Postmortem to the 2009 Season

And on the 200th day, the Commissioner rests. So ends the 23rd season of FNFT.

In every year of FNFT I have three goals: to improve the player experience for everyone, to streamline the administrative process for me, and to try to field a championship team. I believe I accomplished my first goal. All of the feedback I have gotten about the new lineup and stats system has been very positive. The system will be back next year. My second goal was a slight step backwards, but not by much. I still spend way less time on league administration than I did 10 years ago. My third goal was one of the most stunning failures of my life. I spend a lot of time studying the game of baseball. I spent a lot of time preparing for this year's draft. I don't care if my top starting pitcher missed the whole year. A 106 loss season should never happen to me. Ever. It was an embarasement.

I've kind of had this notion that the more stats and analysis tool I provided for everyone, the more parity there would be in the league. I obviously didn't think that every team would finish .500, but with all of the same information available to everyone, I figured that it would keep the win-loss totals closer from team to team. This year in the FNFT, on average, teams were 14.0 games either above or below .500. That's the highest it's ever been. So much for my theory.

If you try to log in to the rosters system right now, you may find it unavailable. That will be the case for much of the off-season; it will be hit or miss. Alpha Five, the software I used to create the system, has an upgrade due out in a few weeks that will allow me to make a few changes. Nothing dramatic, but a few neat features will be added. I'll tell you what they are after I figure out how to do them. I do want to create a way for teams to log their own trades. The rest will be mainly window dressing. You are free to try to log in any time you wish to see what's new.

That being said, this would be a good time to let me know about any suggestions you have about the roster system or anything else FNFT. What did you think about the new playoff format? Avery thinks we should go back to both series being best of five. I would rather keep the 4-game series, but seed the playoffs so that the team with the best record plays the team with the worst record, regardless of who the Wild Card was. TMac did kind of get the shaft given his regular season record. Should we add a disabled list? Tweak the points? Now would be a good time to go on the record with your suggestions.

On thing that fell by the wayside this year was the regularly updated list of FNFT player points. I've finally done that. Here is next year's auction list:

POS	NAME	MLB	PTS
SP1	Tim Lincecum	SF	260
SP1	Zack Greinke	KC	257
SP1	Johan Santana	NYM	221
1B	Albert Pujols	StL	189
1B	Justin Morneau	Min	188
SP1	CC Sabathia	NYY	188
C	Joe Mauer	Min	188
2B	Chase Utley	Phi	177
OF	Jayson Werth	Phi	176
OF	Nick Markakis	Bal	172
SP2	Chris Carpenter	StL	172
3B	Evan Longoria	TB	171
OF	Matt Kemp	LAD	166
1B	Mark Teixeira	NYY	161
SS	Hanley Ramirez	Fla	158
1B	Miguel Cabrera	Det	157
SP1	Roy Oswalt	Hou	157
OF	Bobby Abreu	LAA	155
DH	Ryan Ludwick	StL	153
OF	Matt Holliday	StL	152
OF	Jason Bay	Bos	151
SP1	Roy Halladay	Tor	150
3B	Alex Rodriguez	NYY	150
2B	Brandon Phillips	Cin	147
SS	Troy Tulowitzki	Col	147
2B	Brian Roberts	Bal	144
SP2	Josh Johnson	Fla	144
C	Brian McCann	Atl	141
OF	Brad Hawpe	Col	141
OF	Andre Ethier	LAD	139
OF	Adam Jones	Bal	138
OF	Ryan Braun	Mil	137
1B	Adam Dunn	Was	137
2B	Aaron Hill	Tor	136
2B	Ian Kinsler	Tex	135
3B	Mark DeRosa	StL	135

TMac drafted Zach Grienke in the 5th round, Andre Either in the 8th round, Josh Johnson in the 10th round, and Chris Carpenter in the 16th round. All of them made the auction. Amazing.

Finally, the 2010 FNFT Draft will be Saturday, April 3 (my wife's birthday). Same time. Same place. I'll remind you 5 or 6 times before then.

Enjoy the MLB playoffs and have a good off-season.

The Fourth Time's a Charm

In their fourth appearance in the last five years, Jake's Wretching Weenergies have won the 2009 FNFT Championship. The most dominant team in the regular season has ridden that wave through the playoffs and to a championship. Jake becomes the 8th different FNFT champion in the past nine years, with only Dale Johnson having multiple championships in that span. Perhaps not coinidentally, Jake was the victim in each of Dale's World Series wins,

Lincecum on Butler... never mind. Great job Jake. You obviously know more about putting together a quality FNFT team than I wish I did.

World Series Game 6 Updates

Pitching options for Friday:

Jake
Lincecum Fri vs CHC Zambrano
Lester Fri @ NYY Sabathia
Martinez Fri @ Mil TBD

Avery
Hanson Sat @ WAS Mock
Wainwright Sat @ COL Jiminez
Chris Smith MTL @ nobody

Both Verlander and F Hernandez are pitching Thursday. It's likely that either would be available for Game 7. It's possible that Lester would come back on Wednesday for Jake and be his only Game 7 option.

UPDATE 8:05pm

Just did a quick check through the boxscores. Jake has home runs from Butler and Markakis and leads 21-12 on hitting alone. All of the hitters are in the lineup in early games except Molina for Avery. Lincucum pitches tonight for Jake. Tommy Hanson tomorrow for Avery.

UPDATE 9:00PM

Things are looking good for Jake. Billy Butler has hit his second home run and has 21 points. I've got Jake ahead 39-15 on hitting.

UPDATE 9:15pm

By the game in San Francisco is listed "Delayed - Ceremony"

UPDATE 9:20pm

The game in SF is underway. Lincecum fans two and gives up one hit in the top of the first.

Early games are starting to finish. I've got Jake ahead 41-20 on hitting. If Lincecum is on tonight, he will put Game 6 out of reach for Avery and wrap up an FNFT title for Jake.

RBI single by Youkalis - 3 points for the Moops.

UPDATE 9:35pm

1-2-3 for Lincecum in the 2nd. Benji Molina is not in the starting lineup for the Giants.

UPDATE 10:05pm

Avery's hitters are done (assuming Molina doesn't play). They finish with 26 points. Jake's hitters have 42, paced by Billy Butler's 22. Butler and Joe Mauer are still playing. The game is in the 8th inning.

Meanwhile, Tim Lincecum may be putting Game 6 away. He has given up two hits, one walk, and has three strikeouts through four shutout innings.

UPDATE 10:15pm

Five shutout innings - 5 Ks for Lincecum.

UPDATE 10:20pm

Alright - final update of the night. All of the hitters are done except for Molina who is not playing. Jake wins the hitting battle 42-26. Hoffman got 7 points as Avery's #3RP but no other relievers pitched so they are all still in play tomorrow. The big story though is Lincecum. He has given up a run in the top of the 6th and the Cubs lead 1-0 with Zambrano on the mound. As of this moment, Lincecum has 16 points, giving Jake a 32 point lead.

UPDATE Saturday 7:00am

32. That's the Moops magic number if they are to extend the FNFT World Series to a Game 7.

Jake has 58 points and can only get more from one of his relievers; either Mariano Rivera (NYY), George Sherrill (LAD), or Jason Frasor (TOR). Avery gets his starter Tommy Hanson, a reliever, and Benji Molina.

Here's how this will play out. Hanson starts in a 12:00 noon game in Washington. He obviously needs to pitch well or it's over. His last start was a 1-pointer, but his two previous starts were 27 and 26 point games. He's pitching against the worst team in baseball. The Braves have won four in a row and are clinging to playoff hopes. A game in the 20's by Hanson would make this very interesting.

Then at 3:00, the Giants start against the Cubs. Benji Molina was hit by a bat on his throwing hand on Thursday and is listed as questionable for the Cubs series. This is a blow to Avery's chances. Molina has 18 HRs this year and #19 would go a long way toward getting The Moops back in it.

Shortly after the Giants game starts, the Seattle-Toronto game will end and Jake will know if Jason Frasor, his #3 RP pitched.

The Red Sox-Yankees game starts at 3:00. Jake will be looking for a save from Mariano Rivera.

If we're still playing into the night, the Reds-Astros and Dodgers-Pirates both start at 6:00. Jake will be watching for George Sherrill in the Dodgers game if Rivera doesn't pitch. In the Astros game, Avery might be rooting for Jose Valverde to NOT pitch. If he doesn't The Moops will pick up 8 points from Andrew Bailey.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE 4:30pm

Hanson - 19 points. Jake leads 56-48.

Benji Molina is not in the starting line up for the Giants.

Jason Frasor gets a 14-point game for Jake, but it will be erased if either Rivera or Sherrill pitch.

As it stands right now, Jake is in the drivers seat but Avery is still not totally out of it. If Valverde does not pitch, Avery will get 8 points from his #2 RP, Bailey which would tie Jake's score. It would then come down to either Rivera or Sherrill pitching for Jake and getting negative points. Jake wins a tiebreaker based on Butler's game.

The Yankees-Red Sox game is scoreless in the 5th. Dodgers (Sherrill) and Astros (Valverde) start at 7:00.

World Series Game 5 Updates

He found the nut. Avery has picked up Jorge de la Rosa for Tuesday's game. de la Rosa has 15 wins this season - since June 6th!

UPDATE - Tuesday 7:45pm

Early returns...

JAKE
SP-Beckett BOS - (Wed)
RP-Rivera NYY - (9:00)
RP-Sherill BAL
RP-Frasor TOR
C-Mauer MIN - 1000/ - 0
1B-Butler KC - 0100/w - 2
2B-Zobrist TB - 1000/ww - 2
SS-Cabrera CLE - 3000/ - 0
3B-Zimmerman WAS - 2110/ - 2
OF-Smith COL - (8:00)
OF-Werth PHI - 3012/ww - 7
OF-McCutchen PIT - 2121/H - 9
DH-Gonzalez COL - (8:00)
TOTAL - 22

AVERY
SP-de la Rosa COL - (8:00)
RP-Hoffman MIL - (Brewers getting killed)
RP-Bailey OAK
RP-Valverde HOU
C-Molina SF - (8:00)
1B-Teixeira NYY - (9:00)
2B-Lopez SEA - 3000/ - 0
SS-Ramirez CHW - 1000/ - 0
3B-Izturis LAA - (9:00)
OF-Bay BOS - 0000/ - 0
OF-Byrd TEX - (9:00)
OF-Damon NYY - (9:00)
DH-Choo CLE - 2010/2 - 2
TOTAL - 2

UPDATE 8:00pm

de la Rosa has given up 2 runs in the first inning. (-3) The Curse of Tief strikes again.

For Jake, Carlos Gonzalez has tripled and scored.

I checked out redtube.com. Now I've seen everything. I suppose it was just a matter of time before that kind of stuff started showing up on the Internet too. Who'da known?

It appears as though George Sherill may get a save opp for Baltimore.

UPDATE 8:20pm

JAKE
SP-Beckett BOS - (Wed)
RP-Rivera NYY - (9:00)
RP-Sherill BAL
RP-Frasor TOR
C-Mauer MIN - 1000/w - 1
1B-Butler KC - 2100/w - 2
2B-Zobrist TB - 1000/ww - 2
SS-Cabrera CLE - 3000/ - 0
3B-Zimmerman WAS - 3110/ - 2
OF-Smith COL - (Not playing)
OF-Werth PHI - 3012/ww - 7
OF-McCutchen PIT - 4121/H - 9
DH-Gonzalez COL - 1110/3 - 4
TOTAL - 27

AVERY
SP-de la Rosa COL - 2 3 2 2 1 2 - 0
RP-Hoffman MIL - (Brewers getting killed)
RP-Bailey OAK
RP-Valverde HOU
C-Molina SF - (9:00)
1B-Teixeira NYY - (9:00)
2B-Lopez SEA - 3000/ - 0
SS-Ramirez CHW - 2000/ - 0
3B-Izturis LAA - (9:00)
OF-Bay BOS - 1000/ - 0
OF-Byrd TEX - (9:00)
OF-Damon NYY - (9:00)
DH-Choo CLE - 3020/2 - 3
TOTAL - 3

Sherill did not come in to pitch the 9th in a save situation. The game is now tied.

Jose Lopez (SEA) has hit a solo home run for Avery.

UPDATE 8:40pm

***de la Rosa is blowing up - 5 runs in with one out in the 3rd. Runs driven in by Gonzalez [edit - not true] for Jake. HE'S OUT OF THE GAME!!!***

Minus 12 for de la Rosa - and he's still responsible for a baserunner and could still get the loss.

de la Rosa's runner was erased in a double play. Colorado is only down by 1 so they could cover the loss.

UPDATE 8:55pm

JAKE
SP-Beckett BOS - (Wed)
RP-Rivera NYY - (9:00)
RP-Sherill BAL
RP-Frasor TOR
C-Mauer MIN - 2011/2w - 4
1B-Butler KC - 2100/w - 2
2B-Zobrist TB - 2000/ww - 2
SS-Cabrera CLE - 4110/ - 2
3B-Zimmerman WAS - 3110/ - 2
OF-Smith COL - 1110/2 - 3
OF-Werth PHI - 3012/ww - 7
OF-McCutchen PIT - 4121/H - 9
DH-Gonzalez COL - 1110/3 - 4
TOTAL - 35

AVERY
SP-de la Rosa COL - 2.1 6 6 6 3 2 - -12
RP-Hoffman MIL - (Brewers getting killed)
RP-Bailey OAK
RP-Valverde HOU
C-Molina SF - 1000/ - 0
1B-Teixeira NYY - (9:00)
2B-Lopez SEA - 4111/H - 8
SS-Ramirez CHW - 3000/ - 0
3B-Izturis LAA - (9:00)
OF-Bay BOS - 2000/ - 0
OF-Byrd TEX - (9:00)
OF-Damon NYY - (9:00)
DH-Choo CLE - 4030/2 - 4
TOTAL - 0

Colorado has scored so de la Rosa will not get the loss.

SEA/TB game is over with no change in above scores.

DET/CLE game is over with no change in above scores.

WAS game has ended with no change in Zimmerman's score.

Uh... the reason George Sherill didn't pitch tonight for Baltimore is because he doesn't play for Baltimore. He plays for the Dodgers. (He didn't pitch for them either.)

UPDATE

JAKE
SP-Beckett BOS - (Wed)
RP-Rivera NYY -
RP-Sherill LAD - dnp
RP-Frasor TOR - dnp
C-Mauer MIN - 3011/2w - 4
1B-Butler KC - 3100/w - 2
2B-Zobrist TB - 2000/ww - 2
SS-Cabrera CLE - 5110/ - 2
3B-Zimmerman WAS - 3110/ - 2
OF-Smith COL - 2110/2 - 3
OF-Werth PHI - 3012/ww - 7
OF-McCutchen PIT - 4121/H - 9
DH-Gonzalez COL - 1110/3 - 4
TOTAL - 35

AVERY
SP-de la Rosa COL - 2.1 6 6 6 3 2 - -12
RP-Hoffman MIL - (Brewers getting killed)
RP-Bailey OAK
RP-Valverde HOU
C-Molina SF - 2000/ - 0
1B-Teixeira NYY - 1010/ - 1
2B-Lopez SEA - 4111/H - 8
SS-Ramirez CHW - 3000/ - 0
3B-Izturis LAA - 1000/ - 0
OF-Bay BOS - 3000/ - 0
OF-Byrd TEX - 1000/ - 0
OF-Damon NYY - 1010/ - 1
DH-Choo CLE - 4030/2 - 4
TOTAL - 2

McCutchen (PIT) is done. Finishes with 12.

Valverde (HOU) pitched for Avery and got -1.

BOS/KC is done. Butler stays at 2, Bay stays at 0.

MIN/CHW are done. Ramirez stays at 0. Mauer stays at 4.

UPDATE 9:55pm

I'm going to call it a night. Jake leads 38-1. Avery has 5 west-coast hitters still playing but none of them have done much in their first couple of ABs. Unless 3 or 4 of those hitters go off, and Beckett bombs tomorrow night, Jake will win Game 5.

UPDATE Wednesday 5:40am

OK, it's not official until tonight - I know - but I'm calling it anyway. Jake wins Game 5. He takes a 33 point lead into today's action and still gets his starting pitcher, Josh Beckett. Avery's only opportunity for points are from his relief pitchers or if one of his top 4 starters unexpectedly pitches. Ain't gonna happen.

World Series Game 4 Updates

Jake's offense comes alive, the pitcher that Avery didn't pitch get 24 points, but the relief pitchers keep Avery in the game.

Had Avery picked Felix Hernandez, he would have been in the books at 55 points and forced John Lester to score 12 or more for Jake. Instead, Justin Verlander and some luck are needed for the eight-time FNFT King if he is to take Game 4. Jake leads 43-31 going into today's action with only the two starting pitchers still in play.

The first to the hill will be Verlander in a 3:10 p.m. start in Minnesota and Carl Pavano. The Twins are in hot pursuit of the Tigers in the AL Central so this will be a hard fought battle. Verlander is 0-1 with a 5.11 ERA against the Twins this year. Pavano has beaten the Tigers four times in '09 with a 1.49 ERA against the Cats.

Three hours after the bar is set, Jake's pitcher Jon Lester takes the mound in Baltimore. He is 3-0 with an impressive 0.84 ERA against the Birds this year. His opponent will be David Hernandez. Yeah, I never heard of him either.

Jake wins the tiebreaker thanks to the keen hitting eye of Billy Butler whose three walks contributed to his 15 point game. Therefore, Verlander must outscore Lester by 13 points if Avery is to win. If not, we will be knotted up at 2-2.

I won't be home (again) tonight, but the suspense will kill me so I may try to blog from my phone. We'll see. If not I'll try to post an update before I crash and as a last resort, as always. I will have the final stats posted long before all of you drag your sorry asses out of bed Sunday morning.

UPDATE 7:20 a.m.

Look at the two offenses we have playing in the FNFT World Series:

C	Bengie Molina
1B	Mark Teixeira
2B	Jose Lopez
SS	Alexei Ramirez
3B	Maicer Izturis
OF	Jason Bay
OF	Marlon Byrd
OF	Denard Span
DH	Shin-Soo Choo

C	Joe Mauer
1B	Billy Butler
2B	Ben Zobrist
SS	Asdrubal Cabrera
3B	Ryan Zimmerman
OF	Nick Markakis
OF	Seth Smith
OF	Jayson Werth
DH	Randy Ruiz

I obviously know NOTHING about fantasy baseball. I'm not sure either of those would make an above average MLB offense.

(Both Jake's and Avery's teams have phenomenal pitching. And as you know: pitching, pitching, pitching. It's apparently never been more true.)

By the way - none of those guys have their own little McFarlane statues so I'm obviously going to have to get creative again with the trophy. Teixeira and Mauer might, but no way any of the others do.

UPDATE Sunday 6:40 a.m.

That's gotta hurt. Had he played King Felix instead of the pitcher that Jake cut, Avery would have delivered a knockdown punch in the FNFT World Series. Instead, Jon Lester easily covers Verlander's 5 and Jake wins Game 4.

Series all tied at 2-2. Jake's has Josh Beckett on Tuesday, while Avery's has only his #5 Jonathan Sanchez. The tide has turned. Can he pull a Chuck Smith out of that hat?

UPDATE 7:00 a.m.

There is a player sitting out there who is such a blatantly obvious pickup for Avery that it's almost laughable. Let's see if he finds the nut.

World Series Game 3 Updates

Finally got a chance to sneak out of work for FNFT. (Internet is back on too.)

I had assumed going in that Hanson and Gallardo would be the starters. If so, Avery has a huge lead. Jake only gets Sef Smif and Wandy Wuiz. That's pretty gay. I don't think he has a chance. Mose tonight.

UPDATE Wednesday

Fuckinaye I'm busy at work right now! I had now time at all to blog Game 3 let alone pay any attention to it.

World Series Game 2 Updates

Lineups are set for Game 2 (baring any Friday morning changes).

Avery goes with pickup Jonathan Sanchez of the Giants who pitches Saturday night at home against the Dodgers (odd choice - Bush, Manship, and Fister were all available.) After playing defense by picking up Tim Hudson, Jake is going with Jon Lester tonight at home against Tampa.

UPDATE 815pm

Alright. Just got back from dinner. Baked cod at Nardo's and a few adult beverages at Ivie's. Let's see what we got...

Still raining in Boston. Jake's pitcher Jon Lester allowed bases loaded with one out in the top of the first when the skies opened.

Jake's Plan B if Lester is rained out is Josh Beckett tomorrow night.

UPDATE 850pm
Bob Dylan (aka Ryan Zimmerman) has hit a solo home run for Jake.

UPDATE 855pm
The game in Boston had been rained out. Jake will get Beckett tomorrow night.

Weather in Boston tomorrow calls for a 60% chance of rain. The Friday game will be made up as part of a doubleheader on Sunday.

UPDATE SATURDAY 600am

What a mess.

Yes, I'm up this early. If you have dogs you would be too. Been up for a half hour.

What's a mess is the Game 2 boxscore. Rainouts in Boston And Texas have a lot of players in play today, with Jake holding a slim but insignificant 20-16 lead.

Avery's starting pitcher will be Jonathan Sanchez of the Giants who pitches tonight at home against the Dodgers and Vincente Padilla. 9:05pm game time. He will also be on Jose Valverde watch again who did not pitch on Friday. This time Avery is rooting against Valverde playing as then he would get 7 points from Trevor Hoffman. Avery's DH Kevin Kouzmanoff apparently has a strained left calf and will miss the next 6 games. Bad luck there. Outfielder Johnny Damon sat out last night's game with "a stiff lower back". No news as to whether he is expected to return tonight. Avery also had 3 hitters rained out last night; Jose Lopez of Seattle, and Kevin Youlilis and Jason Bay of the Red Sox.

Jake missed only one hitter: Ben Zobrist of Tampa who was rained out in Boston. His expected starter, Jon Lester allowed based loaded with one out in the first inning of last night's game before the game was rained out. His next starter is Josh Beckett who is pitching tonight. The weather forecast in Boston tonight calls for a chance of showers and patchy drizzle. With a doubleheader already scheduled for Sunday, I'm sure they will ride the weather out well into the night. Jake also has Tim Hudson pitching tonight in St. Louis if Boston is totally washed out, however if the game tonight is rained out, Sunday's game(s) would be used. It would be plausible that either Lester or Beckett would pitch then. In the bullpen Jake has a similar situation to Avery with his #2 RP getting 7 points. Mariano Rivera is his closer and would erase Jason Frasor's 7 if he pitches.

I've got plans for tonight so I probably won't have any live updates. But never say never.

UPDATE 410pm
Johnny Damon did not play in this afternoon's game. Neither did Mariano Rivera. These are both good news for Jake as he will now get Jason Frasor's 7. It's 27-16 Jake right now.

UPDATE 640pm
The start of the game in Boston is delayed by rain. Hard to tell by looking at the radar if they'll get it in. There's a glop of crap doing circles around Cape Cod. Probably no more updates until late tonight or tomorrow morning.

UPDATE SUNDAY 700am
I've taken the asterisk off of Game 5. If is now necessary. With the help of Mother Nature, Jake has won Game 2 of the FNFT World Series 45-44 and knotted the series at one game apiece.

Despite picking a dud for his starting pitcher, Avery was still in a position to win, riding a home run, a single and a walk by Kevin Youkilis. But five innings of baseball was all the skies would allow in Boston. Josh Beckett picked up a 2-point bonus for a 5-inning complete game. Youkilis and Jason Bay were denied any more at-bats, and Jake sneaks away with a 1-point win.

Earlier I had jokingly (because of their names) suggested that Avery could have pickup up either Bush, Manship, or Fister. Ironically, any one of the three would have given Avery a Game 2 win. Dave Bush threw a 31 point gem for the Brewers, Manship's -1 was 1-point better than Sanchez' -2 (Avery would have won the tie), and Fister didn't play which would have given The Moops a second reliever.

So we play on. Game 3 is Tuesday night.

World Series Game 1 Updates

(I wish I had more time to blog about the World Series, but with as busy as I am at work these Tuesday-Wednesday games are killers. But I digress...)

Could Jake have any worse luck? His top hitter, Carlos Pena, is out for the season with broken fingers. Yovanni Gallardo is skipping every other start because of what... youth? And to top it off his ace, Tim Lincecum, was scratched from his Tuesday start with a weak back (that he got about a week back.) All of this while he was asleep waiting for the World Series to start.

Neither team burst out of the gate in Game 1, but Avery holds the slightly better hand. With a 39-36 lead going into today's action. His only player on the board is his closer Jose Valverde of Houston. Just by appearing in tonight's game against the Braves, Valverde would erase a -4 game from Trevor Hoffman and have a chance to add to Avery's total. Houston's ace Wandy Rodriguez is on the mound for the Astros.

With no other pitchers than Lincecum scheduled to start, Jake got two relievers and lucky for him. Mariano Rivera and Jason Frasor each scored 8 points and combined, represented nearly half of Jake's point total. His player to watch tonight, and only player on the board, is Mike Lowell who apparently had a routine day off on Tuesday. If Valverde doesn't pitch, Lowell would need only 5 points to give Jake the Game 1 win. The Red Sox are at home against Baltimore's Jason Berken. Lowell is 1-for-1 lifetime against Berken. Game time is 6:00. I'll try to post an update once the starting lineups are in. If Lowell doesn't play, then it is Moop.

UPDATE 650pm
I can do a little of this tonight I guess. Mike Lowell is in the lineup for Boston and is 0 for 1. 39-36 Avery. If Lowell gets 4 points, Avery will need Valverde to pitch in order to have a chance to win.

UPDATE 700pm
Checking the news - Tim Lincecum says he's better and will be ready to pitch on Monday. What a screw job for Jake. Monday doesn't count for anything.

UPDATE 705pm
Looking ahead to Game 2, it looks like Jake will get Jon Lester on Saturday. Avery's only option at this point is Mat Latos. Although there's a couple of good pickups sitting out there. I think. Can anyone say 'Chris Smith'?

Boston 2, Baltimore 1 heading into the bottom of the 3rd. Lowell is due up 5th.

UPDATE 715pm
I'm watching women's tennis on ESPN2 - the 17 yr old chick from the U.S. against someone named Wozniacki (Poland?). I read an article today about the U.S. chick. She got booted out of here hotel in Manhattan because her reservation was up - didn't think she'd be there that long. Tuned in to see if she was a babe.

I have bigger tits than that. The other chick is a babe though.

UPDATE 720pm
Mike Lowell reached on an erro and stole second base. 39-37 Avery.

Varitek doubled him in. 39-38 Avery. Getting interesting.

UPDATE 755pm
I flipped over and watched a few minutes of The Obama. What a lying sack of...

Lowell singled in the 5th. It's 39-39. Avery wins the tie breaker so Jake needs one more opint out of Lowell to keep it alive.

On Lowell's single, Youkalis was throw out at the plate to end the inning. He will get one more AB for sure but probably no more.

UPDATE 825pm
The Braves lead the Astros 1-0 in the 6th. This is significant because of Valverde's chances of getting in the game. Valverde is apparently involved in some sort of age discrepancy dispute.

UPDATE 850pm
Lowell is up in the 7th with two on.

Lowell walks. Jake leads 40-39. Valverde must pitch or Jake wins Game 1.

Lowell was replaced by a pinch hitter - he's done. If Valverde pitches, a -4 from Hoffman is erased. Avery would lead 43-40 once he enters the game.

UPDATE 900pm
Houston doesn't score in the bottom of the 8th. Still 1-0 Atlanta. We'll see if Valverde pitches the 9th.

VALVERDE IS IN!

Anything better than a -4 and Avery wins.

Pop out. One down. 44-40 Avery.

Strikeout. Two down. 46-40 Avery.

Another strikeout. Side's retired. 48-40 Avery. Braves still lead 1-0. Astros coming up to bat in the bottom of the 9th. Jake's only chance is if Houston ties and then Valverde blows up in the 10th. Highly unlikely.

One out in the bottom of the 9th.

Single by Matsui and double by Berkman. Runners on 2nd and 3rd with one out.

Carlos Lee gets intentionally walked. Bases loaded with one out. A base hit ends the game and Avery wins. Jake needs a tie.

Tejada batting. BASE HIT. Two runs. Game over.

Valverde gets the win. Avery wins Game 1, 52-40.

Good night.

The Thrilla in Manilla

After much drama, both FNFT playoff series are sweeps, setting up a World Series showdown between perhaps the two most successful owners in the history of the league.

Jake will be playing in his fourth World Series in the last five seasons. His other FNFT World Series appearance was his sole championship in 1997.

Avery, The King of FNFT, will be looking for his 9th FNFT title. He returns to the World Series after a seven year absence.

Despite their success, the two teams have never met in the post season.

Much. much more to come as the Rivalry of the Century unfolds.

Late Saturday Update

If anyone is still watching, we've got a barn-burner in Game 3 of the Divisional Playoff.

For Joe, Zach Grienke checked in with 21 points. Exactly enough for a 51-51 tie with Avery. Joe wins the tiebreaker with 9 points by Miguel Cabrera compared to 8 by Avery's best hitter. Joe got no relievers, so he is in the books at 51.

For Avery, Trevor Hoffman did not pitch. His #3 reliever, Jose Valverde got 7 points and a win. Enough for Avery to take Game 3. But... His #2 reliever Andrew Baily (OAK) could still play. The A's lead 5-3 in the 8th. Stay tuned...

UPDATE: BAILEY IS IN THE GAME. Valverde's 7 points are gone. Bailey retired the last batter in the top of the 8th for one huge point. The A's are batting in the bottom of the 8th still leading 5-3. They've got two on with one out. If Bailey is replaced in the top of the 9th, Avery wins by one. If he stays in the game, we're still on...

UPDATE: The A's have gone up 7-3. Bailey is still in line for the save if he comes out to pitch the 9th so I'd say odds are good he's not done.

UPDATE: It's now 9-3 A's. They are still batting in the bottom of the 8th with one out.

UPDATE: The game is on SportsLine Live Look In. Bailey is looking like he still thinks he's in the game.

UPDATE: Bailey is on to pitch the 9th. It all comes down to this.

UPDATE: Base hit by Ichiro to lead off. Bailey is back to zero and the game is tied at 51-51.

UPDATE: Fly out to right. Avery back in the lead 52-51.

UPDATE: HOME RUN BY JOSE LOPEZ!!!!! Avery is screwed! Joe is going to win Game 3!!!

UPDATE: Single. BUT... I'm forgetting that Bailey is still in line for the save. If he can get out of this jam, Avery still may win. Bailey is at -5. He needs to finish with 1 or more. If he gets the next two outs without allowing any more base runners, Avery still wins.

UPDATE: Popout. Bailey is at -4. A save gets him to zero. It all comes down to this last batter.

UPDATE: STRIKEOUT!!! Bailey finishes with 2 points. Avery will win Game 3 by a score of 53-51 and go on to play Jake in the FNFT World Series.

Had the series gone to Game 4, Avery's pitcher would have been Mat Latos. He left tonight's game after 3 innings, giving up 4 runs on 3 hits and 5 walks.

Friday Night Snooze

The hitters have spoken. Whispered, actually.

With no hitters on either side able to crack double-digits and a solid performance by Justin Verlander, Avery takes a 51-30 lead over Joe in the FNFT Divisional Playoffs heading into today's action. The key game tonight is at 6:00 in Kansas City when Zack Grienke takes the mound for Joe. Neither team had a reliever pitch yet, and Avery can still get Shin-Soo Choo (gazunteit). Grienke obviously need a solid game for Joe to avoid the sweep, however 20+ games have been common for Grienke this year.

In the Saturday game, if it's needed, Joe gets Randy Wolf who pitches at home against San Diego. Game time is 9:00 p.m. Opposing Wolf is Mat Latos, Avery's only other starting pitcher going this weekend. Unless Avery looks to the scrap heap for another starter, we would have a head-to-head pitching matchup for Game 4 - again, if necessary. If Grienke fails tonight, then it's all Moop.

By A C-Hair

Joe, who by losing a a tie-breaker on the final day of the regular season was forced into a 1-game playoff, has lost another tiebreaker in the playoffs and find himself down 0-2 to Avery. But for two measly points, he could be up 2-1 and a game away from the World Series.

Game 3 is Friday night. Game 4, if needed is Saturday.

p.s. Anonymous - You know, it sit up at night typing that stuff and wonder to myself, "If I write something and nobody reads it, am I really writing it?" Seeing your comments this morning made my day.

From The Moors:

Actually Joe won his first tie breaker against Tief in the final game of the season because Tief's pitcher had a -10 points. Had he scored a -9 or higher, the Moors would most likely be up 2 games to 1 over the Moops, thus creating a Moops / Moors series.

T:
You're right. My bad.

Playoff Doubleheader

As I've previously mentioned, Game 4 of the Division Playoff Series between Avery and Joe - if there is a Game 4 - will be part of a doubleheader on Saturday. I'll try to explain again how a doubleheader works, with the help of a post I wrote last year...

Game 3 of the playoff series is Friday, September 4. Game 4 of the playoffs is Saturday, September 5. For the most part, these are treated as two separate and distinct games. You may submit separate lineups for each. You are allowed one pickup for each. The deadline for picking up players and submitting lineups is still on noon of game day, so you could (and in some circumstances, it would make sense to) change your Saturday lineup based on Friday results.

Hitters are fairly straight forward. Their Friday night game counts toward Game 3 and their Saturday game counts toward Game 4. The exception is if they don't play on Friday night. Then their Saturday game counts toward Game 3 and their Sunday game counts toward Game 4. This is an important point to be aware of. If one of your hitters does not play on Friday night, it might make sense to replace him in your Game 4 lineup, or else run the risk of not getting points for him for Game 4 because his Saturday game is already being used for Game 3. If a hitter plays on Friday and not on Saturday, or if his Saturday game is used for Game 3 on Friday, you still get his Sunday stats toward Game 4.

For starting pitchers, the pecking order for Game 3 is #1 SP on Friday, #2 SP on Friday, #3 SP on Friday and so on down to the bottom of your rotation, then #1 SP on Saturday, #2 SP on Saturday, and on down the line. So basically, if any of your starting pitchers pitch on Friday night, you will get one of them for Game 3. Game 4 works like any other game with the exception that you can not use the pitcher who counted in Game 3. The order goes #1 SP Friday, #1 SP Saturday, #2 SP Friday, #2 SP Saturday, and so on. Relief pitchers work pretty much the same way as starters. It would be a good idea to just figure out who you want your starting pitcher for each game to be and put them in as your #1 starter. You can stack the others up behind him just in case.

Make sense? Of course if the series ends on Friday night, this is all moot.

Playoff Update - Wed Night

Baring a blow-up by Trevor Hoffman, it appears that Avery has come back to win Game 2 of the Divisional Playoff Series. Felix Hernandez pitched 8 scoreless innings netting Avery 27 points and bringing his team total to 71. Meanwhile, Javier Vazquez is out of his game, finishing with 5 points bringing Joe's team total also to 71. Vazquez however is still on the hook for the loss; the Braves trail 7-3 in the 7th. If the Braves can't come back, Joe's total drops to 69. Avery also wins the tiebreaker with 13 points from Kevin Youkalis.

The only player still in play is Trevor Hoffman, Avery's third reliever. As I type this, the Brewers are trailing 6-2 in the 4th. It would take a negative point game by Hoffman for Joe to have a chance for the win.

Playoffs Day 3

Behind a 13 point outing from Jonathan Papelbon, Joe has taken a 66-44 lead over Avery in Game 2 of their best of five Division Playoff Series.

Both starting pitchers go tonight. King Felix Hernandez goes for Avery who pitches tonight at home against the Dodgers, and Javier Vazquez for Joe tonight at Florida. Hernandez' game starts first at 5:40pm CT. Vazquez takes the hill at 6:10pm CT in Florida. Avery can also get points from his reliever; either Andrew Bailey (CIN), Jose Valverde (HOU), or Trevor Hoffman (MIL); any of which will be hard pressed to match Papelbon's gem.

I will try to post blog updates tonight, but it's only one of about seven billion things I've got to do.

Playoffs Day 2

Baring a miracle pitching performance by the Dodger's Charlie Heager, Jake will win Game 2 of the FNFT Wild Card Playoff and advance to his 4th World Series in 5 years. Jake leads 78-47. Tom can only get points from Haeger who pitches this afternoon in Cincinnati, and a relief pitcher - either Joakim Soria or Rafael Soriano. Jake still has two hitters not yet on the board - Ben Zobrist and Mike Lowell. Tom needs Haeger and his reliever to outscore Zobrist and Lowell by 31 points. Kendry Morales had an impressive 29 point (5 2 5 6 22HH) game for Tom.

In Divisional Playoff, Avery will go up 1-0 with a 66-39 victory over Joe. King Felix scored 19 for the victors, pacing a balanced attack. Game 2 of the series will be Tuesday, Sep 1.

Because of the 1-game playoff necessary to decide the Lachmann Division, the Divisional Playoff between Avery and Joe will have a double-header game next weekend. I'll write a separate post on how the rules work for that and how the lineup system should be used.

Josh Johnson Update

6:40pm
Tom trails Jake by 19 points going into tonight's action and needs 1 more than that from Josh Johnson (baring relief pitchers) to win the first game of the Wild Card Playoff. It's not a good start. Johnson has given up 2 runs on 4 hits through 2 innings (-2 points).

6:50pm
Kansas City's game is over and Joakim Soria did not pitch. That means Tom gets 6 points from his RP2 Raphael Soriano. Jake Would get Mariano Rivera if he pitches - otherwise 6 from Jason Frasor. Tom would need Rivera to pitch and pitch poorly to help his cause. Both team's hitters all played last night so Rivera and Johnson are the only two players in play.

6:55pm
Adam Jones is out of the lineup again tonight with back spasms so Joe will not pad his 80 points. Jones is expected back in the lineup this weekend. (Just doing some housecleaning here.)

7:00pm
0 R, 1 H, 1 K in the 3rd for Johnson. 0 points through 3 innings. If he struck out the side in each of the next three innings, he would only be at 18 points. Things are not looking good for Tom.

7:25pm
0 R, 2 H, 2 K in the 4th for Johnson. He's at 3 points for the game and could get 4 more for getting a win (the game is tied 2-2.) He's only at 58 pitches through 4, but he needs to pick it up if Tom is to have a chance.

7:40pm
A scoreless, two K frame for Johnson in the 5th. He's now at 9 points for the game. A couple more solid innings and a few Marlin runs could make this interesting.

7:45pm
Ronnie Paulino has hit a 2 run HR for the Marlins putting them up 2 and putting Johnson in line for the win.

7:50pm
Yankees are up 4-1 in the 6th. If that score holds, it's likely Mariano Rivera would pitch. Once he enters the game it take 6 points off the board for Jake.

Johnson has given up a leadoff double to David Murphy and then threw a wild pitch allowing him to go to third. Watching the pitch-tracker, he looks wild.

Sac fly - Murphy scores.

8:00pm
1 R, 2 H, 2 K for Johnson in the 6th. He's at 10 points for the game and could still pick up 4 more iwht a win. He's not due up to bat in the next couple of innings and at 93 pitches, he'll probably be back out for the 7th.

8:25pm
(Fantasy football auction list that everyone has been bitching about is finally sent.) Johnson is out after 6 innings. 10 points and still in line for the win which would bring him to 14. If Mariano Rivera pitches, Jake loses 6 which would tie him with Tom. Jake wins the tiebreaker, so the only hope for Tom is for Rivera to have a negative points game.

Right now, the Yankees are up 9-2 in the 8th. I'm thinking Rivera will sit this one out.

8:55pm
No Rivera - no win for Tom. Jake is one win away from his 4th FNFT World Series in 5 years.

Zack Attack

Behind a 15 strikoout performance by Zach Grienke, Joe's Zambi's Bombers have won the one game playoff over John's The Moors 80-50 and will advance to play Avery in the FNFT Division Playoff.

Game 1 of the Wild Card playoff is comes down to Josh Johnson pitching tonight for Florida. Jake leads Tom 58-39. Each team could still get points from their #1 reliever - Mariano Rivera for Jake and Joakim Soria for Tom. Both teams have a 6 point outting by their #2 relievers to fall back on. Johnson (12-3, 2.99) pitches at home tonight against the Mets.

TIE!

It's official. We have the first ever tie for an FNFT playoff position. By a C-hair, Joe was able to hang on to a 1-5 record for the week and force a 1-game playoff with John.

Chris Carpenter's 25 point game vaulted Tom ahead of Joe and knocked him back to a tie with Tief at 29 points. Both of their top hitters had 12, so it went to the second tiebreaker where Javier Vazquez' 5 topped A.J. Burnett's -11.

The 1-game playoff will be this Tuesday, August 25. The other playoff series between Jake and Tom will also start that day. Avery must await the winner of Tuesday's game. The Division Playoff Series will now start Friday, August 28 and will need to use a double-header game on Saturday, September 6 to accommodate the full playoff schedule. More details on that to follow.

For now, John, Joe, Jake and Tom - set your lineups for this Tuesday.

Just a quick clarification on the pick-up rule during the post-season - you are allowed one pickup per game that you play. John and Joe can make a pickup before Tuesday's game. The winner can make another pickup before Friday's game. Avery can only make one pickup before Friday. You must start the player you pick up - same as before.

Probable pitching matchups for Tuesday are:

Joe - Zach Grienke (KC) at home vs. CLE (Masterson) - Tue
John - Dane Haren (ARI) at SF (Cain) - Tue

Jake - John Lester at home vs. CHW (Contreras) - Tue
Tom - Josh Johnson (FLA) at home vs. NYM (Pelfrey) - Wed

Tief's FNFT World Series Champion Odds:

Jake - 2:1
Avery - 3:1
Tom - 4:1
Joe - 12:1
John - 14:1

Pennant Race - Saturday

The Lachmann Division is still too close to call and there is a distinct possibility of a tie.

Joe has 30 points and can only add to that total with either Papelbon (RP) or Qualis (RP), both relief pitchers. If neither pitches, he will get -1 from C.J. Wilson. Pending other players today, Joe is most likely at a 1-5 record for the week. If he is going to move off of that record, going down seems more likely than up.

John sits at 42 points and has Aaron Laffey (CLE) pitching tonight. A 4 point game out of Laffey would virtually guarantee that John will finish ahead of 5 other teams and secure a 3-3 record - good enough for a tie with Joe. Something in the 10-15 range would probably get him to 4-2 which would probably be enough to win the division outright.

In today's games, John needs to root for and Joe needs to root against (about in order):
Aaron Laffey - SP/CLE
Chris Carpenter - SP/STL
Ryan Franklin - RP/STL
Bobby Jenks - RP/CHW

Joe needs to root for and John needs to root against:
A.J. Burnett - SP/NYY
Matt Garza - SP/TB
David Aardsma - RP/SEA
Troy Tulowitski - SS/COL
Justin Upton - OF/ARI

I'll make updates to this post tonight if I am able.

UPDATE 9:50pm

Laffey gets 7 points - hand counted a few other key players. The Lachmann division is almost certain to finish in a tie. This would be the first ever one-game playoff in the history of the league.

Pennant Race

There is a new leader in the Lachmann Division as Joe has vaulted ahead of John by 2 games heading into the final Friday of the regular season. The winner will take on Avery in the best-of-five Division Playoff Series. If Joe and John finish the regular season tied, they would play a one game head-to-head playoff next Tuesday, August 25. If either of the two wins the division outright, the playoff series with Avery will start on Tuesday.

Jake has clinched the Lopes division and if he can top it off with a 6-0 on Friday he will finish with the best FNFT regular season record ever. Tom has won the wild card with a 102+ win season. The Wild Card Playoff series will start on Tuesday, August 25 (even if the other division winner is not determined yet.) This will be a 4-game series with Jake needing to win two games and Tom neding to win three. Or you can think of it as a traditional best-of-five with Jake having already won game 1 by virtue of having the best record.

The rest of us are mostly just mailing it in from what I can tell. Max has clinched a spot above the Smith line. Tief needs only one win on Friday to do so as well.

I've got a very busy weekend, but I'll try to post as many playoff updates as I can. I'll also get a playoff schedule posted to the home page at some point.

Chasing the Smith Line, Beating the Mark

Almost lost in the self-loathing and public browbeating I've taken over how horrible my FNFT team has been this year is the fact that someone else is even worse. Both Max and I may go down in the record books as having the two worst FNFT records ever.


In order to finish ahead of Mark's worst ever 53-109 season, I must finish the season 2-14 and Max must finish 4-12. In order to finish ahead of the Smith Line, I need to go 5-11 and Max must go 7-9.

Jake, on the other hand, can set a record for best FNFT regular season ever by finishing the season 12-4.

Playoffs, and Other Related Odds and Ends

So much for playoff races. The FNFT Wild Card is now 1-1 in executing it's intended purpose of keeping more teams alive later in the year. By virtue of the fact that Jake and Tom happened to be in the same division, the FNFT wild card race had all of the drama of a Venezuelan election. So it goes - maybe next year.

As we head into the final siesta week of the season (a siesta week is one with no Tuesday game - Tief can just mail it in for a few days) the playoff picture is all but set.

Jake and Tom have clinched playoff spots. One will be the division winner and one will be the wild card. It is guaranteed that they will face each other in the first round of the playoffs in the first-ever 4-game FNFT Wild Card Playoff. The division winner must win 2 of the 4 games to win that series. The wild card team must win 3 of the 4. Given theoretical mathematical probabilities, the division winner has an 11 in 16 chance (69%) of winning the series, so this division race is very important to the playoff picture. Jake's magic number to beat Tom is 10, with 16 games remaining. If Jake and Tom were to tie for the division lead, the one-game playoff to determine the division champ would, in essence, be the first game of a traditional best of five series.

Avery leads Brett by 15 games and his magic number to win the division is two. It is a virtual certainty that Avery will return to the FNFT postseason after a 7 year absence. He has never lost an FNFT postseason series.

John leads Joe in the Lachmann Division by only three games. His magic number is 14, Joe's magic number to beat John is 20. If John holds on for the division title it would set up a Moops vs. Moors best of five Divisional Playoff Series.

* * *

For the first time, we will be using flex-scheduling in the playoffs and World Series, meaning that each playoff series will start as soon as it can on the next Tuesday or Friday. The schedule of days is:

Tuesday, Aug 25 - Divisional Playoff Game 1, Wild Card Playoff Game 1
Friday, Aug 28 - Divisional Playoff Game 2, Wild Card Playoff Game 2
Tuesday, Sep 1 - Divisional Playoff Game 3, Wild Card Playoff Game 3*
Friday, Sep 4 - Divisional Playoff Game 4* or W.C. Playoff Game 4* or W.S. Game 1
Tuesday, Sep 8 - Divisional Playoff Game 5* or W.S. Game 1 or 2
Friday, Sep 11 - World Series Game 1 or 2 or 3
Tuesday, Sep 15 - World Series Game 2 or 3 or 4
Friday, Sep 18 - World Series Game 3 or 4 or 5*
Tuesday, Sep 22 - World Series Game 4 or 5* or 6*
Friday, Sep 25 - World Series Game 5* or 6* or 7*
Tuesday, Sep 29 - World Series Game 6* or 7*
Friday, Oct 2 - World Series Game 7*
* if necessary

If we need a 1-game playoff on Tuesday, Aug 25 to determine division winners in either the Yost or Lachmann Divisions, the Divisional Playoff Series will be moved back one slot and will include a double header game on Saturday, Sep 5.

* * *
What happens to the online roster system during the playoffs? Nothing. Everyone will still have access to it. I am trusting that the teams not in the playoffs will not make any pickups (because you're not allowed to.) Otherwise it will continue to function as it has all season.

* * *
I'll be doing a lot of blog updates from here on out surrounding the playoffs and pennant races. Check back often.

The Scoop

A story after my own heart. (I could still play, by the way.)

How many scoops?

August 3, 2009

The most recent edition of ESPN's Wednesday Night Baseball pitted the New York Yankees against the Tampa Bay Rays. Rick Sutcliffe, former major leaguer and current ESPN color commentator, was talking about the Yankee defense in 2009 and made note of the change at first base this year, from Jason Giambi to Mark Teixeira. Sutcliffe then dreamed out loud and wished there was a statistic to count the times a first baseman handles a bad throw by an infielder and scoops the ball in the dirt. He would use such data to evaluate the difference between Giambi and Teixeira.

Luckily for Sutcliffe, we can make his dream come true today. In The Fielding Bible—Volume II, we introduced Defensive Misplays and Good Fielding Plays as an additional way to evaluate fielders in certain plays. One of those Good Fielding Plays counts the times a first baseman scoops the ball, saving his infielder a throwing error. Let's see if we can help Sutcliffe evaluate the Yankee defense at first base (GS="Games Started").

2009				2008
Player	GS	Scoops		Player	GS	Scoops
Albert Pujols	101	32		Justin Morneau	155	44
Paul Konerko	91	30		Todd Helton	91	42
Todd Helton	93	26		Carlos Pena	131	37
James Loney	96	26		Kevin Millar	128	37
Lance Berkman	85	24		Mark Teixeira	153	36
Derrek Lee	85	24		Carlos Delgado	154	35
Chris Davis	70	24		Casey Kotchman	135	33
Ryan Howard	94	23		Ryan Howard	156	33
Mark Teixeira	95	22		Ross Gload	95	31
Kendry Morales	87	22		Daric Barton	124	30
Joey Votto	68	20		Lance Berkman	151	30
Justin Morneau	91	19		Jason Giambi	112	29

In 2008, Jason Giambi recorded 29 scoops for the Yankees in 112 games started, and Mark Teixeira recorded 36 for the Braves and Angels in 153 games started. In 2009, Teixeira has scooped 22 balls in the dirt through 95 starts and Giambi has scooped 14 in 58 games at first. While this looks like a victory for Teixeira, fans of Giambi will note that he plays a large number of games serving as his team's Designated Hitter and doesn't play as many games as Teixeira at first base. In fact, in 2008, Giambi's 29 scoops for the Yankees were good for 0.26 scoops per game started, while Teixeira's 2009 scoops for the Yankees are only 0.23 per game. This isn't a significant difference, but there is nothing here to suggest that Teixeira is better at scooping errant throws than Giambi.

The true difference between Gold Glover Mark Teixeira and Jason Giambi is in handling grounders. In the last two years Teixeira has saved his teams 18 runs fielding grounders, while Giambi has cost his team 18, a 36-run difference in Defensive Runs Saved. (Defensive Runs Saved is a statistic developed in The Fielding Bible—Volume II.)

Baseball's best "scooper" in the last two years is Colorado's Todd Helton. He was limited to 81 games started at first base in 2008 due to injury, and in those 81 games, he was able to scoop an astonishing .52 balls per game. This year, while his scoops per game don't approach his rate in 2008, Helton is still among the scoop leaders.

Used with permission from John Dewan's Stat of the Week™, www.statoftheweek.com.

The Juice List

Some guy in a CBS Sportlines message board posted this. He said, "This is unconfirmed, but I've got my sources." Take it for what it's worth.

1. Nomar Garciaparra
2. Manny Ramirez
3. Johnny Damon
4. Trot Nixon
5. David Ortiz
6. Shea Hillenbrand
7. Derek Lowe
8. Pedro Martinez
9. Brian Roberts
10. Jay Gibbons
11. Melvin Mora
12. Jerry Hairston
13. Jason Giambi
14. Alfonso Soriano
15. Raul Mondesi
16. Aaron Boone
17. Andy Pettitte
18. Jose Contreras
19. Roger Clemens
20. Carlos Delgado
21. Vernon Wells
22. Frank Catalanotto
23. Kenny Rogers
24. Magglio Ordonez
25. Sandy Alomar
26. Bartolo Colon
27. Brent Abernathy
28. Jose Lima
29. Milton Bradley
30. Casey Blake
31. Danys Baez
32. Craig Monroe
33. Dmitri Young
34. Alex Sanchez
35. Eric Chavez
36. Miguel Tejada
37. Eric Byrnes
38. Jose Guillen
39. Keith Foulke
40. Ricardo Rincon
41. Bret Boone
42. Mike Cameron
43. Randy Winn
44. Ryan Franklin
45. Freddy Garcia
46. Rafael Soriano
47. Scott Spiezio
48. Troy Glaus
49. Francisco Rodriguez
50. Ben Weber
51. Alex Rodriguez
52. Juan Gonzalez
53. Rafael Palmeiro
54. Carl Everett
55. Javy Lopez
56. Gary Sheffield
57. Mike Hampton
58. Ivan Rodriguez
59. Derrek Lee
60. Bobby Abreu
61. Terry Adams
62. Fernando Tatis
63. Livan Hernandez
64. Hector Almonte
65. Tony Armas
66. Dan Smith
67. Roberto Alomar
68. Cliff Floyd
69. Roger Cedeno
70. Jeromy Burnitz
71. Moises Alou
72. Sammy Sosa
73. Corey Patterson
74. Carlos Zambrano
75. Mark Prior
76. Kerry Wood
77. Matt Clement
78. Antonio Alfonseca
79. Juan Cruz
80. Aramis Ramirez
81. Craig Wilson
82. Kris Benson
83. Richie Sexson
84. Geoff Jenkins
85. Valerio de los Santos
86. Benito Santiago
87. Rich Aurilia
88. Barry Bonds
89. Andres Galarraga
90. Jason Schmidt
91. Felix Rodriguez
92. Jason Christiansen
93. Matt Herges
94. Paul Lo Duca
95. Shawn Green
96. Oliver Perez
97. Adrian Beltre
98. Eric Gagne
99. Guillermo Mota
100. Luis Gonzalez
101. Todd Helton
102. Ryan Klesko
103. Gary Matthews

For my money, this list doesn't look much different than one any of us could have made up given a few hours looking through stats. Sprinkle in a Hector Almonte and Dan Smith here and there to make it look legit, and there you go.

In a Bit of a Pickle

If you haven't checked it out lately, Sports Pickle has a new, redesigned website with daily updates.

"Prince Fielder Achieves Goal of Being Too Fat to Pitch Around"

"Chinese Scientists Hurrying Development of Yao Ming 2.0"

"PGA golfers honor Michael Jackson by wearing one white glove"

That's good stuff.

Who's in the Box?

"When I lived by Jake in 'tosa, he told me he was in a death league. Was anyone else in the league? If so, someone could be kicking ass right now." - Joe Z

There are few things you do in your life that wind up being truly legendary. Things that you continue to talk about and be reminded of for years after they happen. Memories that are etched so deeply that they will be the final remains of your consciousness when you yourself are but a blathering sack of flesh ready slip the surly bonds of Earth. And every time you say, "remember when?" the story is as fresh and intriguing as when it first happened. Perhaps more so, because the passage of time allows you to stand back and witness the true grandeur of that thing - the enormity of which was not apparent to you when it was happening in real time. For those of us who played in it, the Celebrity Death League certainly fits into that category of things. Every time there is a run of celebrity deaths, someone, somewhere, without fail, will remember that league.

I would imagine that in some computer archive somewhere I've got the spreadsheets with everyone's 'rosters'. I can't even remember how long ago we played. I do remember that for the duration of the league, there was "still Hope." Bob Hope died in 2003 at the age of 100, so it was at least that long ago.

For the past number of years I've actually been kicking around an idea in my head for a new kind of Celebrity Death League. This is odd to say now, but the major flaw in the old league was that is was so boring. We got together and drafted a bunch of famous old people and then just sat back and waited for them to die. When one of them actually did, it was a big deal, especially for the 'owner' of that celeb, but otherwise there really wasn't any active participation - no trades, no weekly lineups. It just sort of sat there.

My idea for the new league is that it would run more like the stock market than like a draft-and-hold league. You would start off with some number of 'points' - say 100. You would use those points to buy contracts on living celebrities. When a celebrity dies, the contracts would pay out at a rate of 100 minus the celebrity's age. The younger the celebrity, the more valuable the payout. Then, when one of your celebrities dies, you can use the payout to buy contracts on other celebrities or keep the points in your 'cash reserve.' In the mean time, you can buy and sell contracts with other players in the league. For each contract you own, you would be required to post an 'asking price'. Any other owner could then buy that contact from you for your asking price - first come first served. If you need to free up some points and you can't find someone to buy your contracts, you can dump them for half of what you paid. The winner would be the owner who through either celebrity deaths or shrewd trading, accumulates the most points by the end of the year defined by the value of his cash reserve plus the value of the contracts he owns.

You could still have a draft, but instead of taking turns selecting celebrities, you would nominate them in a series of IPOs. There would be a bidding process for the contract on each celebrity. Over the course of the year, new celebrities could be nominated through a similar IPO process. One owner might say, "I offer to buy Woody Allen for 3 points." There would be a 1-week period in which any other owner could then up that bid. At the end of one week whoever has the highest bid now owns the contract on Woody Allen. Let's say he sells for 5. You would then post him on your roster and post an asking price for his contract - maybe 8. If someone comes along and buys his contract from you, you profit 3 points. If Woody Allen dies, the owner of the contract gets 27 points (100 minus his age of 73). One of the reasons for keeping the bidding process open for one week is that you couldn't quick buy up a contract of someone who was in a car accident this morning, hoping for a quick profit. If you do, and that celebrity dies before the bidding period is over, whoever has high bid will wind up buying a contact with no payout.

There would obviously be a lot of details to flush out and cans of worms to close, but the rules could evolve as they do in any league. With the Internet, this could obviously all be done online. Wha-da-ya say? You in the box?

Tief, Phone Home

Just as an FYI to everyone, we have gotten rid of our home phone (262) 628-1102 and have gone cell phone only. My cell phone number is (414) 587-8391 in the event you ever need it. You are also welcome to call the office at (262) 502-7003.

Please make a note of it.

Turning 1000

Just after 12:00 noon on Friday the FNFT roster system registered it's 1,000th login since the system went live on the night of the draft. Joel hit the milestone at 12:12 p.m. Granted, almost a third of the logins are me either doing my daily check that the system is working or trying to fix my pathetic team, but still...

From my perspective, the system is working better that my wildest dreams would have imagined for a first-year effort. I hope you all feel the same.

The Jake and Joe Rule

I'm going to create a new rule next season that says you (Jake and Joe) can not start making pickups for the next FNFT game until the day after the previous game starts. In FNFT-speak, that means you (Jake and Joe) must wait until Saturday after a Friday game or Wednesday after a Tuesday game to make your next pickup. It can be one minute after midnight the next day, but it must be the next day.

Right now I when I pull down the lineups I manually reset the "Next Game" number. Next year I'm going to automate all of that and it will be much easier to deal with only dates (i.e. pickups made on June 12 count for Game 14 - pickups made on June 13 count for Game 15) rather than dates and times.

It's not that it ever bothered me that people people (Jake and Joe) started making pickups on Friday afternoon for the next game and I had to make mental note of it so that I didn't include those pickups in the game that I was currently working on and then half of the time that I would forget to post the pickup in the next game. Wasn't any of that. Because now with the new system it's easier to keep track of those things. It's that right now, I sort of dictate (to everyone except Jake and Joe) when you can start making pickups for the next game by when I update the site. This gives me an advantage in that I get first dibs on pickups (even though some people [Jake and Joe] will just make their next pickup anyway even though I haven't update the site yet.) With an automated system based on real time rather than when I get around to it, it puts us all on the same level playing field and make my job of running the league that little bit easier.

If you want to start practicing the new policy this year, that would be great. But know that Jake or Joe will probably get the guy you wanted if you wait.

DL

Does anyone besides me think we should have a DL? I have 4 players on the DL right now and 3 of them are too good to cut.

I think I'll propose that for next year - maybe a 2 player DL. You can only put players on who are on the MLB DL. Would you get an extra pickup then if you put a player on the DL? Or just get your regular weekly pickup but not have to cut anyone?

We had a DL back in the day and it was kind of a pain. It allowed teams to basically hoard players by putting them on the DL and then never take them off. Let's say I put my shortstop Cabrera on the DL. If my other SS is playing better, I could just leave Cabrera on the DL until I need him and when I do I essentially get a free pickup. I think we had a rule saying that once a player is off of the MLB DL you had to take him off of the FNFT DL, but that was very difficult to police.

Then if we had a DL I would have to figure out how to program it into the roster system - I don't know - maybe I just talked myself out of it.

Beside the Point

Just a little thing... I don't know if nobody noticed or if everyone noticed but nobody said anything, but on the roster view pages, the FP/G column always ended in zero (e.g. 4.20, never 4.23). I've fixed that.

Back Home Again

Back Home Again in Indiana

As most of you are aware, it's getting close to the time when the FNFT Commissioner's Office shuts down for a few days while Tief and Jacob go to the Danica Patrick show.

I will post the usual web updates (daily stats) through Wednesday this week, but after that... who knows. I am on a free trial of GoToMyPC courtesy of my Rush Limbaugh promotional special offer. I am taking my ASUS mini-laptop along (whose value has diminished to the point where I feel comfortable bearing the risk of it being stolen.) I have tested the laptop with GoToMyPC and while clumsy - it works. In fact, I did yesterday's web updates from the comfort of my patio while enjoying a cup of coffee and a scone right after my schvitz. I am going to try to make regular web update from Indy. I don't believe there will be Wi-Fi access where we camp (there wasn't last year), so that means I'll have to drive somewhere to make the updates.

Worst case scenario is that I won't make any updates until I get back Sunday night or Monday. Best case is that you won't notice that I'm gone. The likely scenario is somewhere in between. If there is no Wi-Fi where we camp, I wil certainly not be able to make updates on Sunday morning as it is impossible to drive anywhere in Indianapolis on race day.

As per usual, if something gets f-ed while I'm gone, just default to email and I'll sort it all out when I get home.

Follow the Walks

I've made an interesting discovery. I clicked open Grady Sizemore's Game Log this morning and saw the following:

Sizemore started the season hot but has been in a slump the last couple of weeks. If you look at the chart, you can see exactly what's happening. He hit 4 home runs in the span of eight days from April 16-23, probably thought he was all of the sudden Babe Ruth, and since has been swinging at every pitch he sees. You know that because of the walks. He had 11 walks in the bottom 12 games on the chart and only 4 in the most recent 12 games.

It strikes me that players probably score more points in games they draw walks than in games they don't - that walks are a leading indicator of success. But it doesn't take Einstein to figure that out. That's not unlike saying that players score more points in games they hit home runs than in game they don't. Duh.

So I did a little study to see if I was right. I pulled the game logs for all of the batters so far this year into Excel. I kept the games in which the batter had at least 3 plate appearances. I split them into two piles: games in which the batter had no walks and games in which he had at least one walk. There were 4,523 games in the first pile and 2,342 games in the second pile. Then I averaged the FNFT Points (FP) for each of the two piles of games, except in the "walks" pile I subtracted the number of walks from the point total - I wanted to only consider other plate appearances in those games; the ones where the batter didn't walk.

The "no-walks" group averages 3.43 points per game. They average 4.18 plate appearances per game for a ratio of 0.82 points per plate appearance.

The "walks" group averages 3.67 points per game (again, excluding the points from walks) in 3.25 non-walking plate appearances per game - a ratio of 1.13 points per plate appearance.

So, even eliminating the points from walks, batters score more FNFT points in games they draw walks than in games they don't. In fact, the average number of points per non-walk plate appearance is 38% higher in "walks" games than in "no-walks" games. That's a lot bigger gap than I was expecting.

(Running late - gotta get ready for work...)

Executive Decision

Now that the FNFT roster system is up and running, I have a handful of ideas for enhancements. As I've previously mentioned, I have an idea for a process to post trades. I'd like to show a notice about how many new messages there are since you last checked them. I'd like to enhance the message editor to allow for more formatting, links and what not. In the game logs, I'd like to highlight the FNFT games in bold. All of this stuff.

When I make updates to the system I do so by writing some computer code, posting it (called 'publishing'), then log on to the system and see if it works. Usually it bombs about 15 times before I get it right.

Well if it bombs for me, it's going to bomb for you too if you try to log in. I have also lost some data in the trial and error process (dates of a few of the early messages). Because of this, I have made an executive decision to not make any more changes to the system during the current baseball season. I'll save them all for the off-season and make them when system uptime isn't as important.

That means that I will continue to post trades manually. I'll program the trade posting system in the off-season and perhaps figure out how to make it better.

(Unless, of course, I change my mind.)

Feedback Needed

I've been working on a way to allow all of you to post FNFT trades without my involvement. I can only devote about 20 hours per day or so to FNFT. If someone wants to post a trade during the 4 hours I'm unavailable, there is no way to do so. As another example, I'm going to be heading down to Indy in a couple of weeks for the race. This new system add-on would allow you to post trades while I'm gone. (What are trades, you ask? Well, back in the day...) I'm hoping to get some feedback as to whether you think this would work.

Here's my idea. Trades would still be hammered out the old fashioned way - in person, over the phone, through email, through the message board, etc. Then, once a trade is agreed upon, you can post it to the system. Somewhere on the main roster page there would be a button or link or something that says "Trade Players". If you click it you will get the following screen (with YOUR roster):

(Click on image for a larger view.)

The pull down boxes would show all of the FNFT owners (as shown). There would then be a "Submit" bottom at the bottom to complete the move.

What you are doing here is moving a player or players from your team to some other team - the team you are trading with. The person you are trading with would have to do the same thing as you - log on and transfer the players he is trading to you. Once both players have done this, the trade is complete. Follow that? Both owners would have to do the same thing for the trade to go down.

Is this workable?

There are some obvious drawbacks. The players would move immediately so you might be waiting a bit to get your players if the other guy is slow. The other issue is that like the rest of the system, this will allow you to do things that your not supposed to (like send players to the wrong team) and cause me a lot of headaches to fix. But I think were all good on that. So far I haven't had to fix anything in the database brought on by clumsiness or skulduggery.

I still need to do some programming to do all of the behind the scenes stuff like posting the trades to the transactions table and what not, but I could probably have this up and running sometime next week.

Let me know what you think.

Emailing Joe

I got in fine after you posted the message that the problem was resolved. Prior to that, I was having problems. I believe I did manage to get in once during the period you were diagnosing the problem.

I think Max may have said something to you about an issue we have at work. I’m quite sure were firewalled somehow but I just find this strange. We can gain access to fnftbaseball.com. We can open all links on the page except the LineUp/Pickups. I get an error message stating this web page is currently not available. It’s a conspiracy theory. Someone does not want me picking up players one minute after the first pitch thrown on Tuesday or Friday afternoon games.

Joe

Glad you got in. I’m pretty sure I know the reason you can’t get in from work. The FNFT website itself is hosted by a 3rd party Internet hosting service called HostMonster. I purchased the domain name fnftbaseball.com and that domain is hosted by HostMonster. The roster system however runs off of my home PC. They are really two completely separate websites. The reason you probably can’t access it from work is that my home PC is not set up as a domain name server (DNS). What that means in English is that instead by reaching the site via a normal web address (http://www.something.com) you access it by my computer’s IP address (http://69.29.23.10 or some such thing). The IT departments at many large companies block sites that are referenced only by an IP address because many of them are run by schmucks who are trying to do something much more deviant than run a fantasy baseball league. The solution (perhaps) would be for me to host the roster system on a 3rd party service as well. I’m hesitant to do that because the cheapest one I can find is $169 for the season and there would be no guarantee that your company wouldn’t block that either – that would lend credence to your conspiracy theory. It would also be a bit more cumbersome for me to run everything in that I would always need to be posting all of the files to a different site rather than just copying them to my hard drive. I may do that at some point anyway - it would probably work for you if I did. If I go through another few days like the last few, it would be worth the money to me to have the guaranteed up time that a 3rd party service would provide.

Tief

Game Tuesday

The first Tuesday FNFT game is this week on April 28. In Tuesday games, you are playing against only the teams in your own division.

In the 5-team division, one team goes 4-0, one goes 3-1, one goes 2-2, one goes 1-3, and the last goes 0-4. In the 4-team divisions the top team goes 4-0, the bottom team goes 0-4. The second team goes 3-1 if their score is closer to the top team or 2-2 if their score is closer to the #3 team. The record for the #3 team is the mirror image of the #2 team.

Tuesday games will be played every other Tuesday from here until the end of the season with the final Tuesday game being on the last week of the regular season.

FP Revisited

Most of you will find this to be minutia, but I've slightly changed the formula I use to display "FP" or 'year to date FNFT points'. The FP score is based on the year-to-date cumulative stats rather than summing each players' individual games (which would me much harder to program). Therefore it's an estimate and not an actual sum. The basic formula is the same as our single game scoring formula:

R + H + 2*RBI + 2B + 2*3B + 3*HR + BB + SB

The part that FP doesn't take into account is the bonus for getting at least one run, hit and RBI in a game. To account for this I've always added:

min(R,H,RBI)

to the score - or the lowest number among runs, hits and RBIs.

I've dumped all of the game-by-game stats from 2008 into a database and based on this figured out that the formula for FP would be slightly more accurate if I instead added:

0.5 * min(R,H,RBI)

So that's what I've done. If you've noticed that the total points (FP) for some of your hitters has gone down by one or two, that's why.

Like I said - minutia. I'll probably do something similar for pitchers to account for 10K games although that will be a much less noticable adjustment. I'll let you know.

Make The Call

I've gotten a request from Bill Hicks that I send him a list of everyone's phone number. He'd like to "make some deals." I'll leave it up to everyone's own discretion whether you want me to give him your number. He obviously has mine. The telephone is his only lifeline to the league. Imagine if that was you.

I'm not even 100% certain I have everyone's current phone number or the number at which you'd prefer to be called. I've taken phone numbers off of the FNFT directory on the website for security purposes. His phone number if (414) 456-0534 if you'd like to call him and work out a fair (and I'll be watching) trade. He doesn't have an answering machine. Either he or his brother will answer and it's easy to tell who's who.

Drop me an email or comment with you number if you'd like me to forward it on.

I've Gotta Get a Message To You

By popular demand, I've added a simple and crude message board to the FNFT roster system. You'll find it listed on the main menu as "Messages". You have very few formatting options. It's mainly just for text.

You can use it for whatever you want - propose a trade, gossip, jokes, or to leave me a note letting me know how cool you think the new online system is.

Enjoy.