Minor League Ball Fantasy League Update
I am on the mend and should have some regular content for you later this afternoon. In the meantime, here is the most recent update for the Minor League Ball Fantasy League, brought to you by Boomer, owner of the Velvet Fog.
Week Three finds the Free State Liberators up two notches to seventh place in the 12-team Bob Feller Division. I dumped Gerald Laird and replaced him with Ronnie Paulino at catcher. I've tinkered with the bullpen and now have Manny Delcarmen on board. Second base is now a combination of Brendan Harris and Jerry Hairston, depending on who they are facing, instead of the worthless Kaz Matsui. Starting pitching remains quite strong with a rotation of Beckett/Cain/Randy Wells/Hudson/Duke, with spot starts from Jamie Moyer and Dice K about to come back. You can find standings and follow the league here:
Take it away, Boomer:
Here is Boomer's Update
TEAM OF THE WEEK: Astronomie Domonie - David Haddad
Sometimes when you do a "TEAM OF THE WEEK" you have to make choices. In this case, I could have easily picked Jay Pil's Anything's Possible club. They were the best overall team for the week (266.5 points) & moved up +28.5 points into 4th place. So why aren't they TEAM OF THE WEEK, you ask? Well, The Domonie were the second-best overall team last week at 242 points & moved up a whopping +48 points in the standings... Sure, that only equals 17th place overall & 10th place in the always tough Bob Feller Division but it's a start... Nearly all of the gain came on offense, where the Domonie got dominating (sorry..) performances out of an unlikely pair (Jeremy Hermida & Pedro Feliz!) who combined to go 12-32 with 3 HR & 8 RBI. I know it's still early but one of the things I really like about this league is, just like in real baseball, you really rely on production from non-stars to help you in the standings. For instance, Hermida & Feliz are only currently owned in 14% & 10% of all CBS fantasy leagues right now & only starting in 9% & 4% of leagues respectively.. A few other things didn't hurt The Domonies, like Tulo waking up, Dexter Fowler getting more playing time due to Brad Hawpe's injury (boo hoo..) and that start by David Price.. David is a regular Live Scoring Lot Lizard (a term given to owners who hang around the CBSSports live scoring & comment in the chat room), so it's nice to see one of our own have a great week.
HITTER OF THE WEEK: Michael Bourn - Defenders of Zordon?
Ah, the peculiarities of fantasy baseball... Bourn only had 6 hits in 19 AB's this week (that's .316 AVG) which isn't really that noteworthy in fantasy leagues for one week. He only had one extra base hit & one RBI as well.. So why is he here? Bourn did two things that you have to do in this league extremely well last week: he walked 8 times (.519 OBP) & stole 7 bases without getting caught.. Of course, Michael Bourn's production didn't count this week for reasons we'll get to a bit later...
TOP TEN HITTERS FOR WEEK 3 (new feature! call your mom!)
1. Bourn - 12.49 SGP (standard gains points)
2. Mark Reynolds - Defenders of Zordon (oops.) - 11.92
3. Ryan Braun - The Lollards - 11.83
4. Paulie (!) Konerko - Free State Liberators - 11.78
5. Kelly Johnson - Caballeros Guapos - 11.69
6. Kendry Morales - Sickel Me Longo - 10.66
7. Justin Morneau - Minor Offense - 10.12
8. Andruw Jones - Jake's Snakes - 9.61
9. Corky Remus (aka Colby Rasmus) - Team Name - 9.46
10. Nelson Cruz - The Boomers (great name) - 9.11
PITCHER OF THE WEEK: John Danks - Straight Outta Crumpton Roches
I was in my car driving by myself to the only Chicago Bulls game I've been to since moving to Chicago when I heard on one of the local sports-talk radio shows that the Sox had traded Brandon McCarthy for John Danks & Nick Masset. At the time, Danks was a member of the somewhat dubious "DVD" trio of Texas SP prospects with Thomas Diamond & Edinson Volquez. The reason why I bring this up is the dude from the radio show interviewed Danks that night (right before Christmas) & Danks was absolutely stunned that he had been traded. I'm not sure I've heard an athlete be interviewed live on the radio with more psychic uncertainty than John Danks had that night, being a homegrown Texan & all. Anyways, Danks was great last week in both of his starts. It surprises me that Danks doesn't get more publicity. He's only 25 & he's been good for 3 years now.. In fact, over the past 2 calendar years, Danks's ERA sits at 3.44, 7th best in the American League. He strikes guys out (7.14 K/9 over that span), throws strikes & doesn't give up a lot of HR's, especially considering his home park... What do you think? Is Danks as good as John Lester, another left-hander who's roughly the same age? I think he is.. Just sayin'...
TOP TEN PITCHERS FOR WEEK 3
1. Danks - 9.81 SGP
2. Brad Penny - Amson - 9.62
3. Brandon Morrow - Sickel Me Longo - 8.68
4. Brandon Lyon - Anything's Possible - 8.49
5. Tyler Clippard - Veni Vidi Vici (sigh.) - 8.25
6. Randy Wells - Free State Liberators - 8.20
7. Luke Gregerson - Caballeros Guapos - 7.66
8. Doug Fister - Amson - 7.54
9. Mike Pelfrey - Maxwell's Silver Hammers - 7.52
10. Jason Vargas - Sickel Me Longo - 7.10
THE BUMS WILL ALWAYS LOSE, LEBOWSKI!: Tie - Veni Vedi Vici & Defenders of Zordon.
Third verse, same as the first.
BUM HITTER: Lastings Milledge - The Lollards
Anyone here think Milledge will be some sort of late-bloomer? He's only 25... Still, we've got 1314 MLB PA's to go on here.. I'm not sure. Can we all just blame the Mets for rushing yet another kid through the system & be done with it? Lastings went 2-19 last week but more importantly, he was 0-1 in SB attempts. Word to the wise, if you want to succeed in this league, DON'T GET CAUGHT STEALING..
BOTTOM 10 WORST OWNED HITTERS FOR WEEK 3:
1. Milledge - (-4.22) SGP
2. Hanley Ramirez (!>!>?) - Jake's Snakes - (-3.96)
3. Dustin Pedroia (!@?!?) - The Sloweys - (-3.68)
4. Jonny Gomes - BatCats - (-3.13)
5. Gordo Bacon (aka Gordon Beckham) - Crumpton - (-3.00)
6. Bengie Molina - Astronomie Domonie - (-3.00)
7. Cody Ross - Amson - (-2.96)
8. Grady Sizemore - Veni Vidi Vici - (-2.95)
9. AJ Pierzynski - Jake's Snakes - (-2.93)
10. Jeff Baker - NY Dynasty - (-2.89)
BUM PITCHER: Charlie Morton - Team Name
Bad week to be a Pirate.. Did anyone else see that Berkman liner to Jakubauskas on Saturday? If you haven't seen it, don't.. Honestly, I thought Morton would be OK this year.. 10 ER in 4 IP though? Ouch. There was a discussion question on the Pirates last week. What do you think you would do?
BOTTOM 10 WORST OWNED PITCHERS FOR WEEK 3:
1. Morton - (-3.84) SGP
2. Zach Duke - Free State Liberators - (-3.60)
3. Bronson Arroyo - Minor Offense - (-3.53)
4. Matt Harrison - The Boomers - (-3.50)
5. Joel Hanrahan - JMac Attack - (-2.89)
6. Ryan Rowland-Jingleheimer-Smith - Jake's Snakes - (-2.86)
7. Kyle Lohse - Minor Offense - (-2.55)
8. Tony Pena - BatCats - (-2.47)
9. Cole Hamels - Velvet Fog... - (-2.40)
10. Damaso Marte - NY Dynasty - (-2.35)
Random Anecdote From Watching Too Much Baseball At Work
Watching the Mets-Braves Saturday afternoon, I saw a play that exemplifies why I can't ever truly convert over to a stathead.. In the top of the 3rd with No-Hit John Niese pitching, Troy Glaus hit a routine fly ball out to Angel Pagan in CF.. Pagan lost the ball in the sun & Glaus ends up at second with a double. Is that a real double? Until MLBAM decides to record plays like "single due to ball hitting rock on infield & ball jumps over 2B head" or "lost-in-the-sun double", I can't surrender my soul.. Also, I think the Mets have a fantastic TV booth. Gary Cohen might be the best play-by-play guy on TV, Keith Hernandez & Ron Darling are great as well & on weekends, they bring in Ralph Kiner to chime in for a few innings. Now Kiner's an old guy but he's really lucid & has a great rapport especially with Darling & Hernandez. He mentioned a quote from former Tiger Norm Cash, who apparently said that he owed winning the 1961 batting title to "good beer & a corked bat." Perfect.
LINK FOR THE DOLLAR VALUE LEADERBOARD
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Ag1VzpAooC7GdHozcFlOVDNIMHFIXzZiVVZCSGc0Vnc&hl=en
That's all I got.
Have a great week!
Boomer.
The Velvet FOG...
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