Fantasy Baseball, 80 Games Down

Well, the All Star break is finally upon us. With half the season behind us we have a decent picture of how things are going to go down the stretch. The 1st place team is still comfortably in first with 66.5 points, 5 ahead of me and 9 ahead of Andrew. Things look bleak for the rest of the league with 4th place at 52.5 points, we have a smaller league than usual (9 teams) so we changed the rules so the top three get prize money. Being “safely” in the money isn’t comforting to Andrew who isn’t happy with anything but the title, typical German.

The past 10 games have been cruel to Andrew, but he retains some optimism that the Baseball Gods will work their magic on the 1^st place team. He may be right, but it’s going to be hard to knock him off his pitching perch. The current leader has been riding high on the league’s best staff by far (35.5 points), which has been held aloft by super-buy Ubaldo Jimenez (14-1, 1.83ERA), super-rookie Jaime Garcia (7-4, 2.27ERA), and first half monsters Josh Johnson (8-3, 1.83ERA) and Matt Garza (9-5, 4.05ERA). Aside from Javier Vasquez’s start and Garza’s recent ERA explosion his staff has been solid all season, I’m not 100% clear where Andrew sees room for a fall so I’m not all that hopeful. He is going to have to deal with an injury to V-Mart, but he has the studly Cano-Longoria combo to fall back on.

Andrew’s hitters have started to cool off, and his pitching staff is not what it was to start the season. Jake Peavy has had some good starts, but he also has had a meltdown here and there. Aside from Adam Wainwright, who I covet, Andrew’s arms have been all over the place. Francisco Liriano is starting to plummet back to earth, and Dan Haren could be moving into his dangerous post-break slump. If history has anything to say, Haren’s second half numbers could be brutal considering his start. Who knows, Andrew has enormous upside in his staff and has traded his way into a three closer (Lidge-Gregg-Bailey) rotation which will help him gain ground in the saves department.

Haren watches one of his 19 homers given up, well on his way to a career worst.

My team is now on the verge of a complete implosion. I can already see my team bursting into flames as my best performer, Shin-Soo Choo, is joining Tulo on the DL for 6-8 weeks. I still have the best offense in the league, but only by 2.5 points. Losing Tulo and Choo Choo ends my dream of hammering the hell out of the ball, but a lot of my best hitters have been ice cold (Holliday-Upton-Markakis) and I’ve had to sit and watch my totals drop. My catchers (Barajas-Y.Molina) have been horrible lately, but the two headed monster of Youk-Zimmerman has been keeping me afloat. I’ve done everything I can with my pitching staff, but it’s not working out all that well just yet. Mat Latos has been awesome, Greinke gave me 2 wins in a row after the poor guy went 2-8 through 15 starts, but Pelfrey, Sanchez, and Hughes have all been getting shelled lately. At least they go 5+, strike out 5 or so, and don’t walk everyone (I’m looking at you Rich Harden) so it could be worse.

Padres and Royals and Mets, Oh shit.

Current Status

Bert – So he says, “My son can't hold a job, my daughter's married to a fuckin' loser, and I got a rash on my ass so bad I can't hardly siddown. But you know me. I can't complain.”

Andrew - I'm sorry, I wasn't listening.

Mid-Season Thoughts

Yeah, but what I meant was…

Vernon Wells. Wow, were we way off on him. Even if he does nothing for the rest of the season he was well worth the $1. Maybe once his steroid cycle ends, err, I mean his good luck, he may even out. He is well on pace for a career year and has already made our predictions look horrible.

Chipper Jones. So that slump last year wasn’t a fluke, huh, well at least I didn’t buy him. Chipper’s decline has been so sudden and drastic, its tough to see a solid player like him completely melt down.

Calmer Than You

$1 Closers. I am SO happy that I spent $1 on Billy Wagner and Frank Francisco. I had to dump Francisco for Neftali Feliz (who leads the AL with 21 saves) so it wasn’t perfect, but had I thrown down cash for a Broxton or Papelbon I am 100% sure I would not be where I am.

Matt Cain. Andrew and I sat in stunned disbelief when he went for $10. I think Andrew still has nightmares about this because he had TWO chances to get him for that price after the original winner didn’t have the salary space. Ubaldo Jimenez went for the same price (I backed off after spending all my money on Lester and Lee), but we had no idea he would be the best pitcher in baseball. Cain has a deceptive 6-7 record, but his 76K, 2.93ERA, and 1.14WHIP make him a major steal at $10. I’m not sure when Andrew will get over this, maybe never.