Day: September 18, 2009

so, i have been sitting at my desk in my office this afternoon, working with the TV on. jeremy gutherie is pitching and well, i need wins and strikeouts and a good whip and ERA: the usual stuff.

but i cannot watch, though i feel compelled to. eyes squinting,i  turn the game on and gutherie coaxes a third out with elsbury on second. safe. so i turn the channel back to the news (watching another game would just make me want to check out gutherie even more) and during commercials, kibbitz the game.

first commercial, gutherie allows a single and kotchman scores. crap, that kills era and ratio and puts me behind with one swing.

i turn the channel. and when i turn it back it is just as luke scott clobbers a home run, tying the game, and daring me to continue watching. since i have scott on my xfl team, all the better.

when the score shifted to 2-1 boston, i turned back to the news.

but, i opened a window on my desktop to the tout wars live scoring page instead.

now i started today in first place, with 92.5 points to mike’s 92, and it had actually simply stayed like that for a day, but, when i tuned in, i had dropped to 91.5 and mike was ahead. i looked and noticed jeff erickson passed me in ratio thanks to my watching gutherie.

and bingo, as i scrolled back up i suddenly dropped to 90.5, then a second later jumped back up to 92.5, passing mike back up and putting me back in first.

but, the changes were all in the blink of an eye, so i am not really sure they really happened, you know?

there are actually five categories–whip, ERA, runs, whiffs, and wins–that pretty much moment to moment, are so tight that literally an extra out or run or strikeout initiates the pinball effect i had witnessed. mike is pretty stable in whiffs actually, leading by around 30, and i have a commanding lead in runs scored. but whiffs i want and runs he needs. in ERA we both go up and down with a coupleo of other teams and same with whip, but not against one another.

in wins, however we are fighting for the same turf with dean peterson (to whom i traded cc sabathia: a move i had to make, but one that could indeed come back to haunt). mike leads with 76 and dean and i both have 75.

sigh. while i was writing this–over a 20 minute spread– i dropped back down to second with 91.5.

see what we mean?

nerve-racking. and there is another four hours of games to play tonight.

of course it is a very cool thing that my team is even in the race, so, i am not complaining. but, this is not for the faint hearted.

Day two of the daily blogging as I battle Lawr for AL Tout supremacy with a creeping Shandler approaching. You would think this would be a landmark day in deciding the winner. I had Edwin Jackson going vs. KC and Big Erv Santana vs. Boston while Lawr was waiting all day for Masterson to battle the A’s.  E-Jax was a 1pm ET start so of course I had to watch at my desk and know that this would be ulcer inducing (here is my Twitter post before the game:  Need a big start from Edwin Jackson today so I’ll be watching which means line will look something like this 6IP 4ER 7H 4BB 1,423 pitches L) see how smart I am? I actually did lose a point in WHIP during the early going dropping from 1st to 2nd, but got it back 3 outs later. Next up was Santana, the Sox lineup is a little banged up so I had that going for me and Erv did a decent enough job to not impact the standings, Billy Wagner got the L and he’s on my squad too so that kind of stunk. Finally at 10:05pm ET I am “forced” to watch Indians @ A’s. Masterson had a dicey first and then a mighty swing a few innings later from kurt Suzuki made me sleep like a baby. Final tally on a big pitching day:  Siano=6.60ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 13 Ks and no wins or saves / Lawr: 11.25 ERA, 2.50 WHIP, 6ks no wins or saves. A potentially big day adding up to a whole lotta of nothing. ……..Siano