Category: About Tout Wars

Tout Wars Mixed: An incredibly helpless feeling

Maybe this is punishment for having the bravado to attend a Pearl Jam concert in Vancouver on Sunday night, the eve of the biggest three days of my fantasy baseball life. Just as Eddie Vedder and Co. took the stage at the Pacific Coliseum, the Tout Wars FAAB deadline passed, and my competition for the whole shebang in the mixed league landed the pieces that they believed would carry them past me by the end of Wednesday.

Just because you’re paranoid, don’t mean they won’t pass you.

I’ve been dangling from the first spot in the standings for a good portion of the last several weeks. I feel like a carrot, a brass ring, Ice-T in “Surviving the Game.”

WHIPed, stolen … saved? Continue reading “Tout Wars Mixed: An incredibly helpless feeling”

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?”

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…””