Newsletter for games through 4-27-2011

COMMENTS: The Padres had the best week in the league, posting a 6-1 record…the DBacks also went 5-1, but Colordao is so hot that they still lead the division by 3 games…4 of the top 5 WOR teams play in a central division…Seattle is the only last-place team with a positive WOR, and they are +3, which gives you an idea of how bad the real team must be…The Indians and Royals split their 4-game series….My Mets are in last place in the WOR standings; evidently, trading the left side of my infield for an injured catcher and 2 infielders hitting under .200 wasn’t the magic they needed…The Giants have the best ASFBL batting average (.283) and lead our league in HR (40)…The fantasy Rays have the most stolen bases…The ASFBL Cardinals team ERA is 1.93…The Phillies bullpen has allowed 1 of 31 inherited runners to score; the Cubs have allowed an astounding 52%…The Met cavalry arrived in the form of Jason Bay this week; he had two 4-strikeout games…The Angels have the top ASFBL power rating, but still have cause to worry; the second place team is Texas…The combined batting average of the real Cardinals is .317…The A’s have the best real pitching (combined ERA of 2.39), tops in the league, but they rank 25th in real HR; that’s half of moneyball.

NAME ODDITY: The Tigers have a player named Al Albequerque; were he a Dodger, his AAA stop would, of course, have been Albequerque.

FEATS AND FAILURES: Josh Beckett of BOS had 12 strikeouts against TOR on 4/18/2011…Brett Lawrie of TOR robbed 3 hits against BOS on 4/18/2011…Anibal Sanchez of HOU had 11 strikeouts against NYM on 4/19/2011
John Lackey of ARI had 12 strikeouts against CIN on 4/21/2011…Tim Lincecum of BOS had 13 strikeouts against LAA on 4/21/2011…Jon Lester of BOS had 11 strikeouts against LAA on 4/22/2011…Hank Conger of LAA struck out 5 times against BOS on 4/22/2011…Chris Seddon of SEA had 13 strikeouts against OAK on 4/24/2011

LINEUP REMINDER: Be sure you set your rotation; just click on the link and read the directions.  If you aren’t sure how to do it, just click the automatic placement button.

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Newsletter for games through 4/18 — SEASON OPENER!!

OBSERVATIONS: There’s some symmetry with our 2 new owners holding the Indians (Steven Skrovan) and Royals (Jack & Lee Ullman), the feel-good stories of the real baseball season…Skrovan’s Indians got quickly accustomed to contending, leading the AL central and going 10-5….Congrats to the Cards and Astros, each posting 4 wins more than the real teams managed…The Mets overperformed at 2-14…Maybe most impressive was the Rockies posting a plus-WOR when the real club was 12-3…Berkman, ARod, and Hafner all have 8 fantasy HR…The best real total is Tulowitzki’s 7; he only hit 5 in the ASFBL but hit .414

NOTES: Click on the stats link from the main page to access all the stats, boxscores, and leaders from the past week…weekly records will reflect the last 7 days of the opening stretch, but should be accurate from here on out.

RULES CHANGES: We mulling 2 league changes: (1) having 2 wild card teams in each league, with the wildcards playing a series before the rest of the playoffs (2) having a hard trade deadline…the waiver trades take forever to turn around and add more administrative hassle than they seem to prevent.  Any input on either possible change is appreciated; we’d like to finalize any changes before the end of April.

FEATS AND FAILURES: Pitchers ruled the early going, with high strikeout totals…Jaime Garcia of STL had 13 strikeouts against SDP on 3/31/2011…Aubrey Huff of BOS had 6 RBI against TEX on 4/2/2011…Jered Weaver of LAA had 12 strikeouts against TBR on 4/5/2011…Maicer Izturis of LAA had 5 hits against TBR on 4/5/2011…Sam LeCure of CIN had 11 strikeouts against HOU on 4/5/2011…Gio Gonzalez of OAK had 16 strikeouts against TOR on 4/7/2011…Miguel Montero of ARI had 7 RBI against CIN on 4/8/2011..Alex Rodriguez of NYY hit 3 home runs against BOS on 4/9/2011…Jaime Garcia of STL had 15 strikeouts against SFG on 4/10/2011…Tim Lincecum of BOS had 14 strikeouts against TBR on 4/11/2011…Jered Weaver of LAA had 20 strikeouts against CWS on 4/15/2011…Jaime Garcia of STL had 16 strikeouts against LAD on 4/15/2011