Thursday, April 19, 2012

Fantasy Baseball

Dexter has wanted to play a Fantasy Baseball League since last year. His cousin, Jeremiah was nice enough to start a 4 team league with his Bro and Sis (Tom and Stacey) -two of Dexter's cousins. It's an ESPN driven league and free to play. With only 4 teams of 20? players and a pool of 750 to pull from, there will always be many good players to pick and choose from.  I told Dexter I would help- do a little research and assist with the draft.

I had completely forgotten on draft night, involved in  a project at work when Dexter called at 6:45 reminding that the draft was at 7:30! Are you going to be home?  Crikey!  I had not yet done any research! Immediately dropping what I was doing, I managed to find a taxi and get home in 15 minutes. Cramming all the notes that I could (began in the taxi) we were ready for the draft. By the (un) luck of the draw we had the last (well,fourth) pick but also because of this would have the very next-5th pick. Our draft selections were always in two's and throughout Dexter continually reminded me to have two-three ready choices. 

The draft was fun - when it was your turn, you had about a minute to choose, then the process moved fairly quick.  We weren't sure if we should draft position players by position or by quality, how many pitchers to acquire- so we decided to target some players, not draft any Dodgers (made easier when Kershaw and Kemp were picked up early) and just go for it.  In the end we came up with a pretty solid team (again, with only 4 teams it would be harder not to) but probably had one too many relievers.

We are the World Chemps (nickname Big O Franchise); Chemps for Chew-Dempsey and Big O is for Oliver- originally we were "Oliver's Head" but he didn't care for that one.  Going against team names that will also strike fear and intimidate: The Crazy Crabs (homage to the Giant mascot of the early '80's designed for fans to intentionally dislike), Nicely Done (to lull into underestimating) and Tommy Tommy Long Hair.

I didn't pay much attention to the proceedings the first three-four games but when I realized that some strategy is involved, it became much more interesting.  Also I wanted to know how exactly were we leading. You only get credit for players selected to play so you have to play hunches as to who might have a good day, who is on a roll, which pitcher might get a win or a bunch of strikeouts, slotting players to fill in your regulars- on days off, trading players, dropping and adding players.  Dexter and I - are hooked!

I explained to Dext that the season is long so he should expect a lot of up and downs- you can clear 100 points in two days so you might move from first to last in just that amount of time, and reverse direction even faster.  However, we're still on a pretty good roll..  Here's who we have now (with one change- we acquired  Napoli-c and dropped Avila.  Earlier this week, Tommy Tommy Long Hair traded us Strasberg-Pitcher for Cesedes,Outfielder of the A's (which may work well for both teams).  You definitely "bench" players that aren't playing that day but sometimes a team plays but your player does not -drats!  Or you think you have a great player but he doesn't hit! Or field!  Tulowitski! However you figure it's worth keeping him until he comes around. An older player like Michael Young will get a rest every few games so it takes some guessing as to which game that might be. I don't know!  A pitcher like Yu Darvish is on a team that will score a lot of runs (Texas) so even if you're needing convincing about how good Yu is, you determine that he still will get a bunch of wins. I should stop here as to not give out any of our team secrets... if only we had any.  We've been lucky so far and Josh Hamilton has been the main mover of our team.  He, was a steal!

the scores for the pitchers reflect how their teams did on this day- not their individual games.
we also have a home rule not to root against the Giants under any circumstances.


CYadier Molina, StL C

L 3-6
--/----------------------
----
100.0+0
1BPrince Fielder, Det 1B

L 3-10
1/32100001000
04
100.0+0
2BDustin Pedroia, Bos 2B




--/----------------------
----
100.0+0
3BMichael Young, Tex 1B, 3B, DH

W 10-3
3/51300021010
08
100.0+0
SSDerek Jeter, NYY SS

W 7-6
1/51100010000
03
100.0+0
OFJose Bautista, Tor 3B, OF

L 4-9
0/31000002000
03
100.0+0
OFJosh Hamilton, Tex OF

W 10-3
1/41100002000
04
100.0+0
OFJosh Willingham, Min OF, DH

L 6-7
1/50100000000
01
100.0+0
UTILHunter Pence, Phi OF

W 2-0
1/31100001000
03
100.0+0


Totals
8/287800037010
026

BenchPablo Sandoval, SF 3B




--/----------------------
----
100.0+0
BenchTroy Tulowitzki, Col SS




--/----------------------
----
100.0+0
BenchAlex Avila, Det C

L 3-10
0/20000002000
02
100.0+0
BenchAdrian Beltre, Tex 3B

W 10-3
1/61100000000
02
100.0+0
DL





----------------------
----
----
DL





----------------------
----
----
PITCHERS
Apr 19
Apr 19 PitchingTotal
RESEARCH
SLOTPLAYER, TEAM POSACTION
OPPSTATUS ET
IPKCGSOWLSVPTS
%OWN+/-
SPJered Weaver, LAA SP

L 2-4
----------------
100.0+0
SPRicky Romero, Tor SP

L 4-9
----------------
100.0+0
SPYu Darvish, Tex SP

W 10-3
6.150010015
100.0+0
SPStephen Strasburg, Wsh SP

L 4-11
----------------
100.0+0
SPColby Lewis, Tex SP

W 10-3
----------------
100.0+0
RPCraig Kimbrel, Atl RP

W 10-2
----------------
100.0+0


Totals
6.150010015

BenchMadison Bumgarner, SF SP
Didn't consider what a rain out does !  We had 4 major players not play today because of it!  At one point on 4/20 Jay, Stacey and Tommy were all in a row, each separated by one point. Wild stuff.

Postscript: 10/5/12 we ran the table from day 1 to the end of the season. Yeah, I'd call it luck!
6555
6392 
5999 
5391

CHG

R1B2B3BHRRBIBBHBPSBCSE
KCGSOWLSV
1World Chemps BigOFranchise  
7989575344810048125698480-29-75
9936525720-230200
6555+9
2The Crazy Crabs
7888996027586075358041113-35-82
10186540750-265190
6392+33
3Tommy Tommy Long Hair
7177905168194475553138107-41-72
9682010690-220165
5999+21
4Nicely Done
6878105149974471853141109-44-78
8501510610-2305
5391+19
 we ended the season with six Giants: Pence, Baumgarner (both all year), Panda, Pagan, Scutaro, Vogelsong

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