Shake and Bake

What a difference a week makes.  With only 3 weeks left until the playoffs, not a single playoff berth has been clinched (though we might see our first one clinched this week) and there was more movement from this past week than there has been in any one week that I can remember.  This week featured 1 close matchup, 1 pretty decent beatdown, and 3 seriously lopsided ass kickings, each one worse than the last.  The result? Chaos in the standings.  Bob's ATers and MBHB stayed at the top of the ledger and though Bob increased his lead in both the Bone Thugs division and overall.  He is now 22 games ahead of the 7th position and will very likely solidify his playoff spot this week as he takes on 10th place KIODL.  MBHB stays in second place and is the only other team that is safe from a 1 week colossal meltdown like the one suffered by Kyler's crew this week.  UCCMA, the distributor of that beatdown, jumps up from the 6th place playoff bubble to 3rd overall (4th seed), but is far from safe.  BySs dropped from 3rd overall to 4th (still 2nd seed because of division lead), but is not only 0.5 games ahead of both LesMoles and ZAttack for the division lead and the auto bye that comes with it.  Tom jumped from 7th to 5th and Zack fell from 5th to 6th.  Dusty, who seemed like a virtual lock to make the playoffs only a month ago, fell from 4th to 7th and is now chasing 1.5 games to get back into the playoff picture.  Dusty gets Huckleberries, MTMTAS and MBHB to round out the season.  MTMTAS is in 8th, 5 games out of a playoff spot, Kevin's Huckleberries is in 9th, 10.5 games behind Zack and Tom, and right now, John is buying the beer for next year's draft as he is chasing 11.5 games for a playoff spot.  Dear John, you dont have to be fancy. Sincerely, everyone.  Here is a look at the standings:

	Team	Record	W%	Div GB	OA GB	Playoff
1	Bob's Aters	127-85-16	0.592	-		+22
3	MBHB	119-98-11	0.546	10.5	10.5	+13.5
4	UCCMA	112-105-11	0.515	17.5	17.5	+6
2	BySs	105-106-17	0.498	-	21.5	+2
5	LesMoles	110-112-6	0.496	0.5	22	+1.5
6	Zattack	108-110-10	0.496	0.5	22	+1.5
	Dust Bunnies	106-111-11	0.489	23.5	23.5	-1.5
	MTMTAS	100-112-16	0.474	5.5	27	-5
	Huckleberries	96-119-13	0.450	32.5	32.5	-10.5
	KIODL	98-123-7	0.445	12	33.5	-11.5

 

 A couple of other things before I go headfirst into the recaps:

1) Best stat of the week - I know he is supposed to be dead to me, but this one is just too good to pass up. Jedd Jerko hit his 8th HR of the season over the weekend (to go with his .199 batting average), which along with his 23 from last year, gives him 31 career HRs while playing 2b.  This most recent HR set the San Diego Padre career record for HRs by a second baseman...thats right...at 31. CAREER.  Here is a list of 2b who have hit 31+ HR in a single season...Davey Johnson (43), Rogers Hornsby (42, 39, 39), Ryne Sandberg (40), Alfonso Soriano (39, 38, 36), Jay Freaking Bell (38), Brett Boone (37, 35), Jeff Kent (37, 33, 31), Aaron Hill (36), Dan Uggla (36, 33, 32, 31, 31), Robinson Cano (33), Chase Utley (33, 32, 31), Joe Gordon (32), and Ian Kinsler (32, 31).    It isnt a huge list by any means, it is actually much smaller than I thought I would find.  And who would have ever guessed that Dan Ugglaswing would have the most 30+ HR seasons (and I did look at 30+ HR seasons, there are only 5 more and only Sandberg and Gordon add another) with 5?  The Padres have had exactly 7 second basemen who have hit double digit HRs in a single season in the 45 year history of their franchise (Jedd will likely make 8 this year) and only Jedd's 23 last year topped 20.  In this history of MLB, there have been 134 seasons of a player who has played most of his games at 2b hitting over 20 bombs, and the Padres have had exactly 1 of those.  Jedd's mom must be so proud.

This guy has the most career seasons with more than 30HRs as second baseman...

 

2) We are coming up on the end of the regular season (thanks Capt. Obvious).  Right now, the league is set up so that, once the playoffs start, teams who are eliminated are unable to make roster transactions.  That means, for the 4 teams not in the playoffs, you will no longer be able to drop or add anyone...or trade anyone.  If you want to make any last minute drops/adds for prospects, you will have to do it during the regular season.  For teams that make the playoffs, you will still be able to function as we have been, until you are eliminated.  On the Monday morning (at like 12:30 am) that the week's results become final, losing teams will have their rosters locked.  This is the Yahoo default to keep teams from flooding the waiver wire with their best players and completely changing the course of the playoffs.  To go along with that, if you do not use your allotted $100 FAAB budget, you lose it.  It does not carry over into next year for either the draft or the regular season.  Every team will start with $400 minus keeper salaries in the draft and $100 in FAAB.

 

If there are any questions on this, let me know either bby posting here or texting me directly (or for those of you who know me indirectly through someone else, tell them and have them ask me)

 

 

 

Week 19 recaps

I am not going to do these in any order that makes any sense.  Instead, I am going to use the Tom Cruise voodoo to devine the order that they are supposed to be in.

MTMTAS - 10
KIODL - 2

This is what he is known for, not for his hitting...so when
he is your fantasy teams best hitter for a week, it probably
isnt going to be pretty.

All that really needs to be said about this matchup is that John's best hitter this week was Alcides Escobar.  That doesnt mean that it is all that I will say because sometimes I cant resist pouring some sugar on babe....wait that didnt come out right.  Anyways, John's team hit 197/266/287 for the week and featured sub Mendoza performances from Jason Kipnis (182/217/182), Lucas Duda (143/321/143), Coco Crisp (087/120/130) and Jacoby Ellsbury (he gets no tacos when he plays this bad - 050/095/050).  Despite Allen Craig not playing and Brian McCann's 0 for 4 this week, Tyler rode Alex Gordon's Escalator Club line (375/423/583) and 7 runs along with Kyle Seager's 6 RBIs to take 5 of the 6 hitting categories.  The Traveling All Stars also took 5 of the 6 pitching categories, using strong week's from Stephen Strasburg (1W 8K 0.00/0.71 1QS), Corey Kluber (10K 1.17/0.91 1QS), and Drew Smyly (1W 13K 1.23/0.75 1QS) to win the starting pitcher based stats.  John got a decent start from Johnny Cueto, per usual, (1W 6K 2.25/1.00) but the rest of the rotation struggled and the injury bug jumped up again, this time biting Hyun-jin Ryu.  At least Johns bullpen contributed, with K Rod supplying 3 SV/H and both Pat Neshek and Kenley Jansen adding a pair, giving KIODL its only pitching win of the week.  With SPs Ryu, Josh Beckett and Kamakaze Tanaka on the DL and RP Joakim Soria joining them, John's team no longer has enough pitchers to field a full roster.

Les Moles - 8
ZAttack - 4

Zach got huge weeks from David Ortiz (350/409/700 3R 7RBI) and Jose Altuve (406/406/594 5R 7RBI), but that wasnt enough to overcome Salvador Perez (174/200/391), Shin-soo Choo (167/219/300), Ryan Braun (125/160/250) and Jean Segura (077/188/077) putting up weeks that werent worth a velvet painting of a whale and a dolphin getting it on.  Tom didnt have any single player really stand out this week, but he did have 4 players score 3 or more runs, 5 players knock in 3 or more runs and Ben Revere stole 4 bases and hit 414/414/448.  On the hill, Jake Arrieta and Jon Lester combined for 27Ks and 4 quality starts for Tom, and David Price added 1W 7K 1.13/0.75 and 1 QS for LesMoles which was enough to overcome Aaron Harrangataung's (hopefully final hurrah) 10.38/2.31 3K in 4 1/3 innings.  Clayton Kershaw continued to do Kershawy things (11K 3.00/0.56 1QS) but lost to the Brewers this week, while Shelby Miller (2 starts 10K 7.36/1.82), struggled greatly. It looks like the Miller for Tim Hudson trade is turning out to be one big steaming pile of uglyness on both sides.  Tom has had the hottest team over the past several weeks, and now Joe Mauer is back off the DL and into Tom's lineup (and into his heart...tear) replacing the recently underwhelming Devin MesoHornyraco, meaning the team might get a bit better.  Bob told me this morning that Tom's team is the one that he is watching and is least interested in facing in a potential playoff matchup. 

Bobs ATers - 8
Dust Bunnies - 1
Tie 3 (RBI, 15; W, 4; K, 37)

Back in the Bigs and destroying Dusty's ratios

I cannot remember a matchup that featured so many tie categories.  Bob took 5 of the 6 hitting categories, which makes the tie in RBI all the more strange.  Adding to the strangeness, Corey Dickerson knocked in 11 of those 15 for the ATers (to go along with his Escalator 393/400/857 and 6R), meaning that the rest of Bobs team knocked in only 4 runs all week (3 of those were by Jose Abreu - there were 5 starters who knocked in exactly 0 runs).  Outside of Dickerson, no one on the ATers was particularly good, in fact, recent pick ups Yan Gomes (176/176/176 0R 0RBI) and Jason Heyward (179/233/179 3R 1 SB) were particularly bad.  The only thing that helped Bob was that Dusty's team was beyond particularly bad.  Ian Kinsler (120/185/120 1R 2RBI 2 SB), Carlos Beltran (056/150/111 1R 1SB) and Mike Trout (053/136/053 1RBI) provided the suck while Miggy Cabrera (391/500/565 6R 2RBI) was the only highlight.  On the hill, Luis Avilan's recall finally marked a full roster for Dusty for the first time in months.  Sadly Avilan threw only 2/3 of an inning and exited with a 13.50/4.50 line for the week.  For Bob, Marcus aStroman finally hit a bump (67.50/7.50), if a bump is what you call a gigantic size crater where you can lose a Panzer tank and Aroldis Chapman walked 4 batters (he only faced 4) last night and all of them scored.  But Chris Sale, Hishasi Imakuma and Jordan ZImmerman combined to strikeout 21 over 3 quality starts with a combined ERA of 0.00.  That'll overcome a lot of short, Stroman style outings.


Huckleberries - 6
MBHB - 5
Tie - 1 (SB, 0)

Kevin's team did what Kevin's team has done all season, picking up their 16th win in batting average and 14th in OBP as well as winning SLG, R and RBI.  Robby Cano continued his hot streak with a 364/417/682 8R 4RBI line and Victor Martinez added a 400/483/440 4R 5RBI line.  Adam Jones (5RBI) and Bryce Harper (7RBI) pitched into lead the Val Kilmer supporters.  Outside of Jose Reyes (429/435/571 6R 2RBI), there wasnt a whole lot of positive for the Hitless ones who ended up playing with only 1 OFer for basically the entire week due to George Springer's injury recurrence and Jayson Werth's shoulder problem (Werth hit 1000/1000/2000 for the week and scored 2 runs, which tied for 3rd on the team.  He batted twice this week...thats how great the rest of the team was).   On the mound, it was the exact opposite, as only Yovanni Gallardo's Saturday win against the Dodgers kept MBHB from winning 5 and splitting 1 pitching category and this from being a 5-5-2 overall battle.  Felix Hernandez struck out 11 with a 2.25/0.83 with 1W 1QS and Madison Bumgarner (9K 1.29/0.57 1QS) and Garrett Richards (1W 7K 2.45/0.95 1 QS) led the way and Tyler Clippard added 4 SV/H.  In his swan song, Justin Verlander finished with 3K, 36.00/6.00 ratios, and 1 injury of undisclosed seriousness.  For Kevin, the aforementioned Gallardo (2W 9K 1.20/0.87 2QS) and Chris Archer (1W 12K 1.29/0.86 1 QS) were dominant, but Jason Hammel (15.00/2.33), Kyle Lohse (12.00/2.67), Gio Gonzalez (5.40/1.80), Trevor Rosenthal (16.20/4.80), Jason Grilli (0.00/4.50), Mark Melancon (4.50/2.50) and Steve Cishek (9.00/1.50) were not.   In case you were counting, that leaves only Chad DJ Qualls, who only threw 2 innings (0.00/1.00).

Week 19 MSSSMRMoW - Murphy's Law Hit Kyler Where the Sun Dont Shine



Jimmy and Kyler's "tightish" match up is week 19's Mike Shaw
Subaru Super Mo Replay Matchup of the Week.

I am not sure how many of you are familiar with Murphy's Law. It states simply, that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.  It is also the name of a Charles Bronson movie from 1986.  I am going to try to keep myself from refering to the movie too often, we will see if I can make it happen.  Anyways...Murphy's Law often comes up in sports (though it is rarely references by on air talent...probably because the people on air rarely have talent and because Murphy's Law is just something that people say after everything has gone to shit), most notibly in my mind during the 2003 season, when both the Red Sox (Grady leaving Pedro in too long) and Cubs (Moises Alou flipping his shit over a fan trying to catch a ball Moises couldnt have caught anyways) blew their respective chances to get to the World Series and earn a chance to silence the demons that had haunted them for so long (the Sawks exercised their demons the following season; the Cubs are still waiting...and waiting...and waiting).  In the real world, companies try to have a plan for a "Murphy" situation when everything goes to hell all at once so that their customer's needs can continue to be met.  If a company doesnt have this, they are inevitably faced with a situation when they need one, because even though it goes against all reason, things really do seem to go to hell all at once.  Such was Kyler's fantasy baseball life this week (I almost wrote fantasy life, but I dont want to go remotely close to that) as Kyler fell back to the pack in Harmony and Uncle Jimmy jumped up and gave himself a bit of breathing room in the hunt for a playoff berth.  There has not been a single matchup this year that has altered the playoff possibilities more than this one has.  Lets look at the damage:

Team	R	RBI	SB	AVG	OBP	SLG	W	K	ERA	WHIP	QS	SV+H	Score
Backyard Superstars	27	23	1	0.255	0.305	0.367	3	32	3.80	1.39	3	9	1
You Can Call Me Al	29	29	4	0.271	0.351	0.486	6	51	2.24	0.98	5	8	11

It's not pretty.  This was on the way to being a 11-0-1 skunking on Sunday afternoon, then Huston Street imploded and took the extra save away from Uncle Jimmy and Craig Kimbrel shut down the A's in the 9th on Sunday Night Baseball to give Kyler his only win.

Kyler's offense vs Jimmy Offense
Notice how Kyler's gets a little "o" and Jimmy's gets a big "O"?  That's because Jimmy's team brought their big boy games and Kyler's didn't.  Actually, in a couple of categories, Kyler just ran into plain bad matchup luck.  In runs, everyone on Kylers team scored exactly 3 times (except Justin Upton who scored 6) and thats messed up and may very well be a sign of the apocolypse.  Jimmy got 4 runs from Javier Baez, 5 each from Freddie Freeman, Carlos Gomez and TMGS, and 6 from Matt Carpenter, Evil Cardinal.  Even though he wasnt as balanced, the top end was enough to hold up for Jim.  In runs, Upton knocked in 8, but Daniel Murphy, Kung Fu Pandoval and Alexei Ramirez all had goose eggs for the week.  That was not quite enough to keep pace with the 9 from TMGS, 5 from Carpenter and 4 each from Freeman and Michael Brantley.  In SB, Carlos Gomez swipped a pair of bags against the Cubs back on last Monday, and they held up through the entire week.   In the slash stats, Upton put up a dominant 364/481/727 line, but it wasnt as dominant as TMGS's 391/533/783.  Yasiel Puig's 333/394/367 was good, but not as good as Freddie Freeman's 375/483/667.  The entire offensive stat line for both teams looked like a game of "Anything you can do, I can do better." 

No on can do better than this.  And when was the last time something made you as happy as that HR made Jose Fernandez?
I miss Jose Fernandez being a regular part of my baseball watching experience.

Kyler's pitching vs Jimmy's Pitching
The team's respective pitching staffs are a microcosm for their season at this point.  For Kyler, Sonny Gray started out spectacularly, but he has now thrown more innings this year than in any other season of his professional career, and it looks like it is catching up with him.  He has been knocked around in 2 of his last 3 starts and in the one he put up solid numbers in, he allowed 9 base runners and only struck out 2 in 7 innings. 
Tim Hudson has likewise struggles recently, going 1-4 over his last 7 starts with only 4 QS in that time frame and only 21 strikeouts.  There is nothing to say that these two cant bounce back, but in order for BySs to get back to where they were, and to avoid free falling straight out of the playoffs, Gray and Hudson need to join Henderson Alvarez and Alex Cobb in pitching well.  A healthy Yu Darvish or Gerrit Cole (he is supposed to be back this Wednesday) would help tremendously as well, but there is no gaurantee that Darvish will make it back to full health this year (though the Rangers insist he will be back around August 25th and would make 7 or so starts before the end of the season).  Maybe these work themselves out and Kyler can get rid of Huddy and let Gray take a few turns off.  <<Side note - I just checked the MLB schedule...holy balls, the regular season goes until September 28th?  Are you kidding me?  What in the world is the purpose of that?  I dont want to be watching baseball in November, I want to be knee deep in football season and getting ready for the Hawks (not the Atlanta Hawks).  No wonder baseball is hemmoraging fans faster than a neck hemmorages blood when the jugular is cut.  People dont want to start something in early April and not have it finish until the end of October or beginning of November.  I hate everything right now.>>Kyler's bullpen will continue to be a strength as 3 of the 4 teams are likely playoff bound and will continue to rely heavily on their bullpen stoppers.  Jimmy's staff has the reliable Max Scherzer, who turned the corner from thrower to pitcher during last season's run to the AL Cy Young award, Doug Fister, who despite being traded for roughly a bag of powdered donuts, is one of the better, unheralded pitchers in the NL, and Tanner Roark and Tyson Ross, who have turned into reliable, if not exciting starters.  Both Roark and Ross might be up against an innings cap, so Jimmy will need to monitor that closely.  As for the bullpen, the Smith Street texts keep flying, nearly nightly and the addition of strikeout machine Wade Davis to strikeout machine Dellin Betances, gives Jimmy a couple of weapons that not a lot of other teams can match. 


Also, I just heard on the radio an advertisement for a drive through career fair in LaCrosse.  What is this world coming to?  Anybody have a hooptie that I can borrow so I can try to get a new gig?

Friday Machado Fry

"No regrets, thats my motto...that and everybody Wang Chung tonight."  There were lots of things that I loved when I was in college...drinking pallets of old spice, waking up at 11am, going to bed at 2am, playing video games because a video game was there to be played (for those of you still in college, enjoy these things..they dont last forever.  And while I dont think I would ever wish that I could do them again because I truely do love the life that I have now, I do look back on them fondly.  Ok, ok, ok...I do truely love my life, but maybe like two or three times a year I wish that I could stay up til 2am while drinking pallets of old spice and playing video games just to play video games and then not have to wake up until 11am...this is where the 2015 Tater Tot fantasy draft comes in. I expect to be doing each of these things on the Friday and Saturday night of draft weekend.  And I expect that most, if not all, of you will be in attendence for these festivities as well as for the actual auctioning off of athletic young men.  And really, when I put it that way, how can you say no?)  One of the things that I loved most about college was watching completely stupid and pointless movies that existed for no purpose other than to be stupid and pointless...and extremely hillarious.  One of the best of them that I am guessing most of you havent seen, was 2001's Out Cold.  If you havent seen it, do it.  Like right now.  The cast list reads like the Cubbies September roster might read 10 years from now.
You've got: AJ Cook (thats a girl for those of you who care about that kind thing), who went on to be one of the main characters on Criminal Minds (shes really only mildly funny in this movie, which, compared to the rest of the cast makes it seem like she shouldnt really be there); David Denman, who I have never seen in anything but this movie, but was in The Office and Parenthood (neither of which I have ever watched; Caroline Dhavernas, who is currently Dr Alaina Bloom on Hannibal (which is pretty spectacular in the most gorey and gruesome way possible.  My wife and I watch about half of each show through our fingers because some of the crime scenes will leave you scarred and nightmarey for weeks); Zach Galifianakis, who needs no explaination; Willie Garson, who is Mozzie on USA's White Collar (if you havent watched much of the USA original programming, where have you been?  I havent bothered with the new show Satisfaction, because it looks irreprehensible, but nearly everything else that USA has put out over the past 5 years or so has been solidly written and produced); David Koechner, aka "WHAMMMMMMMY" from Anchorman; Thomas Lennon, who was a writer for the TV show The State (which only Uncle Jimmy and I will likely remember), wrote Let's Go to Prison, and created and wrote for Reno 911! amongst other things; The Six Million Dollar man, Lee Majors; Victoria Silvstedt, who, if you have ever seen Basketball you know, was the 2007 Playboy Playmate of the Year.  Who is not watching this movie?  Throw in a few all-time one liners (mostly from Galafianakis who was in his first decent sized movie role) and you have an instant stoner/college classic.  (Example of one liners: "This suit is really cramping my Hardy Boys. It's no mystery. ", "when I want advice about a good Planet of the Apes film or maybe how to get the resin out of my bong I'll come to you ok? But I am not gonna take romantic advice from somebody who cannot spell romantic or advice... or bong.", "I was there. Yeah, it was called the '80s. Ford was President, Nixon was in the White House and FDR was running this country into the ground. I was bummin' in a hole-in-a-wall town in what is now called Utah. Some fella from Colorado shows up, starts making so called "improvements", right? Before we knew what hit us, the streets are running with latte. It got so bad that a fella that liked to, you know... smoke a little grass or drink a little ripple. Crow like a rooster, maybe challenge the mayor's son to a gentlemen's duel, was "uncouth, against God." and "This uniform is really cramping my Olsen Twins. Lance, Can I get a drink for Mary Kate and Ashley?").

Anyways, the quote at the top of the page is also from the movie, which is what spawned that whole crazy, possibly incoherent paragraph type thing.  I wish that I had no regrets, but in reality everyone does.  I regret that I havent been able to post on the past few Thursdays and likely wont get to for the forseeable future.  Thats not terribly high on my list of regrets, but its there.  In fantasy sports, regret is a direct result of playing.  I regret my decision to drop Devin MesoHornyraco right before he went on a hot streak...same with Josh Harrison, who went on an all-time hot streak.  I regret keeping Justin Verlander-Upton in my lineup for the entire season, thinking that he was eventually going to stop being a bad impression of Steve Trachsel (or Rubén Quevedo for you Brewer's fans in the crowd; or Carlos Silva for you Twinkies) and turn back into Justin Verlander.  But that is half the fun of it and it gives those of us in the league together something to talk about.  I would rather drop 4 All-Stars (which I think I might have done already this year) than not make any changes because I was worried I might make a mistake (aka the Dusty Principle).  It is the same way in life.  I would rather that my kids make mistakes trying things and learning about what to do and what not to do than to not try anything at all.  So...keeping in mind that it might be a huge mistake, we are moving forward with the double up of carrying this on through the football season as well as finishing out the fantasy baseball season.  Kyler and I talked about it, and we think that we can make it work.  I am not sure exactly what the formats will be (like when we'll post or what the posts will be about), but we will figure it out...and soon.  The blog will follow along with a football league that Kyler has run for a couple of seasons (I actually have no idea how long it has run.  At this point, all I know is that it is a 1 man keeper league and the team that I inherited has AP on it).  There will be more info to follow for those of you who are playing or who want to follow along just because following things is fun.

And with that...on to a relatively paltry group of ass hDLes.  For some reason, I felt like there were 29281 (approximate) injuries this week.  As it turns out, there werent.  It just felt that way because Troy Tulowitzki had his ridiculous season come to a screeching halt due to surgery to repair a torn labrum in his hip.  Now, I am no expert, but I feel like that is kind of a big deal, even though the research I have done on the interwebs says that it is a relatively typical procedure that takes anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks to recover and then are pain free in 2 to 6 months.  Damn that medical technology voodoo.  The other big inury news for players already injured was that Carlos Gonzalez also will have season ending surgery, for him on the knee.  Its looking like there will be a lot of disappointed stoners in Colorado who were banking on free tacos through the end of the baseball season.

SP Yu Darvish - BySs - Right Elbow Inflammation

When a stud pitcher gets removed from a game, the last thing in the world anyone wants to here are "<throwing hand> elbow inflammation."  This year especially, it is only a matter of time before the visit to see Dr James Andrews is scheduled and then Shommy Shon followed by much fantasy owner crying.  Luckily, for both Darvish and his owners, it seems like he just twisted or knocked his elbow in a funky way and that there is no structural damage showing up on any of his MRIs.  The Rangers are hopeful that he can make it back when he is scheduled to come off the DL on the 2th.  Kyler should be wary though, the Rangers havent been in the playoff hunt since early June, so they are in no rush to get Darvish back or to pitch him consistently down the stretch or even to have him finish out the season.  Should Darvish feel another tweak, he might not throw another pitch this year.

3b Manny Machado - ZAttack - Sprained ligament in Right Knee

If you were watching the Orioles-Yankees tilt on Monday and saw the Machado injury in real time, you would have been convinced that he not only ruptured his ACL, MCL, PCL, TCL, OCL and LCL (some of those are made up), but also that he had torn his Achilles, severed his hamstring from his femur and contracted small pox.  The rolling around exhibition he put on probably made some professional soccer player blush.  I dont doubt that it hurt a lot, and after last season's freak blowout of his left knee from stepping on first base, I am sure that he was more than a little worried about his season and career prospects.  But the reports out of Baltimore at this point are the O's are hoping Machado will be ready to come off the DL when he is first eligible on the 27th.  With the O's in the driver's seat in the AL East, suddenly up 7.5 games on the Blue Jays with 41 to go, they might not be in a hurry to rush Machado back into the lineup.  The next couple of weeks could see the O's go on a run and pull away, or it could see them drop back to the pack (and Edwin Encarnacion is coming off the DL today and should give the Jays a boost, essentially replacing Josh Thole in the lineup by pushing Adam Lind back to DH and making Dioner Navarro the primary catcher...thats like using a Tesla Roadster to replace a 1977 AMC Gremlin.

Week 19 Waivers - Goodbye Mr Kate Upton

TRADE!!!!!
MBHB gets 1b Anthony Rizzo
Bobs ATers get OF Jason Heyward

On the surface, this looks like the Bastards got one hell of a deal on a great 1b to fill the spot left empty by the errant Ernesto Tire Firei pitch (arent they all errant?).  But Bob had Rizzo rotting behind Cuban Missle Launcher Jose Abreu on the ATers bench and was starting Billy Hamilton, Corey Dickerson and Alex Rios in the OF.  Hamilton and Dickerson are solid players who have their specialized areas (speed for Hamilton, hitting for Dickerson), but Rios isnt above average anywhere but in SBs (and Heyward is almost his equal there).  In the last 30 days, Rios is hitting 246/277/295 while Heyward is hitting 343/416/463.  Listen, the last thing that I want to do is make Bob's team better than it was, but sometimes you gotta look out for #1.  The appeal of Rizzo is obvious.  He is a big power hitting 1b with a 278/378/495 season line and is as close as one can get to replacing Paul Goldschmidt this late in the season...and he is a Cub (my first one other than Emilio, who I dont count as an actual Cub).  It sets up a internal struggle for me when keeper time comes.  Do I keep Goldschmidt, one of the top offensive players in all of basball but at a $60 price tag?  Or do I keep Rizzo, who is not quite as good (and sometimes swings at pitches that hit him), but is a Cub and only costs $20?  I am not looking forward to that decision.

SP/RP Wade Davis - $5 - UCCMA - No Drop
There was a collective hardon for Davis this week, as in addition to Jimmy, both John and I put in claims on Wade.  To be honest, I am surprised it took this long for him to be claimed.  Davis is putting up flat silly numbers this year...78 strikeouts in 51.1 innings, 0.88 ERA., 0.88 WHIP, opponents are hitting .141 against him and he has given up 5 total runs all season (1 run since April 23rd) and had a 23 inning scoreless streak in which he gave up only 6 hits. Domination.  He might never be a starter in MLB, but it might be time to give up that dream and embrace what he is, a lights out lock down closer type who happens to be pitching in the 8th inning in front of another lock down closer type.  Between Davis and Greg Holland, the Royals turn every game into a 6 or 7 inning contest.





OF Austin Jackson - $2 - Les Moles - Drop OF Leonys Martin
Jackson has gotten off to a decent enough start in his new Safeco Field home and he is lightyears better than James Jones and his .286 OBP and 9 RBI in 307 plate appearances.  As a backup fantasy OFer, Jackson is decent, and if you can catch him in the right week, he can be a great fantasy asset.  Martin has speed...and thats about it.  His 249/307/349 slash line leaves a lot to be desired and now that it has been exposed that he cant hit for shit against lefties, it isnt going to get better.

RP Andrew Miller - $2 - KIODL - Drop 2b Howie Kendrick

Fear the beard.  No really..fear him, he kinda
resembles a homeless serial killer.

John and I must have been drinking the same Kool-Aide.  We both tried to nab Davis (darn you Uncle Jim!), we both put in claims on Porcello (more on that in a bit) and we both had claims on Miller (mine got invalidated with I got Porcello).  Miller has basically been the left handed version of Wade Davis with a slightly higher ERA.  Miller has 76 Ks in 47.1 innings, a 2.28 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, and opponents are hitting .164 against him so far this year.   Miller, like Davis, experienced a career renaissance when he stopped being given the ball at the start of games.  Also like Davis, Miller is part of a dynamic bullpen (Baltimore) which features Tommy Hunter, Darren O'Day and Zach Britton...unlike Davis, Miller now plays for a manager that actually understands bullpen useage.




SP Rick Porcello - $2 - MBHB - Drop SP Justin Verlander

Porcello likes fishing.

That line was tough to type.  I have owned Verlander in another league since 2007 or so.  I have ridden the horse through the good times, but even I have to admit, he doesnt look like the same pitcher.  Last night's implosion was the final straw for me.  1 inning pitched, 3 strikeouts, 4 earned runs, 6 baserunners, an possibly injured shoulder...and a partridge in a pear tree.  It is hard to look at the $35 price tag he had as a sunk cost, but sometimes you need to cut off the arm to save the body...and it was time to cut off Verlander before he did any more damage to my team's ratios.  I dont think that Porcello is anything spectacular.  He has Ks in over 150 innings pitched, but he doesnt walk many which keeps his WHIP down and doesnt give up many HRs, which keeps his ERA down, and he is tied to an offense that features Miguel Cabrera and Victor Martinez, which means he should have a decent opportunity to win ball games every time out.  At this point in the year, there isnt much starting pitching sitting on the waiver wire.  There is so little that I wouldnt be surprised to see someone take a $1 or $2 stab at Verlander to see if he can put it back together for the stretch run.

Week 18 MSSSMRMoW - Right Place, Right Time



Kevin and Kyler's tight match up is week 18's Mike Shaw
Subaru Super Mo Replay Matchup of the Week.

In baseball, there is always tomorrow.  Well...I mean, there is always tomorrow until its the last game of the year, then the saying has to change to "there is always next year."  As a Cubs fan, I know this saying all to well, so I didnt have much of an internal struggle yesterday when I decided to postpone The Shaw for a day so that I could give this matchup the proper respect that it so richly deserves.  I mentioned yesterday that this was one of the closest matchups that we have had so far this year, both in terms of overall outcome and in terms of the difference between the teams in each individual category.
There are so many of those "theres always tomorrow" type cliches in baseball that it actually hurts my head to try to think of them all (hint, to get a feel for it, watch Bull Durham and pay attention to what Crash tell Nuke about interviews), but there is one in partcular that describes this matchup perfectly...and Ill use another quote from Bull Durham because I can - "Do you know what the difference between hitting .250 and .300 is? That's 25 hits...25 hits in 500 at bats is 50 points...ok. There's 6 months in a season. That's about 25 weeks, that means if you get just one extra flair a week, just one. A gork, you get a ground ball, you get a ground ball with eyes! You get a dying quail, just one more dying quail a week and you're in Yankee Stadium" - its all about timing and the matchup.  I was talking to a co-worker this morning about the last month and a half of the baseball season and he (as a huge Brewer fan) informed me that the schedule is set up so that the Brewers do not play any games against teams outside of the NL Central during September.  I havent checked it, but he is up to date enough to know these things.  If teams are only playing their division for the last month, that sure does make things interesting in the Wild Card hunt.  The Mariners (currently just out of the second Wild Card spot in the AL) have to contend with the A's and Angels (and the Rangers and Astros) during the final month while the Tigers and Royals get to face the Indians (who are pretty garbage when anyone other than Corey Kluber is pitching), White Sox (ditto, except change the name to Chris Sale) and Twinkies (there is not except here...they are just pretty much garbage...sorry Twins fans, there are better days ahead...they just might not be for a while).  In the NL, the Central features 4 of the top 8 teams in the league (and then the Cubs, who are also pretty much garbage this year but should get a shot in the arm from prospect promotions in September), so the Brewers/Pirates/Reds/Cardinals are likely going to knock themselves out of playoff spots other than the division winner while San Fran and Hotlanta get to fatten their records against teams like the Padres, Rockies, Mets and Phillies (all of whom seem disinterested in winning).
The Kevin-Kyler competition highlights just how important the timing of the matchup is.  I am not going to post the scoreboard like I normally do; rather I am going to go through each one at a time...its more suspenseful...(highlighted team is the winner...they also have the better total for those of you who are bold impaired).


Runs:  Huckleberries 19  BySs 16
Out of all the spots on the diamond that could have produced a goose egg, Kyler's 1B spot is the one that does.  Remember that time that Kyler was collecting all the 1b in the league in an evil effort to create a monopoly?  Karma bitches.  There are a lot of things that I could point to as to why Kevin won the category (4 runs apeice from Robby Cano, Adam Jones, and Bryce Harper), but Matt Adams's bagel is really the biggest reason why Kyler lost.  The 19 runs that Kevin scored would have beaten only 1 other team in the league this week (MBHB, who some how managed only 10 runs for an entire week).

RBI: Huckleberries 18  BySs 21  
Kyler can thank Charlie Murphy's brother Danny for the win in this category, as Danny knocked in 8 runs.  Murphy's big week was able to overcome the 0 totals put up by Jonathon Lucroy, Yasiel Puig and Brett Gardner.  You read that right...Kyler won RBIs despite 3 of his starters combining for 0 RBI.  Kevin, on the other hand, got RBI from every hitter in the lineup, but he didnt get more than 2 from anyone players other than Victor Martinez (3) and Adrian Beltre (4).  The 21 RBIs Kyler totaled would have beaten only 2 other teams this week (KIODL and MBHB - who had their own futility death match).

SB: Huckleberries 2 BySs 2
I am going to ignore this and move one.  Just note that 2 SBs only beat Bob's 1 and Dusty's bagel amongst the rest of the league's teams.  When we tie, no one wins.

AVG/OBP/SLG:  BySs 291/330/418    Huckleberries 251/337/388
It is tough to break out the slash stats, so I am not going to do it.  Kyler's team got a pair of Escalator Club performances from Lucroy (421/476/579) and Murphy (406/429/594) which propelled the team to wins in AVG and SLG.  Adams (.208), Puig (.192) and Gardner (.241) each pulled the collective OBPs down enough for Kevin to pull the category out behind Cano (.500) and Martinez (.441).  Bryce Harper (185/290/296) and his new swing continue to plague Kevin's team and Josh Hamilton (071/103/214) might have been wearing a Backyard Superstars shersy under his uniform this week.  Cano renewed his Escalator Club membership this week with a 333/500/611 line.  His gift bag, along with Lucroy's and Murphy's are in the mail...membership has its privledges.


Wins:  Huckleberries 1  BySs 0
That is not a typo.  In a week when starters from each team combined for 13 starts, only Jason Hammel's 5 2/3 innings of shut out ball against the Twins last Tuesday in which he gave up 7 hits and 4 walks while striking out only 2 ended with a pitcher getting a W.  I feel like the odds of this happening are roughly similar to the odds of Dr. Who turning out to be a documentry.  Needless to say, the 1 victory would have lost to every other team in the league this week (except Tom, who also had only 1 victory this week).

Ks: Huckleberries 45  BySs 46
Picture this...you are watching Sunday Night baseball and you have Gio Gonzalez starting for the Nats against the Braves (you are Kevin in this dream scenario).  You trail in the K category by 8, but Gio is en fuego.  He strikes out the side in the first (around a couple walks and a hit but no runs).  He strikes out the side in order in the second.  Two innings into the game, and the gap is now only 2 strikeouts.  When gets Freddie Freeman swinging to end the third inning of a scoreless game, it looks like a forgone conclusion that you will pull ahead.  In the 4th, Gio gives up a solo HR to tie the game, but ends the inning with a K of opposing pitcher Alex Wood...and the matchup is tied.  Gio has 8Ks through 4 innings in a 1-1 ball game.  A bunt single to lead off the 5th, followed by a walk, a double play grounder, another walk and a bloop single give the Nats a 2-1 lead, and Gio is out of the game after throwing 111 pitches in 4 2/3 innings.  But at least the K category is tied. 

But wait...is that Craig Kimbrel's music in the 9th?  And Kyler has Kimbrel?  First batter up in the 9th, Bryce Harper who is also on your team, strikes out looking. God damn that Bryce Harper.  Ah yes...the 46 Ks that won this matchup would not have beaten any other team this week (though would have tied John).

ERA/WHIP:   Huckleberries 3.16/1.56  BySs 4.67/1.69
Here are the ERAs of starting pitchers Kyler used this week - 12.46, 11.25, 2.31, 4.09, 6.30.  Hmmm...who is surprised Kevin won this category?  No one.  Kevin got great starts from Hammel and Chris Archer (6K 1.50/1.00) and Rosenthal, Grilli and Melancon all did their jobs out of the pen, which was enough for Kevin to hold on in both categories.  The 3.16 ERA beat Kyler and 3 other teams this week, but the 1.56 WHIP was the second worst, only beating BySs.

QS: Huckleberries 3  BySs 2
13 starts, 5 of them between 2 teams lasted 6 or more innings with 3 or fewer earned runs allowed.  Thats not a good percentage.  But when you have starts like Sonny Gray's (4 1/3ip 6ER 14 baserunners against Tampa), Yu Darvish's (4ip 5ER 13 baserunners against the Astros) and Yovanni Gallardo's (4ip 4ER 13 baserunners against San Fran), the quality start numbers arent going to be pretty.  Oh yeah...3 quality starts would have beaten only Kyler and Tyler this week.

SV+Holds: Huckleberries 5 BySs 9
Thanks to the competent group of Kimbrel, Koji Uehara, Rafael Soriano and Fernando Rodney, BySs put up a very respectable total for the week...which is no fun. 









Pecking Order

I am not ashamed to say it, I missed you guys at the end of last week when I got super busy with a bunch of random things and then was traveling down to the Fatherland of IL on Friday to visit with my side of the familia and meet little Warren Giancarlo for the first time.  Writing this blog has become rather cathartic (the purifying version of the definition...not the one that has to do with expunging of the bowels) for me.  So much so, that I think I get a little ornery when I dont get to write it.  I am not looking forward to the end of the baseball season.  I will have to come up with something else to let my mind wander around (and dont say fantasy football...I have thought about it, there just isnt enough activity throughout the week to make me want to blog about it...and really, I just dont have the interest in writing about football that I do in writing about baseball.  I know that Kyler feels different.  Maybe I can talk him into doing something on a more regular basis and we could make it work...Kyler???  Otherwise, I will need to find obscure baseball articles to mock mercilessly a la FJM, though undoubtedly with much less skill.

With only 4 more weeks until the playoffs start, things continue to be interesting.  Bob sits way way way way way out front and is a virtual lock.  The only question that remains is will he get a week 1 bye or will the Hitless Bastards catch him and make him play the first round.  In fact, here is the full standings.

1	Bob's AutoTrackers	119-84-13	0.581	0
3	MB Hitless Bastards	114-92-10	0.551	6.5
2	Backyard Superstars	104-95-17	0.521	13
4	Dusty's Team	105-103-8	0.505	16.5
5	Zach's Team	104-102-10	0.505	16.5
6	You Can Call Me Al	101-104-11	0.493	19
7	Lester The Molesters	102-108-6	0.486	20.5
8	Keep it on the DL	96-113-7	0.461	26
9	Tyler's Team	90-110-16	0.454	27.5
10	TBD	90-114-12	0.444	29.5

Obviously, Kyler's BySs are ranked #2 because they are in first place in the Harmony Division, even though they are currently the 3rd best team in the league.  I have been having trouble understanding where each team is at because it lists teams GB in relation to the division leader, but the actual playoff standings after the division winner are a free for all.  This table should clear that up a bit.  The last column is games back of the leader (Bob).  What it tells us is that Kevin is closer to a playoff spot than Kyler is to catching Bob (lucky for Kyler that he doesnt have to try to catch Bob).  It also tells us that Dusty's playoff spot, which seemed a mortal lock only a couple of weeks ago, is in some serious danger and that right now, the #4, 5, and 6 seeds are really up for grabs amongst 7 teams.