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The second week of head-to-head play in the BBFL Alomar Division was a good and lucky one for your not-so-humble correspondent. A Friday night free agent claim, dropping Kyle Farnsworth for Mike Maroth, helped secure the IP and wins categories for my Toronto Walrus, who defeated Jick’s Rays 12-0 to move into first place in the standings by the narrowest of margins.


In 2003, Geoff’s Grumpy Group finished last in the BBFL. Renamed the Horse Field Hammers, they have regrouped this year — led by Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, the Hammers whipped the K-Town Mashers 10-2 to share second place. Hannibal’s Cannibals, by virtue of an 8-4 win over Mebion Glyndwr, are also just a half-game back of top spot, along with Baird Brain, who thrashed the SABR Magicians 11-1. The Chatsworth Halos, 7-5 winners over the Moscow Rats, are fifth, a mere 1.5 games off the pace.

Red Mosquitos also had a good week, defeating Garces_not_on_roids 10-2 to move up to seventh, while AGF, with a 5-5 tie vs. the Thunderbirds, holds down the sixth spot. Last week’s co-leaders (and 2003 powerhouses) Gashouse Gorillas and Billie’s Bashers both came back to the pack somewhat this week, but we all know it's early yet, and two weeks is a meaningless sample size.

Here are the standings anyway:

 #  Team                    W-L-T    WPct   GB 
1 Toronto Walrus 18-5-1 .771 --
2 Baird Brain 18-6-0 .750 0.5
3 Horse Field Hammers 18-6-0 .750 0.5
4 hannibal's cannibals 17-5-2 .750 0.5
5 Chatsworth Halos 17-7-0 .708 1.5
6 AGF 14-8-2 .625 3.5
7 Red Mosquitos 14-10-0 .583 4.5
8 Thunderbirds 12-9-3 .563 5
9 gashouse gorillas 13-10-1 .563 5
10 Billie's Bashers 13-11-0 .542 5.5
11 Springfield Isotopes 11-12-1 .479 7
12 Eastern Shore Birds 11-13-0 .458 7.5
13 Austin Senators 9-12-3 .438 8
14 Moscow Rats 10-13-1 .438 8
15 K-Town Mashers 9-14-1 .396 9
16 Mebion Glyndwr 9-15-0 .375 9.5
17 Reykjavik Fish Candy 7-15-2 .333 10.5
18 SABR Magicians 5-18-1 .229 13
19 Garces_not_on_roids 4-20-0 .167 14.5
20 Jick's Rays 2-22-0 .083 16.5


I won't say our match could have gone either way, though it was much closer than the score indicates — the difference was .020 in AVG, .023 in OBP and .012 in SLG, to name a few categories that went down to the wire. When you sweep, the LVP is a mere footnote; still, a 2-for-19 week by Carlos Delgado (.105 SLG!) shouldn’t go unmentioned. Like every Jays fan, I’m hoping the big guy goes on a tear ASAP. Jim Thome picked up the slack with a .500/.500/.950 week, but my MVP is Billy Wagner, who won the SV category single-handed, got the decisive win on Sunday and continued to be helpful in K/BB, where he’s still Mr. Infinity, now 9/0 for the young season.

My next opponent, the Springfield Isotopes, just caged the Gorillas 8-3, so I'm expecting a very tough battle. I generally feel more confident going into those weeks when Schilling is scheduled for two starts, but this week, because I'm hoping my ace gets roughed up, I might bench him Thursday — call it a show of support for the Fighting Jays.
BBFL Week 2: I Am The Eggman | 30 comments | Create New Account
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_Moffatt - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 10:24 AM EDT (#71535) #
I finally found my PayPal password. I'll be sending out an e-mail on how you can send in your league payments shortly. Obviously, I'm not going to make your rush. :)
Craig B - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 10:25 AM EDT (#71536) #
Ridiculous. Up 7-5 going into Sunday, I lost 10-2, most categories by the narrowest of margins. Sigh. I was looking at 5th or 6th - I wound up in 16th place.

Pistol Nine are going DOWN this week. Book it.
Craig B - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 10:28 AM EDT (#71537) #
The standings from Barfield :


1 Capers 18-6-0 .750 -
2 team junior felix 15-6-3 .688 1.5
3 Good Sports 16-7-1 .688 1.5
4 Ghost Man On Third 14-8-2 .625 3
5 Freddy Beach Fracas 15-9-0 .625 3
6 Canadian wannabe 15-9-0 .625 3
7 TMG Eh's 11-9-4 .542 5
8 Edmonton Decepticons 12-12-0 .500 6
9 Ben's Men 11-12-1 .479 6.5
10 Middleclass Elitists 10-11-3 .479 6.5
11 MonkeymenCubed 10-12-2 .458 7
12 Vancouver Cyphers 11-13-0 .458 7
13 HOMER JAYS Simpsons 10-13-1 .438 7.5
14 Schroedingers Bat 10-13-1 .438 7.5
15 Pistol Nine 9-13-2 .417 8
16 Anarchist Archivists 9-13-2 .417 8
17 Slippery Pete 9-15-0 .375 9
18 The Sweaty Guys 8-15-1 .354 9.5
19 1-Tool Wonders 7-14-3 .354 9.5
20 W-A-M-C-O 7-17-0 .292 11
_Andrew Edwards - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 10:39 AM EDT (#71538) #
Standings from The Leftovers (hope this works):

 1	Ghost Man On Third	18-6-0	.750	-
2 Canadian Cripplers 16-7-1 .688 1.5
3 Matsumura Fishworks 16-7-1 .688 1.5
4 Dr. Z's Hot Men 15-7-2 .667 2
5 W-A-M-C-O 14-8-2 .625 3
6 The Mazsters 14-9-1 .604 3.5
7 Operation Shutdown 14-9-1 .604 3.5
8 Bat Splinters 12-9-3 .563 4.5
9 Quad A Prospects 13-10-1 .563 4.5
10 The Evil Twins 12-10-2 .542 5
11 Blue Jays Rejects 12-10-2 .542 5
12 Baseball North 12-11-1 .521 5.5
13 Malade dans la tete 10-13-1 .438 7.5
14 @$$kickers 10-13-1 .438 7.5
15 Bouncing Cabbages 9-14-1 .396 8.5
16 Mordecai Messengers 9-15-0 .375 9
17 Grand Slam Drunks 8-15-1 .354 9.5
18 Magic 9 7-16-1 .313 10.5
19 Burlington Robbers 4-20-0 .167 14
20 Toronto Terror 4-20-0 .167 14
_dp - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 10:52 AM EDT (#71539) #
After being absolutely miserable all last season, my offense is carrying me this year- av/ob%/slg each of these weeks has been higher than it was for any week last season- .341/.429/.526 this week. That won't last, but is nice while it does.

Gerald Laird has been on fire- .400/.474/.600, but the Silver Slugger is split between Mark Bellhorn (.429/.692!/.429), Shawn Green (.500/.591./833, 9 R), Jim Edmonds (.368/.500/.684).

On the mound, Tom Glavine pitched a great game before tweaking his arm- 7 IP, .29 WHIP, 2:1 ratio- but the Mets coughed up the lead. Cy goes to Estaban Loaiza - 2 W, 15 IP, .8 WHIP, 2:1 ratio.

Facing Mebion this week, who grabbed former Cannibal Craig Wilson in the draft. Wilson started the year qualifying at catcher, which it took him half the season to do last year, and started the year hitting/playing, whcih never happened when he was a Cannibal.

If anyone cares, Marco Scutaro is hitting .390/.385/.512 this year for the A's. While Jose Reyes is out, the Mets have played McEwing (.231/.333/.231) and Gutierrez (.171/.275/.200). Strange how the difference between a first place GM and a last place one can be exemplified by one seemingly insignificant roster choice...
Pistol - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 11:08 AM EDT (#71542) #
I was up 8-3-1 yesterday afternoon. A couple o-fers, a SB against, and a Mantei implosion and it changed to the 5-5-2 final.

Pistol Nine are going DOWN this week. Book it.

Oh, this is going up on the bulletin board!
_snellville jone - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 11:12 AM EDT (#71543) #
I feel your pain, Craig. Over in Alomar I was up 8-4 going into Saturday and wound up losing 8-3. I only had 6 innings to make up on Sunday and I was close on ERA, so I was optimistic that I could make up some ground as I had the only starter of the day, Chris Capuano. As the BBFL gods would have it, Capuano strained his leg running out a groundball in the third after pitching only two innings. I lost the IP category by 3 innings and ERA by 0.16.

Back-to-back Barry's for Michael Young as he contributes another stunning 469/.500/.625 line with 7R, 5RBI, and 2SB.
A tough choice, but Oswalt gets the Pedro for his 3H 10K shutout. Did anybody see him on the highlights? Wow.
R.A. (Runs Allowed?) Dickey's 17.56/2.57/0.33 4.2IP outing earned him a unanimous Lima, and A-Dud's .125/.222/.188 performance is setting standards that even Neifi would be embarrassed by.
_A - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 11:19 AM EDT (#71544) #
I thought my pitching was reasonable yet I was significantly beat by The Monkeymen's staff. The worst part is my hitting wasn't any better than my pitching, hence a 19/20 placing. In fact, my hitting has been so disasterous that even though Angel Berroa is on the 15-day DL with migranes, I'm considering just leaving him in there so my stats don't go down any further with a replacement. But I'm confident I can pull a Toronto Walrus next week and catapault myslef to...15th ;-)
_Cristian - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 11:48 AM EDT (#71545) #
Team DL err the Edmonton Decepticons had a horrible week as Mark Teixeira joined the walking wounded (Jason Bay, Jose Reyes, BH Kim). Now there is talk that Alex Sanchez has a groin injury. Even if he manages to stay off the DL it'll affect the team as Sanchez's only skill is the SB.

That said a 7-5 loss was sealed yesterday in one game. Hudson failing to tag Brian Roberts cost the Decepticons the SB category while my failure to start Eric Dubose cost me WHIP.

Team MVP: Carlos Beltran - .391/.517/1.130 - translated into 10 runs, 9 rbi, and 2 stolen bases.
Team Goat: So much competition for this award but it has to go to Matt Stairs. I'm too disgusted to write his numbers for the week.

Short term goal:
While rehabbing my wounded players has been the goal so far, this week will be a rousing success if I can avoid another player going on the DL.
_NDG - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 12:04 PM EDT (#71546) #
Malade dans la Tete ended the Fishworks quest for a perfect season in The Leftovers with a rousing 7-4 victory. This was quite the upset as team MdlT was 3-9 before battling Moffatt's aquatic powerhouses, but several roster modifications (well actually 13) completely reformed team MdlT into the powerhouse (heh heh) they are now.

Barry: This one was tough, as several players exceeded expectations, but the winner is Lew Ford who put up a 4-7-7-.471-.524-.771 line for the week. Of course I didn't win many offensive categories as the the real Barry plays for the Fishworks and put up a godlike 2.800 OPS for the week.

Pedro: Kris Benson for his 2 wins and 0.69 ERA

Neifi: Mike Piazza who contributed (loose definition) a 2-0-0-.211-.250-.211 line.

Lima: This one is tough as everyone contributed something except Chad Bradford with his 1.0-0-0-18.00-4.00-0.00 line.
_NDG - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 12:21 PM EDT (#71547) #
While Lew was great last week he had just one steal, not 7.
_Jordan - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 01:12 PM EDT (#71550) #
A bad week from the Magicians and a great one from Baird Brain, and that's how you lose 10-1 (it wasn't even close in most categories). Not that he would've made a great difference if healthy, but Mark Prior's absence is really bugging me. Like the Blue Jays, I can't afford to fall behind too much, even if it is early.
_Shrike - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 01:55 PM EDT (#71552) #
The Good Sports were scaring the crap out of me this past week. I don't expect to lose the steals category very often (or any offensive category for that matter as my team is all-hitting, by-the-seat-of-my-pants pitching at the moment), but when your opponent has 12 swipes by Saturday, you know you're in trouble.

Secondly, my DL situation isn't pretty. Torii Hunter, Carl Everett, Jerry Hairston, AJ Burnett, & Aaron Heilman in the minors all add up to an understaffed Cyphers squad. Here's hoping I can get my team healthy and see about re-balancing my squad in the coming weeks.
_David Armitage - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 02:15 PM EDT (#71555) #
Despite being trounced 8-1 by team junior felix, the Elitists had another mixed week of performances. This could have easily been a win against other teams, although pitching remains a sore spot with the starters not coming through.

In a league contest, the Elitists tied for 4th in Runs, 5th in RBIs, 6th in SBs, 9th in AVG, 9th in OBP, 3rd! in SLG, yet lost every category.

Bonds Several good weeks, but Jermaine Dye continues his hot start with a stellar .346/.370/.885 line with 7 runs, 8 rbis.

Pedro Tremendously uneventful week, my pity Pedro goes to Wade Miller for 7 IP, 0.00 era.

Neifi The rest of the starters and their horrible starts this week (Vazquez, L. Hernandez, Redman, J. Davis, Towers all with ERAs of 4.50 or worse)

Lima Curtis Leskanic- my closer for the time being with 1 IP, 9.00 ERA, 3.00 WHIP, blah.
_Donkit R.K. - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 04:36 PM EDT (#71557) #
go team Capers! To say the least, I'm pleasanntly surprised by my team's start as I am stinking it up in my other two Yahoo! Leagues.

Most Valuable Hitter - Jim Thome with a .500/.500/.950 line 10 hits, 6 R, and 3 RBI. Honorable Mention to one of my new favorite players (for being such a pleasant surprise on my BBFL team) Miguel Olivo who put up .462/.500/.769 with 6 hits, 4 R, 5 RBI, and 1 SB. In related news, A.J. Pierzynski is available ;-)

Most Valuable Pitcher - Tim Hudson carried a pretty terrible pitching staff to two category wins with 7.1 IP, 1 W, and a 0.00/0.82/INF line.

TRADE SPIVEY! (or bench him... whichever... just FREE GINTER!)
Gitz - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 06:12 PM EDT (#71559) #
One of the things I don't like about H2H fantasy leagues (this is my first one) is that luck plays too large a part. If you're on the other end of a Shawn-Green-like homer barrage, you've basically lost four "games" right there, whereas over the course of a full season those numbers would even out. Durable, consistent players like Bobby Abreu have less value in H2H leagues, because players like him accumulate their numbers in a slow, steady, fashion, like a nice IRA. In fantasy football it's even worse, where somebody like Corey Dillon could rip off five of his nine TDs in one game.

None of this is to excuse the 8-4, Bonds-led drubbing I got this week, however. My offense is balanced but thin, my pitching decent but not great. Can you say, "Mediocre"?
Lucas - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 06:36 PM EDT (#71560) #
H2H takes a while to get used to. There is much more short-term randomness, as every week you're starting from scratch. Sometimes you'll bat .310 and lose, sometimes you'll have a 5.00 ERA and win. H2H is akin to real baseball; even a pretty solid team like Toronto will lose 9 of 12 at some point during the season (oh, wait...).

In the long run, luck comes pretty close to evening out and the best teams win. I don't have last year's roto stats in front of me, but I'm pretty sure they tracked reasonably well with teams' won-loss records.
_R Billie - Monday, April 19 2004 @ 10:21 PM EDT (#71562) #
Ach what a bad week. Although I was neck in neck with Eastern for worst pitching ever he edged me in most categories. And he hit the heck out of the ball and got more saves...two areas where I figured to be tough to beat. I'm officially worried about Mike Mussina with not a good start out of four.
_Geoff North - Tuesday, April 20 2004 @ 02:10 PM EDT (#71563) #
Well, I can honestly say that I'm pretty surprised that my team has done so well out of the gate. I think week 1 was my team's best win week ever, and then they bested that in week 2 - frankly, I'm shocked. I wasn't terribly happy with my draft - my strategy had been to take Foulke with my first non-keeper pick, and then load up on hitting. But, stupid me confused the start time of the draft by 30 minutes and let Yahoo! pick Roger Clemens and Russ Ortiz with my 2nd and 3rd picks - good players, but I had intended to take the two best hitters available at that time. Oh well...

Barry Bonds award goes to, appropriately enough, Barry Bonds. Bonds had an absolutely dominating week, scoring 7, driving in 13, with .733 .810 2.067 in the rate categories. Six home runs in a week will do that I guess! Jacque Jones was a strong runner up, with 6 runs, 9 rbis, and a huge 4 steals, with .458 .458 .792 in the rate stats.

The neifi award goes to Orlando Cabrera - I figured him to be a solid 5th keeper, but he hasn't shown it so far. Though he did score and drive in 2, his .174 .174 .304 are ill-fitting his keeper status. Luckily for me, the rest of the team hit so well that I still managed to sweep the hitting categories.

The Pedro goes to a former Red Sox hurler, Roger Clemens. His 13.2 innings, 2 wins, and 1.32 0.73 2.50 rate stats anchored my pitching staff.

The Lima? Probably Curtis Leskanic - brought in to pick up the saves that injured Royals closer Mike MacDougal would have picked up, Leskanic was my worst pitcher last week, with a 9.00 ERA. Luckily, that was in only 1 inning of work.

All in all, I'm pleased with the balance my team has shown so far. Unlike last year, where I started off practically giving away SB and saves, I should be at least competitive in all 12 categories. That sure makes the week more interesting!

Oh, and Baird Brain? You had one amazing week for such a crapass team!

Any chance of getting the Alomar Roto stats posted?
_Jicks Rays - Tuesday, April 20 2004 @ 03:49 PM EDT (#71564) #
Back to spring traing for my whole team!! This is sooo embarrassing!!
BBFL Week 2: I Am The Eggman | 30 comments | Create New Account
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