Brandon Lyon is a relief pitcher, but I don't know if he'll be a closer anymore after giving up five runs in two thirds of an inning today after almost blowing a save yesterday. I do know that he is on my fantasy team and what's bad for his team is bad for mine. I was in tenth place after an ok day yesterday, but that was obviously too good to last.
Magglio Ordonez hit a home run today but I had him on my bench. I need to take him off my bench, but my outfielders (Hawpe, Ibanez, Granderson and Quentin) have all been hitting well. I wish that I could bench Lyon for Maggs but fantasy baseball doesn't work that way.
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Saturday, July 19, 2008
At least he's got his health
I was worried that Carlos Guillen was hurt yesterday, but through internet searches that would have been unnecessary if my browsers worked properly I found out that Carlos Guillen is healthy enough for him play baseball. His wife, unfortunately, is not. The latest news that I have read said that she had "complications" following childbirth and Carlos was supposed to be back in the Detroit lineup today. John Larish (Who? Exactly) is playing third today which could mean that something is seriously wrong with Carlos Guillen's wife. Which would lead to yet another serious problem with my fantasy season. It would be worse for Carlos and is family, but still bad for me and this blog is about me and my vicarious baseball life.
I do have nine other hitters in my starting lineup that did play yesterday, and they played well. Each got at least one hit, and they totalled 9 runs scored and 9 runs batted in and four home runs and a .455 average. Unfortunately, when baseballs are hit hard somebody has to be pitching, and I had a few pitchers pitching last night. Zack Greinke was terrible, Tim Hudson was mediocre but got tons of run support and won, and Ted Lilly pitcher well but the Cubs didn't hit for him and he lost. Having pitchers on supposedly good offensive teams not get run support when they should have won the game has been a recurring motif in this season long fantasy nightmare. There's a good chance it'll happen again today, but possibly without the pitching well part.
Time, and the ESPN fantasy baseball box score feature, will tell.
I do have nine other hitters in my starting lineup that did play yesterday, and they played well. Each got at least one hit, and they totalled 9 runs scored and 9 runs batted in and four home runs and a .455 average. Unfortunately, when baseballs are hit hard somebody has to be pitching, and I had a few pitchers pitching last night. Zack Greinke was terrible, Tim Hudson was mediocre but got tons of run support and won, and Ted Lilly pitcher well but the Cubs didn't hit for him and he lost. Having pitchers on supposedly good offensive teams not get run support when they should have won the game has been a recurring motif in this season long fantasy nightmare. There's a good chance it'll happen again today, but possibly without the pitching well part.
Time, and the ESPN fantasy baseball box score feature, will tell.
Friday, July 18, 2008
The Nightmare Transcends Baseball
Bad enough watching my team tank like Bear Stearns
With nothing to do about Hafner and Byrnes
I'm afraid of stagnation - team's too weak for freefall
And now it's got problems besides just baseball
See the keyboard I'm using links to an eMac
A machine I purchased about three years back
Today a Firefox upgrade was auto-installed
But sometimes on the old, the new won't work at all
Some might say, "Get a new one", to that I say, "Please.
I haven't even paid my fantasy season fees."
In most circumstances I do not speak that way
But writining rhyming might control what I say
So now the browser that I am using is Safari
Which seems to be slightly less outdated than Atari
And it won't let me change any players on my team
Which makes is hard to end this awful waking dream
As for my my team's performance, there's not much to say
There were only four games that were played yesterday
That stats accumulated were basically dirt
And Guillen is day to day, hope he's not badly hurt
With nothing to do about Hafner and Byrnes
I'm afraid of stagnation - team's too weak for freefall
And now it's got problems besides just baseball
See the keyboard I'm using links to an eMac
A machine I purchased about three years back
Today a Firefox upgrade was auto-installed
But sometimes on the old, the new won't work at all
Some might say, "Get a new one", to that I say, "Please.
I haven't even paid my fantasy season fees."
In most circumstances I do not speak that way
But writining rhyming might control what I say
So now the browser that I am using is Safari
Which seems to be slightly less outdated than Atari
And it won't let me change any players on my team
Which makes is hard to end this awful waking dream
As for my my team's performance, there's not much to say
There were only four games that were played yesterday
That stats accumulated were basically dirt
And Guillen is day to day, hope he's not badly hurt
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Desperately Needed All Star Break
Nobody ever advises writers to start a story from the middle, but that is where this story must begin. I conceived this blog several weeks ago but my internet mysteriously vanished before I had a chance to resume it. Service has resumed without explanation, but my fantasy baseball team has not made a miraculous recovery. I'm out of the basement, but barely, and the purpose of this blog will be to chronicle the rest of this disastrous (so far) season and possibly gain some insight about fantasy baseball and maybe even the "real" world in the process.
My fantasy baseball season began with an auction draft in the middle of March. It took all day, and I thought I came out of it pretty well. Most others in the league thought that I would at least have a decent season. Two days into the official baseball year, my team was in first place. Downhill from there, and sometimes steeper than the slope of the mound.
The league that this blog will be about is a keeper league, which means that each returning player can keep at least three players on this virtual team from their team from last year. I came in tenth last year out of twelve, one place better than I am in now, which meant that I could keep the minimum of three. These keepers are based on which players you think will be worth more in this year's draft than you got them for the year before, and one such player that I kept was Yovani Gallardo. He's a second year pitcher for the Brewers who was believed by many to be the best bet out of all the Milwaukee starters. Injury-prone Ben Sheets started the all star game, while the previously sturdy gallardo recovered from a preseason knee injury only to tear his MCL in a base-covering accident and he won't be playing again this year. Ryan Zimmermann was underachieving somewhat when a shoulder injury that he considered to be minor turned out to be a labrum tear (not minor) and he's been on the DL for months. Curtis Granderson, signed to a long-term contract on my fantasy team, has had a solid season so far but that may not last and I had wanted a little better than solid from him. One player, who I could have kept for the same price as Gallardo, is having a better than solid season. His name is Josh Hamilton.
Going over all the problems that my team has had may take forever, so I'll just mention a few more players that I drafted and invested too much in to drop. Travis Hafner, Eric Byrnes, Phil Hughes, and Aaron Harang. Read those names and weep...for me. Add Gallardo to that group and assume the existence of fantasy baseball poker, and you've got one of the most dominant fantasy baseball razz hands in the history of the nonexistent game. It's a miracle that I'm not in last, but the last place team (projected by many to win) has Tulowitzki and countless other huge fantasy baseball disappointments. My pickup of Carlos Quentin didn't hurt either, but it hasn't helped me out of the bottom tier. Maybe that'll change by October. This blog will keep the record of whether the fantasy nightmare ends this season.
I hereby wish myself luck. I'll need it.
My fantasy baseball season began with an auction draft in the middle of March. It took all day, and I thought I came out of it pretty well. Most others in the league thought that I would at least have a decent season. Two days into the official baseball year, my team was in first place. Downhill from there, and sometimes steeper than the slope of the mound.
The league that this blog will be about is a keeper league, which means that each returning player can keep at least three players on this virtual team from their team from last year. I came in tenth last year out of twelve, one place better than I am in now, which meant that I could keep the minimum of three. These keepers are based on which players you think will be worth more in this year's draft than you got them for the year before, and one such player that I kept was Yovani Gallardo. He's a second year pitcher for the Brewers who was believed by many to be the best bet out of all the Milwaukee starters. Injury-prone Ben Sheets started the all star game, while the previously sturdy gallardo recovered from a preseason knee injury only to tear his MCL in a base-covering accident and he won't be playing again this year. Ryan Zimmermann was underachieving somewhat when a shoulder injury that he considered to be minor turned out to be a labrum tear (not minor) and he's been on the DL for months. Curtis Granderson, signed to a long-term contract on my fantasy team, has had a solid season so far but that may not last and I had wanted a little better than solid from him. One player, who I could have kept for the same price as Gallardo, is having a better than solid season. His name is Josh Hamilton.
Going over all the problems that my team has had may take forever, so I'll just mention a few more players that I drafted and invested too much in to drop. Travis Hafner, Eric Byrnes, Phil Hughes, and Aaron Harang. Read those names and weep...for me. Add Gallardo to that group and assume the existence of fantasy baseball poker, and you've got one of the most dominant fantasy baseball razz hands in the history of the nonexistent game. It's a miracle that I'm not in last, but the last place team (projected by many to win) has Tulowitzki and countless other huge fantasy baseball disappointments. My pickup of Carlos Quentin didn't hurt either, but it hasn't helped me out of the bottom tier. Maybe that'll change by October. This blog will keep the record of whether the fantasy nightmare ends this season.
I hereby wish myself luck. I'll need it.
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