You lost Halladay, but Schilling and Harden are both coming back just in time for you I think. I expect this to be a very competitive series. That said, I think I've got you topped in injuries this season. Liriano was my best pitcher when healthy, he was my horse. Hafner was my MVP and a dominant offensive player. Gone for the year. Manny was a force and he's likely done. Barrett was a very good fantasy catcher before his injury. Sheffield was hurt for most of the season. Isringhausen was a good closer. But I'm not complaining, I found adequate replacements each time. The starting pitching matchup to me is an interesting one - 11 of our combined 16 SPs from the first week were waiver pickups.
You have had your fair share of injuries, but check this out: Rios -- Worthless since all star break due to various injuries Schilling -- Missed 2 weeks Sheets -- Missed 2/3 of season Harden -- Missed most of season Prior -- Worthless all year long. Worst. First. Round. Pick. Ever. Papelbon -- My team MVP; missed September/October Halladay -- Out for finals I need an excuse when I lose.
LOL Schilling--- far exceeded my expectations. You got a bargain with that pick. Sheets ---is in mid-season form now, stop complaining. You sat on him, and he payed off. Prior---never did understand that pick. All the years, in all the fantasy leagues we have been in, that was BY FAR your worst pick ever. (I noticed you changed your sig) Papelbon---his injury is the reason I declined the Vlade for Paplebon trade. Go back and look at my post for declining the trade. Halladay---when healthy, he is a great pitcher. Problem is he is not healthy very often anymore. I congratulate you for making the finals.
I closed the gap a bit, Sam, but you still have a commanding lead. I think this next game period will be my best chance to make up ground, since my best SPs are going. Make or break time.
I'm beyond disappointed in my starting pitching this weekend. And Contreras just adds another injury to my list. 42 points in 5 starts is terrible. No wonder I got embarrassed in game 2. Still, I have hope that your lineup won't produce as well as it did in this game. Hopefully they'll come back down to earth this final week.
Today's the day - your final 3 SPs of this 3rd game all today, including big guns Schilling and Harden. We'll see what the Expos are made of. Hope I can survive the onslaught.
Nah, there's no chance anymore. Even if they all do well, I still don't have much hope. The lead is too insurmountable at this point.
Does that mean you will be concentrating more on our football showdown this weekend? I don't want any excuses that you were distracted by your baseball championship dreams (however slim they were to begin with)
You have a little unbeaten streak going over there, don't you? Hope you've enjoyed the ride, because it ends this week.
With a 100+ point cushion, I feel confident heading into the last game. Good series fade, you had an excellent season and gave it a heck of a ride!
Final 791 - 646, Aliens! I'd like to personally thank Trevor Hoffman, who was on fire in the final weeks, and rookie Anibal Sanchez, who filled in excellently as a #1 starter after Liriano went down. Who said you can't win if you don't have big name starting pitchers? Oh yeah, I remember... Thanks again for running another season of baseball, fadeaway! Was even more fun than usual this time.
Congrats, Sam. You had the better team and deserved to win. A big fat zero from Otsuka didn't help me much (damn you Papelbon for not staying healthy) but that's the way it goes sometimes. I can't really complain since I won my 3 Yahoo leagues (2 of which are Clutch BBS leagues) and finished second here, so it has been a successful FB year for me overall. Some thoughts for next year... Playoff pitching games: now that we've used it, although I do think allowing mid week pitching changes is better than the previous way of setting them on Monday and letting them run for the entire week, I still don't think it's the final answer since there is still a large emphasis on waiver pickup SPs. I'm thinking that for next time, SP playoff limits might be the way to go. Something like 8 SP games per week, perhaps. It's a tiny bit more maintenance for me, but seems like a better solution. Dead trade market: I see this as a big problem. This year, there were zero trades. I had this idea in my head for a while, and I will put it forth now -- I think we should consider going to a keeper format. There is definitely enough continuity of owners from year to year to make it work, and it would make trading more active as teams decide whether to make a run for the championship or build for the future. It would probably be best to have a low number of keepers to start off with - maybe 3 players or something. That way, it wouldn't cut out too much of the draft, which is (to me) the funnest part of these leagues. If we do it, we'd start from scratch next year, with a full draft. Is there any interest in doing this? Your initial reaction is probably "eww... I like starting fresh. Don't shorten my draft!" However, I think there are real benefits, so think it over and let me know what you think. I'd like to hear from everyone who plans on coming back next year on this. Once again, congrats to Sam. Your team had nice balance. Enjoy that virtual trophy while you can because it's coming home to daddy next year.
Congrats Sam!!! Well done!!! My pitchers were a HUGE dissapointment this year, both starters and closers. I believe F-Rod had 20 saves since our fantasy playoffs started, where was that all year? Buerhle------huge let down Bonderman--young, talented but hasn't learned how to win yet. fade, the answer to the pitcher problems during the playoffs is a simple one. Lock all playoff rosters for the playoffs. No waiver pick-ups allowed, "you dance with the ones that brung ya" We could work out some rule if a key pitcher were to get injured during our playoffs, maybe allow a waiver pickup in that situation. As far as "keepers" , I don't like it. The draft is the best part (except for winning the league *right Sam?*) I would hate to have first or second pick in the draft and not have Pujols or ARod of Vlade to pick from. What kind of draft would that be? I love going in every year with a fresh start and building a team from scratch. I may be in the minority here, but that's the way I feel about it.
Wow, no waiver pickups. I woulda been screwed this year if I couldn't replace Liriano and Baek and Contreras, who all got hurt during my playoff games.
Correction on the trade front- I did trade for Beltran early in the season. Not that it mattered as my team faced every high scoring team week in and week out. That was the suck. I like the idea for a keeper league a lot, as long as we start with a fresh draft next year. I used this season as training for my domination next year. Beware.
