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They have a winner! Paul Harmon took home the widely coveted HACKING MASS trophy from the good folks at Baseball Prospectus, by drafting the worst possible team of duds and detritus in the major leagues. By choosing such hacksters as Doug Glanville, Roger Cedeno and Rey Sanchez, Harmon guaranteed he'd have the smelliest team in cyberspace.

The HACKING MASS All-Star Squad included one name that will be painfully familiar to Jays fans: Cory Lidle. Under BP's rating system, Lidle did the second-most damage of any major-league pitcher in 2003, though if it's any comfort, no one else saw it coming either (Lidle went undrafted in the HACKING MASS entries). My own entry, The Unreleasables, was chosen for the size of its unswallowable contracts as much as anything else, but I was let down by shockingly productive seasons from Travis Lee, Vinny Castilla and Rey Ordonez. Do any Bauxites have results of their own to report?
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Pepper Moffatt - Tuesday, November 25 2003 @ 09:21 AM EST (#85172) #
http://economics.about.com
I did lousy this year. My team finished in 712th overall (out of 927). Here's who I picked:

Duane Kuiper's All-Slugging Team



Catcher Ken Huckaby 16 63 4
First Base Doug Mientkiewicz 54 21 -24
Second Base Rey Sanchez 132 50 84
Third Base Vinny Castilla 519 104 16
Shortstop Neifi Perez 72 134 59
Left Field Roger Cedeno 429 75 54
Center Field Juan Pierre 317 79 49
Right Field Raul Mondesi 31 16 -14
Pitcher 1 Steve Sparks 74 96 30
Pitcher 2 Todd Ritchie 101 92 10
_Paul D - Tuesday, November 25 2003 @ 09:41 AM EST (#85173) #
Who knews Loaiza would pitch so well? I did okay everywhere except for Loaiza, Hampton, and Travis Lee.
_Ryan - Tuesday, November 25 2003 @ 09:45 AM EST (#85174) #
Once again they've forgotten to award the prize for best team name. I wouldn't have won it, but it would be nice if they actually did give the prize to someone at least once every few years.

My team finished 532nd out of 927 players. My strategy was just to pick guys who stunk last year and hope they stink two years in a row. These guys would have had an ESPN of 655 last year, but this year the best they could muster was 327.

Weapons of Mass Destitution
Catcher - Mike Matheny
First Base - Jeff Conine
Second Base - Pokey Reese
Third Base - Vinny Castilla
Shortstop - Cesar Izturis
Left Field - Rondell White
Center Field - Doug Glanville
Right Field - Mike Tucker
Pitcher 1 - Chan Ho Park
Pitcher 2 - Vic Zambrano
_S.K. - Tuesday, November 25 2003 @ 10:43 AM EST (#85175) #
My team was shockingly productive (in the baseball sense) and very disappointing (in the HACKING MASS sense). We finished 831st out of 927 teams, which is really amazing when you consider that I probably finished behind some people who were TRYING to lose =)
Guys who killed me:
JT Snow (-1)
Vinny Castilla (16)
Rey Ordonez (-1!!)
Jose Contreras (-16)
My most valuable players:
Einer Diaz (59)
Jaun Pierre (49)
Gene Kingsale (36)

You know, Jaun Pierre finished 10th in NL MVP voting.
_Harry Heatherin - Tuesday, November 25 2003 @ 01:12 PM EST (#85176) #
I finished middle of the pack 453/927 ...

HogTownHarry (Doug Flynn's Children):

C - Einar Diaz (59)
1B - Fred McGriff (17)
2B - Pokey Reese (32)
3B - Fernando Tatis (50)
SS - Rey Ordonez (-1)
LF - BJ Surhoff (17)
CF - Juan Pierre (49)
RF - Ben Grieve (17)
P1 - Jeremy Bonderman (83)
P2 - Steve Parris (31)
TOTAL - 354

Sigh. If not for Rey "Juice" Ordonez, at least I would have had all plus-contributors. Bring on HM 2004!
_Graham Hudson - Tuesday, November 25 2003 @ 02:45 PM EST (#85177) #
I finished in the middle of the pack (549th) but I figured out what the top "undrafted" team would be:

C : Paul Lo Duca (55)
1B: Scott Hatteberg (47)
2B: Brian Roberts (52)
3B: Lenny Harris (48)
SS: Jose Hernandez (95)
LF: Pat Burrell (52)
CF: Ryan Christenson (54)
P : Cory Lidle (111)
P : Jeff Weaver (105)
--------------------------
Total Score: 691

That team would have finished first in the standings, beating the best user chosen team 49 points.

This is almost always the case in ANY pool of ANY kind (best of undrafted beats every drafted team), except when you are dealing with multi-thousands of entries.
_bird droppings - Tuesday, November 25 2003 @ 03:31 PM EST (#85178) #
Here's a trip down memory lane.

Click on my name and take a gander at this box score and game report.

Things I noticed that may be of interest other then Frye:

1. Loaiza was on a four game win streak.

2. Cat played in the outfield... for Texas.

3. Homer Bush's batting Average.

and finally,

What happened to Chris Latham? I loved that kid and for some reason thought he was going to be a fixture in the future Jays at the time...
_Tassle - Tuesday, November 25 2003 @ 03:54 PM EST (#85179) #
Completely OT, but there's no topic anywhere near the top to post this.
Roger actually talks about TO in his retirement speech, which surprised me considering the way he left. However, love him or hate him, just having him here for 2 Cy Youngs adds immensely to Toronto's stature as a baseball city across the continent.
http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/nyy/history/clemens_retirement.jsp
_Tassle - Tuesday, November 25 2003 @ 04:04 PM EST (#85180) #
"I was rounding first and I said `What do I do, what do I do?'"
Frye said. "And (first base coach Garth Iorg) goes, `Stay here,
stay here.'"

That's quite possibly the dumbest thing I've ever heard. What are people thinking when they do stupid things like that?
Dave Till - Wednesday, November 26 2003 @ 07:04 AM EST (#85181) #
I think I had the worst finish here: I was 859th out of 927. (And, now that I think of it, I had a dumb team name too.) If it weren't for Jimmy Haynes, I might have finished in the bottom ten.

Rays, ex-Jays, and No Ways

Catcher: Mike Matheny
First Base: Sean Casey
Second Base: Fernando Vina
Third Base: Vinny Castilla
Shortstop: Rey Ordonez
Left Field: Marty Cordova
Center Field: Juan Pierre
Right Field: Raul Mondesi
Pitcher 1: Esteban Loaiza
Pitcher 2: Jimmy Haynes
_len - Wednesday, November 26 2003 @ 10:59 AM EST (#85182) #
Divide By Zero Finished 194th. The Tiger pitchers really bailed me out.

Catcher Brad Ausmus 105
First Base J.T. Snow -1
Second Base Rey Sanchez 84
Third Base Vinny Castilla 16
Shortstop Rey Ordonez -1
Left Field Roger Cedeno 54
Center Field Rocco Baldelli -5
Right Field Jeromy Burnitz 8
Pitcher 1 Jeremy Bonderman 83
Pitcher 2 Adam Bernero 82
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