Newsletter for games of 8-22-2010

You gotta take your hat off to Washington, leading the NL East and +14 WOR.  To make things more interesting, the Braves posted a 6-1 week and moved to within 3 games….Milwaukee and Colorado, each in the thick of a divisional hunt, posted perfect weeks…The Cubs remain +5 WOR, and Jeanine Congalton did NOT retire this week…Tampa Bay and New York each refused to give ground in the AL East, and Minnesota crept closer in the AL Central…Seattle has the largest divisional lead, but went 1-5 last week; it will be fun to see if Oakland can mount a challenge…Billy Wagner and Matt Belisle had 10 and 11 strikeouts, respectively, last week, which would have been good for anyone, but they each did it pitching out of the pen and with fewer than 7 IP…Adding to the flames being thrown by the Braves, Mike Minor struck out 15 Cubs on 8/22…Eric Young and Jim Thome each had 6 RBI games…Two guys better known for their bats than their gloves robbed 3 hits in a single game last week: Albert Pujols against SEA on 8/21, and Derek Jeter (ASFBL SF) agsint the Cardinals a day earlier..Pete Orr of Washington did all he could to help the Atlanta K parade, striking out 5 times against them on 8/18…Jose Guillen and Duda Lucas each had 11 RBI last week, Guillen still for KC.

Only 22 lineups came in last week, which is higher than our historical average for this time of the year but a little lower than we’ve been getting so far…Half the fun of baseball is being the spoiler…Look for a massive expansion of low-IP and low-AB guys who can have a September impact when the call-ups happen..

We follow the MLB waiver trade deadline, so any waiver trades must be completed by next week’s deadline.  Remember that any team can block a trade by claiming the players off of waivers, and that waiver trades must be submitted to me by email.

Thanks to all for a great season so far – 5 of the 6 divisional races are closer than 5 and 1/2 games, and nobody is in the clear yet!

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Newsletter for games through 8-15

The top of the AL is showing its strength, with the Rays and Yanks posting a collective 11-2 record…the bottom of the NL central outdid them, with Cincy and Pitt going 11-1…The perfect week may have Cincy back in the race; they’re in 5th but only 4.5 back, which is closer than the 2nd-place Rockies…Neither Detroit or Minnesota could get an upper hand in the AL Central…Dennis Sarfate struck out 23 in his 2 starts for the Orioles…Luke Scott of the Rays had a 3-HR, 7-RBI day against the Orioles on the 13th…Pujols and Zimmerman each had 3-HR games…Andrew McCutchen (ARI), Matt Diaz (FLA), Tyler Colvin (CHC), and Taylor Teagarden (TE) each had 4-strikeout games…Alex Rodriguez of NYY had 6 RBI against TEX on 8/10/2010…True to real-life, the Padres bullpen has the lowest inherited-runner score percentage…Philly is 8.5 back but has the highest team power rating, which might make an interesting September…Cabrera, Hamilton, and Konerko have cracked the 100-RBI mark…Adam Wainwright has 17 wins in MLB and 17 wins in ASFBL…4 Yankees hit better than .350 last week…Felix Hernandez pitched 17 shutout innings…Minnesota has the most potent ASFBL offense, and has scored 50 more runs than the 2d-place Yankees.

Just a reminder, we don’t have roster expansion in the ASFBL.  The influx of new players might create a very active waiver wire, however.

24 teams submitted lineups this week, but 29 of 30 teams have submitted a lineup in at least 1 of the past 2 weeks.  Thanks to everyone for keeping the league so active!

Jon

Newsletter for 8-1-2010

Comments: There were an amazing 30 trades since last week, which has to be our busiest final trading week ever…Washington seized control of the NL east…Houston nudged to the front of the NL Central pack, but only by half a game, and 4 teams remain within 2.5 games of the divisional lead…Colorado went 6-1 but only gained a half game on SF…Arizona pulled off a big trade deadline deal and went 5-1…Baltimore has the misfortune of being stuck in the toughest division ever, but is the only team in the AL east with a positive WOR…The Yankees turned a 6-1 record into a tie for first in the AL East…The Angels would be in first in the AL west if not for Seattle’s incredible +24 WOR…Jason Repko of MIN had 6 RBI against KCR on 7/26/2010…Danny Valencia of MIN had 5 hits against KCR on 7/26/2010
Roy Halladay of PHI had 15 strikeouts against ARI on 7/27/2010…Yuniesky Betancourt of KCR robbed 3 hits against MIN on 7/27/2010…Matt Holliday of SEA robbed 3 hits against CWS on 7/27/2010…Delmon Young of MIN had 5 hits against KCR on 7/28/2010…Alexei Ramirez of NYY robbed 3 hits against CLE on 7/29/2010…Rajai Davis of OAK had 5 hits against CWS on 7/30/2010…Justin Morneau is 6th in the ASFBL with 82 RBI, but did it in about a hundred fewer AB than the 5 guys in front of him…Ian Stewart of Colorado scored 5 runs last week…on 5 HR…Matsuzaka allowed 13 hits in 13 IP last week, nothing to write home about, but struck out 14 and posted a 1.35 ERA on the week…

Announcements: Trades must now be submitted to me via email.  I’ll post them in this newsletter, and any team who wants can claim players and block the trade.

July is behind us…we are entering the quintessential Dog Days with 2 months left in the season…28 lineups turned in this week…Thanks to everyone for their interest!