Week Thirteen

Through Thursday in my keeper league, my ERA was a shade under 2.00 and my whip was just over 1.00. I was winning both, as well as BAA pretty comfortably, and looking at a nice 9-3 victory. Things were good. Then came the four horsemen of my fantasy baseball apocalypse:

• Francisco Cordero: .2 IP, 3 Hits, 3 ER, BS


• Kelvim Escobar: 4.1 IP, 10 Hits, 7 ER


• Jason Bergmann: 2 IP, 8 Hits, 6 ER


• Bob Wickman: 1.1 IP, 5 Hits, 4 ER, BS (Most of the damage here was done by none other than Migue Fucking Olivo, who homered twice of Wickman over the weekend. This guy is hitting .255 on the season, but against Wickman he's 3-3, with 2 homers, a double and 5 RBI.)

So concluded my chances of winning that week. Those two blown saves would have been nice, especially since I lost saves by 1. Only a Jeremy Bonderman win on Sunday Night Baseball saved me from a loss, and I ended my second consecutive week tied 6-6.

My main problem in this league is trying to compensate for losing Teixeira. I tried LaRoche for two weeks (one good, one horrible). I have a friend (shocking, I know) who has been insisting that I play Reggie Willits. Now, Willits is one of those players that I usually make fun of other guys for having on their team. "He never stops getting hits, stealing bases and scoring runs," is what I'm told repeatedly by this supposed friend. In theory, he sounds like a good player. So last week, I pick him and throw him in there at my Utility Spot (Hafner now qualifies at 1B). What does Willits do? Through Wednesday, he was 2-10 with 2 CS. I say through Wednesday, because that's when he got hurt and stopped playing. Out of my Utility spot, I got 2 hits. Both singles of course. Take one look at Willits and you know the only gap his balls are getting to is in Howie Kedrick's teeth. Sure enough, I lost hits by 3. I should probably consider myself lucky for getting out of there with a tie.

Good Week:

Travis Hafner showing signs that he's breaking out of it. Pronk homered 3 times last week, drove in 6 runs and posted an OPS well over 1. As the only player I drafted on all 3 of my teams I need Hafner to be Hafner so badly I can feel it.

Bad Week:
Hideki Matsui went a sterling 3-22, with a Lugo-esque .390 OPS. On a positive note for Matsui, the votes were counted, and Julian Tavarez has overtaken him for the presitigious title of "Ugliest Active Major League Baseball Player Not Named Randy Johnson."

In my longest running league, I eeked out a 7-5 win, but if not for bad luck, it could have been so much better. I lost hits by 3, and homers/RBI/K's by 1 each. Perhaps my final day decision to bench James Shields (11 K's, 2 ER) was a poor one, but ERA and WHIP were so close, I couldn't risk it. (The only reason they were close, would be Brian Fuentes, who blew 3 saves in a row and ended the week with an ERA of 27) And of course, Lincecum had to have his first good game in a month and strike out 12. A late vulture win from JJ Putz got me a point in Wins, so I guess I can't complain too much, except possibly about Bobby Abreu who had two hits all week. Maybe his eyes are too close together...

Also this week, I listened to my wife discuss for five minutes how small Kevin Gregg's nose is. To my surprise, it actually is really small. Too small for his face. Take a look before calling me gay. Then call me gay after.

I still can't pull the trigger on this proposed Manny-for-Sheffield deal. If I trade away Sheffield and Furcal, I'm basically giving up on steals, which I usually win. And for what? More HR and RBI? When Tex comes back and Hafner wakes up, I won't need more of those, will I? Besides, Furcal seems to be getting over that ankle injury and putting together some multi-hit games. I think I'm going to pass on this.

So my big dilema heading into week 14, is who to play at my utility spot in that keeper league. I recently picked up James Loney, who's been on fire. But I also noticed that Adam LaRoche is riding a 6 game hitting streak and may be starting to actually remember how to hit the ball with some authority. I don't like Loney's matchups (4 lefties, Smoltz and Hudson out of 7 games) so right now, I think I'm leaning towards LaRoche. I'm sure this will go well. Also going to go well, I appear to have gotten all that I can out of Kelly Johnson, so it's Kazuo Matsui time for good!