Author: siano

If you haven’t heard about Lawr’s epic power display yesterday you should. His team had 16 hits and 8 of them were dingers which got him an improbable half point from Ron in HR. He currently holds a you guessed it half point lead over me with the play in game tomorrow. By no means is this the only reason Lawr would win, this is a season long games and there have peaks and valleys for both of us that would take weeks to write about, but we are fascinated with last days and amazing or disgusting performances. I may be missing some scenarios but I had to stop and move on.

Couple of things could go both our ways. On the surface

Porcello getting rocked really helps me, I’m 0.02 back of a half point in ERA

Guerrier getting a win beyond huge, that would get me 0.5 back or for some reason Edwin Jackson with a weird vulture win.

Moyer not getting a steal from Cabrera or Harris. I lead him in steals by 1.

Lawr not getting a homer from Granderson, Cuddyer or Kubel. Granderson will probably lead off with a homer. Imagine this, if Punto homers for Ron and Lawr gets non from the players above we drop back into a tie in theory.

Nathan getting roughed up enough to drop Lawr in Whip.

A few of these combos gets it to a tie or maybe even a win. Possible……………Siano

nothing clever, no pop culture. just sitting back watching the next three days unfold and see who is on top when the dust settles. Good luck to Lawr and Ron, it was a great ride……………Siano

Admiral Ramius in Hunt for Red October. There is a scene where Admiral Painter tells Jack Ryan :”Your Russian’s going to make it to America, Mr. Ryan. He’s going to die within sight of it.”

I have a 1.5 point lead with five full days of baseball to go. Ron made up some serious points last night and even though he may be pessimistic, I think with just the right breaks he may be able to leap frog both Lawr and me. It is mind blowing to think I could be in the lead all week going into Sunday and still lose, but that’s what an incredible season this has been. Lawr said it best, nobody is going to choke, two of us are going to have very good seasons but have “nothing” to show for it. Whoever comes in 2nd or even 3rd will know exactly what the 93′ Giants felt like. That year they won 103 games and didn’t make the playoffs, the Braves won 104. In contrast to Ron rooting for the Twins, for fantasy purposes I have become an enormous Tigers fan. Needing them to throw Pavano (Lawr) a beating then not needing Verlander (Ron) this weekend if they wrap it up and want to line him up for game 1 vs. Yankees. With all that said I still need my guys to perform. After a nuclear weekend (no pun intended) my bats had a quiet day yesterday due to a rainout and the Angels sending out the JV. If Doc, Erv and E-Jack can keep it strong and the bats do a notable job this just may be crazy enough to work. Then again I could be in 3rd tomorrow morning……Siano

Sunday was the last day of moves unless we have a play in I suppose, but anyway there is nothing left for me, Lawr and Ron to do except stare. If you remember a post from last week I yelled at my bats to wake up and boy did they. Think about these numbers and you’d be ecstatic if they were mixed league outputs. In a two day period my AL only team hit 9 homers, scored 23 runs and knocked in 34 RBI. That’s what I’m talking about. Unfortunately my pitching slipped some but here I am going into Monday’s action in first place. A ton still has to go right and I am at best skeptical I can hold on.  I would not be surprised to see this league come down to a half point. Halladay, Erv Santana, Edwin Jackson and Aardsma will play a hefty roll in my fate but if my bats can stay hot there is a chance I hold on. I am the hunted and that’s really all you can ask for with a week to go but now Lawr and Ron have house money in a way and know they have a shot to “steal” this from me. Good luck to them both and everyone else losing hair and stomach lining this week……………Siano

In a recent post Lawr Michaels said that he doesn’t root against other teams players and just roots for his to do well and see what happens. I’ve been known to frequently hold doors for people, help the elderly with heavy items up flights of stairs and ask lost looking folks where they are going and show them the way.

With all that said I’m no Lawr Michaels  because I wanted Justin Masterson and Jeremy Guthrie to get beat up and bad last night. Luckily karma missed me last night and that’s exactly what happened so while the night progressed Lawr came back to poppa and then watched poppa pass him. I woke up this morning with a 0.5 point lead with 11 days to go. So far my strategy of falling on the ball in ERA and WHIP has worked, but by no means is this over there are mucho puntos to be had that will decide this thing. Next up on my root root root for bad things is Scott Feldman today.  The last time he faced the A’s he looked unbeatable but then he went to the bathroom, got kidnapped, tied up and an imposter came out and got lit up by Oakland, hopefully that guy has a plan B to pull it off again……….Siano

Most of you might think Mortal Combat but no Sub Zero is the temp my squad is performing at right now. Some late night late inning thunder from Morales and Matsui last night aside team MLB.com has gone into a deep deep sleep on pitching and offense. The good news is that even though Lawr has put some distance between us it’s still only 3.5 points and definitely attainable, but for what seems like a week now I stare at the live scoring, MLB.com AT Bat or my TV and see my guys pop up, ground out or carry their bat back to the dugout.

I think however I may have found some unlikely help on of all places the wire. In a slew of moves I was able to add Jose Bautista of Toronto and send MIA Carlos Guillen to the pine, I also picked up Lou Marson who is getting a look see from the Tribe to catcher and jettisoned another Tiger in Alex Avila who is productive but not always playing and finally I added Kevin Jepsen of LA to see if i can pick up a win or save since Scioscia does like him and all I had to do was bench Matt Guerrier. There are teams coming at me fast and furious with loaded up rotations so a good start from Ervin Santana tonight plus a solid week from Edwin Jackson are desperately needed but really what I need is for my bats to WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-Siano

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

It’s September 17th and in a few minutes the Royals will tackle the Tigers. Tiger fans are interested due to having a magic number. Royals fans are also interested because they get to watch the brightest light in their 09′ season toe the rubber in Zack Greinke. I am REALLY interested because I am trying to win a fierce battle in AL Only Tout Wars with Lawr Michaels of creativesports.com. Lawr is currently 0.5 points ahead of me with just a little over two weeks to go. I’ve lost count of how many times the lead has changed, some nights is has changed a handful if not more which is why every single at bat, every single pitch and every single break is vital. I got one such break last night  in Boston. Lawr and I are in first and second in wins separated by one win.

Joe Saunders who Lawr has was cruising and even though the Red Sox made a game of it late Saundo was still in line for the win until my new best friend Kevin Jepsen decided to go poopy in the bed. I laughed I cried and then I begged my players to score some runs!!! You see this battle between Lawr and I is not just about Wins it’s about almost every category. Matthew Berry of ESPN may be 9th overall but in the runs category we keep going back and forth. Right now he has me by one run which equals one point which would equal first place, get my drift? This is why it’s so important all owners put their best possible team on the floor no matter what place they are in because it matters. I could write all day about other near misses and great turns of events that have me going to bed in first and waking up in second and vice-versa, but we still have two plus weeks to go. Excruciating.

I’ll be back again with more ins and outs of our battle this is just the teaser……………………Siano