Newsletter for games of 9-27

Ignore everything before…Atlanta clinched the NL east on the strength of a 5-1 week…The Brewers crept to within 3.5 of Houston, picking up a game this week…Colorado has cinched the NL wildcard, and with a perfect week could even challenged for the NL West title, where the Giants sit with the best ASFBL record…Tampa raced past the Yankees with a 6-1 performance, and only half a game separates the two teams…Detroit raced into a dead tie with Minnesota, picking up 2 games…Oakland and the Angels both have positive WOR and both had winning records last week, but chasing the Seattle team, one of the best WOR teams ever, is just too much…

The big stories:  Who will win the AL east and clinch the home field?  Can the Brewers pull off the miracle in the NL central?  Can either the Rays or Yanks unseat the Giants for the best ASFBL regular-season record?  And the big one:  WHO WILL WIN THE AL CENTRAL?  It’s a dead tie with 1 week to go, and no margin of error since the AL East runner-up has already sealed the wild card….

Playoff rules refresher:

• All playoff series are seven games, even the DCS. The top divisional seed will play the wildcard, unless they are in the same division, in which case the top seed will play the division winner with the lower winning percentage.
• Stats are reset for the each playoff series. The input data for each playoff series will be based on the player’s real life, regular season statistics.
• A three man rotation may be used in the playoffs; there may be an off day, in between, that the players will get credit for. There will be a fatigue adjustment for playing on three days’ rest.
• Although it’s not listed on the rules page, we alternate home and away for every game of the series with an off-day in between.  The idea is that, while not true to real-life, this schedule is the ideal that the real MLB would use if it were practical.

Good luck to all in the final week of the season!

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Newsletter for games through 9-21-2010

The races are hot, with 2 more weeks of games to play…Atlanta gave itself a little breathing room in the NL east…San Francisco seems to be a lock to take both the NL west and the NL WOR title, but San Diego posted the best record in the division and now lurks a do-able 4 games behind Colorado for the last wildcard spot…Minnesota went only 3-3 but gained 1.5 games over Detroit, thanks to the White Sox, who swept the Tigers…The Yankees gained a game on Tampa Bay to take a tenuous 2.5 game lead in the AL east, but the big news is that Boston posted a league-best 7-0 week and is a serious threat for the wild card spot…Adrian Gonzales had a monster 15 RBI this week, on the back of 7 HR…Miguel Cabrera of Detroit has a commanding 9 RBI lead in the league race, with 139…The NL HR title is a neck-and-neck affair between Gonzales and Jose Bautista of Houston, while Konerko is running away with the AL lead…There are already 4 pitchers with 20 wins, and Sabathia and Jimenez both have 19…Philly pitchers have issued the fewest fantasy walks.

FEATS AND FAILURES: Alex Rodriguez of NYY robbed 3 hits against TBR on 9/14/2010
…Kelly Johnson of BOS struck out 5 times against SEA on 9/14/2010…Felix Hernandez of SEA had 11 strikeouts against BOS on 9/15/2010…Jonathan Sanchez of TOR had 11 strikeouts against BAL on 9/15/2010…Drew Stubbs of CIN hit 3 home runs against ARI on 9/15/2010…Roy Halladay of PHI had 12 strikeouts against WAS on 9/17/2010…Rickie Weeks of TOR struck out 4 times against BOS on 9/17/2010…Roy Oswalt of SEA had 11 strikeouts against TEX on 9/17/2010…Matt Holliday of SEA had 6 RBI against TEX on 9/18/2010…Adam Lind of LAA struck out 4 times against TBR on 9/19/2010…Juan Rivera of LAA robbed 3 hits against TBR on 9/19/2010…Eric Hinske of TBR struck out 5 times against LAA on 9/19/2010…Luke Scott of TBR struck out 5 times against LAA on 9/19/2010

Newsletter for 9-15

Sorry for being late….I keep giving props to the AL East for being the premier division, but I should point out that while the Yanks and Rays do combine for 180 wins, so do San Francisco and Colorado in the NL West…Minnesota jumped in front of Detroit in the see-saw AL central, in what is shaping up as an epic race…Adam Symonds’ +30 WOR is on line to be the 4th best ASFBL performance ever, although the all-time holder of the ASFBL WOR record at +43 is also named Adam Symonds…Rick Wynne holds 2 of the top 5 WOR finishes all-time…Cincinnati crept closer in the central, thanks to their own 4-3 record and the LA Dodgers, who took 3 of 4 from Houston to open up some space.

FEATS AND FAILURES:  David Murphy of TEX hit for the cycle against TOR on 9/6/2010…Andruw Jones of CWS had 6 RBI against DET on 9/7/2010…Scott Hairston of SDP robbed 3 hits against SFG on 9/9/2010…Colby Lewis of TEX had 12 strikeouts against NYY on 9/10/2010..Jorge Posada of NYY struck out 4 times against TEX on 9/10/2010…Brandon Morrow of HOU had 12 strikeouts against LAD on 9/12/2010

Newsletter for games through 9-8

STANDING MOVEMENT:  Atlanta surged into first with a 6-1 week…Cincinnati crept closer by going 5-1, although the Astros checked in with a very respectable 4-2…The Yankees made it to first with a 5-1 week, going from half a game out to 1.5 up…Minnesota crept a game closer to Detroit in the AL central and is now only 2 back…4 divisions have races that are 5 games or closer…

SHOWDOWNS AND SPOILERS: Pittsburgh took 2 of 3 from Washington, and without that help the Braves would probably still be in second place…The Yankees owe a plate of nachos to the Jays and Orioles, who fought Tampa Bay down to a 3-3 record….The showdown series of the week was Detroit at Minnesota; the home team took 2 of 3….A big reason Cincinnati climbed into 2nd place was their 3-game sweep of Milwaukee.

COMMENTS:  Philly needs a big run, but they are the only contender with a team ERA due to adjust down…Oakland is cut in the Billy Bean mode, with batting average ranked #22, but pitching and power numbers both in the top 10…The Twins are hitting .285 as a team, 8 points better than anyone else…They also lead the league in runs, 43 ahead of the Yankees…SF has a team ERA under 3.00…Their closest contender is the division-rival Padres, who have the stingiest bullpen in the league, allowing only 13% of inherited runners to score…Make sure to go to the stats page and click on the player of the week link…

FEATS AND FAILURES: Cole Hamels of PHI had 12 strikeouts against LAD on 8/30/…Felix Hernandez of SEA had 12 strikeouts against LAA on 8/30/2010…Domonic Brown of SEA struck out 4 times against LAA on 8/30/2010
Buster Posey of SFG hit 3 home runs against COL on 8/30/2010…Tommy Manzella of WAS struck out 5 times against FLA on 8/31/2010…Gabe DeHoyos of LAA had 14 strikeouts against SEA on 8/31/2010…Carlos Gonzalez of ATL robbed 3 hits against NYM on 9/1/2010…Chris Carpenter of NYY had 12 strikeouts against OAK on 9/2/2010…Danny Valencia of MIN had 5 hits against DET on 9/2/2010…Nick Markakis of BAL had 5 hits against TBR on 9/4/2010…Homer Bailey of WAS struck out 4 times against PIT on 9/4/2010…Lance Berkman of COL had 6 RBI against SDP on 9/4/2010…Kevin Cash of PIT robbed 3 hits against WAS on 9/5/2010…Jim Thome of MIN had 6 RBI against TEX on 9/5/2010

25 lineups submitted this week!  Enjoy the home stretch!

Newsletter for games of 8-29

NO HITTER: Bronson Arroyo of Arizona threw a no-hitter against the Padres on 8/24…He out-dueled Matt Latos, who lost while allowing only 1 unearned run…Although he walked 3 batters, Arroyo only needed 72 pitches…The Braves turned a 5-1 week into first place in the NL East, with the admirable Nationals dropping to a mere .5 games out…Colorado is a seemingly distant 7.5 games out in the NL west, but a comfortable 9ish games ahead in the wild card race…Houston duplicated the Atlanta feat and did them one game better; their 6-1 record moved them into first place in the NL central…The dogfight in the AL east got even more heated as the Yanks and Rays combined for an 11-1 record and are now tied for first…The loser looks like the probable wild card playoff entrant…Detroit and Minnesota traded blows in the AL central…Trevor Cahill’s perfect game seems a distant memory, but he’s leading the ASFBL in WHIP…Cliff Lee, true to real form, has the fewest BB per IP…Nate Bump is a name that might not be quickly recognized, but is 4th in BB/IP and has turned in 172 innings for the Phils…Matt Garza and his 21 wins make him an easy favorite for the AL Cy Young, and Jiminez in the NL benefits from the trade that sent Wainwright to Boston and out of the NL…Tyler Colvin of the Cubs had a monster week with 16 RBI, probably more than my Mets collectively had all week…Mike Minor struck out 17 more this week, all in one game…David Ortiz (BOS) and Carlos Gonzalez (ATL) each had 3 HR games this week..Jose Bautista had 6 RBI against Philly on 8/25.

With many of the positive-WOR teams also looking to make the playoffs, the middle of the WOR standings could end up with the WOR money…league rules allow a team that has both WOR and playoff winnings to take the higher amount, and the lower one bumps into the WOR placements.  Still getting lineups from 20+ teams a week, which remains a strong showing for weeks without trades.  The waiver trade deadline has now passed, so all remaining player movement will come via the waiver wire.