Week Ten

To begin this week, I'd like to take a moment to illustrate how important the job of catcher really in in baseball. Tim Hudson's first start of the week was against Florida and in said start, catcher Brian McCann cost Hudson 4 earned runs. How did he do this? With two runners on and one out, Hudson struck out Dan Uggla on a foul tip. Unfortunately, McCann couldn't hang on, giving Uggla new life. Of course, Uggla promptly singled in a run. That was followed by a sac fly, an intentional walk and then a strikeout of Josh Willingham. Not one of those strikeouts that records an out, though. It was one of those the catcher lets slip by him and the batter reaches first base. Followed immediately by a two-run Aaron Boone single. Unfortunately, fantasy ERA doesn't have an asterisk for catcher fuck ups. Though it should.

Onto another favorite whipping boy of the 2007 season: The Orioles Bullpen - inparticular, Dennys Baez. In one of my leagues, I was starting Jeff Burres. Please don't ask why, but the main reason is that he qualifies as an RP and had a start against the Mariners. He left after 5.2 innings, with a 4-1 lead. A decent, and a surefire win. Enter Mr. Baez, who proceeded to author the following line:

Bottom 7th: Seattle
- J. Guillen singled to right center
- R. Ibanez walked, J. Guillen to second
- K. Johjima walked, J. Guillen to third, R. Ibanez to second

In comes Jamie Walker, who was sure to clean up the mess:

J. Vidro hit sacrifice fly to deep right, J. Guillen scored, R. Ibanez to third
- R. Ibanez scored, K. Johjima to second on wild pitch
- B. Broussard singled to first, K. Johjima to third
- Y. Betancourt singled to left, K. Johjima scored, B. Broussard to second

Not so much. 6 batters into the inning there was one out, two men still on base and my win was gone. Not really a big deal, it's not like I lost wins by ONE OR ANYTHING!

In my oldest league, I think I need to take a moment and recognize the week that Alex Rodriguez had for me: 4 homers, 7 runs, 16 RBI, 1.475 OPS and of course, 1 steal. Abreu was no slouch either, scoring 11 runs.

Sheffield had another monster week for 2 of my teams with an OPS over 1.5. He has completely redeemed himself for his first 4 weeks of the season when he seemed to be heading to the plate with his dick in his hands instead of a bat.

My hot pick-up for the week was catcher Mike Napoli, who hit over .400 and knocked in 7 runs, helping my team overcome another disappointing Travis Hafner week. Look, nobody loves this guy more than me. He's the man, and if he walked into my apartment and told me he wanted to fuck me in the ass, I really don't know if I would say "no." But I can't really pretend not to notice anymore just how unPronk-like his season has been thus far. They guy is hitting closer to .250 than .300. He's still taking walks, but here we are about halfway through June and he's still homerless for the month. The big problem here is that he's the one player I drafted on all 3 of my teams.

And one of those team ended up tied for the week and Pronk was a big reason why. Monday, I looked over my opponent's roster and did a little comparison. I almost laughed when I saw that his utility player was Shane Victorino and mine was Hafner. I expected to win the offensive stats based on that alone.

Hafner: 4-22, 4 H, 2B, 3 RBI, R, 3 BB, 0.507 OPS

Victorino: 8-31, 8 H, 2 2B, HR, RBI, 3 R, SB, BB, 0.701 OPS

Simply astounding. Hafner was outhit by SHANE VICTORINO! How the fuck is that even possible? Almost more upsetting was the fact that his team managed to have a whip of 0.767.

Looks like I missed that JD Drew turnaround week by one, as this week he homers twice and knocks in 10 runs. Granted, most of that came in one game, but hey, it still counts. Or at least, it would have counted, if I hadn't benched him...In both of my leagues where I own him...And then finished one of those weeks tied in homers....