Jason

Yeah honestly I should just do that. Especially since I mainly only care about 1 league now. But one problem with it is then you don't notice certain details. For example one year I noticed a player kept flying out "deep" in the box scores for a couple days so I had a hunch and picked him up and he exploded. I forget who. By the way although I still am 15-18 out on this league I still think it's very realistic that I could win it. For that to happen I pretty much need to choose my starters wisely each week and other than that I really don't ahve to do much of anything since my offense "should" take care of itself with all of those studs. Really the only areas people could catch me in or keep me behind them in "seems" to be all pitching categories. A bunch of us are bunched together in whip and wins. Then the top guy is only 3 saves behind me. I just need to properly balance things. I ahve 4 closers, but I have only been using 2 where I could move up in wins and k's. Since this guy is right on my tail and he has 4 closers being used, I am thinking of using three of my four again and having 1-2 less starts per week due to it. That would gain me a point in saves over the top saves guy and it would POSSIBLY hold off the league leader who is right behind me in it. But it makes it harder to gain in wins also. I probably should check out each team each week and see how many starts they will have the next week and judge accordingly whether or not I can get away with using 3 closers instead of eneding to use 2 to get extra starts. A LOT will depend on how I do later today also. I have jimenez, reyes, and looper all pitching. If I win this league I will 100% consider it my best flb accomplishment ever. I was more than 30 points out with approximately 2 months to go AND was told by the top owner I could not beat him and I was told by another owner I would be lucky to finish with 50 points. At this point I am hovering around 60 points with around 20-25 I could still gain. One thing that makes me believe I have a chance is that the top guy's team looks bad if you just look at the names. It's like that guy from our league last year who we thought couldn't possibly win becuase his team seemed to not have good players on it Yet somehow he kept staying ahead. Well this guy's team seems that way, but with his he is finally starting to slump a tad in hitting. And he has the 10 in homers so him slumping offensively makes it easier for me to catch him there. The guy with the 9 in homers dealt arod away and lost longoria to injury so he should be in trouble too. he did have 5 homers yesterday though, 2 by 2 different players and 1 by another. Guess we'll see what happens. I have about 5 weeks left though. Or actually I think we still have 6 weeks left. In that time my studs manny, pujols, teixeira, vlad, dunn should definitely gain that 12 or 13 homers I need to agin for the 10 there. And it gives me plenty of time in the other categories too. I think I have the best team currently. So that is why I feel it's legit to think I can gain the necessary points. I even have longoria on the bench for when he comes back. And I keep finding hot playes on free agency. I added matsui and he has homered a couple times this week. I picked up swisher and havent got to use him yet but he homered 4 straight games. Mora was VERY hot. So see I have hot players whoa ren't big names AND I ahve the big name sluggers. I should start destroying people in offense. Then on the pitching side I have santana, peavy, lackey, cain at the top then have to piece tgether the others... so that's a few guys I have to add and drop eachw eek unfortunately. Unless I use 3 closers, then I only have to add 2. edit: I just noticed I have all FOUR closers in and then I have longoria and swisher on the bench. I am considering picking up wakefield despite one of his starts being at NYY. Or I could pick someone else up. But anyway now I would have to decide whether to waive longoria, swisher (hot), ibanez (hot), winn (pretty hot), matsui (great average and slightly hot and i need average), or hoffman (would rather keep all 4 closers). There are some closers on free agency who are better than hoffman actually though (wheeler, capps, etc...) So maybe hoffman is who I should waive. What's interesting though is even with FOUR starters in I still ahve 9 starts. To help assure me staying ahead of top guy in saves (and gaining a point on the 10 guy in saves) I could keep all 4 closers in! But I have more to agin than that 1 point if I add another starter or two. I could add wakefield and olsen both and have a 13 start week and probably would end the week right around tied for the top of saves still. Decisions, decisions.

There's not much point in paying close attention to box scores anymore. It's really going to take luck to win. I thought I could keep using 7 starters since the only guy ahead of me in saves was only 2 up to start the week and he has only 1 closer. But now people (including the first place team) are gaining on me in saves. Meanwhile I am bunched around a ton of teams in whip, k's, and wins. So if I balance it I will lose ground everywhere. If I use a lot of one thing then I will lose ground in the other arwa. So it will be hard to come back with this situation. The top team got 3 saves today so he is now only 3 behind me himself just like that!

It's stressful watching box scores. Santana and Peavy just aren't dominant anymore like you think. They have good stats, yes. But neither gets many wins anymore and neither dominates. You rarely see those two striking out even 10, while others strike out 10, 11, 12, 13, etc... And neither has the whipe thye used to have. Santana gave up no rns today and had a whil under 1.39, but all it did was lose me ground rather than gain any because the guy ahead of me in e.r.a. has verlander giving up no runs and someone ahead of me in whip has Oswalt who has an unbelievable whip tonight despite starting out poorly. I probably should have ignored the advice of keeping Manny. Manny is just walked a lot now since he has LONEY behind him, not a great power guy. Dunn keeps being walked also due to no protection. Meanwhile I could have had Webb dominating for wins instead of a hitter who will be walked every plate appearance.

Stuck with that team the rest of the way. That has absolutely zero speed and I can gain 3 points there if I were to gain around 17 steals. I made what I think are some good offers and got IGNORED. Not even responses to them. I proposed: * ibanez for ellsbury *ibanez for taveras *dunn/vlad for sizemore/oliver *dunn/vlad for sizemore/shields *dunn/ibanez for webb/taveras *vlad/hardy/hoffman for hanley *dunn/vlad/hoffman for arod/rios *dunn/vlad/hoffman for arod/suzuki *dunn/vlad/hoffman for arod/bj upton *dunn/vlad/hoffman/ibanez/matsui for arod/upton/kazmir *vlad/hoffman for soriano *vlad/hoffman/ibanez for soriano/roberts *dunn/matsui for sizemore

.300 in 8 games and his only 2 games at home he has homered in both including a 3 runner off of Peavy. I really think I messed up listening to you this year because I traded for Peavy and Santana and neither is doing anythign worth having. And you say don't deal manny to get webb, but Manny is sucking again lately power-wise and Webb keeps winning. I am now losing ground in pitching constantly because the other guys have pitchers who keep K'ing a TON. One guy has harden, sheets, and halladay for example and those three are EASILY outperforming santana, peavy, lackey as my main three.

Man my moods go back and forth with my team. lol All the ground I lost on a couple teams the past couple days I already have gained back and I am at the moment 16 and /12 out with 5 more hitters going today and lackey pitching. Wilson just got me a win and hopefully lidge will do something today if philly is playing. So I have officially cut more than half of the deficit which was once at 34. Unfortunately, however, nobody has dealt with me yet.

Now Peavy is getting bombed. I may very well trade for Webb becuase my players such as vlad, dunn, mora, etc... are all hot so maybe I should deal Manny.

This is weird. I noticed the Red Sox signed Jason lane today and then released him. lol

Check this out. The guy with Sizemore claims he is worth two of the following (manny, dunn, vlad). TWO. Manny is about even value wiith him. If I dealt the OTHER two it would be trading him DOUBLE the power I get back in exchange for 20-25 steals gains! So that is like saying vlad or dunn is only worth a guy like pierre! Because my only gains wouod be pierre numbers! I am really frustrated wuth these crazy owners. I wonder if Olsen is worth using against ATL and NYM next week or if I should keep Harang for 1 where i will ahev him for his 2 start week the week after and he ks more if he gets back on track than olsen would. Swisher has 3 homers in his past 6 games and Cameron is hot also. So i really don't necessarily agree that replacing hitting would be harder than replacing pitching. I am trying to decide whether to forget about steals and stay where I am in them and then put players like jose lopes and jj hardy at middle infield slots to help me gain a lot of rbis for those positions or if I should stillt ry for speed and use guys like weeks and theirot at middle infield slots and trade in thatd eal for taveras and webb. Thinking of dropping matsui for swisher if matsui doesn't do something soon.

Three owners publicly said I have a "mediocre team" and can't come back and win. This with a team that could be single digits out within a week or so. And since when is it mediocre to be 1 save from the 10 in saves, be near the top of e.r.a. and whip and k's and soon to be in wins, have santana and peavy at the top of a rotation, and have pujols, teixeira, manny, vlad on offense? Then picked up longoria also.

I may have to just ignore your advice about manny. This guy who's a jerk got both sheets and harden for arod and junk and now look what sheets and harden combined for today as far as k's plus the win plus the great e.r.a. and whip. He has a 1.29 whip now and me a 1.30. He has 72 wins and I have 72 wins. I almost have to deal for webb since he got harden, sheets, and hamels ind eals. Hamels he doesn't get to count until next week.

Here go my bad decisions again Lastw eek I used kaz matsui then he got DLed and I didnt get a single at-bat from him. Then I replace him by picking up hairston and moving theiroyt to second and now hairston isnt playing tonight. It's mighty hard to come back when I add guys to repalce hurt people and then they dont even play either.

I meant in that lineup arroyo is and jimenez is for this current week and I just couldn't find a better alternative to waive him for. I offered ibanez for taveras already yesterday but he has not responded and I doubt he will do it. The only offer to me is victorino for lackey at the moment. I also offered vlad for sizemore and he has ignored that. Same guy who always says I overvalue and he is now losing kinsler for the season. Basically I could win the league if I gain right around 7 wins, 20 k's, 0.03 whip, 0.10 e.r.a., 2 saves, like 7 homers, 25 rbnis, 20-30 runs, and 0.0003 in average. So there's an idea of what I need. That would probably give me a comfortable victory. In steals nobody is going to catch me, but if I could gain 15-20 steals I could get 2 more points there. I could punt steals and not worry about those 2 points and take the 4 or whatever I have in it currently. But if I do that then I am not so sure I gain the runs I need either. I could make sure I gain those bis I guess though.

I kept trying to get Ian Kinsler and the guy claimed I was undervaluing him. Now Kinsler is probably done for the season and he could have unloaded him if he had stopped claiming that.

What do you think of this team? Would you personally deal Manny to get Webb on it? I need a few points in homers, rbis, runs, wins, whip, k's., So in otehr words I need every type of thing... so it comes down to "can I agin in power with this offense minus manny and ibanez?". And keep in mind a few of these starters are picked up only for 2 start weeks. Hitters Molina, Bengie Navarro, Dioner Pujols, Albert Theriot, Ryan Mora, Melvin Hairston, Jerry Dunn, Adam Guerrero, Vladimir Ibanez, Raul Matsui, Hideki Ramirez, Manny Teixeira, Mark Winn, Randy Pitchers Arroyo, Bronson Cain, Matt Jimenez, Ubaldo Lackey, John Lidge, Brad Peavy, Jake Santana, Johan Valverde, Jose Wilson, Brian Bench Longoria, Evan Hoffman, Trevor Also I need speed. Someone offered me victorino for lackey. How ould my team look if I ended up dealing manny/lackey/ibanez for victorino/taveras/webb? Once AGAIN listening to cbs cost me. They claimed the TB pitcher may get skipped totally due to the tropical storm, so i waived him at the deadline and didn't use him for this week and now he has dominated the angels for 5 innings so far. Every player I pick up seems to be gold now and once again I chose a wise one and I then listened to cbs and lost that valuable start.

In the past 2 weeks I had 262 k's in one league. lol I really can't decide whether to trade. In the weekly league for the past week I had 9 wins, an under 2 e.r.a., and about a 1 whip. I need a ton of wins. Thus tempting to deal manny and ibanez for webb and taveras. I have like a 3 or 4 in steals and NOT A SINGLE good base stealer in my lineup. But since I got 9 wins in a week by adding 2 start starters and having santana, peavy, lackey, cain as permanent starters I am wondering if I have enough there already and should keep Manny to move me up in rbis and runs.

In my weekly league I started the week 27 behind first and ended it 19 behind. I am considering dealing for Webb which would give me santana, peavy, and webb all on the same team while still managing to have pujols, texeira, vlad, dunn on the offensive side. Just not sure if I need Webb more than keeping Manny or not.

This is so strange. During a season they are apparently going to start using instant replay in all baseball games within the next couple weeks. So odd they decide to do this in the middle/end of a season.

Guess Aaron was abducted by aliens. Anyway guess what I did in 1 league? I keep adding and dropping like crazy each day just for the fun of it and also becuase it will hurt the big mouths who talked down my team. Well in just EIGHT days of doing this I already have 142 strikeouts. Yesterday alone I had 27.

Carlos Lee out for the season. Finally someone gets hurt that I don't own. ZXambrano got rocked on all of my teams though.

Two days ago: 64/100 Today: 63/100 76/100 81/100 84/100 76/100 72/100 65/100

I don't think I had a single homer on any team today and Peavy had ANOTHER bad start. He and Santana can't even get over .500 records yet somehow they are on a higher level than all other starters? I definitely will remember how they did this year in the futuire and not draft pitching quickly. Although my season shows how horrible it is to have bad pitching. My offenses are great and my pitching has ruined all of my teams.

Will be the new Blue Jays manager again.

Another Santana start, another day without a win. Guess you still stand by your comment that he and Peavy are above everyone else as they keep losing or getting no-decisions game after game? Wins is a category, ya know. I am destroying my chances in a league by USING santana and peavy. If I was using pitchers who could actually get a win I would be much better off than those two who are doing nothing. In fact they ahve even had some horrible starts since the ASB too where they gave up 4,5, or 6 runs.

Told you I thought cbs was dumb to say Vlad would do bad still, he is exploding now that texiera is there and getting on basde ahead of him. Also told you Heilman sucks. Immediately did horrible once Wagner was DLed. My offenses are so so so hot, but I can't buy wins and it is ruining me. In that league where I had 3 leads blown yesterday I have the 1 in wins and could not afford that.