This was a hit or miss week for the ol' fantasy squads. Let's see how it went.
MegaLeague: Last Week 18-23-4 (5/5 Division, 15/20 overall)
So, I didn't win, but I didn't get killed. In commemoration of Dontrelle Willis' return to the major leagues, let's call that progress, at least until it becomes a pattern. This week ended in a tough 3-4-2 loss, that actually bumped me up to 3rd in my division and 13th place overall. Generally abysmal pitching killed me and I couldn't pull through to get that last RBI or SB to break a deadlock in those categories.
A Gold Star goes to Michael Young for his .500 OBP and 1 SB. He was consistently solid all week. In fact, so was Arod, who's much maligned return netted 2 HR, 4RBI and a .444 OBP (8 walks!) to help my team on the offensive side. His return stands to be a big boost to this squad.
No Thanks To Andy Sonnanstine and Armando Galarraga. These two pitchers each had two starts this week. Sonnanstine rewarded me with 12 ER, 4K, and a 14.09 ERA. In turn, I rewarded him with a place on the waiver wire. So long. Galarraga's 2 starts yielded only 6.1 Innings (*gasp*) and included 10 ER, 4K and a 14.21 ERA. Super! He'll be sitting on the bench this week as we wait for him to return to form. I'm not expecting Cy Galarraga like we saw at the start of the season, but I wasn't looking for Chan Ho Galarraga either. Somewhere in between would be nice.
Work League: Last Week 39-30-1, 4th place 1.5GB
Domination of the league's commissioner was the story of this week. I was on the good side of a 10-4-0 bootstomping, despite some more poor pitching. Bless the man who created a league that is heavily skewed towards the offensive categories.
This win pushed me back into a tie for 1st place, a nice place to be now that more than 20% of the season is behind us.
A Gold Star goes to Raul Ibanez and the following line:
9 R, 4 HR, 12 RBI, 1 SB, 26 TB, .481 AVG, 1.539 OPSImpressive.
No Thanks To: Gil Meche, yet another early season stud to fall to the law of averages. A 10.38 ERA/1.85 WHIP and only 1 K is not going to cut it my man. Time for you to Greinkeize yourself a little bit.
Blog League: Last Week 1820 Points (+208), 1st Place
The points flowed freely this week thanks to some stellar pitching by the majority of my starters. None moreso than the Doc himself.
A Gold Star goes to Roy Halladay, who threw down 60 points, a team record for points in a week. My main man Curtis Granderson added a cool 30 and Miguel Cabrera 32 on the offensive side as the Tigers had a hot and cold week (sweeping, swept, sweeping again in last 9 games).
No Thanks To a pair of pitchers who underperformed. Jonathan Sanchez and Chris Volstad each ended up at -1, which really, is not that bad considering the alternatives. Jose Lopez only put up 5 points at 2B, which certainly needs to improve, however.
In all, the 1st place lead grew as the 2200 point threshold was cracked. I have a feeling that this buffer will be much needed as players start to cool off over the next few months.
So there we have it, a good week on balance considering I moved up or stayed at the top of the standings in each league. Things need to improve in the MegaLeague, but we are into our second "round robin" payout schedule now, so this is an ok start on that. To wrap it up:
MegaLeague 21-27-6, 13/20 Overall, 3/5 Division
Work League 49-34-1, T-1st
Blog League 2206 Points, 1st (+270)
Good luck with all of your teams this week, and be remember not to over-manage.
