Playoff time, ladies!

[TruffleShuffle]

Well the playoffs have begun in our Cubs vs Cards Yahoo fantasy league. 4 Card teams made the playoffs, with Fire Dusty and Cubtownies laying an egg in the final week to miss the playoffs to AAAA Cardinals. The teams representing the Cubs are Sandberg Was In Awe (vance) and Way To Go 2005 Cubs (myself). Vance has a bye this week.

 

The standings this week through 3 days are:

 

WTG2005C - 6

All-American - 3

 

My offense has decided to take the week off, so this one is dicey. Pitching I'm up 5-0 though.

 

 

Thrillride - 5

AAAA Cardinals - 4

 

Who cares... 1 Cardinal team will lose and that's fine with me!

 

Stay tuned for updated results, plus next week we will bring you the exciting semi-finals. Hopefully I will win this week, because I would be taking on the Man-eating Tarps, while vance would be playing the winner of the Cardinals matchup from this week.

[wolf stansson]

The regular season ended like this (asterisk denotes playoff teams):

 

1* ManEatingTarps 136-76-8

2* Sandberg Was In Awe 132-76-12

3* Thrillride 123-82-15

4* Way to go 2005 Cubs 115-91-14

5* All-American 111-94-15

6* AAAA Cardinals 108-107-5

7 Cubtownies 101-106-13

8 Fire Dusty! 103-108-9

9 Redbird Storm 92-119-9

10 Gerald Perry's Jab 83-123-14

11 Longhorns 77-124-19 .

12 Seth's Water Midgets 65-140-15

 

In the first round, I am leading AAAA Cards 7-2 and the winner faces Sandberg was in Awe who has a bye.

Way to go '05 Cubs is leading All-American 5-2 and the winner faces the top seeded Maneatingtarps.

 

Overall record was 647-602-71 to 599-644-77

 

Vance, I'm coming for you next week!

 

BTW - those numbers could be wrong. I just threw them together quick before my class starts.

Edited September 9, 2005 by wolf stansson

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

I'm up 7-2 on AAAA Cards now. Vance, I'm coming for you next week!

 

Bring it on....my team will be ready.

 

(Actually, I'm quite concerned since I lost Sheets to injury.)

[wolf stansson]

that is sig great Vance.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

that is sig great Vance.

 

Thanks.

[ManEatingTarp]

Regular Season Champ!!!

 

Of course Truffle and Vance kicked my rear the last month of the season, so I'm not liking my chances.

I guess that's what you get when you build for the regular season, and not the playoffs...

 

Good luck guys. It's been a fun year!

[indifferent]

In your opinion, who's got the best shot? Who's the front runner?

 

I definitely want to play next year if possible. Good luck all!

[ManEatingTarp]

In your opinion, who's got the best shot? Who's the front runner?

 

I definitely want to play next year if possible. Good luck all!

 

Truffle's team is really good. Vance has a good shot. Thrillride looks strong.

My team has lived off of the bottom feaders for the last month, and hasn't done well against the top teams.

I am the Mariners of fantasy baseball...

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

I'm going to need Derrek Lee to get hot again to have a realistic shot.

[ManEatingTarp]

I'm going to need Derrek Lee to get hot again to have a realistic shot.

 

I may sit all my crappy pitchers just to try and win the ERA and WHIP.

Punt the other 3.

[wolf stansson]

I'm like the Astros. I think I was somewhere around 10th in late May. Made a big charge, but I haven't been able to pass Vance for about a month.

 

Here's what I'm going in with:

C - Mike Barrett

1B - Sir Albert, Lord of Pujols

2B - Tad Iguchi

3B - Larry Jones

SS - Jimmy Rollins

OF - Johnny Damon

OF - Craig Munroe

OF - Vernon Wells

Bench - Craig Counsell, Wily Mo.

 

SP - Chris Carpenter, Matt Clement, Andy Pettite (I got laughed at during the draft for that one), Dan Haren (laughed at again), Rich Harden, Cliff Lee, Jay Seo, Bruce Chen, and I just dropped Victor Zambrano and picked up Anthony Reyes. I have no idea how Zambrano made it on my roster all year. I honestly just wasn't paying attention to him I guess.

RP - K-Rod, Dempster, Scott Shields, Cliff Politte.

 

Here are my end of regular season awards:

Manager of the Year - Maneatingtarps.

It came down to him and Vance and it was kind of a LaRussa/Cox situation. One guy just ran away and hid for the whole season, while one guy did his best with lesser talent.

 

Luckiest draft of the year: Had to give this one to myself. It was all luck. I focused way too much on offense at first and screwed myself over in pitching. Who knew that Carpenter, Pettite, Harden, and Haren would actually be good? Not me.

 

Most astute usage of the Milwaukee Brewers: Vance. Hands down. Sheets, Capuano, Turnbow, and Bill Hall. That groups trumps all-american's Brady Clark and Gerald Perry's Jab's Geoff Jenkins every day of the week and twice on Sunday's.

[TruffleShuffle]

Tonight is a huge night for me. My opponent has Clemens, Santana, Washburn and Loaiza going. So far I'm feeling pretty good... Santana didn't pitch very well and is out of the game after 5 innings, and can't get the win. Clemens is down 3-2 in the 3rd inning, while Loiaza has given up 6 ER in 6 innings of work... not likely to get the win over Atlanta unless Washingon makes a huge comeback. Washburn is pitching pretty well though, and is up 2-0 on Buerhle and the White Sox.

 

The only guy I have going right now is Jake Westbrook, and he and the Indians are leading the Twinkies 4-2. If I'm REALLY luck I can pick up the double dip with a win for Westbrook and then a save for Bob Wickman. It would help if my offense would show up at some point though... my team is still hitting under the Mendoza line for the week. I guess there are some signs of life though... A-Rod is 2-3 with a HR and Jason Varitek has his first hit in what seems like 3 weeks.

[TruffleShuffle]

In your opinion, who's got the best shot? Who's the front runner?

 

I definitely want to play next year if possible. Good luck all!

 

Truffle's team is really good.

 

Thank you... I thought so when I drafted it and I still like it a lot now. What's amazing to me is that my team has still done quite well even though a number of guys have had down years:

 

1B Brad Wilkerson - sucked (for fantasy purposes) all year

2B Jose Vidro - injury problems and not as productive as recent years

SS Bobby Crosby - has been good but also injured almost half the year

OF Ichiro - hitting below .300, nuff said

OF Jim Edmonds - numbers down across the board, especially BA, and he's had injury problems

OF Trot Nixon - power numbers down; injuries

P Curt Schilling - been hurt or horrible all year

 

 

A lot of the guys who have performed pretty well for me (Utley, Street, Silva, Brett Myers) were guys I picked up to help keep my team afloat when other guys were getting hurt or stinking it up.

[wolf stansson]

Yeah, All-American's guys absolutely TANKED tonight. I couldn't believe it when I saw it. 5 of his best and they all get rocked or a ND. He even picked up Matt Cain who went 8 with 1 run and 8k's but didn't have a spot for him.

[wolf stansson]

that is sig great Vance.

 

Thanks.

Dude, where's Pujols, Rivera, and Halladay?

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

that is sig great Vance.

 

Thanks.

Dude, where's Pujols, Rivera, and Halladay?

 

I felt with those four, that would be all we would need.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

that is sig great Vance.

 

Thanks.

Dude, where's Pujols, Rivera, and Halladay?

 

I felt with those four, that would be all we would need.

 

BJ Ryan or Mariano Rivera would be a nice addition to the pen, though.

[TruffleShuffle]

Back on topic, heading into the last day of the matchup... my number first, opponent's number second:

 

Runs 33-28

HR 8-9

RBI 28-29

SB 1-2

AVG .242-.343

W 6-0

SV 10-3

K 69-40

ERA 2.76-7.05

WHIP 1.21-1.79

 

 

Gah... trailing by 1 in three categories! Still I'm in very good shape. My opponent has really pulled out all the stops, adding bums like Paul Maholm, Rick Helling and Brandon Claussen to his team since they're starting today. Still, he needs to make up 6 wins on me today, which isn't likely. The bigger concern is him catching me in strikeouts, since he has 6 SP going. If he hadn't loaded his team with SP today I would have sat my guys to ensure the ERA and WHIP titles, but now I will keep Felix Hernandez and Carlos Silva in the lineup today to get some strikeouts. As long as I hang onto the runs lead I should be in good shape though, since apparently the first tiebracker is ERA, and unless all his guys throw a shutout and my guys get shelled, I should have the ERA lead sewn up.

 

On a side note, I think yahoo should do something to prevent people from doing this. It's not like I can combat his moves, because I have the lead and don't want to dump good players to pick up bums just so they can get a start... after all, I have a good shot of playing next week, and I'm not going to get better for next week by throwing away good SP. I think yahoo should set a roster freeze or allow at most 1-2 pickups a week in the playoffs to prevent teams that fall behind from doing this.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

Back on topic, heading into the last day of the matchup... my number first, opponent's number second:

 

Runs 33-28

HR 8-9

RBI 28-29

SB 1-2

AVG .242-.343

W 6-0

SV 10-3

K 69-40

ERA 2.76-7.05

WHIP 1.21-1.79

 

 

Gah... trailing by 1 in three categories! Still I'm in very good shape. My opponent has really pulled out all the stops, adding bums like Paul Maholm, Rick Helling and Brandon Claussen to his team since they're starting today. Still, he needs to make up 6 wins on me today, which isn't likely. The bigger concern is him catching me in strikeouts, since he has 6 SP going. If he hadn't loaded his team with SP today I would have sat my guys to ensure the ERA and WHIP titles, but now I will keep Felix Hernandez and Carlos Silva in the lineup today to get some strikeouts. As long as I hang onto the runs lead I should be in good shape though, since apparently the first tiebracker is ERA, and unless all his guys throw a shutout and my guys get shelled, I should have the ERA lead sewn up.

 

On a side note, I think yahoo should do something to prevent people from doing this. It's not like I can combat his moves, because I have the lead and don't want to dump good players to pick up bums just so they can get a start... after all, I have a good shot of playing next week, and I'm not going to get better for next week by throwing away good SP. I think yahoo should set a roster freeze or allow at most 1-2 pickups a week in the playoffs to prevent teams that fall behind from doing this.

 

Maybe I should pick up some of his good players in case he advances... :-k

[wolf stansson]

This all my fault.

 

We don't have waivers because I like first come first serves. This means you get the guy the next day.

 

Oh and Vance, you don't have to worry about him advancing since I am going to beat you next week.

[TruffleShuffle]

Wow, this was great. My team lost the lead in runs and lost by 2 runs. I also lost by 1 SB. This shouldn't have been a problem, since the first tiebreaker was ERA. But, All-American's gauntlet of scrub pitchers racked up enough strikeouts to beat me by 1 K, thus winning 6-4. Oh well... I had the better team, but he played the game better.

 

Thanks to whoever came up with the idea for the contest. Let me know next year if you're going to hold it again, although I will say that I will likely sit out unless the rules about adds and drops are different. I just don't like that you can play the game a completely different way in the playoffs as you do during the regular season.

 

Good luck Vance... it's on to fantasy football for me.

[ManEatingTarp]

Wow!

:shock:

 

That was unreal. I thought you had it in the bag Truffle. I have to make sure to stay on my toes this week.

I hope you play again next year, and I agree that we should use waivers or at least freeze the rosters for the playoffs.

If Vance loses this week it will be an all Cards finale! ;)

[TruffleShuffle]

If Vance loses this week it will be an all Cards finale! ;)

 

Yeah, too bad you guys have to use cheap tactics to win! Is "All-American" the ID chosen by Julian "What, Nothing is on my Hat!" Tavarez?

[ManEatingTarp]

If Vance loses this week it will be an all Cards finale! ;)

 

Yeah, too bad you guys have to use cheap tactics to win! Is "All-American" the ID chosen by Julian "What, Nothing is on my Hat!" Tavarez?

 

Whatever it takes baby! ...whatever it takes ;)

[TruffleShuffle]

Actually I just looked at the guys he picked up yesterday and this is what they did:

 

Wakefield: 8 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 11 K

Claussen: 6 IP, 5 H, 1 ER, 4 BB, 3 K

Maholm: 6 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K

Helling: 7 IP, 5 H, 0 ER, 3 BB, 6 K

 

Meanwhile my guys pitching yesterday did this:

 

Silva: 1 IP, 4 H, 4 ER, 0 BB, 0 K

Hernandez: 7 IP, 7 H, 6 ER, 3 BB, 5 K

 

I knew it would take incredibly bad luck to lose, and that's what happened. His newcomers all had some of their best games of the season, and my guys had their worst. It's funny, after I saw what he did I actually thought about dropping a couple of guys on my team (Vidro, Lowe) to pick up Sunday starters and guarantee myself the victory. But I figured I'd rather lose with the team that I played with all year than win by some technicalities. It's cool though, everyone plays the game differently. It would have been fun to see how my team could have done this week, but I guess I am not ready for the cutthroat game of fantasy baseball. :lol: