Fantasy Baseball 1st Half Update

Now that the All-Star break is upon us. I thought I'd take a few minutes to summarize the first half of my fantasy baseball season. The first half had some high points and more than a few low points.

As you can see, I'm currently sitting in 7th place with 51 points. I did spend a good deal of May in either 1st or 2nd place. June is when things started to go downhill for me. Beltran got hurt which was a huge blow to my offense. Before he went down his fantasy stats were: .346avg., 40runs, 8HRs, 40RBI, and 11SB. Adrian Gonzalez has 24 homers but is only hitting .250. Pitching is where I'm really struggling. Brandon Webb has been out since the beginning of the season, and there is no timeline for his return. Edinson Volsquez has been out for a while as well. I drafted him high in the draft because I needed that high strikeout pitcher. Because of his injury my team is 7th in strikeouts.

If you look at the actual totals, you'll see that I have quite a lot of ground to cover. I'm behind in strikeouts, saves, ERA, and WHIP. I don't think my starting rotation of Lowe, Jurrjens, Cain, Edwin Jackson, and Volstad is good enough. I might have to make a trade if I want to have any chance of finishing in the money.





I can only hope that the players on my team have a monster second half and that the players on the teams above me do not. There is a lot of baseball to yet to be played. Stay tuned...

Fantasy Baseball Update

I know June isn't over, but so far it has not been a good month for me. I had high hopes at the beginning of the month. I started June in 2nd place and feeling good about my team. As-of this writing, I'm in 6th, 9 points behind the leader. My offense has been in a slump as-of late. Beltran and Span are on the DL and Adrian Gonzalez has cooled down after his hot start. The holds true for my pitching. I finally dropped Dice-K, Lowe, Edwin Jackson, and Jurrjens have not been pitching well. My only bright spot is Matt Cain. He 9-1 with a 2.28 ERA, 76 strikeouts, and a 1.21 WHIP. I think I also have 1 or 2 saves the entire month. There's still a lot of baseball to be played, it's not even the All-Star break yet. I'm hopeful that things will turn around and I can finish in the money.

Fantasy Baseball Update

June is usually the time in a fantasy baseball season where the league settles down and managers begin to ask themselves "what do I need to do win this year." During April and most of May, teams can move up and down the standings on any given day. Case in point, my fantasy team. At the end of April I was in last place. As-of tonight, I am in second place, 2 points out of first place. Considering with how poorly my team started and all of the injuries I had, I'm very happy with how things are going so far.

Offensively, I'm being powered by Joe Mauer, Miguel Cabrera, Adrian Gonzales, and Carlos Beltran. Truthfully, most of my offensive players have been productive. The only disappointment right now would be Vernon Wells. I had a higher hopes for him. Ryan Theriot started off well but is fizzling out recently. Thankfully Jhonny Peralta is hot right now.






Pitching has been a challenge. I've had my share of injuries. At point I had Webb, Dice-K, Wang, Volsquez, and Soria all on the DL. During that time, I managed to pick up some 2nd and 3rd tier pitchers who have been pitching very well such as Jurrjens, Volstad, Edwin Jackson. Matt Cain and Derrek Lowe have pitched really well and Trevor Hoffman is pitching like the "Hells Bells" pitcher we knew in San Diego. I decided to drop Wang when he came off the DL. So far that is looking like a good decision. I'm holding on to Dice-K for now. Soria came off the DL this week so I'm hoping he can contribute right away. If Webb and Volsquez come off the DL and pitch well I should be in good shape.

Fantasy Baseball Update

Now that my marathon is in the bag, I hope to providing more regular fantasy baseball updates. Here it goes for this week:

• I'm currently sitting in 6th place in a ten team league with 50.5 points. First place has 65.5 points.
• I moved out of the cellar this week powered by Miguel Cabrera, Adrian Gonzalez and Joe Mauer, who is fresh off the DL.
• Mike Aviles wasn't working out at 2nd so I dumped him and picked up Orlando Hudson. I was surprised to see him on the waiver wire so I grabbed him.
• Ryan Theriot and Denard Span have been pleasant surprises. Both are off to a good start and are also part of the reason I've moved up in the standings.
• On the mound, I've put together a patchwork rotation while Brandon Webb, Dice-K, & Chien-Ming Wang are still on the DL. My starters are Volquez, Lowe, Volstad, Cain, & Jurrens. All are pitching pretty well right now. I'll have to drop some some players when Webb, Dice-K, and Wang are activated.
• In the bullpen, I picked up Andrew Bailey (RP, OAK) and Jason Frasor (RP, Toronto) to help lower my ERA and WHIP. Both are solid middle relievers who have helped. Trevor Hoffman is also off the DL. He's looking pretty good picking up 2 saves with a 0.00 ERA and a 0.50 WHIP. Joakim Soria has 6 saves and is looking like the top flight closer that we was last year.

Hopefully things will continue to improve.

Back From Vacation

It's good to be home and it looks like I've brought some warm weather up north. Here's what I've been up to while away:

• Passover is a big eating holiday. What kind of son would I be if I turned down mom's cooking? I ate way more than I usually do at home but that's to be expected. I feel a jiggly around the middle but it was worth it.
  
• My calf is feeling a lot better. Before I left, my darling wife got me a foam roller and what a difference it made. It's something every runner should have on hand.
  
• I managed to run 25 miles this week. I ran 8.06 miles in 1:06:13 (8:04 pace) on Sunday, 10.58 miles in 1:23:59 (7:56 pace) on Monday, and 6.66 miles in 55:08 (8:17 pace) on Tuesday.
  
• I was hoping to get a 18 or 20 miler in while I was away but it was too damn hot. I started my runs every day at 6:00 a.m. with temps in the low 70's and high humidity. It got very hot very quickly so I bagged on the long run.
  
• In non-running news, my fantasy baseball team is in last place. Trevor Hoffman and Joe Mauer started the season on the DL and Brandon Webb, Dice-K, and Alex Gordon were placed on the DL while I was away. I've had limited internet access while I was away, so the waiver wire is pretty thin now. You really have to be on top of things from the day the season started until the day it ends. People always say that baseball is a marathon and not a sprint. Hopefully things will get better.

The New Jersey Marathon is 2 weeks from Sunday. I should be starting my taper on Sunday but I'm very tempted to run 18 or 20 on Sunday to make up some lost miles. Is this a good idea or should I run 15 or 16 instead?

Fantasy Baseball: Draft Results

I had my fantasy baseball draft last night. I have to admit, I was totally unprepared for this draft. Usually I take some time to think about how I want to approach the draft. This year, I just didn't. I drafted 7th out of 10 teams. Here is my team and where it took each player:
C: Joe Mauer (round 6, 54th overall)
1b: Miguel Cabrera (round 1, 7th overall)
2b: Chone Figgns (round 9, 87th overall)
SS: Mike Aviles (round 11, 107th overall)
3b: Alex Gordon (round 18, 174th overall)
OF: Carlos Beltran (round 2, 14th overall)
OF: Carlos Lee (round 3, 27th overall)
OF Vernon Wells (round 12, 114th overall)
Util: Adrian Gonzalez (round 5, 47th overall)
SP: Brandon Webb (round 4, 34th overall)
SP Edinson Volquez (round 7, 67th overall)
SP: Daisuke Matsuzaka (round 10, 94th overall)
SP Matt Cain (round 13, 127th overall)
RP: Joakim Soria (round 8, 74th overall)
RP: Trevor Hoffman (round 14, 134th overall)
RP: Chris Perez (round 16, 154th overall)
On My Bench:
SS: Jhonny Peralta (round 15, 147th overall)
SP: Derek Lowe (round 17, 167 overall)
OF: Denard Span (round 19, 187th overall)
SP: Chien-Ming Wang (round 20, 194 overall)
SS: Ryan Theriot (round 21, 207th overall)
OF: Cameron Maybin (round 22, 214th overall)

I made one move today. I dropped Maybin and picked A.J. Pierzynski. Mauer will not be starting the season so I picked up another catcher to fill in.

Anyone care to comment?

One Way Fantasy Baseball is Like Running

The other night I was on the subway, reading my fantasy baseball magazine and the next thing I know, 2 complete strangers approach me at ask me when my draft is (it's this coming Tuesday). For the duration of the ride we talked about sleepers, which pitchers we like, which resources we use (other than magazines), etc... We parted ways at our respective stops, wished each other good luck, probably never to see each other again.

As runners, this has happens as well. We're lined up for a race and out of the blue we find ourselves striking up conversations with complete strangers. We wish each other good luck, run our race and go home. Chances are slim that we'll that runner standing next to us at a future race.

Isn't great how hobbies have this way of bringing together total strangers?

Fantasy Baseball Update

Our league commissioner set the draft order yesterday. I will be drafting 7th out of 10 teams. Now that I know where I'm drafting it's time to start planning my draft strategy. To help me do that, I will be analyzing stats, reading magazines, reading fantasy baseball blogs, and listening to fantasy baseball podcasts. The Alex Rodriguez injury really throws a monkey wrench into the draft. In my opinion he was a lock for a top 3 pick, where he gets drafted now is anyone's guess.

My Other Hobby

It's that time of year where I start thinking about my other hobby.....fantasy baseball. I've been playing FB (not to be confused with Facebook) for a few year now. My draft is March 24th at 9:00 p.m. Our league is an "old school" roto league, meaning that we can gain and lose points in each category every day. Many leagues are now "head to head" one team plays another for the week and points are earned based on how you do against the other team. We also pre-determine our draft order. This way we can think about how we want to approach the draft before it starts. I'm not a big fan of finding out where I'm drafting 30 minutes before the draft is set to start.

The league is 5x5 meaning we earn points for home runs, RBIs, batting average, stolen bases, and runs scored on offense and wins, ERA, WHIP (walks + hits/innings pitched), strikouts, and saves for pitching.

Since I don't know who's reading, I'm not going to write about my draft strategy. I will post my team and write about my during the season. For now it's back to running.