Fantasy Baseball, 50 Games Down

Oh how the mighty have fallen, but for real this time. The past ten games have been a real roller coaster of emotions for Andrew. Andrew's once dominant pitching staff has turned into a liability (even though I would love to swap staffs) as his workhorses are breaking down. Andrew fell from the heights to settle at third, behind me, and is now 6.5 back from glory. I think at this rate, if Dan Haren gives up one more HR, he may jump out a window.

Dan Haren takes the mound for Arizona.

Andrew's biggest complaint is his bizarre RBI:HR ratio, he is leading the league in HR but suffers from solo jacks. I put on my thinking cap and delved into some league stats to see if his argument was valid, and sure enough it is! I looked at the MLB team average HR and RBI numbers, then compared Andrew's, mine, and the best team in the league in terms of RBI:HR to see where he stands.

MLB Team Average - 4.59
Trader Dave - 5.27
Bert - 4.00
Andrew - 3.52

So one of two things can happen for Andrew as the season goes on. Either 1) The Law Of Averages is on his side, and over the course of the season he will approach or exceed the MLB Team average, or 2) he will have a comically low RBI:HR ratio. I am rooting for the latter, purely for the comedy.

The biggest news for me has been the awakening of my Man Crushes, Troy Tulowitzki and Jon Lester. After both stunk up the first month (mostly Tulo, Lester has been great since starting 0-2 with a 6.23 ERA in four starts) they have found their stride and started carrying my team. Lester has won 5 of his last 6 starts, and Tulo hit 5HR and 8RBI in the last 8 games after hitting 1HR and 16RBI all season.

Oh man, this is the sweetest bathwater ever...

I am currently sitting in second, and couldn't be happier to be in the running. My pitching staff is improving and it looks like I have a chance to win the league by hammering the ball. I assumed I would have to send one of my best players (Tulowitzki, Holliday, or Choo) to someone with pitching (Andrew) sooner or later, but I'm 9 points ahead of the second best offense and my staff is getting better with every non-Harden start. Even with his inning limits Phil Hughes (ugh, I can't believe I'm relying on a Yankee) is giving me a big boost, and the return of Cliff Lee has done wonders for my ERA and WHIP.

Andrew checks in: I've had the misfortune of watching all of my misfortune unfold before my eyes this year, as I re-upped my MLB Extra Innings package with Comcast this year.  As an aside, my summer is slipping away from me as I spend my nights in front of the TV swearing loudly, instead of outside enjoying the long days, but then again, this is NorCal, where summer doesn't really start until August.  Anyway, my team has been maddening.  There were some genuinely boneheaded moves made at the draft that are bending me over right now (Nolasco instead of Cain? Check.  Drafting somebody outside of your strategy just because he was cheap [Vlad], then panicking and using a supplemental move to drop him before the season even starts, then watching Vlad tear the cover off the ball for two straight months?  Check.  Wasting another supp move on dropping Jason Frasor?  Check.
But, my point about MLB Extra Innings is this: sometimes, the numbers do lie, and I have seen just about every little thing go against me this year.  Errors on infielders being ruled as hits, strikeouts being ruled as checked swings (leading to blown saves), grounders bouncing over first basemen's heads, bloops falling for doubles, etc, etc.  Then there was Ethier and his freak finger injury, Votto sitting for a solid week with a sore neck without going on the DL, Napoli starting the first three weeks of the season on the bench, and the complete disappearance of Jake Peavy.  Let's not even talk about Dan Haren.  On top of all this, my bread and butter strategy of accumulating things that cannot be taken away from you and are, for the most part, within the batter's control (BBs) has let me down.  One of my favorite fantasy guys that seems to land in my lap for $1 every year, Nick Swisher, insists on getting base hits instead of walking.  WTF?!  If I had wanted hits I would've drafted Ichiro or Prado, but I didn't.  Where is this .250 average and 90 BBs I keep hearing so much about? 


Current Status
Bert - "Obviously you're not a golfer."
Andrew - "This is a very complicated case, Maude. You know, a lotta ins, lotta outs, lotta what-have-yous. And, uh, lotta strands to keep in my head, man. Lotta strands in old Duder's head. Luckily I'm adhering to a pretty strict, uh, drug regimen to keep my mind limber."