in the lineup. That meant I had to take someone out. Baker is a two start pitcher this week, vs. Det and Cle. I had watched him pitch against the Sox last week and I wasn’t very impressed. So I put Baker on the bench.



Atlanta was off Monday, no news and no stats. Tues Baker was to pitch against Det. He had a descent outing that would not have hurt me, but the big news is out of Atlanta. Moylan is hurt and is placed on the DL. All of a sudden my setup man looks to be the closer. We all know how that goes, a crapshoot. Acosta might not ever get a save or he could end up with thirty. That’s the great thing about this competition. Sometimes you get the player that you want and it doesn’t pan out. Then you back into a player as a second option and you might end up with a closer.





Standings:

Satt 1 : 5th place

Satt 2 : 4th place

Main : 1st place / 4th overall

[Navel Lint]

Chipper came early;





One of the other threads on the MB had a partial analysis of their leagues draft versus ADP of the main event as a whole. I’ve read it a few times and I’m still trying to rap my head around its meaning. I mean, I understand that if you select a player before his ADP you get a negative count (ex. C Jones drafted #63 / ADP was #69 for a -6) and if you select a player after his ADP you get a positive count, but what does it mean. At this point I don’t think it really means anything. I’m not intending to rip the person that created that message. In fact, just by doing my team only I can see that he put a lot of work into the analysis. But I don’t think you can apply much significance to the results this early in the season. I even wonder if you can do it at the end of the year. It is interesting reading though and it did make me want to do my team.



The other message looked at the draft through the first 20 rounds. Even though I did all 30 rounds for my team, for comparison; thru the first 20 rounds my team was -22. Meaning that my 20 picks were taken an aggregate 22 slots earlier than their ADP. I chose 10 picks early, 9 picks late and 1 pick right on ADP.



For a whole through all 30 rounds, my team was +150. The only real significant pick was Aubrey Huff. His ADP was 301 and I got him at 388, a full 5 ½ rounds later than usual.



• * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *





Going into the week I had a chance to play 1 of 3 players. John Buck, Casey Blake or Asdrubal Cabrera. I went with Cabrera.

Thru Thurs.

Buck 4 for 9, 2 runs, 1 rbi

Blake 2 for 11, 3 runs, 1 rbi

Cabrera 0 for 9, 1 run



I hate to think of one hit or one rbi having that great of an impact on the final standings, but you know that there have been leagues won or lost based on a single event outcome. Next week I will have a bigger decision to make because I will have David Dejesus available to me. The way my roster and position eligibility shape out, I can play any of the above mentioned players. I want to play Dejesus for the runs scored but I might go with Buck for the home runs. I’ll let the weekend play out before I have to make that choice.



Standings :

Satt 1 : 6th place

Satt 2 : 4th place

Main : 1st place / 3rd overall



[ April 18, 2008, 04:47 PM: Message edited by: rucrew2 ]

[Navel Lint]

1987 Topps Traded #70T;





You try and do the best that you can to look at your team objectively. It’s hard. I look at the numbers. I don’t see ( or want to ) that J Dye and R Furcal are hitting 64 and 115 points above their lifetime averages. M Owings and C Silva are both over a run better than their lifetime era’s. I look right over those facts.



I look at Aramis Ramirez only hitting .226, Ramon Hernandez hitting .163. I look at my team knowing that I will get D Dejesus in the lineup for the first time to add to my run scored totals. I think that once these guys start hitting my offence will really get rolling. I think about how I just picked up M Acosta and could get some cheap saves.



And then BAM!

Reality.



How could you do that to me? I’ve been a fan since your first games. I have your rookie card! I was there when you went for win 300, you didn’t get it that game but I was still happy just to see you pitch in the warm sunshine of Wrigley Field. I know that you are 42 years old. I know that you won’t have a 2.00 era this year. But I wasn’t expecting last night. 7 earned runs in the first 1.3 innings, 9 er in total. 16 hits and walks. Greg Maddux, you’re still my favorite pitcher of all time, but please don’t have another outing like that again. I don’t want to have to start debating if I should bench you or not.



Now back to fantasy,

Chipper, you keep hitting .455

Isringhausen, you keep up that 57 saves pace





Standings:

Satt 1: 6th place

Satt 2: 3rd place

Main: 1st place / 3rd overall

[Navel Lint]

Steve Goodman’s Ode to the Cubs;





I picked up two players Sunday night with FAAB bids, John Bowker and Andy Laroche.

I won Bowker with a $139 bid that beat the next closest bid amount by $55. Bowker started hot his first week I still have a marginal set of players in the outfield and I wanted to pick up another option for the position. I waived David Riske. It came down to a choice between Riske and Felix Pie. I was having a tough time deciding and I was afraid that I would regret dropping either. In the end I dropped Riske and now I’m a Gagne fan.



I also received Andy LaRoche from the Dodgers. He was my conditional pick. My first choice was Justin Duchscherer. He was won by another team with a $50 bid. I believe that my bid was the second highest at $48 but I don’t remember for sure. My conditional bid price for LaRoche was $28 which I won by $28.



I made two lineup changes for this week. I put A Cabrera and C Crisp on the bench and added D DeJesus and J Buck to the active roster.



The first night of the week started good for me. I wasn’t expecting much offence from only six players but I picked up 6 r, 3 hr, 6 rbi and 1 sb. I know each day is just a piece of the big puzzle, but I still like to look at stats from a weekly perspective and it’s always nice to start the week off on a good note.



• * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *



I don’t know how many people still get WGN on their cable systems or satellite but on Sunday night they had a two hour special about the 60 year relationship between the Cubs and WGN. Having grown up in Chicago and being a lifelong fan of the Cubs, it was like watching a rerun of my own life. I know fans all across the country are just as passionate about their teams, but other than maybe Boston, I can’t imagine a more bonded relationship between one team and their fans. Just think about your own local team. Do 40,000 people stay after the last out to sing to like the fans do in Wrigley? I can tell you, there is nothing like a winning game in Wrigley Field and then singing ‘Go Cubs Go’ after the last out.





Standings:

Satt 1: 6th place

Satt 2: 3rd place

Main: 1st place / 1st overall

[Navel Lint]

Originally posted by Jackstraw:





And don't be fooled with all of the hype that the draft gets. Fifty-percent of the season is management.

Quality vs. Quantity;





I’m still learning/struggling with my week to week roster. I have a roster full of descent to good players. All of whom I could play any week based on their positions and my roster makeup. I know this is a good problem to have because I’ve had plenty of teams in the past that required me to play bums every week. But still. I guess it’s more of a challenge than a problem.



Three of the four weeks I’ve missed an opportunity for more stats because I’ve played the wrong man. This week I played John Buck over Casey Blake in the utility slot.

Buck: 0 for 6

Blake: 6 for 8, 3 runs, 1 hr, 8 rbi

The week is not over but Buck will need a great weekend.



Right now I’m trying to determine what my decisions factors are to make my roster movements.

- Is it games played that week?

- Is it opponent?

- Is it the player skill set (power vs. speed)?

- Pull from a hat?



Surely it’s a combination of those and more.



One example I’m looking at for next week. Chipper Jones. Atlanta only plays five games next week. Cleveland and Casey Blake play seven games.



Would I bench Jones for Blake?



Not in an even heads up match, but with the potential of 8 more at bats I will consider the move. I know that probably 8 of 10 times five days of Chipper are better than seven days of Casey. But will this be one of those two weeks.



Last week the overall week 3 winner benched Ichiro. I know Ichiro has been struggling some, but that’s a bold move to bench one of your top 3 picks.



In a competition against 389 other teams were a couple of runs scored or driven in or bases stolen could be the difference between first and everything else, it’s hard to think about leaving numbers on the bench.





Standings:

Satt 1: 7th place

Satt 2: 8th place

Main : 1st place / 1st overall

[KJ Duke]

Benching Blake for Buck is just begging to get spanked. That might work sometimes, but it's like splitting 10's against a 6 if you ask me. You tempt fate, fate usually wins. Same goes for benching Chipper for Blake, but even worse - something like doubling down on a 21.

[Navel Lint]

Originally posted by KJ Duke:

Benching Blake for Buck is just begging to get spanked. That might work sometimes, but it's like splitting 10's against a 6 if you ask me. You tempt fate, fate usually wins. Same goes for benching Chipper for Blake, but even worse - something like doubling down on a 21. I actually had both Blake and Buck on the bench last week. I benched A Cabrera from Clevland and had the choice of Blake or Buck as a replacement.



For the week Cabrera is 3 for 10 with 2 runs and 2 rbi.



Cabrera was sitting over the weekend because of poor play and I wanted to put in someone that I thought would get more at-bats.I guess I was doubly wrong going with Buck over Blake and Cabrera.

[KJ Duke]

I have Blake on one team and benched him week too - but it was because of Longoria's callup and because F Lopez is finally a full-time player. Felipe ended up hitting his own slam a day after Blake, so it doesn't look like it will cost me - though would've been nice if Blake could've done something when I had to put him in my lineup.

[JohnZ]

I benched Blake for Reed Johnson in my Sat...Blake was 10-56 coming into he week.

[Navel Lint]

Le Grand Orange;





I was glad to see that yesterdays White Sox / Orioles suspended game stats were added to our team stats now instead of waiting until they complete the game. Given the fact that Baltimore is not scheduled to return to “The Cell” this year. Unless the Sox agree to play the remainder of the game in Baltimore or if one of the teams needs that game result in the standings for a division title and is required to finish the game, I highly doubt the game will be finished. I can’t imagine the Sox spending the money it takes to operate a stadium for what could be one inning of baseball.



The game itself gave me some good results. My players (Huff, Quentin, & Hernandez) hit three homers and Javier Vazquez pitched very well. At first I wasn’t to concerned, but then thinking about the possibility that the game wouldn’t finish and I could lose some stats, I didn’t like that idea. It might not sound like much, but when you consider that 3 home runs are more than 1% of your yearly total and that plenty of leagues have been won or lost because of 1 homer, I defiantly wanted those numbers today.



By the way, Is it just me or does Aubrey Huff look a lot like Rusty Staub?



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *



Last week I mentioned my player moves. After looking at the stat results for the week, I played the wrong man. I should have played C Blake over J Buck. Lost opportunity!



This week I made three changes. I benched W Taveras, J Buck and M Owings;



I replaced Taveras with C Crisp, probably an even swap. I put Buck on the bench in favor of C Blake. Blake played well last week and has one more game scheduled than Buck. I put M Owings on the bench because of his ankle injury, I replaced him with S Baker who has his own leg problem but will probably pitch this weekend.



I also had a move that I didn’t make. I had talked about benching C Jones this week because Atlanta was only playing five games. After making that statement, Chipper missed the weekend games due to back spasms. I did think about putting him on the bench but didn’t do it. I had the choice of 5 guys to replace him; J Buck, A Cabrera, F Pie, J Bowker or W Taveras. Looking at the % owned/ % started, three teams did bench Jones this week.



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *



I did not make any FAAB bids this week. There is 1 player that I am interested in and he is still available. Honestly, I did not make a bid because I didn’t know who to drop. It would probably be Bowker or Pie. The question I ask myself is, What is more valuable?





The player I am looking at has no current value. Strictly a flyer on a guy I think could gain additional value if his conditions change. The problem is that I need to weight his current/future value against the current/future value of my roster players. I’m also trying to consider the value of a Pie or Bowker on another owner’s team.



Do Bowker/Pie create more value for my team just merely being on my bench and out of the hands of another owner? I’m going to think about that more and hope that the guy I want doesn’t have his conditions change this week.



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *



I like reading all the “Jack Flash – Topics” on the message board. Can’t say that I agree with most of what he has written, but it does make for very interesting reading. Keep going George!





Standings:



Satt 1 : 5th place

Satt 2 : 8th place

Main : 1st place / 1st overall

[Navel Lint]

Everyone loves a freebie;





There have been a couple of interesting discussions on the message board the last two days. I have an opinion on each and will throw in my 2 cents worth here.



Collusion / Deadbeat owners;

In terms of collusion, I don’t concern myself with it. Do I think it’s possible? Sure. But only to a limited extent. I think the most likely occurrence of collusion would come in the form of FAAB bids, or lack thereof. Let’s be honest. Many of you guys know each other. Many of you guys have played in this event for all five years. I do not think that it would be out of line to say that at some point during the season if you know you cannot win, you would prefer your friend to win. It doesn’t mean that you will (or could) dump players to your friends’ team. But you might not bid on a player you know they need or you could way over-bid to prevent someone else from getting that player. Is that collusion? As a first time player in this event, I don’t know any of the other owners. Other than “talking” to a few of you on the message board and seeing some of your pictures in the magazine, about 380 of you guys could be sitting next to me and I wouldn’t know you. So I have no friend to “act” in this manner for me.



Let me make this clear though before someone thinks I’m making accusations. I AM NOT saying that this will or could happen in my league. I am only offering an example of what could happen in any league. I’m not going Oliver Stone on you.



Deadbeat owners: What can you say? I don’t think anyone enters a competition with the intent of not participating. Sometimes things just happen.

Does it suck? Yes.

Can the lack of participation affect the outcome of the standings? Yes.

Will it continue to happen? Yes.

Is their anything that can be done to stop it? No.

I think that this is a problem that hurts everyone equally and without prejudice. You have no control over it.



Free agent availability;

I not sure why if I spend (yes, it is a cost) a pick at the draft on a potential prospect that someone in league XYZ should benefit. Yes it is true that if I drop that player the other 14 owners in my league have an advantage that you do not have in terms of making a FAAB bid on that player. However that did not prevent you from making a selection on this player back in March.



But more to the point. What is the real impact of the current process on the game?



In terms of stats, I think that the impact is small. I would think that there are only a few rare occasions where an owner that makes a draft selection (or 1 of 14 that makes a waiver claim) on a player actually gets that player in his lineup for the first week of stats. It can and does happen but the occurrences are probable rare.



But what is the cost? The example given is that if “Player Smith” is drafted in league 1 and then dropped for whatever reason, another owner in that league could make a shrewd and cheap FAAB bid and pick that player up. True. All the other leagues would have to wait until he is called up and then his price goes through the roof.



So the biggest impact to the game is in the FAAB money spent to get that player. I don’t see that as a problem. Everyone has the same amount. Yes, it will cost you more than the guy in league 1 that made the waiver claim early. But again, that didn’t stop you from drafting “Player Smith” in March. Shouldn’t the owner that originally drafted “Smith” get some protection for his cost? I don’t know that anyone has tried to place a quantitative value on each round in the draft, but it does have value. He chose to ‘spend’ on “Player Smith”. If he drops “Smith” into his own league he knows the cost. Why should someone in league XYZ get a freebie on this player?



* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *



Back to my team. Chipper Jones keeps on hitting. Two more hits including a homer last night. I’m glad I didn’t bench him.





Standings:

Satt 1: 6th place

Satt 2: 9th place

Main : 1st place / 2nd overall

[Navel Lint]

“It is what it is”;





May 2nd. One month down, five to go. It’s still a too early to give a full blown review (probably after week 6) of my team. But I would like to make some general observations about the team performance and my personal performance.



I’ll start with personal expectations. Everyone enters this event with the intent to win $100,000. It’s the main goal of playing. Realistically though, I was hoping to show well and to ‘cash’ in my league. I say this not because I didn’t think it was possible to win, but based on my own personal past performance in my home league and in the satellite I played last year. I know that this is a tough event with strong competitors. That being said, through one month my team is near the top of the overall standings and I do believe that I have a chance at the overall championship.



By the way, I started this thread more as a personal exercise than anything. Maybe the message board is not the proper venue, but I thought it might be interesting to some in this event if someone were to give a full account of their season and thoughts. I am not “yapping” because I am near the top in the standings. My first post was before the draft even took place. That also goes for listing my place in the standings at the bottom of each post. The first time I listed the standings I was in 9th place in my league and 275th overall.

I am doing this more for myself than anything. Honestly, I don’t even know how many or if anyone is even reading this thing. I will say that I am open to any and all comments, critiques, and questions that you might have.



My Team: Obviously to this point I’m fairly happy. I’m in first place in my league and 2nd overall. As for stat lines. I am over projection with average at .293 but I see my team settling in the high .280’s. I think I’m right on par with hr’s and rbi’s and just off pace with runs scored. I’m probably about 3 or 4 over with sb’s even though I’ve missed some opportunities with my weekly lineup moves. My pitching is the thing that has carried me toward the top and the thing that scares me the most. I am definitely better than projected with era and whip. I have a lot of wins, certainly more than I project for my team but not way out of line. Wins are a tough beast to tame. Some weeks will give you 6 or more and other weeks you can come up bone dry (like this week). I’m also over projection in saves by a couple. Manly due to the FAAB pickup of Manny Acosta.



Baring injury, I don’t see any reason that my offence won’t continue to produce similar numbers. It’s my pitching that I will have to watch and monitor closely.



As for my personal performance. I think I’m at a B-. I had a good draft that produced a balanced team. I’ve made a couple of good free agent grabs, Carlos Quentin from the Sox for $35, Manny Acosta of Atl for $47 the week before he became closer, and Carlos Silva. My overall grade drops with my weekly lineup selections. I have missed stat opportunities by playing the wrong players for a variety of reasons.



Today should be an interesting day, I have three starters pitching and of course a full hitting lineup. I’m looking for a big offensive weekend to make up for a lack luster week thru Thursday.





Standings:

Satt 1: 5th place

Satt 2: 9th place

Main : 1st place / 2nd overall

[Navel Lint]

Here, hit this;





Every season seems to bring a new/old idea to baseball thinking. One of the hot phrases being thrown around a lot early this year is ‘pitch to contact’. Basically; throw strikes, keep the ball down, let your fielders do the work and keep your pitch count low. I have a couple of these guys on my roster.



Well, today they pitched to contact alright. Greg Maddux and Carlos Silva threw 8.2 inns, giving up 22 hits and 12 earned runs.



Luckily, I didn’t bench C Jones this week as I thought I might. He hit .390 with 2 hr’s and 7 rbi for the week.



I actually had a descent hitting week despite the low number of at bats. With regularly scheduled days off and rainouts and a minor injury. I was still almost able to meet my weekly goals of 43 – 10 – 42 – 6. I should have played W Tavares over C Crisp. 5 steals to 1.



I’m expecting to take a big hit in the overall standings tomorrow after my era and whip take big negative jumps.



Earlier in the week I was given the advice to not even look at the overall standings until July. That sounds good on paper, but it’s real hard to practice. Maybe some can do it, but I can’t. It could be a function of your place in the standings. I guess if I was near the bottom I wouldn’t be so interested to look everyday, but I’m luckily near the top and I’m very interested to look.



The player that gave me the advice is in the top 15, if he really can avoid looking that takes a lot of will power.



Standings:

Satt 1 ; 6th place

Satt 2 ; 11 place

Main ; 1st place / 2nd overall

[Navel Lint]

He who hesitates ..….;





The big news the past couple of days was the FAAB bidding that took place over the weekend. I did not get Matt Scherzer, didn’t even make a bid on him. It’s not that I didn’t want him; he was taken in our league during the draft and therefore was unavailable.



I remember at the time thinking that it probably was a wasted pick. Looking back now, I can only explain that reaction to the pick as ego. What else could it be? I mean; sure, I’ve heard of the guy. Although I have to say I wasn’t total familiar with his numbers or potential. I’m also not a big believer in using draft slots on minor league prospects.



When you couple the lack of knowledge about a player and a different strategy in terms of roster development, the ego in me made the determination that it was not a good pick. Wrong! It just shows that the people in this game all play differently and everyone has their own style.



The owner of Scherzer has a proven record in the NFBC and took him with the 29th pick. I used my 29th pick to take the great David Riske, whom I’ve since waived. And one more thing, his pick wasn’t luck. He backed it up with a player, Matt Laporta, that could become another FAAB darling later in the year.



I did make a FAAB move this week. However, I didn’t get the guy I wanted. Last week I mentioned that I wanted a player but didn’t make a move on him because I wasn’t sure which player to drop. Well, that cost me. The player I wanted was Guillermo Mota. I mentioned that I wanted this player because I had hoped his situation would change. It did change but not totally like I thought it would. I was hoping that Gagne would continue to fail, he has. I wanted Mota as the setup man/closer-in-waiting. He is because of the release of D Turnbow.



I bid $19. I was not outbid but was tied. I lost the tie breaker based on league standings. I ended up with Sean Gallagher of the Cubs at $18. Gallagher will start in relief with the Cubs but may find his way into the rotation in a few weeks. As I was a few weeks ago when I released Riske, I am once again a big Gagne fan.





Standings:

Satt 1; 6th place

Satt 2; 10th place

Main; 1st place / 2nd overall

[Navel Lint]

Look before you leap;





Furcal out with a bad back, Wells out with a broken wrist, Isringhausen out because he stunk. Not the way I envisioned the week unfolding.



Stat wise, I actually didn’t have that bad of a week. I was at or near all my hitting targets for the week and better than average with my pitching totals. I ended Sunday ranked 41st for week 6 in the overall.



The next couple of weeks will let me know if I have a bench strong enough to cover for my lost players.



I was one of the few owners to bench Furcal this week. Even though Joe Torre was saying he thought Furcal might play on Tuesday, I didn’t want to take a chance on drawing a blank for the week. It ended up being a good move as the Dodgers placed Furcal on the DL Tuesday. I put A Cabrera in the lineup which already paid off as he hit a homer on Monday. He also had an unassisted triple play which isn’t worth any points but was cool to see.



I replaced Vernon Wells with Cliff Floyd whom I picked up this week with a FAAB bid. The winning total for Floyd was $102 which beat out an $89 bid. Floyd is not the player that Wells is and won’t get as many at-bats but has been known to get on hot streaks and produce good numbers. I hope the next month or two that he just plays OK and doesn’t hurt me.



My biggest decision for the week revolved around Jason Isringhausen. I really think that he will get the closer job back in a week or two, but I couldn’t afford to take that chance if I had an opportunity at his replacement. It looks like Ryan Franklin will get the save chances while Izzy gets his game back together. Since Franklin was available in my league I needed to get him to protect my investment in Isringhausen. The question was what to bid.



I didn’t like the idea of having to go big to get him but I don’t think I had a choice. This one move will probably have major repercussions for me the rest of the season. If he keeps the closer job than I have to have him to replace my lost saves. If he only gets 1 or 2 saves before giving the job back then it will cost me a lot of FAAB money and lost opportunities later in the season because I won’t have the FAAB cash to compete. I went with a bid of $289. I won the bid by $79 dollars. I can live with that.



I know that some people don’t like the process of blind bidding, but I think it really adds a lot to the game. It forces people to make moves that impact everything else down the line. I would think that the owners in my league were more than happy to see me forced to spend that much money just to replace something I already had.



Over the last 10 days or so I’ve dropped a couple of slots in the overall standings. My stat totals have not been that bad, but not great either. I think that my major concern from here on out will be my pitching. I believe I have the offense to compete, but looking at some of the teams around me in the standings, I don’t have the pitching that they have. I am going to have to hope that my pitchers just stay steady without any major blow ups. It might be a matter of using the waiver wire judiciously to pick up strikeouts and favorable matchups (both of which are dangerous things to chase). I ‘m not ready to make that leap in the pool yet but I did stick my toes in by picking up Manny Parra this week. (I know, with Parra I should be getting a snorkel, but I just consider this a test)



Standing;

Satt 1 ; 7th place

Satt 2 ; 9th place

Main ; 1st place / 5th overall



[ May 14, 2008, 12:04 PM: Message edited by: rucrew2 ]

[Navel Lint]

Always pack your own chute!





Thud! What a free fall. I just had what is going to be my worst week of the season, I hope. I placed 378th for the weekly standings. The only thing that kept me out of last was 4 wins and 5 steals. I fell from 4th to 19th in the overall standings.



I always hope for a hitting line of 42-10-42-6 for the week. The week started slow. A couple of runs here, a couple rbi’s there. No big deal. By Thursday morning I was sitting at about 12-4-12-1. I knew my numbers were off pace and that I would need a big weekend, but I wasn’t worried. Every time this season that I’ve needed a certain stat performance for a day I’ve gotten it. Need three homers today, got ‘em. Need two wins today, got ‘em. Need eight rbi’s, got ‘em.



So going into Thursday night I’m thinking to myself; OK, I’m gonna need about 8-2-8-1 all weekend. Easy! Thursday, I get about 4-1-3-0. Ummmm…… What’s going on here? Friday, same thing. Now I need about 10-2-10-2 Saturday and Sunday. I start turning into Jim Essian.



** For those that don’t remember Essian’s managerial days, which is just about everyone, he spent one summer as the Cubs skipper. His reign is highlighted by the fact that he would stand at the top step of the dugout and clap and cheer his players on from the first pitch to the last out. The only person to do more clapping for players is Vanna White.**



So now I’m cheering on each at-bat.

“OK, here we go. Base hit here. (clap-clap)”. Line drive out.

“Alright, solid contact. Get ‘em next time.” (change channel)

“Ducks on the pond. (clap-clap) How about a gapper!” Pop-up.

….Four hours later….

“Hey! How about getting a F*****g hit and earning your F*****g salary” Strike Three.

“What! That pitch was four feet outside. Does that ump have a date tonight?” (throw remote)



Is it Monday yet?



Standings;

Sat 1; 6th place

Sat 2; 12th place

Main; 1st place / 19th overall

[Navel Lint]

“Time waits for no man”;





I’ve had a couple of busy weeks; including a vacation, kids getting out of school and some house remodeling. I’ve also had a two and a half week run of terrible offense.



Vernon Wells and Rafeal Furcal out of my lineup hurt more than I thought.



I have tried to mix and match starting pitchers with mixed results.



Victor Martinez still does not have a homer.



Hanley Ramirez went two weeks without a homer, rbi, or sb before hitting a couple the other day.



Chipper Jones has been a monster this year.



I have dropped in the overall standings to the high teens, including as low as 24th late last week.



I have more to write about and will during the coming week. Just checking-in quickly tonight.



Standings

Sat 1 6th place

Sat 2 13th place

Main 1st place / 15th overall