What the heck am I doing here?

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.

What Was That About Breathing and Stuff?

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.

The Four “P’s” and Shandler

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?

Lawr’s a nice guy.

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.

you guys lost?
you guys lost?

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

no safe lead

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.

this makes no sense…

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?

Sub Zero

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.

that you Kinsler?
that you Kinsler?

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