Month: September 2011

The Orioles are killing me!

MLB.com’s Fred Zinkie reflects on his frustration in a certain category as he struggles to stay in the Mixed League race….

The Baltimore Orioles are killing me!

That phrase has rarely been uttered in recent years by anyone other than long-suffering Orioles fans but at the moment the Orioles and their late season hot streak are ruining my chances of picking up a Mixed League Championship.

Entering the final full week of action I had 13 points in saves. I led Dave Feldman by a pair of saves and Tim Heaney by three. I sent John Axford and Jordan Walden out to keep my lead. Tim countered with Craig Kimbrel, Brandon League and newly-acquired Jim Johnson while Dave threw out Mark Melancon and former closers Fernando Salas and Kevin Gregg. I felt pretty safe that I would stay in front of Dave, who really only owns one closer at the moment but I knew that the race with Tim would be close.

Heading into the weekend, I have no saves this week. The Angels managed to fritter away some late-inning leads and extra-inning games (and their playoff hopes for that matter), giving Walden no chances. The Brewers also didn’t get a chance to put their fireman on the mound.

But the Orioles produced saves and plenty of them! In fact, a Baltimore reliever has earned a save all four days so far this week. First, Johnson secured three wins over Boston, pushing Tim past me and then just for good measure, Buck Showalter decided to rest Johnson and put in Gregg on Thursday, moving Feldman ahead of me. Dave has also got a pair of saves from Melancon this week.

Saves are a fickle stat week-to-week but they usually even out over the course of a full season. Well, I don’t have time for them to even out! I need the Orioles and Astros to get back to playing like last place teams and I need the Brewers and Angels to win some close games this weekend.

My plan to catch Nick Minnix heading into the final full week was…..
1. Catch him in BA
2. Catch him in ERA
3. Hold my lead over Tim and Dave in saves

So far, I’m 0-for-3. But, all of these things could happen over the final six days of the season.

Tout NL: Can’t run out the clock in fantasy baseball

Tout Wars NL leader and USA Today columnist Steve Gardner describes his situation going into the season’s final seven days:

“There’s exactly one week left in the regular season. And without a doubt it’s going to be the longest week of the year.

That’s the feeling you have when your fantasy team is in first place — like mine is in the NL Tout Wars experts league. On Sunday, I had a 10.5-point lead on Mastersball.com’s Brian Walton … but in just a couple days he whittled the margin down to 6.5. I can tell these last few days are going to be absolutely brutal.

It was nerve-wracking last year when I was in a tight three-way battle in the Tout Wars mixed league. But that was different because I was always the third wheel trying to stick my nose in there — and I never really got a sniff of the lead. This time, I’m the one trying to hold on for dear life.

What am I going to be watching most intently? Pitching, pitching and more pitching. Brian is breathing down my neck in three of the five pitching categories.

I lead ERA 3.31 to 3.37.
I lead WHIP 1.21 to 1.23
I lead strikeouts 1070 to 1041

I’m not just wearing one target on my back, I’m wearing three. Because I can still gain ground in wins, I can’t afford to run a bunch of relievers out there to protect my ratios. If any of my starting pitchers have a major meltdown, I could see those leads in ERA and WHIP evaporate in an instant. With Brian there waiting to pounce — and with RotoWire’s Chris Liss between us with a 1.22 WHIP — there’s potential six-point swing in those ratio categories.

With all that said, I really do like the guys I have out there. Madison Bumgarner has been awesome since the All-Star break (8-3, 2.43). Zack Greinke has rewarded my patience with almost-identical (8-3, 2.29) stats over that span. They’ll go next for me on Thursday and Saturday.

The problem with being in first place is that there’s nowhere to go but down. Outside of possibly a point in wins, there’s almost no chance for me to move up in any other category. So in effect, I have to do what never seems to work in pro football — play not to lose.

But since it’s fantasy baseball we’re playing, maybe the results will turn out better.

Tout AL: All Over But…

We asked Tout AL second placer and RotoWire founder Jeff Erickson how he saw his chances of catching Larry Schechter for the AL crown:

Jeff says: “I need a time machine, so that I can tell a young, impressionable Jeff that investing in Jacob McGee and Fernando Rodney is a fool’s errand. Spend that money on Kyle Farnsworth and Jordan Walden, or on starting pitching, so that I don’t have to tear apart that beautiful offense that I assembled. I spent too much of my surplus chasing saves, all for a 2.5-to-3.0 point boost. I think I lost at least that much in trading away the bats in the process.

Oh yeah, and not owning Vin Mazzaro would have been a good play, too.

I don’t see where I can gain enough and Larry can lose enough in points to catch him at this point. Second place in a money league is nice, but here it’s just a case of being the first loser. Hopefully I can hold off Jason for second.”

Sandlot Shrink vet Larry Schechter’s perspective is just a bit different: “I’ve got such a big lead, I can’t possibly blow it now!  Oh wait, isn’t that what the Red Sox said a few weeks ago?”

Good luck, gents!

Tout Mixed: The abnormal, exceptional average

Nicholas Minnix of KFFL.com reports on the Tout Wars Mixed pennant race:

Tout Wars Mixed: Batting AverageI hate Marco Scutaro.

I was ahead of Fred Zinkie in batting average by 0.004 points heading into the baseball regular season’s final full week of games. Marco Freakin’ Scutaro made my stomach turn at the very beginning of it when he collected six hits in eight at-bats in Monday’s twin bill between the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles. Continue reading “Tout Mixed: The abnormal, exceptional average”

Tout Wars Mixed: What’s that they say about third place?

Tim Heaney, of KFFL.com, shares the frantic, lamenting thoughts over his mixed Tout Wars squad…

9/19/11, 5:30 p.m. PT: My name is Tim Heaney. With 10 days to go, I sit in third place, behind my colleague Nicholas Minnix and MLB.com/FantasyBaseball.com’s Fred Zinkie, in 2011 Tout Wars mixed, a league in which I held the lead for a few long stretches.

I have $0 left in my Free Agency Acquisition Budget.

And I’m resting much of my title hopes on two of my newest acquisitions: Craig Gentry and Tony Campana.

Yup, Charlie Sheen would roast me over this. Continue reading “Tout Wars Mixed: What’s that they say about third place?”

10 Sleepless Nights

Anyone else going to spend the next 10 nights staying up late and fretting over their fantasy baseball team?  Well, that’s what I’m going to do whether I want to or not!

Tout MIXED, Minnix says: “No better place to be than on top…”

Nick Minnix of KFFL.com reports on the Tout Wars Mixed pennant race:

There’s no better place to be than on top. In roto baseball, anyway. Unless you’re on top and you have a sinking feeling. It won’t take much for everything that my competition – Fred and Tim – needs to happen … to happen. I picked up five points this past week, not a bad time to do it, but I entered Monday sitting on the most precarious four-point lead you can imagine. I’m just hoping that each of these dudes is second-guessing himself (and experiencing an unsettled stomach) as much as I am. Continue reading “Tout MIXED, Minnix says: “No better place to be than on top…””