First Half Report

Through the first half, I'd say I'm doing pretty well. Some things have gone right, and some have gone horribly, horribly wrong. It's like dating: Sometimes things just click with a girl and then other times you slow your car down just enough outside the Emergency Room to dump the over-drugged half naked chick you just video-taped yourself sodomizing out onto the sidewalk.

In this post, I will detail which is which as I break down the first three plus months of my fantasy season. I'll explain which picks clicked (Sabathia) and which picks sodomized me (Ryan). (At this point, those of you with wives, girlfriends, dogs or access to books, televisions or pornography should probably bail out)

You'll notice that several players appear on multiple teams, as I was high on some particular players going into the season and for better or worse, invested heavily in them. Some of these worked out (Escobar, Sheffield) and others have not (Harden, Drew).

CBS Sportsline Keeper League:
Record: 83-74-11
Place: 1st in Division

What Went Wrong:
I got off to a seriously slow start here, thanks mostly to the combined Aprils of
Mark Teixeira (.231 Avg, 2 HR's, 6 RBI, .341 SLUG, .686 OPS)
Gary Sheffield (.200 Avg, 2 HR's, 8 RBI, .306 SLUG, .675 OPS)
David Wright (.244 Avg, 0 HR's 6 RBI, .311 SLUG, .681 OPS)

Devastating injuries to BJ Ryan (6th Round) and Rich Harden (11th Round) hurt my pitching staff, in particularly with BAA as a category. Harden is now, for me, undraftable in the future as this is not the first year he's done this to fantasy owners. The lure of his absurd spring training stats now seems a faded memory as all I feel toward him is warm hatred.

After his lousy April, Teixeira rebounded with a great May, then got hurt in early June and rode the DL for a month, forcing me to use Adam LaRoche and Reggie Willits among others as replacements. Piazza showed no power and then got hurt after only 105 at bats and a .705 OPS. His injury left me searching for a hot bat week after week before settling on the punchless Paul LoDuca, who at least hits second sometimes and can vulture some runs and RBI.

Drafted and dropped Derek Lowe and Oliver Perez after poor starts and then watched them turn it all around on other rosters.

Traded Jeff Kent for Bronson Arroyo, who was 0-2 with a respectable ERA in the low 3's. Arroyo won his first two starts for me, then lost 6 consecutive decisions, allowing 6 or more runs in 4 of them. By then of course, he was off my team.

This led me to have trouble finding a consistent fourth starter, which in turn led to the ill advised using of Jorge Sosa, Jered Weaver, Jason Bergmann, Jeff Burress and Chuck James.

Probably shouldn't have dropped Youkilis after two weeks and definitely should never have drafted, played or even said aloud the name Solomon Torres.

Personal fantasy hero Travis Hafner failed to deliver on the promise of his 5 month season in 2006, putting up decent, but disappointing numbers for him.



What Went Right:
Jimmy Rollins carried my offense early with a huge April (.297-9-18) and continued for the most part, ending the first half with 16 HR's, 53 RBI and 71 runs.

John Smoltz and Jeremy Bonderman were a pretty consistent 1-2 pitching punch, combining for 18 wins in the first half. 21st round Pick Kelvim Escobar far exceeded expectations with 10 wins, 88 K's and a 3.18 ERA. Francisco Cordero came up huge in the bullpen with 27 saves and a 2.85 ERA.

Finally found my fourth starter in Joe Blanton and recieved a handfull of his solid first half numbers: 8-5, 3.28 ERA, 1.08 WHIP.

Sheffield went from Fantasy bust in April to Fantasy monster in May and June, hitting 16 homers and knocking in 44 runs with an OPS well north of 1.000. Oh, he even stole 7 bases.
Wright also woke up in a big way, too. Over the same two months, he chipped in 14 homers, 38 RBI, 14 Steals and an OPS just under 1.000.
Bonds provided more production than expected from the 150th overall pick, hitting 17 homers with an OPS well over 1.000.

Waiver wire gems Kelly Johnson and Kazuo Matsui performed more than admirably at 2b, with Matsui being my current starter thanks in large part to the 16 steals.


12 Team Yahoo League
Record: 95-64-9
Place: 3rd out of 12

What Went Wrong:
Like in my Keeper League, I used early picks on BJ Ryan (6th) and Rich Harden (10th). These picks did not pan out.

4 of my first 5 picks in this league had TERRIBLE Aprils:
(15th Overall) Lance Berkman - .253 Avg, 2 HR's, 11 RBI, .741 OPS
(34th Overall) Garrett Atkins - .260 Avg, 2 HR's, 13 RBI, .743 OPS
(39th Overall) Paul Konerko - .198 Avg, 3 HR's, 16 RBI, .657 OPS
(58th Overall) Gary Sheffield - .200 Avg, 2 HR's, 8 RBI, .675 OPS

Fearing a shortage of outfielders (I had 2 at the time, and only needed 3 - don't ask what I was thinking) I drafted JD Drew with the 106th overall pick. Just ahead of Dan Haren and Chris Young.

Once again, though not terrible, Hafner's first half disappointed.

Struggled to find consistency at shortstop with Orlando Cabrera and Freddie Sanchez.
Struggled to find consistency at catcher with Michael Barrett (whom I drafted a few spots ahead of Russell Martin - a "good call," among many in this draft) and Mike Napoli.

In a move I will probaby live to regret, I added Tim Lincecum and several weeks later, dropped him after 4 lackluster starts. He was immediately added by a rival, and after talk of a bullpen demotion, struck out 12 Diamondbacks in his next start.

I added Phillip Hughes in the middle of his no-hit bid and moments after clicking the "submit" button on my keyboard, I heard the announcer say that he was limping.

My team's offensive struggles lead to some early losses including a particulary brutal two week stretch in which I went 3-21.

What Went Right:
Eventually, my frigid foursome of Berkman, Atkins, Konerko and Sheffield turned it on and my offense rebounded and started crushing other teams the way it should. If I can just Hafner going, I will be unstoppable.

Taking advantage of a somewhat untended waiver wire, I was able to add lots of Brewers:
JJ Hardy stabalized me at short (and was then traded away with Papelbon for Hanley Ramirez, in an attempt to stop my consistent losing in Avg and SB)
Corey Hart replaced Drew in the outfield and then went on a 20+ game hitting streak
Ryan Braun spelled the slumping Atkins at third and now acts as valuable trade bait.
Johnny Estrada provided much needed help in Batting Average at catcher.

Despite the loss of Ryan, I owned the league's dominant bullpen with Papelbon, Francisco Cordero, Otsuka (while Gagne was out), Rafael Soriano (while Wickman was out) and the later additions of Jeremy Accardo and Matt Capps. Not only was my team 13-1-0 in saves, but the latter two additions made trading Papelbon easy to handle.

CC Sabathia (82nd Overall), Josh Beckett (130th Overall), Tim Hudson (183rd Overall) and Kelvim Escobar (207th Overall) stabilized my rotation and kept my team afloat while I waited for my offense to come around.

With my offense alive and well, I ended the first half on a 6 week winning streak, during which time my team went 51-16-5 and vaulted into 3rd place.


LongTime Yahoo League
Record:91-68-9
Place: 2nd out of 8

What Went Wrong:
Several Serious Offensive Disappointments/Bad Picks
(5th Round) Bobby Abreu - 2 HR's, .725 OPS
(6th Round) Carlos Delgado - 14 HR's, .740 OPS
(12th Round) JD Drew - 6 HR's, 33 RBI, .733 OPS
(10th Round) Bill Hall - 9 HR's, .784 OPS

26th overall pick Derrek Lee has 6 HR.

The decision to move Brett Myers from the rotation cost me my intended #4 starter but gave me a top closer who qualifies as an SP, which allowed me to start 5 closers. Then he blew out his arm.

The combined ERA's and WHIP's of Joe Borowski and Bob Wickman were deadly in some weeks, in particular those weeks when Borowski gave up 5+ runs in a 9th inning or any week when Wickman faced the Marlins.

Other injuries to Ian Kinsler, Bill Hall and (shockingly) AJ Burnett.

Missing the weekly innings minimum during the last week of the first half (by exaclty 1 out, no less) lead me to lose the week 11-1 and drop out of first place for the first time since week #2.

What Went Right:
Alex Rodriguez is a monster. There's no reason to go into the stats. We all know them. He's a beast and he anchored an offense that was also led by Travis Hafner and
23rd overall pick Matt Holliday - 122 hits, 15 HR's, 69 RBI, 56 runs, .965 OPS and
162nd overall pick Ian Kinsler - 14 HR's, 50 Runs, and 11 Steals before getting hurt.

I was a master of waiver wire, adding the following gems in the first few weeks of the season:
Brad Hawpe - 15 HR's, 60 RBI, .949 OPS
Russell Martin - 11 HR's, 60 RBI, 16 SB, .866 OPS
Johnny Peralta - 14 HR, 50 RBI, 51 Runs

Despite their struggles, Derrek Lee is second on my team with 102 hits and Abreu is second on my team with 59 runs.

My pitching staff was led by:
John Lackey - 11 Wins, 98 K's, 2.98 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 3.06 K/BB
CC Sabathia - 12 Wins, 119 K's, 3.58 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, 6.61 K/BB
Erik Bedard - 7 Wins, 149 K's, 3.40 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 4.14 K/BB
James Shields - 7 Wins, 116 K's, 3.82 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 6.11 K/BB
Tim Hudson - 8 Wins, 3.54 ERA, 1.21 WHIP

My staff was one of the best in the league, routinely winning ERA, WHIP, K/BB and Saves.

Swapped Wickman and Pudge for Putz, making my K/BB ratio even better and ridding myself of my backup catcher and a closer it's hard to watch (who were also, arguably, the fattest two people on my team).

This was the only 1 of my 3 teams on which I did NOT draft BJ Ryan and Rich Harden.