Chasing the Treble Week 14 - Fantasy Baseball's Bastard Brother

Being the tech startup geek that I am, I routinely visit TechCrunch once a day at least. Even though there's too much Google/Facebook coverage, which is more than I could handle on TechCrunch, it's a fantastic platform for relatively unknown startups with fascinating ideas to build hype and goodwill without having to delve deep into the public relations chest although it would take some major string pulling to have your company featured on TechCrunch (it takes a compelling story/idea, a working prototype, and knowing the right people to do so). Because various prominent venture capital and angel investors read TechCrunch, it's been a known fact that TechCrunch is the ideal platform for making that dreaded elevator pitch and actually raise that crucial first or second round of funding.

At any rate, a few days ago, TechCrunch featured the beta launch of a computer simulation game from Challenge Games (an Austin, Texas-based startup) called Baseball Boss. In short, the premise of the game is to build a fantasy team by collecting baseball cards of real major league players from 1907 or 2007 (this basically means your team can have Cy Young and Mark Teixeira on the same roster). You're given a 40-card starter kit upon registration and you're free to challenge other members, as well as what are called historical teams, which entails you can challenge any simulated team from 1907 (like the Boston Americans or Brooklyn Superbas) as well as simulated teams from the 2007 versions of today's major league clubs. All games are computer-generated within a click of accepting or starting a challenge and all of the games in the series provide a box score as well as a Flash animation of how your game panned out. Your team's success is predicated on your ratings across 3 categories: hitting, pitching, and defense. That said, you should choose your challenges wisely as some teams (members or historical) will have a higher/lower weight in each of those three categories.

You can improve your team in a number of ways. Aside from exchanging cards with other managers, you can purchase new cards from a certain brand and year by either 5 card packs, a 25 pack box, or a 10 box case. (On a side note, there's a great degree of economics at play in this game and this is where the game becomes a bit complicated. As you'd expect, a box of cards will be more expensive than a pack of cards whereas a case of cards will be more expensive than a box. Affordability will depend on how many tickets and collection coins your team has amassed. Tickets can be gained by winning games within challenges whereas collection coins can only be gained by converting your tickets into coins. The conversion rates are based off an ever-changing market rate but you can make an offer to sell X amount of tickets for Y amount of challenge coins and bypass the going rate altogether. These challenge coins are so valuable because you can buy a case of cards for say, 200 tickets and 500 coins, as opposed to a 5 card pack for 200 tickets and just 4 coins.) Managers can also auction their players off should they feel they need to get greater value for their cards or should they need to make room in the salary cap. At the auction house, you'll find player cards of varying degrees of rarity (1 being the most common, 7 being the most rare), condition (i.e. mint, excellent, very good), and salary. There's even a store for repairing your cards and for buying more slots to add to your trading collection. Keep in mind that the more challenges you create that your cards' condition gradually wears down and so repairing them or selling them for auction could be the way to go.

My verdict on Baseball Boss is it's a promising idea for a game as it has potential for netting that middle ground niche between staunch baseball fans and fantasy baseball veterans. As with most sites in the beta stage, it surely has its bugs and the interface is too clunky for my liking. However, the biggest gripe I have with Baseball Boss is its pay model past the beta stage. At the low end, you could be paying $9.95 a month for Baseball Boss, which includes perks such as an X amount of monthly challenge coins, X amount of weekly free packs, bonus free packs on card collections bought, and an X amount of monthly card restorations; at the high end we're talking $24.95 a month. Furthermore, setting up a 162-game private league with friends could set players back about $124.95. From an entrepreneurial standpoint, I can certainly understand that there are high bandwidth bills to be paid and a business model set in stone to keep the investors happy knowing they have some level of competence in Challenge Games' executive management. The problem is it's absolutely crucial to have a free version open because historically, the survivors of the fittest on the Internet give away most, all, or some of their product for free (from the porn industry to Facebook). Why? Because attracting people to become users of your site is a huge cost, one so massive it's never completely reflected on the bottom line. As an entrepreneur, I have the belief that anything to stem away growth is bad and a wide-scale pay model stems growth. Sure, baseball fans and fantasy baseball veterans alike are a die-hard passionate bunch that breathe the game, but the fact is it's unlikely they would visit the site let alone convert as users, especially with a pay model, reasonable or not.

That said, Baseball Boss is far from a complete game, but if you love card collecting, baseball, and fantasy baseball (the latter two I'm sure of), this game could be up your alley. Please be aware that in the beta stage that your teams and records won't pass into the official launch stage. You can challenge me by finding "Los Angeles Thrashers" and "000 The Artful Dodger" on the Ballpark page.

On that note, we're off to Week 14 of H2HWS action. The Thrashers have been chugging along like a freight train on a steady pace in the World Series and it was a bottom 4 side Brisbane Bikkies team that the Thrashers would have to run past in the first set of rematches. Contrast this to what has gone on in California South and in USA West where the train has been teetering off the tracks. The Thrashers sought to end a 4-week losing streak in the Inglewood Challenge against the California Blaze while the defending USA West champions had to be up for a top of the standings clash against West league frontrunners Panolas Coyotes. Let's have it:

H2H World Series

L.A. Thrashers 7, Brisbane Bikkies 5

The frontrunning L.A. Thrashers survived a scare from falling to Brisbane and needed extra innings on Sunday to decide an affair that had become a bit too close for comfort over the weekend.

At the start of the series, Brisbane were deeply on the wrong end of things. The Bikkies' offense failed to jumpstart whereas the Thrashers were pulling away on the offensive end. Despite another quiet series from Ryan Braun, the other two components of the Thrashers' Big 3, Hanley Ramirez and Grady Sizemore were on form. Sizemore posted a 5 R, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 1 SB, .292 BA, 1.120 OPS line whereas Hanley Ramirez had more than made up for a maddening slump with a blistering hot 5 week stretch, as Hanley put up a 7 R, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 1 SB, .394 BA, 1.205 OPS. Together, the Thrashers were too much for Brisbane to handle in the R, HR, RBI categories. Brisbane's pitching was in the thick of a rut. Spot starters Randy Wolf, Eric Stults, Randy Johnson, and Jorge Campillo were tossed around whereas Matt Capps hit the DL, not before he posted the dreaded INF in both ERA and WHIP. Even potential two-start pitcher Roy Oswalt, who dazzled the Dodgers last Monday was unavailable to make his second start. Meanwhile, the Thrashers pitching wasn't quite on point as Brandon Webb struggled yet again whereas Scott Kazmir's high pitch count got the best of him and Dustin McGowan was his usual awful self away from home yet again. However, Chad Billingsley was sensational in only giving up an unearned run while Johnny Cueto also impressed as both earned wins to make it a 2-1 win advantage.

It was a 9-2 advantage to the Thrashers headed into Independence Day but because the Angelenos had a narrow lead in wins and strikeouts and slated two-start pitcher Ervin Santana would pitch the following Monday, the Thrashers didn't trot out any more starters. Brisbane still had three bullets in the six-shooter as newly activated Carlos Zambrano and Tim Hudson were to pitch on the 4th with Oliver Perez waiting in the wings on Sunday. Both Zambrano and Hudson pitched brilliantly and even though their efforts weren't enough to overcome the Thrashers' comfortable margins in ERA and WHIP, Brisbane's ratios surely looked a lot better than it was earlier in the series (ERA nearing 8, WHIP of 1.7+). However, Zambrano and Hudson were enough to capture W and K's to make it a 7-4 edge in favor of the Thrashers.

In Saturday's games, the Thrashers failed to hit a lick despite Hanley Ramirez's homerun whereas Brisbane hit very well for average thanks to Vlad Guerrero and Chone Figgins shaking off their slumps, if not for a moment while Evan Longoria and J.D. Drew were seeing the ball better. All in all, Brisbane had the 7-5 edge heading into the usually unpredictable Sunday games as the Bikkies held a .284 to .235 advantage in BA and now had a relatively narrow lead in OPS despite not hitting for too much power. Brisbane also had broken a 2-2 tie in SB thanks to Longoria's SB.

A better hitting day had to be in store for the Thrashers to pull either a draw or a win out of the hat and the Thrasher bats responded as they had gone on a hitting blitzkrieg, going 15-for-34 and with Ryan Braun snapping out of the funk with a homerun coupled with another shot from the in-form Nick Markakis, it was a formality that the Thrashers would come ahead in OPS for a split. However, Oliver Perez's strong outing at Philadelphia slashed a 1.49 WHIP to 1.39 for the week, just two-tenths better than the Thrashers' 1.41. C.J. Wilson had a save opportunity and almost muffed it with two runs surrendered but he did enough for Brisbane's WHIP advantage to hold at 1.40 to 1.41. Jonathan Broxton came on in relief for a shutout 8th to give the Thrashers the momentary lead in WHIP, 1.40 to 1.39. Brandon Lyon gave up two hits with no one out that yielded a run in his save opportunity, but Lyon nailed down 3 straight outs to hand the Thrashers a 1.39 to 1.40 WHIP victory. A 6-6 split was about certain now, to make it 14 undefeated weeks out of 15.

Despite the furious hitting day, the Thrashers batting average stopped at .265 (from .235 the day prior) and despite Brisbane's hitting skid, the Bikkies still had an average in the low to mid-.270's. Then Chone Figgins and Vlad Guerrero posted outs whereas Brian McCann, who sat his game out, made a pinch-hit appearance and he was out. Edgar Renteria found himself on the bench with an out. What followed was an unprecedented turn of events, as both McCann and Renteria found themselves mired into extra innings as both had gone for a combined 0-for-12, which dragged Brisbane's average to .262. This was good enough for the Thrashers to post a 7-5 triumph, their 7th 7 win matchup of the season, and their 6th matchup victory in a row. Brisbane may have had its bad luck at the end, but it was a well deserved result for both sides as the Thrashers were by far the better offensive side and the Thrashers' pitching did enough on limited opportunities to take home the vital categories.

Out-of-town Scoreboard: London one-ups New Hampshire in a thriller

The highlight of the week was the clash between the 2nd place New Hampshire Goats and the defending champion London Knights, sitting in 3rd. A victory here for the Goats would stretch the 2.5 gap between the two teams further and a victory for the Londoners meant they could usurp New Hampshire as the second-seeded club. New Hampshire had an 8-4 weekend lead but the Knights made it a contest again and eventually with the stronger Sunday showing, bested the USA East representatives 7-4. With a slightly better result than the Thrashers, the Knights pick up a half-game on the Thrashers, but the lead over 2nd place now stands at 12.5 instead of 10.5 the prior week. This result sets the Goats back a half-game of the new 2nd place sitter.

In the other Week 1 replays, the Barcelona Reds posted an 8-3 rout of Peitudas which sends the Brazilian champions tumbling to 8th and with playoff doubts sown in surely. The playoff chances of the Edinburgh Dukes had also taken a hit as the Manzen Marlins put them away 8-3. It's apparent that the glaring weaknesses and injuries are starting to take a toll on the Dukes, as they've declined from top of the table to 9th gradually.

The rest of the results were just about too close to call. North York just about edged Northampton, 6-5, assuring that the Blues will see another week in 4th place. In an all-German affair, Lower Saxony got the better of the Hamburger Blaufinken, 7-5 and the Psydney Psychos may have had a little trouble gaining extra points, but did enough to take down the Felixstowe Fury, 7-5.

Here's the lay of the land: The L.A. Thrashers fall short of the 100 win mark at 99 wins, which is a relative disappointment, but a 12.5 game gap over 2nd is a 12.5 game gap nonetheless. As said, London and New Hampshire are tightly bunched at 2nd and 3rd respectively. The North York Blues aren't that far from the top 3 as they lie 2 full games behind New Hampshire while Lower Saxony trails a full game behind North York and resides in 5th. There's some breathing room, whatever scant, between 5th and 6th place with a 3 game gap, but the Manzen Marlins and Northampton Squirels are tied for 6th in games back (at 19 GB of the Thrashers) with Manzen holding the tiebreaker. Peitudas and Edinburgh are 8th and 9th respectively, as said before, but are 4 full games behind the 6th and final playoff spot whereas the Psydney Psychos didn't make too big of a jump, but are still within shouting distance of the playoffs, just 6.5 games out of 6th with a lifetime left to be played.

H2HWS California South

The defending Inglewood Challenge champions had another Michigan Jay Frog moment this week as their offense failed to ignite except for the final day whereas WR's California Blaze were the better rounded offensive club and deserved winners for the week. Across the board, the Blaze had everyone contributing well, but Jimmy Rollins had an MVP type performance with 4 SB while Nick Swisher had another power binge for the week. WR's best player was Garrett Atkins who benefited from a red-hot homestand against Florida with an 8 R, 2 HR, 8 RBI, .419 BA, 1.196 OPS series. A furious Sunday had seen the Thrashers post a 13-for-38, 9 R, 4 HR, 13 RBI, 1 SB effort on the strength of new pickup J.J. Hardy's two homeruns who was filling in for DL'ed Troy Tulowitzki, but it just wasn't enough. The Thrashers snuck away with runs and made the final line close enough to be within touching distance of the AVG/OPS categories, but the Blaze had seized 5 of the 6 offensive categories.

The Blaze's pitching wasn't quite up to scratch as Randy Wolf, Kevin Slowey and John Maine were below form and neither was the Thrashers' pitching which did enough to take hold of the K, ERA, WHIP departments. However, with Heath Bell and Kevin Gregg vulturing wins, the Blaze and Thrashers were tied at 5 wins apiece with Matt Cain failing to make any headway for a victory on the final day. Scott Linebrink vultured a save on Sunday to see Brandon Lyon's save and preserve the Blaze's one-save advantage.

Out-of-Town Scoreboard: Pacificans bridge the gap by winning the SF derby

With Missin the Mets providing a 6-5 upset of league frontrunners Lake Arrowheads, there was ground to be made up by either one of the top 5 teams. The 2nd place SF Giants couldn't take advantage and fell to their intercity rivals, SF Pacificans, 8-2, which catapults the Pacificans to 2nd, just 3 games behind Lake Arrowheads. The result had seen the Giants drop to 4th. Meanwhile, the Monterey Park Donuts failed to get off the ground and suffered a worse defeat than Lake Arrowheads in dropping the week, 7-4 to the San Marcos Sox, which keeps the Donuts at 3rd.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Dodgers did their playoff aspirations a serious favor by beating down the cellar dweller Boondock Saints, 8-3, which places the Dodgers in a 7th place tie with Missin the Mets just 3 games behind the 6th place Thrashers. The Davis Destroyers also hung tough for a 6-5 defeat of the Saddlebackers.

H2HWS USA West

Panolas Coyotes 10, L.A. Thrashers 2

Another Michigan Jay Frog moment for the Thrashers out west as the offense failed to get going until Sunday's games, which was too little too late to derail the Coyotes from taking a 10-2 series win. Like in California, the Thrashers' offense made the line more respectable than it should be, falling a run short of a tie in runs and 25 points under in BA, but fell well short of the offensive categories, being nearly swept across the board, except for a 9-8 SB advantage. The Thrashers' pitching failed to get on point as Greinke, McGowan, and Pedro Martinez were relatively poor yet again for all that went right with Harang, Dice-K, Oliver Perez, and Lincecum and the run support was few and far between as only one win was generated from a 57 strikeout week, which was just one short of Panolas' 58. It's still relatively too early to write off the champions but the campaign is a bit of a mess, as the Thrashers drop from 2nd to 4th.

Out-of-Town Scoreboard: Jacks 10-step Texas to move into 2nd

Week 14 wasn't for the squeamish either if you were the Texas Two-Step or Bonds 762*. The Missouri River Jacks have overcome bad luck that had seen them drift to second-to-last at one point, but have really come on recently and it was well reflected in their 10-1 beating of the Texas Two-Step. All of a sudden, Texas who were starting to make a midseason surge find themselves a few weeks later in second to last place. Likewise, Bonds 762 find themselves from the outside looking in yet again as they were beaten 9-2 by Bilbos Bunch. The other half of results were a lot closer as the Michigan Panthers could only manage a 7-5 win over cellar dweller Houston Headhunters, Cafe Michigan were just 5-4 victors over Seattle Scorpions, and Sparks Red Sox Slayers earned a 6-6 split with Bellingham Rauks to limp into 3rd place.

With Panolas 14 games ahead of 2nd place Missouri River Jacks, all of the action seems to be confined in the chase in the remaining 5 playoff spots. Only 2 games away separate 2nd place Missouri and 5th place Bilbos Bunch while the Michigan Panthers just climb into 6th, 4.5 games away from the Hobbits. Just 5.5 games separate the Panthers from 11th place Texas Two-Step and it seems the standings will add another wrinkle yet again for next week.

Who's on deck?

The Thrashers have some unfinished business heading into the All-Star break as the World Series frontrunners take on the Northampton Squirels. In Week 2, the Thrashers and Squirels fought to a 6-6 draw, with the lion's share of categories remaining close and the boys from L.A. were just 0.04 margin in ERA in coming away winners for the week. Northampton have been busy wheelers and dealers and the lineup has changed considerably. The most notable absence from the Northampton lineup is Grady Sizemore who was traded to the Thrashers for Tim Lincecum and even the latter was dealt away. The Squirels have a feast-or-famine offense as they've ridden the hot bats in Mark Reynolds, Jose Guillen, Willy Taveras, and Jim Edmonds who have proven to run just as cold as they do hot. With Alfonso Soriano not expected to return until after the All-Star Break, Northampton's trump cards in Chipper Jones and Derrek Lee will need to regain their torrid form in a hurry. Grady Sizemore will look to wreak havoc on his former employer, as one part of the Thrashers' Big 3 while Hanley Ramirez has also been locked up in a 40/40 race with Sizemore whereas Ryan Braun is still on pace for a 40 HR year. The supporting cast is starting to put it together for the Thrashers. Northampton will seek to make up for any possible margin with their pitching (Volquez, Lackey, Cliff Lee, Buehrle, Cook, Saunders), but the Thrashers will trot out 5 possible two start pitchers (Ervin Santana, Chad Billingsley, Scott Kazmir, Brandon Webb, Dustin McGowan).

It's starting to gain the complexion of a must-win week in California South, as the defending champions lock up against a familiar foe, the SF Giants. Last year's California South runners-up drew against the Thrashers in the first regular season matchup and both squads will look to avenge losses from the prior week with a big series. The Giants were once in rebuilding mode but have pulled through and it has paid off, as the Giants ascended to as high as 2nd place, which they bowed out from based off last week's loss to the Pacificans. Ryan Howard and Vernon Wells may have been underachievers, but Dustin Pedroia, Pat Burrell and Jermaine Dye have been revelations at this point, and are anchored by Ryan Braun offensively. The San Franciscans' pitching is deep and has been good in the absence of Felix Hernandez and Brad Penny to the DL as Cole Hamels has been a rock whereas Justin Verlander's starting to round into form. Both Hamels and Verlander will be two-start pitchers and so will unpredictable Jose Contreras. The defending champions' hallmark this year has been inconsistency, but if there's a week that the pitching and the hitting perform on the same page, it has to be this one. The Thrashers will have Aaron Harang, Scott Kazmir, and Dustin McGowan starting twice.

The Thrashers will have to right the ship in a hurry out West and they'll have to do it against the 3rd place Sparks Red Sox Slayers, who lost to the Thrashers in Week 4 in a close matchup. Sparks are also looking forward to the All-Star Break it seems, as they've been snakebit with Alfonso Soriano, Victor Martinez, Juan Pierre, and Paul Konerko hitting the DL. Outside of David Wright, Derek Jeter, and Jermaine Dye, the offense has had to be a patchwork effort. The Sparks pitching staff has been terrific thanks to John Lackey, Cliff Lee, and Gavin Floyd to cover for an on-and-off, ailing Erik Bedard. The Thrashers have struggled to find answers on both hitting and pitching ends recently, as A-Rod has been the only offensive constant (as the likes of Beltran, Berkman, and Markakis have been hit-and-miss) and Tim Lincecum has been the only constant force in the Thrashers' pitching. The Thrashers will take a chance on two-start Daisuke Matsuzaka, Dustin McGowan, and Aaron Harang.

Check back next week on what Week 15 has in store for the quest for the "T" word. Until then, keep your clothes on and challenge me on Baseball Boss if you have a chance.

-Ray