6 Weeks. More Weeks. More Fun.

5 Things We've Learned Through Six Weeks

John Lackey was no help for WallaWalla after being ejected for throwing at Ian Kinsler

While it is true he was no help, he also didn't hurt WallaWalla, as 0 IP, 0 ER, 1 HBP, 0 H, 0 BB, 0 K has no effect whatsoever on any of the five pitching categories (W, SV, K, ERA, WHIP).

The Players...ended with a .345 average for the week. The Alliance kept pace with Huapaya, batting .335.

Actually, they nearly kept pace. Had they actually kept pace, they would not have lost the category.

Hopefully the return of Soria and Valverde will give [the Alliance] a much needed boost.

Seeing as how they have won saves in five of the six weeks, the addition of two closers will likely not give as much of a boost as some of the other injured players, such as Aramis Ramirez, Chris Carpenter (back this Wednesday), Hiroki Kuroda, or Justin Duchscherer, should. It can be noted, however, that the closers might provide a small amount of help in the ERA and WHIP categories.

Chipper Jones and Mike Jacobs paved the way for Ohio

More so than Brian Roberts? He had over twice as many runs, the same amount of HR, as well as better RBI and SB numbers than Jones. He also bested Jacobs in 4 of the 5 batting categories. Similarly, Juan Pierre led Chipper in 3 of 5 categories and Jacobs once again in 4 of 5. Carlos Beltran did as well. It seems to me that Jones and Jacobs didn't actually do much paving. Maybe Roberts, Pierre, and Beltran laid down the tar, and then Jones and Jacobs worked the steamrollers?

Ohio’s core of pitchers captured a very respectable 7 wins. Despite these good numbers, Lima Time was better in ERA, WHIP, and Saves.

This makes it seem like there is some sort of correlation between wins and saves. This is (obviously) the case in real baseball, but not the case in fantasy.

You can attribute this win to a great pitching performance...by South Carolina.

South Carolina had 4 W, 1 SV, 74 K, 1 3.16 ERA and a 1.36 WHIP on the week. Is that really great? Sure, it was good compared to his opponent (San Diego), as the Force went 3-0-2 in pitching categories this week. But great? In the same week, Milltown had 5 W, 1 SV, 74 K, a 5.03 ERA, and a 1.36 WHIP, which was good enough to tie South Carolina in SV, K, and WHIP, beat them in W, and lose in ERA. So would you consider Milltown to have also had a "great" week?

Apart from South Carolina's week 6 performance, there have been a total of 71 weeks of team stats so far. From those, 52% matched or beat the Force's wins for week 6. It was 94% for SV, 18% for K, 28% for ERA, and 45% for WHIP. I would not consider any of these to be great. Even the stat that seems to be the best, strikeouts, is only better than 82 percent of the other weeks, which can hardly be considered great.


Week 6 Power Rankings

See last week's blog for an explanation, but basically, these rankings come from no opinions and are strictly based on team totals.

Rank	Change	Team Name	Score	SOS Rank	Actual
1	-	San Diego Stingers	4.05	7	2
2	-	Milltown Monsters	2.52	8	1
3	-	The Alliance	0.69	2	11
4	+4	Huapaya Players	0.09	5	4
5	+6	Ohio Hustlers	0.03	10	7
6	-1	Lima Time	-0.01	9	7
7	-1	GA Cottonpickers	-0.31	1	3
8	+2	South Carolina Force	-0.71	3	5
9	-5	So Cho Guiney's	-0.79	12	5
10	-3	WallaWalla DirtDawgs	-1.13	11	9
11	+1	Arlington Templars	-1.92	4	12
12	-3	Cape Cod Cods	-2.52	6	10

Once again, San Diego is clearly at the top, although Milltown has closed the gap a bit. The Alliance still inexplicably lies in third place as they continue to lose. Perhaps the weekly totals are good, just not quite good enough?

Unfortunately, the other power rankings (Austin Power Rankings) have been changed to some sort of formula that seems far less complicated than mine. It really is too bad, as I enjoyed reading the justification for where each team was ranked in the old system. While the new system may be flawed (here is where I pretend mine isn't), I would like to hope that Austin will combine the new and the old next week, giving his rank from the formula but still providing insight into each team.

That's my two cents for this week. Until next week, to the three (give or take a few) people who read this, goodnight and have a pleasant tomorrow.

The Week That Was....the 5th One

5 Things We've Learned Through Five Weeks

Lima Time almost swept all five offensive categories last week

This is true, as, assuming the same amount of at bats, two more hits for Lima, two less for the Cods, or one of each would have put batting average in Lima Time's favor. It should also be noted that this near-sweep was also nearly 3-1-1 or even 3-2 in Lima's favor, due to HR being only one apart.

the Hustlers have been relatively quiet in the HR and RBI categories until now

They were 2-2 in HR heading into last week. Although their totals were low, those were a result of two bad weeks where they only had 4 HR in each. Ohio was not quiet to the Force or the Players, who heard them loud and clear while losing in the HR category in weeks 1 and 3 respectively. Interestingly enough, the good and bad HR totals for Ohio seem to alternate week to week, which would leave a low total for the coming week. I guess we'll see.

Unfortunately for Ohio, the 86 strikeouts by the pitching staff managed just 3 wins for the week.

I didn't know strikeouts could get wins, I thought they went to pitchers. But hey, I guess this is a learning experience.

Though the Monsters haven’t been putting up stellar numbers, they managed to defeat the Force thanks to a few, smart streaming options.

And also in spite of a few bad streaming options. Brandon McCarthy? Shairon Martis? Sean Marshall? Scott Olsen? They were so bad, I'm surprised the Alliance didn't stream them instead.

We made a move this week that sent some of our better contributors in Adam Lind, Billy Butler, and Kendry Morales

Billy Butler (player rank: 257) and Kendry Morales (170) were not among your better contributors. They were, in fact, among your 3 or 4 worst contributors among hitters, which is why you thought they were expendable in the first place. It wasn't a bad trade, but don't shit in my mug and call it espresso.

the fact of the matter is Dave was beaten by a kid who screams at 10 year old’s at TNA Wrestling shows.

Sadly, this seems to fit right in to the fantasy baseball demographic.

Look for a confrontation to occur between these two teams in the near future. I have a feeling it might be at the PAV during a Chaotic Wrestling show.

And it would probably be the most entertaining thing happening there.


Week 5 Power Rankings

In light of the lack of the usual power rankings this week, I present my own rankings. These involve no opinion whatsoever. Rather, they are based on the totals in each category through five weeks. Think of them as a more complicated rotisserie rankings. Strength of schedule was calculated simply by adding up the scores of the team's opponents.

Rank	Team Name	Score	SoS Rank	Actual
1	San Diego Stingers	4.42	7	1
2	Milltown Monsters	2.25	5	2
3	The Alliance	0.47	3	11
4	So Cho Guiney's	0.29	12	6
5	Lima Time	-0.23	10	5
6	GA Cottonpickers	-0.33	2	3
7	WallaWalla DirtDawgs	-0.54	11	8
8	Huapaya Players	-0.88	4	7
9	Cape Cod Cods	-0.97	8	4
10	South Carolina Force	-1.08	6	8
11	Ohio Hustlers	-1.35	9	10
12	Arlington Templars	-2.04	1	12

So what does this tell us? The first major thing it says is that through five weeks, San Diego has been far and away the best team. It also shows The Alliance as much better than their actual rank, and the opposite with the Cape Cod Cods. Can this all be attributed to luck, be it good or bad? I don't know the answer to that, but it was a bit surprising.

Ok, that's it for me this week.

Week 4: Attack of the Commish

5 Things We've Learned Through Four Weeks

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I had no idea that McCarthy even knew the Super Bowl XX championship quarterback, let alone was his "butt bud." I guess you learn something new every day.

I’m trying to provide entertainment to 11 managers and it seems like Dave McCarthy and his co-manager have taken offense to the fact that some of the information reported in this fantasy baseball recap was incorrect. Apparently I’ve offended them to the point in which they had to create a separate blogspot website detailing each inaccuracy in this recap and adding their two cents, mostly in such a sarcastic way.

Offended? Not at all. Why would I be offended by a meaningless blog post about a fantasy baseball league? You seem to have entirely missed the point of my blog. It is, by the way, just me who did it. McCarthy pointed out some glaring inaccuracies in the (apparently) made-up stats posted in the week 2 posts, and since then I've taken it upon myself to check what you write. Since your blog posts often come off as far too serious (to me at least), I thought of mine as adding levity, hence the general sarcastic tone and lack of seriousness. You see, despite your assumptions that I write because I am "offended," I actually write for the same reason you do, to entertain. Although you may not find it to be entertaining, judging from some feedback I have received, I feel I have accomplished my goal through the first 2 weeks.

You’re really doing well in life (must have a lot of time on your hands).

Have you seen the job market? But really, I do have a lot of time on my hands. Excellent observation.

Enjoy analyzing those high school JV girls’ basketball stats (creep).

The last time I saw a JV girls' basketball game was when I was playing for the JV boys team ten years ago. And I don't think I have ever even looked at a JV girls stat sheet. But by all means, call me a creep.

And finally, to Dave’s “co-manager”,

Why is co-manager in quotes? Am I only a pseudo-co-manager?

I recommend going outside once in a while. (I’m sure you will argue this point in your blog with, “I do go outside. I play wiffle ball.”

Unfortunately, I haven't played wiffle ball since last summer, and even then it was very infrequent. I do, however, play a lot of basketball, as well as soccer, and jog, and go to various sporting events, and work the grill, to name just a few things I do that happen outside. In fact, with all that free time you alluded to earlier, I spend quite a bit of time outside.

This matchup wasn’t really close at all as The Stingers dominated to a final score of 7-3 (I know this one will be featured in the ODFB Stat Check sheet).

Ask and you shall receive. Actually, I have no reason to dispute this, we simply got shellacked.

besides being the most disliked team in the league (seriously, nobody likes either of you)

That's too bad, I got such a warm reception when I joined the league that I figured it was likely to continue. But really, I wouldn't have it any other way. Don't think you were too far off base in what you wrote following week 2 about me.

and now the Playas.

They actually changed their name this year to Players.

The Cottonpickers sent a trade offer of Carlos Lee for Zack Greinke and Adam Jones, a proposal that was immediately denied by the South Carolina Force.

I certainly hope it was.

Peavy could have been a Hustler, but the team instead chose Daisuke Matsuzaka, who enjoys pitching for his home country but not in the United States. (Expect this to be in the ODFB Stat Check Blog).

I was going to let this go, but again, your wish is my command, or something like that. In the World Baseball Classic games he has pitched in the US, Matsuzaka is 4-0 with a 1.37 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 19.2 innings. It doesn't appear that he "enjoys pitching for his home country but not in the United States" as much as he enjoys pitching for his home country WHILE in the United States.

Although I still do completely agree that Peavy would have been a better pick for the Hustlers there, I find it odd that you do, seeing as how, just one week ago, you called Peavy "mediocre" and said he "has seemed to have lost some of his swagger." So which is it?

Neville’s team showed some power, but ultimately came up a little.

A little what? House on the Prairie? Bighorn? Shop of Horrors? Big League? Rock, Arkansas? Richard? , Grady?

Jared Mercuri, who earlier in the year was ready to trade Nick Markakis and Howie Kendrick for a handful of scrubs

This seems to imply that Howie Kendrick is good. I'm confused.

That’s all for this week, I can’t wait for this article to be critiqued! You two guys seriously need to get a life.

Yeah I know, really. I mean what kind of loser would write a blog about a fantasy baseball league?