Grease is the Word!

Some of you might be familiar with Greasemonkey, which lets you take javascript and have it applied to whatever page you want. Inspired by Jason, I wrenched up a script to automatically show the actual score right on the TQ Results page, like the good ol' days. While I was in there, I replaced the clutch... no, wait, that was John & Phil's suburu, no, while I was in there, I made it so that in each category, the better score is green and ties are blue. Also, for each matchup, the winning team name is bold. Gives a quick picture of what's going on.

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Use Firefox
   
2. Go to Greasemonkey and click the Install Now button.
   
3. Restart your browser
   
4. Find the Greasemonkey script here: http://groups.google.com/group/Beaver-Roto-League/web/TQGameScore.user.js
   
5. When you click on the above, if all went well so far it should say, hey, that's a grease monkey script and give you an option to install it
   
6. After that, whenever you go to the summary results page it should show 7.5 - 4.5 or whatever instead of the lame 1 - 0
   
7. Let me know if it works!
   

Needless to say, it's pretty much of a hack job, and totally dependent on TQ not changing their page layout, etc. If they do, lord only knows what the page will look like after being greased.

SO, IF THINGS GO WRONG:

• There should now be a Greasemonkey selection from the Firefox tools menu. Go to "Manage User Scripts..." and disable or uninstall the TQGameScore script. Reload the results page.
  
• Or, click on the little Monkey face (bottom right on Firefox status bar) to disable Greasemonkey. Reload the results page.

Here's the before and after:

Huge matchup with the Full Flanal for the Poppers

The Poppers have the biggest matchup of the early season as they take on the only other 3-0 team in the league in the Full Flanal.

It's starting off quick for both teams in the first day. Both teams are hitting big and barely scraping by with their pitching.

The Big Unit is back and put up a sorry ass performance in game 1: 5.0 IP, 6 ER, 2.00 WHIP. At least he got me 3 K-BB.

Meanwhile, Kelly Johnson is looking like a nice keeper for next season. He's hitting like .500 over the last 10 days or so and already has 5 HRs on the season. Between him, Matt Holliday and Hanley Ramirez the Poppers are rollin!


And now a moment of silence for Mark Prior......


...BTW, who didn't see that coming?

And how does Jimmy Rollins have 8 HRs and Ryan Howard has 3 HRs?

PoW Week 3

Here are the players of the week for week 3, voted on by me!

Hitter:

J.J. Hardy (Box Chowers) He was the main reason for Brian pulling out a tie this week.
5 HR, 6 runs, 10 rbi, .290 ba

Honorable mention:

Carlos Beltran (FKAKY)
2 HR, 8 runs, 9 rbi, .424 ba

Moises Alou (Diggleturbs)
2 HR, 8 runs, 7 rbi, .520 ba

Alex Rodriguez
7 HR, 13 runs, 16 rbi, .438 ba


Pitcher:

Cole Hamels (Beaners)
9 IP, 13 k -bb, 1.00 era, 1 W

Honorable Mention

Francisco Cordero (Full Flanull)
4 IP, 3 k -bb, 0.0 era, 3 saves

Bob Wickman(Poppers)
3 IP, 1k -bb, 0.0 era, 3 saves

Tim Hudson(Pickle Weasels)
8 IP, 1k -bb, 0.0 era, 1 W

Week 3 Results

Week 3:


7.0 Andy's Full Flanull
5.0 Dustin's Diggleturb

Andy rode a sweet hitting week (+.300 ave) and split the pitching categories to pull out the close win.


7.5 Matt's Utility Men
4.5 Todd's Heaters

Matt pulled this win out...barely. Some big totals here. Both teams had 9 SBs, over 60 IP, and Matt had 10 HRs and 37 K-BB.


4.0 Dan's Pickle Weasels
8.0 Prothero's Poppers

Jason dominated hitting with a huge week despite Dan's big hitters.


5.0 Calvin's Slumpbusters
7.0 Jim's Beaners

Calvin lost this one in the pitching area. 6.1 ERA and 1.77 WHIP will do that to you.


6.0 Brian's Box Chowers
6.0 Kelley's FKAKY

They deserved to tie this one. Both teams had monster weeks. 10HRs each, over 5 W, and lots or R & RBI.

Weekend standings update

I wanted an easier way to calculate the points my team was up/down, so I created a spreadsheet connected to the "Previous Results" page on the TQStats site. You should be able to use the spreadsheet if you have Excel 2003 or greater. It's in the "Files" section of the Google Group. The file is here. You can refresh the data automatically by pressing the "Refresh All" on the External Data toolbar


Points going in to Sunday:

OVERALL
7.0 Andy's Full Flanull
5.0 Dustin's Diggleturb

4.5 Matt's Utility Men
7.5 Todd's Heaters

2.5 Dan's Pickle Weasels
9.5 Prothero's Poppers

4.0 Calvin's Slumpbusters
8.0 Jim's Beaners

7.0 Brian's Box Chowers
5.0 Kelley's FKAKY

Mid-Week Standings

Points as of Thursday:

OVERALL
6.5 Andy's Full Flanull
5.5 Dustin's Diggleturb

5.5 Matt's Utility Men
6.5 Todd's Heaters

1.5 Dan's Pickle Weasels
10.5 Prothero's Poppers

6.0 Calvin's Slumpbusters
6.0 Jim's Beaners

7.0 Brian's Box Chowers
5.0 Kelley's FKAKY

Oregon State Baseball Collection - OSU Library

I came across this the other day when I was at the library studying. I thought that it was pretty cool. It has Photographs, video, ephemera, essays and statistics documenting more than 100 years of OSU baseball players, coaches, and teams.

Here is the link.

Sanchez Salsa?

Want some salsa from your favorite fantasy player? How about Eckstien's O's cereal? Check out this site with all kinds of crazy sports themed products:

www.plbsports.com

BuckyBackers Blog

Remember Bucky Jacobsen? The Hermiston kid who had a few great months with the Mariners 3 years ago. His fan club has a blog updating his baseball exploits:

BuckyBackers.com

Beaner Pride

Well, I didn't have my best week. But even if I had, FKAKY would have kicked my ass from here to Cooperstown. One day I checked the stats and my guys were batting like .421, whoohoo! I switched to Kelly's team and his guys were like 17 for 32, let alone the other categories. Doh!

As far as the projections go, all I can say is thanks for the Bulletin Board material. Now that my players are over the shock they'll be more motivated than ever, starting already with Nady's 2 for 4 with an SB this afternoon.

Players of the Week: Week 2

This week was a strange week, there were a total of 9 games suspended because of rain, another game was suspended because of rain and darkness. So there were a lot of players that didn't see much action because of this, I have tried to look past those missed days in figuring out the Players of the Week for Week 2. Here they go.

Hitters:
HOW (Hitters of the Week): Week 2
Rickie Weeks - FKAky
3 Hr's, 5 Rbi's, 9 R's, 1 SB, .333 Avg, and 1.455 OPS.

Rickie had the advantage of playing a five games this week and he took advantage of those extra at bats in winning the POW for week 2. His 3 homeruns and 9 run scored separated him from the pack this week. Congratulations!

noteworthy:
Carlos Lee - Box Chowers
3 Hr's, 7 Rbi's, 4 R's, .389 Avg, and 1.310 OPS.

Chipper Jones - Poppers
3 Hr's, 7 Rbi's, 6 R's, .364 Avg, and 1.254 OPS.

Jimmy Rollins - FKAky
3 Hr's, 5 Rbi's, 5 R's, .333 Avg, and 1.190 OPS.

Barry Bonds - FKAky
2 Hr's, 5 Rbi's, 4 R's, .417 Avg, and 1.450 OPS. (4 games played)

Previous Winners:
Miguel Cabrera - Poppers (Week 1)

POW (Pitcher of the Week): Week 2
Brad Penny - Full Flannel
2 W's, 13.1 IP, 0.68 ERA, 1.05 Whip, -2 K-BB.

Pitching this week was horrendous and it made choosing a POW very easy. Brad Penny benefited from pitching two games and won both games in earning this weeks POW for Week 2. I almost gave it to Peavy though, it was a tough call but Penny's Era made up for the negative K-BB ratio.

Noteworthy:
Tim Hudson :
2 W's, 14 IP, 0.64 ERA, 1.00 Whip, 6 K-BB.

Jake Peavy - FKAky
1 W, 7 IP, 1.29 ERA, 0.71 Whip, 1 K-BB.

Rich Hill - Diggleturds
1 W, 7 IP, 0.00 ERA, 1.00 Whip, 1 K-BB

Derek Lowe - Full Flannel
1 W, 8 IP, 1.13 ERA, 1.13 Whip, 4 K-BB.

Ian Snell - Heaters
1 W, 7 IP, 1.29 ERA, 1.00 Whip, 2 K-BB.

Previous Winners:
Ted Lilly - Diggleturds - Week 1


WOW (Worthless of the Week): Week 2
Where do I start for this weeks category. I can't count the number of worthless outings from Starting Pitchers this week on two hands. This weeks WOW for Week 2 is Zach Duke.
Zach Duke - Utility Men
1 G, 1 L, 2 IP, 7 ER's, 31.50 ERA, and 4.50 WHIP.

I had to list the other SP that had horrible starts too. Clay Hensley had 2 horrific outings. There are in order by worst ERA. Enjoy!

Jason Schmidt - Beaners
1 G, 1 L, 2 IP, 5 ER's, 22.50 ERA, and 4.50 WHIP.

Bret Myers - Full Flanull
1 G, 1 L, 3.1 IP, 7 ER's, 18.90 ERA and 2.40 WHIP.

Chris Young - Utility Men
1 G, 1 L, 2 IP, 4 ER's (5 R's), 18.00 ERA, and 6.00 WHIP.

Scott Olsen - Slumpbusters
1 G, 1 L, 2.2 IP, 5 ER's, 16.87 ERA, and 3.37 WHIP.

Clay Hensley - Heaters
2G, 2 L's, 9.1 IP, 14 ER's (16 R's), 13.55 ERA, and 2.37 WHIP.

Carlos Zambrano - Poppers
1 G, 1 L, 4 IP, 6 ER's, 13.50 ERA, and 2.50 WHIP.

Jeff Francis - Beaners
1 G, 1 L, 5 IP, 7 ER's, 12.60 ERA, and 2.40 WHIP.

Ben Sheets - Diggleturds
1G, 5 IP, 7 ER's (8 R's), 12.60 ERA, and 2.20 WHIP.

Aaron Harang - Diggleturds
1 G, 4 IP, 5 ER's, 11.25 ERA, and 2.75 WHIP.

Roy Oswalt - Slumpbusters
1 G. 1 L, 5 IP, 6 ER's, 10.80 ERA, and 2.60 WHIP.

Previous Losers:
Jorge Julio - Pickle Weasels - Week 1
Brad Lidge - Box Chowers - Week 1

Week 2 Recap

Week 2 Results

6.5 - Andy's Full Flanal
5.5 - Calvin's Slumpbusters

In a classic head-to-head win, beat Calvin by winning all pitching categories and tying HRs. This was tied 6-6 going into Monday and Andy hit the HR to tie.


9.0 - Prothero's Poppers
3.0 - Todd's Heaters

The Poppers led all week despite horrid pitching performances by both teams. Albert Pujols picked the wrong week to slump for Todd and his offense couldn't get going either.


7.0 - Dan's Pickle Weasels
5.0 - Dustin's Diggleturb

In a battle of teams apparently trying to lose, Dan wins a close one. Weekly averages of .236 and .222, yikes!


10.0 - Brian's Box Chowers
2.0 - Matt's Utility Men

Between Brian's dominating pitching week and Matt's worst ever pitching week (6.00 ERA and 2.19 WHIP!!!) this one was over before it started.


11.0 - Kelley's FKAKY
1.0 - Jim's Beaners

Kelley would have beat everyone this week. Thus, the total domination. He may have blew his wad too early. Look at this line:

Kelley's hitting: 40 r, 14 hr, 36 rbi, 4 sb, .344 ave, 1.091 ops
Kelley's pitching: 46 ip, 5 w, 3 sv, 1.57 era, 1.07, 18 k-bb

WOW.



Click the "Weekly Recap" label below for previous weekly recaps.

Draft Analysis

It's a week after the draft and now we can sit back and look at the winners and losers in the draft. Of course most of this means nothing because anyone could get hurt, traded, or do better/worse than expected.

I have two sets of pre-season projections: ESPN and RotoTimes. I don't have projected $ values, but just looking at the projected stats will give us an idea of where teams are at (hitting heavy, pitching heavy, balanced, neither, etc).

Just a quick look at the standings using projected stats and assuming no changes, FA pickups, or any other risk gets us a general ranking of this:

        PLACE   STDDEV
Todd    1.25    0.50
Matt    2.00    0.82
Calvin  3.00    0.82
Jason   4.00    0.82
Dustin  5.75    1.26
Andy    6.75    1.71
Kelley  6.75    2.36
Dan     7.25    0.96
Brian   8.75    0.96
Jim     9.50    0.58

The surprise of the draft is clearly Todd who was consistently 1 or 2. Matt, Calvin, and Jason are a pretty solid 2, 3, 4. Then it gets crazy. Kelley is the most schitzo ranging from 5th to 10th. Basically, the middle is a toss up. The only thing fairly solid is that Brian and Jim are trailing the pack. I think Jim probably could have called that since he didn't pick up a 6th player until the 90th pick (53rd after keepers) and that pick was Mike Jacobs. Of course, these places are based off of category rankings. Anything could happen in a keeper league with playoffs.

It was an interesting draft. The keepers guaranteed that. Despite the extra money many teams had, there wasn't really much draft inflation. People weren't throwing their money around quite like I thought they would. Calvin probably had the most money to play with yet he waited a long time to spend money after his first 4-5 guys drafted.

The overall money split was 64% hitting to 36% pitching. That includes keepers. Thirteen players were over $30 including two over $40. There were 30 players that cost $1.


The Teams:

Todd's Heaters

Todd's draft can be summed up as Albert Pujols, Chris Carpenter, and guys Dan wanted. He's really hoping that "sophomore slump" thing doesn't exist because he has more than a few candidates. He also seems to like drafting players from his favorite team, the 1996 Mariners. Ken Griffey, Vizquel, and Moyer really skew the average age up a bit.

Balanced. Todd has a pretty balanced team. Generally decent at pitching and hitting. He's going to win SBs almost every week and probably get some serious runs because of that. His pitching is solid except that Chris Carpenter is hurt early.

Best Non-Keeper Value: Dan Wheeler, $6 (future Astros closer?)
The "what were you thinking?!?": Kerry Wood, $1. (injury waiting to happen)
Biggest risk: Ken Griffey Jr., $12
Breakout candidate: Anthony Reyes, $10

Matt's Utility Men

Matt wanted to spend money this season and he did. He had to wait 50 picks from the time he bought Jeremy Hermidia for $9 to start drafting his last 5 $1 players. I think he was napping between bringing up guys.

Balanced. His keepers really helped his pitching staff be in the top tier. Drafting Hoffman and Cordero will give him no worries on the closer front. The only question mark is Pedro who will undoubtable help Matt in the playoffs a ton. He's definitely more vulnerable in the first half of the season. His hitting will be fine if Reyes repeats his peformance of last season and Derrick Lee is good again. There's some big question marks on offense, but the anchors of Utley, Fielder, Lee, and Reyes should keep him consistent from week-to-week.

Best Non-Keeper Value: Pedro Martinez, $9 (depending on when he comes back)
The "what were you thinking?!?": Jeremy Hermidia, $9 (leaving him with $5 for 5 players 2/3 through the draft)
Biggest risk: Pedro Martinez, $9
Breakout candidate: John Maine, $10


Calvin's Slumpbusters

Calvin came in with the most money available with two keepers at $1 and a $2 keeper. He was throwing his money around early buying Bay, Delgado, Gordon, Lopez, and Oswalt. But I think he took on more risk than necessary. John Patterson, Ryan Dempster, Jim Edmonds, and a few others all have high probablilities of bombing/getting hurt. And they didn't come cheap either. So Calvin was left getting 5 for $5 at the end despite having so much money after keepers.

Balanced. Calvin is going to struggle with batting average and SBs against the top speed teams, but otherwise his hitting is solid. Especially of all of his keepers who were breakout guys last year continue what they did last season (which isn't a guarantee). Pitching wise Calvin will be solid if his pitchers do whats projected of them. After Oswalt there's not a lot of proven history. Patterson gets hurt and Wainwright, Chuck James, and Scott Olsen are either first time starters or are in the sophomore slump watch status. IPs will be and issue, but everything else should be good enough to win in any given week.

Best Non-Keeper Value: Ryan Dempster, $9 (assuming he closes all year)
The "what were you thinking?!?": John Patterson, $17 (great, but lots of injury risk)
Biggest risk: John Patterson & Jim Edmonds, $13
Breakout candidate: Adam Wainwright, $11


Prothero's Poppers

I had kept more "stars" than anyone else, thus had the least money at the start of the draft. This meant I wasn't in on any +$30 guys. Overall I think I drafted some good value and took on an acceptable amount of risk. My team is considerable younger than in years past. I did draft a few sentimental picks from the championship team from last year (Chipper, Nomar) to hang with my keepers.

Slightly Pitching-Oreiented. Other than the lack of saves which will keep me trolling the FA market all year, my pitching should win me plenty of games. Especially assuming Randy Johnson plays all year and is better than last season. This team was built on winning the averages (AVE, OPS, ERA, WHIP) and hoping the other stats fall into place. SBs will be a struggle, but the Poppers should compete in most hitting categories.

Best Non-Keeper Value: Josh Willingham, $16
The "what were you thinking?!?": Randy Johnson, $15 (too much for the risk)
Biggest risk: Randy Johnson
Breakout candidate: Kelly Johnson, $8


Dustin's Azzuri

Between Dusty doing Dan impressions and yelling at Jim, this draft was seriously entertaining. It appears Dusty's strategy for this draft was to draft as many potential keepers as possible. Should make for an interesting season if they all pan out or break out. My guess is a few will flame out and end up pissing Dusty off. He will need to spend his FA$ this season to plug holes as the season goes on. Dusty needs a team blog so we can continue the fun from the draft!

Pitching-Oriented. Dusty's pitching is simply more solid than his hitting. With the cheap keeper saves and the solid if not brilliant starters he should do well in pitching. Of course much of that depends on his ace, Ben Sheets, staying healthy. He will struggle to find SBs and all those young guys will kill his AVE and OPS. But he has a lot of guys that would be fun to have. And if Chris Young breaks out then Dusty may have his new favorite player (he looks and plays like Eric Davis).

Best Non-Keeper Value: Aaron Harang, $22 (Those K-BB make him valuable)
The "what were you thinking?!?": Kazuo Matsui, $7 (a little spendy for this never been)
Biggest risk: Ben Sheets
Breakout candidate: Pick 'em. Andre Either? Kouzmanoff? Chris Young?


Andy's Full Flanull

I think Andy is physically unable to draft power. The self proclaimed "Best Team Ever" isn't going to win a team HR derby competition. Andy ended up having a bunch of cash at the end of the draft, which of course isn't a good thing. If Andy drafted Luis Gonzalez he could have renamed his team to the "Has beens". Luis would fit right in with Helton, Shawn Green, Preston Wilson, Scott Hatteburg, and Paul LoDuca!

Pitching-Oriented. By keeping three starters he had a good base. Andy will need to win by taking the pitching categories (except saves) and hoping to take runs, AVE, and SBs on the hitting side. Andy may never win the HR, RBI, or OPS category all season. Andy should have picked up another closer and tried to get that last pitching category because his ERA and WHIP won't win every week.

Best Non-Keeper Value: Ryan Freel, $15 (SBs)
The "what were you thinking?!?": Shawn Green, $12 (he's no longer good)
Biggest risk: Todd Helton, $21 (another guy declining steadily)
Breakout candidate: Khalil Greene, $11


Kelley's FKaky

Kelley was on the fast track to spending $10 for 10 players at the end of the draft, but Dusty bailed him out by trading him some valuable cash with Weathers for Kouzmanoff. He was a big early spender nabbing Soriano ($40), Beltran ($39), and Peavy($27) for a pretty penny. He may have drafted enough talent to overcome his crazy keeper strategy. It's like he was throwing darts at a dartboard picking those guys :).

Hitting-Oriented. He's got some big names on the offense. Kelley could vastly improve himself with a few key FA pickups. Too many part-timers and guys not playing much doom his RBI, Runs and even HRs a little. But if he picks up some guys that play he'll be a force on offense. He should rarely lose the OPS category. On the pitching side, he's good enough to win most categories except maybe IP and Saves. If he didn't get Weathers in that trade he would not have had double digits in saves. Of course, even with Weathers he may not.

Best Non-Keeper Value: Dave Weathers, $6 (If he's the closer all year)
The "what were you thinking?!?": Ricky Weeks, $21 (i know...he's a keeper)
Biggest risk: Barry Bonds, $22 (just cause of his knee)
Breakout candidate: Chris Iannetta, $13


Dan's Pickle Weasels

Dan missing the draft - $0.
Dustin drafting for Dan - $0.
Many beers and shots of tequila - $10.
Listening to Dustin be "Dan" - Priceless

Hitting-Oriented. Dan probably has the best hitting team in the league. But his pitching is possibly the worst in the league. Of course, in head-to-head, that just may work. If Dan can get lucky on a few rookie pitchers in the FA market or make a key trade, he could be a force to be reckoned with.

Best Non-Keeper Value: Geoff Jenkins, $7 (off to a hot start...)
The "what were you thinking?!?": Jorge Julio, $17 (already lost his job)
Biggest risk: Armando Benitez, $7
Breakout candidate: Troy Tulowitzki, $12



Brian's Box Chowers

Brian stayed more sober this draft. Time will tell if it helped. It's definitely not as fun to yell "Sauza!", but it is fun to say. His draft strategy appears to be to load up on pitching that he can trade during the season.

Pitching-Oriented. If Lidge would have kept his job, he would have won saves every week. He still has 2 closers and another 2 guys who will get a few saves thoughout the season. Plus, he has a great ace in Smoltz and a solid 2-4 with Willis, Lowry, and Suppan. Unfortunately, the Box Chowers hitting resembles the Golden State Warriors of the late 80's. It's Berkman, Lee, and Andruw...and a bunch of guys who aren't going to help you win in the playoffs. If you've got hitting, expect a trade offer by June.

Best Non-Keeper Value: Noah Lowry, $8
The "what were you thinking?!?": Brad Lidge, $13
Biggest risk: Jason Isringhausen, $16
Breakout candidate: Shane Victorino, $7


Jim's Beaners

Former Champions Jim's Beaners are still trying to regain the magic of 2005. Jim looked a little shell shocked as he waited a loooong time to start drafting. Most of the studs were gone by then, but at least he has David Wright to keep him afloat. It will be interesting to see how the strategy to keep three RPs (1 closer) works out.

Hitting-Oriented. He is hitting oriented, but it appears his AVE and OPS could be bad. But he'll be good at everything else. Pitching will be an adventure. He's hoping Jason Schmidt is lights out for the Dodgers or else...

Best Non-Keeper Value: Aaron Rowand, $8
The "what were you thinking?!?": Oliver Perez, $9 (did you see his whip last season?)
Biggest risk: Cliff Floyd, $8
Breakout candidate: Cole Hamels, $19



Good luck for the season everyone!

My pitching is killing me...

...yet somehow I'm still leading Todd's Heaters 7.0 - 5.0 on the week.

Zambrano pitched so bad last night that sweet Lou Pinella blew a gasket in the post game interview (link). And Brandon Webb was doing his best Zambrano impression last night. At least he pitched 7 innings. My overall K-BB is -3!

You'd think with an ERA of 5.90 and a WHIP of 1.69 for the week there's no way I could win a single pitching category. Yet I'm still in it because Todd has a 5.66 ERA and 1.47 WHIP! Sad times people...

Week 1 Recap

Since TQStats no longer shows the points breakdown, I thought I'd try to record it on the Blog.

Week 1 Results

9.5 - Andy's Full Flanal
2.5 - Todd's Heaters

Andy dominated Todd in hitting sweeping all categories.


5.0 - Dustin's Diggleturb
7.0 - Prothero's Poppers

Jason eeked out a win in the first week despite having Randy Johnson in the lineup. The difference was somehow getting 6 wins (to Dusty's 4) with half as many IP.


3.0 - Kelley's FKAKY
9.0 - Dan's Pickle Weasels

Dustin is 1-1 in week 1 :). Hitting takes the week for Dan.


8.5 - Calvin's Slumpbusters
3.5 - Matt's Utility Men

Closer than the score indicates. Matt needed 2/3 IP, 1 SV, 2 HRs, and 1 W to win the week.


1.0 - Brian's Box Chowers
11.0 - Jim's Beaners

Dan Uggla who? Jim takes week one in a landslide.


Click the "Weekly Recap" label below for previous weekly recaps.

Kelley's team blog

Kelley is stepping up and making the league more interesting with his new team blog:

Beaver Roto League - FKAky Team Blog

Check it out!

Also, feel free to post your team thoughts here and tag then with your team name. Or create your own blog and I'll link to it here and put your feed on the left side with the other feeds.

Players of the Week: Week 1

I know that I always start this off but I tend to phase off after the second or third time of doing this. Hopefully this year will be different. If not, I might be asking others for help throughout the season.

Here are the players of the week for Week 1. Please note that Sunday April 1st and Monday April 2nd are not figured into the stats for some unknown reason by TQStats. So if the stats seem off that is why. Also note that I will try to keep the list to four people at each category (Hitters and Pitchers). So if you thought your player had a great week and isn't listed, it is because I narrowed it down to the top 4. I will also try to be bias too.

Hitters:
HOW (Hitter Of the Week)- Week 1
Miguel Cabrera - Poppers
2 Hr's, 7 R's, 7 Rbi's, .450 Avg, 1.438 OPS
It was a close call between Miguel and Eric this week. The astronomical Avg and OPS pulled Miguel away from Eric though. The 4 SB's from Eric could have won it for him but his Avg and OPS couldn't compete with Miguel.

Note worthy:
Eric Byrnes - Slumpbusters
2 Hr's, 4 R's, 5 Rbi's, 4 SB's, .300 Avg, .930 OPS

Geoff Jenkins - Pickle Weasels
3 Hr's, 4 R's, 6 Rbi's, .353 Avg, 1.330 OPS

Mike Jacobs - Beaners
2 Hr's, 8 R's, 4 Rbi's, .409 Avg, 1.344 OPS

Pitchers
POW (Pitcher Of the Week) - Week 1:
Ted Lilly - Diggleturds
13 Inn's, 1 Win, 12 K-BB's, 2.77 ERA, and 0.85 Whip
The K-BB ratio and low Whip won it for Ted this week. There were lower ERA's but the K-BB ratio played big in selecting this weeks winner.

Noteworthy:
Jake Peavy - FKAky
13 Inn's, 1 Win, 5 K-BB's, 0.69 ERA, and 0.92 Whip

Ian Snell - Heaters
13 Inn's, 0 Win, 12 K-BB's, 2.08 ERA, and 0.92 Whip

Cole Hamels - Beaners
13 Inn's, 0 Win, 11 K-BB's, 1.38 ERA, 1.08 Whip


WOW - (Worthless Of the Week) - Week 1:
This award goes to the two closing pitchers that lost or will be losing their job as closer.

Jorge Julio - Pickle Weasels
28.13 ERA, 7.50 WHIP, 1 L, 5 Er's, 1.2 IP's, 3 G's

Brad Lidge - Box Chowers
25.71 ERA, 7.14 WHIP, .2 IP's, 5 Er's

2006 Financial Results

Here's how the money shakes out this season and what to bring to the draft.


Winners:

--minus the 2007 entry fee (except Mike)--

1st: Jason - $228
2nd: Calvin - $73
3rd: Mike - $83
4th: Andy - $6


Non-winners (owes):

--2007 Entry Fee Added in--

5th: Matt - ($60)
6th: Jim - ($66)
7th: Dustin - ($66)
8th: Dan - ($50)
9th: Kelley - ($90)
10th: Todd - ($50)
11th: Brian - ($57)


So that's what to bring to the draft or PayPal me.

Curt Schilling's Blog

Curt Schilling has a blog. Pretty cool that a baseball "insider" would start something like this.

38 Pitches

Draft weekend set - April 7th

Keepers are due March 16th.

I'll have a list of the cash balance around that time as well.

Draft list for keepers

Draft list for keepers here:


Draft List

Finals Wk1 Recap and Wk2 Preview

The Finals Week 1 featured a 6-6 tie between the Poppers and Slumpbusters. So it's all up to the final 6 days. Jason must win 6.5 categories to finish first, otherwise Calvin becomes the first 4-time champion.

RECAP: Even in HRs and SBs, the Slumpbusters scratched by in Runs on the final day while the Poppers offense crushed the rest of the hitting categories by a very wide margin. A better-than-average week for Slumpbuster pitching resulted in 1 more win and 2 more saves, and getting 9 more IP helped top the K-BB category by 4. However, a solid Poppers rotation gave Jason the edge in ERA/WHIP despite Scott Olsen's mishap on Saturday.

HITTING PREVIEW: Going into the final 6 days, the Slumpbusters offense takes a huge hit as team MVP Nick Johnson goes down with a broken femur, joining fellow stud 1B Derrek Lee on the pine. Can super-subs Mark Sweeney and Russ Branyan save the Slumpbusters from another crushing at the hands of (gulp!) Luke Scott and Barry Bonds? Baserunning should be a toss-up, with Hanley Ramirez and Endy Chavez running for the Poppers versus Felipe Lopez and Eric Byrnes for the Slumpbusters.

PITCHING PREVIEW: Poppers will get 7 starts from their 5 SP, while the Slumpbusters get 6 from 6. The nod goes to the Poppers if Maddux can survive a trip to Coors and then beat ROY candidate Matt Cain on 3 day's rest. Calvin's closing trifecta of Borowski/Cordero/Wickman should get ample opportunities as the Fish, BrewCrew and Braves try to spoil the Phils, Cards, and Astro's postseason hopes. Popper closers Flash and Wheeler should keep it close, as PHI/HOU are white hot and can smell October.

CALVIN'S CALL: Poppers 10-2 in the final week to take the trophy. Slumpbusters manage to tie in Runs and SBs, while winning only the Saves category outright. 'Carpenter & the Kids' can't overcome the steady veteran presence of Zambrano, Maddux and Webb, as Pedro again implodes and the kids (Hamels, Anibal, James, R.Hill) crumble under pressure.

FINAL WEEK MVP: Brandon Webb, with 2W, 1 SHO, 12 K-BB and winning the Cy Young over the Slumpbuster's Chris Carpenter.

Semifinals Results

One comeback and one sweep setup an interesting championship between a semi-underdog and a team that should have got there.

Calvin followed up his 7-5 win over Andy to smash him 9.5-2.5 and head into the championship round.  Andy had a horrible week as his strength, pitching, let him down.  Calvin left the door open with his average hitting week, but Andy couldn't capitalize and is out of the playoffs.

Jason parlayed a great pitching week into a 8.5-3.5 comeback win after losing 7-5 in week one.  Kelley tried to keep it close with a great power week, but poor pitching and poor hitting overall did him in.  It was a close series the whole way.

The final matchup in the BVRRL championship will be Calvin's Slumpbusters versus Jason's Poppers.

Semifinals

Couple close game 1's.  Both 7-5.

Kelley hung on for the victory against the Poppers as both teams were very even.

FKAKY 7 - Poppers 5

 

Calvin took one pitching category from Andy and all the hitting categories which was good enough for the 7-5 win.

Slumbusters 7 - Full Flanal 5

Round 2 Results

Great comeback by Calvin to push into the third round of the playoffs.  Everyone else pretty much held status quo and the winners won both games.

Poppers - 7.5, Utility Men - 4.5
Poppers - 8.5, Utility Men - 3.5

FKAKY - 9.5, Faux`s Footlongs - 2.5
FKAKY - 8, Faux`s Footlongs - 4

Heaters - 8,  Slumpbusters- 4
Slumpbusters - 11, Heaters - 1

Full Flanull - 8.5, Box Chowers - 3.5
Full Flanull - 10.5, Box Chowers - 1.5

 

Matchups are set and look like this:

Poppers vs. FKAKY

Slumpbusters vs. Full Flanull

First Game, Round 2

Well, the first game in round 2 is complete and there are two major upsets in the making.  Both Calvin and Mike are on the verge of elimination.

FKAKY - 8.0
Faux`s Footlongs - 4.0

Heaters - 8.0
Slumpbusters - 4.0

Poppers - 7.5
Utility Men - 4.5

Full Flanal - 8.5
Box Chowers - 3.5

The games are definitely not as close as last round.  It's going to take some serious effort to make up those deficits.

Round 2 Matchups Set

 

Full Flanal vs. BOX CHOWERS
Slumpbusters vs. Heaters
Faux's Footlongs vs. FKAKY
Utility Men vs. Poppers

Playoffs: Round 1 Finished

Playoffs round 1 is over.  Here's the final results:

Box Chowers edged the Beaners with a good final week win to secure the series.  That last week was so close that a few runs allowed or hits could have turned in the Beaners way.

Box Chowers - 6, Beaners - 6
Box Chowers - 8, Beaners - 4

Box Chowers Win

Todd completed a nice little turnaround by coming back to beat Dustin on the second week.  They went down in a close game the first week, but Dustins pitching got rocked in the second week and the Heaters cruised in for the win on points.

Diggleturb - 6.5, Heaters - 5.5
Heaters - 8, Diggleturb - 4

Heaters Win

Kelley dominated Dan to cruise on to the second round.  He will need a similar performance against Mike to pull off the upset, but it looks like he is peaking at just the right time.

FKAKY - 8, Pickle Weasels- 4
FKAKY - 10, Pickle Weasels- 2

FKAKY Win

Playoffs: Round 1, Game 1

There were some heated battles in the first round of the playoffs.


Beaners and Box Chowers are tied at 6-6.
Next week determines the winner who gets to play Andy.

Dustin edged Todd 6.5 – 5.5 to take the lead in the two game series.

Kelley took a commanding 8-4 lead over Dan to see who will play Mike. Dan has to win 8-4 next week to move on (he’s the higher seed).

Baseball Stats, Graphs, Analysis

Just found this cool site called Fan Graphs. Very visual and pretty interesting. More SABR type stuff.

Baseball Stats, Graphs, Analysis | Fan Graphs

MVP Candidates

Time to vote for the MVP of the Beaver Roto league regular season. (In this case it's really voting for the best hitter)

I only used "Roto Stats" so they had to get the stats for your team. Most good players haven't been benched anyways. But it does affect players who were traded and weren't the best for their team due to a small # of ABs.

The stats are through this Friday because I couldn't get stats for only through Monday.

Feel free to "write in" someone you think should be on there, but this is a pretty big list.

Everybody Vote!!!


Carlos Beltran, OF, Faux's Footlongs, $34
380 ab, 85 r, 29 db, 33 hr, 97 rbi, 64 bb, 14 sb, 0.282 ave, 1.01 ops

Alfonso Soriano, 2B, Faux's Footlongs, $27
459 ab, 86 r, 29 db, 36 hr, 73 rbi, 50 bb, 28 sb, 0.290 ave, 0.964 ops

Nick Johnson, 1B, Calvin's Slumpbusters, $17
378 ab, 73 r, 35 db, 17 hr, 58 rbi, 81 bb, 9 sb, 0.291 ave, 0.945 ops

Brian McCann, C, Andy's Full Flanal, $12
286 ab, 40 r, 20 db, 14 hr, 52 rbi, 28 bb, 2 sb, 0.353 ave, 0.986 ops

Chase Utley, 2B, Matt's Utility Men, $27
464 ab, 96 r, 33 db, 21 hr, 74 rbi, 41 bb, 12 sb, 0.328 ave, 0.940 ops

Miguel Cabrera, 3B, Jason's Poppers, $35
412 ab, 78 r, 38 db, 17 hr, 78 rbi, 64 bb, 7 sb, 0.337 ave, 0.992 ops

David Wright, 3B, Jim's Beaners, $39
427 ab, 73 r, 29 db, 22 hr, 86 rbi, 52 bb, 14 sb, 0.311 ave, 0.939 ops

Aramis Ramirez, 3B, Dustin's Diggleturb, $29
417 ab, 61 r, 24 db, 27 hr, 79 rbi, 37 bb, 1 sb, 0.276 ave, 0.887 ops

Ryan Howard, CI, Dan's Pickle Weasels, $31
413 ab, 63 r, 16 db, 39 hr, 102 rbi, 61 bb, 0 sb, 0.293 ave, 1.010 ops

Adam Dunn, OF, Kelley's FKAKY, $32
413 ab, 78 r, 19 db, 34 hr, 80 rbi, 82 bb, 5 sb, 0.254 ave, 0.930 ops

Adam LaRoche, 1B, Todd's Heaters, $12
342 ab, 58 r, 26 db, 23 hr, 64 rbi, 35 bb, 0 sb, 0.269 ave, 0.885 ops

Albert Pujols, CI, Brian's Box Chowers, $46
288 ab, 75 r, 22 db, 30 hr, 80 rbi, 57 bb, 5 sb, 0.326 ave, 1.160 ops

if this were roto...

if this were traditional rotisserie instead of head-to-head, here's how our 'final', 'regular season' standings would look:

Cumulative	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OPS	W	SV	IP	ERA	WHIP	K-BB
Footlongs	659	192	648	94	0.2794	0.8528	45	14	790	4.1	1.342	253
Slumpbusters	680	136	624	107	0.2839	0.8229	57	50	840.7	4.4	1.377	338
Full Flanull	551	122	529	90	0.2755	0.7757	51	55	877.3	4.19	1.362	403
Utility Men	652	138	562	116	0.2709	0.778	54	49	979.3	4.44	1.339	376
Poppers	646	137	564	81	0.2806	0.8339	50	43	855.3	4.01	1.295	427
Beaners	577	125	527	83	0.2707	0.7642	54	25	949.3	4.52	1.38	457
Diggleturb	696	180	658	60	0.2867	0.8276	45	27	809.3	4.97	1.484	267
Pickle Weasels	669	167	669	70	0.2778	0.8027	44	40	782.3	4.31	1.423	338
FKAKY	709	179	637	108	0.2698	0.8002	48	43	795.7	4.51	1.445	277
Heaters	634	163	660	49	0.2655	0.7699	49	1	947	4.6	1.423	291
BOX CHOWERS	608	131	607	44	0.2647	0.7649	47	34	846.7	5.1	1.475	305
Average Team	644	152	608	82	0.2750	0.7993	49	35	861	4.47	1.395	339

Rotisserie	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OPS	W	SV	IP	ERA	WHIP	K-BB	Pts
Slumpbusters	10	4	7	10	11	9	12	11	5	8	8	6	101
Poppers	6	5	4	5	10	11	8	8	7	12	12	11	99
Utility Men	7	6	3	12	5	5	10	10	12	7	11	9	97
Footlongs	8	12	9	9	9	12	2	2	2	11	10	1	87
Full Flanull	1	1	2	8	7	4	9	12	9	10	9	10	82
Pickle Weasels	9	9	12	4	8	8	1	7	1	9	4	6	78
FKAKY	12	10	8	11	3	7	5	8	3	5	3	3	78
Average Team	5	7	6	6	6	6	7	6	8	6	6	8	77
Diggleturb	11	11	10	3	12	10	2	4	4	2	1	2	72
Beaners	2	2	1	7	4	1	10	3	11	4	7	12	64
Heaters	4	8	11	2	2	3	6	1	10	3	4	4	58
BOX CHOWERS	3	3	5	1	1	2	4	5	6	1	2	5	38

2006 Playoffs

The first round of the playoffs will look like this:


Beaners vs. BOX CHOWERS

Diggleturb vs. Heaters

Pickle Weasels vs. FKAKY


All other games are "friendlies" that don't count towards playoffs. 1st - 5th place get byes for the first round (2 weeks).

Final Standings

Here's the final standings for 2006:

OVERALL STANDINGS for Beaver Roto League
Through games of 08.07.06

             TEAM     WIN LOSS TIES     PCT        PF        PA
Faux`s Footlongs       13    4    1   .7500     116.0     100.0
Slumpbusters           11    6    1   .6389     126.0      90.0
Full Flanull           10    7    1   .5833     112.0     104.0
Utility Men             9    7    2   .5556     117.5      98.5
Poppers                 9    7    2   .5556     115.0     101.0
Beaners                 8    9    1   .4722     112.5     103.5
Diggleturb              7    8    3   .4722     103.5     112.5
Pickle Weasels          7    9    2   .4444      98.5     117.5
FKAKY                   7   10    1   .4167     109.0     107.0
Heaters                 5   10    3   .3611      93.5     122.5
BOX CHOWERS             5   12    1   .3056      84.0     132.0

Playoff matchups coming.

The Coorspiracy

Are the Colorado Rockies cheating? Are the waterlogged balls affecting play? Interesting blog post about the whole story.

The Denver Sports Zone » Off Day: The Coorspiracy*

Harold Reynolds responds to firing by ESPN

USATODAY.com - Reynolds focusing on future

Goin off a lil bit

This made my Monday...

POTW

Here they are...


Hitter:

Jason Bay, Jim's Beaners
9R, 6HR, 14RBI, .444AVG, 1.63OPS

(Ryan Howard was really close)


Pitcher:

No one was worthy :)



WOW:

Andy's Full Flanal
Juan Pierre .192 ba, .22 oba

Matt's Utility Men
Chris Young - 3in, 6 ER, 3 HR, 1L
Jamie Wright - 3.7in, 6 ER, -2 K-BB, 1 L

Players of the Week for week 7

Hitting:

Jason Bay, Jim's Beaners

7 runs, 4 hr, 12 rbi, .357 ave, 1.24 ops


Pitching:

It's a tie:

Carlos Zambrano, Jason's Poppers
2 wins, 2.40 era, 0.867 whip, 15 ip, 12 k-bb

Jamey Wright, Matt's Utility Men
2 wins, 15 ip, 2.40 era, 1.067 whip, 6 k-bb


Worthless of the Week:

Edwin Encarnacion, Todd's Heaters
0.174 AVE, 1 RBI, 3 Runs, 23 AB's

David Bush, Utility Men
2L, 10 IP, 9.9 ERA

AND...

Dan's entire team for getting the first huge loss to the average team!

White Sox and Cubs brawl

Here it it is. The Basebrawl in South Chicago...

Bonds 714...

POTW Week 6

OK, so this is based off of the nominations only:

Hitter:

Jason's Poppers
Nomar Garciaparra, LAD
.464 ave, 1.46 ops, 3 hr, 9 rbi, 7 runs


Pitcher:

Dan's Pickle Weasels
Tony Armas Jr, WAS
13 ip, 0.69 era, 2 wins, 0.615 whip, 7 k-bb


Jim wins the Worthless of the Week award (in his own words):

WOW - Worthless of the Week: J. J. Hardy: 0 for 11 with a walk. .000
AVG, .083 OPS

WOW2: Scott Mitre --- threw 3 pitches, got pulled and went on the DL

WOW3: Woody Williams --- pitched 1 inning then ripped his calf running the bases

Best baseball blog

This blog gets a vote for the best baseball blog I have seen, it is updated every day, and the guy who does it must spend lots of time researching and digging up stats.

http://plunkbiggio.blogspot.com/

An interview with Fantasyland author Sam Walker

This is a great article / chat with the author of Fantasyland. It's a good read and makes me want to read the book now!

Fantasy Baseball - RotoTimes.com

Nate Ravitz: One of the things I found really interesting about the book was the lengths you were willing to go to try to win, and one of them was obviously your front office. But one tactic you employed at the draft is something I’ve dubbed the “cleavage gambit,” so maybe you can tell our readers about that.

Sam Walker: Well, Christine Price is a friend of mine, and she’s a yoga instructor and a model and actress. Part of our draft strategy was to load up on top pitchers, and we wanted to accomplish it early before anyone figured out what we were doing. So we tried to figure out a way to distract the other touts during the draft and came up with Christine. So I brought her in as a videographer, and she wore tight jeans and a low-cut shirt. It basically worked well, as everyone’s attitude and demeanor changed as they knew that every move they made might be judged by this beautiful woman in a roomful of fantasy experts.

Nate Ravitz: There are a lot of funny quotes in the book about how the other touts reacted to Christine. But draft day wasn’t the only time you went above and beyond normal fantasy effort. You also spent some time trying to coach up your own players. Did it work?

Sam Walker: Well, of course, none of the players were taking much of what I said to heart. But I did catch Jacque Jones and Josh Phelps sort of talking to themselves about some of the problems they were having on the field. But I did try to keep their spirits up in a number of ways, whether it was handing out team jerseys or buying Bill Mueller a six pack of Schaffer, which was his favorite college beer.

But I did feel that I had a little bit of an effect on some of the managers. I remember talking to Tigers pitching coach Bob Cluck about Jason Johnson, who always seemed to fade in August and September. I had some stats about Johnson’s pitch counts, which had been excessively high the year before. And Cluck took me in to show it to Alan Trammell, and they basically told me that they weren’t going to let Johnson throw more than about 105 pitches anymore, or at least not two starts in a row.

Freakin' hilarious. Now I know what the Jack and Mike in Brazil were all about. Damn distractions!

Pitcher of the week, week 4

I'm going to go out on a limb and say Bronson Arroyo is the winner of the Pitcher of the week for week 4.

Bronson Arroyo, 2 wins, 17 ip, .5 era, 12 so, .58 whip

If anyone elses pitcher did better speak up or forever hold your peace.

Player of the Week (POW): Week 4

I was attempting to do the Player of the Week awards for this past week but i cant figure out how to view last weeks stats. I was slammed with studying yesterday for a midterm that I had and I was planning on doing them today (Wednesday) but our TQstats isnt very user friendly and wont allow me to view last weeks stats anymore.

Sorry for slacking off! if anyone has any nominees please nominate them. If I cant figure them out, I wont be doing them this week.

Kelley

John Hunt baseball blog

Ol’ John Hunt is an Oregonian writer these days but still talks about baseball. He’s got a blog here:

John Hunt Blog

For those who don't remember USA Today's Baseball Weekly, John was a Fantasy baseball god about 6-8 years ago. His blog is pretty interesting so far.

Delmon Young throws bat at umpire after striking out

In case you missed it, here's the bat throwing incident...

YouTube - Delmon Young throws bat at umpire after striking out

Player of the Week (POW): Pitching: Week 3

This weeks POW for pitching goes to the whole pitching staff of the Poppers. Congratulations!

5 Wins, 56.7 INN's, 28 K-BB, 1.59 ERA, and a 1.112 WHIP

Previous Winners:
Week 1:
Utility Men: Brad Penny: 1.50 ERA, .833 WHIP, 12 INN, 13 K-BB, 2 WINS

Week 2:
Stumpbusters: Pedro Martinez: 2 W's, 13.7 IP, 11Ks, 2.63 ERA, .878 WHIP and 200th career victory

-----------

WOW award this weeks goes to Victor Zambrano, 2 Loses, 12.00 ERA, 2.11 WHIP

Player of the Week (POW): Hitting: Week 3

I was hoping people would notice that I changed a few teams names around the past couple of weeks. It's my version of trash talking. This weeks player of the week goes to someone who I believe hit 8 hrs in 8 games, I lost count after the eight game. Congrats to Morgan Ensberg!

Utility Men: Morgan Ensberg: 5 HR's, 9 RBI's 7 R's, .318 AVG, and 1.42 OPS

Other noteworthy guys:
FA: (now a FKAky) Brandon Phillips: 3 HR's, 13 RBI's, 5 R's, .387 AVG, and 1.161 OPS.

Heaters: Edwin Encarnacion: 2 HR's 11 RBI's, 8 R's, .304 AVG, and 1.12 OPS

Box Chowers: Albert Pujols: 3 HR's, 9 RBI's, .300 AVG, 1.27 OPS

FKAky: JD Drew: 3 HR's, 7 RBI's, .400 AVG, 1.38 OPS

Previous Winners:
Week 1:
Beaners: David Wright: 2HRS, 9 RBI's, .474 AVG, 1.420 OPS,
and 1 SB

Week 2:
Box Chowers: Albert Pujols: 5 HRs, 10 RBI's, .429 AVG, 1.79 OPS
FKAky: Craig Wilson: 5 HRS, 10 RBI's, .320 AVG, 1.39 OPS

-------

Worthless Player of the Week (WOW): After being the WOW for the first two weeks of the season Barry Bonds finally hit his first homerun of the season. Since I told the Poppers that he would stay as the WOW until he hit a HR, I have to hold true to this. Barry I love you so this weeks WOW award goes to Derek Lee for getting hurt and being out for two months. Congratulations and thanks for ruining my season.

FKAky: Derek Lee

The First Trade!

Dan and Todd just completed the first trade of the year:

Todd traded Jim Edmonds to Dan for Willy Taverez.


Any post-trade analysis?

Another stats site

For anyone just wanting to browse old stats check out this site:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/

It pretty much rocks the kasbah for stats.

Who the?

Alright...who is TwoFreeHeels and ROTO JACK?

I'm calling ROTO JACK = BOX CHOWERS due to the heavy use of all caps.

TwoFreeHeels = Beaners? Which coincidentally is one letter away from Beavers.


Did anyone else notice Kelley renamed Calvin's team to the Stumpbusters this week? Coincidentally, that is only one letter away from Slumpbusters...

Player of the Week (POW): Pitching: Week 2

This weeks winner goes to Pedro Martinez. Pedro won his 200th career
game this week.

Stumpbusters: Pedro Martinez: 2 W's, 13.7 IP, 11Ks, 2.63 ERA, .878 WHIP
and 200th career victory

Note Worthy:
FKAky: Brian Bannister: 2 W's, 12 IP, 1.50 ERA, 1.167 WHIP

Stumpbusters: Jason Marquis: 2 W's, 14 IP, 2.57 ERA, 0.786 WHIP

Poppers: Greg Maddux: 2 W's, 14 IP, 1.29 ERA, .571 WHIP, 11 K-BB

Utility Men: Chris Young: 2 W's, 13 IP, 1.38 ERA, .846 WHIP, 10 K's

Previous Winner:
Week 1: Utility Men: Brad Penny: 1.50 ERA, .833 WHIP, 12 INN, 13 K-BB, 2 WINS

------------------------------

----------------------------

WOW: Worthless of the Week:
Diggleturds: Oliver Perez: 4.7 IP, 11.57 ERA, 3.00 WHIP, -1 K-BB

Player of the Week (POW): Hitting: Week 2

Player of the Week (POW) for hitting: Week 2

This week goes to two guys. Pujols for his amazing 4 HRs in 4 AB made
this a tie with Craig Wilson. Craig Wilson stepped in for the injuried
Sean Casey and goes off this past week for 5 HRS and 10 RBI's. He was
also drafted for $1.

Box Chowers: Albert Pujols: 5 HRs, 10 RBI's, .429 AVG, 1.79 OPS

FKAky: Craig Wilson: 5 HRS, 10 RBI's, .320 AVG, 1.39 OPS

Other note worthy performances:

Adam Dunn - FKAky: 6 HRS, 8 RBI's, .261 AVG, 1.48 OPS

Ryan Freel - Full Flannels: 11 R's, 2 RBI's, 6 SB's

Previous Winners:
Week 1 Beaners: David Wright: 2HRS, 9 RBI's, .474 AVG, 1.420 OPS, and 1 SB

I forgot to do the WOW (worthless of the week) award for hitting on the
previous posting. This weeks WOW goes to the same player that won it
last week.

Poppers: Barry Bonds: 14 ABs, 3 Hits, 6 BBs, .214 AVG, 0 HRs, and 1
RBI.

Until he hits a HR, He will get this award.

Bronson Arroyo has more HR's then him (2 HRs).

Got Stats?

Did you guys know there's a downloadable database of baseball stats?

"This database contains pitching, hitting, and fielding statistics for
Major League Baseball from 1871 through 2005. It includes data from
the two current leagues (American and National), the four other "major"
leagues (American Association, Union Association, Players League, and
Federal League), and the National Association of 1871-1875."

They have MS-Access, spreadsheet, and comma-delimited versions. Not sure what you'd do with it, but if you want to know most HBP in 1947 by a batter over 6'2", here you go.

Interesting Chart on the Distribution of Stats from the draft

I thought I'd throw the draft list into Excel and do a little PivotChart action. Pretty interesting results.

Here's the chart:




Dustin takes the prize for least $1 players. Look at all those guys in the $6 - $10 range. What will be interesting to see is which strategies pay off. Obviously, there's a lot of luck involved but this does shed some light on strategy a bit.

A couple of other things of note, Andy and Matt didn't draft a player over $30. We'll see if that works out for them. Also, Brian an Jim spent the most money on high $$$ players and tied for the most $1 players. That will be interesting to watch early on to see if that paid off.

Man, nearly all of Dusty's players went between $6 and $15.


Anyone else see anything interesting? If you want the spreadsheet to play around with, let me know.

J

Player of the Week (POW): Pitching: Week 1

Player of the Week: Pitching: Week 1

Utility Men: Brad Penny: 1.50 ERA, .833 WHIP, 12 INN, 13 K-BB, 2 WINS

Noteworthy:

Full Flannel: Derek Turnbow: 4 G, 4 SAVES, 0.00 ERA, 1.750 WHIP (The WHIP is the reason he didnt win this week)

Full Flannel: Tom Glavine: 2.25 ERA, 1.33 WHIP, 12 INN, 10 K, 1 WIN

Heaters: Dontrelle Willis: 1.38 ERA, .846 WHIP, 13 INN, 7 K, 0 WINS

Poppers: Brandon Webb: 2.77 ERA, 1.308 WHIP, 13 INN, 0 WINS

---------

WOW (Worthless of the Week):
Faux's Footlongs: Tim Hudson: 12.38 ERA, 2.50 WHIP, 1 LOSE, -3 KK-B, 8
INNs

Player of the Week (POW): Week 1

I thought that I would start up the Player of the Week Awards for this
season. Here they go. If you disagree, go screw yourself!

POW (Hitting):
Beaners: David Wright: 2HRS, 9 RBI's, .474 AVG, 1.420 OPS, and 1 SB

Note Worthy
Faux's Footlongs: Ryan Langerhans: 2 HRs, 7 RBI's, .476 AVG, 1.400 OPS, and 4 SB

Full Flannels: Preston Wilson: 4 HRs, 7 RBI's .296 AVG, 1.110 OPS

FKAky: Derek Lee: 3 HRs, 7 RBI's. .375 AVG, 1.520 OPS, and new contract with Cubs

BOX CHOWERS: Albert Pujols: 4 HRs, 9 RBI's, .304 AVG, 1.310 OPS, and 1 SB

BOX CHOWERS: Andrew Jones: 3 HRs, 13 RBI's, .302 AVG, .984 OPS

-----

WOW (Worthless Player of the Week):
Poppers: Barry Bonds: 0 HR, 0 RBI, 7 BB, .167 AVG

Step by step, how fantasies turn into nightmares

A week into the 2006 baseball season, we haven't learned much about which teams will thrive and which will disappoint. We can make but wild guesses as to which players' fast starts will endure and which will fade like so many stonewashed dungarees. The only thing we can say with any degree of certainty is that your Fantasy team sucks, violently and godlessly. Read more...

How Playoffs for 2006 Will Work

Here’s how the playoffs would work. There will be 8 weeks of playoffs.

Playoffs (seeds)

Round 1 8 v. 9 7 v. 10 6 v. 11
8 v. 9 7 v. 10 6 v. 11

Round 2 1 v. 8/9 2 v. 7/10 3 v. 6/11 4 v. 5
1 v. 8/9 2 v. 7/10 3 v. 6/11 4 v. 5

Round 3 1/(8/9) v. 4/(5/-1) 2/(7/10) v. 3/(6/11)
1/(8/9) v. 4/(5/-1) 2/(7/10) v. 3/(6/11)
Round 4 Winner of above v. Winner of above

The money is distributed like this:

1st place share (50%) – Given to the playoff champion
2nd place share (25%) – Given to the playoff runner-up
3rd place share (15%) – Given to the highest playoff seed not in the championship game
4th place share (10%) – Given to the second highest playoff seed not in the championship game

The 3rd and 4th place awards give some consolation to those teams who did well in the regular season but got upset in the playoffs. I.e. if the first place team in the regular season (1 seed) gets beat in the second or third round, then he will get the 3rd place share.

Rosters Loaded

The rosters are now fully loaded into the TQStats site. Please verify your rosters and let me know if there are any problems.

Thanks!

2006 Draft List

I've posted an Excel file which contains draft results here:

Roto2006.xls


Enjoy!!

2006 Finances

Here's the final entry fees owed for the 2006 season:

Calvin $50
Mike $50
Andy $20

Keeper info

Forgot to add the keeper info.


Keepers

We decided that we will keep up to 5 players next year.

They will be on 2 year contracts which means the year following the year you
draft them (or pick them up via free agency) you can keep them at the salary
you drafted them (or $10 for free agents). That salary will be subtracted
from your starting $260 draft money next year.

After next year you have an option to continue to keep players for a 3rd,
4th, 5th year but you will be raising their salary by $10 each additional
year you keep them.

If players are traded they will keep they contract status they had with
their previous team.

League Constitution 2006

The Draft


* You get $260 of fake money to draft 23 players(14 batters, 9 pitchers)

* One guy opens a player, then we go around the table bidding until no one wants to bid any higher. Then the guy with the highest bid gets the player.

* Then the next guy over opens a player, and so on...

* The reserve draft is a serpentine draft with no bidding that occurs after all the rosters have been filled (i.e. the regular auction style draft is done). The order is drawn from a hat and reverses every round. So round 1 is ascending, round two decending, and so on.



Eligibility


* Position players must play 20 games the previous season or 5 games in the current season at a position to be eligible to be played at the position.

* If the player doesn't get 5 games at a position by April 30 he must be moved out of the position to a position he is eligible for.

* For pitchers to be eligible to start they must get 1 start every two weeks.

* If a relief pitcher gets two starts in a row then he must be moved to a starter or put on reserve.



Transactions


1. All transactions must be made on Tuesday by midnight. Do them through the TQStats website.

2. Once you put a new player on your active roster his stats will be counted starting on Tuesday and the old player’s stats will stop on Monday. Thus, our rotisserie week is from Tuesday to Monday.

3. Costs of transactions:

$3 - Free Agent pick-up
FREE - Bring a player up from the reserve roster
$3/team - Trade Fee
FREE - Change player position
FREE - Put player from active to reserve roster.


Stats


1. We have these stats:

Batting
Average, Home Runs, Runs, RBI, Stolen Bases, OPS (On Base Percentage+Slugging Percentage)

Pitching
ERA, Innings Pitched, WHIP, Saves, Wins, Strikeouts-Walks

2. Stats are updated daily.

3. The starting fee is $50. This money goes into the pot and will give you about $40 credit for transactions during the season. The other $ goes toward the TQStats league service of $99.



Free-agent Acquisitions


You now have $100 of fake money to spend on free agents (FAAB - free agent acquisition budget). You get them by a closed bid. Its all done through the TQStats website.



Trades


Trades can be made between two or more teams. The $3 cost to the pot is a per team fee. Any number of players can change hands, but each trade has a two day waiting period where if a majority of owners object to the trade it will be voided.

The trade deadline is July 31 and after that point only teams 1-5 can trade with each other and teams 6-10 can trade with each other.

Draft this Saturday

The 2006 Beaver Roto League draft is this weekend.

When: Saturday, April 8th at 8:30am
Where: ProWorks Conference room (15th and Western)


Don't forget to bring your cash you owe on Saturday!

Actual 2005 financial results

OK, so the TQStats Finances weren't quite right. They didn't take the entry fee (cost of the TQStats service) into account. So the amount you will owe is about + $12. Also, the entry fee didn't have an even split so I added $1 to the top three spots entry fees.

Here's what each place won out of the pot (gross).

1st: $156
2nd: $ 78
3rd: $ 47
4th: $ 31


Here's what each team won/owes from last season:

Rank	Team	SPENT	PAID	ENTRY	NET	WON	$ GET	$ PAY
1	Jim	$39.00	$20.00	$13.00	($32.00)	$ 156.00	$ 124.00	$ -
2	Matt	$33.00	$20.00	$13.00	($26.00)	$ 78.00	$ 52.00	$ -
3	Jason	$33.00	$20.00	$13.00	($26.00)	$ 47.00	$ 21.00	$ -
4	Todd	$78.00	$20.00	$12.00	($70.00)	$ 31.00	$ -	$ (39.00)
5	Andy	$30.00	$20.00	$12.00	($22.00)	$ -	$ -	$ (22.00)
6	Kelley	$48.00	$20.00	$12.00	($40.00)	$ -	$ -	$ (40.00)
7	Dustin	$18.00	$20.00	$12.00	($10.00)	$ -	$ -	$ (10.00)
8	Dan	$33.00	$20.00	$12.00	($25.00)	$ -	$ -	$ (25.00)

This is the correct amount owed or won (net) after pot winnings are applied and entry fees taken into account.

Feel free to PayPal me any $$$ owed or write a check before the draft.

Draft weekend set - April 8th

Looks like we have a consensus on the weekekdn we will draft. We will draft Saturday, April 8th with a back up of Sunday, April 9th in case something unforeseen happens.

Now we can get going on draft prep!

2006 Beaver League Transactions

Here's the final financial results for the Beaver Roto League last season. Let me know if there are any discrepancies.

If you need to look at your tranasction list, I think this link will work:

2005 Results

Transaction Record For Beaver Roto League
through 12.30

Team Name	Init Fee	MOV	WAI	TRD	DIS	RES	ACT	PUR	FAAB	PRR	ADD	ADR	ACQ
Poppers	$12.00	20	0	1	0	37	30	6	$76.00	7	0	0	0
Diggleturb	$12.00	15	0	0	0	23	23	2	$60.00	4	0	0	0
Pickle Weasels	$12.00	18	0	1	0	23	22	6	$30.00	2	0	0	0
Full Flanull	$12.00	3	0	2	0	9	8	4	$8.00	0	0	0	0
Heaters	$12.00	25	0	4	0	44	30	18	$98.00	3	0	0	0
Beaners	$12.00	17	0	0	0	25	22	9	$100.00	1	0	0	0
FKAKY	$12.00	27	0	3	0	36	31	9	$93.00	5	0	0	0
Utility Men	$12.00	20	0	3	0	43	43	4	$100.00	8	0	0	0

Team Name	ACR	ACA	CLA	CLR	REL	MIN	ADM	SUP	SUR	Adjust	Tot Spent	Tot Paid	Tot Owed
Poppers	0	1	0	0	13	0	0	0	0	$0.00	$33.00	$20.00	$13.00
Diggleturb	0	0	0	0	6	0	0	0	0	$0.00	$18.00	$20.00	$-2.00
Pickle Weasels	1	0	0	0	8	0	0	0	0	$0.00	$33.00	$20.00	$13.00
Full Flanull	0	2	0	0	4	0	0	0	0	$0.00	$30.00	$20.00	$10.00
Heaters	0	4	0	0	21	0	0	0	0	$0.00	$78.00	$20.00	$58.00
Beaners	0	0	0	0	10	0	0	0	0	$0.00	$39.00	$20.00	$19.00
FKAKY	0	3	0	0	14	0	0	0	0	$0.00	$48.00	$20.00	$28.00
Utility Men	0	3	0	0	12	0	0	0	0	$0.00	$33.00	$20.00	$13.00

Total league charges:	$312.00
Total league paid:	$160.00
Total league owed:	$152.00

New book on Fantasy Baseball

Thought you guys might be interested in this new book on fantasy baseball. Looks like a good one.

Amazon.com: Fantasyland: A Season on Baseball's Lunatic Fringe: Books: Sam Walker

In 2004, Sam Walker, a sports columnist for The Wall Street Journal, decided to explore this phenomenon by talking his way into Tout Wars, a private league generally reserved for the nation’s top experts. Using his baseball contacts and access to locker rooms, Walker spent a year trying to dredge up information that might give him a competitive edge over his eccentric cast of competitors. But in his quest for victory he also endeavored to settle the great question that divides modern baseball thinkers: Can excellence be predicted by statistics alone or is the human element more important?

Together with his crack research team, Sig (a statistician) and Nando (a baseball savant), Walker finds himself possessed by the game and determined to win at any expense, spending weeks on the road interacting with his real Major League players and trying to "manage" them. We follow his descent into sleeplessness, panic, triumph (temporarily), treachery, and even consultations with an astrologer as he keeps his ever-blearier eyes on his elusive goal. The result is one of the most entertaining sports books in years and a matchless look into the heart and soul of our national pastime.

2005 Final places

Here's last season's final standings:

1. Beaners
2. Utility Men
3. Poppers
4. Heaters
5. Full Flanull
6. FKAKY
7. Diggleturb
8. Pickle Weasels

The Utility Men sneaked into 2nd by upsetting the Beavers in the semi-finals.


I'll get the finances up by this weekend I hope.

2006 season

Hey everyone!

It’s almost baseball season! Pitchers and catchers are reporting soon so it must be time to start thinking about the Roto Draft!

Just a few things we need to iron out.


1. When can we draft?

We need to get the draft schedule for all of our personal planning purposes. I like to draft right after the season starts. Hopefully no more than two weeks after it starts. I’m open to drafting before opening day as well.

Possible Dates: April 1st, 2nd, 8th, 9th, 15th, or 16th. We could also go early and do March 25th or 26th.


2. Can we continue to use the TQStats site?

Are we all OK with the baseball commissioner site we used last season? It takes a huge load off of the commissioner with it’s transaction options and the price is right. But if you really hated it, let me know and I’ll see what our options are.


3. Do we want to change anything about our league rules?

Fees OK? Anything else?


4. What do you think about a keeper league?

The only thing I was thinking that might be interesting is starting to do a keeper league. Basically we could keep up to 5 or 10 players we drafted at the cost we paid for one more season (2 year contract). All free agents/reserves would be $10. Each additional year (after the second) would mean a $10 raise. Their salaries would be subtracted off of the $260 you start with at the draft.

This would bring another cool aspect to the league…and keep the draft shorter. Which would be nice.


What do you think?

The playoffs roll on

Well, all of the higher seeded teams won the first round of the playoffs. Any made a good showing against Jim, but had too much to come back against.

Here are this week's matchups:

#1 Beaners
#4 Heaters

#2 Poppers
#3 Utility Men

Same two-week rules as last round.


We will also have a losers bracket. Here's the matchups:

#5 Diggleturb
#8 Full Flanal

#6 FKAKY
#7 Pickle Weasels


Good luck!

Playoffs are here

The playoffs are here!

Here is the seeding for the playoffs:

1. Beaners
2. Poppers
3. Utility Men
4. Heaters
5. Diggleturb
6. FKAKY
7. Pickle Weasels
8. Full Flanull

The Heaters and Diggleturb were tied at the end of the season and were 1-1 against each other. However, Todd beat Dustin on head to head points 13-11. One 7-5 game. That's close, but not as close as the Pickle Weasels and Full Flanull. They were tied and 1-1 but the point differential was 12.5-11.5 in favor of Dan. Andy pulled out the clutch win in the last week of the season against the Beaners. But it wasn't enough due to the little tie breaker formula thing.

First round matchups:

H: Beaners
A: Full Flanal

H: Heaters
A: Diggleturb

H: Utility Men
A: FKAKY

H: Poppers
A: Pickle Weasels


OVERALL STANDINGS for Beaver Roto League

Through games of 08.22.05

Black

Team Name WIN LOSS TIES PCT PF PA WPF WPA
Beaners 17 3 0 .8500 179.0 61.0 5.5 6.5
Utility Men 11 9 0 .5500 116.0 124.0 10.0 2.0
Diggleturb 9 11 0 .4500 106.0 134.0 2.0 10.0
Full Flanull 6 14 0 .3000 96.5 143.5 6.5 5.5

Orange

Team Name WIN LOSS TIES PCT PF PA WPF WPA
Poppers 14 6 0 .7000 139.5 100.5 8.0 4.0
Heaters 9 11 0 .4500 123.0 117.0 10.5 1.5
FKAKY 8 12 0 .4000 111.0 129.0 4.0 8.0
Pickle Weasels 6 14 0 .3000 89.0 151.0 1.5 10.5