Let's focus on the only matchup that means anything and that would be the 2-week Yahoo final round against the #6 seed in my LongTime Yahoo League. The #6 beat both #3 and #2 on his journey to the finals, so he was definitely the hot team going in. In this league, it's my last year of keeping Arod and Hafner so I'd like to go out with a bang. Besides, despite catching fire, the team I'm playing was under .500 in the regular season and since I had the best record in the league, I'd like to think the odds were in my favor.
The only roster move I made before we got started was to add John Maine (who'd recently been dropped) for a spot start in Washington. I'm just not sure how much I can expect to get out of Sabathia and Lackey, whose teams are cruising into the playoffs. Maine made 32 starts in 2007 and allowed 8 earned runs in exactly 1 (one) of those starts. Which one? You guessed it, this one.
This would have been a much bigger problem if my opponent didn't have Kelvim Escobar, who spent the last few weeks killing my other fantasy teams but finally helped me out a little here by doing to him what Maine did to me. (By the way, in his next start, Maine K'd 14 and allowed 1 hit. I didn't start him)
My opponent was carried through the playoffs primarily by the bats of Alfonso Soriano and Aramis Ramirez. It seemed like one of them was homering every day, and in many cases, they both were. Soriano hit 6 home runs alone in the last two weeks and Ramirez chipped in 3. Unfortunately for my opponent, that was more than the rest of his team combined. He got very little out of Tejada, Morneau, Dye and LaRoche and his Cinderalla story came crashing to an end. His pumpkin carriage in flames and all the horses dead.
What I'm trying to do is add a little drama to a situation that had none of its own. This battle was over very quickly, as I ended up with almost double his offensive stats in a couple of categories. My team was led all year by Arod and Holliday and during the finals, Tulowitzki, Ibanez, Derrek Lee, Corey Hart, Abreu and Khalil Greene all chipped in with at least 3 homers and double digit runs or RBI. I had 6 guys with an OPS over 1.000. It was a team effort. And nothing gave me more joy than hearing my withered and beaten opponent complaining daily about any of those guys. Usually it was Greene, whom I grabbed off the scrap heap in early September, on whom my opponent directed most of his fury. And rightly so, as Greene led my team with 6 homers.
In the end, it was a massacre.
Runs Hits HR RBI SB OPS W S K ERA WHIP K/BB
Need A Job 122 170 32 113 5 .927 12 11 86 3.67 1.22 4.10
I Laid Maddie 73 154 17 76 6 .826 6 8 105 4.89 1.45 2.44
The Final Score was 10-2 and the championship and what comes with it (bragging rights, pride, and a temporary feeling that the last 6 and a half months were not completely wasted) was mine.
There's no better feeling than beating your close friend at something, the outcome of which is largely determined by the actions of others and out of your control. It just feels good. I get a warm wave of emotion all over whenever I think about it. Which is more often than I'll admit
* * *
In my other two leagues, I emerged victorious in my battles for 3rd place. Hollow victories, if ever there were any, despite the fact that in one league, 3rd place won me $65.
And with that, the fantasy season is over. Done. Kaput. Time well spent if you ask me. Besides when I'm laying on my deathbed, what else do I want to be thinking about.
In 2 of my leagues, I have keeper decisions to make and I'll be writing about them occasionally. Not that anybody's reading this. Or missing anything if they aren't.
Good times.
