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Best Finish in Years - August 26, 2008
Well, my First place status in my Rotisserie baseball league didn't last long. But that was expected.
It looks to me like I'll end up in 2nd place. There is limited upside movement for me and limited downside for the team (the hated Hackers) ahead of me. It's not impossible. Wins and Saves are categories where I can gain a couple of points, but my pitching will have to really be great over the last month to get there. ERA and Ratio are also areas for improvement but I'd have to get a 2.25 era and a 1.06 ratio for the month to make up ground.
I won't be unhappy with 2nd place. It's been a long time since I've seen any ROI in baseball. This years transaction fees seem higher than normal, so the payout should be good.
Still, first place would be awesome....
This has never happened before... - August 06, 2008
...so I have to document it while it is still true.
The SkidMarks (my Roto baseball team) are in First Place!
At least for today.
My ERA is 456.92 - Hey Coach, I don't want to pitch anymore. - April 18, 2008
A Japanese high school team was losing 66-0 with 1 out in the second inning before somebody noticed that the game might not be fun anymore. That might be embarrassing for the kids and the team, but I'll hang the "idiot" label on the coach.
The hapless hurler had already sent down over 250 pitches, allowing 26 runs in the first inning and 40 in the second before Kawamoto asked for mercy.
He let a teenager throw 250 pitches? These days even professionals barely throw 100 pitches in a game.
Also the kid gave up 26 runs in the first inning and he runs him out to pitch the second?
Then it takes 40 more runs to cross the plate before he "asked for mercy"?
Assuming the runs weren't all home runs or walks, weren't there 8 other players on the field? Had they played the game before? With 30 guys going up to the plate, I think even my TBallers could have got three outs.
Lastly, what was the other coach thinking?
Guy should lose his job for negligence and child endangerment.
Reuters: School team hit for 66 runs in two innings
1st Practice - March 19, 2008
The weather held up this afternoon to get our first baseball practice in. All but one of the boys showed up. We got sprinkled on just a little, and there was lots of squishy ground and mud on our shoes, but I think it went well.
It looks like we've got a pretty good set of kids. All seemed attentive, and eager for the season to start. I've got just about all their names memorized except for the brothers. They are not identical twins, but I struggled keeping them straight. I think I'll be bumbling a lot this year as I've got a Jack, Jake and Josh. Then there is Blake, Ryan, Nathan, Kyle, Garrett and Sean. Nine kids total, so we won't have any bench riding this year.
Fielding should be an interesting experience - as it usually is with 7/8 year olds. I've got some real work on three boys who seem to have forgotten how to throw. But that should be fun as you can really see the improvement from the beginning to the end of the season.
Hitting wise I don't think I've got much work to do - except to get out of the way! Several of the boys hit the ball really well today. Probably two of the younger boys will need some special help - but even they hit it hard when they did get it.
The exciting thing is that I actually have another Dad on the team who has volunteered to help coach. That's great except that now I have to communicate rather than just go off the top of my head.
I think the season is going to be even more fun than last year.
Little League Time - March 14, 2008
Spring is in the air and so it is time once again for Little League baseball.
Despite my reservations, I have once again volunteered to manage two teams - T-Ball with Sara, the "Coast" for Garrett ("Coast" is 1-step above T-Ball where the coaches pitch).
I did the same thing last year, and when the season was over, I wasn't sure that I would do it again. It was a lot of work. But in the end, I had to admit I enjoyed the experience. There were good games and bad, but I think the kids had fun.
This year however, I will be enlisting more parent help - almost requiring it. I understand why more parents don't volunteer - it is a commitment of time, but it works out to about 3-4 hours per week. Since I have two teams, its 6-8 hours per week.
One of the other things I'm going to use this year is TeamSnap.com. I found this site last year towards the end of the season and wished I had seen it earlier. This year I'm not making the same mistake. It hosts the team rosters, phone numbers, files, pictures, and the game schedule.
One of the things that is really neat is the "Availability" area where players can indicate which games they are going to miss. What got me grumpy last year is when people wouldn't show up for games, requiring me to adjust the lineup on the fly. Hopefully people will use this function on the site and not forget to tell me when they will be unable to play (or maybe I forgot that they told me - whatever). This way before the game when I'm making the lineup, I can just check the site to see who's going to show up.
The other thing that I will use is the "Refreshments" function. This is where parents can volunteer to be responsible for bringing treats for the aftergame feast. I will also use this for parents to volunteer to be the base coach for a game. So my policy will be that each family needs to volunteer for "treats" for two games, and must volunteer as "parent helper" for two games. That should give me coverage for base coaches for each game.
That's the plan anyway.
Mr. Wolff, Let Me Introduce You to Portland - January 07, 2005
The effort to bring MLB to PDX was not successfull in their bid to get the Expos. Most insiders thought that was going to be a long shot, but you can't win if you don't play. We lost. Ok. Who's Next?
AP: LA developer considers buying Athletics
Wolff, the team's vice president for venue development, had been helping the team evaluate possible location alternatives available in the Bay Area for a new ballpark.
Schott has repeatedly said the only way for the small-market A's to remain viable is to get a new stadium, which commissioner Bud Selig has also said is key.
Come to Portland Mr. Wolff. Check out our city - Check out our plan for a new ballpark funded with no public funds and no initial investment from the team's ownership. The deal is ripe, and ready for the taking.
Imagine, an already good rivalry between the M's and A's enhanced by an steamy in-place rivalry between Seattle and Portland.
Good for you. Good for Portland. Good for Baseball Fans. And Good for Baseball in General.
Kidding... Right? - January 04, 2005
The team once known as the Anaheim Angels is proposing adding "Los Angeles" to their name: The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. Egads! That is awful.
Growing up in (at least the vicinity of) Southern California, they were known as the "California Angels", which I think sounds better. I could understand the change to the "Anaheim Angels", being that they needed to be branded with a geography more representative, but this new change really makes me scratch my head. According to their press release:
The Los Angeles region, which is comprised of Orange, Los Angeles, Ventura, San Bernardino, and Riverside Counties, is the second largest media market in the country. This name change will strengthen the Angels' long-term economic health by enhancing the marketability through this metropolitan area and beyond.
How? Will the gang-bangers pick up on the LA name and begin to show their Angels colors? Bloods do wear red while the Crips normally choose blue (dodger blue BTW). So this will naturally enhance the Dodger/Angel rivalry, right?
I'm sure that's just what the OC Yuppies want is some downtown bangers headin' south to OC to root, root, root for the home team.
UPDATE: Here is another nice take on the name change.
Team SkidMarks - Post Draft Self-Analysis - March 29, 2004
After a late start, and a marathon session of over 6 hours, our draft was complete. (What follows here is an analysis of my draft, more for my own personal historical perspective than interest to anybody else.) I took my theory to "not be afraid to pay for the big names" and garnered 4 top names at their respective positions.
- Javier Vazquez, P NYY, $42 - #2 pitcher for the Yankees. Should be approaching 20 wins and 200 strikeouts.
- Ichiro Suzuki, OF Sea, $35 - Another year of hitting .300+ with 30+ stolen bases on tap.
- GarySheffield, OF NYY, $35 - 30hrs, 100 Rbi's, .300 average - only risk is potential injury (he's 35 now) and switching back to the AL after playing in Atlanta the last few years may result in some struggle.
- Javy Lopez, C BAL, $26 - Question here is injury. Last year was his first in a long time being injury free and he went off for 43 homers. That is the reason of the $9 difference between him and Sheffield.
After that outburst, probably in the first hour, I was bidding, but was not successful on getting players for awhile. My once proud "most dollars available" had now been beaten to a pulp, and I was on a value quest. My next tier of drafted players goes like this:
Show the rest of the story...Roto Baseball Draft Day is Here! - March 26, 2004
Tomorrow marks my favorite day of the baseball season. For most typical baseball fans, that would be Opening Day. While that's a close 2nd for me, the America's Most Wanted Rotisserie Baseball League Draft Day is my favorite. Meeting up with the other 15 owners for the auction draft (our 14th installment) represents the best day of the baseball season, and the best thing about being in a Roto League. It's a day of trash talking, burping, farting, scratching, boasting, gluttony, and the best part, friendly verbal sparring over the merits of self-involved overpaid world class atheletes.
Seattle gets the nod this year in deference to the 7 owners who live there. Next year I'll vote for another trip to Phoenix as we did 3 years ago. Last year, the Vegas location was fun, but while being more expensive, Phoenix offers the most fun in experiencing the joy of Spring Training Baseball.
For my keepers, I went with a value strategy. As I noted back in February, keeping Soriano, Sabathia, and Ibanez were no-brainers. Of the bubble players, I kept Woodward, Contreras, and the Hasegawa and Donnelly middle reliever duo. This consumed only $68 of my $260 budget, and leaves me with $192 to draft 16 players. I violated my value strategy only with, Contreras as he is my only player with a salary above the "projected value" (20 vs 17). 15 or 16 wins for him this year is my personal expectation as he steps out of the shadows to become a dominant pitcher.
With everybody's rosters turned in, it turns out that I have the most money available of all the teams. The only problem with that is that I still have to get 16 players. However, my potential cost per player to draft is slightly above average (16 players with 192 is an average of 12/player - your basic average 260 for 23 players is only ~11 each) and better than other players in the league so I'm comfortable with my position. All it does is put just a little more pressure on me to have a good draft so I can get into one of the money positions again this year.
A smoothe drive to Seattle tommorrow morning, and then let the fun begin. Man, I love this time of year.
It's Spring - and I'm thinking about Baseball - February 12, 2004
Spring Training is about to begin, and I've begun to study my rotisserie team (The SkidMarks) for keepers - and it doesn't look good. It appears that my keeper roster will be small, which means the draft is going to have more importance than in other years. I hate when that happens. It puts lots of pressure on me to draft a good team. I thought last year would be my year to win (I ended up 4th), so I should have known this was coming.
NOTE: I realize that this entry probably has little to no interest for anybody except me. I am writing it simply to force me to think about it logically. Although if you'd like to comment, please feel free. Dialog with somebody else about my thoughts would be helpful.
Anyway, here is my list as of right now:
Definite Keepers:
| Player | Team | Salary | Pos | Projected Stats | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avg | Hr | Rbi | R | Sb | ||||
| Alfonso Soriano | Rangers | 18 | 2b | .289 | 34 | 89 | 104 | 33 |
| Raul Ibanez | Mariners | 11* | 1b, OF | .280 | 17 | 87 | 83 | 8 |
| Pitchers | W | S | SO | ERA | WHIP | |||
| C.C. Sabathia | Cle | 10 | Starter | 13 | 0 | 133 | 3.39 | 1.260 |
(includes 2 year extention through the 06 season)
That's it. 3 players that represent good value for their current contract cost.
Players on the Bubble are players who may not be a good value based on their contract, prior performance, or projections for the current year. These are the players that I am not committed to, and must figure the risk/reward equation. Sometimes I might feel the player has an upside that exceeds the current projections, or the scarcity of the position might result in an increase value for the player.
| Player | Team | Salary | Pos | Projected Stats | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Avg | Hr | Rbi | R | Sb | ||||
| Paul Konerko | White Sox | 37(12) | 1b | .265 | 25 | 84 | 64 | 0 |
| Huge price on him. While he came on well in the 2nd half, how can you tell who's going to show up this year? Plus, rumors have him or Frank Thomas being traded to the Dodgers soon. Unless he's tearing it up this Spring, AND Thomas is gone, He's not likely to remain a Skidmark. | ||||||||
| Jose Guillen | Angels | 22(19) | OF | .283 | 24 | 90 | 84 | 3 |
| 2003 was definitely a break out for him. or was it just a fluke. He showed no signs of this much power in prior years, and there seems to be no reason for it last year. He's on a good team, and the addition of Vlad might help, depending on where he will sit in the batting order. Something to watch in Spring Training. | ||||||||
| Shannon Stewart | Twins | 26(25) | OF | .308 | 14 | 71 | 95 | 9 |
| A lead off hitter with some pop, but injuries have sapped his bags. Nearly 100 runs is hard to pass up though, and I think his salary is pretty fair. Another player to watch closely this spring. | ||||||||
| Chris Woodward | BlueJays | 5(5) | SS | .260 | 9 | 50 | 51 | 1 |
| A starting shortstop with potential to reach 15 homers for $5 is his only redeeming quality. He had a horrible 2nd half in 2003 which does not bode well for him in my book. | ||||||||
| Pitchers | W | S | SO | ERA | WHIP | |||
| Bartolo Colon | Angels | 38(23) | Starter | 16 | 0 | 174 | 3.44 | 1.218 |
| Bottom line is the price. He was considered by some last year overpriced. A better team might increase the win totals from last year (15). If he could get to 20 wins and 200 K's, he might be right-priced. But considering some of the other big guns that will be in the draft this year (Schilling, Brown, Vasquez), he could be drafted for less - a risk - because top line pitchers are normally overpriced in our league. | ||||||||
| Jose Contreras | Yankees | 20(17) | Starter | 13 | 0 | 160 | 3.27 | 1.268 |
| A little on the pricey side, but he improved greatly at the end of last season , and he is on the Yankees, a perenially good team. Like Colon, this will come down to whether I want the freedom of having more money to spend in the draft, or less. | ||||||||
(number in parentheses in the salary column is the expected value)
I've also got Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Mariners, $3 and Brendan Donnelly, Angels, $1. Both are back up closers with good middle reliever stats. I should probably consider them bubble players because if looked at them in the aggregate ($4 salary, 10 wins , 10 saves, about 150 innings, a 1.5 ERA, and a 1.0 WHIP) it makes a pretty good value and a good argument for keeping. But they would occupy two spots, and I typically don't keep middle relievers. Yuck.
Show the rest of the story...
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