Fantasy Baseball Season RECAP - Part One

I've been meaning for awhile to post about the outcome that was the official second season of fantasy baseball for myself. If I could sum up my season in one word it would simply be..."disappointing".

I came into the league defending my championship from last season, and after April a lot of things just seemed to fall apart from an offensive standpoint. I didn't hit the long ball, I had the most brutal run producing lineup, and I had many many injuries that needed to be mended through the waiver wire. When I finally started getting offense in the second half of the season, my pitching completely tanked. I've never had pitching that bad, and to watch a lot of my pitchers go out there, and give up runs by the boatload was worst than the offensive woes of the first half. A lot of different things are the reasons for these problems. However, despite these grueling bumps, I was able to manage the team into the playoffs and gain the last seed.

The crazy part of the entire mess was I only lost by .007 AVG points to the champion ~ Brian. After the first round, Brian would go on to crush Frank and destroy Jay West in the championship match. I guess the only part that I can feel happy about myself is that I gave the champ his toughest match. But that still doesn't make me feel any better.

Another part of the puzzle that makes me disappointed is my overall record for the season. Which was:

(115-121-16) .488

I was under .500 which is for lack of a better word - terrible. Moreso when last season I was about 20 games over .500. Either way, if I didn't make the playoffs this would have been a season from hell.

Here's this team's overall league ranks in the following areas:

League Rank: (out of 10 teams)

R - 7th (783)
HR - 7th (191)
RBI - 8th (733)
BB - 1st (654)
SB - 4th (135)
AVG - 10th (.269)


K - 1st (1412)
W - 5th (101)
L - 10th (101)
SV - 2nd (129)
ERA - 9th (4.07)
WHIP - 10th (1.34)

MOVES: 91

DOC Does It Again...

http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100904&content_id=14278638&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=phi


Went to the Phillies game last night to see DOC pitch again, and it was another nice night at the park. The Phillies won, ending that little losing streak that I was going through (two games) and it was one of the nicest nights that I had at the ballpark this season. The weather was just perfect and it was around 70 degrees with a nice breeze. I finally got around the buying the 2010 Yearbook and I also put my down payment on Post-Season tickets (IF we get there!!). It would be nice to see the Phils make the playoffs but the Braves are really making it hard, but we shall see what happens. The next game is this Monday, which I’m pretty sure is a dollar dog night.

Update: This Monday is the first week of the fantasy baseball playoffs. I barely clinched my spot Saturday night but I did make it back into the fold. I was the 6th team and final to make the push.

Update II: I’ll be posting my fantasy football team (even though his is a baseball blog, I want to post about other fantasy teams).

Two Excellent Games!

http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2010_06_30_oakmlb_balmlb_1&mode=preview

Forgot to post about this game, but real quick...it was a lot of fun and it was also Matt Wieters bobble head night. The O's won this game against the A's and against Ben Sheets. It was a lot of fun, and although Millwood pitched OK, he got his second win of the season! About time! It was very hot, but the seats were spacious and nice. Overall another fun game down at Camden Yards, and it was good to see the Orioles get the win.

(Note: For some odd reason, MLB.com did not write an article about this game, so I just posted the Gameday preview/box score card.)

http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100705&content_id=11964436&vkey=recap&fext=.jsp&c_id=phi

Tonight (7/5/10) I went to the Phillies/Braves game. That was also a lot of fun and I got to watch one of the best pitchers pitch tonight - Doc Halladay. Aside from one mistake pitch to Chipper, Doc went the whole way and beat the Braves. Which mind you, the Phillies really needed. I just want to say though...THIS WAS THE HOTTEST BALLGAME I EVER WENT TO! It was around 100-110 during the game, and it was crazy hot with 45,500 people there. Insane!


Also to update my fantasy team real quick, my new record is 74-73-9. I'm starting to get back on track!!

The Fantasy Slump

Fantasy Baseball is the best because unlike other fantasy sports outlets (football, basketball, hockey), baseball is very much like the actual game. If you make the wrong manger decisions, it could cost you the game or the weekly match. You can also be on absolute fire, and then in the blink of an eye, go into a terrible tailspin. Unfortunately for me, I'm doing the latter.

I started out amazing and completely on fire. I was hitting, stealing, pitching, and getting a lot of runs. My winning record was about (PCT: 550). At one point I was 15 games over 500. Now I'm 61-63-8 (492). And while these last couple weeks have got me thinking what the problem is, it couldn't be more apparent. HITTING.

My league ranks in all major stats...

R - 6 (351)
HR - 6 (77)
RBI - 9 (305)
BB - 1 (295)
SB - 4 (66)
AVG - 10 (261)

So I'm dead last in AVG, almost dead last in RBIs, and in the bottom half for Runs and Homers. Not good.

Mark Reynolds has not been what I've hope for. His AVG is so bad (217) although his homers and RBIs are good. Utley has been in his worst career funk since playing baseball, although these last couple of days he has shown vast improvement. I've lost my best hitter in Tulo. I've also have been getting nothing from Markakis, (RBI/HR wise) which I don't blame Nick for the RBIs because almost all teams pitch around him and he doesn't get many chances to even knock guys in.

The only bright spot in this slump has been my pitching....Lester, Ubaldo, Lackey, Shields, Wilson, Papi, Johan.

We shall see what happens this week, but if I don't win this week, I need to shake things up. ASAP.

3rd Week of FB

We are officially in the third week of fantasy baseball and thus far my record for my main league is (12-10-2); 4th Overall in the League and 3rd in my division. While I'm happy thus far from the power production of my team, I must say that my pitching has been quite frustrating thus far. Jon Lester has been struggling terribly, and I know history says that Lester usually always has an slow start, to go along with his bad April, but this is too much.

Here's his stat line for three games...

3GS 16.0IP 21H 15ER 9BB 14K 0W 2L 0SV 8.44ERA 1.88WHIP

The strike outs are pretty decent for Lester, but the earn runs and walks are way too high. I know it's early, but I hope he can turn the corner. Justin Verlander did this last year as well, and I stuck with him, and he turned the corner and then some. I believe Lester can do that as well. However I picked the Rays to win the WC, and truly I believe Boston will finish in 3rd Place, because not too many moves they made over the off-season really impressed me.


Let's focus on some positives though. Mr. Ubaldo Jimenez. Here's his stat lines...

3GS 21.0IP 15H 3ER 10BB 20K 3W 0L 0SV 1.29ERA 1.19WHIP

Clearly Ubaldo has been my pitching MVP thus far and has been picking up Lester big time. Add the no hitter than Jimenez had against the Braves, and he has been on fire. However he is due for a down to earth game, and I think his next start he might struggle some, let's hope not, but it could happen.

This week I'm playing Brian, so this is no easy stretch by any means, but I'm hoping that I can pull away with a win. Let's see what happens this week...


Matchup 1 (Apr 4 - 11) Against Ray 7-5-0 W

Matchup 2 (Apr 12 - 18) Against Dennis 5-5-2 Tie [Note: Even though I lost WHIP/ERA AND had the Jimenez no-no both Lester and Kyle Kendrick did me in badly that week giving up a total of 17 earned runs. OUCH!]

Opening Day!

Yesterday was Opening Day for most ball clubs (the O's vs Rays have theirs tonight) but I'm going to be honest, this was one of the best Opening Days that I can remember in recent years. I got to watch most of the games through MLB Extra Innings, this extra package that Comcast and Major League Baseball include to fans who are out of market for other ballclubs. I got to watch many good games, and I also got to watch the late west coast games. Another huge bonus of MLB Extra Innings is that I will be able to watch all Orioles games now, and even the game tonight. Granted I believe I will get the TB TV stream, but still Harry the K's son does their play-by-play.

I also had a nice little fantasy day from David Wright, Chase Utley, Mark Reynolds, and Nyjer Morgan. My pitching also did well with Johan Santana and Ulbaldo Jimenez, it's always a good sign when you get good pitching.

I also had to check out how I was doing in the MASN Fantasy Contest, which is fun too. If you didn't know about it, here's the link!

http://masnfantasy.stats.com/login.asp

I'm ranked number #30.

Also "Beat the Streak" is going good thus far. I pick Curtis Granderson on Sunday, Chase Utley yesterday, and tonight I'm going with my dude, Nick the Stick.

Hopefully the good times keep rolling in!


Also today at nine in the morning, the Phillies put up their ALS Fez/Auto Party tixs. I was very luckily and got three admission tickets, however it was $78 dollars in total. However all the money goes towards finding a cure for ALS, which is always a good cause. Now when I go in May, I wonder what Phillies I will get on my ticket? Can't hurt to get Doc Halladay, Ryan Howard, or Chase Utley!

Beat the Streak!

Here's a really cool promo contest that MLB.com runs every season and it's called "Beat the Streak". I'm sure most people know what this contest is, but if they don't here's a brief outlook.

"Free and easy to play, MLB.com Beat the Streak is in its 10th season with a top prize of $3 million awaiting the first fan to “pick safely” in 57 straight games. The Beat the Streak Report gives you the lowdown on the best picks for today, a recap of how the most popular picks performed in yesterday’s action and profiles of fans with the longest current streaks."

Here's the Link!

http://www.mlb.com/mlb/fantasy/bts/y2010/index.jsp?content=pick_player



Now the first game of the season is the Red Sox vs. Yankees.

I'm picking Curtis Granderson. His number's against Josh Beckett are really bad, but I feel Curtis will do something and help the Yanks win this game.

It's a long season, let's see what happens!

My 2010 Baseball Squad

[Next to the player in the number I took them and the Round: example 1.3 Round 1/Pick 3]

1.3 Chase Utley 2B

2. 18 David Wright 3B

3. 23 Troy Tulowitzki SS

4. 38 Jon Lester SP

5. 43 Nick Markakis RF

6. 58 Mark Reynolds 1B/3B

7. 63 Johan Santana SP

8. 78 B.J. Upton CF

9. 83 Jonathan Papelbon RP

10. 98 Nyjger Morgan LF/CF

11. 103 Brian Roberts 2B

12. 118 Ulbaldo Jimenez SP

13. 123 James Shields SP

14. 138 Chris Coghlan LF

15. 143 Brian Matusz SP

16. 158 Brian Wilson RP

17. 163 Kurt Suzuki C

18. 178 Edwin Jackson SP

19. 183 Jorge Cantu 1B/3B

20. 198 David Aardsma RP

21. 203 Nolan Reimold LF

22. 218 Austin Jackson LF/CF


I only dropped one person thus far, Austin Jackson for Ian Desmond since the Nationals gave him the starting SS job. I needed a good backup for SS, and I believe Ian will be that type of player. Only less than a week for the season, I can't wait!!