Week Nineteen

Okay, here's the deal. 4 Weeks left, and I have the 6th and final playoff spot. We don't need to talk about how 4 weeks ago I was in first in my division, and now I'm in 4th (thanks Hafner, Bonderman, F. Cordero, Sheffield, Furcal, Piazza, etc.). Bottom line is, if I can hold off the 7th place team, I'll make the playoffs.

This week, I played the 5th seed, the team just ahead of me in my division. I went into the week looking to move up and gain some ground. As the first paragraph of this blog will tell you, I didn't accomplish that goal.

Before we get started, let's talk about Khalil Greene for a moment. And no, I'm not referring to how someone with that name is inexplicably a white guy.
Greene in Week 15: 2-12, .647 OPS
Greene in Week 16: 5-27, .474 OPS
Greene in Week 17: 5-23, .535 OPS
Greene in Week 18: 4-25, .502 OPS
Greene in Week 19: 10-25, 1.185 OPS (2 HR, 7RBI, 1 Steal - why not?)

I bring this up because my opponent has Greene and sure enough, it was week 19. This performance was very symbolic of how this matchup went for me. He was also the beneficiary of Todd Helton's first 2-Homer game since 2005.

His offense was ridiculous. The lowest OPS on his team was Ramon Hernandez at .594, and he was the only one under .700. My team on the other hand had the following:
Bay at .511
Furcal at .472
Piazza at .399
None of which was shocking, especially given what Bay and Piazza did last week. It looks like for the entire season, Piazza had one good week (last week) and I did it on my bench.

Travis Hafner was actually having a solid week (3-10, 1 HR) until I had this phone conversation with my opponent.
Him: I can't believe Helton got hurt.
Me: Yeah, that's too bad. But since you already got two homers out of him, it's not too bad.
Him: Yeah I know, maybe my luck is turning for the worse now.
Me: Maybe.
Him: Wait, maybe not. You see Hafner just got hurt?

Hafner of course got hurt and missed the whole weekend series.

My pitching for the week was every bit as frustrating. I put up a better ERA and WHIP in 6 starts, but managed only 1 win. The least fortunate was Wandy Rodriguez (who is amazing at home, by the way) who went 15 innings, allowing only 10 hits and 2 runs but was left with 2 no-decisions. My opponent meanwhile put up an ERA well over 5 and WHIP of 1.49, but of course managed 3 wins and took the category. Now, while Joe Morgan would say his team pitched better, those of us with more brains than a 9 year old know that isn't true.

I don't really know what to do with my team. I like to keep telling myself that head to head is largely luck and I am just having a very unlucky season. Luck does play a huge part of head to head leagues, after all in my oldest league, my record in the Wins category is 6-11-3 despite the fact that I have the second most Wins in the league. Anything can happen in a week.

If there is anything at all positive to take from this week, and I cant think of anything as I watch my record drop further under .500 it's the performance of JD Drew, who is finally showing signs of breaking out of his season long slump. We all know he isn't a .250 hitter, so the law of averages says he should be over .300 from here on out. This week he went a robust 11-20.

Looking ahead

I've got another inter-divisional match up, and while I'd love to gain some ground, I know that really I'm just treading water and hoping that they douchebag with the 7th best record doesn't have a great week.

I'm also going to do something next week that I haven't done all year in this league. I'm going to bench Travis Hafner. He's questionable right now and his team only has 5 games to begin with. So the problem for me is who do I give his spot to? The struggling Sheffield, or the newly acquired Raul Ibanez, who's coming off a 5 homer week and swinging a hot stick. If I use my head, it will be Ibanez, if I don't, it will be Sheffield.

Also, I've had it with Furcal's struggling bat. I'm replacing him for the week with the hot Felipe Lopez, who's coming off an 8RBI week and has shown a little more speed that Furcal has lately.