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

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.

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!

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.

I hear ya. Leading the lead in walks killed Bonds' overall stats.

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!

I stopped looking at box scores after everyone started getting live scoring. It was easier to run thru teams with live scoring rather then boxes.

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.

Karstens, Wakefield, or Olsen worth starting despite having their starts against good teams?

Hoffman is definitely who I should waive. I don't ened to use him this week and Percival is a FA with the same number of saves and will be back by the following week so I could always pick him up or wagner.

By the way I noticed if my starters were to do GREAT today and my hitting simpyl do DECENT, I would be as close as 5 points out. I am currently 16 out, but that is how many points could be gained even with just 1 good day.

I've done this the past couple weeks with A MSISING PLAYER since kaz matsui was outt hen my replacement of hairston was out. Now I start the coming week with hardy and weeks in and they should score a lot of runs. If Theirot would get hot I would use him instead of hardy since I need scoring and speed more than rbis.

This sis really frustrating. My guys are doing rgeat, but then the other teams keep doing great at the same time to keep me from gaining the points.

For example jimenez had a no-decision which made it where if other games go as theya re currently then 2 guys in the race will both be only 1 win behind me. AND IT WAS BECAUSE THEY HAD A CLOSER pick up a win. Both of them. So maddening. Papelbon and Jneks.

I am 20-40 k's behind 2 guys. 10 steals behind 1. barely ahead of a guy in saves then barely behind another. barely ahead and behind in homers, rbis, and runs. barely behind 4 guys in whip. 0.02 seperating us.

It's close in tons of categories where I could easily win if I am smart AND lucky. But when I keep picking good pitchers the other guys have guys dominating too. Especially that guy who got BOTH ahrden and sheets for arod which was pretty ridiculous. Both of them are unhittable.

Like I said, I should have ignored you and dealt for Webb. I tried to but I waited too late and he had pulled the deal.

Every decision is tough now...

I waived Hoffman and picked up Saunders. I may use him this week even though he only has 1 start since it's against crappy Oakland then next week he has 2 starts.

I have Arroyo for his 2 start week, but noticed he faces my already owned Cain, so unsure if I should do that and have closer to a sure win for that game or if I should dump him for wakefield or olsen and thuis have another 2 start guy. Or maybe use someone else who only gets 1 start, but maybe a more sure win than arroyo. Hmm.

And to pick someone else up I am deciding whether I should possibly waive Matsui or Swisher also as I can't use both and need more room to store pitchers.

I like that Swisher plays at baltimore and boston, 2 hood hitting parks this week. So I may keep him in then waive him after the deadline and put matsui back in... because Swisher is also very streaky and he may slump again after this week anywya.

edit: I waived matsui to pick up percival and put on my bench since he will be back soon. Now I am just deciding whether to keep arroyo in or use someone else. I really am listening to Aaron and others way too much. Matsui was the HIGHEST added player last week and Aaron pretty much implied I should drop him. I did where I could use swisher and fit percival on my bench. I may use my #4 to pick him right back up for next period and waive Swisher. Longoria may be back next week too so then I could waive mora if he gets cold.

I'll never again listen to "peavy and santana are on a higher level" comments. Both of them are destroying my chances. Santana abrely k's anyone anymore and Peavy flat out is doing bad. I am so annoyed with how he and Cain ar epitching I am done looking at the box scvores and will check it out when the games are over. They are ruining my whip and pitching terribly.

I spend all this time making decisions then they backfire. I had a STRONG feeling that Hoffman would get a win this week. Then i waived him anyway and the first DAY of the week he gets the win. So now no matter what the pitcher does that I picked up to replace him (Saunders) I am worse off.

I got no wins out of Cain or Peavy. My hitting sucked. Vlad must be hurt because he didn't pinch hit in a 1 tun game. Everything went wrong to start this week.

edit: weirdly I GAINED ground, although lost points and had a horrible day as a team. But it really hurts the team when what i need msot are wins and whip and I have cain with a bad whip day and I have no wins. And to top that off, the top guy gained a save on me even though I went with three closers this week (all three have 30+ saves).

I need to learn to relax and let things just happen and know I did my best. But if I don't pay close attention I miss free agents. But knowing my luck my free agent pickups end up bad anyway. Swisher didn't even play!

Since Chris R. Young may be back next week now... I waived weeks and picked him up even though it made my roster illegal. Now I will have tow aive him, a 2 start starter, valverde, or percival to get a second baseman back later. May even use my #4 to pick weeks back up, but I needed to hurry and pick young up and give myself time to decide who to waive.

Speed, runs, and average are the only areas I am struggling in and those are the hardest to fix. No speed which is a sure thing is abailable as a FA.

Anyway I had Arroyo and Lackey dominate and get wons. Lackey would have pitched a shutout, but gave up 1 run in the ninth.

So this week thus far I have 4 starts, all quality. I wish I had picked up Wakefield like I wanted though becuase he won.

By the way, I have been steadily 0.13 behind in e.r.a. lately and now in one day I cut the lead down to 0.05 in it after gregg imploded for that guy and I had an under 1 e.r.a..

Today I have Santana and Saunders on the hill. I wish Santana and Peavy would get dominant again. That would gain me an easy 7+ points alone if they did!

You said they and Webb are on a higher level, but look how all three are being very average. Webb got torched yesterday. Maybe good I didn't deal manny for him after all since I would have got that start and been mad.

This is fun. My 8'th post in a row with no response. lol

I just waived Saunders. i don't care that he has 2 starts next week anymore. That was the most horrible pickup I made all year. I waived Hoffman and used Saunders. I have thus far lost a Hoffman win AND a Hoffman save and meanwhile Saunders gave up SIX earned runs. After he and Santana got now ins today I am just really messed up in my quest to win that league. I am not only back to 15 and 1/2 back, but also I went from 0.04 to 0.08 behind in e.r.a. and I already was going to have a hard time gaining the whip I need and then this horrid whip happens.

I can't use only good whip starters or people will pass me in wins. I can't use only 2 start starters or I will lose ground in whip. It's going to be hard to come back now. Yesterday I gave up 2 runs in 20 innings and now today I give up 9 runs in 8 innings.

The only good news is if you combine both of those it's 11 in 28 which is good. But WHIP is where this killed me AND no wins. I have had four quality starts this week and only 2 wins out of it. Another good thing is that a bad start by the top guy hurts him much more becuase he has less innings. So even though my team had a WORSE e.r.a. today, his lost ground on me in e.r.a. since his hurt him more.

yea,sorryaboutthat.hadatonofworktodothisweekandwasntonthecomputermuch.asyoucanse

emykeyboardisbrokeandeverythingworksbutthespacebar.idontownsaundersanymorethisyea

rsoididntknowhowbadhewasdoing.iwillbegettinganewonetomorrow.especiallybadbecauseo

fthehoffmansuccess.ireallyfeelforyou.weallthisthesemomentsbutatthistimeoftheyeari

tcutsalildeeper.thisspacebarthingreallysucks.ithad tobewhenispilledthecoffee.istillhitthespacebarkeybutithasntworked.icoulduserunsi

noneleaguebutthereisshitavailabale.itdosenthelpthatankielshurtagainandmaybeplatoo

nfortherestoftheseason.igotluckygrabbingmoraforhismonsterweeklastweek.he'sslowingdownabit.ihavevictorcomingoffdltonightsoihopehecomesbackstrong.notto

muchinfoonthenetabouthimwhichisverysurprising.im9outin1cbsleaguebutcantseehowimgo

ingotgainanywherefromfa.

anyway,goodlucktoyabrother.weallneeditthistimeofyear.

I read most of that.

Anyway yeah the timing is what sucks. But the guy who made fun of Saunders' start then had Guthrie get torched even worse tonight. He gave up 13 runners in like 3 innings. lol

I'm really in a tough situation.

I am in a 4 way tie in wins. I am 20-30 k's behind 2 guys. I have the 10 in saves. So sounds easy, load up on starters, right?

Problems:

1. I am BARELY behind 4 people in whip. (about 0.02 behind)

2. I am 0.04 behind an e.r.a. point and it would be gained from the top team.

3. I have awesome closers: lidge, percival, valverde, and wilson.

So even though I have TWO closers on the bench, I sitll would prefer getting another starter in and using only 1 closer this week. But I would have to waive a good closer. Also if I load up on starters I risk e.r.a. and whip. But if I do NOT load up on them I risk wins and k's. And some owners are using no closers at all so it's hard to keep up in wins like that. But the top guy is chasing me in saves.

It's really amazing how I have done in average. I have brought my average from .258 to .276 in 8 weeks. I figured I might as well give up in average. AAnd now if I were to gain another 10 points in the final month (difficult, but look how much I just gained) I would go all the way up to the 10. I think I am a 4 at the moment.

Too bad I can't fix steals. I am 15 behind the next guy up and my only speed is guys like weeks and winn and I think that's all. LOL

Even as good as Cain has been this year I am tempted to waive him after how horrible his control is today and he did bad last start also. Most years he has bad whip. It looks like it could be time for him to start having bad whip every game. Trying to decide becuase his e.r.a. is good for the season as a whole. But I need wins and whip more than e.r.a..

Well I might as well either give up or try outrageous moves now. So far today cain, arroyo, and lackey have all been crushed. I can't come back with starts like that so I might as well figure something out. Either use a lot of low whip guys or esle load up on tons of starters and hope I get lucky. This is too many bad starts considering I need to gain 4 points in whip and 1 in e.r.a. and this pushed me back tons from doing that.

I figured when Hoffman was brought in, this would happen. Peavy's great start ruined and even with me having 28 k's and peavy's great start, my day was a huge failure again. I had almost a 1.50 whip still and only 1 win out of 4 starts. Now I am back to 20 out when I was 12 or 12-13 out recently!

Like I said, I now have hurt mora, hurt longoria, and closers who I don't need. SO I have to waive good players I guess.

Peavy threw more pitches than this twice this very month and yet the dumb manager took him out. Hoffman gave up 2 hits, a walk, and 2 deep flyouts! I bet those hitters were happy about that bad decision. Now becuase of that one move I am 1 point lower than I would have been.

waived mora for Votto.

Votto is already picked up in my league.

Now I have to decide what to do today about Longoria and Mora both and who my replacements should be. Also deciding whether to keep marquis in ewhen he has to face oswalt and with zambrano up in the air I wonder if it could take marquis' second starta wat. I doubt it though.

Who would you use a #3 waiver pick for ina couple days, mora or longoria?

Also don't you think I just "have" to suck it up and keep all 4 clsoers since all 4 are so good and waiving would help a guy behind me? I mean WOW have you noticed Valverde now has 37 saves??? My 4 closers are lidge, valverde, wilson, and percival and the four combined have more than 130 saves! Valverde is racking them up like nuts yet I am going to ahve to bench him and put in percival since he plays for the better team and is mroe likely to continue racking them up. Also both wilson and valverde have to pitch at coors this week and I have the 10 in saves so not sure that I should use more than 2.

If I had to choose, Longoria.

Shin-Soo Choo

I waived longoria, Mora, and Perkins. In their places I used Jonathan Sanchez (huge huge risk), Iwauna, and Dukes.

After the deadline I then waived Iwaunna for Lowell. I also waived Sanchez and Marquis for Carmona and Suppan.

Now I have to decide what to do as far as picking up Longoria or Mora. Two guys are ahead of me in waivers, so I either will get 1 of the 2 back or I will get both back or I will have #1 waivers for the final month.

It just appears I am not going to ahve the luck necessary to come back. My pitchers all have done great today, yet I ahve not got any win yet out of 3 starts. And the guy right ahead of me in whip has oswalt who ahsgiven up 1 runner in 5 innings!

Now Chris Young is getting hit hard. I have used 8 starters the past 2 days, had over 50 k's, and have only ONE WIN to show for it. I am tempted to root for my team to fall apart where I can stop bothering with it. lol