In what was an otherwise strong fantasy week, I was reminded of the harsh mistress that is the head-to-head league. In these, freak weather storms and other such acts of God conspire to sink your chances. Or, in a more common situation, some badass player has a terrible, terrible week and you lose your head to head matchup. The best team does not always win, but such is life.
MegaLeague: Last Week: 4-4-1 (T-10 out of 20, T-2 out of 5 in Division)
Who postpones a night game at 4pm? Well, the Cubs and Cardinals apparently. Now, I didn't read the news. Maybe there was a monsoon or some sort of local catastrophe, but that game screwed me big time. Why, might you ask? I had Ted Lilly starting and my opponent and I were tied with 3 Quality Stars apiece. We get a max of 6 starts per week and I chose Volstad and Lilly for my Sunday. Volstad blew it and my hopes shifted to Lilly. All the while, Rick Porcello shut down the Mariners from my bench. Managerially, I would have made the same decision every time, which is why I'm blaming the weather.
Week 2 becomes a narrow loss to a division rival of 3-4-2.
A Gold Star goes to my collective pitching staff of Lilly, Volstad, Armando Galarraga, Andy Sonnanstine, Jonathan Broxton, Heath Bell and JP Howell, who gave me 3 Quality Starts, a 1.46 ERA and 5 SV+HD, leading to utter dominance in the latter two categories. Michael Young and his 3 HR, 5 RBI and 2 Net SB (SBN) were a nice boost too.
No Thanks To: Alexei Ramirez. Before the season, I made two trades that brought over Adam Lind (and Mark DeRosa) and Alexei Ramirez. This week Alexei Ramirez repaid me with a .143 OBP, 1 RBI, and 3K. Sweet. Carlos Gomez didn't strike out but had a .182 OBP and -1 SBN to assist (had I not benched him today, an additional -1 SBN would have been tacked on). You two are like peas in a pod.
Work League: Last Week: 10-3-1 (3rd out of 12)
Coming of a strong week, albeit against last year's cellar dweller (I was 11/12, thank you very much), this week I faced the 2nd place team, who I am statistically tied with but is in second because he has one fewer loss and two more ties.
So, how'd that turn out? Pretty well actually, to the tune of a 10-4 victory. Early offensive dominance gave way to a close win in a few categories (RBI: 45-41, SB: 9-8) but convincing margins in the other categories (R: 59-35, HR: 16-11, TB: 166-124, AVG: .329-.252, OPS: .962-.761) show that the best team clearly won. The pitching was less stellar, as I was dominated in Wins (1-5), Ks (29-57) and QS (2-4), but my 7 Saves, 3.41 ERA and 1.24 WHIP knotted the pitching categories at 3 apiece.
A Gold Star goes to Raul Ibanez, who gave me the following line:
7 R, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 1 SB, 24 TB, .550 AVG, 1.79 OPS
Cycle-hitting Orlando Hudson and Ryan Ludwick's 3 HR/10 RBI/21 TB performance are worth mention as well.
No Thanks To: Curtis Granderson. a .133 AVG and .266 OPS aren't helping anybody out buddy, and the 2 R, 1 RBI and 2 TB are all you can hope for from such a sad performance. Maybe calling you out ON A BLOG DEDICATED TO YOU, will light a bit of a fire.
Also not helping was alleged fantasy stud Hanley Ramirez, who batted .167 with 7 Total Bases. Killing me.
Blog League Last week: 430 Points (2nd Place, -19)
Wow. This was ugly. Oh, not for me, mind you, but the rest of the league that has to put up with me. It was a massacre. In my experience with fantasy baseball, success is fleeting and the season is oh, so long, so I'll enjoy this one.
My slim deficit heading into the week exploded into a 114 Point Lead.
A Gold Star goes to Ryan Ludwick (36 points) and Michael Young (35 points) who were rock-solid all week long.
No Thanks To Justin Verlander (3 Points) and Manny Parra (1 Point). Fellas, you were outscored by Curtis Granderson and he was awful (see above). Pull yourselves together.
So that's it for this week's fantasy wrap. This season has started off much better than years previous, with one glaring exception, and my overall standings at the end of week two are:
MegaLeague: 14/20, 4/5 Division, 7-8-3
Work League: 1st Place, 20-7-1 (+2.5)
Blog League: 1st Place, +114
Good luck with all of your teams this week, and be careful not to over manage
