There are quite a few times in an FBL season when a win feels like a loss, and vice versa. Generally this is how it happens: Team A finds itself up big early… let’s say 9-1 on Thursday morning. Then over the next few days, team A loses its mojo and also it’s lead. It’s nothing that team B has done, but rather team A just ceases to perform the same way in the 2nd half of the week as it did in the first half. There could be an injury or 2, there could be some rainouts that take away key games, or it could be that the players on Team A simply despise their manager. Either way, by the time Monday morning rolls rolls around, and Team A finds out that it has won 5-3, it feels like a big… fat… L…
which brings us to…
Week 2 Review
Regulators DEF (sure… whatever) Bounty 5-4-1
Man… The awful thing about this score for Regs is that it absolutely should have been 6-3 AT LEAST. These 2 teams tied Saves (3) and BH won HR by one, but get this… Joel freakin Hanrahan, the so-called closer for the Nationals, got his first 2 save opportunities this week… and blew them both! Joel Hanrahan cost Regs saves and week 2, and may have cost the Red Sox Hanley Ramirez since now the Marlins are like 30-1 and unlikely to move the SS. Stupid Joel Hanrahan. Also, as of late Sunday afternoon, HR were tied 10-10 until Stupid Kyle Farnsworth served up a game winning HR to BH’s Michael Young. How is Kyle Farnsworth still in the majors? He’s awful... Anyway, there were some league records set in this matchup. One by Regs and 2 by BH, both not really something to brag about, and both a direct result of owning Chien-Ming Wang. Now, records have only been kept back to last year, but a record is a record. Regs threw up a K/9 of 11.61, breaking the previous record of 11.32 held by Snot-Dude (week 16 of ’08). Bounty Hunters beat his own worst ERA record with an 8.54 (previous record: 7.17 in week 10 of ‘08) and he broke Karma Kameleons (Total Recallers) worst WHIP record with a 1.88 (previous record of 1.69 in week 9). Bravo.
Stud of the Week: Ian Kinsler is having quite a season so far: 9/2/6/6/.556
Dud of the Week: For the second week in a row… it’s the Wanger! 0/0/61.71/7.29/7.71. Those numbers are really awesome. Alas, with the sad news that Chien-Ming Wang was cut on Sunday, there won’t be a 3rd week in a row of dudness for the Wanger.
Jobu’s Hats for Bats TIED Swine Nine 5-5
The first and third ranked teams after week one clashed in week two, and decided absolutely nothing. The biggest news made by either of these teams came Saturday morning with the posting of a potential commish deal, which Blog absolutely hates for one team. Jobu offered Cameron Maybin and… wait for it… a 3rd round pick to Dude for Adam Lind. Blog would like to put word out that if Jobu feels the need to continue to donate 2010 picks, that the Regs would be happy with a 5th and maybe a 7th. Now, Snot has made his intentions clear for this year. First: acquire young talent that could develop over the year with the intent to trade that talent to a contender for picks. Second: upgrade Snots 2009 picks for better 2010 picks (ie: Team A sends Snot a player and his 4th for a player and Snot’s 5th.) Snot doesn’t need the rest of the league’s help in his mission. Snot doesn’t need 3rd round picks sent to him for a player who was a free agent just 5 days ago!! Was Adam Lind’s week so electric, dynamic, historic that his value went from a 22nd round pick to a 3rd? Really? Sources say that Snot would have sent Lind for Maybin straight up!! Jobu at least should have received another pick coming back. At least it seems apparent that Jobu is selling his 2010 soul for a 2009 title.
Back to this matchup, Swine hit 15 homers (W) but only batted .233 (L). At least Randy Johnson showed up yesterday for Jobu….but man… what a bad trade…
Stud of the Week: Matt Kemp almost took this award with his Sunday alone: 8/2/9/3/.391
Dud of the Week: When a first round pick puts up Alex Rios numbers (2/0/0/0/.182), that usually guarantees Dud honors, but not when a keeper named Brandon Phillips does this: 1/0/1/0/.067. ouchy.
Ryan Howitzers DEF Papi’s Space Cadets 6-4
The second and fourth ranked teams also met up in week 2, and #4 scored the ‘upset’ with a one category victory. That one category may have been saves, where Papi’s 4 closers could only muster 3 saves. For the math challenged out there, that’s less than one save per closer for the week… Papi’s looking at you Mike Gonzalez and Kevin Gregg. Brad Lidge had his 40 something straight saves streak snapped, so we’ll give him a break. There just wasn’t a lot of top shelf pitching in this matchup. One win for RH? That’s pretty bad, but they were still able to take ERA and WHIP. It may be time for Papi’s Space Cadets to change their name to something more relevant like ‘Popup’s Space Cadets’ or ‘The Puny Papi’. Ortiz is in a very bad way right now.
Stud of the Week: Miggy was awesome again, and so was Youk, but any time you get double digits anything from a MI, it’s a good week. Mark DeRosa: 6/2/10/0/.345
Dud of the Week: Tulo, Werth and Granderson all stunk, but the Big Dud is Big Papi: 1/0/1/0/.143. sigh…
Legends DEF Snot-Dude… oh wait… no, my bad… Snot-Dude DEF Legends 6-4
Well this one has to sting. Anytime you lose all 5 offensive categories to the likes of Ethier, Ibanez and Cruz it’s going to sting. The first rematch of the last 2 teams standing in 2008, Legends has to hope that this one doesn’t come back to bite. But still, this was a very solid performance from Snot-Dude considering 1. where he drafted and 2. he doesn’t care about W/L this year. Is Ethier worth a 3rd round pick? Ibanez? Probably not, but they would have made a lot more sense than Adam Lind… Look what you did Jobu! I’m becoming obsessed with denigrating that deal!! Legends sure could have used an SB or 2 from his Shortstops (Rollins/OC), as that was the closest offensive category (6-5). Legends could also use A-rod back asap.
Stud of the Week: Andre Ethier was the 3rd ranked player in yahoo last week (behind Kinsler and Kemp). Ibanez was the 5th. 3rd is better than 5th, so Ethier wins: 8/4/12/0/.391
Dud of the Week: Orlando Cabrera wasn’t very good: 3/0/1/0/.160
WW3B DEF Bobz Boyz 5-4-1
WW3B finally won an offensive category in week 2 (SB 4-3), but it was in the pitching department where they showed some promise and life. solid numbers in W, ERA, WHIP and K/9 gave WW3B some hope after getting throttled in week one by Jobu. BB has the offense clicking nicely, but alas, the Scott Baker experience is slow in getting rolling. BB also was hoping for better starts from his 2 TB aces, Shields and Garza. Lee, Danks, Cueto, Meche, Kershaw and Saunders all posted ERA’s under 2. That’s good by the way. Blog doesn’t want to get his hopes up, but WW3B’s offense could be historic bad. Stay tuned…
Stud of the Week: Had Kershaw gotten the win he deserved from his start (1.29/.29/16.71), it would be him, but without the W, this goes to Mr. Carlos Quentin Sir: 6/5/9/0/.333. That 5 number is pretty big for a week.
Dud of the Week: 3 players hit .100 this week. That’s 2/20 for all 3 of them. Those players are: Prince Fielder, Alexei Ramirez, and Alexi Casilla. Choosing which one of these 3 had the worst week is like choosing which bill needs to be paid first. Yuck. But we here at Blog make hard choices, and we’ll go with Sexei Alexei once again, since Prince at least had 2 R and 3 RBI. Ramirez went 0/0/1/0/.100. Way to step up first rounder!
Hitter of the Week: I’m bias, but Yahoo has him #1, so Blog does too: Ian Kinsler
Pitcher of the Week: I’m bias, but Yahoo has him #1 for pitcher (4 overall), so Blog does too: Zack Greinke (2/0/0.00/1.07/12.21)
Manager of the Week: This week it’s more obvious than last week. Snot-Dude (Stop with the name changing!@!!) gets his first win of the season, and manages not just to sell the Brooklyn bridge, but actually has someone offer to overpay for it!. I can’t promise I’ll be over this by next week.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Snog's! 2010 Report
With the 2010 California Penal League season only a few short quarters away, its important that we keep track of who's doing what in preparation. At this point, the ONLY team that seems at all interested in winning the 2010 CPL Pennant is the current defending champion, Snot on the Ball. Having already moved into a dominant position of control in the first round of the draft (3 picks), and with some of the more impressive keepers in the league (Wright, Reyes, Utley, Lincecum), Snot seems poised to "repeat" his impressive 2008 victory. Word around the water cooler has Snot looking to acquire even MORE draft picks and appears willing to drastically overpay to get them. At this time, Snog! would like to emphasize that Snog! is in no way using this article as an advertisement for Snot on the Ball. That would be unethical. Snog! is merely reporting that Snog! has heard that Snot is currently in the market for draft picks. That's all. Snot, of course, came under some scrutiny this past week when an accusation of intentionally not meeting the league's frustrating, yet entirely necessary, league IP minimum was thrust upon him by a rather bitter, and VERY former league champion. When asked for comment, Snot stated that, "I'd like to quell the rumors started by Blog that I've acted inappropriately in any way. Mostly because I've always wanted to use the word 'quell' and I've never really had the opportunity to do it. It really is a fun word to say!" It is the firm belief of Snog! that the defending CPL champion is a man of the utmost character and integrity and would never act in a way that would be detrimental to the league. Obviously, only those who would associate with Somali pirates would think otherwise!
Week 1 Review 2009
Finally! The first week of the season has come to an end, and to celebrate (or seethe), about how the 2009 CPL Season kicked off. It’s also time to reintroduce Blog’s Weekly Review! I know I know… try to contain your excitement.
Jobu’s Hats for Bats (aka US Navy SEALS) def Total Recallers (aka Somali Pirates) 10-0
There have been 3 previous skunks in the 2+ year history of the CPL. This is the first for Jobu, and certainly the earliest we’ve ever seen one. WW3B (this is a family blog) even had 2 first round picks in the draft, compared to Jobu’s 0. What does this mean? Does it mean that first rounders in this league (6th rounders in other leagues) are over-rated? Does it mean that Jobu just drafted circles around WW3B? Does it mean absolutely nothing since it’s super early? I think there’s some truth in all 3 actually, but back to the point… Jobu THROTTLED WW3B. The only category WW3B had a chance in after Thursday was K/9. Sadly for WW3B, Joe Saunders can’t strike his grandmother out, and her sciatica has been acting up since 1998. 54 runs, 14HR, 10 svs, .95 whip (nice)… those are solid, solid numbers for Jobu. Maybe Jobu’s draft didn’t stink as bad as Blog thought it did… than again… Old Man Johnson was drafted ahead of Gallardo (who took it VERY personally by smashing an Old Man Johnson ‘fast’ ball for a HR) and Greinke. That may end up being a poor decision. Regardless… Jobu’s 10-0, and WW3B is still looking for that first W.
Stud of the Week: Jobu had 3 closers score 3 saves each with top notch %’s, but the stud of the week is the stud of the decade: Prince Albert Pujols: 7/3/9/0/.375
Dud of the Week: Chris Ray’s not closing for the O’s, and he’s pitching like it, but Lastings Milledge (pick # 97) was so bad, he’s now the starting CF of the Syracuse AAA team: 0/0/1/0/.158
Papi’s Space Cadets DEF Shadow of a Snot 9-1
Shadow of a Snot did not meet minimum requirements.
Well, it pays to have a plan. Shadow sold 2009 for a 2008 title. There’s no revelation there, and there are going to be more of these scores going against the defending champ than not (Until Snot plays WW3B). But to miss the minimum IP requirement? Is Shadow throwing categories to make sure there are no playoffs this year? I mean, we can all understand Longball missing the IP requirement… twice… but the commish? Sounds fishy… there was even a pre-emptive posting saying oops! Dumb me! I don’t buy it… Anyway, Papi’s team hit MUCH better than its name sake (who is done). 55/15/63/4/.316?? sheesh. The RBI record for a week in 2008 was 64 (2x’s by Legends). The pitching wasn’t great on either side, but it was much less great for Shadow. Not that it mattered anyway since the terrible 8 transactions a week rule cost Shadow all the pitching categories.
Stud of the Week: Evan Longoria does not believe in your Sophomore Slump: 5/5/10/1/.481
Dud of the Week: There were quite a few not good performers here for Snot, but for many reasons, Jason Motte takes the award this week. At least he got to try to close ONE game in the bigs! 0/0/15.43/3.00/11.57
Legends DEF Bounty Hunters 6-3-1
The 2008 First Loser celebrated their first week in the CAN Division with a nice victory over BH. Blog would like to take this moment to again congratulate BH on winning the VAFL championship this year. Good thing, because looking at the BH roster… lets just say the title streak will probably end at 1. Legends somehow managed to finish 2nd in 2008 without trading any 2009… bizarre… how does that happen? Anyway, the numbers for both teams in this matchup weren’t super duper. .269 won average. 4.08 won ERA. Both teams tied with 9 home runs. Those aren’t going to get it done most weeks. 8 wins (BH) and a 9.4 K/9 (Legends) will get it done… and they did… get it done…
Stud of the Week: Ummm… welll… Figgins did get 5 SB, winning the category by himself, but a .263 average? Well that did beat BH too… ok I guess it’s Figgins: 7/0/1/5/.263
Dud of the Week: Ladies and Gentlemen… your #3 starter for the New York Yankees… The Korean Konqueror… Chien-Ming Wang! 0/0/17.18/3.27/0.00. And guess what! Wanger is in the running for this award 2 weeks in a row!
Swine Nine DEF Bobz Boyz 8-1-1
First of all, this score should be 7-1-2, but the Boyz committed a rookie sin in their sophomore year: They left James Shields (who, if you don’t know, is pretty good), on their bench Sunday. Shields secured a win for his team and this should have tied Swine with 5 wins a piece. Of course, there is this quirky rule that requires a player to be active for his stats to count. It sounds Communist to me, but so be it, Swine wins wins, 5-4. Swine’s plan was throw all his eggs into the 2009 basket, and so far, the basket’s looking pretty good. That pitching staff is either going to be very, very dominant, or very, very DL’d. Except for the wife beating bully Bret Myers. He’s terrible healthy or injured.
Stud of the Week: Hanley played like the man he is, but man, Johan Santana was electric: 1/0/0.71/0.87/14.21.
Dud of the Week: Sexei Alexei Ramirez sure doesn’t like to play in the cold: 2/0/2/0/.150
Fine… last but not least…
Ryan Howitzers DEF Regulators 7-2-1
Ouch. What a crummy way to start the season. Getting blown out by a flippin rookie… We almost had an Easter Day Miracle there early as Regs got close in 6 categories he ended up losing, but it was squelched by a lot of poor play later in the day. Of course, there already was an Easter Day Miracle a long time ago, it’s kind of the whole reason for Easter, so it’s probably a good thing the comeback didn’t happen: Blog may have gotten carried away. The Howitzers were solid across the board. Very tight ERA and WHIP numbers combined with just enough runs, rbi, sb, avg and saves made for a nicely balanced week. That fantasy stalwart Derek Lowe got things kicked off with that 2 hitter opening night. Way to step up Philly. Turds. RH only scored 3 saves this week, but it was enough as Regs could only muster 2. It’s hard to get a save for the Nationals when the Nationals havent’ won a game yet. yuck.
Stud of the Week: Miguel Cabrera would sure look good in a Sox uni… 5/3/10/0/.520
Dud of the Week: JJ Hardy… JJ Hardy… JJ Hardy… JJ Hardy… What does the JJ stand for? It stands for SUPER TERRIBLE SHORTSTOP. Trust me, it does. 1/0/0/0/.059
Week One Player of the Week: Evan Longoria is the early pick for MVP.
Week One Pitcher of the Week: Maybe Lester for Johan Santana wouldn’t have been such a bad deal for the Sawx?
Week One Manager of the Week: I think it’s pretty unanimous that this one goes to the US Navy SEALS. Job(u) well done boys.
Jobu’s Hats for Bats (aka US Navy SEALS) def Total Recallers (aka Somali Pirates) 10-0
There have been 3 previous skunks in the 2+ year history of the CPL. This is the first for Jobu, and certainly the earliest we’ve ever seen one. WW3B (this is a family blog) even had 2 first round picks in the draft, compared to Jobu’s 0. What does this mean? Does it mean that first rounders in this league (6th rounders in other leagues) are over-rated? Does it mean that Jobu just drafted circles around WW3B? Does it mean absolutely nothing since it’s super early? I think there’s some truth in all 3 actually, but back to the point… Jobu THROTTLED WW3B. The only category WW3B had a chance in after Thursday was K/9. Sadly for WW3B, Joe Saunders can’t strike his grandmother out, and her sciatica has been acting up since 1998. 54 runs, 14HR, 10 svs, .95 whip (nice)… those are solid, solid numbers for Jobu. Maybe Jobu’s draft didn’t stink as bad as Blog thought it did… than again… Old Man Johnson was drafted ahead of Gallardo (who took it VERY personally by smashing an Old Man Johnson ‘fast’ ball for a HR) and Greinke. That may end up being a poor decision. Regardless… Jobu’s 10-0, and WW3B is still looking for that first W.
Stud of the Week: Jobu had 3 closers score 3 saves each with top notch %’s, but the stud of the week is the stud of the decade: Prince Albert Pujols: 7/3/9/0/.375
Dud of the Week: Chris Ray’s not closing for the O’s, and he’s pitching like it, but Lastings Milledge (pick # 97) was so bad, he’s now the starting CF of the Syracuse AAA team: 0/0/1/0/.158
Papi’s Space Cadets DEF Shadow of a Snot 9-1
Shadow of a Snot did not meet minimum requirements.
Well, it pays to have a plan. Shadow sold 2009 for a 2008 title. There’s no revelation there, and there are going to be more of these scores going against the defending champ than not (Until Snot plays WW3B). But to miss the minimum IP requirement? Is Shadow throwing categories to make sure there are no playoffs this year? I mean, we can all understand Longball missing the IP requirement… twice… but the commish? Sounds fishy… there was even a pre-emptive posting saying oops! Dumb me! I don’t buy it… Anyway, Papi’s team hit MUCH better than its name sake (who is done). 55/15/63/4/.316?? sheesh. The RBI record for a week in 2008 was 64 (2x’s by Legends). The pitching wasn’t great on either side, but it was much less great for Shadow. Not that it mattered anyway since the terrible 8 transactions a week rule cost Shadow all the pitching categories.
Stud of the Week: Evan Longoria does not believe in your Sophomore Slump: 5/5/10/1/.481
Dud of the Week: There were quite a few not good performers here for Snot, but for many reasons, Jason Motte takes the award this week. At least he got to try to close ONE game in the bigs! 0/0/15.43/3.00/11.57
Legends DEF Bounty Hunters 6-3-1
The 2008 First Loser celebrated their first week in the CAN Division with a nice victory over BH. Blog would like to take this moment to again congratulate BH on winning the VAFL championship this year. Good thing, because looking at the BH roster… lets just say the title streak will probably end at 1. Legends somehow managed to finish 2nd in 2008 without trading any 2009… bizarre… how does that happen? Anyway, the numbers for both teams in this matchup weren’t super duper. .269 won average. 4.08 won ERA. Both teams tied with 9 home runs. Those aren’t going to get it done most weeks. 8 wins (BH) and a 9.4 K/9 (Legends) will get it done… and they did… get it done…
Stud of the Week: Ummm… welll… Figgins did get 5 SB, winning the category by himself, but a .263 average? Well that did beat BH too… ok I guess it’s Figgins: 7/0/1/5/.263
Dud of the Week: Ladies and Gentlemen… your #3 starter for the New York Yankees… The Korean Konqueror… Chien-Ming Wang! 0/0/17.18/3.27/0.00. And guess what! Wanger is in the running for this award 2 weeks in a row!
Swine Nine DEF Bobz Boyz 8-1-1
First of all, this score should be 7-1-2, but the Boyz committed a rookie sin in their sophomore year: They left James Shields (who, if you don’t know, is pretty good), on their bench Sunday. Shields secured a win for his team and this should have tied Swine with 5 wins a piece. Of course, there is this quirky rule that requires a player to be active for his stats to count. It sounds Communist to me, but so be it, Swine wins wins, 5-4. Swine’s plan was throw all his eggs into the 2009 basket, and so far, the basket’s looking pretty good. That pitching staff is either going to be very, very dominant, or very, very DL’d. Except for the wife beating bully Bret Myers. He’s terrible healthy or injured.
Stud of the Week: Hanley played like the man he is, but man, Johan Santana was electric: 1/0/0.71/0.87/14.21.
Dud of the Week: Sexei Alexei Ramirez sure doesn’t like to play in the cold: 2/0/2/0/.150
Fine… last but not least…
Ryan Howitzers DEF Regulators 7-2-1
Ouch. What a crummy way to start the season. Getting blown out by a flippin rookie… We almost had an Easter Day Miracle there early as Regs got close in 6 categories he ended up losing, but it was squelched by a lot of poor play later in the day. Of course, there already was an Easter Day Miracle a long time ago, it’s kind of the whole reason for Easter, so it’s probably a good thing the comeback didn’t happen: Blog may have gotten carried away. The Howitzers were solid across the board. Very tight ERA and WHIP numbers combined with just enough runs, rbi, sb, avg and saves made for a nicely balanced week. That fantasy stalwart Derek Lowe got things kicked off with that 2 hitter opening night. Way to step up Philly. Turds. RH only scored 3 saves this week, but it was enough as Regs could only muster 2. It’s hard to get a save for the Nationals when the Nationals havent’ won a game yet. yuck.
Stud of the Week: Miguel Cabrera would sure look good in a Sox uni… 5/3/10/0/.520
Dud of the Week: JJ Hardy… JJ Hardy… JJ Hardy… JJ Hardy… What does the JJ stand for? It stands for SUPER TERRIBLE SHORTSTOP. Trust me, it does. 1/0/0/0/.059
Week One Player of the Week: Evan Longoria is the early pick for MVP.
Week One Pitcher of the Week: Maybe Lester for Johan Santana wouldn’t have been such a bad deal for the Sawx?
Week One Manager of the Week: I think it’s pretty unanimous that this one goes to the US Navy SEALS. Job(u) well done boys.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Double Oye
"Twins right-hander Scott Baker was placed on the 15-day disabled list Thursday with shoulder stiffness and will miss his scheduled opening day start."
Down goes Baker!
Down goes Baker!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
