The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Sports & Leisure => Topic started by: littlefallsmets on March 07, 2008, 01:02:10 am
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I have founded the TOUAMB 2008 Pretend Baseball League, kids.
I copied-and-pasted the parameters of the 2007 league, including the auto-draft, with two minor changes... I pushed the trading deadline a week later and I opened us up to a theoretical maximum of sixteen teams, just in case a lot of people want to sign on.
Other than that, exactly the same.
I am, of course, starting out with the name Damned Human Race.
Here is the link to the league:
http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/touamb08 (http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/touamb08)
The password to get in on it is: raysadvice
And... I think this is all we need to know up front?
Okay. Set phasers to AWESOME, kids. Pretend. Fuckin'. Baseball.
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We need the league ID number rather than the name in order to join it.
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League ID#: 180317
League Name: TOUAMB '08
Password: raysadvice
Custom League URL: http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/touamb08
(I am new at imaginary commissioning.)
EDIT: Also, anyone have any really big problems with last season's rules? I could definitely modify anything anyone had a huge beef with, if a lot of people have that huge beef, before the draft happens.
If a large number of people were into the idea of adding a second DL slot to the situation, I would kind of dig that but I did not want to unilaterally effect that change.
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For a second I thought you were advocating a second DH position, which boggled my mind with its obscenity.
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All signed up. I miss Keith, though. Where you, Keith? We need you!
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I know nothing about American football, yet would like to find out a bit more.
I think I'll throw myself in at the deep end, I'm in!
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I am in and I approve of a DL position slot.
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football
This is gonna be fun.
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First thought: Not actually football, baseball.
Second thought: This is going to take a bit of learning.
Think of this as a cultural exercise.
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Erm. Brief, non-jargonised summary?? Anyone?
If you'd rather see me hilariously cock this entire thing up, then feel free not to tell me anything.
However.
If you do that, I will win the league due to Karma.
My team's name is RumSodomyandtheLash.
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First thought: Not actually football, baseball.
Second thought: This is going to take a bit of learning.
Think of this as a cultural exercise.
Ladies and gentleman, I present the 2008 Fantasy Baseball Champion. Right here.
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Judy, how well do you understand baseball as a sport? Before you know how to assign value to players based on their ability to collect certain stats, it helps to have a little idea of how they go about getting those stats.
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Overthinking is the best kind of thinking!
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Judy, how well do you understand baseball as a sport? Before you know how to assign value to players based on their ability to collect certain stats, it helps to have a little idea of how they go about getting those stats.
No! What's wrong with the idea of watching the Brit hilariously cock this entire thing up?
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Somehow, the idea of Fantasy Cricket seems insanely amusing to me at the moment. I'm not really sure that this variety of fandom translates between cultures.
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The idea of Fantasy NASCAR (which Yahoo has) seems even more hilarious to me and they do that shit in my own country.
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The idea of Fantasy Soccer was hilarious because... how do you aggregate stats for fantasy competition for a sport where almost nothing measurable happens for the entire game?
And then I realized.
Pong IS Fantasy Soccer... and everything made sense.
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The idea of Fantasy Soccer was hilarious because... how do you aggregate stats for fantasy competition for a sport where almost nothing measurable happens for the entire game?
Keep it up and you'll be ahead of Keith in the only stat we keep on TOUAMB
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Keep it up and you'll be ahead of Keith in the only stat we keep on TOUAMB
we keep other stats. like time spent online. Day for Day, i have spent the most time here, but on the whole I am currently battling LFM for 5th place.
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AHEM.
There is nothing wrong with Fantasy Football or 'Soccer'. Admittedly, it is very simple compared to this 'baseball' lark. Basically, like so:
Goalkeeper
Defender Defender Defender Defender = These five players get points for a 'clean sheet', or basically a match where they concede no goals
Midfielder Midfielder Midfielder Midfielder = They get points for assists (I'm sure you know what they are), goals and bonus points (if they dominate the game etc.)
Striker Striker = Mostly goals and assists, obviously get lots of goals so a good choice for your 'captain' (double points awarded if they are)
You don't 'draft' or 'trade' them, neither. You are allotted a transfer budget, say £50,000,000, and buy who you think will be good value (each player is priced on how well they performed last season).
That is, as they say, it. I'm sure we had a pretty good discussion here once about the statliness of American sports and the British lack of them. Here we go: http://touamb.com/index.php/topic,2829.msg67241.html#msg67241 (http://touamb.com/index.php/topic,2829.msg67241.html#msg67241). Er, turns out it's just LFM making an excellent post and me replying with a slightly less excellent one. Nevermind.
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For a while WWE ran fantasy pro-wrestling. That's really meta if you think about it.
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Okay, I can see a goalie collecting positive or negative points for giving up or not giving up goals... and I can see offensive players getting points for goals and/or assists.
But we're talking about a sport with a lot of two-one games, a lotta one-nothing games, a lotta zip-zip ties.
How do you... delineate... the value of a defensive guy other than the goalie? How do you assign a value to the 99% of the game where it is just people noodling the ball between each other around the middle of the field?
I think this is ultimately why baseball and football are the best fantasy sports... there are so many intermediate statistics to follow, between the baseline and scoring.
Hits, stolen bases, batting averages, on-base averages, slugging averages, extra base hits... if you scored the run yourself, if you drove in the run, if you got the run with a home run.
Yards, passes, runs, throws, catches, etc.
Soccer, there's basically... did you or did you not get the ball in the net once or twice that game?
"Is you or is you ain't my baby?" y'know.
To shape a way of following soccer on a fantasy level, it seems like you really gotta... mine the numbers to find stuff to turn into intermediate statistics for your pretend league.
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One could also argue that's why fantasy baseball sucks, is because of all the damned confusing intermediate statistics. A dude has got to pick his poison: simplicity or esoterrorism.
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LFM, without meaning to get eggy here, I feel you're taking things a bit seriously. Me and millions of other people play fantasy soccer because it's simple fun. No-one cares that each player can't be spliced and analysed to death, we're not playing it to prove beyond all doubt we're better than others.
That 99% of noodling around the ball in the middle of the field has hundreds of stats you can associate with each individual player. Pass completion rates, successful tackles made, distance ran, shots on target, through ball success rate, headers won, corners won, fouls performed/suffered etc. All of these are massively important to the eventual result, and easy to record.
They are not included because they sap the life out of the game. Football is meant to be entertainment. Over-analysis kills it. Obviously, it's a big part of baseball/American football etc., and is a large part of why people enjoy it. But not all fantasy games have to be so (relative use of the word) anal.
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But not all fantasy games have to be so (relative use of the word) anal.
Unless your fantasy team has the word 'sodomy' in their name, in which case you've already guaranteed your destiny.
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batting averages, [...] slugging averages,
How are these two different things?
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Oh, I'm not actually taking it that seriously... I just like riffing on soccer. haha.
ALSO:
Batting average is all your hits divided by all your at-bats.
Slugging is every BASE of your hits over your at-bats. Singles count for one, doubles for two, triples for three and homeruns for four.
If you got 30 hits in 100 at-bats, you'd have an average of .300...
But if those hits broke down to... 20 singles, 5 doubles and 5 home runs... that'd be 50 total bases and a slugging average of .500 and... that's really good.
ALSO ALSO:
More people should sign up for pretend baseball! It is awesome to pretend we are playing baseball.
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Oh, I'm not actually taking it that seriously... I just like riffing on soccer. haha.
In which case I apologise! I was in Sunday morning grouch mood.
I will now stop spamming the thread until I get some players to mould into model professionals.
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My team's name is RumSodomyandtheLash.
The best in naval tradition.
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I am still here, just not very much. I may play?
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In other pretend sports leagues... look who took over the #3 spot in hockey in the last week of the regular season.
(Me! I did.)
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Good Lord yes, play!
The more the merrier!
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A Pretend Sports league without Keith Hernandez is like a rail of coke without a nostril. But, you know, the good kind of coke. The coke we need. Keith, we need you.
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Joooooooin us! Joooooooin us!
(Seriously, it is fun as hell and... becomes more fun the more teams there are. The more Pretend Baseball Teams there are, the less stars every team has and the more challenging the game is because you have to figure out which role-players will be good enough of what you can get.)
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There are also more options for hilarious trade requests.
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Such as fleecing me for Lastings Milledge, just because I still can't get over the fact that the Mets gave him up for two guys who proved to be part-time players EVEN ON THE WASHINGTON EXPOS.
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Such as fleecing me for Lastings Milledge, just because I still can't get over the fact that the Mets gave him up for two guys who proved to be part-time players EVEN ON THE WASHINGTON EXPOS.
Schneider was our #1 catcher. Played about as much as any starting catcher in the bigs.
Church, yeah, he was a part-timer pretty much.
In hockey news, I scratched and clawed through the latter half of the season to get the #3 spot and a first-round playoff date with the last-place team. Which is now kicking my ass. Too perfect.
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Well, The Schnide hits like a part-timer, anyway...
I mean, I don't care if you're a gold-glover, you can't hit under .230 and be a starting position player in the majors. A defensive replacement guy off the bench? Okay, fine... but a starter? I don't buy it.
ALSO: Dude's defense is also slowly falling off.
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My feelings on Mr. Milledge have been detailed at length. I'm going to avoid the temptation to jump into it again.
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How many did we have in the league last year?
I'm shootin' for the goal of at-least two more teams than we had last year.
A lady-type Pretend General Manager or two would also be radical.
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Wombat to the rescue!
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So I'm thinking I'll pull the trigger on the autodraft Friday night (3/21) so that everyone has the time to make their adjustments in case they've got any Red Sox or As on their rosters as the first two weeks of the season are going to count as one competition because there are so few games in that first week.
Any objections?
Also, c'mon. Four more teams! Four more teams!
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Sounds good. Also, good luck to anyone who gets John "Out For the First Month" Lackey.
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...I just spent a good long while "excluding" from my pre-draft preferences every Brave, every Yankee and every Met that I don't consider a true Met so that I don't have to cheer for nobody I don't wanna cheer for.
Mets on my shit-list:
Church who I have dubbed "Platoon"... Castillo who I have dubbed "Gimpy McBanjo"... Delgado who I will alternately call "Delgono" or "Shitbird"... Schneider who I have dubbed "The Schnide"... Alou who shall be "Princess" because of his inability to sleep with a pea in his mattress without getting injured... Schoeneweis who I have dubbed "Horror Show" aaaaaaaand El Duque who will be called "El DL".
Oh my God, the Mets have a great 1-through-4 of the rotation, a great bench, a solid bullpen and... just the... creakiest, oldest, most injury-prone and suspect starting eight in the history of the game.
Everybody other than Reyes Wright and Beltran is either... beat to shit with injuries or not a legitimate everyday starter. Alou can't stay healthy, Delgado's done, Castillo can't stay healthy OR hit for extrabases, Church can't hit lefties to save his life and Schneider is just an embarrassment, the Mendoza Line is ashamed to be in the same room as him.
Ahhh. Fuck.
I need baseball, I am jonsing, I am still jonsing.
(C'mon... only eight Pretend Baseball teams? We had twelve Pretend Football teams. Where are you other four hiding?)
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(C'mon... only eight Pretend Baseball teams? We had twelve Pretend Football teams. Where are you other four hiding?)
I'm still on the fence. As much as I love baseball and am also jonesing for it (because racing's only on Sunday, there's not enough hockey on TV, and basketball is... well, you know), I know jack shit about individual players and whether they are good or not. If I sat down and listed every active baseball player I could think of, I honestly think 20% of my list would be players who are actually retired. I understand how fantasy football works, and that a hot RB who makes do on an otherwise shitty football team is still a decent player to have. I don't know if that's the case in fantasy baseball.
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OK, I haven't been around here a whole bunch lately, but there's no way I was going to miss out on this.
...so that makes nine. If Golfhaus doesn't register now, somebody had better, or the schedule will be all messed up. Bye rounds are for playoffs and high school debate tournaments, people. Nobody wants to be responsible for causing that to happen here.
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Golf, there are totally all kinds of statistical aids built into Yahoo Pretend Baseball to help you determine which players would help you out with your statistical needs.
If you need a shortstop and stolen bases, say, you need only click a few drop-down menus to find all the available players with that combination of statistic and position, totally.
It is very easy to use, really, from quite early on... it is such as Othello... ten minutes to learn, a lifetime to master.
Also: I cannot hit the autodraft function if we have an odd number of teams, it just doesn't let me, it would make me wait until we found one more player.
I think if we tried to have more than 16 teams, there would be too many of us with really marginal players to fill out our rosters but... my only complaint about last year, with just eight teams, was that we could all basically have five or six All Stars on our teams no matter what we did and that took away from the fun of trades and the waiver wire.
Ten teams would be solid, twelve would probably be the short-end of perfect, sixteen would be the long-end of perfect.
This is seriously gonna be awesome, I'm tellin' ya.
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Aight... I'm in. I can probably scrap together not-last place, I'm sure. Let's do this, Flying Dutch Ovens.
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...I love it when a plan comes together.
Many thanks, Golf, I don't think you'll be disappointed.
I'm still hopeful we'll get another two on board between now and Friday but, seriously, I think ten is a significant improvement in gameplay over eight already.
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Anybody interested in doing NCAA brackets?
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I tend to follow college basketball only when my school (University of Washington) is doing well. This being an off year for them, I'd look like an idiot filling out a bracket. So, yes! I'd love to.
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Weird. Winthrop is in the final-whatever, and it's right next door to my friend's house. I drove past it a few times on friday.
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Basically, all I know is that Syracuse was terrible and is in the NIT tournament, in which the winner of the tournament is crowned the... 66th best team in the country!
I will probably check the paper to see if Siena or Cornell pulls off an upset.
That's about the extent of my interest in the Tourney. Vague regionalistic support.
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Vague regionalistic support.
You just summarized college sports in general pretty well right there.
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Any stragglers?
Sign up soon... I reckon I'm gonna hit the auto-draft button Friday night after I get home from work which should be, like... seven-ish Friday night, Pacific time.
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Shits! I still have to organize my draft rankings so that I get a disproportionate amount of Mariners. Better get on that today.
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The Angels are still the favorites in the West. The M's definitely boosted their starting rotation by picking up Bedard, but that cost them big time in defense and hitting -- their two glaring flaws.
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Ah, I dunno.
The Angels just have so much goddamned depth and... over the long haul, depth wins regular season titles. Hot pitching at the right time can win the playoffs but... depth wins the regular season.
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Shit, what do I have to do before tomorrow evening?!!?
Also, I never use Yahoo and I've forgotten all my info and stuff. LFM, do you have access to this? I could remember the password but not my name
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Uh, hmmm.
I do not THINK I have access to this but I will check.
It will require logging out of my pornography-viewing Yahoo account and into my my-real-name Yahoo account to research this but you are awesome enough to deserve such extraordinary action.
What's your team name? I might be able to work backwards from that...
EDIT: could your login be "dave_cuthbertson"?
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Uh, hmmm.
I do not THINK I have access to this but I will check.
It will require logging out of my pornography-viewing Yahoo account and into my my-real-name Yahoo account to research this but you are awesome enough to deserve such extraordinary action.
What's your team name? I might be able to work backwards from that...
EDIT: could your login be "dave_cuthbertson"?
-kisses LFM-
Ahem, I mean many thanks, old chap.
Also, now my real name exists. Pah.
Pretty sad that I used my own name for Yahoo and I couldn't remember it.
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Not a problem. I am such as the People's Commish and so forth, I'm happy to help.
Also, as we are all imaginary, knowing names is not so important after all.
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Autodraft is locked in for go.
It says that it'll be done before midnight Tuesday at the latest.
But we're locked in! Now for the waiting...
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It looks like it's been run.
I recognize most of the names on my team!
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Yup!
I have... already sent out two trade request e-mails, in fact.
I am a very sick man.
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The First Sign I May Not Be Cut Out For Fantasy Baseball:
There is a guy on my bench named Evan Longoria. Apparently, after some research, he's a kid with a bright future, and the Rays are trying to figure out if they want to bring him up now or keep him in the minors. But no matter, when I glanced down, I thought I saw... well, you know what I thought I saw.
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Eff. I was gonna adjust my draft rankings yesterday but instead I went out drinking. But at least I got Erik Bedard! And the injured shell of Albert Pujols. Nice?
(Golf: Evan Longoria, despite a close phonetic proximity to you-know-who, is the best hitting prospect in baseball.)
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D'oh.
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(Golf: Evan Longoria, despite a close phonetic proximity to you-know-who, is the best hitting prospect in baseball.)
(Other than Lastings Milledge.)
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Daaaaaaaamn, my team looks rather awesome. You will all rue the day you did not draft Ryan Zimmerman.
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If there's anything that last year taught me, it's that you can win this thing in spite of your star players. I lost Chris Carpenter at the very beginning of the season, never to see him return again. And some how I cobbled together a makeshift pitching staff and won the whole damn thing. Course, it helped that I had A-Rod on my team.
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Sorry I missed it, been busy. Good luck all.
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Is tomorrow opening day?
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...kind of, yeah.
For people with Boston or Oakland players, anyway.
But worry not, the first "week" is the first two weeks in total.
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I think our new baseball fans (Judy, for one) will find MLB likes to shit on a lot of things' chests.
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I think our new baseball fans (Judy, for one) will find MLB likes to shit on a lot of things' chests.
I'm cool with that.
Daaaaaaaamn, my team looks rather awesome. You will all rue the day you did not draft Ryan Zimmerman.
I have just told the game to trade all my players for yours.
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The real opening day is Sunday night! In Washington DC! At our shiny new ballpark! And I have tickets! WHooooo!
I look forward to standing in long lines for food, paying $7.50 for a beer, and listening to people bitch about parking the next day.
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The real opening day is Sunday night! In Washington DC! At our shiny new ballpark! And I have tickets! WHooooo!
I look forward to standing in long lines for food, paying $7.50 for a beer, and listening to people bitch about parking the next day.
Wait, the stadium capacity is 41,222 but there are 58,478 parking spaces. More if you count the spaces at RFK for people dumb enough to drive all the way into the city. So I see nothing to complain about.
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Wait, the stadium capacity is 41,222 but there are 58,478 parking spaces. More if you count the spaces at RFK for people dumb enough to drive all the way into the city. So I see nothing to complain about.
What's your source on the parking space count? I hadn't heard that figure.
Not all the spaces are particularly close, and by and large they're expensive as fuck. They tried to sell me a parking pass that would cost more than my actual game tickets.
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What's your source on the parking space count? I hadn't heard that figure.
Not all the spaces are particularly close, and by and large they're expensive as fuck. They tried to sell me a parking pass that would cost more than my actual game tickets.
I went to wmata.com and added up all of the daily spots at all of the metro stops with parking lots.
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Get much free time at work?
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Get much free time at work?
I was just making a conscious, personal choice to be a dick. But yes, work was crazy slow today.
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Opening Day is supposed to be a businessman's special afternoon game on a weekday in The 'Natti followed by night games for every damn one else, except maybe a later afternoon game for the Cubs what with Wrigley tradition and shit.
Only then is God in his heaven and everything awesome.
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They referenced Cincinnati and Opening Day on Around The Horn today - I had no clue... there's significance to the Reds and Opening Day?
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Hells yes.
There is/was a parade and everything.
(I'm pretty sure there ain't a parade no more but it could be that there still is but no one cares.)
They were the first full-on professional team in the sport and there were traditions associated with that.
These were the traditions that made the game so quirky awesome.
Death to the designated hitter! Death to the wild card!
24 teams or Fight!
*LFM is dragged off by the Baseball Short-Term Profit At The Cost Of The Long Term Good Of The Game Police*
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Did you just... compare... in a roundabout way... the DH to this year's debacle of an Opening Day? Don't get me started on the DH again!
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It is a dude... who doesn't field a position. Doesn't even step on the field and stand around.
He just hits every ninth time.
It is definitely in the same ballgame (so to speak) as the Disco-Night glowing-ball uniform-shorts stunty lameness as starting your season a week early, overseas, and on at the same time as Coast-to-Coast AM is talking to Professor Batshit Crazy about whether the aliens will start the Rapture in 2012 or if it might actually be reverse-vampires.
Dude just kinda... hangs out on the bench when everyone else has to play the other half of the game.
Pinch-hitting a midget to draw an automatic walk is truer to the spirit of the game than the designated hitter because at least the normal substitution rules apply and when you pull him for a pinch runner, the midget cannot be put back into the game.
The DH is a pinch-hitter who gets to be re-substituted in four or five times a game.
Why not a holographic "shadow-man" for slower running hitters?
Bionic "Go Go Gadget Arms" for the centerfielder but he can only use them four times a game and if he uses them a fifth time, even on accident, it activates The Multi-Ball?
These are both things roughly equivalent to the bullshit nature of the DH.
It is still not quite as crazy as having major league teams in Florida cities that clearly don't want them, just to dilute the pitching talent pools and give the FSN channels in Miami and Tampa more programming but... it is reasonably close.
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Your opinion is wrong because it's not the same as my own!
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haha.
All I'm sayin' is... there's no compelling reason for baseball to be a sport where you split the offense from the defense... part of the fun is that everyone is supposed to play "iron man"-style, especially considering that doing as such really isn't that much more extertive or dangerous.
God, what's more awesome than booing the pitcher when he walks the opposing pitcher?
What's more awesome than when the pitcher surprises everybody and ropes a double?
Other than sex-related things, it is difficult to conceive of a cooler thing than a pitcher goin' yard.
Anyway, we can agree to disagree... as long as we agree that someone's gotta trade with me for my back-up corner outfielders. Justin Mourneau and Kevin Youklis, just sittin' on the bench? C'mon now.
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What's more awesome than when the pitcher surprises everybody and ropes a double?
Which is exactly why Livan Hernandez is one of my favorite players.
Ha freakin' ha, Cort. You know what I mean, though: they've been preachin' "Pllleeeeeease take Metro" non-stop, but a certain breen of Beltway douchebag is going to say "Metro? That's for losers! I'll find a space with no problem." Said douchebags will be quoted in the Post the next day in the inevitable article about how much parking near the ballpark sucks.
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I think one of the coolest things about baseball is that you don't have the same uniformity you see in the NFL. Half the league plays under dramatically different rules than the other, and they get to design their playing fields in whichever crazy, off-the-wall way they want. That quirkiness is what makes baseball awesome, and I think it ties in to the same reason LFM likes seeing pitchers rope doubles down the line.
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While we're talking about the leagues, I think the time has come to scale back interleague play. It was a fun novelty at first, but now... make it a 4-day weekend. Split the teams into pairs (Mets/Yankees, Cubs/White Sox, etc.) and have a 2-and-2 series. That's it. No one cares if Toronto ever plays in Atlanta again.
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Yeah, interleague play lasts far too long. And the fact that it comes in several chunks is no good either. One continuous string of interleague play for a week or two and that's it.
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I am all about scaling back interleague, definitely. I am not so much of a traditionalist so as to say that it needs to completely go? But yeah. How about two three-game series a year?
Home and home with their most logical regional rivals and, if they have none, grab-bag. There is definitely a great buzz to the regional rivalry interleague stuff but, seriously, fuck Rockies vs Orioles.
And if anyone screams "unbalanced schedules murdered the baby Jesus" the schedule is already fucked, and 6 divided with 162 is basically a very small number.
If 3.7% of the season fucks you out of the postseason, frankly you deserve it.
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I suppose a default win is still a win. But this offense is going to be atrocious. Last I checked, Jose Vidro is still our everyday DH.
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I'll go toe to toe with anyone on offensive incompetence, 'lack.
My Mets have a starting line-up wherein five out of eight of the opening day starters are:
An entirely broken-down Carlos Delgado, an almost-entirely broken-down Luis Castillo, Ryan Church, Angel Pagan and Brian Schneider.
It is a good thing I haven't started losing my hair yet so that I can rip it all out this year, getting to watch, like, seventy-five 2-1/1-0 losses.
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Any team with David Wright and Johan Santana doesn't get to complain. About anything.
The A's at least are building for the future, and they're doing an exceptional job of it. The Giants, well... those fans can complain.
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Right, but people don't seem to understand that our pitching and defense isn't that good, especially the latter. At the front of our bullpen we have Bedard (awesome) and Felix (awesome when he chooses to be). Aside from that, we have a pair of number 5 starters in Washburn and Batista and an average-at-best starter making hell of bank in Silva. So it's Bedard, a fickle Felix and a whole lotta uninspiring flotsam.
Our defense contains Richie Sexson and Raul Ibanez, perhaps the two worst defenders at their positions. Wilkerson is a shell of his former self, Betancourt flashes promise when he's not overthrowing the first baseman by ten feet and Jose Lopez is a tick above average. The only reliable, quality defenders we have are Beltre and Ichirio. Kenji Johjima? Who the fuck knows. Nobody on earth can accurately quantify catcher defense at this point in time.
So our pitching and defense? A pair of gems in each department who are overshadowed by a pile of ass. You'll have to understand my lack of faith in their ability to win the division, even with Kelvim Escobar's potentially season-ending injury.
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Pitching is very important, sure. And the Mets have an outstanding one-through-four rotation and above-average one-through-six bullpen... Scott Schoeneweis blows dead dogs and El Duque is in strict denial that his career is over... but if your problems are your fifth starter and your last guy out of the bullpen, you're doing okay. The pitching is there, yeah.
Defense? Defense is over-rated in a sense.
Having not-terrible defense is very important, of course... but the value of exceptional defense over steady acceptable defense in baseball, man, I think people read desperately too much into exceptional defense.
Over the course of a game... or a week or a month... how many plays are there REALLY out there that an extraordinary defender will be making that an okay-but-unspectacular defender won't make?
Most of the defensive plays out there, man, either any basically-competent defender will get it or even the best player at that position will not get it.
Brian Schneider's decent glove will help the Mets a lot less than his complete inability to hit will hurt them, for example.
I mean, you certainly don't want a whole squad of ridiculously ineffective defenders out there... that's not what I'm saying...
But really great defense doesn't mean anything if you just flat-out can't hit.
Gimmie a guy who is a solid defender with an above-average bat any day over the best fielder at his position who's gonna hit .240... any day of the week.
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Defense? Defense is over-rated in a sense.
No. Not at all. If anything, quality defense is underrated. People don't realize just how much pitching and defense are tied together. A great defensive team will make your mediocre pitcher look really good. Smart GMs can save a lot of money by plugging in quality defenders in certain premium defensive positions to save on overly-expensive free agent starters. Use that money to pay for a free agent hitter who can mash (way more reliable than free agent pitchers) and presto! You've got yourself a winning formula.
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All I know is that if Beltran isn't 100% and the opposing team puts a left-handed pitcher up there...
All the opposing team has to do is walk Reyes, walk Wright and score two runs.
I don't think I'm being completionist. As pessimistic as realistically allowable? Sure.
But with baseball, that's the only way to be without driving yourself crazy.
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Melack, you just defined part of the Billy Beane school of basebal that I was cribbing from. I also think you're poor mouthing a few extra players in there.
sMets, you just suffer from completionist syndrome in a land that doesn't ever finish anything.
You want one of my other theories? Look for a team that fields 3 grinders with moderate to good talent every day. Over 162 they're going to set a tone that will not only effect the major league team but the organization as a whole. If management doesn't shoot them in the dick, they will win consistently.
I may be underselling Betancourt as a shortstop and Silva as a starter, but my point remains: not that great of a team! With some luck they might be able to win the division, but that's not a realistic projection at this point in time. Maybe a few more season-ending injuries to Angels starters.
And Ibanez and Sexson really are the worst of the worst. I'm not exaggerating there.
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For what it's worth, I wouldn't trade LFM's pessimism for a Yankee fan's arrogance for the world.
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It is the Met fan's job to balance out the baseball karma of the Northeast, you see.
There is the Yankee ridiculous front-running arrogance, there is the neurotic braggadocia of the Red Sox as if they are a tech billionaire with a trophy wife who screams how awesome he is from the hills to cover the fear that it'll all fall through tomorrow if the next bubble bursts...
And to balance it out, there is the bean-counting obsessive scrutiny with detail of the Flushing faithful. Breaking down splits for double-A players. Combing the waiver wires more often than we comb our goat beards.
Always hoping for the best, always counting on what would be the reasonably-occuring worst and just being happy when we get more than that.
As Old Batman said at the end of The Dark Knight Returns, it is a good life. Good enough.
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First thought: Not actually football, baseball.
Second thought: This is going to take a bit of learning.
Think of this as a cultural exercise.
I think we're getting rolled here - dumping Thome for Swisher is a savvy move for a guy who claims ignorance.
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I think we're getting rolled here - dumping Thome for Swisher is a savvy move for a guy who claims ignorance.
He had higher numbers, and was free? Is that how this works?
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Dude, seriously. One of the writers on my favorite Mariners blog is English. They may act all "Chip chip! Sign me book!" but in reality they're all "Pitch 'em inside! High and tight! Give 'em the nasty heater!" Note: this can be applied to baseball-savvy Englishmen as well as those who enjoy dirty sodomy.
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He had higher numbers, and was free? Is that how this works? Aw shucks guys, all I have is 4 kings. That's bad right?
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Dumbass question time: What is the purpose/what are the rules behind the Utility position in the roster?
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It is basically the same as The Designated Hitter.
You can put any damn hitter you like there and, also, it is the only place you can put Utility players... that is to say, players who do not qualify for any defensive position, either because they are always DHs, always pinch-hitters or... I think in some cases, if they are a new call-up with no defensive pedigree per the Yahoo system.
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Throughout my admittedly short-life I have studied many things.
Literature, art, music, science for example.
In all of these fields of study I have encountered difficulties. Despite this, I have managed to unlock the enigmatic thoughts of the great writers; find meaning in the most vague daubing; compose beautiful symphonies and understand the minutest details and facets of quantum physics.
Baseball, however, is fuck*ng ridiculous! I can't make head or tail of this (though I eagerly anticipate the first matches)
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Complicated, obscure, statistically-obsessed and yet... in its weakest moments... wholly focused on the fluke that is the long bomb. When you understand baseball, you understand America in all its glory and all its sickness alike.
We can't just have dudes kick a ball in one direction or another, we are way too twisted up inside.
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Are you beating me in our 'match' at the moment? I figure I should ask for advice on understanding that at least.
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A word of caution: they're only called "matches" in fantasy baseball. If you call a real baseball game a match, someone will throw apple pie at you.
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So far:
My team can rake! Pitch? Not so much.
Basically, my team looks a lot like the Phillies right now.
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My best starting pitcher (really my only good starting pitcher) gave up a homer in the first inning, but managed to pitch the rest of the way without giving up any more runs. Let's just say seeing your ace's ERA drop from 27.00 to under 3.00 is a lovely sight.
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I forget who is the Fightin' Phlogs but...
Aw man, that Braves-heavy strategy is rough chuckles.
I am not being gloaty, I am full-on condolencating.
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I did some shifting around so maybe my team wont suck as much. I am open to trades for first line mets players.
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Baseball season doesn't REALLY start until the first Mets-Braves game.
4 1/2 innings in, and I've already busted about six blood vessels in my head.
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Men with No Name, I have responded to your trade offer and I have responded with vigor.
Also:
Please save my week, Carlos Guillen. I need a run, a coupla hits and... maybe a stolen base outta ya?
That'd get me AVG, R and SB... I've already locked up W, K and SV... I am good with the pitching counting stats. The power stats... uh... not so much. RBI and HR are lost causes and I'm locked into losing WHIP and ERA but...
If you could get me a 6-4 or even a 5-4-1 week while I kick the tires, here, that'd be great.
Thanks.
EDIT: Okay, you got me the two hits and the run... there's not a whole lotta stolen bases to be had when you're down by fuckin' eleven. That'll do, pig. That'll do.
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Well-played, Zombies, a solid tie.
When we meet again, my team will probably be a bit different.
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I wish I could say I was pleased with this result, but the zombies don't play for ties. They play for braaaaiiiiiinnnnnssss.
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Exciting week, Men with No Name... I think I got the advantage at the wire but well-done still.
My pitchers only seem to know how to be brillant and completely terrible, never in-between.
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Not being funny here, can anyone tell me honestly how I'm doing so far?
Am I winning in an exciting, under-doggerish manner?
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Man, I miss last year's team when I had good pitchers and was thoroughly unemployed for the majority of the season. I really had a lot of time to devote to picking up gems from the scrap heap. Now it's a little tougher. Plus we got Judy the pool shark to deal with.
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As much as this is going to screw me over this week...
One problem you seem to be havin', Jude, is that you aren't moving your bench players to play on days where your usual nine have a travel day or something and... you're losing counting statistics for it. Runs and stolen bases and RBIs and home runs and stuff.
Your team put up a great effort today already... but had you played all of your available players, you basically would've handed my heart to me instead of my heart merely being partially barfed-up...
Because even on a travel heavy day, I was able to start eight players out of nine... because my roster is heavy on players with multiple positional eligibility and so on.
Also, really, you're probably carrying too many bench guys anyway... if you figured out which ones you could pare down, you could have another starting pitcher or two to cycle in when they're starting and really collect on the pitching counting stats.
Because... right now, from the looks of this week... you could right kill me in ERA, WHIP and AVG but I could well collect on all the other seven categories just out of sheer bulk of eligible players and my ability to properly cycle them into non-bench positions on the days where they're useful.
Man, I am way too much of a Boy Scout. haha.
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Once I understood this (mainly the ability to rotate a lot of players, but all of what lfm said) I did much better. This is all you need to know-the stats are pretty obvious.
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It figures the season that I finally dig in and become a full blog-reading roster-knowing fan of the mets, they flub the opening.
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That'll teach you. Isn't part of being a fan of such teams as the Mets and the Cubs learning to drink deeply of the bitterest dregs?
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As much as this is going to screw me over this week...
One problem you seem to be havin', Jude, is that you aren't moving your bench players to play on days where your usual nine have a travel day or something and... you're losing counting statistics for it. Runs and stolen bases and RBIs and home runs and stuff.
Your team put up a great effort today already... but had you played all of your available players, you basically would've handed my heart to me instead of my heart merely being partially barfed-up...
Because even on a travel heavy day, I was able to start eight players out of nine... because my roster is heavy on players with multiple positional eligibility and so on.
Also, really, you're probably carrying too many bench guys anyway... if you figured out which ones you could pare down, you could have another starting pitcher or two to cycle in when they're starting and really collect on the pitching counting stats.
Because... right now, from the looks of this week... you could right kill me in ERA, WHIP and AVG but I could well collect on all the other seven categories just out of sheer bulk of eligible players and my ability to properly cycle them into non-bench positions on the days where they're useful.
Man, I am way too much of a Boy Scout. haha.
Thankyou!
I will try to do this.
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Judy, man... your pitching is kinda lackluster? But your hitting is goddamn Murder's Row. Seriously. You have a potent goddamned offense on that team and it only lends to the idea that you are sharking us, just lying in wait until you can find the right starting pitching to add.
Also... sports-but-not-baseball-related:
Pao Gasol was at the Eels concert I was at last night. This is not that big of a thing but... like... I guess an Eels concert was the last place in the fuck*ng world I'd expect to see a basketball star. He had to sneak in during the first song so that he wasn't mobbed and sat in the front row.
A 7'2" bearded white guy in millionaire designer clothes is one of the most obvious things in the world.
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And... good game, Jude.
My math says I got you 7-3 but... seriously, you've got an amazing hitting team.
Put any kind of attention into your pitching and you'll have a winner.
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And... good game, Jude.
My math says I got you 7-3 but... seriously, you've got an amazing hitting team.
Put any kind of attention into your pitching and you'll have a winner.
Thankyou! Well done for winning.
I've got a bit of time this afternoon so I'll see what I can do regarding any immediate rises to the top of the scoreboard. Pitching you say..
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Good God, my team is awful. I've all but given up hope on repeating my title. Now all that's left is to play for pride, for vengeance, and for victory. Except not victory. Maybe just a double dose of vengeance.
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Dear Garret Anderson:
Thank you for your long and valuable career under the halo. Your contribution to the franchise in being an integral part of its only world championship team as well as its all time RBI leader is vastly appreciated.
All that said, could you hire a left hander to throw you slow curve after slow curve until you learn how to recognize and stoke that damn thing. I figure you should probably plan that into your budget. Especially since me, Joe Blowjob Public, has recognized that you haven't hit a damn thing in that situation for at least three motherfuck*ng years, you bitch ass potato headed wobbly doll fart licking sewer king bastard...
Oh geeze. Sorry about that.
In closing, thanks for your proud and long standing service.
P.S. You Gumby-headed SOB
Hee hee. One of my favorite M's blogs has a slightly different take (http://ussmariner.com/2008/04/20/thank-you-mike-scioscia/) on Garrett Anderson.
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Anderson really is kind of... at the end of his string, isn't he?
He isn't in that Mo Vaughn range where both Castillo and Delgado are and I wanna put my fist through the wall at all times because of it but... yeah. Dude really should'a hung 'em up last year.
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I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on the fact that Anderson is or has ever been a particularly good player.
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JJ Putz is healthy and looking for a good home.
Whatcha all got?
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I will trade you my motherfuck*ng left testicle for JJ Putz.
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That's not a figure of speech, by the way. I will really do it.
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I will trade you my motherfuck*ng left testicle for JJ Putz.
Oddly enough, human testicles don't have the buying power that you might think. Males already have two (the minimum necessary plus a spare) and women generally find them icky - particularly when they open a FedEx box to find one.
Astronauts and Lance Armstrong might be in the market.
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I don't see how LFM can't benefit from having a third testicle, possibly worn around his neck as a pendant.
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I personally know a dude with a trio pack. He lost one while we were playing rugby, and when he got to the hospital they told him they could hook him up with a synthetic testicle. Naturally, he asked for 2. Insurance paid for the first nut, he paid for the other. This guy can also eat an entire beer can. Personally I feel like the third wheel would get bulky? Like that is a lot to be dangling around in the under carriage.
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This may or may not be a good time to mention that I have a very small, hardly distinguishable third nipple. To the untrained eye, it looks like a little scar. But close up, yep, it's a nipple.
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I personally know a dude with a trio pack. He lost one while we were playing rugby...
Bitten off by an angry hooker?
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Can we get a list up of who's who? I'd like to know who I'm losing to/sharking.
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I am The Damned Human Race... because I am a huge fan of the work of Mark Twain.
(Also: mood disorders.)
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I'm the Flying Dutch Ovens.
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Banana Town represent!
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I think I have nearly pieced together our league directory:
Damned Human Race LFMets
Flying Dutch Ovens Golfhaus
The Muttonheads AugustWest
Banana Town Bashers Carlos del Vaca
Zombie Reagans melack
THE MEN WITH NO NAME A-Cap
Cheddar Crooks Asherdan
RumSodomyandtheLash Judy
I Predict Theriot
Fightin' Phlogistons
I believe these last two teams belong to iron_felix and Turbo Ninja, but I don't know who's who. Please update or correct as necessary.
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The Cheesethieves just beat the living fuck out of me. Well done, mostly Angels.
A warning, however, to the league:
With Guillen soon to acquire 3B eligibility, I have been able to shorten my bench and carry another starting pitcher... a configuration that will most likely benefit a dude greatly.
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I am I Predict Theriot, which comes from the long tradition of crossing pop-cultural streams for fantasy team names and/or indie rock bands.
In my NBA Fake League ("The Pau Pau Platter"), we had a team called LUOLCats. My squad was called "Magettesburg Address."
In a bygone fake baseball league a foe was "Le Pettitte Mort."
Once I figure out how to monetize the art, I shall make it my career.
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I personally know a dude with a trio pack. He lost one while we were playing rugby, and when he got to the hospital they told him they could hook him up with a synthetic testicle. Naturally, he asked for 2. Insurance paid for the first nut, he paid for the other. This guy can also eat an entire beer can. Personally I feel like the third wheel would get bulky? Like that is a lot to be dangling around in the under carriage.
Seems like the two new guys would always be gangin' up on the old one, resenting the fact that its the only "operational" one in the bunch. Hm, a "bunch" of testicles, I wonder if it possible to have a bushel?
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Hm, a "bunch" of testicles, I wonder if it possible to have a bushel?
Its likely a new special interest group has suddenly formed on the Internet somewhere. Since I'm at work, I will decline to Google it at the moment.
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By process of elimination, I must be the Phlogistons... that was my guess all along, though. My original idea last year was to be the "Clouds of Latent Phlogiston," which sadly wouldn't fit; I settled on the Fightin's instead because I thought it fit the motif established by AW's team, the Gashouse Gorillas.
Congrats to Mr. Mayor on last week's matchup - I don't feel like things have really been clicking for my team lately, but with the kind of numbers you put up I don't think I would have fared much better even if they were. 3-6-1 is about the best I could have hoped for on a good week. Also, a rather belated "good match" to the Cheddar Crooks, whom I faced (and somehow miraculously beat) the week before. I'm not sure how much your stats actually benefited that week from picking up Wandy Rodriguez and Ryan Dempster, but they were both smart moves that I had been intending to make myself before you beat me to them. Touché, sir.
Considering the state of my team over the last couple of weeks, I feel lucky that I've even managed to break even, and luckier still that that's been good enough to hang onto a piece of first place. A couple other people here have drawn parallels between their fantasy teams and their real-life hometown teams; I'm seeing some between the Phlogistons and my Braves. Both barraged with injuries out of the gate, both managing to keep our heads above water, crossing our fingers that it can hold up until we're at something remotely resembling 100%, that nobody else jumps too far out in front beforehand. At least in fantasyland the rosters are fluid enough to nuke the pitching staff from orbit and start over when the need arises.
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A couple other people here have drawn parallels between their fantasy teams and their real-life hometown teams; I'm seeing some between the Phlogistons and my Braves.
Amusing notion, these parallels.
The Banana Town Bruisers have great starting pitching and a fairly potent positional line-up. Just got above .500 with great expectations for the rest of the season.
The Washington Nationals... do not.
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Oh ten hells of yes, I am such as the Mets.
Quite solid pitching but not quite enough of it and... embarrassing hitting.
Like peering-between-your-fingers-just-wanting-to-see-that-its-over hitting.
GET SOME HITS, GODDAMN YOU PEOPLE!
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ALSO: Kerry Wood just blew up to hurt me. That is the only reason he did it.
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Well played, Bananamen.
Next up: Did the riot predict I'd have Theriot?
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I just found out that Baseball is yet another British-invented sport.
Makes perfect sense considering my form here.
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I'm currently mopping the floor with asherdan. The mets had some awesome blowouts this week. Did anyone catch John Maine's wundershow?
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No, but I was at the game where Ollie Perez got cuffed around like a chump.
Great fuckin' seats, though.
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I WON A GAME. Excellent.
The fightback is on boyos.
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You've gotta be fuck*ng kidding me. I was up 7-2 going into Sunday. Then 2/3 of my team got rained out on Sunday including two pitching starts, and that opened the door. Dammit... I HATE days like today.
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Well done, the-riot.
Someday I will figure out my outfield situation. My pitching is pretty damned rad, though.
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I mean, I think a lot of what's going on is...
I think a lot of you guys have too many bench hitters and not enough bench pitchers.
How often are you going to use those hitters on your bench? Most players are only gonna have one travel day a week and... other than catchers... most of the players you're gonna have in a small league like ours, they're gonna be playing every start.
So you've gotta be pretty judicious about how many bench hitters to hold onto.
The marginal utility of having anything more than... 12 hitters, 11 if you have enough multi-position players to cover all your positions twice... is pretty small.
Whereas if you carry ten pitchers and six or seven of those pitchers are starting pitchers... you can cycle them through in your week and every one of them will provide SOMETHING that week...
Even if it is just the counting stats like wins and strikeouts, it is something.
Depending on how your players' travel schedules go and what kind of positional overlap you have, some of your bench HITTERS might get used... once every two weeks?
I dunno.
I just see a lot of you dudes carrying a lot of marginal hitters that you probably will rarely use whereas... if you took three minutes a day to plug in and plug out your starting pitchers that are starting that day...
You'd have significant bulk added to your pitching, in the very least and... if you're choosing well... a lot more innings to even out any fluke poor performances by one or two of your starters that week.
Just me, just my opinion here.
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see i like to keep just a few good pitchers, because if they pitch well, thats it. The more pitchers, the more chances of someone getting a 17 era. Closers you need for saves and wins.
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Okay. Spring Training is over. Now is when the Zombie Reagans actually start playing for reals. Watch out, world! Watch out, braaaaaiiiiinnnnsss!
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Okay, Zombies, but I've entirely shuffled my bench for more power and my pitching science is entirely tight.
So watch out. Even a Zombie goes down if you take off the head.
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I think I eked out seven categories at the end there... good week, though, Muttonheads.
Need more home-runs, though. Hopefully my new waiver pick-ups will fix that.
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Church and Schneider played the first quarter of the season way over their heads, no doubtsy-boutsy.
But Church is a concussion magnet and Schneider's coming down to Earth as we speak.
It's a game of the long numbers, not the short ones.
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It's a... weekly head-to-head league.
If this was a all-season old-school roto-points set up, I'd...
(conveniently trails off)
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Holy God, Phlogs, you almost had me completely murdered there for a second.
I got close to a tie for a week and... I've never been more proud of a 4-5-1.
Peavy being hurt reeeally dropped my ass.
Congrats, though.
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I picked a bad year to follow the mets and track them with my team. People need to lose their jobs and not have money or sperm.
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Luis Castillo + four year contract = hilarity.
Laughing at one's own pain is the only laughter for Mets fans this year.
Entirely washed-up players at second and first, left and right field can't stay healthy to save their lives, the catcher just can't hit at a major league level after a small hot streak to start the season.
Mets got three hitters and six automatic outs. It's... lovely.
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Poor Mets, they're only .500.
Saturday I got to see two Padres pitchers make their major league debuts! One of them gave up a 418-foot homer, and the other one took 48 pitches to get three outs.
Also: you can see Griffey's earring sparkle from the second deck.
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Words I never thought I'd say or write:
I just picked up Cristian Guzman on my fantasy team.
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Guess that Guzman thing worked out OK. I believe 8-0 is what is commonly known as "an ass-whoopin'."
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My pitching is doing a face-plant without having Peavy to pull down the ERA and the WHIP but I still eked out a win against the Ovens... well done, Ovens, very close.
This week, the Zombie Reagans which are... ironically... mostly on the DL.
Check your team, man, and update it... I would feel bad about taking the landslide this week without at least posting here that... hey, Zombie master, if you haven't checked your team lately, you might want to shuffle a bit. A lotta your team's injured.
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Hole Camels, ladies and gentlemen!
Also, Elijah Dukes boned your mom. Nats-Cardinals was frickin' ridiculous last night.
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So we fired Willie Randolph in the middle of the night on the west coast, after he just won 3 out of 4 games... wtf ever. What a torturous time to be a mets fan.
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Okay, y'all.
Hockey and basketball are done and golf don't count without that one guy playing.
Time to get back in the fantasy baseball pool! The water is AWESOME.
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Now would also be a good time to point out that you only need to come in sixth to make the playoffs in September. Right now there's about the same number of games between second place and third as there are between third place and tenth, so if you're not one of those top two teams it might seem tempting to just let everything run on autopilot, but in reality nobody's out of contention yet by a long shot.
Last year's final was between the third-place team and the fifth-place team. Keith's team finished the season with a losing record and he still managed to win a trophy at the end.
The main reason I'm saying this is that if too many people start leaving injured players in their lineups or forgetting to move pitchers off their bench when they have a start, it makes the whole league a lot less fun for everybody. Yahoo lets you adjust those things several days in advance, so you don't need to check up on your team every day to keep that from happening. This hasn't really been so much of a thing yet in this league, but I have started to notice it and I'd like to get this out now before the summer starts to drag on and apathy sets in.
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Speaking of injuries, I have a fuckload of them. One of the few ways in which my fantasy team parallels my favorite MLB team.
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Not to mention that despite my recent success, my team is held together with, like, bailing wire and spit and could stop producing at any given moment. They are just waiting to throw a Mets-style collapse at me and... you could profit off of this, Fantasy People!
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Oh yeah, my pitching is... not looking good this week.
It's partly Marcum going on the DL but I think it's partly my team pitching just being really up and down.
I might have to reconfigure my pitching "plan", actually, maybe go to a four-reliever scheme.
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I blew an entire week by not noticing that Sabathia was going to start today.
An entire geedee week.
I... just wanted to get this off my chest here.
FUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCKFUCK.
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Yeah but... I would'a CLINCHED ERA, WHIP and K had he been in there.
Now we gotta dogfight for two days to see whose pitching sucks less.
Also: oh yeah, the ol' Come Dempster... dude burned me as a reliever a few times last year, too.
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Well done, Cheddar Crooks... a dogfight in pitching as expected.
Up next, the Bananas in Pajamas who... have an entire All-Star team on the DL, uncanny.
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Yeah, it's getting a little out of control. Magglio the latest to go down. Nobody on target to come off real soon, maybe Furcal by the weekend.
In Washington yesterday, Ronnie Belliard BONED YOUR MOM. I sat through 12 innings of rooting for the Nats' miserable line-up, which included such luminaries as Kory Casto, Pete Orr, and Wil Nieves. And with two outs and two strikes in the bottom of the 12th, bang, game-winner.
No matter how shitty your team is, there will be at least a few days that good over the course of the season.
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More injuries! My catcher went on the DL with a testicular fracture (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7409/news)!
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Gah! (http://www.emedicine.com/radio/topic682.htm) This happened to a friend of mine when we were 10. His happened after he fell off a hoss and it stepped on him (fracturing both and splitting the scrotum open to boot). We were visiting another friend on a station near the outback, and it took 2 hours for an ambulance to arrive. My mom was a trauma nurse fortunately, and kept him from going into shock while keeping the swelling down with ice packs. I recall that the testicles survived - but I wonder whether it rendered him sterile.
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More injuries! My catcher went on the DL with a testicular fracture (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7409/news)!
Gives new meaning to the phrase "bust a nut."
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I have only recently stopped repeating "ow" in relation to this thread.
Geeze.
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I once read a story about a chap who dislocated his leg at the hip and had it popped back in such that it trapped his testicle.
I'm confident that's anatomically impossible but I still didn't appreciate the thought.
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Congrats, Bananas. Took me down fair and square.
I have to tweak this team but... I'm at a loss as to... where to tweak this team.
I have a lot of good-but-not-great players and a few good-but-not-great players on my watch list. When you're to that point in your season, you're kind of shuffling chairs, you know?
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While I am enjoying our baseball league, the scoring system kind of bugs me. I am not suggesting we change it mid-season, but maybe it's something to think about for next year.
See, in the league I played in previously (on Sandbox), your hitters and pitchers received points for individual actions. Base hit = 1, solo home run = 6 (4 for the home run itself, 1 for run scored, 1 for RBI), strikeout by hitter = -1, win for pitcher = 10, and so and and so forth. Your line-up's total vs. the other guy's total for the period (two "games" per week, M-R and F-Su), and you either won or lost. None of this "5-3-2" stuff. You can have ridiculous 200-198 battles, or lame 65-58 squeakers, but each counts the same, W or L.
The upshot of this is that it's entirely possible to win with your pitching carrying your hitting, or vice versa. If a pitcher throws a complete game shutout, that's worth 50 points or so and boosts your total considerably. A no-hitter is worth about 100 and pretty much guarantees you will win (as I think it should be). In the current Yahoo game, your guy could throw a no-hitter and you could STILL lose all the pitching categories if the rest of your staff is lousy. If one of your closers has a crazy week with three saves, that's probably worth 40 points or so on Sandbox... in this game it might be worth 1.
Now, Sandbox is a paid site, so I doubt we'd want to move there. But does Yahoo offer a game like this? Or MLB.com itself? Any interest in changing next season, or do people like the current set-up?
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At the break:
My pitching is great!
My batting... looks great in theory but is basically always beaten by someone else.
I have no idea how to fix it because the hitters I have are all better than the stuff on the wire.
Any trades, guys?
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Muttonheads:
Dustin Pedroia AND any pitcher you want other than Wood or Sabathia for Utley.
Think about it.
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I guess nobody gives a shit about the league/scoring type but me. That's cool.
Interesting bit of trivia from Baseball Reference today: How can a pitcher get credit for a complete game, yet get no decision? It's happened twice since 2003.
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Muttonheads:
Dustin Pedroia AND any pitcher you want other than Wood or Sabathia for Utley.
Think about it.
Um, OK, let me go look at my team. How'm I doing anyway?
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Your team's lookin' pretty good but... you're very very batter heavy and particularly relief-pitching light... that's why I figured some kind of move like that would be fortuitous for both of us.
I need more power outta the second base hole, you need pitching but a second baseman good in other ways in return.
Anyway, y'know. Toss me an offer.
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Hey guys! Been a while. I've been... a little busy with work lately. Traveling a lot, and just generally unable to check the status of my team. When I logged into Yahoo today, it was my first time looking at my team in several months. But god bless the *****ic nature of baseball, I'm somehow in the middle of the pack. And you suckers left good players unclaimed! I managed to pick up Willy Taveras! The Willy Taveras. Oh man, it's like shooting giraffe in a barrel. First place, here I come!
All I need is like 30 victories.
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Worry not, Asherman, Mark Tashayar is tits and money with gravy on top.
I would'a argued that despite popular opinion what the Angels REALLY needed was bullpen help... Frankie/Arredondo/Oliver/Shields are all great but... uh... Spier's having a down year and the rest of the 'pen is an absolute mess.
A strong lefty specialist would shore that team right up... a strong lefty specialist AND one more decent middle-reliever would have them airtight.
But... if you're playing for this year, that's one hell of an upgrade at first and... if you're operating from the idea that you're in the playoffs to begin with, bullpen depth is a lot more needed to get TO the playoffs, not so much in these artificially spaced out playoff rounds these days.
In the playoffs maybe all you need is four good arms and your fifth starter working a second long man.
After that, there's really no weaknesses ON the Angels at this point. You could argue that their offensive production out of the catcher is kind of ugly but, like, so few people HAVE that catcher who can also really hit that... it's kind of asking too much.
The Angels are really really GOOD.
Get Fuentes off the Rockies, though, and you might as well start printing the shirts.
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The trade is more of a fan-pleasing gesture than anything else. It's not going to make that big of a difference.
A) Considering the standings, the Angels are all but guaranteed to make the playoffs no matter if Teixera, Kotchman, or the ghost of Bengie Molina is playing first. So we're not talking about improving their odds over the long haul, we're talking about improving their odds on a per-game basis in the playoffs.
B) Both players are quality defenders, so from that perspective it's a wash.
C) Offensively, you're replacing a .287 / .327 / .448 hitter with a 283 / .390 / .512 one. Over the full season, that's big. But on a per-game basis, that's not such a monumental upgrade. I've seen the difference in the offense pegged at 4.8 runs per game versus 5 runs per game. Not that significant, especially when you consider you've just traded...
D) 3 more years of Kotchman for the playoff performance of Teixera. Again, they're guaranteed to make the playoffs, so this is all about how much better Tex makes them in the postseason.
So, yeah, it certainly helps, but I don't necessarily think it was worth the price.
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Just an observation: apparently the Giants and A's exist only to give their owners the pleasure of having something to destroy.
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Meh, the job is to win the world series, the As and Marlins are the two teams that come closest to doing that with shit for money, whats the problem? The As, by all measures, should be about equal to the Angels, but it didn't work out this year, will soon.
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Just to talk more local baseball: WTF Dodgers!?! I mean thanks for helping to cripple up a team the Angels just took the broom to but where the hell is this move supposed to take anybody?
You mean the Red Sox? Crippled? This is a great move by the Red Sox. Jason Bay is a very good offensive player and a slightly above average fielder. Manny is a great offensive player and an absolutely atrocious defender. Net gain for the Red Sox, even when you don't consider how batshit insane Manny is.
The Pirates are the Pirates. Nobody knows what the fuck they're doing.
The Dodgers aren't very smart. I wouldn't be thanking them for winding up on the bad end of a great Theo Epstein trade.
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I dunno... defense upgrades are often over-rated in baseball, especially at outfield corners where... most of the time, you've either got it easily or have no chance how good you are.
If I could get Bay or Manny for my Mets for the next two months, I'd go Manny in a second.
For the next three years, though, I'd certainly go Bay.
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The rules don't change during the postseason. Bay won't suddenly lose his skill set. There's a reason Theo Epstein has been so succesful--dude knows his shit. There's a reason Ned Coletti hasn't been particularly sucessful--dude isn't very good.
And re: defense, the goal in baseball is to prevent runs just as much as it is to score runs, no matter the position. There's a stereotype that follows the typical leftfielder, that it's alright if he's a butcher with the glove as long as he can mash. Know what that gets you? Guys like Carlos Lee get signed to $100 million contracts.
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If you don't believe the mental game gets ratcheted up, or choose to disregard its importance, in the playoffs or in a major market explain Ed Whitson, Andy Hawkins or Barry Bonds in those situations.
If Epstein is such a frigging genius why is Manny making such a splash in the sox season. Somebody misjudged the noise dude was making back in spring training.
You make a good point about Manny, but I think it's because Epstein knows you can get a better return for a star player when you trade him to a desperate team at the deadline. GMs are thinking more rationally at the beginning of the season, maybe? But I think it speaks to the dude's skill as a GM that even with Manny losing it once and for all and Ortiz falling to pieces, the team is still right near the top of the division.
And as for the postseason thing, our little debate here is just an example of the stats vs scouts debate that never gets anyone anywhere when argued on the internets. So we'll agree to disagree there. (But as one last parting shot: Manny Ramirez is the owner of a .247 BA in the World Series. I couldn't resist.)
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If you've got him in your fantasy league, kudos; Seattle's Raul Ibanez drives in six runs in one inning. Holy crap.
That would be me! And yes he was in my starting line-up yesterday! I currently lead the RBI category 11-1.
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Two weeks left before the playoffs!
Jockey for position, y'all, and saddle up!
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Playoffs round 1:
After trailing all week, I come back on Sunday to squeak past the Cheddar Crooks 5-4.
The Muttonheads take out the Men With No Name 5-3.
Semis: Banana Town vs. Phlogistons, Muttonheads vs. DHR.
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With Quentin and Drew down, I'm basically fucked offensively and...
Lets face it, I was running on a lot of first-half starting pitching but nothing worth replacing them with on the wire.
I am built for the regular season. Blah.
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Fuck yes.
I am Imaginary Billy Beane, it seems.
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And the Bruisers of Banana Town, and the Heads of Mutton, didst upset the 1 and 2 seeds to meet for the champeenship.
It's on, Egg Man.
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How did I do this two years in a row?
I mean, c'mon.
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I'm just stumbling along, bewilderfied.
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Good one week, dumpster diving the next.
Seems just like last year so far.
I like that rookie Bears running back so far, though.
This sure has been a hard year to be a Bolts fan -- you guys were robbed!
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You see how many slants and skinny posts are being run in combo now? In 1992 guys like Rice or Irvin running those was a big deal, a manhood kind of thing, because of the price you paid for taking the ball on those kinds of routes. Because often times the last thing dude saw after his head pivoted up field was the top of a helmet looking like a bowling ball rolling in on him right before the world exploded and went all quiet for a while.
NFL players of a certain vintage refer to this as the "Chuck Cecil Poster"
(http://www.fotolode.com/images/jaydub/chuckcecilposter.jpg)
The Packers were pretty weak when he played for them, but you know the receivers on visiting teams dreaded routes over the middle.
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why is it safer to hit someone with your head up versus a straight spine protected by a helmet. It would seem to me that if your head is up, it would be easier to snap the neck.
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Your neck muscles absorb the force of the hit, and its also dispersed over a longer period of time (still measured in milliseconds). When you hit with the crown of your head, the bony structures of your neck bear the entire load, without the benefit of the elastic shock cords of your neck muscles. They just plain don't have the physical structure to withstand those kinds of loads. There's a little give from the intervertebral discs, but the ones in the neck aren't very thick and they bottom out pretty quick.
All that said, the advances in helmet technology still protected the players enough that there were surprisingly few neck fractures in the pro ranks (although there are a ton of retired players who don't move their heads real well). Concussions on the other hand are very frequent in spearing tackles, and while helmet designs helped, repeated concussions forced a lot of guys (Chuck Cecil included) out of the game and played a hand in the rule changes.
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Now I'm glad I actually looked at this thread. I get to see one football player pleasuring another. And it's called "spearing." Hmmm...
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I'm not quite ready to concede, but it sure does look like I'm going to be the first-place loser.
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Congrats to AW for taking the 2008 TOUAMB fantasy baseball champeenship, 5-4 over my Banana Town squad.
The title match was a drawn-out affair with the score 5-5 for much of the two weeks. For the most part, I led in all the pitching stats and he led in the hitting stats. He finally pulled even in saves, though, and my motley band of five closers couldn't get another save this weekend. Note to self: try to get closers who don't play for shitty teams, because they tend to get more save opportunities.
I told myself I'd trade the fantasy league title for the Phillies making the playoffs and the Mets not, so there's that.
So: Muttonheads take the flag, Banana Town second, Damned Human Race third. Thanks to everyone for a good season.
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Congrats to AW for taking the 2008 TOUAMB fantasy baseball champeenship, 5-4 over my Banana Town squad.
The title match was a drawn-out affair with the score 5-5 for much of the two weeks. For the most part, I led in all the pitching stats and he led in the hitting stats. He finally pulled even in saves, though, and my motley band of five closers couldn't get another save this weekend. Note to self: try to get closers who don't play for shitty teams, because they tend to get more save opportunities.
I told myself I'd trade the fantasy league title for the Phillies making the playoffs and the Mets not, so there's that.
So: Muttonheads take the flag, Banana Town second, Damned Human Race third. Thanks to everyone for a good season.
Thanks for the accolades!
I'm still pretty bewildered over the whole affair. It just goes to show that in fantasy baseball, unlike economics, the laissez-faire approach works. Seriously. I don't think I even looked at my team until mid-June and did not really focus on who was playing what days until August.
Which I am not saying that to be obnoxious in the least, but more to explain the depths of my bewilderment and to dissuade anyone from the idea that I won this thing because of my awesome skills or anything such-like.
So thank you all for a great season. On to football!
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Bronze is still better than last year, getting the regular season title and going out fourth.
My second season lesson: just because your pitching was good early in the season doesn't mean that you shouldn't occasionally kick the tires and double-check what they've been doing for you lately... I hung onto some pitchers on the strength of their first-half performances and... it made all the difference in the first round of the playoffs. All the bad difference.
But it was ten hells of fun either way.
Thanks for participating all!
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I think Bobby Jenks' save last night should be added to my totals for the last game.
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I wonder if there was a tiebreaking procedure if we'd finished 5-5, or if we'd have been declared co-champions.
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i believe it differs to total points in that scenario.
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Baseball didn't have total points though. I actually went and looked it up:
In the event that a playoff game ends in a tie, the deadlock will be broken using the following system:
(See below if your league does not use one or more of the following categories.)
Lowest team ERA.
Highest team AVG.
Lowest team WHIP.
Most team HR.
Most team wins.
Most team RBI.
Most team saves.
Most team runs.
Most team SO.
Most team SB.
Random "coin flip."
Notes:
The first category above that is not tied will settle the tiebreaker. So, tiebreaker No. 2, team AVG., will be used only if team ERA is tied.
So the first tie-breaker was team ERA, which YEAH I WAS LEADING THAT ONE.
ONE SAVE, YOU SHITBAGS! ALL I NEEDED WAS ONE MORE SAVE! Jenks, Hanrahan, Hoffman, you fuckers are all fired.
No, I'm not bitter. Not at all. Stop it! Leave me alone.
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Yeah well. Yeah. The rules say I won fair and square. So there.
For what it's worth, I knew all last week that a tie = a win for the Banana Boys. So I was rooting for your starting pitchers on Sunday.