Sunday Night Football

Monica and I were up in Green Bay for the Bears v. Packers last night (her comments here). After a really great looking start the game went south in a big hurry. Obviously the outcome was far from desirable but the way it was reached was much worse. The Bears really didn't look good, but the Packers looked much worse - turning the ball over repeatedly and always finding a way to be penalized at the absolute wrong time.

Anyway, despite our poor play: this one falls squarely on my shoulders. I have to accept responsibility for the loss.... A few years ago I drafted Ahman Green and Javon Walker in the first two rounds of my fantasy football league. Both of them promptly were injured and missed the majority/all of the season. I then decided never again to have a Packer on my fantasy football team... until last week when I picked up rookie James Jones. While Jones hasn't been injured (yet), he fumbled twice early in the Packers game - mistakes that had a very large impact on the outcome of the game.

So... my bad. I'll be releasing him shortly so we can get back to normal next week against the Redskins.

Deuces Wild

If you don't remember the "Deuces Wild" league from last year (here and here): The idea is that there's 15 guys - each get 2 baseball teams. Whoever ends up with the most wins when those two teams are combined - wins.

Very simple and low maintenance.

I'm not as crazy about my teams as I was last year but I think I turned out pretty well. I had the WhiteSox listed at #5 on my list so getting them at #9 was great. I also had Detroit listed at #6... so I did debate taking them when they were still on the board as well.

For my second pick: I had the Marlins #22 on my list and sure enough my top 21 teams were all taken. Not a disappointment though - the Marlins are always a team that's ready to surprise people which is exactly what you're hoping for that late in a draft like this.

Here's the whole list (mine in red).

1. New York Mets
2. New York Yankees
3. Boston Red Sox
4. St. Louis Cardinals
5. Cleveland Indians
6. Minnesota Twins
7. Los Angeles Dodgers
8. Los Angeles Angels
9. Chicago White Sox
10. Detroit Tigers
11. Philadelphia Phillies
12. Milwaukee Brewers
13. Chicago Cubs
14. Toronto Blue Jays
15. Oakland Athletics
16. San Diego Padres
17. Arizona Diamondbacks
18. Atlanta Braves
19. Texas Rangers
20. San Francisco Giants
21. Houston Astros
22. Florida Marlins
23. Cincinnati Reds
24. Seattle Mariners
25. Colorado Rockies
26. Pittsburgh Pirates
27. Baltimore Orioles
28. Kansas City Royals
29. Tampa Bay Devil Rays
30. Washington Nationals

Fantasy Baseball

Yes, the moment everyone who reads this blog has been waiting for: fantasy baseball season. At last you can hear more about your favorite topic - fake baseball.

We held our draft yesterday in Chicago and I'm quite happy with my team this year:


Starting Pitchers:
John Lackey
Jason Schmidt
Barry Zito
Josh Beckett
Doug Davis
Bartolo Colon
Noah Lowry

Relief Pitchers:
Octavio Dotel
Fernando Rodney
Mike Gonzalez
Jonathan Broxton
David Weathers

Starters:
C - Joe Mauer
1B - Albert Pujols
2B - Jeff Kent
3B - Hank Blalock
SS - Orlando Cabrera
OF - Lance Berkman
OF - Manny Ramirez
OF - Raul Ibanez
OF - Torii Hunter
Util - Richie Sexson

Backups:
1B/2B/3B/SS - Rich Aurillia
3B - Eric Chavez
1B - Nick Johnson

I'm very happy with my offense. I had the first pick and took the obvious choice: Pujols. After that I was pleasantly surprised to find Lance Berkman still on the board when I had my turn again at pick #24 and very surprised to still find Manny Ramirez at that point. I was later able to land three more 30HR 100RBI guys as well as getting a great deal on Joe Mauer. I hadn't been targetting one of the best catchers (as Mauer is) but he was on the board at a point that I felt was a full 20 picks too late and I just had to go for it.

I was also able to land 5 pitchers with more than 150Ks. I slightly overpaid for John Lackey - but not too bad. Zito I definitely overpaid for him but I really like him coming into his first year in the NL - I really didn't want to miss out while trying to make him into a "good deal".

My bullpen is probably my weak spot but to be honest: that's exactly where I wanted my weak spot to be. I've been burned several years in a row by taking a high priced closer only to have him fall way way short - not happening this year!

Catching Up

It's been a while since I've posted. Let's see... what have you all been missing?

Last weekend was Matt and Amber's wedding. Everything (from my perspective) went off very well - it was a gorgeous day for an outside wedding - the food, band, and company were great as well. In addition to our common Madison friends I got to see a few friends that I had met, worked with, and in one case last seen at UWW tennis camp some 8 years ago (*side note: 8-9 YEARS AGO!?!). The day was great and Monnie and I are very happy for the two of them!

The big news with the Fox's is that Steph will be taking over the lead posting role on their blog. This could very well mean that we see more than a post a month over there! ...not that I have much footing for a complaint lately. Oh, they also had a baby.

Monnie is doing well and is really enjoying her new blog on madison.com, Nutritilicious. There's nothing better for a blog than comments so make sure to leave one over there - even if it's just "man that food looks good"!

Last Friday we had a great time at the Brewers game with both sets of parents. Of course, the Brewers continued their losing ways -- but it was a fun time none the less and really a pretty good game... just the wrong guys coming out on top.

The fantasy baseball playoffs have started. I am coming into it with a fairly strong team but it's not looking good in the first few days of the week-long first round. Fantasy football has started up just in time to relieve baseball. I am pretty happy with my draft, so we'll just hope I can improve on a dismal last season.

Tons of birthdays this month. Happy Birthday to Matt (couple days ago), Marni (today), Aly (tomorrow), Claire (Friday), Me (not for a couple weeks), and Sheila (not for a couple days after mine). It sure seems like I'm missing a couple still too! Who is it? (and sorry!)

Well, that's probably about enough for now - looking forward to Gerrard and Karen's wedding over in Milwaukee this weekend!

Deuces Wild II

Back in March, I had posted about an "electronic baseball league" (I can't think of a better 3 words to describe it) called Deuces Wild. If you want to recall the rules you can check out the other post but assuming you just want the synopsis: 15 guys get 2 teams each: add the total wins of your 2 teams and whoever has the most wins. Pretty simple really.

Anyway, in the original draft I had the Red Sox and the Tigers which I was quite happy with. As it turned out: I should have been. Both teams are in first in very tough divisions and I've got a pretty healthy lead in our competition.

So, the other day we had our mid-point draft. Last year we learned that in something like this you really need to re-draft at the halfway point. Otherwise, someone can get two terrible teams and have an entire season of no fun. This way everyone at least has a chance to get back into it.

First, let's go back to what I said after the first one:

The worst picks in my mind were the Mets (3), Cubs (13), and Giants (15). The Mets clearly taking the cake as the consensus "what the heck was that?" pick of the draft. Best picks, I have to like Bos (9) as the biggest steal. Twins (19) is also a pretty good one, I think.

It seems that I was mostly right... The Cubs and Giants were too high. Boston was the almost the biggest steal - luckily for me the Tigers (BY FAR) were the biggest steal of the draft... the Twins were a pretty good one as well. Where I really missed the boat was rating the Mets as the worst pick of the draft. They came into the midway point with the 4th best record in baseball - better than the #1 pick Yankees.

Now on to the midseason results:

My picks in green

Well, this time the draft went like this:
1 Chicago White Sox
2 New York Mets
3 Boston Red Sox
4 Detroit Tigers
5 Houston Astros
6 New York Yankees
7 Toronto Blue Jays
8 St. Louis Cardinals
9 Los Angeles Dodgers
10Minnesota Twins
11 Cincinnati Reds
12 Milwaukee Brewers
13 Oakland A's
14 Texas Rangers
15 San Diego Padres
16 Los Angeles Angels
17 Colorado Rockies
18 San Francisco Giants
19 Philadelphia Phillies
20 Seattle Mariners
21 Cleveland Indians
22 Arizona Diamondbacks
23 Atlanta Braves
24 Florida Marlins
25 Washington Nationals
26 Baltimore Orioles
27 Tampa Bay Devil Rays
28 Chicago Cubs
29 Pittsburgh Pirates
30 Kansas City Royals

Again, I am very happy with my picks. The Cardinals at #8 is better than I was hoping for. The Braves at #23 is a pick I really like too. To me they're a team with a lot of upside and a chance to really have a great second half. They won't be looking to trade any of their big names and are really only a couple of young relievers stepping it up away from making a nice run. Of course, they could really stink it up too, but when you're picking a team this low... you're not going to get a sure thing.

My best/worst picks this time?

I think this draft went pretty well along the lines that I am thinking on. There are a bunch that I'm not a huge fan of but aren't way off either: Mets (again) at #2, Tigers at #4, Reds at #11, and the Rockies (even at #17). After looking at the list a bit more though, I have to say the one I disagree most with though is (sorry Geer): the Astros at #5. Other than my man-crush on Lance Berkman, I really don't think they have what it takes to be #5.

The best picks? Of course mine are always the ones that are perfect, but other than myself I 'll go with the Twins at #10, Mariners #20, and the Orioles (Geer redeems himself) at #26. As for the steal of this draft... this really pains me to say... The Cubs at #28. I'm certainly not predicting great things for the Cubs but they _will_ be #20 or better in the second half.

Deuces Wild

When it rains it poors - 3 blog postings in 30 minutes... now I can take another week off from updating this bloody thing!

Tonight was the draft for our 'dueces wild' baseball league. The name eludes to a league with 15 participants, each of whom has 2 major league baseball teams. For the most part this is a very obvious game of: what team has the most wins. There are a couple small twists but for the most part: that's it.

I can't quite believe that I got the RedSox at #9. I actually had them #1 on my list - now, I would be the first to admit that had I had the first pick: I might have put a little more thought into who really should be #1, but it definitely shows you that I was NOT expecting them to be still on the board at #9! The rankings I saw beforehand had them at: CBS (5), FOX (1), ESPN (6), USA-TODAY (5).

I was also actually very happy to get the Tigers with my second pick. I had them at #20 on my board and got them at the #22 pick.

The worst picks in my mind were the Mets (3), Cubs (13), and Giants (15). The Mets clearly taking the cake as the consensus "what the heck was that?" pick of the draft.

Best picks, I have to like Bos (9) as the biggest steal. Twins (19) is also a pretty good one, I think.

Color coded picks: Jim, Hobber, Geer

So, without further ado; The order of teams picked
1 New York Yankees
2 Chicago White Sox
3 New York Mets
4 St. Louis Cardinals
5 Atlanta Braves
6 Oakland A's
7 Cleveland Indians
8 Los Angeles Angels
9 Boston Red Sox
10 Milwaukee Brewers
11 Texas Rangers
12 Toronto Blue Jays
13 Chicago Cubs
14 Los Angeles Dodgers
15 San Francisco Giants
16 Philadelphia Phillies
17 Houston Astros
18 Baltimore Orioles
19 Minnesota Twins
20 San Diego Padres
21 Seattle Mariners
22 Detroit Tigers
23 Pittsburgh Pirates
24 Washington Nationals
25 Tampa Bay Devil Rays
26 Cincinatti Reds
27 Arizona Diamondbacks
28 Colorado Rockies
29 Florida Marlins
30 Kansas City Royals

Fantasy Baseball Begins

The fantasy baseball season is underway and I'd have to give my draft a... C. It's probably the worst draft that I've had since my first year in the league. Of course, the draft isn't everything. Like everything, a large amount of luck is involved. Last year I felt like I had a pretty good draft - a couple months and 4 or 5 key injuries later... I was off to the worst season in fantasy baseball history (or at least it had to be close!).

Anyway, I really am going to try to avoid picking for anyone but myself next year. It just makes it a whole lot harder to keep up when not only are you making your own picks, but also trying to cross off names and make choices for a 2nd team. That said though: I am very glad that Kevin/Chad joined the league on literally the last day before the draft to round out our desired field of 12. So, given the short notice they had it was completely understandable that they couldn't make it - and picking for two was definitely worth it to get them into the league.

What went wrong:
I wasn't really able to keep track of my team to the degree that I wanted and ended up with a ridiculous number (5!) players eligible at 1B. Granted, two of them are eligible to play other positions - but still... too much. I also somehow ended up missing the fact that I don't have enough relievers. I ended up picking 3 when we need to have at least 4.

So, before the season starts I'll be trying to either trade or pick up free agents to get at least one more reliever. It would be ideal if I could trade a 1B (or maybe 2!) but we'll see how that goes.

There were the typical surprises in the draft - players being picked way sooner than you thought they should be. The biggest surprises though were regarding the players that made it DEEP into the draft or even went undrafted. The memorable ones for me:
* I picked Jorge Posada in the 16th round. I already had a catcher at that point but it was just ridiculous that he was still out there so I pulled the trigger.
* My final three picks were Matt Morris, Carl Pavano, and Craig Monroe. It's quite conceivable that 2 of those 3 guys will be in my starting lineup 75% of my season.

More Fantasy Sports

I started out the fantasy sports season with something that I like to think I know a thing or two about: baseball. The result? Well, I was just about mathematically eliminated at the all-star break. That may be a bit of an exageration, but it sure wasn't pretty!

Next I moved on to football. I definitely don't have the level of detail on football that I do on baseball but I feel like I'm pretty par for the league knowledge-wise. The result: 3-10. Ouch.

Now on to basketball. NBA basketball is something I know incredibly little about. I loved it in High School but haven't really followed it much since. Basically I can tell you that Detroit is unstoppable, Milwaukee is average, and Kobe and Shaq shook hands the other day. That's about the extent of my knowledge, yet somehow my team is kicking butt all over the place.

Every week you play 15 "games". 10 weeks in, I already have a 24.5 game lead on 2nd place! That's pretty crazy. Especially since I don't really know what I'm doing!

I've held off long enough

I've really been trying to avoid two things.
1. Complaining about fantasy football - I know it will only encourage my fellow participants to pick on me even more.
2. Avoid blogging about fantasy football - I know Rob will post some comment about sports not being worthwhile, much less make believe sports.

but since I know deep down you all really care...

League 1 consists of my brother Mike's immediate family. So, his (our) parents and sibling, Sheila's parents and sibling, and significant others.

In this league the 'SuperAwesomers' are a less than super awesome 2-3. I have a big matchup this coming weekend with the 'Brussels Sprouts', under the expert management of Sheila. My players have been really getting psyched up for the weekend already. They've been taking a lot of heat from the fantasy press; anything less than a win will be completely unacceptable this weekend and they know it. I'm sure they'll show up ready to play.

League 2 consists of a bunch (20) of my "friends".

In this league the "Yellow Snow" have struggled out of the gates to a 0-5 start. Something about this team makes the competition really step up their game. The weekly ranks of my opponents thus far (in total points) have been (respectively):
Week1: 1st (his highest single week point total)
Week2: 3rd (his 2nd highest)
Week3: 2nd (his highest)
Week4: 3rd (her highest)
Week5: 1st (his 2nd highest)

So, I think maybe I should change my business model a little bit and instead of trying to actually win games: maybe I should charge people to play me! I mean, it's pretty much guaranteeing them a great week!

Last but certainly not least is the coveted Halby. This is the Halberg family pickem league. Everyone picks every game, every week and all that matters is Wins and Losses. This league ends with the winners name added to the coveted 'Halby' - a traveling trophy.

Here I'm a middle-of-the-pack 11 of 18. 6 wins out of first and 14 wins better than last. Uncle Randy is out of front with Monnie, Mike, and Uncle Keith only one game out of first! Rest assured that on our trip to Vegas in November: Monica will be the one picking all the games to bet on in the SportsBook while I play the penny slots!