I hate having more than 1 hitter on my bench in the H2HWS. It can easily lead to too much micro-management instead of just putting your best hitters out and letting it go. More often than not, I end up making the wrong decision.
Take this week, for example. (And I do only have one bench hitter in the World Series!) I went into Sunday's games 1 HR and 2 RBI behind Barcelona, but with plenty of guys who could make up that difference. With 5 OF for 4 spots (including Util), one of them would end up riding the pine, but which one? Beltran was a no-brainer, leaving 3 from 4 of Burrell, DeJesus, Ethier & Bradley. The latter 3 were all in good form (and, in fact, had all hit HRs on Saturday), whilst Burrell, although having a great season, was having a poor week. With that in mind, plus the fact that the Phillies were facing Brandon Webb, I decided at the last minute to make Burrell the odd man out. It looked like a pretty good call as he went 0-3, only for him to then hit a 3-run blast the minute Webb left the game! Fortunately, it didn't cost me the win, but that was only thanks to Carlos Beltran hitting one out in the late game. But decisions like this one can make or break a fantasy team...
Week 15 Results
- London Knights 5-4 Barcelona Reds
- New Hampshire Goats 5-5 Edinburgh Dukes
- Felixstowe Fury 7-5 Peitudas
- Lower Saxony Tigers 2-9 Psydney Psychos
- North York Blues 8-4 Hamburger Blaufinken
- LA Thrashers 9-1 Northampton Squirrels
- Manzen Marlins 7-4 Brisbane Bikkies
Standings
| Rank | Team | W-L-T | Pct | GB | Last Week | Pos Change | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | L.A. Thrashers | 108-57-15 | .642 | - | 9-1-2 | - | ||
| 2. | London Knights | 88-69-23 | .553 | 16 | 5-4-3 | - | ||
| 3. | North York Blues | 92-75-13 | .547 | 17 | 8-4-0 | +1 | ||
| 4. | New Hampshire Goats | 89-72-19 | .547 | 17 | 5-5-2 | -1 | ||
| 5. | Manzen Marlins | 86-78-16 | .522 | 21.5 | 7-4-1 | +1 | ||
| 6. | Lower Saxony Tigers | 84-80-16 | .511 | 23.5 | 2-9-1 | -1 | ||
| 7. | Psydney Psychos | 81-82-17 | .497 | 26 | 9-2-1 | +3 | ||
| 8. | Edinburgh Dukes | 83-86-11 | .492 | 27 | 5-5-2 | +1 | ||
| 9. | Northampton Squirels | 84-87-9 | .492 | 27 | 1-9-2 | -2 | ||
| 10. | Peitudas | 79-84-17 | .486 | 28 | 5-7-0 | -2 | ||
| 11. | Hamburger Blaufinken | 72-91-17 | .447 | 35 | 4-8-0 | - | ||
| 12. | BRISBANE BIKKIES | 74-95-11 | .442 | 36 | 4-7-1 | - | ||
| 13. | Felixstowe Fury | 71-95-14 | .433 | 37.5 | 7-5-0 | - | ||
| 14. | Barcelona Reds | 64-104-12 | .389 | 45.5 | 4-5-3 | - |
Significant Moves
Lots of activity on the wire this week. Northampton Squirrels surprisingly dropped Scott Linebrink, who was subsequently snapped up off waivers by LA Thrashers (not sure why no one with a higher priority went for him, with the way he's been pitching and with Jenks heading to the DL). The London Knights picked up Manny Parra for the third time in 3 weeks as Harang went on the DL, New Hampshire grabbed Clay Buchholz in time for his first start since his recall and Barcelona grabbed another White Sox reliever in Matt Thornton. And with rumours flying around regarding Fuentes' imminent trade, Manzen Marlins swooped in to pick up Manny Corpas.
Waffle
As I say, the benching of Burrell didn't cost me the win, but it was mighty close! The match-up between the Knights & Reds was a slugfest from the outset, the teams combining for 24 HR and 81 RBI. HR were tied, whilst the Knights sneaked RBI for 1; the Reds doing the same with regard to Runs. Going into Sunday's games, the Reds were ahead in all batting categories except SBs (tied), but their bats fell comparatively silent on the last day, allowing the Knights to sneak ahead. With the teams sharing 12 SBs between them, it was an impressive batting display all round, but the Knights gained the edge by taking 4 of the pitching categories, only losing ERA.
Elsewhere, the leaders stretched their lead yet further, demolishing Northampton 9-1. It didn't help the Squirrels that they accidently managed to leave two good pitching performances on the bench. 3rd-placed New Hampshire slipped a little in a 5-5 tie with Edinburgh, although they will probably be grateful for that, having been a good distance behind halfway through the week.
In my half-time report on the league, I called Psydney Psychos as my outside tip to make the playoffs. They have made that more likely with a 9-2 victory over Lower Saxony, jumping them up 3 places and leaving them only 2.5 games out of 6th spot. Manzen Marlins became the highest ranked German team after their 7-4 victory over Brisbane, whilst Peitudas continue to tumble downwards after their latest defeat, 7-5 to Felixstowe. But North York are looking good for the playoffs, with a comfortable 8-4 victory over Hamburger.
And so to All-Star week, the week which is so very tough to predict, and likely to throw up some odd results, as most MLB teams play only 3 games. The Thrashers, Knights & Goats all play teams in the bottom 4 - over a full week, they might expect to win those ties comfortably...but in a shortened week, who knows what will happen? With the 'minimum innings' requirement suspended for this match-up, will there be some tactical benching of stud pitchers? Will a HR Derby participant find that it fouls his swing up for the first few games back? Expect the unexpected in Week 16!
I have always wondered why Yahoo doesn't just let us take the whole week off.
Or combine it with the following week's games.
Although I guess that might throw their scheduling out for the standard 12-team leagues...
No they could combine it fairly easy. I like your suggestion better.
Since Week 6 (I've chosen this week, since it is the furthest back Wr's excellent Weekly Standings table goes):
Climbers
Fallers
Models of Consistency
I have all the standings, but i am only doing the last 10 weeks otherwise the space gets to crowded and it is hard to read.
solid list.
Wouldn't have mattered had he started Volquez and Nolasco. Wins would've been mine anyway and ERA would've been his too. Where it cost Northampton was WHIP, given I edged him by 0.01 on the final day. So, from 8-2 to 9-1.
Yeah, they should combine the first half of Week 17 numbers to the last of Week 16. All-Star weeks suck. Once more, I have Braun and Sizemore in the HR derby, which I'll talk about in tomorrow's blog.
Sure, I understand that it would get too crowded if you put more than 10 weeks in. I love being able to check out who's on the rise & who's on the fall!
Interesting that Barcelona are the 3rd-highest climbers, and yet are still below .400 - shows what a rotten start to the season they had. Whilst Lower Saxony & Manzen are still in the playoffs, despite both having fallen by more than 50 points!
But the biggest thing, I think, is that it shows just how badly injuries have affected the Edinburgh Dukes. They were looking so good early on, but having lost pretty much their entire pitching staff to at least some time out, never mind one or two solid hitters, it's been a nightmare for them since that good start.
hopefully someday those will be cool graphical charts. I found a module that does charts, but I need to upgrade the whole site to get it to work. Something I am not willing to tackle during the middle of the season.
I am afraid I'll kill it.