We’re recapping all the predictions we did make, but there’s a whole slew of crazy things that none of us predicted. So let’s see if we can learn something from the crazy things that none of us saw coming, even though we tried to be strange.
A season in the books! Not a bad one for me, two wins, five podiums, four bottom-half finishes… if only my AL-LABR team (11th) hadn’t stung so bad.
In any case, we made some bold predictions in the pre-season and it’s time to see how badly we whiffed. Although, I do remember phrasing one fairly vaguely to try and guarantee at least one ‘hit’ in the bunch. That’s cheating, I’ll readily admit. But I didn’t want to go oh-fer.
So, let’s look back at my ten then.
While streaming hitters may not help too much in roto leagues, it could mean all the difference in a close head to head battle. Some categories may be lost already, or at least just too hard to recover, as the case may be with stats like WHIP and ERA, but a late surge in the counting stats for hitters could be the difference in your final battle. It might not be the most glamorous bunch out there, but here are a few names to consider throwing into your lineup this weekend for some potential help. Read the rest of this entry »
Maybe you didn’t notice it because he’s been putting up stats that are virtually identical to those that he showed last year, but apparently Mat Latos has been pitching in pain. That’s what he told the Cincinnati Enquirer at least.
“It doesn’t really matter to me,” he said. “I could care less because I’m not trying to win over fans or anything like that. I’ve been pitching with an abdominal strain since the Texas game. I think it was at the end of the June.”
His ERA since then has been 3.41, so it couldn’t have been that bad. But, as an exercise in injury-spotting, with perhaps a thought to the soon-to-be 26-year-old’s keeper value, let’s take a look at what’s happened since that start in Texas.
It’s almost impossible to prove empirically, but the anecdotal evidence is fairly strong: teams put bad lineups on the field the day after they clinch the postseason. Especially if they’ve clinched the division. Look at this stinker the Dodgers sent out on Friday, the day after they jumped in Arizona’s pool:
Back in May, Chris Cwik noticed something very interesting about Andrew Cashner. His hard slider was gone. Whether the pitcher had done it to save his arm, or the pitch had changed because of the rigors, the pitch was gone. And, seemingly, the strikeouts with it.
It looks like the hard slider is back.
Lots of decent information today.
• Miguel Cabrera is hurting and it is killing his bat speed (source)
“All that stuff has affected my offensive numbers,” Cabrera said. “My swing is not as fast as it normally is, and those are things that you must face on a daily basis. But that won’t keep me from going out on the field and trying to help this team win ballgames.”
Two weeks left in the season. At least a few of you are staring at the batting average category and wondering if you can do anything about it at all. You have 11/12ths of the season in the rear view weighing you down, it’s not likely. But I thought it might be fun to do a thought/math exercise.
If you could get lucky, and get the league-leader in batting average at every position over the last two weeks of the season, how far north could you push your team’s overall batting average?
Oh, Ike Davis, what is it about you that convinces me, time and time again, to draft you, sign you, and trade for you? When all of my leaguemates are willing to cut you loose and leave you on the wire, why am I always the one to say, “No! Ike Davis is NOT a waste of a roster spot!”
And it is not like Ike is the only player I have this problem with. I’ve hung on to the belief that Chad Billingsley was moments away from being an ace and that Miguel Montero is about to become an MVP candidate, and I get burned over and over. So why are there guys that I just can’t quit?
Kole Calhoun? Scooter Gennett? Freddy Galvis? Tanner Roark? These are the names that make up the roster of a championship fantasy baseball team? These are not the men who brought me to the Promised Land this year. Where are they? Where are my guys? Where are the men who I hand-picked back in March after countless hours of research? The men who, week in and week out, dominated the competition so fiercely that the engraver was asking for the correct spelling of my team name back in July? When the bats and arms I rode through this long and arduous season are needed most, I’m left scrambling and sifting through a pile of rubble, filled with young hopefuls, cast-offs, has-beens and never-weres. If there was ever a case to be made that a head to head format in fantasy baseball is a disaster, now would be that time. Read the rest of this entry »
