After a truly outstanding performance from the Hitting side of the team (.360 BA, 13 R, 20 RBI, 4 HR, 2 SB), the Rocky Coloradans are in first place in the UBL, with 69 points. Of course, on April 19th, this means squat. But they did it, even with the typical lackluster performance of the pitching staff (6.43 ERA, why are these guys even in the majors?).

Yahoo! Sports – MLB – Red Sox 12, Blue Jays 7

Looks like Boston and Toronto had a bit of a SlugFest to start the day. One of my hitters went 2 for 4 and the other went 2-2, both homers. One of my pitchers even came in and finished the game for the losing side, miraculously not giving up anything in one inning; no runs, hits, or walks. I guess Boston was a bit worn out by the ninth.

A satisfying week all around. The Hitters got their average up while the pitcher’s ERA stayed level. A look at the numbers, for the week:

HR 7; League Average; 7.4 Points 3: My guys should be hitting more HR than this.

Runs 43; LA 36; Pts 8.5: Made a good move up the charts, I expect to only improve the run totals when they start hitting more HR

RBI 42; LA 34.6; Pts 8: Another good move up the charts, many of my hitters are in a position to drive in runs.

AVG .283; LA (an average of averages?) .2567 ; Pts 4: Well, they got me above the Mendoza line. I am lucky that some other teams fell back quickly, so I was able to pick up the points.

SB 7; LA 3.6; Pts 10: I am starting to run away with this category (pun intended), but best not to get too cocky too early.

W 5; LA 3.6; Pts 10: The Win category is still tight. I overtook the Indians because they only had 2 wins for the week. Next week it could be me.

S 0; LA 2; Pts 1.5: The only reason I’m not at 1 point is because someone else didn’t get any closers either. Between the two of us we have 0 saves and the league leader has 8 in just 2 weeks.

K 50; LA 34.8; Pts 9: One advantage of having a lot of starters is that they face a more battters and have more chances to get a strikeout.

ERA 3.80; LAA 3.73; Pts 5: The drawback to having a lot of starters is that the batters have more opportunities to earn runs from them.

WHIP 1.113; LAA 1.2614; Pts 6: The Walks plus Hits per Inning Pitched is a normalized ratio which should be standardized for all pitchers. Typically, closers have the best WHIP; starters are next best and the set-up pitchers have the worst WHIP.

I have nine starts projected this week between 7 starters. One start every day; with three starts on Thursday. Two pitchers will pitch twice this week. Let’s see how many wins they eke out this week.

Of course, projections are based on standard pitcher rotation patterns. (Starters usually start every 4 or 5 days. Different managers have different rotations.) It doesn’t mean that I will actually have 9 starts to work with. Last week I had a pitcher originally projected for a Friday start who got pushed back to Sunday because of a sore elbow.

And there’s always the joy of having 2 starters starting against each other. Had that happen last week. Not projected for this week.

I have 14 hitters on my team. After the first full week of play, 8 of them are hitting at the Mendoza line (.200) or below. Only two are hitting above .300. The team batting average is .223. On the good side, it appears that 13 of the 14 hitters are playing full time so they are getting lots of At-Bats to strike-out on.

League-wise, the Rocky Coloradans are in the lower-middle of the pack. The last place in average is countered by the first place in Stolen Bases. HR, R, RBI are all in the middle. So, if my guys get on base, they can run.

Pitchers did not have a good week, but do they ever have good weeks? Ha-Ha Rhetorical question. The surest way for a pitcher to ruin his career is to get drafted by the Rocky Coloradans.

No on the roster appears to be on DL or to be sent down to the Minors or to be traded to the National League, so I don’t have to submit any roster moves this week. Also, the guys sent down last week are still down so I don’t need to reactivate anyone.

It’s too early to start making shoring up moves. I will wait another two weeks before looking for Free Agent Moves or trades.

(looks like I need to work on my HTML C&P skills)

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, my batters went 12/52, .231; 16/45, .356; and 11/45, .244. This is not good. 39/142, .272 might do later on in the season, but I need to get the team average up to about .280, or at least .275, to have a reasonable chance at the end of the season. Something is going to have to compensate for the pitching.

Thursday’s are usually a slow day in baseball. It’s normally a travel day and a lot of teams don’t have games. I only had fours teams on my roster playing, giving five hitters a chance to bat. There were 16 At-Bats between the five of them. 1 hit. A .o625 Batting Average for the day. After 5 days of the season, my staff is hitting .163. Pathetic wimps. Now I really am in last place in the league in average.

Of course, I know that by the time these guys have had 10,000 at-bats they will have at least 2,850 hits, but that’s way in the future. That’s the way averages work.

I want satisfaction now!

Let’s see how they do over the weekend. All teams should be playing Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Yahoo! Sports – MLB – White Sox 4, Indians 3

This is the sort of game that breaks your heart. My Cleveland starter pitched the first 6 innings and left with a 3-0 lead. The Cleveland closer gives up 4 runs in the top of the ninth and my starter gets nothing, except a nice ERA for the afternoon. Of course, one of my two relievers picked up the win since he finished the game after the 4 runs were scored, without allowing Cleveland to score any runs. An interesting turn of events. I bet Millwood is a bit upset with Wickman.

Something I haven’t looked at yet, what teams are my players on?

Minnesota 2H 1P
Toronto 1H 2P
Baltimore 1H 0P
Cleveland 1H 1P
Yankees 3H 1P
White Sox 3H 1P
Tampa Bay 2H 0P (on purpose)
Boston 1H 0P
Angels 0H 1P
Texas 0H 1P
Seattle 0H 1P

Seems like a fair mix, 1 TB hitter and 1 Cleveland hitter are replacements for a Toronto hitter and a Kansas City hitter. I just don’t understand why my team Batting average is below .200, even if it is only three days into the season. (At least I’m not in last place in average.) These are highly paid professionals, what, they can’t hit a ball? Later on in the season I will probably look up the salaries of my team and then start ranting about paying that much to a bunch of incompotents. But that’s later in the season.

One of the other issues with Fantasy pitchers is that they don’t produce stats every day. Starters usually only get stats every 4-5 days. The reliefers may get stats daily or maybe not. Yesterday looked good for my staff. I just wish we used “holds.”

Active Pitchers
Name Tm IP H R ER BB SO BF ERA WHIP
Randy Johnson NYY 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.00
Bartolo Colon LAA 6.7 6 1 1 4 5 28 1.34 1.49
Kevin Millwood Cle 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.00
Kenny Rogers Tex 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.00
Kyle Lohse Min 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.00
Gil Meche Sea 4.3 6 4 4 2 4 20 8.37 1.86
Justin Speier Tor 0.7 1 0 0 0 0 3 0.00 1.43
Damaso Marte CWS 0.0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.00 0.00
Gustavo Chacin Tor 5.0 3 1 1 1 3 19 1.80 0.80

Totals 16.7 16 6 6 7 12 70 3.23 1.38

Wins: BColon 1(1), GChacin 1(1)
Losses:None
Saves:None
Blown Saves:None
Holds: JSpeier 1(1)

If this works right, this link will take you to today’s UBL stats.

I think it works. I will be saving pages to be linked to as the season progresses.

To understand the overall totals, whatever team is first in a category, it gets 10 points, down to 1 point for last place. (We have 10 teams in the league.) If there is a tie, as there often is at the beginning of a season, then each tied team gets the average points for the range of points they fall in. i.e. if 1st and 2nd are tied, they each get 9.5 points ((10+9)/2). If three teams are tied for last place, they each get 2 points ((1+2+3)/3)

PS. In case anyone wonders, GANYF has something to do with rooting for anyone playing against the New York Yankees, though I don’t think it is said that politely. This is from a Red Sox aficionado who believes that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”