Week Fifteen

I always dread the first "week" after the All-Star break. I do so because it's not really a week at all. Most teams play 3 games, some play 4. This is the week most decided by luck and least by who has the better team. Anybody can have a good weekend.

Personally, I have a long history of getting fucked over this weeked. This year was a rare exception.

I have Sheffield on two of my three teams so his week went a long way toward my team's success. Over 4 games, Sheffield went 7-15, with a homer, 4 runs, 4 RBI and 4 steals. He dominated.

One of those leagues was my Yahoo league, in which I was playing the team with the League's best record. Over the 4 day week, my oponent's lowest daily team batting average was .381. He was over .400 every other day. Thankfully, it was with little power so I was able to squeek out points in HR's, RBI and Runs and we drew even at 6-6 for the week.

In my other league, my opponent and I went into Sunday tied 4-4, with all 4 ties in offensive categories. I would really come down to one day. Thankfully, and luckily, I had the good day, and won the week 10-2.

I am also beginning to sense that Kaz Matsui, despite his ability to steal bases and fuck up even the simplest of ground balls is not an everyday player. I suspect this because he doesn't play everyday. He never seems to play against lefties and if he plays a few games in a row, he'll just sit one out. This is frustrating because I need those steals.

The most important thing that happened this weekend was the return of Mark Teixeira from DL. This made Adam LaRoche expendable. I offered him for Jermaine Dye, who's been struggling and was sitting on a guy's bench. At this point, LaRoche has no real value for me because I'm not going to play him over Tex or Hafner and we have no CI spot. Basically, he's just insurance and I felt like I didn't need him. My Dye offer was rejected, and counted with LaRoche for Bay. I thought this was odd because in my opinion, Bay has the better track record. Plus, this guy had Bay in his lineup and Dye on his bench. I looked up some numbers and saw that Bay was hitting under .200 for his last month, explaining his owner's trepidation. I pulled the trigger and slotted Bay into my lineup for next week, removing Barry Bonds for good.