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This is the time of year where fantasy baseball divides into groups. The folks near the top of the standings can't wait for the next pitch to decide more fates.
In the middle of the pack, teams and their owners know that time is running out. Each move, must be the right move.
Those at the back of the standings are playing out the string or have given up all together.
Which reminds me.....The posts about somebody winning a league or overall because some team gave up in August or September are stupid.
It happens every year and it'll keep happening every year.
This is a marathon.
Some people can't hold on and finish a marathon.
It happens in actual marathons.
It happens here.
To hold that against a winner of a league or overall is, yes, stupid.

Anyway, adding to where we are placed in the standings, it is August, and that other fantasy sport is making heads turn a different direction.
I used to equate fantasy football and fantasy baseball as pretty much the same game.
It's not.
Sure, there are counting categories and we try to put the best teams on the field at all times, but any similarities end there.


Fantasy football is an instant gratification game. Especially compared to fantasy baseball.
Each Monday night, teams know their fate for the week.
A little like the daily fantasy baseball games that have seemingly sprung up everywhere.
The instant gratification in us loves daily baseball and continues to make fantasy football the king of fantasy sports.
Football comes along at the perfect time for fantasy baseball folks.
For those that are not doing well, turning their attentions to another sport is welcome. A breather. Something else to occupy our minds.
For those that play both and are doing well in baseball, it can take their minds off the marathon that fantasy baseball becomes.
For those that don't play fantasy football, the simple hopes that fantasy football will distract those that are above them in the standings.

I applaud those that play both at the highest levels.
It's time consuming.
It takes time away from family.
It is like those jugglers with sticks trying to keep plates spinning all the time, like on the Ed Sullivan Show.
For young readers, google Ed Sullivan.

This could be a post about the luck and skill of both fantasy baseball and fantasy football.
It's not.
Because who cares?
If we enjoy both,we play both. If not, we don't.
Who cares about the luck and skill of both games when each can provide hours of entertainment watching, and multi-multi hours of mind play.

August leads into my favorite sports time of the year.
Baseball goes down the stretch, both on the field and for us.
We finally get to the last chapter of the long novel that is fantasy baseball.
Football begins in earnest and is a little like watching a movie every week.
Something new after that long read of a novel.
For me and a few others, baseball does not turn into football.
We turn the page on this season and begin the next with a draft that begins on the last day of this season.
Watching pennant drives, both on and off the field.
Watching the playoffs and World Series.
Watching the first month of football season.
And drafting for next season's fantasy baseball team....
Life is good.

Well said, Dan! Perhaps it is a reflection of how my teams have tumbled in the standings recently (my June swoon turned into a Die in July which led straight into a August Bust), but over the last week I've begun dreaming of how the Premature league draft will go. First Catcher off the board? First Pitcher?

I'm all too aware of how this year's is unfolding...your sagely prediction of first or worst was spot on.

Speaking of which ... as I am knee deep in the "instant gratification" league prep, I took a few minutes to check on my controversial starting pitcher dump.

Those six starters, which soaked up $527 in FAAB, have accumulated the following stats for their new teams:

IP 130 in 22 starts
K's 109 (not bad here)
W's 6 (27% rate, poor)
ERA 5.41 (bad)
WHIP 1.50 (killer)

The centerpiece of the controversy, Ian Kennedy, who went for $310 is no better than the group average, sporting ratios of 5.70/1.40 in 5 starts. I can throw a dart into the waiver pool and do better. The best of the group has been Estrada with decent ratios and high K's, but he's also winless in five starts which reduces his impact to just ok.

Conclusion ... let the league play out - let the guys who want to roll the dice on those players roll them, and let the guy who puts his money on the "don't pass" line take some money out of FAAB and hope it helps him climb into contention a different way.

Since the all-star break I've moved up from 13th to 8th. If my pitching keeps up its recent improvement and my hitters keep going I've got an outside shot at a money finish, the points are there for the taking. That's the most I could've hoped for at the break - I wasn't climbing into contention for the overall and, had I continued on my original path, my team would be dead right now in the league competition as well.

I thought it was gutsy or ballsy or headsy....hmmm, never realized how many body parts were adjectives.
One of the hardest things in fantasy is to admit to ourselves that we've made a mistake. It's why we 'project' our teams to be great. Nobody picks a team expecting anything else.

But, to stop and look at a team two months after the season and admit mistakes were made and go the final mile and try to rectify mistakes by ridding a team of big names is one of those three body part adjectives.
Kudo's.