Weekly Blog

[Edwards Kings]

Minor League Baseball – The Gwinnett Braves were in town so I decided to treat myself to a little minor league baseball yesterday and got close to a little Minor-minor league history. I really didn’t care who pitched but was lucky enough that Mike Minor was on the mound. After the first few innings it struck me that Minor was throwing only a few fast balls. Everything seemed to be breaking stuff and change-ups. I do not know why or if it was just my erroneous impressions. He didn’t look hurt and he was pounding the zone (very few 3-2 counts) and only a few hard hit balls. Nothing appeared to be wrong, just fewer heaters than I expected. After a few more innings, I noticed something else. The Buffalo Bisons hadn’t had any base runners. Those hard-hit balls had died in outfield leather. By the end of the sixth inning, despite the 90+ degree heat, Minor was still in perfect game territory and looked very sharp, even if he wasn’t throwing many fastballs. The perfect game ended with a one out, four pitch walk to, of all people, Luis Hernandez. The next batter got a hit, so the no-hitter also was flushed. Those ended up being the only base unners Minor allowed in eight shutout innings with nine strike-outs. Minor was stretched out nicely (99 pitches) and looked wholly comfortable. I believe he is coming up to the majors again this week and this tune-up looked to me like a success. The Bisons had a few names on their team I was familiar with (Kirk Nieuwenhuis, Lucas Duda, Jason Botts, Raul Chavez), but Minor pretty much owned them. The Bison pitcher, Mark Cohoon, looked for the world to me to be putting it up there with no more speed than the “Low A” setting on a batting cage pitching machine. The Braves, no huge offensive team, took a few innings to get to him, but finally did. One final note, Julio Lugo is now with the Gwinnett Braves. He went 0-4 with a K against the stiff Cohoon. Nuff said.



Period 10 Results – What a difference a week makes. After a couple of weeks in the rarified air of the Top 10, my pitching staff totally tanked last week. From reading the message boards, it looks like others are noticing the bats are coming alive. The surprise for me was getting pounded by Major League offensive juggernaughts like Kansas City, Seattle, Washington, and Minnesota. I ended up with nine starts and no wins to go with a 7.43 ERA and a 1.71 WHIP out of my starters. I had just under a 2:1 K/BB ratio and only 33 strikeouts from the starters in 49.2 IP (which also means my guys averaged less than 5 innings per start). There is no sugar coating it…those results suck! Primarily due to pitching, I lost about 12.0 points to Lindy, who is still going very strong, and 300 points in the overall. I was able to get three saves out of Brian Wilson, who was truly my only pitching bright spot.



My bats were OK, though light on HR and SB. With a 0.298 BA for the week to go with 47 runs and 51 RBI, I was able to salvage some stats. However, with Dexter Fowler's continued problems, stolen bases are becoming a bigger issue for me. One anomaly on my team I have noted. Despite only being in 177th place overall in HR, I still have enough bats hitting in prime situations to be 10th overall in RBI’s. Despite my offensive improvements, I have fallen out of contention into 31st place overall and my hold on 2nd place in my league is seriously in question.



RALLY…RALLY…RALLY!



Period 11 Free Agents – Three weeks ago I was one of the lucky few who had no real DL issues. Then I lost Hafner, Victorino (now back), Wandy, Homer, Orlando Hudson (and his surprising speed), and finally Kyle McClellan sprained his hip. Because of this, I moved from plentiful pitching to not having enough healthy starters to field seven, which I need to keep within strike-out striking distance. Last week I dropped Narveson to pick up Hochevar, who had two home starts versus the Angels and Twins. After pitching so well against Texas in KC on May 19th, I thought this would be a good week to get some decent starts from Luke. Well, the dark side certainly showed up as he got tagged. McClellan has certainly been pitching a bit over his head and with the injury to go with the low K-rate, I decided McClellan could ride the FA bus with Hochevar. Of course, it is not like the next Nolan Ryan was waiting for me in the pool. I placed a decent value bid to get Narveson back, but was not even the runner up to the $88 he pulled in. My second choice is a potential gas can waiting to happen, but in his first two starts, limited in innings though they may be, Felipe Paulino has thrown nine shut-out innings (in Texas and versus the Angels) with five hits, no walks and seven K’s. Likewise, I basically replaced McClellan with another “control” pitcher (i.e. no hope for decent strike-out numbers) in John Lannan, who has also pitched well of late (two earned runs or less in four of his last five starts). With Homer and Wandy still on the DL, I needed some starter help. Lannan cost me $21 (no other bids) and Paulino cost me $4, so the only cost will be what these two do to my stats. As a side note, every other starter I had as conditional bids were picked up. That must mean the rest of the league is as smart as I am.



Period 11 Plans – I got Victorino back, but in essence have lost Fowler to an “injury” (he has been grossly inept). This hurts not only this team, but my other two as Fowler was one of my “targets” this year. Even with the disappointing Dexter, I am able to float six decent outfielders/UT players out there (Braun, Ethier, Victorino, Allen Craig, Jeff Francoeur, and David Dejesus) as long as the latter two keep relatively hot. Hafner is starting to swing a bat, so I hope to get him back soon which will let me put whoever is going cold on the bench. My power is still down and has to show up soon, right? Last week I had a seven way tie for team lead in HR with one. Youk, Hill, Peralta, Ethier, and Francoeur all had the goose-eggs I hoped my pitchers would get. Still, most everyone except Braun hit for decent average, which is still at a premium.



I am still waiting on Ackley to show up. I would like to see if he is as good as they say and he may be able to improve my MI production. Peralta and Theroit have given me about what I expected (though Peralta’s BA will come down), but Aaron Hill has been a major disappointment to say the least. I wasn’t expecting 2009, but I was hoping for 2010 with a much better BA.



I am going with seven pitchers this week including Oswalt (2 starts), Marcum (2), Shields (1), Lohse (1), Santana (1), Lannan (2), and Paulino (2). I am not expecting miracles, but I do not expect (hope, pray, offer libations, human sacrifice) the nightmare that was last week. I need to pick back up some ground in wins and strikeouts and at best hope to hold my ground in ERA and WHIP. Lannan and Paulino are short term options for me until Wandy and Homer get back healthy.



Anyway, I have some ground to make up if I am going to give Lindy any real competition.



Thanks again to Mr. Zola for the article last week.

[MadCow Sez]

Take a look in the rearview....objects are closer than they appear.

[Edwards Kings]

Originally posted by MadCow Sez:

Take a look in the rearview....objects are closer than they appear. Amen to that, brother...

[Edwards Kings]

This was one of those weeks where you look at how your team is doing going into the weekend and think to yourself that if your weekly trend continues, you are going to slide down through the rankings faster than a chili-cheese dog with jalapeños can slide through your digestive tract. Going into Friday, I was lucky to still be in second place in my individual league and had slide into the 50’s in the overall. With Lindy already in the next county, stats-wise, hopes of giving him pause for concern going into the All-Star Break was looking thin. I had had no wins in more than a week and my only homerun through Thursday’s games came from the “Hammer” himself, Ryan Theriot.



I had six starts left for the weekend, and Friday’s were poor as both Lohse and Santana did not pitch well. And still no wins. Then from Saturday and Sunday, I got four good starts and three wins. Small wonders never cease. Though I only got one win from their collective four starts, my gamble with Felipe Paulino and John Lannan paid off. Together, the pitched 25 innings with only five earned runs. They walked too many (nine) but gave up only twenty hits. They gave me a 1.800 ERA and a 1.160 WHIP to go with a respectable sixteen strike-outs. The previous week they had only cost me a whopping 25 bucks, so there was some value there.



I was hurt in my batting this week by the “Allen Craig should only need another day” saga. They ended up putting him on the DL, so I was in essence going with on thirteen offensive players. Still, through the week-end, I was able to get decent AB and some help with some of the counting stats.



Period 11 Results – Despite all my kvetching, my starters ended up giving me a decent week. Three wins in eleven starts will not get it done, but the collective 3.343 ERA and 1.271 WHIP with 45 K’s is better than OK. The 45 K’s in 70 IP is light, percentage wise and means I was only able to hold my ground rather than make some up like you hope to do when you ten or more planned starts. My closers were strong with no earned runs and only two baserunners in six innings pitched. They gave me three saves and one win.



Even with Craig being persona non grata, I was able to cobble together 293 at-bats. That helped me get runs (44 this week for 411 YTD and 110th overall) and RBIs (41 this week for 447 YTD and 12th overall). These numbers continue to surprise me a bit as my HR numbers (7 this week for 89 YTD and 200th overall) and SB numbers (5 this week for 52 YTD and 318th overall) are so week. This week did not help my BA, but the 0.2777 YTD is still good enough for 16th overall.



Period 12 FAAB – I placed my bets for the Rizzo lottery. I was willing to go up to about $260 on him, but then I considered both Petco and Kyle Blanks. They “claim” that Rizzo is now the man at 1B, but with Blanks potentially chopping it up in the OF, how long do they stick with Rizzo? I backed my bid down to $160 and was not even second. My highest bid would not have won anyway as $281 was the winning bid in my league.



I have not had strong weeks recently and my style is to gamble when I feel things are not going my way. Lannan has served his purpose and Paulino has more upside, especially strike-out wise, so I dropped Lannan. Though still on the DL, I first wanted to get McClellan. I bid to low ($15) by about $7. My second choice was for Karstens, who is pitching way over his head. I didn’t get him either as some Wise Guy wanted him more. I ended up with Pavano for a modest $3 bid. He has split starts this week, one at home versus the White Sox (“Danger Will Robinson”) and another at home versus San Diego. He will not help my K’s, but he has pitched good to great in his last six starts.



My other gamble, especially with my DL situation still so extreme, was to pick up Nate McLouth ($21 with no other bids). It is planned that he will get some rehab AB this week and be activated by this weekend.



Period 12 Planning – Easy. Play who ain’t hurt. Until Hafner (hopefully only a week away), McLouth, or Craig (10 more days?) come off the DL or Ackley (?????) is called up, my 14 healthy offensive players (including Alexi Casilla at UT) are playing.



As far as pitching goes, I can get 10 starts this week if I go with Pavano over Paulino (one game at St. Louis) or go with three relievers (can’t really call Francisco a closer right now). I get Wandy back for two which I hope will be good. I generally like to “see” guys pitch at least once before I put them back in, but I am going to risk it this week. I need the wins and K’s so I need the innings/starts over potential for saves. Maybe two Pavano starts will equal one Paulino start in K’s? I do not know, but right now I am leaning on Pavano being my seventh starter. I hope to get Bailey back next week. It could happen if he improves on his last rehab start.

[Edwards Kings]

Congrats to Lindy on a dominating performance as we move to the mid-point of the season. Man, do I have my work cut out for me.



Two things are really are biggest challenges. First, Lindy’s pitching staff is just putting up incredible numbers right now. For example, last week using only six starters, Lindy was able to get five wins out of them in seven starts with 57 K’s. His ERA was a cool 1.929 and his whip an impressive 0.779! And that is even with Grienke’s blow-up. For the year, his starters are achieving a remarkable 91.8% K to IP ratio while winning 47.25% of games started. His starters have allowed a meager Hits per IP of 84.6%. With those results, Lindy is able to use three closers without impacting his starter counting stats. As well, as long as he is only using six starters and as long as they stay healthy (Lindy, despite his phenomenal early numbers has had injury issues just like the rest of us and currently has five guys on the DL), Bob Enzyte will not have to take too many risks on mediocre pitchers who have promising starts (it is very difficult to be better than 50/50 when taking those risks).



By way of example, my pitching staff right now is ranked 30th overall. My starters are winning only 38.8% of their games started and my K/IP ration is a respectable (actually near what I targeted) 75.8%. My starters Hits per IP is good, but not comparable 94.1%. This means that though I have twelve more starts YTD and 77 more IP YTD, I have generated three fewer wins and thirty-six fewer K’s. And last week, I had nine starts (lost one to a rain-out) which generated five wins but only 45 K’s. I have been able to stay close to Lindy pretty well in ERA and WHIP from the starters, the use by him of three closers means I have significant ground to make up there as well, especially WHIP. My only piece of good news is that because my closers have been so good, my two have left me only three behind Lindy in saves.



In short, my pitching staff is achieving and perhaps over-achieving. But in order to “catch” Lindy in pitching, he is going to have to come back to the pack a bit.



My second biggest challenge is in stolen bases. I invested heavily in Dexter Fowler this year and he has flopped. The extra 15 or more stolen bases I was expecting out of him this year during the first half over what he actually provided to me before his “injury” has me really behind in SB. Lindy is wracking them up sitting 6th overall in that category. I am sitting in 273rd. That is a lot of production/points that will have to be made up, if not in SB, then elsewhere. In our league, I am right behind Lindy in three categories, two behind in three, and three behind in another. I am ahead in only one and significantly behind him in SB and HR. I had targets going into the year, but Lindy has set the new standards.



Period 12 Results – Like I mentioned, I cannot complain about my last week. I had a 0.2915 BA with 41 Runs, 46 RBI’s, 13 Home Runs and 10 Stolen Bases. Pitching in total was also great with 5 Wins and Saves, 49 Strike-outs, and a 1.838/1.147 ERA/WHIP respectively. I will gladly take two or three more weeks like this one right about now!



The scare of the week is with Marcum. I will not know until later today whether Milwaukee confirms that they are pushing Marcum back and for how long. With Oswalt clearly battling some form of injury (despite what the liars in Philly say, Oswalt with a less than 60% K/BB rate just ain’t right), another significant injury or time lost on my pitching staff could be devastating.



Period 13 FAAB – I recognized I was on the verge of getting some of my players back, so I basically lay low this FA period. There were no big ticket FA I was interested in as most appeared to be chasing a closer du jour. With Frank Francisco having seemingly reclaimed the role in Toronto (on a day-to-day basis to be sure), I wasn’t really in the market. I did want to grab a bat to replace Allen Craig, who as it turns out has a busted knee. With the rest of St. Louis’ outfielders getting a little more healthy, Craig and his iron glove was at risk anyway, so I dropped him. I may regret it later, but I was looking for a little flexibility.



I made a small but uncontested $21 bid on Darnell McDonald. It appears only a handful of use see him of short-term use right now. This surprises me a little. My bid was a little defensive as I wanted to make someone pay at least a reasonable amount if they wanted him. McDonald’s only competition is JD Drew, Mike Cameron, and Josh Reddick. I see him getting full time AB in the Boston outfield. He as a little power and speed (nine HR and SB in 317 AB in 2010), so if I need him, he could be a decent replacement level player.



Period 13 Planning – Pitching is going to be a gripe this week. Oswalt is not himself and he has a start in St. Louis. That start is not going to be as dangerous with King Albert out (my sincerest condolences to all the Pujols owners), but I am still concerned. As well, Kyle Lohse gets to pitch against Philly. The game is in St. Louie which helps. Still, the Philly’s can really jack a pitcher up having scored five or more runs seven times already in June. I only have one two start pitcher and that is Carl Pavano. Pavano had a nice complete-game six-hitter against the White Sox last week, but I really picked him up the week before because his second start was to be against the Padres. A rain-out pushed him back a day and his two starts this week are at San Fran and at Milwaukee. In short, I am very tempted to go with only six starters this week, which would give me only seven starts. I will need some luck to keep this strategy from putting me further off the pace for strike-outs.



As to the bats, I finally get Hafner back, but will only have him for the first half of the week. Then Cleveland will go on a nine game NL park road trip. Pronk hasn’t played in the field since 2007, so the best you can expect of him is being the first pinch-hitter off the bench for a week and a half. Still, I will use Hafner as my UT for a few days then go with the “hot” hand, probably McDonald if he is getting the AB like I predict or Dustin Ackley.



Two weeks ago I picked up Nate McLouth. I am going to hope shades of his former glory will return as he has a real chance to play as long as Prado is out. It would be sweet if a little of that power/speed of 2008/2009 would show back up. The Braves will probably bat him down in the line-up for a while, but my hope is that he shows up in the #2 spot before long. Anyway, in he goes for my line-up and Dejesus, who is losing AB during the gosh-awful, silly, stupid intra-league play.



With Peralta having dual eligibility, I could use him at corner man. I would prefer to use him shortstop like I have, but Chris Johnson has not been cutting it on the corner. The Astros seem to be sticking with Johnson and he hit the ball very well last week, so I may watch him for another week. If he doesn’t continue to improve and doesn’t start giving me some power, I will move Peralta over and play Ackley. My other MI guys are Aaron Hill (showing a pulse lately) and Theriot, who at least is hitting for a good average atop the Cardinal line-up.



Lindy, I hope you do not mind me talking so much about your team. Anyway, congrats on the GREAT season so far and CUT IT OUT!

[Edwards Kings]

Interleague play has not been kind to me. I have really had to move pieces in and out (none of which involved DL pitchers, in case you were wondering! ). For example, I got Hafner back from the DL for three days only to lose him to nine days of NL parks. But as we approach mid-year, which will happen mid-week of Period 14, I find myself still in the rarified air of a money position (not that I am superstitious, but as I type this one-handed, I am knocking on wood, twirling a horseshoe with my left foot and clutching a four-leaf clover in my right…don’t ask where the rabbit foot is). At the end of Period 13, I am in second place of my league but 23.5 points behind “Da Man”, Lindy. I am in 15th place overall, so I am still relevant to the overall race. As always, the question is what do I do to improve my roster for the middle-game and stretch run.



At catcher, I invested a 3rd round (McCann) and 11th round (Montero) pick on catchers. To date (knocking louder, twirling faster, clutching harder) it has paid off. The two have combined in the 1st half to generate a 0.291 BA to go with 64 Runs, 22 HR, and 82 RBI. Not only are they two of the top ranked catchers so far, they are actually helping my team. Usually the best I hope for is a good BA. This is as good as I could have expected.



At corner, I have been a little disappointed. I had such high hopes for Youkilis and batting in the middle of the potent BoSox offense has certainly given him good to great numbers in Runs and RBIs (46 and 56 respectively) so far, but the power is still “ok” (11 HR). The BA is not what I expected either (0.2745). I still have a feeling that a real hot streak is around the corner and maybe Youk will be the man to give me my big push to challenge Lindy offensively. Chris Johnson was drafted with the full realization that he would not hit as well as last year. The BA is not a surprise (0.2443), but his other numbers are disappointing (25 Runs, 6 HR, 32 RBI) as I really expect him to be more of a power bat. He has hit for better average of late, but the power is still latent. Third base is thin, so an upgrade here is unlikely though I will be on the prowl should an opportunity arise. As to cornerman, I started with Rolen in hopes of getting a good first half out of him. Injuries got in the way, and first I used James Loney as a replacement. Loney actually gave me two weeks of good BA, but little else. I solidified the position a bit when I spent my big FA bucks on Eric Hosmer. Rolen’s weak BA to start the year dug a hold there, but combined I have gotten a 0.2521 BA to go with 31 Runs, 7 Homeruns, and 36 RBI’s. Young guys like Hosmer have a tendency to fade, a concern I will just have to monitor for now. As a whole, my corners have been a BA drain on my club.



In the middle, I have had good fortune with lack of injuries (keep knocking, twirling and clutching). I have had one produce as expected (Theriot), one produce so far as hoped (Jhonny Peralta) and one disappoint (Aaron Hill). I have also used Orlando Hudson for a bit when Hill was out for a short time. Combined, they have a 0.2823 BA with 84 Runs, 103 RBI, 16 HR and SB. Peralta is playing so well and I have Ackley on my roster now, I may move Jhonny to 3rd base in place of Chris Johnson to shore up my CM. I expected and still expect more out of Hill. Theriot is not really helping me other than good BA and a few SB, so Ackley could also be an upgrade here. As I sit near mid year I am relying a bit too much on Peralta continuing and he is also my only CM back-up. Alexi Casilla is my MI back up, which is ok as he has dual eligibility and may work his way into the starting line up for Theriot as he has more speed potential.



Outfield is really a mixed bag. I was heavily invested in Dexter Fowler, who was my 13th round pick. He flopped miserably and is currently off my roster residing in real life in the minors. This has hurt me in my chances to really win it all as I have not been able to replace the SB I hoped he would provide. Victorino has been good when healthy, showing a repeat of good speed, decent power he showed last year. Andre Ethier has given good BA, OK Runs and RBIs, but less than expected power. Andre is another of my “hope he can carry my sorry butt to victory” 2nd half guys. Francoeur, really a toss-in from the draft, started hot but has reverted to form recently and is a prime pine candidate going forward. I have had to rely on David DeJesus too much, has already lost the confidence of his manager in Oakland, and has just been dropped by me. Nate McLouth I picked up a week or so before he came off the DL and I will use him going forward hoping he hits well enough to move up in the Braves batting order. My All-World player this year is Ryan Braun. He is in the hunt for the top of the heap in fantasy-world for this year (with Kemp, my 1st rounder from LAST year, Granderson, and Bautista).



With Hosmer and Ackley (I hope), probably my best FA pick up has been Hafner. At my UT spot with a mixed bag of others including Orlando Hudson, Conor Jackson, Allen Craig, Alexi Casilla, Ackley, and James Loney, I have been able to generate a 0.3138 BA to go with 30 Runs, 40 RBI, 7 HR and even 3 SB. Hopefully, once interleague play is done, I can get some consistent production out of the resurging Pronk.



My pitching has been as good as I could expect. I just lost Oswalt, so I am going to be facing tough times trying to replace his caliber pitcher, even if he hasn’t been able to deliver recently. My stud has been James Shields, but like he was not as bad as his stats showed last year, he is not as good as his line this year. Shaun Marcum and Wandy Rodriguez are my next best pitchers right now, one hurting and one stuck in Houston. Ervin Santana has been up and down and I hope/look for more up than down in the second half. Kyle Lohse has been very solid, but his lack of true K potential is holding me back. Together these guys have generated 30 Wins (about 39% of their starts) with a 3.379 ERA, 1.166 WHIP, 405 K’s (nearly an 81% K/IP rate) and a better than 3:1 K/BB ratio. Pretty good. I am falling behind, however, in K’s to the elite.



I have used eight other starters who of course have not been as good, but still generated 12 Wins (about 36% of their starts) with a 4.080 ERA, 1.341 WHIP, 134 K’s (nearly an 65% K/IP rate) and a better than 2:1 K/BB ratio. Serviceable, but with Oswalt down and Marcum questionable, I am going to have to play a pitcher rotation out of the FA pool to try and divine some good match-ups.



I have been lucky to be able to generate decent saves using only two closers (Wilson and Hanrahan) most of the time (47 total saves and tied for 47th Overall) and leading my league (barely). I am using Frank Francisco some now too due my starting pitching weaknesses. Wilson has walked a few, but otherwise he and Hanrahan have been all you could ask for.



In short besides staying reasonably healthy (knocking, twirling, clutching), key stats I need are K’s and SB. I would like to find one if not two more full time at bats, one of them being an outfielder. Finding a stud SP will be a matter of “luck”, so my best chance here is to play the FA field until I can hone in on a target.



Period 14 – I won’t go too much into this weeks FA strategy other than to say it did not work. I place what I thought were reasonable bids on Cory Luebke and Andrew Miller to help out my SP situation. To say that I was wrong on “reasonable” is an understatement. I did place a minor bid ($6) on Marlon Byrd. We should see him just before or after the ASB. If his rehab goes ok, I expect him to get full-time AB. Most of his AB came from the #3 hole prior to injury and he hit predominately from the #3, #4, and #5 last year, so hopefully he will jump back into one of the “meat” slots. This sure would take the pressure of me using Francoeur so much.



Anyway, here is to a healthy (knocking, twirling, clutching but man is that rabbits foot starting to bug me) second half and may all your sleepers wake up.

[Edwards Kings]

Ever had a “Black and Tan”? One of my favorite drinking combinations. A good stout with a much lighter and quality pilsner just gives you a little bit of everything. Just like my fantasy year. I am so far behind in my 12-teamer. Really entrenched in last place. I am in the middle of the pack in my Auction league. Probably gonna be playing at spoiler there at best as I am 30 points out of third right now and I saddled myself with a weak outfield to go with a poor mixed bag of starting pitchers. And I have my Main, which is still in contention, though I am getting chased now, but not doing much chasing of Lindy’s Bob Enzyte team who is still up on me 25 or so points showing no signs that I can see of slowing down much, though he did have a poor week pitching last period. Last, middle, near the top. A little of everything this year. I like being on top more (insert joke here).



Period 14 – For my Main Event team, I had not a bad week, but not a great week by any standard (105th Best Week overall). In a way, this is a bit of a win for me as interleague play and matchups were not in my favor. Batting continued to be strong, especially in batting average (0.2908). Strong performances by McCann, Ethier (old “One for Three” batted better than his moniker with a 0.375 but of course with no home runs), Peralta (I hope the Fairy Godmother forgot to wind the clock so it never chimes midnight and he turns back into a pumpkin), Victorino, Hosmer, and Ackley (when he played) really helped in the BA department. The counting stats were OK (39 Runs, 7 Homeruns, 41 RBI’s and 7 Stolen Bases). The weakness here was obviously home runs. Most every other team in the league did much better, so I’ve lost ground here.



I didn’t have much therefore I couldn’t leave much on the bench, though Theriot would have improved my BA some more had I stuck with him rather than Alexi Casilla (who got me no SB, da bum).



As an aside, it is my ineptitude at getting sufficient home runs which has lead me to stay with Francoeur so much. I keep setting myself up to bench him (especially after times like the golden sombrero he had last week), then he has a game or two where he cranks out a homerun or steals two bases. He has already struck out more than 60 times this year. Still, he in well positioned (is that a better way to say “on-pace-to”?) to be a 20/20 guy this year who may drive in more that 95 runs and quite frankly, that production isn’t readily available in the FA pool. Another guy on my team that I hope will not be a one-half season producer.



For pitching, I had a great week considering it contained no Oswalt and no Marcum. I ended up with four wins (three from eight games started), four saves (though each of my three closers got rocked at least once), 48 K’s (pretty good but barely mid-pack in my uber-league), a 3.300 ERA and 1.267 WHIP (most times I would be happy with this WHIP, but this year such numbers are sub-standard). What I liked about my pitching staff was the fact they gave up only thirteen walks. What I didn’t like was the fact they gave up more hits than IP. As a good rationalization (remember the line about a good rationalization being more important than sex from “The Big Chill”?) I am writing the hits off to a bad week by my relievers.



I had left Marcum and Pavano on my bench in favor of Bailey, Lohse, Paulino, Wandy, Ervin and Shields. Marcum got roughed up, but Pavano pitched well. Pavano is definitely a short-timer on my team as Minnesota is not going to be a steady place to mine for wins and I do not have room for another soft-tosser on my team to go with Lohse.



Week 15 FA Bidding – I probably spent more time on my collective FA strategy this week than I have yet so far this year. When all was said an done, despite being the unfortunate owner of Chris Johnson, I did not make a big play for Lonnie Chisenhall. I do not know if it just because rookie cornermen in Cleveland are just not that attractive or what. I placed a token bid, but really saw no value in even exceeding $100. This could come back to haunt me, but my “gut” just wasn’t in this one. Instead, I went after another reclamation project. I really wanted Jed Lowrie out of the draft this year. Lindy grabbed him in the 23rd round and I had targeted him a few rounds later. While he is under no real timetable, I have read reports that he is throwing and taking grounders. I do not think a rehab assignment is too far off. I just do not see Boston keeping both Lowrie and Scutaro. Lowrie will begin his first arbitration year in 2012, and Scutaro is affordable with an option outstanding for 2012 or a $1.5m buyout. Both are attractive, but in either case I expect Lowrie to win his job back. Health will of course remain a question, but he started the year out with a bang and I could certainly see him playing well in the second half as well as getting AB as the AL East goes down to the wire. He cost me $21 and there were no other known bids.



I also bid on Dillon Gee, who was released the prior week (a small surprise even though he did have a start against the Yanks last week). He is not a guy who will blow you away with his K numbers. However, he has some promise. I thought his one bad inning against the cross town rivals would scare people off, but it was not to pass. I ended up my second choice, Joe Saunders for $11. Strangely enough, he has turned in some very good outings over the last few months including plenty of road starts (he had one bad outing in Florida, but he has really kept his team close in the rest). He has one start scheduled before the AS Game in St. Louis. When I got him, the word was Pujols was doing better than expected. Now it appears he will be playing soon, so this is not looking quite as good as it once did.



Week 15 Planning – Given we past mid-point in our season last week, I wanted to keep it close and set my team to bust a move in those areas where move-busting is possible given the make up of my team. I have some batters who are playing really better than they probably should (Braun, Peralta), but for the most part I see much upside. I have solidified by OF I hope with Marlon Byrd. No, he will not carry your team, but what I need is solid and steady production. He has batted 6th since he came off the DL, but before too long I expect to see him up in the order. That leaves McLouth and Francouer for the 5th spot. I am sticking with Francouer for now as McLouth is hitting 8th for the Braves right now.



My biggest issue with my bats is the number of mediocre options I have for MI and CM. It is a given that Youkilis and Peralta will play. I am also going to put Ackley in and pretty much leave him as the #5 slot in Seattle will give some opportunity to drive in some runs and with no body really hitting behind him, I hope he will use his speed. That leaves three more spots for Hosmer, Chris Johnson, Aaron Hill, Alexi Casilla, and Ryan Theriot. I lean towards the top three as they have the most upside, but Theriot leading off in St. Louis (especially after Prince Albert gets back) cannot be ignored. Casilla is batting second in Minnesota and is a SB threat. And I need SB. I actually almost sat Hill (tired of waiting for his power, but pleasantly surprised by his speed so far). Given his Monday night game, I am glad I didn’t.



Chris Johnson is the guy really on the bubble. He has had one HR since May 20th and that was on June 2nd. I did not draft him for his BA, so without the power, he is a substandard asset. Perhaps I should have gambled a third or more of my remaining FA budget on Chisenhall, but if Johnson does not turn it around (he is losing AB to Matt Downs of all people), I may slide Peralta over to CM and utilize one of my other MI options (like Lowrie?) in Jhonny’s place.



Glenn, thanks for the kind shout out in your blog. I, too, hope to be able to stay relevant this year and worthy of continued mention with those other players!

[Edwards Kings]

My Sixth Round Pick - Shane Victorino has been diagnosed with a Grade 1 sprain of his right thumb. The Phillies will decide at some point within the next 48 hours whether or not to place Victorino on the disabled list. If they do decide to make a roster move, they could make it retroactively so that he could missed eight more games and return on June 19, assuming he'd be ready at that point.



My Fourth Round Pick - Andre Ethier is not in Tuesday's lineup because of a migraine he had Monday and a fever Tuesday. A migraine can be something that could linger, but Ethier might be available to pinch-hit Tuesday, so it sounds like this won't be a long-term issue. Consider him day-to-day.



My Second Round Pick - Kevin Youkilis (shoulder) is not in the in the Red Sox lineup Tuesday. Youkilis was plunked on his shoulder blade by a pitch during Monday's game and is taking a day off as a precautionary measure. He should be back Wednesday.



And my First Round Pick - Ryan Braun (calf) is out of the lineup for the third straight day Tuesday. We heard some rumblings that Braun was expected to return Tuesday, but he apparently needs at least another day. Josh Wilson will make the start in left field Tuesday. By the way, this is his first major league start in the outfield.



Not exactly the way to rack up quality AB.



And of course my Ninth Round Pick against the red hot Pirates (did you ever think you would use "red hot" and "Pirates" in the same sentence?) - Wandy Rodriguez yielded five runs over six innings in Tuesday's loss to the Pirates. His ERA hopped from 2.97 to 3.25 in the loss. It was just the second time in his past 10 starts that he had allowed more than three earned runs. Rodriguez will finish off the first half of the season with a start against the Marlins on Sunday.

[Edwards Kings]

I’m bored. I hate the All-Star break and I hate the All-Star Game. Used to be the only chance to compare NL to AL and therefore had some meaning. With interleague play, there is no reason to watch the game anymore. And now with owie/ouchie excuses more prevalent than acceptances, the game has less meaning. The only concession I will make to the game is to check the box score/write-up in the morning to first make sure none of my players got hurt and to see if Scott Rolen acquitted himself well. Given where he is in his career I am guessing he is as surprised as the rest of us that he is there.



Period 14 Results – In a word, my pitching this week sucked. I had ten starts with few killer match-ups. And I got one win. One lousy win. From spot starter Joe Saunders piece of cheese five inning, four walk effort of all things. I had six starts from Marcum, Wandy, and Shields. Marcum and Wandy limped in but Shields was excellent, though you would think that two earned runs in two starts would get you at least one win. But noooooo! My overall underlying stats were not bad (4.741 ERA, 1.302, 48 K’s) but not excellent. Primarily because of my “off” week pitching, I dropped out of the Top 20 overall and am in 39th place and (temporarily I hope) out of any money contention in the Overall. I also, in combination with Chris Bauler’s excellent team climbing like a scared cat in the standards, have come back to the rest of my league and am only five points ahead of third place. Lindy’s “Bob Enzyte” team is thirty points ahead of me in first which can at worst be described as a “comfortable” lead.



The miracle of last week was that I nearly made all my offensive numbers despite being down Braun, Victorino and Chris Johnson, who is in essence a part time player now. I was still able to generate over 300 AB (though six of my league mates hat 330 or more) with a 0.279 BA, which is pretty good this year. I had 45 Runs, 40 RBI’s, 12 HR and 5 SB. Not earth shattering, but not too bad either.



Period 15 FA – There was a player available I wanted. A pitcher. Not an “Ace”, but someone I hope to give me quality starts, especially until I get Oswalt back (IF Oswalt can come back to anything like his norm). My team does not need a “spark”. My team needs quality AB and quality IP.



So who is this guy. Mr. 2nd Half himself. He has averaged 15 starts after the ASB each of the last three years, winning eight games in two of the three years. Not going to strike out more than two batters every three innings, so he is not a power arm that necessarily has to show his 34 years. In the last three years after the ASB he has also allowed only about a hit in 85% of IP and had nearly a 3:1 K to walk ratio. In the last three years, his homerun rate has dropped to acceptable levels and had a 3.069 ERA to go with a 1.092 WHIP. He has allowed three earned runs or less in 83% of his second half starts over the last three years. His team is only four games out in a very competitive division, so odds are he will still be pitching in meaningful games in September. His team has six games left with St. Louis, four with the Phillies, and one road series in Colorado. In other words, not exactly the toughest, though they do have fifteen games on the road in September and he pitches better at home.



Sounds like I am trying to sell you guys a used Yugo! Well, I hope he performs better than that and just because he has done it in the past, doesn’t mean he will do it this year. I am hoping the consistent pattern over the last few years helps my odds. Who guessed him? I am talking about Bronson Arroyo. If he pitches to his norm, he is just the arm that I can plug in there week in and week out as a quality arm rather than plug-and-play in the 6th and 7th slots in my pitching line-up. I got him for $31 and dropped Saunders.



He was my only pick up.



DAMN ASB Period 16 plans – I find myself with too many MI-types. I “invested” in Lowrie, who also has 3B eligibility and I also have move Peralta to CM in place of Johnson. Still, I have very good depth by position though out my roster even though Hafner is DH only. By next week, Johnson or one of my lesser MI types (Theriot or Casilla) will be sacrificed for a best available player type.



Most of my plans this week involve prayer. Pray none of my many AS players get hurt. Pray the injections into Oswalt’s back lets him come back to form. Pray that Victorino is out the minimum. Pray that Ryan “Day-to-Day” Braun’s calf is healed by Thursday. Pray Shields arm doesn’t fall off and that the Rays stay in the hunt. Pray Ethier and Youkilis power shows up. Pray Francoeur keeps hitting and stealing bases. Pray McLouth starts to hit. Pray Ervin Santana’s recent surge continues. Pray Marcum and Rodriguez revert to form.



You get the idea. See you in church!

[Da bears]

Yeah its going to be next to impossible for anyone to catch Lindy in our league Wayne.



I'm just glad to have a chance to finish in the money as I'll happily take a second or third place finish in this stacked league.



Great job on your blog and good luck the rest of the way Wayne.

[Edwards Kings]

Matt Bauler is not only “Da Bears”, he is “Da Man” as he caught me over the weekend. Neither of us are exactly what you would call a “threat” to Lindy right now, but something tells me I am going to be cussing Matt (in a friendly way) with regularity over the next eleven weeks of the 2011 fantasy baseball season. I am not writing anyone off at this stage by any means, but as of now second place is a real toss-up between us.



Period 16 Results – Now we have finished 16 Periods which is effectively 15 complete weeks. It is amazing that my bats did as well as they did considering eight of my first nine hitters drafted (McCann being the exception to the rule) either did little (Braun, Youkilis, Ethier, Montero, and Hill combined for a 0.1579 BA, zero HR, seven each runs and RBI’s and two SB), didn’t play at all (Victorino) or were riding my pine for good reason (Chris Johnson). The rest were more respectable but hardly awe-inspiring 0.2768 BA with six homeruns.



What is up with Brian Wilson? In his last two outings he has collected two saves (good), allowed no hits (still good), but had zero K’s and 4 walks!?! I am still doing well enough in save and lead my league, but if he is hiding an injury, I am screwed.



I was able to get seven starts even though it was a short week. Of course, this means I will only get seven or eight in the upcoming week, too. Still, even with the short week, I was able to get a full weeks worth of K’s overall (48). But continuing a trend, my ERA, WHIP and Wins all fell far short of expectation (4.705 ERA, 1.432 WHIP and only two wins in seven starts). A week like this is not going to kill you, but I had these mediocre to poor weeks several weeks running now, and it has killed me in the overall standings. Losing Oswalt, Marcum’s nagging injuries, and one-swing ERA killing mistakes have all been ganging up on me. At one point I had my pitching staff ranked at slightly “over-achieving”, now they are seriously “under-achieving”. Time for the pendulum to swing back, please. Waaaay back!



Period 17 FA – When I looked at what potential help I felt I needed (I would love to land a quality third-baseman and a starting pitcher), and I looked at the FA pool, the two did not overlap. Brandon Allen, whom I drafted but couldn't wait forever for, was finally called up by the Diamondbacks. He qualifies only in the OF right now, may be on a short lease, and needs two weeks at least to qualify at first. Since I really did not need a first-baseman and I do not rank him higher than any of my current OFers, I passed on bidding on him. Good thing. He went for big bucks in my league and even the runner up bid was about twice what I had as his value.



While a couple of SP were picked up, most appear to be targeted for spot starts or the owners had room to gamble on upcoming potential trades. I didn’t have any more room on my roster for any more gambles, and the spot starts out there didn’t really float my boat. There were also many speculative picks on closers or potential closers pending trades. Not my weakness (as of today), so I did not go fishing in that pond either.



In short, I didn’t place a single bid this week in the Main Event. Allen cleared out some serious bucks, but all-in-all a pretty quiet week. There were one or two interesting drops, but nothing to really help my team and therefore nothing to write home to mother about.



Period 17 Plans – I have two real areas that are going to be tough to find a clear answer. As to starting pitching, I will go with seven players with six pretty locked in. Unfortunately, one is not Oswalt, who is just moving to pitching from the mound after two injections in his back, one of which he not even sure what the injected him with (scarey). Still, he says he has no pain, so hopefully I will get him back before August after a couple of starts to get his pitch count up. The six I will definitely go with are Shields (he came back to earth a bit in Fenway, but he is against the Yanks this week who he has handled twice this year pretty well with three earned runs in fifteen IP and fourteen K’s), Marcum (says his neck is fine and is at SF), Rodriguez (how the hell do you strike-out eleven batters AND give up eight hits in less than six IP?), Santana, Bailey, and Arroyo. The question is do I go with Paulino (who cannot buy a win, but has 32 K’s in his last four games) or Lohse who has two starts in NY and Pittsburgh, but has been less than stellar in five of his last seven starts and couldn’t strike out Mark Reynolds! I waffle between the extra start on a team that has a chance to win versus the hot hand. Game time decision!



On the bats, given I want Hafner in at my UT spot, I have an extra outfielder. I have Braun, who has crushed me this last week with this day-to-day garbage. I have Ethier who came out of the break colder than your mother-in-laws disposition. Byrd is actually hitting pretty well and appears to be settling in at the fifth spot. Francoeur is currently hitting the ball and will face two lefthanders in the coming three games. Nate McLouth will face primarily righthanders coming up and will be in Colorado and at Cincinnati while the Braves play a full seven game schedule. And I get Victorino back Tuesday (probably). Strange as it may sound, I am considering benching Braun until his calf proves sound. If not, I will gamble on his heath and choose his four game potential in Arizona versus the two at best games I could get out of Victorino. I will undoubtedly be having this same conversation with myself on Friday.



Time for the pendulum to swing back now. Damn Matt Bauler!



[ July 18, 2011, 11:53 AM: Message edited by: Edwards Kings ]

[751542]

is chris matts bother?? if you are gonna give out props....get his name right!

[Edwards Kings]

Originally posted by RoundTrippers:

is chris matts bother?? if you are gonna give out props....get his name right! Damn, that was stupid of me. Corrected. Thanks, Fred!

[751542]

Originally posted by Edwards Kings:

quote:Originally posted by RoundTrippers:

is chris matts bother?? if you are gonna give out props....get his name right! Damn, that was stupid of me. Corrected. Thanks, Fred! [/QUOTE]lol

[Edwards Kings]

It was one of those weeks in LV Second Weekend League 4! I had a good week, good enough for 30th overall but only good enough for fourth in my league, which ended up with five teams in the top 62 places. Scott Flemming, Jason Santucci, and Bob Mazur (especially Bob) had better weeks. That means I saw some tightening in the pack and I was able to make up a little ground on Lindy and Matt “Chris” Bauler. Not enough to make Lindy sweat and Matt and I will swap places again if I have a cold or he has a hot night.



We are reaching the last two times multiple impact players may be available for us. With the non-waiver wire deadline approaching, several players may see increased value as they move to contending teams or get full-time jobs or both. In September, rosters will expand and we may see a few minor leaguers get their chance to audition. Nothing new or exciting, but because of this I did a real money check in my league. I always know who is short and who is hoarding in relation to my bank, but at this time of the year it is good to know your options compared to the others. First, the bad news. Lindy has just slightly more money than I do which means not only does he have the lead, he has the same FA bank resources to either strengthen his team or to fill any holes. A tie here in FA money means Lindy has the advantage.



Also, a couple of teams hanging in the middle of the pack still have 40% or more of their budget. This means two things to me. Either they can use their resources on the prime impact players to bust a move (just like the aforementioned Bob who had the 7th best week last week) or can really play spoiler by causing others to overpay for the available talent. In any regard, this means it is going to be difficult for me to score some the best players.



The good is that I have $100 more in my bank than the next four teams below mine in the standings combined. They must be looking at me in much the same way I am looking at those teams with more money than me (I have the fifth most amount of money about $10 behind Lindy and $24 ahead of Chis Hill). This is good for me as they have limited resources to make full use of available FA talent.



I have always been the guy who like to have “enough” money to see me through to the end as I like to have options. The bad of that mentality is that an argument could be made that if I had really gone after a couple more big ticket players, I might be in a better position. I have not necessary been cheap (I paid the most so far for a player in my league when I popped $411 for Hosmer), but could I have benefited my team by being a little more aggressive? As always, the answer is “depends”. My team has been lucky (there is that knocking on wood sound again) in saves. Even with only two closers (I have used my third reliever very seldom), I am currently tied for 38th overall (with eight other of my friends and neighbors) and in the lead for my league by five saves (gotta love those Pirates). Not having to chase saves (three of the winning bids over $100 were for potential closers) gave me a bit of a break. As well, (knocking on wood, rubbing that rabbits foot), my starters have been reasonably healthy, Oswalt not withstanding. I have been happy overall with my starters or better put, haven’t seen much that would be clearly better. Therefore, I haven’t chased rookie (Duffy, Britton, White) talent nor have I had to gamble too much on hot streaks (Luebke, Miller, Correia).



For those who may be interested or at least bored enough to read further, in my league, to date there has been 436 winning bids. Of those, 21 (about 5%) were greater than $100 and 65 (15%) were for more than $50. Of those, I had two (previously mentioned Hosmer and $51 bucks for Allen Craig). And I am far from the “cheapest” in this regard. Two teams only have one winning bid greater than $50 (each highest winning bids were $53 and $59). Two other teams only have two like me. One has the second most money left and one is Lindy who has only $10 more than me. Of the seven teams with the most money (ranging from $155 to $476), current placement in the league is 1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th, 10th, 14th, and 15th. Quite a mixed bag.



Anyway, I have been lucky enough to chase a focused, smaller range of positions or stats. Two of my position weaknesses were in the CM area. After Youkilis, I started the year with Loney and Johnson as my other corners. Very questionable, though I did have hopes for Johnson (still did until last week when I dropped him), but my large bid for Hosmer was a result of looking for a serious upgrade to Loney (though Helton was definitely cheaper, Mark!). I am not the only person chasing a third baseman. Of the biggest ticket third basement purchased in my league, both are struggling (Chisenhall and Moustakas). I bid on both, but lost. Instead, I filled the hole from within my roster with Jhonny Peralta, who according to NFBC rankings in the second best one out there. Of course, now I have a hole at shortstop, but strangely enough, MI seem more plentiful this year.



The two stats I am chasing are two of the toughest…steals and strikeouts. Both shortfalls are primarily due to one player each not impacting the stat the way I hoped. One was Dexter Fowler, the other Oswalt. I doubt I find many big strike-out arms in the FA pool, so I will be trying to maximize numbers of starts to get me what I need. I might find some help for steals in a fifth OF type or a MI type. There are some young players out there who could help and that is where my money will go from here on out.



Period 17 Results – Like I mentioned earlier, I was strong to very strong last week. I hit eight of my categories very well, falling short on two (strangely enough, steals and K’s). Actually, last week my big question was Lohse or Paulino. The answer was Frank Francisco who had five K’s (to Lohse’s five and Paulino’s six), gave up only one earned run, two hits and no walks in 2 IP. Lohse and Paulino were not horrible, but no wins from them either.



Period 18 FA – I went for six players among my three teams, two each. I got my first choice in five of the six. The one I didn’t get was Pedro Alvarez. The Pirates appear to be serious about staying in the NL Central race and they will not be able to do that without Alvarez. He is playing better in the minors and should be called up soon. I got “cute” and thought I could sneak him through, but the $51 he went for was more than I was willing to go. I should have been more aggressive as he could realistically be an impact bat.



Instead, I got another third baseman from a Central Division. I do not expect great things out of Wilson Betemit, but he should play just about every day in Detroit in their all-or-nothing run for the division championship. He cost me $11, which was a little more than enough to cover the second place bid ($8).



The bloom is off the rose for Ryan Theriot, at least right now. His only saving grace was decent runs from hitting on top of the Cardinal line-up and over-his-head batting average. I had benched him when Alexi Casilla got “hot”, but now Theriot is being “rested” with increasing regularity in favor of Daniel Descalso, so now was a good time to cut him. There are some other options out there, but I decided to gamble on a player I really thought would be having a better year, Cliff Pennington. Recently he has put together a nice little streak. Like Betemit, he will normally hit down in the line-up, which is not good, and he gets caught stealing too much for a guy with his better-than-average speed. Still, at $21 he is worth watching for a while.



Some other guys I had my eye on but did not bid on did get picked up. Vladdy was out there and was picked up for $65, but I already have a full time DH (Hafner), so I had to watch him go by as Hafner is playing on a team that is still in the hunt (for at least a little while) and at this stage of their respective careers, I have Hafner as more of a power source.



Kyle Blanks ($42) and Chone Figgins ($35) also peaked my interest, but either I did not value them as much as my current players or others at their position available in the pool.



Period 18 Plans – I am getting healthy (knocking on wood). Victorino is back, so he slides in to my outfield very nicely. Oswalt is to have at least one rehab assignment this week after good bullpen sessions, so by next week I may have him back. For the current week, both my seventh starters have decent match-ups (Lohse versus the Cubbies, and Paulino versus Cleveland). Paulino has to win SOMETIME and is the better K option, so I will probably go with him. I will be glad when Oswalt comes back.



I still refuse to give up on Aaron Hill. I just feel a hot streak coming here. Either that, or I am feeling the warmth of me peeing down my own back and thinking it’s raining. Alexi Casilla, according to NFBC rankings, is still chipping in as a top 30 (barely) MI. I sit him, he steals. He has 13 SB for the year in 308 AB total, but only one in the 84 AB since I put him in. He is due.



I could move Peralta back to SS, bench Hill or Casilla, and try Betemit at the corner or just bench them and try Pennington. I have options, but none are perfectly clear.



“I’m not confused, I’m just well mixed!” Robert Frost



[ July 25, 2011, 12:37 PM: Message edited by: Edwards Kings ]

[Edwards Kings]

These are the mornings I hate. I, of course, knew about Ervin's big adventure, but unfortunately us East Coasters cannot stay awake for the West Coast games. Shields going against Oakland was making me feel warm and fuzzy about building on Santana's phenomenal outing and busting a mini-move pitching wise.



This morning, see the Oakland/Tampa Bay box score...total and complete gut shot. It seriously made me feel ill for a moment. Who woulda thought....

[Edwards Kings]

Multiple gut-shots...



Shields is blown up by the offensive juggernaut, the A's.



Bailey is blown up by the Mutts. Between the two, I have to find a way to absorb 19 earned runs in eight innings.



Casilla finally starts stealing bases again and goes on the DL.



And the worst, losing McCann to the DL.



Not a good week.

[Edwards Kings]

I took my daughter up to Nashville this weekend for a visit to Vandy (her first choice, of course, is to go to Jawja but Vandy’s academic reputation warranted a look see). She was impressed but not enamored, though she did say that it would be a good place to go for her doctorate. Dad cried.



Due to the funk I am in regarding my impending tuition-induced poverty and the fact that work is a crush right now, this weeks blog will be a little different and a little more free-style.



Anyway, juggling the trade talks with family considerations, always a concern, was especially hard this weekend. As it turned out, not much really happened that impacted my team. Only one of my guys lost their job and no one with a new job really would be better than what I had on my team. The rest of my league-mates generally felt the same I guess and not too much money went out the door.



Losing McCann hurt(s). I ended up with the high bid for David Ross at $31 which also happened to be the high bid overall in my league last week. I ended up dropping McLouth, which I would have done anyway due to the DL stint even if he hadn't just lost his regular job. The Bravos picking up Bourn for Schaefer and what amounts to several balls of twine means McLouth is basically a fourth outfielder until Chipper gets hurt (again). I also dropped Alexi Casilla, which I really did not want to do, but I just had too many on the DL. My roster (with McLouth on the DL then gone) was down to five healthy outfielders, so I picked up Laynce Nix ($11). Never one of my favorite ballplayers, Nix at least is on the better side of a platoon situation with Gomes. I hope I do not need him.



In my league, I am still in a dog fight for second place and Lindy is still way out in front. The simple fact is he will have to come back to the pack. I will not catch him. I am fighting for 1st runner up, though I may still, (albeit outside as far as chances go) in the running for a top 10 finish. To do so, I need to get back to the 3,000 point range or about 300 points above where I am. It will be tough, but doable.



Most of the points available to me are in pitching, where my team has been in a month long slide. Once challenging my league for top spot in pitching, as of today I do not even have 50.0 points overall. I have a three save lead for top spot in that category with San Francisco and Pittsburgh still in the fight, there is really no way to improve on Brian Wilson and Joel Hanrahan. Frank Francisco is at worst a closer-in-waiting to Jon Rauch. Francisco has given up one run (a HR) since the ASB while Rauch has given up runs in five of his last eleven outings including HR’s in his last two. For the time being, I do not need or really cannot use a third closer due to the fact I need wins and strike-outs more than saves.



Starting pitching is the only place I can really make my move. I keep feeling that my pitching staff is really under-performing, especially in the strike-out department. The middle of the pack in that category is a dead heat (I am currently in 8th). There is realistically no way for me to finish in the top three of my league in this category. To even move up to 4th and 12.0 league points would mean I have to out-perform those around my by at least 100 strike-outs. That is not likely to happen, but if (and I mean IF) Oswalt is finally healthy (we may find out this weekend in San Francisco), I could get a real shot in the arm (or at least a better shot in the arm than I can get from the flotsam and jetsam left in the FA pool). Certainly Oswalt, Marcum, Rodriguez, Shields and Santana can wrack up some numbers. I wish Wandy had been traded to a contender, though.



Homer Bailey, Felipe Paulino, Bronson Arroyo, and Kyle Loshe are the prospects for the last two SP slots. Certainly Bailey and Paulino have the best arms to make a strike-out move, but Paulino plays for the Royals. This leads into what I feel is my “unlucky” stat. You cannot predict wins, but with already relying on Wandy, I am not sure I can absorb more good stats/bad luck starts which are the hallmarks of Royal pitching. I need wins. The only two ways to improve my chances are to wrack up as many starts as I can with guys on MLB teams that have a chance to win. Houston and KC are not those kinds of teams.



Bailey would be my preference to fill one of those two spots. Only if, of course, he is the late 2010 version of Bailey. If anyone sees him or runs into him, tell him to give me a call. I have been looking for him to show up for a while. He is very late.



The best chance I have to move up in pitching is in WHIP and ERA. Typically you shouldn’t expect much movement this late in the year in these “average-based” stats. This year we are so packed close together (five teams are within two 10ths above me in ERA and five are within six 100ths above me in WHIP). That is why the blow-ups by Shields and Bailey earlier this week hurt so bad especially coming against the A’s and Mets like they did. All of the pitchers on my staff have the talent to string together some nice games. With any sort of run in that regard, there are points still to be had for a few weeks at least. While this week will be a relatively normal week (nine starts planned), next week could be an 11 or 12 start week. If I don’t bust the move then, I believe it will be too late.



Of the 300 overall points I need, 200 will come from pitching stats which should also net me 10-12 league points.



Batting leaves me with fewer options. There are only four league points and 76 overall points available to me in BA, RBI, and Runs Scored. That leaves me with the same diametrically opposed goals that I have struggled with most of the season. I need to improve both the counting stats for HR and SB. I am only five HR from moving up to third place in HR. My team is capable of doing that. SB are a real problem. To make any appreciable move, I need to outperform the four teams ahead of me in that category by 12 SB between now and the end of September. That is one to two a week, so it can be done, but who will do it? Will Pennington run again like last year? Will Victorino turn it up a notch? Will Braun, Hill, and Francoeur keep pitching in? Fowler being such a bust really hurt me here. I can only look forward. In the FA pool for my league, there are only eleven guys with at least 10 SP so far this year, most of whom are hurt now, in the minors or part-timers. I am going to have to be real creative.



Of the 300 overall points I need, 100 will come from batting stats, which is maybe 4 league points. If I can get to the 120.0 league points plateau, I will probably lock up second place and be at or near a top 10 finish overall.



As an aside, I have luckily moved into fourth (though just barely) in my auction league, but a world away from third place (17.0 points). Also, to be a top 9 contender, I need about 1,000.0 overall points which is about 190.0 points from where I am. My Auction team is almost the same as my Main Event Team. They are both good in the same areas, weak in the same areas, but the biggest difference is in BA, which is where my auction team is not doing nearly as well. I am working on how to maximize my points there as well. I need more luck/skill to pull this team up to a money spot, but it is possible.



“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”



Winston Churchill



[ August 02, 2011, 02:21 PM: Message edited by: Edwards Kings ]

[Paul Gromek]

I enjoy reading your blog. Thanks for taking the time to do it every week.

[Edwards Kings]

Originally posted by Paul Gromek:

I enjoy reading your blog. Thanks for taking the time to do it every week. You are welcome. Glad you enjoy it.

[Edwards Kings]

Pillows at my feet. I feel like baseball is throwing pillows at my feet. And because of that, I cannot get up a head of steam. Though I was able to get 299 AB out of my team, I lost half a week of playing time for one position to Bell’s Palsey. Has that ever happened in baseball before (that one is for you, Dan, as I would think that is the kind of obscure bone that would get your blood pumping early this week)?



Period 19 Results – Though I sit barely in second place in my league still (I know, 312 of you are saying “Why are you bitching?”), I did not have a good week. Despite racking up nearly 300 AB, except for Runs (44), I hit none of my targets for batting. Likewise for pitching, I did get four wins, but after so many weeks of less than four, I need a few six or seven win weeks to make a move in that category. I currently sit tied with seven points for wins in my league with only seven wins between me and seven more points. And I am still not getting it done in strikeouts (last week my K% was only about 65%). Despite the poor efforts (Marcum, Rodriguez), and mediocre efforts (Arroyo, Oswalt), Shields, Bailey, and especially Ervin Santana saved my ERA (3.277) and WHIP (1.209) this week. I am hearing footsteps in Saves after a one save week (the Pittsburgh collapse has not given Hanrahan many chances). Hopefully the Pirates and Giants will give me some more opportunities this coming week. I have Francisco on the bench and I have the feeling he is close to reclaiming the role, but as I am struggling with Wins and Strikeouts, there will not be much opportunity to go with three closers.



Period 20 FAAB – There were some very decent speculative plays to be had this week with young guys like Lawrie, Martinez, Goldschmidt and Robinson. The one I liked I knew I did not have enough money left to get, especially after Lawrie cranked out his first dinger. I placed a respectable bid for this time of the year for him, but was not even second as he went for $235. I am not sure if he can do as well in Toronto as he did in Las Vegas (but really, could any of us do as well as we do in Vegas?), but if the Jays really give him these last eight weeks to prove himself, that is a good source of quality at bats which do not really come along this time of the year. I did not view the others as being a potential upgrade to what I already had, so I aimed my sites lower. With a concerted effort and a lot of luck, I could still pick up a few points in stolen bases. With that in mind, I picked up Alexi Casilla, who should be off the DL soon. He is a decent source of speed if you are lucky enough to have him in on one of the weeks he decides to run. I dropped Kyle Lohse, who is ABSOLUTELY lost right now. I tried to decide under what circumstance I would consider starting him and when I got down to the scenario of perhaps I would use him against the St. Mary’s School for the One-Legged, Blind, Unwed Mothers (good old SMSOLBUW), I decided it was time for me to cut him loose.



Laynce Nix plays three games out of five and though I just picked him up last week, I placed a small ($7) bid on Garrett Jones and dropped Nix. Jones is not going to win any leagues for you, but he finds his way into the line-up either as a starter or the first bat off the bench. He also usually hits up in the line-up from second to fifth.



Only four teams have more money than me at this stage and two of those are not what you would call commanding leads. My money situation is about where I would want it.



Period 20 Plans – I really only have one question this week and that has to do with Aaron Hill. I have waited all year for him to wake up a bit. He has only had one really good week since Period 13. He is at home all week, which you would think is good, but his splits have really shown any home-cooking advantage nor has his shown any real love for his two opponents this week, Oakland and the Angels. Jed Lowrie is coming off the DL this week (finally) and if he moves back into a starting role, it may be time to give up on Hill despite his 14 steals. I also have Betemit on the bench who could be used at Corner and I could move Peralta back to Middle. I will probably give him one more week, but right now he is a huge drain on my team.



I need a hot week to re-establish myself in the Overall Standings as well as give me some breathing room in my league. There are a ton of points still available and still just out of reach. Frustrating. It is kind of like visiting the show room that has the car you always wanted…with your kids who remind you why you can’t afford it.



So close and yet so far.

[DOUGHBOYS]

Probably rhetorical, but I'll bite anyway.



Ryan Vogelsong also has Bells Palsy.

His symptoms came on during a stint in the minors.

He pitched through it. He had a Crash Davis type catcher at the time who would mess with hitters when they came up.

The drooping of one eye made Vogelsong a little strange looking on the mound.

His catcher would tell some hitters to be careful cuz he can see only out of one eye.

He would also tell some hitters that Vogelsong must think the hitter is cute the way he keeps winking at him.

As far as I know, Pennington and Vogelsong are the only current Major Leaguers with the malady.



Some have asked me about 'Paternity Leave' as well.

No, before the Union, there was no paternity leave

Wives would call the husbands (players) after or before a game to let them know they were ok and the player would see them when they got home from the game or road trip.

It wasn't till the 60's that most men would join their wives in the labor room.

I have a rather obsessive friend who plays in a free yahoo league. He sends out a letter to each Major League team in February asking if rostered players have wives who are in a 'family way'.

Surprisingly, he says he gets some replies.



I don't want to hijack this wonderful thread.

Any replies can be pm'ed to me.

Thanks for thinking of me, Wayne.



[ August 08, 2011, 10:24 AM: Message edited by: DOUGHBOYS ]

[Edwards Kings]

I am in a mess. First, led by (or to be precise, not led by) Kevin Youkilis who missed a couple of games due a run in his stockings compounded by bad-hair-days and menstrual cramps, my team offensively did not show up last week. I only got 275 AB with a pathetic 0.2545 BA, three HR and 19 RBI’s. This may have been my worst offensive week this year. I could have made a bit of a move since my pitching was good (five wins in ten starts, fifty K’s to go with a 2.295 ERA and a 1.140 WHIP). I had some bad luck in starting pitching as Shields start against the Yankees, a team he has owned this year, was rained out. Pittsburgh’s decline and Wilson’s creaky back left me with only one save this week. That makes two saves in the last two weeks and all of a sudden I have lost my lead in that category. I cannot afford to lose leads (I have also lost my lead in BA and RBI’s in recent weeks). Though I am still in second place, I am a none-entity in the national standings and fast running out of time. September is not the time to bust a move as so many MLB teams fall out of contention and “rest” their normal starters frequently in favor of some previews of coming attractions.



Trying to field a team that will have players from playoff contenders in September is the biggest crap-shoot we deal with in March. Sure, if your league mates are real friends, they will just let you load your team up with position players, top of the rotation starters, and closers from perennial favorites. However, if you live in the oxymoronic real world of high stakes fantasy baseball, my guess is you will never be so lucky in your friends or lucky enough to fall in with a bunch of yokels who instead want to duke it out over how many Pirates or Mariners they can get on their teams leaving you the “scraps” from such as New York (Yankees version), Boston, and Philadelphia.



Looking at my team here in mid-August, I have fourteen players who are on teams that still have at least some realistic playoff aspirations. Eight of my starters on offense come from teams like Milwaukee, Boston, Detroit, Arizona, Atlanta, Cleveland and I even have a recent acquisition from Chicago (White Sox version). As to pitching, I have Wilson, bad back and all, from San Francisco to go with Oswalt (Philly), Marcum (Milwaukee) and Santana (Disney). As I left the ASB, I had hope Cincinnati would bust a move making Arroyo and Bailey a bit more valuable, but it was not to be as the Reds are now eleven games behind the Brewers.



Some of my current starting pitchers have missed time due to injury and may not be candidates for lesser work loads in September even though they are not on contenders as their IP are still pretty low (Rodriguez 139 IP, Arroyo 147 IP, Bailey 83 IP). Pretty much the rest of my team is at risk and this is a concern. What if the Rays skip a few of Shields starts (his two starts this week will push him close to 190 IP with six weeks of season to go)? Ackley and Hosmer are young players who tend to wear down over long seasons. The Dodgers aren’t going anywhere (12 games back) and though they do not have many options, I could see them not taking too many chances with Either. Aaron Hill and his 2011 disappointments means he has already started to get “rested” more frequently.



Anyway, the best you can do is keep plugging along, right? This past week and especially since Wilson’s back is balky and Francisco has not yet reclaimed the closer role, I decided to go for a temporary closer. I was a little surprised my league-mates let me have Rafael Betancourt for a decent $36 bid. This is actually a nice pick-up.



My $4 last week for Alexi Casilla was wasted as he plays one game and jumps back on the DL. I bid $36 on Gordon Beckham to replace him and won. He has certainly had a disappointing year, but he is playing full-time on a team in contention. Now I have two under-performing second basemen (Aaron Hill being the other). Does this make a collection? Still, I believe Beckham is a MI upgrade for me.



The $72 I spent this week means I have a little more than $100 left for the last six weeks. There are certainly teams in my league that can outbid me now easily, but given we only have six weeks left, this is about the right amount of money to have. Since Greg and Tom refuse to refund FA bucks we have remaining at YE, I may as well spend it while it can still help.



For the upcoming week, I have some options offensively which is good. To say my team has been flat on offense is an understatement and I will make some changes. I gave Hill one more week last period and he produced two hits. I believe Hill is going to ride the pine (of course, he will break out now, right) in favor of Beckham. Besides being a Georgia-boy, Gordon is a streaky player and I hope his cold August is behind him.



Cleveland gets three games in the first half of this period and one of the pitchers they will face is a LHer. That means only two games out of Hafner. Since Pittsburgh also has three games and all of them are right-handers, I will probably start Garrett Jones in his place at least half the week.



I like my bench right now. I have a decent bunch of players who mostly have starting jobs. For example, I have Wilson Betemit who is not a superstar. He is, however, getting four out of five starts at third base for Detroit, who is still fighting for their playoff spot. I have thoughts about putting him in as I can juggle my players around a bit and sit a player like Cliff Pennington. My need for SB will probably keep Cliffy in (though potential has not matched results this year).



Jed Lowrie is back for Boston and right now the BoSox are using him as a super-sub/Kevin Youkilis insurance. I believe he may actually see his role rise and replace Scutaro before long. Since Lowrie qualifies at 2B, SS and 3B, that gives me the potential for a lot of flexibility. Jed rides the pine until I can be sure of his AB.



Pitching is a little more set, though I will use Betancourt in the first half of the week while Wilson sorts out his back issues. If Wilson proves healthy, there is a good chance I will use three closers next week.



I will use seven starters this week and Felipe Paulino with games versus the Yanks and Boston is on the bench. Though Paulino has little potential to help me out in wins, his other stats have been pretty good and he is more than adequate bench-meat.



Losing Sunday’s game versus the Yanks means Shields get two more days rest (good or bad?) before a road start against Boston as part of a Tuesday double-header, which scares me. If they keep Shields on a normal five day schedule after that, his second start will be against Seattle. If not, he gets two starts next week. The rest of the rotation (Oswalt, Marcum, Santana, Rodriguez, Bailey, and Arroyo) is pretty set and most have decent match-ups. With a little luck, I will get eight starts this week.



It doesn’t sound like much, just moving two or three players around, but a helluva lot of wheels turned to get that much result. My team is flat and under-performing right now. I have faith that they will break out and when they do, I am due some MONSTER weeks. I hope it is not too late. I have little hope of catching Lindy, but I still feel (hope, pray) that I can hold off the competition in my tough league for second place and finish with a top ten overall spot.



It is a tall order but it is not out of the question.



[ August 15, 2011, 09:30 AM: Message edited by: Edwards Kings ]

[Edwards Kings]

Not a great deal to blog about this week, primarily because I am in a bad mood. I truly hate most major league team managers. They are mostly mental midgets. Take for example Joe Maddon. Yesterday, James Shields didn’t have it. He had give up ten hits and five runs…to the freakin’ Mariners…through seven innings and was down 5-3 going into the bottom of the seventh. The Rays score four and with Shields underperforming, already above 100 pitches, has thrown quite a few innings already this year, and having sat on the bench through the Seattle pitching change as the Rays rallied, there is no way Maddon brings Shields back out, right? But NOOOOOOOOOOOO!







Shields comes back out, hacks up a two run shot to Wily Mo “Swish” Pena. Shields is only then pulled. No win. Horrible ERA and Whip further degraded. Maddon…what a maroon!



That is three blow-ups in his last seven games for Shields. I can handle that. But two of them were against Oakland and Seattle. And that is the second time this year Seattle has lit him up. Go figure. Shields has given up four earned runs in nearly 23 IP in three games against the Yankees. Shields has given up 24 earned runs in a little more than 15 IP in three games against Seattle and Oakland. That is just crazy. Having a manager like Maddon doesn’t help.



I also took two more gut-shots this week. I lost my #1 closer for a while in Brian Wilson (though at least I had him on my bench for the Atlanta blow-up last week) and the wussy Youkilis. I was watching one game where they talked about how much Youkilis had been gutting out injuries, etc., etc. Horse pucky. And now Hafner has rolled his ankle and seems to be set for a day-to-day nightmare. True, Hafner has been in a second half slide (probably hasn’t gotten over an earlier foot injury), but, as he proved last week, is still a nice source of power hitting in the middle of the Indian line-up.



In short, I am going to have to patch my roster up this week. This is not good as my fade continues and simply holding on to the points I have is a real issue with Matt “Chris” Bauler so close behind. I had considered going to extra closers this week as in the last three periods, I have only been able to accrue four saves. With Wilson down and Street due back late this week negating Betancourt’s value, I was glad to have two options for the entire week left to me, or so I thought. I have Hanrahan, whose value and performance has slid with the Pirates, and Frank Francisco since Rauch is on the DL. But NOOOO! Francisco has a stiff shoulder and could not even get into the game yesterday. Another day-to-day perhaps? Rotten timing. I hope to have an update on Francisco before I have to set my roster, but if not, I will go with Betancourt with the hopes of having a few saves before the Rockies activate Street.



Then there is Hafner. With four games in Cleveland versus Seattle coming up, there was a good chance I would have gotten three games out of Hafner. As it is, I may have to us my recent FA pick up, Omar Infante ($6,no other bids). Talk about a power drop off! I picked up Infante mainly for his flexibility (2B/3B/OF). Good thing too as it appears I need as much flexibility from guys who may actually play regularly as I can. I dropped Betemit as the Tigers brought up Inge. Wilson never did truly lock that starting role down and now with Inge up, there will be at least a platoon in Detroit.



I did make one small bid on Dillon Gee with no alternative bids on any other player. I did not win and I am glad (though Gee will start September with two pretty good starts in Period 23). I was going to drop Betancourt and go with Hanrahan and Francisco. By the time I found out about Francisco’s sore shoulder, it was too late. I need Betancourt more than Gee right now and there were some interesting drops that may be mined for pitching next period.



Anyway, rather than surging, I am fading. These last six weeks could be torture.



[ August 22, 2011, 08:17 AM: Message edited by: Edwards Kings ]

[Edwards Kings]

Really, what an intelligent guy Andre Ethier is. Team is already in the crapper, eight games under .500 in the most winnable division in baseball, no shot at the post-season, and he gets into a public pissing contest with Mattingly. Just great. Exactly what I need to happen in the stretch run. If Ethier is allowed to play four games in six the rest of the way, I will be surprised. Sure he has been one of my biggest disappointments this year (why didn’t I grab Bruce or reach for Granderson, dammit!), but where am I going to get a replacement player that has ½ of his potential. I kept hoping he would pull his head out of his own backside and regress to his normal power. Now, five months into the season, he claims a season-long knee injury. I cannot drop him this year, but loser-boy will NOT be a King next year. I am done with him.



Period 22 Results - Despite the clubhouse drama, I was able to cobble together 312 AB last week, even with Irene singing the National Anthem in too many eastern baseball cities last week. As a result, my counting stats (except the poor eight homeruns as I am having my own power outage) at least matched my pre-season goals (42 Runs, 45 RBI’s, and 6 SB). Batting average was a strong 0.28846, too. Not too long ago I was Top Two in BA, but have slipped now to 18th overall and back (temporarily at least) in first in my league. At one time, I was also a contender in the RBI category. Lindy has jumped way over me and I have drop into the 40’s overall. Still not bad, but indicative of my poor power numbers. Braun is the only candidate on my team to have a chance to hit 30 HR on my team, which is a great disappointment given I had others with potential like the aforementioned Andre “Mr. Hanky” Ethier, and Youkilis. I have or may have several with 20+ (McCann, Youk, Peralta), but it is not enough even though I have very few Judy’s. This year, 250-260 HR will get you in the top 20% of the Main in this category. In order to touch the low end of that range, I would need to average 15 HR a week over the next 4 ½ weeks. Not likely.



Pitching was a mixed bag. Three wins, three saves, a 3.447 ERA and a 1.133 WHIP is OK. Actually, the ERA and WHIP are great for eight starts, but the wins and saves are light and I only racked up 39 K’s. As I thought I had myself set up for good to great power, I thought the same for K’s. In my league, there are four of us scrambling for 6.0 through 9.0 points. The team with 10.0 points in K’s in my league is nearly 60 ahead of me. There is not enough runway to make that amount up.



Period 23 FAAB – This was going to be a quiet week for me. First, I was probably only going to spend about $8 because my goal was to have $100 for the last four weeks. This much worked. Four teams have more money than me (including Lindy), but the other ten teams have combined $127 FA bucks remaining. This really improves my odds of picking up the kind of help, probably in pitching, that I need. Also, I can be fairly aggressive if an opportunity for a bat presents itself.



As it was, I spent $8 (no second place bid) on Smoak. Maybe it is because he is a Southern boy, but I have like him for a while, had him in other NFBC leagues, and respect his ability to have a hot week. He will play two or three rehab games early this week, then be off the DL. Most of his remaining games are in Safeco or places like Oakland or LA. Seattle has typically batted him third or fifth. Not exactly an impact bat, but with above average power, maybe he can make up for losing Hafner, whom I dropped.



Period 23 Plans – Besides Smoak, I should get Youkilis back from his DL stint for diaper rash later this week. Now rested and refreshed, he is going to crank about three or four HR with about five or six RBIs and four or five runs scored each week during the last four weeks of the season. Yeah. Right.



Anyway, their collective bats will be welcome. The rest of my roster is flexible with full time players at each position. Mixing and matching for the most games played hopefully will allow me to continue to get 300+ AB each week even as the season is impacted by call-ups. That is the plan anyway.



Pitching is going to be a challenge. Despite the dogfight for mediocre points in strike-outs, I may derisk a bit this week and go with three closers (Hanrahan, Francisco, and Betancourt). The latter two will probably get some competition back this week in the form of Rauch and Street, but right now their respective managers have expressed “confidence” in them (kiss of death?). Arroyo has much better of late, but against such teams as San Diego, Washington, and Florida. He is still troubled by the long-ball and has two starts, one at home versus Philly and one at St. Louis, so I will be sitting him. I have still held onto, but not started Paulino. I will not risk a start in Detroit, but he has two promising starts in Period 24 that should help my team. That means my six starters will be Bailey (same two tough starts as Arroyo, but I have more faith in him to get some K’s), Oswalt (who misses a four game series in Great American and gets another crack at the Marlins in Miami), Shields (at Texas, but how can you sit him?), Santana (at Seattle), Rodriguez (at home versus Pittsburgh and Milwaukee), and Marcum (at home versus St. Louis and at Houston). Nine starts is not too bad and there is some risk for blow-ups here. Going to be a nail-biting week.



My chances of making a move towards the top ten in the overall are slipping away (if they have not already boarded the bus).







[ August 29, 2011, 09:12 AM: Message edited by: Edwards Kings ]