Month: September 2009

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

Four starters, three wins, 20 strikeouts. Most days, I would have been thrilled to pick up enough points to move within 3.5 of first place. But it’s not likely going to be enough.

The problem was the one starter who didn’t get a win. Three batters into Clay Buchholz’s start, I was reaching for the oxygen. Thanks to his 7 ER gopheritis attack, I could not pick up a needed point in ERA.

So what’s left to hope for? This same quartet of pitchers (Verlander, Felix, Wade Davis and Buchholz) are all scheduled to go out on the season’s final day. Verlander will only pitch if the Tigers need the game to get into the post-season, so I’ll be rooting for the Twins the rest of the week. Any of the remaining trio might also sit since none will be in meaningful games. So winning this thing on my own is going to be tough.

As for help from others, Mike could lose a half point in wins, but would need massive meltdowns in his remaining three starts — Halladay, Jackson and Santana — to lose ground anywhere else. I do trail him by only 4 HRs, but my bats have recently gone silent. Lawr could still lose a point in stolen bases, and maybe WHIP. I can’t see how today’s standings are going to change much by Sunday night.

In 25 years of playing this game, I have seen a few miracles. I have seen a team come back from a 30 point deficit in September. I have seen a team pick up 10 points in the final week alone. I have seen a team run the board, wire to wire, only to lose it in the final weekend. But I just don’t see it happening for me in these final five days.

But I’ll still be rooting for the Twins, because, if there is even the tiniest molecule of a chance, I am going to need Verlander to pitch on Sunday.

ok, so i have written before here about rooting for my guys to do well, as opposed to mike’s or ron’s players doing poorly.

the germans, should you not know, had a word, schaedenfreude, which basically means deriving pleasure from the misery of others.

which is a little shy of what i would like to think we are doing, but, i gotta confess, it takes a lot of consciousness not to engage.

i know if tim wakefield or carlos torres get clobbered tomorrow, it will probably be to my advantage.

and, it is sooooooooo bloody hard to not think of that. although, i do need to focus on scott feldman having his own good start today, for that is as important.

as of now i am half a point down, with maybe six categories where in mike or i can pick up or drop a point or so to the other.

and, ron is not far off, although only in strikeouts can he directly influence the battle between mike and i.

although, if he does, and we have a blip, well…

i am trying to watch the tigers and twins, and am rooting for the twins to go all the way. cos i like them and it would be a good story.

i am trying not to pay attention to jeremy gutherie, whom i have benched, and don’t have to not pay attention to justin masterson cos his game got rained out.

and, now i understand peavy will go against the tigers this weekend. meaning maybe i have to rethink and hope the tigers clinch friday, giving peavy a second string roster?

sigh. i don’t know. i think i will go hide in ken burns wonderful documentary on the national park system, and forget about watching.

just wake me when it is over….

Seven points out this morning, and my brief cameo appearance as a contender hinges on today’s games.

I came into the week with my pitchers potentially making 8 starts. But Tillman has been shut down (in atonement for Sunday’s debacle, I suppose) and Verlander might not pitch next Sunday, so I might be looking at only a 6-start week.

Four of those starts are today. Justin Verlander, Felix Hernandez, Clay Buchholz and Wade Davis. If I managed a 3-win, 30 strikeout performance from three starters last week, can I hope for any less from four starters today? But that’s what it will take to keep me in the race. If this quartet performs to their abilities (and only Verlander is facing an opponent of any consequence), five points potentially hang in the balance. Of course, none of those five would come from Lawr or Mike, but 5 points is 5 points. That would put me two points out, potentially, and would still give me a shot.

Oh, and I could use a bunch of home runs too because there’s a point I could steal from Mike in that category. But given that Mike’s had all the momentum there, and Russ Branyan looks like he’s done, I’m probably going to have to stick a fork in hopes of any HR gains.

So, this could be the last day of my season. It’s all on today and four ballgames… Verlander at 7:05, Davis at 7:08, Buchholz at 7:10 and Felix at 10:10. Nice of them to at least stagger the schedule for me.

last week. i remember back in july when i had a big lead and just wanted the season to be over with then and there and spare me, well, the tension of this last week.

which is tense.

as of now mike leads me 92-90.5

there are a handful of points i can gain or lose. there are a handful of points he can gain or lose.

as with ron, i essentially need the cooperation of our league mates, however.

i will note that i did activate chad gaudin against the royals. and, i grabbed brad kilby of the athletics, and reserved jeremy gutherie and justin masterson. meaning i still have seven starts this week to mike’s four. but, i don’t have a clue any longer how many starts jason grey and dean peterson have.

too hard to track, and, well, as with the rain in new york as i write, and that in detroit, well, que sera sera.

a good last week to you all. i have trust we will survive, but not sure in what shape…

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

Chris Tillman? Fernando Rodney? After what you did to my title hopes yesterday, I can only hope….. Grrrr.

A week ago, I was content to watch Mike and Lawr battle it out for this year’s title, and ink in my 3rd place finish. Then suddenly, my arms post a 3-win, 30 K night on Thursday and I am counting my points deficit on the fingers of one hand. Can I actually sneak in and pull this thing out?

It’s possible, but I am in the unenviable position of having to rely on everyone else to do my work for me. Except for the one point in strikeouts that I stole from Lawr on Thursday, none of my gains have been at the expense of the duo at the top. It should be an interesting week.

Should I actually pull this out — and even if I don’t — this season will be a testament to the power of dumb luck. It will be all about how I FAABed Andrew Bailey for $1 on April 12 just to replace the injured Scott Lewis, how Rajai Davis became a regular when Matt Holliday was traded, how I spent half the season sitting on Clay Buchholz, Chris Tillman and Wade Davis. How I sat in 7th place, 20 points out, at the season’s midpoint.

It is also a reminder that the season is six months long, and those who threw in the towel back in July because football season was coming may have sacrificed the reason we play this game in the first place. It’s to win, and sometimes it takes 6 months to achieve that goal.

Just by virtue of the fact that I’m still glued to the boxscores this late in the season must mean that I’ve done something right. I think.