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Halfway there, I am, thanks to Carl Pavano, kind of (at least he got a win) and Jake Peavy, who held the Tigers to pretty much nothing, striking out eight, winning a game, and making me wonder how the standings would be had Mr. Peavy been healthy to pitch a month ago, as originally planned.

And, no complaints. At least I have two starts, two wins, and his effectiveness put me back up to 92 points meaning it looks like Mike and I might go into the final week of the season tied. Ugh. Tied.

Funny to, because though I had  pretty good offensive day (go Arod and his three swipes and Michael Cuddyer, well what can you say?) with a pair of homers and eight RBI.

I even got within one RBI of Mike, whose hitters then exploded as his squad notched 14 RBI and three homers. Sigh. So close, yet so far.

Of course Mr. Shandler is lurking below both of us with 88 points, waiting for us to falter just a little. At least that is what I would do/hope for.

So, this weekend I have a freebie. Nothing save a guitar lesson and some bass practice and maybe a trip to the dog park with Jazzy and Pavi on the horizon. Well, that and, like it or not tracking my team during Ben Hur (which is on TCM tonight) because it works better for my players to not actually watch them play, as noted.

I will check back in before football tomorrow and see how things shake out. Have a great Saturday.

ugh.

Well, Mike got his wish as Oakland, whose bats have been a red hot .300 the last two months (since trading Cabrera and Holiday, interestingly enough) tore poor Scott Feldman to pieces, costing me another point.

Adding to the mix Ron Shandler got 30 whiffs and three wins yesterday, boosting him to 88 points, just 1.5 off my tail, and 2.5 from Mike. So, Ron is this year’s Twins in a Tout sense.  (I am not sure whether to welcome him to the insanity, or advise him of the grief to come).

As for me, after my first “P” (no inuendo, please, which is another “P” word), that being PANIC,I reminded myself that Pavano, Peavy, and Pettitte (the other three “P’s”) all start this weekend, and relax and let my players do their thing.

There are, by my calculations, seven points I can pick up over a couple of days with some good play. And, well, this Tout team is really different than any other team I have had in that they really are a team. That is one guy has a bad day, and someone else has a good one to pick him up.

As an example, I could really use a guy like Julio Borbon right now, who is stealing everything in sight, and successfully. Not that I don’t have stealers (Cabrera, Figgins, Aybar) but, the question is whose place would Borbon take?  For, everyone, from Ryan Sweeney and David Murpy, to Arod have contributed.

The second thing is I had this huge lead two months ago that evaporated. And, I have to remind myself that my team has not choked. Rather it has been hanging at between 88-93 points for months. It is just that Mike and Ron made the tweaks to catch up.

Which means I simply have to rely on a fifth “P”: PATIENCE.

Welcome to the roller coaster Ron. And, be careful what you wish for, right Mike?

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

my worst nightmare was realized by the combo of jeremy gutherie and justin masterson, in basically getting clobbered (11 innings, 11 runs, 16 baserunners), dropping me a point each in ERA and WHIP.

i might have held a slight lead, despite that, but jeff erickson picked up some swipes and dean peterson got a win, and poof, my 3.5 point lead vaporized into me trailing by a point.

i do have all my control pitchers going the rest of the week, so i think i can pick the points back up, but somehow, despite the presence of erick aybar, chone figgins, asdrubal cabrera, and arod steals are hard to come by.

all i can do is shrug, and hope for the best tomorrow. that is the beauty, for there is always tomorrow. at least for ten more days.

btw: I will be joining Mike and Cory on their Fantasy 411 show Friday at 7:30 eastern on XM.

i have been leary of this week’s yankee/angel series because i have five angels (four of them hitters, one pitcher) and three yankees (one hitter, two pitchers).

yesterday my starters went against one another, but i feared for chad gaudin, so i benched him this week. good thing cos the angels knocked him around, just like the yankees knocked around monsieur santana.

i actually collected two homers in the game, and with the two michael cuddyer and jason kubel hit, that gave me four for the day, and seven RBI with a .340 average. and, i got a save with a k from joe nathan.

that is enough to climb within three homers and eight RBI of mike, who would probably agree that if i can pass him in those categories that would probably seal a pennant for me. note the words “if” and “probably” which acknowlege the lack of certainty in this game.

to prove my point, despite the great offensive day, and vitually no pitching, i lost half a point of my lead because of steals.

makes no sense, no?

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

well, i had my fingers crossed all through the mess of an oakland game, where the rangers beat the athletics like they were an old rug hanging in the yard. at least good old david murphy banged three hits and drove in two, thank you.

but, my laptop completely melted down during the game, wreaking havoc on my scoring chores, and worse, making it impossible for me to see the details of the yankees/angels game which featured my pitchers, andy pettitte and joe saunders.

but, by the time i got home, a couple of homers and a win and some great innings from my starters kicked me back up to 94.5 points and a bit more cushion.

i still have seven starts this week, to just four for mike, and seven for dean peterson and 11 for jason grey, so i am guessing that mike, in playing a tad defensively in pitching, might drop a point in whiffs and maybe another in wins if jason’s starters hit paydirt.

of course, it goes against the grain of zen playing to wish trouble on another team and players.  the essence is to pick players and root for them. so, i hope, as usual, mike’s team and jason’s and dean’s do well. as long as mine stay on track too.

but, if you wonder how this works on the inverse, after sitting lyle overbay for two weeks (he went around 5 for 21 during that span, with an RBI) and played mike sweeney, who belted a homer and hit around .318. but, since the season was nearing an end, i sensed sweeney would not get the same playing time, so i reactivated overbay for the final two weeks. and, overbay gave me a homer today, so, i pulled that string correctly.

all i can say is “whew.” and i only have to hang for 13 more days. they will be long and torturous days. but, i would not trade with anyone in the league. even mike!

whew. made it through the weekend, scoreboard watching while the athletics dismantled jeremy sowers. but, since it was rosh hashona, i watched jake peavy and scott feldman go into the sixth and eighth, respectively, but until seth kweller confirmed wins for each i was unsure of the standings.

sure enough i managed to gain a lead over mike of 93.5 to 90.

then ian snell took over for even though i gained a half point, tying joe sheehan in homers (thank you howie kendrick who is red hot) but losing it right back to dean peterson who is now tied with me in wins with 77 (mike has 76).

but, thanks to snell steve moyer passed me back up in ratio and ERA so i go into the penultimate week with a slim lead of 91.5 to 90.

i do have room to move, meaning there are points out there. but, i also can lose some points. i have picked up on mike in rbi, btw (he has 12 more than i with 848 to my 836).

so, time to breathe. at least i have the lead. for now. two weeks to go.

focus. breathe. rinse, and repeat is my mantra.