The Official BlogShares Baseblog

Congrats to bluesoul!

2005-10-04T16:44:00.000-05:00

It was an extremely tight race at the end, but the Paducah Supremes came out on top, only half a point ahead of the Cortez Killers and ID's Herbal Attack. Congrats, bluesoul!

Comin on Strong

2005-08-30T21:23:00.000-05:00

Been a while since I've posted, but I've been keeping up with the league. My guys hit a real lull for a month or so as some injuries took a toll, but now I've reloaded for the stretch run, and have already picked up several points to be within striking distance of 1st. w00t

Turnover talk

2005-08-12T14:25:00.000-05:00

I compared my Opening Day roster to my lineup as of this Sunday, and found that of the 26 players I started with, I've held on to just half of them. (And if you don't count Michael Barrett, whom I just picked up again, it's less than half.)

So far, I've used 19 different position players and 21 different pitchers, with A. Pujols leading the hitters, R. Oswalt pacing the starters and J. Nathan anchoring the bullpen. If I take nothing else from this, it's a trio of good players to shoot for next time around.

Current standings

2005-08-09T11:27:00.000-05:00

1 Cortez Killers 63.5
1 Paducah Supremes 63.5
1 Bostonian's Bloggers 63.5
4 Aristotelians 59.5
5 ID's Herbal Attack 53
6 Berlin Bouillabaisse 51
7 Will play for B$ 47.5
8 San Diego Swabbies 28
9 sarabear's scorchers 20.5

Three-way tie for first -- cool. :)

Tweaking the pitching

2005-07-20T10:38:00.000-05:00

The hitters overall are heating up, but I'm still playing catch-up in most of the pitching categories. Time for some fresh arms:

Dropped: J. Tavarez (RP), R. Dempster (SP/RP), B. Wickman (RP)
Added: J. Lackey (SP), J. Schmidt (SP), B. Looper (RP)

Making A Move

2005-06-24T01:21:00.000-05:00

Jun 24 1:17am Added J. Duchscherer (Oak - RP)
Jun 24 1:15am Added C. Politte (CWS - RP)
Jun 24 1:14am Added D. Riske (Cle - RP)
Jun 24 1:12am Dropped L. Hawkins (SF - RP)
Jun 24 1:12am Dropped K. Brown (NYY - SP)
Jun 24 1:12am Dropped M. Prior (ChC - SP)
Jun 24 1:11am Added N. Johnson (Was - 1B)
Jun 24 1:09am Added T. Clark (Ari - 1B)
Jun 24 1:09am Dropped J. Snow (SF - 1B)
Jun 24 1:05am Dropped J. Conine (Fla - 1B,OF)

Holding steady

2005-05-31T11:02:00.000-05:00

Seems my managing style (benign neglect) is still working out, though I've been hit by the DL bug lately. My current roster:

C I. Rodríguez (Det - C)
1B A. Pujols (StL - 1B)
2B B. Roberts (Bal - 2B)
3B A. Béltre (Sea - 3B)
SS J. Rollins (Phi - SS)
OF G. Sheffield (NYY - OF)
OF P. Burrell (Phi - OF)
OF R. Freel (Cin - 2B,3B,OF)
Util M. Barrett (ChC - C)
Util D. Eckstein (StL - SS)
Util L. Walker (StL - OF)
BN T. Glaus (Ari - 3B)
BN A. Rowand (CWS - OF)

SP J. Bonderman (Det - SP)
SP K. Rogers (Tex - SP)
RP B. Wickman (Cle - RP)
RP S. Shields (LAA - RP)
P J. Tavárez (StL - RP)
P A. Eaton (SD - SP)
P C. Zambrano (ChC - SP)
P R. Oswalt (Hou - SP)
BN J. Nathan (Min - RP)
BN T. Wakefield (Bos - SP)
DL R. Harden (Oak - SP)
DL J. Affeldt (KC - SP,RP)

Later this week I'll decide whether to hang on to Harden and Affeldt, and figure out the rotation for next week. Maybe for once I'll actually get some numbers from Oswalt, who's been on my bench for every single one of his good starts lately.

A View From The Top: The Paducah Supremes

2005-05-17T22:52:00.000-05:00

Despite my lack of movement I have been monitoring my team fairly close. My decision to maintain a status quo seems to be working for right now. My bats are hot and heavy, the pitching slightly less so. You see, I only have one closer. Now, the rest of the pitching staff is pretty good and I usually lead in Wins and Ks and be fairly close to the top in ERA, but it guarantees being in the bottom for Saves. Which is okay; I'll take my losses there and figure it'll all average out.

BTW, Dontrelle = The Man. I knew picking him up was a good call. I'm going to leave that slot in Pitchers open until I see someone make some changes. Just a fair warning. ;)

Tinker, tinker

2005-05-13T13:06:00.000-05:00

Changes for next week:

Dropped: J. Westbrook (SP)
Added: K. Rogers (SP)

After several performances of "Waiting for Westbrook", the story of a fantasy baseball manager who expects an ace starter that never comes, I'm cancelling my subscription.

Dropped: J. Lugo (2B/SS)
Added: D. Eckstein (SS)

Eckstein's hot, Rollins is not, and Lugo doesn't even register.

I also shifted folks on/off the bench, most notably benching S. Shields (which lets me put B. Wickman in the second RP spot) and activating C. Zambrano, who hopefully has finished with his funk.

Wins or Saves?

2005-05-08T05:47:00.000-05:00

After kind of a slump my team seems to be back on track.

After I saw myself in first place in Saves by a mile, but last in Wins and K's I had to make a general decision about how to go on for the next months. I decided to bench Takatsu and get in another Starter. I went against Takatsu besides him being the second best Closer I got because I am still hoping that Lidge (and the Astros) will start getting some saves.

Garland was a really good pickup and after a couple of weeks my lead in Saves is down to 1 but I went up 2 Points in the Wins Section. So I guess it worked out so far. Now the question is: Do I keep getting more Wins to move up, or do I put my fourth Closer back in to continue getting those 9 Points?

Meanwhile my WHIP dropped me to 6th place but I don't want to do anything against that right now. I rather see my hitting stats go up by moving a few guys around. My best categorie is HRs with 6.5. I am really dissappointed with my Avg so we'll see what I can do there.

Holy &*#@

2005-04-28T08:11:00.000-05:00

I guess sometimes just letting your players play actually works. I've been out of the country for the past several days (with only sporadic access to the web), and fully expected to be stuck in the basement by now. So it was a pleasant surprise to log in today and find that wasn't the case.

That being said, there is always room for improvement, especially when it comes to pitching ...

Moved to DL: J. Affeldt (SP/RP)
Added and activated: J. Tavarez (RP)

Affeldt has only two strikeouts, no wins and no saves, and is hurt anyway.

Benched: C. Zambrano (SP)
Activated: J. Bonderman (SP)

This seems like a no-brainer: add a guy who strikes out a lot, subtract one guy who is thrown out a lot.

Overall, I'm doing better as far as batters are concerned. I shuffled some players around to make sure my hottest hitters are active, and did a couple of add/drops:

Dropped: C. Izturis (SS)
Added: J. Lugo (2B/SS)

This is probably a mistake, but Lugo has been red-hot lately. He'll allow me to sit Rollins until the latter gets his groove back.

Dropped: P. Konerko (1B)
Added: L. Walker (OF in Utility spot)

Walker looks like he's starting to come around. He might give me fewer RBIs than Konerko, but should help out in other areas.

Of course, I may have thoroughly jinxed myself with all this tinkering. Maybe I should go back to Belgium and let matters take their natural course instead. :D

Now That's More Like It

2005-04-26T16:59:00.000-05:00

My guys are finally coming around to play the way they should be. Its still really early, so no one should be panicking yet. My closers have begun nailing saves, and guys like Podsednik and Martinez have gotten a bit on track. Barmes has been my team's MVP hitter so far, and doesn't look to be slowing any time soon (I hope). Pedro has been nearly unhittable.

Starting to see the first shake ups in the closer roles for teams like the Brewers, Cubs, and Royals, and there will likely be more before the season hits the All-Star break. All in all, this has been one of the more enjoyable starts to a baseball season from a fan perspective in quite some time. Nice surprises, big games, huge hits. Keep it coming!

Locomotive Cataclysm Aversion

2005-04-15T20:29:00.000-05:00

Well, this hasn't been going at all as planned. Prior came off the DL and pitched a terrific game. My safe bets are becoming anything but. Some early tweaking and pruning seems to be in order.

Activated: M. Prior -> SP (C. Carpenter -> P, M. Morris -> DL)

Dropped: K. Griffey, Jr.
Added: C. Biggio

Biggio's numbers have been far superior to Griffey, and I picked him up on kind of a whim, anyway. The Yahoo newswire wrote something weeks ago something to the effect of "Let's face it, every year someone in the draft takes a gamble at Griffey. " Having only been able to play less than half the games over the last 3 seasons, I don't feel particularly bad about cutting him loose. C'est la guerre.

BTW, I apologize to David Wells for assuming he couldn't change his ways. 7 IP with an ERA of 0 and a WHIP of 0.86. It is a sunny day in Boston indeed.

Drastic times call for drastic measures

2005-04-14T15:48:00.000-05:00

Only a few weeks into the season, and I'm already dead last in batting average (a good 11 points behind the next-lowest) and ERA (.34 of a run higher than the next-highest). Time for a shake-up.

Benched: P. Konerko (1B), M. Barrett (C)
Activated: C. Izturis (SS), R. Freel (2B/3B/OF)

Konerko has had some big hits, but is hitting a measly .136 this week, and Barrett's stats barely register on the radar screen. Hopefully, moving them out and Izturis and Freel in will get me a few points in batting average while not losing ground in the other categories.

Dropped: B. Zito (SP), Ol. Perez (SP)
Added: T. Wakefield (SP), A. Eaton (SP)

Zito and Perez between them are killing my team's ERA, though they share some responsibility with Bonderman and Westbrook. So I dropped the former and benched the latter, which in the real world would immediately spark angry letters from said players, their agents, and their fans. Somehow, I suspect that the answer "Hey, it meant I could get a Red Sox player on staff" wouldn't go very far with them ...

Bottoming Out

2005-04-11T21:34:00.000-05:00

I'm hoping this first week disaster is starting to look up. After my closers blew several saves, and my hitters couldn't find the ball, I'm finally seeing some production. Ichiro has been my rock, and Feliz has been a nice surprise. I really wish Helton would find his power soon, and Andruw looked good today for a nice change. I expect I'll see my pitching settle down, and my hitters will start finding a few gaps to up my average. Hoping, as well, that Randa, Barmes, Cantu each have another solid week under them.

Made quite a few changes going into this week, along with one today to go into effect next week. I couldn't believe Hampton was still a FA, so I snagged him. Even though I need power right now, Piazza's been bad, so he got the ax in favor of Hampton.

Barmes and Bautista were new to my lineup this week, along with Joe Randa and Jorge Cantu, who have both had monster starts. Randa might have a good season still in him despite looking disappointingly average for a few seasons. Cantu's the real deal, its just a question of will he put together a full superstar season this year or next. Orlando Hernandez will add some serious experience to my rotation. He knows how to win, having spent a season with the Yankees. Hate his supporting cast, but he's still got a great arm, especially given how bad Casey Blake, who I dropped for Hernandez, had been thus far.

Looking up this week for the IDHA, hoping to crack Top 4 by the end of the week.

My pitching is saving my butt.

2005-04-08T00:47:00.000-05:00

Well third place so far is not to bad, and it is my pitching that is keeping me in the standings. Three folks on the DL was not too good. I wish they would have had the injured list up to date when I set my lineup, but it is my own fault as I could have checked ESPN or MLB for the injuries. I have to move Frank Thomas and Garrett Atkins to the bench. I put Eric Gagne on the DL and picked up Runelvys Hernandez (KC). My ERA and WHIP is tops, while I am really hurting in hitting. It is still early and once I get a better feeling of who's hot and who's not I think you will see the Swabbies moving up.

Slow Start for the IDHA

2005-04-07T23:13:00.000-05:00

No doubt, I'm disappointed with my team's performance thus far. Slow power numbers from my power hitters leave me feeling weak in HRs early on. If these guys don't start putting up homers soon, I might look for a power hitter. I expect a serious rebound in the coming week.

My relievers, like just about everyone, have gotten hammered this week. Hernandez let me down after a great spring, and Escobar's last minute move to the DL left me a man short in the rotation this week. Thompson and Arroyo go tomorrow, so we'll see if missing a shot at subbing one of them turned out a positive or not.

So far, I've made a few changes. Naturally, Escobar will move to my DL, allowing me to pick up Blake from Cleveland, who had done nothing until his homer today. Also, I dropped time-splitter Giambi for big-time early season sleeper Clint Barmes of the Rockies. With concern in the closers early on, I picked up one of the very few who have avoided blowing a save, Miguel Bautista.

Great season so far, lots of excitement, including Wilkerson's cycle (I have him in another league, he's been red hot).

Week 2 changes

2005-04-07T11:00:00.000-05:00

Not too bad for the first week, but it's time for a little more tinkering:

Dropped: J. Drew (OF)
Added: P. Burrell (OF)

A bit of a risk here, given that Drew actually played more games last year. But Burrell's started out strong, while Drew needs to adjust to a new team.

Benched: R. Freel (OF), B. Zito (SP), J. Affeldt (RP)
Activated: M. Barrett (Util), S. Shields (RP), J. Westbrook (SP)

I'll have to keep a close eye on Freel and his DWI. I feel like dropping the guy anyway, because he was such a dimwit. Hope Barrett can help in the RBI department, and that Shields and Westbrook can notch more than a few strikeouts.

First Points waisted

2005-04-05T05:26:00.000-05:00

I guess I can be pretty happy with how my season started, but I just hate to waist points. (which will probably happen a lot during the season)
Because I worked all weekend I couldn't make any roster changes and now I got Aramis Ramirez on the bench all week and look what he did on Opening Day. 3 for 4; 4 Runs; 1 HR; and 4 RBIs. I'm sure he is just gonna kill all week long until next week when I can finally make some changes.
Oh well. Let the fun begin ;-)

So Much For That

2005-04-04T16:46:00.000-05:00

With Brown and Prior both placed on the DL I did some looking around and was quite pleased with who I found in the meantime.

Added: A. Petitte (Hou - SP)
Added: M. Morris (StL - SP)

I'm approaching Kerry Wood with a little trepidation so I replaced my not-so-dynamic duo of Prior and Wood with Chris Carpenter and Matt Morris, realized that didn't make any sense at all, and swapped Morris out for Dontrelle Willis. Willis was fairly hit-or-miss last year so only time will tell. Weekly roster changes mean you'd better get it right the first time, so I might scramble around and do some more research before the 10th.

Opening Day

2005-04-03T23:26:00.000-05:00

So the Defeat of Boston by the Yanks starts the season, and let me just say...how relieved that I am that I benched Wells today. That 8.31 ERA and a WHIP of 2.54 isn't going to help anyone.

Tinkering away

2005-04-01T08:27:00.000-06:00

I did a little adding and dropping this week, based on gut feeling and the desire for flexibility. I've always been a sucker for players who can play more than one position, because it's useful and pretty cool (in D&D, I always wanted to be the fighter/cleric/thief/magic-user character). My changes:

Dropped: T. Iguchi (2B)
Added: B. Roberts (2B)

I'm probably goofing by dropping Iguchi right before he has his breakout rookie career, but Roberts is a known quantity.

Dropped: A. Ramirez (3B)

Probably another dumb move. I was thinking at the time that I had too many third basemen, but now I realized I could've kept him as a utility guy. Too late now. BB, if he does have an awesome year, send me a couple of chips, wouldya?

Dropped: P. Wilson (OF)
Added: R. Freel (2B/3B/OF)

Mostly done for Freel's versatility. Plus, Wilson has two knee operations last year, so Freel may end up playing more games.

No changes to my pitchers ... I checked the names and didn't really see anyone who jumped out at me. Unfortunately, all the good Sox players have been snapped up. At least in this league they're spread out a little; in the other league I'm in, someone edited her draft settings so that she ended up with almost the whole Boston lineup, plus D-Lowe and O. Cabrera from last year. I'm that league's commish, so it's really tempting to go in and tamper, but I haven't. Yet. :D

As for setting up the lineup for the week, I might just leave it this way for now and see how folks do. Since things don't start until Sunday, there probably won't be any two-start pitchers, although according to Rototimes' report Schilling and Santana might only pitch a few innings in order to rest for the playoffs. I was a little confused until I noticed it was dated for last season. Good thing, there's too much baseball to play yet.

Opening Day is Sunday

2005-03-29T21:08:00.000-06:00

Don't forget to get your lineups set by Sunday. I believe the cutoff time is Midnight PST, 3AM EST, 8 GMT. Remember, you are setting your lineup for the entire week, so plan ahead!

I ordered the StatTracker for the NBA season and loved it. I'm a numbers nut, so I love the current, up-to-the minute stats and standings. Well worth the $9.95 to me for basketball. I'll probably get it for MLB too, but its free for a week or two to try so no rush. One purchase is good for all your Yahoo fantasy baseball leagues (you can have up to 4).

Play Ball!

2005-03-29T07:17:00.000-06:00

Unfortunately I wasn't there for the draft, either. Mainly because getting up at 4.30 am on a Sunday Morning didn't seem too exciting for me. I have to admit I was kinda dissapointed to find out we are not doing a Head-To-Head League. I just think it's way more fun, because you got excitement every week. I just can't picture myself paying much attention to the first three months of play, now that I know it will not mean too much anyway.

Anyways, I still hope it'll be fun and I guess I am pretty happy with the guys I got. They are not my "favourite" players, but they are pretty decent when it comes down to numbers. And that's what counts, right?

Have a good start everyone and enjoy!

The Draft was fun

2005-03-28T19:57:00.000-06:00

Hiya folks,
I have played fantasy baseball before in the past, but this was the first time I participated in a live draft. I have to admit it was a lot of fun. Bring on the season, and I hope everyone has a great time.

Bostonian's Bloggers: preseason roster

2005-03-28T09:34:00.000-06:00

I wasn't online most of Saturday, so I missed the excitement of the live draft. I seem to have gotten a halfway decent roster anyway:

C: I. Rodriguez
1B: A. Pujols
2B: T. Iguchi
3B: A. B&eltre
SS: J. Rollins
OF: G. Sheffield
OF: J. Drew
OF: A. Rowand
Util: A.Ramirez
Util: P. Konerko
Util: T. Glaus
BN: P. Wilson
BN: M. Barrett

SP: R. Oswalt
SP: C. Zambrano
RP: J. Nathan
RP: J. Affeldt
P: Ol. Perez
P: R. Harden
P: B. Zito
P: J. Bonderman
BN: B. Wickman
BN: S. Shields
BN: J. Westbrook

When I have the chance, I'm going to sit down and do some tinkering. At the very least, I need to snag at least one Red Sox player. I know loyalty has little place in fantasy baseball (a lesson I learned a few years ago, when I had practically the entire Boston infield), but real-life managers have their favorites, too.

ID's Herbal Attack: Initial Roster and Preseason Thoughts

2005-03-27T21:28:00.000-06:00

Great start to the season with our live draft from Saturday. I've been through many fantasy seasons for numerous sports, and the draft is always one of the coolest parts of entire process. There's something deviously fun about being able to build something from scratch. Combine that with a competition, and its no wonder why fantasy sports are so addictive.

I drafted last, but I'm quite pleased with the 1-2 punch of Ichiro and Helton. Each guy provides superb numbers in 3 categories with Top 5 potential in each. Foulke was a steal in Round 5, and the Alou / Berkman combo at 10-11 gave me solid power numbers deep into my roster. If Castillo, who I picked up in the 14th, can give me even 75% of last years numbers, I'll be quite pleased. Course, he's no longer in Colorado, and age is getting his knees a bit.

I was surprised Andruw Jones stalled out to the 17th, followed by the steal of Bagwell of in the 20th. I'm less satisfied with my pitching staff, and will depend greatly on either better-than-expected years from most of my hurlers or (more likely) some free agent pickups throughout the season. Beyond Martinez, Foulke, and Hudson, I have a lot of guys who put up better-than-their-average season last year, and need to duplicate that to solidify my pitching numbers. Looper's effectiveness will be big in deciding my Saves, but Hawkins in the 21st, and my sleeper of the draft, Thompson in the next round, gave my bullpen a nice unexpected boost. Colon, acquired in the 18th, had a terrible first half of last year, but a stellar second half, and may turn out to be the ace of my staff, especially given the strength of the Anaheim hitters.

Draft Day

2005-03-27T10:40:00.000-06:00

With the Fantasy Draft behind us we've now got 9 solid teams of 24 players. Good players were chosen and fun was had. ~~Just because I'm lacking content right now I'm going to outline all the players drafted, and by which team. Skip through if you want.~~ As it turns out, that's a lot of work, so I'm going to outline MY team, the Paducah Supremes. :) If you want your team on here send me a message, leave a comment, carrier pigeon, etc.

Paducah Supremes:

C J. Posada (NYY - C)
1B D. Lee (ChC - 1B)
2B L. Castillo (Fla - 2B)
3B Á. Rodríguez (NYY - 3B)
SS É. Rentería (Bos - SS)
OF M. Cabrera (Fla - OF)
OF J. Damon (Bos - OF)
OF S. Finley (LAA - OF)
Util B. Giles (SD - OF)
Util K. Griffey Jr. (Cin - OF)
Util J. Snow (SF - 1B)
BN J. Conine (Fla - 1B,OF)
BN R. Palmeiro (Bal - 1B)
SP M. Prior (ChC - SP)
SP K. Wood (ChC - SP)
RP M. Rivera (NYY - RP)
RP J. Smoltz (Atl - RP)
P C. Carpenter (StL - SP)
P D. Willis (Fla - SP)
P D. Wells (Bos - SP)
P B. Webb (Ari - SP)
BN U. Urbina (Det - RP)
BN T. Glavine (NYM - SP)
BN K. Brown (NYY - SP)

As you can tell I have a predilection for Marlins, past and present. The first game of the season is next Sunday, April 3rd. If you're an owner and you want to be a part of this blog, send me a message, email, comment, carrier pigeon, etc. with your blogger username so I can add you to the team.

03/26/2005: The Day Of

2005-03-26T18:51:00.000-06:00

With roughly an hour and a half to go before the draft, Island Dave and I thought it might be best to go ahead and get this blog started. Be aware that I've never used Blogger before so bear with me. So, consider this a test post, and I'll be back after the draft.

--bluesoul, #25521