NLD 39 - Yep, still going strong

Joe, I will do what I can to disrupt things in these last 6 games. However, I have been grossly ineffective against either of you two teams.

It looks like I will finish where my team deserves to be in the standings. Wait 'til next year!

Joe, I will do what I can to disrupt things in these last 6 games. However, I have been grossly ineffective against either of you two teams.

It looks like I will finish where my team deserves to be in the standings. Wait 'til next year!

Dang it Spider! You only won one when I needed you to sweep!

Niners has clinched the division dang it. We just waited too long to wake up from our torpor and finally play (again) like we should have all season. I'm really not sure what happened during that stretch. It was weird.

Still have a *chance* to catch Big A, but need MG to sweep Big A and for us to sweep the Spider man.

Not likely. Dang.

We have, however, "clinched" the 5th best record. Whoop-de-do. It is also likely that we will finish with the fourth best run diff and Pythag. Just didn't win those one runners (-3) compared to NP (+9) and Big A (+11). Man I would love to have a team that actually won a ton of one run games. I must just do something wrong to rarely get a team like that.

The Moose kinda limped into clinching a playoff spot (just 1 game ahead of Big A for the division lead). (Joe, thankfully, the Moose don't play Big A in the final series, so if I rest my starters it won't affect you).

If this was a real life story, I think it would say that a banged up Moose team barely got it done, and will now enjoy some rest for their injury-prone players nursing injuries. (In fact, 2 starters are down - Lind and Santana).

I feel like I played the game system to get a good result down the stretch. (I'm a little bit sheepish to say this). When Pomeranz got injured for 15 games just at the 3/4 mark, HAL showed my worst-performing reliever (Machi) as the starter in Pomeranz' absence. Instead of cutting Pomeranz, I cut Machi (and Ziegler, as well as a couple of batters), and picked up a couple more good relievers (O'Day and Storen).

Not only did they perform well down the stretch, but HAL revised his starter replacement to Cecil. Cecil was brilliant, allowing just 4 earned runs in 3 starts, including (unrealistically) a complete game. Cecil continued his late-season brilliance in a few more relief appearances. That stretch saw him pitch 23 IP, with 13 hits and 30 K's, including the relief appearances. And just 4 earned runs.

My highest win total for any pitcher was just 12 wins. Cecil tied for the most wins, going 12-4, with 2 wins down the stretch. Other relievers' wins in the last 1/4 were Storen (4), O'Day (2), and Furbush (2).

Also notable was Anibal Sanchez, who salvaged a brutal season with 6 consecutive quality starts to finish the season, going 3-0 down the stretch.

The team concept of trying to out-single/double/triple opponents ended successfully, in terms of run differential. However, as I noted in a previous post, I believe I was lucky with fewer than expected injuries for key hitters. (I had provided for this with a couple of redundant hitters on the bench. One of these - Coghlan - got cut when I upgraded my bullpen).

Still, it was an interesting experiment that worked out well.

Well, we know the playoff teams now, but who's winning the West ist still up. Votto, sporting a .199 BA, is hurt, so Mauer (a 3 ) will man 1B in the semis for us.

Looking at our season, props are going to King Felix und Johnny C. (each with more than 300 IP!), to Hamels (18 wins) and Joe Smith ( .66 WHIP, not sure I've heard of this guy before ) and basically to the whole pitching staff .

On the hitting side .... mmmhhhmm Mesoraco and J. Upton punded it out (23 and 21 HR), Pedroia and Cain played excellent defense, Den Dekker and Kelly were there when we needed them, while I expected more (runs) from Heyward and less (errors) from Escobar. We just barely hit enough to let our pitching come through.

Well, we know the playoff teams now, but who's winning the West ist still up. Votto, sporting a .199 BA, is hurt, so Mauer (a 3 ) will man 1B in the semis for us.

Looking at our season, props are going to King Felix und Johnny C. (each with more than 300 IP!), to Hamels (18 wins) and Joe Smith ( .66 WHIP, not sure I've heard of this guy before ) and basically to the whole pitching staff .

On the hitting side .... mmmhhhmm Mesoraco and J. Upton punded it out (23 and 21 HR), Pedroia and Cain played excellent defense, Den Dekker and Kelly were there when we needed them, while I expected more (runs) from Heyward and less (errors) from Escobar. We just barely hit enough to let our pitching come through.

Hey Big A, just so you know this - I think you still have a magic number of 1 - you still need one more win, or 1 loss for Joe. You haven't quite clinched it yet. Just so you know.

Well, we know the playoff teams now, but who's winning the West ist still up. Votto, sporting a .199 BA, is hurt, so Mauer (a 3 ) will man 1B in the semis for us.

Looking at our season, props are going to King Felix und Johnny C. (each with more than 300 IP!), to Hamels (18 wins) and Joe Smith ( .66 WHIP, not sure I've heard of this guy before ) and basically to the whole pitching staff .

On the hitting side .... mmmhhhmm Mesoraco and J. Upton punded it out (23 and 21 HR), Pedroia and Cain played excellent defense, Den Dekker and Kelly were there when we needed them, while I expected more (runs) from Heyward and less (errors) from Escobar. We just barely hit enough to let our pitching come through.

Hey Big A, just so you know this - I think you still have a magic number of 1 - you still need one more win, or 1 loss for Joe. You haven't quite clinched it yet. Just so you know.

That's right Big A, don't go counting your chickens just yet. We'll be posting your quotes on the bulletin board for a bit more motivation!

So Joe still way down on Wada? I'd say he did pretty well for a #5 starter, he outperformed Dickey my #4 who costs 1.5mil more. He's not an ace I'll grant you, but as a money saver #5 He's done well for me in a couple of leagues.

I also credit jettisoning Qunitana for Roark though he slowed down in the win dept after a VERY hot start, with helping me get into the post season.

Just happy I can sit Tulo this last series and hope I can dodge the injury bullet in the playoffs.

Unfortunately, I've had this type of team before, with high injury guys in key positions and it seems if they dodge the injury bullet in the regular season they tend to get dinged in the playoffs, hope that doesn't hold in this league.( Fingers crossed)

So Joe still way down on Wada? I'd say he did pretty well for a #5 starter, he outperformed Dickey my #4 who costs 1.5mil more. He's not an ace I'll grant you, but as a money saver #5 He's done well for me in a couple of leagues.

I also credit jettisoning Qunitana for Roark though he slowed down in the win dept after a VERY hot start, with helping me get into the post season.

Just happy I can sit Tulo this last series and hope I can dodge the injury bullet in the playoffs.

Unfortunately, I've had this type of team before, with high injury guys in key positions and it seems if they dodge the injury bullet in the regular season they tend to get dinged in the playoffs, hope that doesn't hold in this league.( Fingers crossed)

Wada? Outstanding v LHB. Awesome. V RHB very mediocre. .269 .226 .486 split on his card. He put up approximately a .314 264 450. That means he was pretty lucky in terms of fielding behind him and in extra base hits. He faced 75% RHB which I also think is lucky because most teams only play 1 or 2 LHB v LHP. 9L's in a 100 mil league should get creamed. You got very lucky with him.

Statistically Dickey was better versus 8 of the 11 teams with Wada only being better against Hawk and Semper and even against Spider.

It's a dice game, better to be lucky than good. You were +8 in one run games, we were -4 that's a 12 game difference. You beat me by 4 games. Played the board game for too many years. I know how the dice plays out in one run games.

100 mil leagues are always a crap shoot because there isn't much excuse not to be at least decent.

As for us, we could only beat Spider once and Big A only won once, but that was more than enough. Lost a heartbreaker in the first game, but got shut down by Cobb and Mendez in game two despite getting 9 hits so the heartbreaker didn't matter.

Our #3 draft pick Wainwright lost that game, going 6 IP giving up 4 runs and finishing 14-21 with a 3.86 ERA. Not exactly what you expect from a 8.06 pitcher. He was disappointed as was Gray with a 4.17 ERA. I couldn't get enough IP out of Neshek (despite many efforts) and he blew 9 saves vice 17 saves. Ouch. Offensively Rosario put up a .210 .236 .429 split v lhp which is hard to believe given his card. Harrison hit only 266 v RHP and Betts had a .240 .319 .339 slash line overall versus a .291 .368 .444 in real life. This playing in a 1-17 single park.

On the bright side, Samardzija was our surrogate ace with 21 wins and a 3.12 ERA. Even so, he was only 15th in ERA although he was tied with Felix for the league lead in wins. Sanchez was good with 31 saves in 35 attempts and a 1.99 ERA and 1.06 whip. Cano was .299 .348 .396. Low in power, but a 1-4 bphr park and he went 3 for 11 in bphrs. We went only 21% whereas opponents went 24% on bphrs so, probably a bit unlucky there. Escobar ripped LHP, that was a positive. Gomez was beter v LHP so go figure. Werth wasn't as good as should be expected v LHP. Wieter was about as expected. Given our high bpsi park, you would have expected a bit higher numbers maybe, but given the 100 mil league and the quality pitching it's hard to say. We finished essentially tied for second in runs scored, second in average and OB, and 4th in slugging, SB, and HRs so maybe it was just a pitching league.

Obviously we were really close to making the playoffs so just a couple of breaks here or there make the difference. <sigh>

Here are the first 8 picks in the next draft:
ArrylT 66
nythawk129921 70
MichaelGrammes 74
Spider 67 75

Semper Gumby 79
dalekeener 81
superflymacdaddyjuice 82
joethejet 86

The west is TBD of course. three teams had 90 wins so tie breakers will come into play unless Big A loses in the first round.

(no order implied below)
BigAlric 89
Stoney18 90
Ninersphan 90
gbrookes 90


Congrats and good luck to all the playoff teams! May the best team win!

That means he was pretty lucky in terms of fielding behind him

I take exception to this statement, I DRAFTED a great defense behind him, plain and simple, that wasn't luck, that was by design.

1b- 2e5
2b 1e10
3b 2e19
SS 1e8
LF 1(-3)e8
CF 2(-2)e2
RF 2(-2)e1


That ain't luck

Sure he had a good defensive team behind him. My point is that his number were BETTER than if you rolled on his card EVERY SINGLE TIME


AND

his defense gave up NOTHING AT ALL PERIOD.

That, my friend, is luck.