This is frustrating. Only 3 and 1/2 weeks left and there are plenty points I could gain to win the league. But I keep not gaining them. I have those great offensive guys like manny, pujols, vlad, dunn, teixeiera so i've got to assume I will gain the 4 homerun/rbi points whrre I only need to voercome 6 homer and 20+ rbi deficits. But I also need to gain 20+ runs, 4 guys are 1 win ahead of me, etc... I'VE GOT to start getting wins, not just starts thata re good with now in.

lol someone just picked up the current mets and rangers clsoers, so I am glad I didn't waive my closers like I considered. Although I may waive some soon where they will only be usable for 1 or 2 weeks at the most and I can fit in mroe starters.

It's a funny cat and mouse game. The guy who picked up the closers is abrely behind me in saves, but barely ahead of me in wins. So he's in a catch 22 just like I am with people barely ahead of me in wins and k's, yet also ahead of me in whip.

Votto and Blake are FAs and both are hot. But all I could do if I want them is waive Longoria yet again or Winn. Really that's it. Or Ibanez. Everyone else is better than those few.

My team is not performing how I wish it would. In 2 days I have a 13 K game by peavy and a 10 K game by santana and then neither wins.

I decide to keep percival in this week and bench valverde and valverde has 2 saves while Percival has 0 and gave up a homerun to arod.

If I make it through 2 more days without many wins happening for guys ahead of me, I may be ok. I have 7 starters going this weekend.

I am back to more than 20 points out and only have 3 weeks basically.

I would waive Winn for Votto and possibly Ibanez for Blake. Time to go with the hot hands rather then the bigger name.

True, although actually I can't. I have Teixeira and Longoria as utility guys. Which means I can only replace the two you mentioned with outfielders.

I am waiving Percival this weekend if something miraculous doesn't happen. I am mad that I kept him in and benched Valverde and then the rays don't even use him ina save opp against the Yankees. Here I go with all of the bad luck again. I am 23 and 1/2 out and even my offense such as pujols, manny, dunn are not doing good either.

I really probably should just waive Longoria. You said yourself use the hot hand now. Longoria is swinging a BROOM STICK tomorrow because he can't swing a bat still.

I really think the "use the hot hand" approach can't work though anyway. I used Dukes and Iwauna since they were both hot last week and neither has done much of anything this week. One suggestion I have is ignore cbs' advice though. I was going to use Butlet and they pretty much said to ignore his hot streak becuase he wasn't worth using and now he stayed hot this week so they cost me yet again.

Also back when Swisher had that great week, I used him the next week and then he did bad. So it looks like most players only stay hot for one week and if you wait to see signs of a hot streak, it will be over by the time he can get into your lineup.

Too bad these pitchers pitched for my two teams that have no chance. On those two teams yesterday I had a combined 7 wins, almost 60 k's, barely over 1 e.r.a., and under 1 whip. I like weekly better, but considering I am behind I wish it would be daily these last few weeks because I would have had these same starters and got tons of wins in it. lol

Now I am worried the tropical storm will rain out the game for santana sunday too.

I have several moves I am considering, but I have tow ait until after Sunday morning rolls around where people can't use my guys for this coming week.

I see a pitcher and several hitters I want. So hopefully they are sitll there when I need them. I am unsure what to do though. Looks like Winn may be cooling off. Obanez hasn't done much the past 2 days, but before then he did great every day for a weeks traight. Those two and Longoria are my only waive options for hitters and Percival pretty much is my only pitching waive possibility and he may close again soon for all I know. I also thought of picking up Bourne, but since I can't catch anyone in steals most likely, that would be a waste. Some players who are hot include votto and guillen.

True, although actually I can't. I have Teixeira and Longoria as utility guys. Which means I can only replace the two you mentioned with outfielders.

That sucks. I had that earier in the season. Yahoo has Votto OF eligible.

I wish cbs did becuase Botto homered again yesterday and now Longoria was activated today so I have nowhere to put him. I have Lowell as my thirdbaseman and after his performance yesterday he has to stay in also.

I can gain a lot of points still, but I really have no chance unless a miracle happens. I will now drop and add anyone,a s I jujst now waived cain and will soon waive more big names. My only chance is to load up with starters and hope I get lucky with great whip games and wins and k's. As it is, I am already having horrible pitching by my actual permanent starters, NOT the ones I add off FA. The ones I add are doing good. So I have to just load up apparently. I may even waive lackey now.

I've got to figure out what to do for my weekly lineup. I could use only 1 closer and gain 2 more starts by picking up anibal sanchez, padilla, bannister, or someone else. But two teams are three saves behind me.

I still see enough points to win, but they are hard. Even with a great start by sanchez AND nearly a perfect game by young, my whip STILL stayed at 1.30 without going down at all.

One of the most amazing things I have witnessed may still happen. I could get the 10 in average if I keep streaking. JUts 7 weeks ago I was batting .258 andhad the one.

I waived weeks for kelly johnson, wagner for votto and stuck him in and benched hurt longoria, and waived winna nd added rajej davis.

I badly want to use butler but I can only use him or votto, can't fir thtm both.

As hot as Butler is I'd probobly go with Votto

That's my thinking also. And my only utility guy is Teixeira and my first abseman is Pujols so yeah.... I don't have any choice other than 1. lol

Pitching choices are what have me most stumped. And I maybe should have just kept using weeks, but johnson is hot. I can't gain in steals so rajej davis is only for protection from losing a point in them. Hopefully he's enough. I may add weeks back for enxt week.

Many of my decisions are backfiring! But I was smart to waive perkins at the last minute and use sanchez. Sanchez didn't get a win, but neither did perkins and sanchez had better e.r.a., better whip (in fact a 1 whip), and I think 12 k's or close to that.

By the way since Longoria should be back Friday, I am thinkjing of waiving Votto later today. No sense keeping a hitter on the bench when I can use that area for pitchers. I would hate for someone else to pick up votto and get good stats the final 2 weeks though, but I can only fit him or longoria one or the other in for next week. Or waive Lowell. And Lowell will be too good to waive if he stays healthy. Longoria I am unsure if he will help enough with a hurt wrist or not. Maybe I should forget about longoria and use votto thatw eek also.

I may have just ruined my season with one single move. I was going to use padilla instead of valverde this week and have lidge be my only closer. Normally that would be dumb, but now that I see what horrible 2 start starters there are for nextw eek, I should have done it and then used all of my closers next week.

Now I have 10 starts and 2 closers this week. Then next week I think I could only as a max have 9 starts if I use 2 closers. I could have had 12 starts this week and 1 closer and hoped that was enough to hold on with my 10 in saves and then next week used 8 starts and 3 closers. So in the 2 weeks I would have had 20 starts and 4 closers. As it is I may only end up with 19 starts (and worse starters) and 4 closers. Or I could use 2 clsoers next week then it would have been 21 starts and 3 closers.

I am less than 20 k's from 2 points, 0.08 form an e.r.a. point, 0.03 from 5 whip points, 3 wins from 3 and 1/2 wins points, and I have the 10 in saves by 3 saves over the next two guys. They have 4 and 3 closers. So the way I have it now for this week I will be lucky to still have my 10 AND I will have 2 less starts by not using padilla.

One guy ahead of me in k's is not using many starts and the other is using many a lot of weeks.

I dunno. Tough calls all around.

edit: actually those two guys are using only 7 starts each this week. So I would need to gain close to 20 k's on them via a 3 start differencial. I could have had 5 extra starts and all but assured going ahead of them in k's because Padilla has been k'ing a lot lately.

Hopefully will be like perkins last week where padilla gets torched to rest my mind.

I am 19 and 1/2 out at the moment. Being realistic I see exactly a 19 and 1/2 point gain I think I can have even with "decent" pitching the rest of the way. So I would need to accomplish all of that AND also have him lose points somewhere else.

Carmona's start was a killer. In e.r.a. it pretty much made it where I am guessing I can't gain there now. In whip it made it where I am only expecting to gain 2 points the rest of the way wheras if I had better whip starts lately I could have gained 4. So my whip and e.r.a. the past few weeks has cost me a 4 point swing in my opinion.

I need to get a LOT of wins, a LOT of k's, do "decent" in e.r.a. and whip, hit for a high average... and that's about it if I want to have a chance. I need my offense to gain all the points it can.

Not much chance.

Wow. As if things couldn't get worse, now Guthrie was scratched. Also guys like santana and lackey are set for 2 start weeks the final week and obviously that won't happen, so I am going to be stuck with no aces having any more two start weeks really.

Also now suddenly teams ahve almost caught me in e.r.a. because of my bad starts I have had while trying to gain in k's and wins! I wish I had started working harder earlier in the season and then I wouldn't be desperate for wins and k's and could be selective in starter selection.

Add Suppan to my list of bust starts. My only option is going to have to be to keep loading up though and hope I get lucky and make up for these. They are pushing me way behind in pitching, but I have no choice when so far down in k's and wins.

I think it's to the point where I will need to use no-name guys and load on those starts. I mean why not try to assure at least getting a 3 point swing in k's and POSSIBLY find a way to gain 5-8 points in wins/whip by luck? Not much to lose at this point. If I sit here and play it conservatively and use only low risk starters I am done. Can't get much worse than my starters have been doing. Maybe if I use 14-18 starts the final 2 weeks I can pull out some points and get lucky. Unfortunately it would mean using guys against great teams or else using guys you've never heard of.

Ouch.

Yea at this point you do what you have to. Taking chances is better then nothing. My cbs teams are done so im just taking 2 start pitchers so I can impact the standings hopefully.

Well remember I was going to use Padilla? He is the ONE GUY who did do good and I couldn't use him becasue I couldn't fit him. I opted for leaving carmona, guthrie, suppan, and valverde in over him. Two of those three starters did poorly, one didn't pitch and may not pitch at all this week, and then Valverde has been good as always. If I had it to rethink I dunno that I could have done it much differently though. Carmona had eben good lately. Guthrie has great season stats. Valverde is SCALDING. Suppan also had been hot.

In fact Suppan and Carmona EACH had leads in the sixth inning, I believe, or close to it... and then they both fell apart late to change great starts into duds.

When it rains, it pours. Lackey won't pitch this week. When I desperately need k's and wins. I may have to use the no-names like I said because clinching teams are going to not be using their starters much. This shows how bad cbs' and your strategies both are to not draft pitching in the beginning.

Votto k'd every time at-bat today. I may waive him now and use Longoria in his place.

edit: the guy in first place is already bragging that his team is betetr than mine and that I only "had a 2 month storm" while the "other 6 did it all year long". Funny considering there are not 6 people ahead of me, there are 4 ahead of me (and two by only 1-3 points). His team is ugly. And today it hit under .150 with no homers, no wins, no saves, a 6.50 e.r.a., a 1.50+ whip, etc. Nice timing for him to brag about his team. Now I want to win even more badly. Valverde notched another save so I am actually further ahead than at the beginning of the week despite only using 2 closers to his 4. I've got to try something drastic here to try to beat him.

edit again: After he posted that comment claiming my team sucked yet again... I then got 2 manny homers and 2 kelly johnson homers and I gained in avearge to almst catch him there.

As I look, I am only 2 wins behind gaining 4 points and like 20 k's from gaining 3 there. Hard to figure out how to get the wins and k's I need though.

Mora is back and I picked him up.

Having hitters on the bench is the LAST thing to do this time of year. So out of Mora, Lowell, Longoria, and Votto I have to waive 2. Which two would you waive.

I'm sure you will agree it is very close to a tossup. Votto is no l,longer hot, but he is at home at that good park next week. Longoria will be back, but with a weak wrist. Mora is back, but with a weak hamstring (but had a deep rbi double last night), and Lowell is in a good lineup of a team trying to make the playoffs.

I already have Teixeira in at utility. If I could waive him I would maybe even waive him at some point since the angels will rest him probably. CBS really needs to make vlad undroppable too as it gets close to the final week!

At this point I think I am 15 and 1/2 points out. I am still barely ahead in saves and then several wins from several points there. I really can't gain in whip unless I use a ton of starters and get lucky becuase a few good starts is not enough to affect whip this late in the season. A lot of starts would make it more likely to get k's and wins also.

Sucks that the HOU games are postponed becuase I need those valverde saves to be sure I can be ok without many closers.

I don't see how I will win, but it still is not impossible. My offense will gain about half the points I need if it keeps hitting how it is and othwer teams do bad. So that leaves 8-10 pitching points I need to find a way to gain.

CBS is HORRIBLE every year at keeping up to date news at the end of baseball seasons.

They say "Pedro to start Saturday" THEN THEY STILL LIST HIM as starting twice next week! They also kept listing other starters as starting early nextw eek who aren't. And they said Verlander starts Sunday, yet they still have him slated to start Wednesday next week!

And by the way my great luck continues. This week I had TWO starters not picth a single game. I used Lackey and Guthrie who were CLAIMED to have three starts between them. They ended up ahving zero. To top that off ONCE AGAIN Peavy lost. I so will nevere draft him or trade for him again unless he switches to a new team that can score runs for him.

I am running out of time, fifteen points back, and not many options. And it is much worse when I don't know who will start twice next week. Six rainouts Friday makes it even MORE unclear on rotations.

Hopeless. Carmona again getting clobbered and Santana is winning, but a horrible whip for him too. Nothing goes right so I will just have to do what I said and use no-names. But what's disappointing is that CBS is so confused on who is starting when that I won't even be able to properly select two start starters.

Also I guess I will drop votto and lowell and keep mora and longoria. Dunno.