Fantasy Baseball 2011 - 40 Games Down

Oh the mighty Baseball Gods have not been kind these past few weeks. They shower us with gifts and then kick us in the teeth, but it hurts so good. There hasn't been too much change in the overall standings as I float between first and second, and Andrew remains mired in fifth. Unfortunately the benefactor of the dubious trade has climbed into third, and I couldn't be more upset.

Based on some of our conversations I'm not sure if Andrew will live past the end of May. I've been trying to tell him the season is just 1/4th over, but his standards of play are so high it might as well be October. Andrew just got Victor Martinez off and Zach Greinke off the DL, so he should have some hitting and pitching help on the way. I don't think it matters since he hit the lottery with the free agent additions of Michael Pineda (5-2, 52K, 2.45ERA, 1.01WHIP) and the streaking Anibal Sanchez, but Andrew lost Dallas Braden for the season. His deep pitching staff is struggling, headed by his beloved Chris Carpenter (1-4, 4.88ERA), and the now-mortal Jered Weaver and Dan Haren. His hitting has slowed as well, but with a number of studs having bad starts (Dan Uggla, Shin-Soo Choo, Billy Butler) he should be in for an upswing. If it weren't for Jose Bautista's monstrous start he would have the best player in baseball, Joey Votto, so he shouldn't be in 5th for too long.

Maybe next year.

I can't complain all that much since I've stayed in the Top 3 all year, but I actually have a serious problem brewing. David Wright's season is over, well, they haven't said that yet but I'm assuming it is. Wright has been diagnosed with a stress fracture in his back, which I read as "broken back" followed by cursing at the Baseball Gods. This is just like last season when I lost Kevin Youkilis, a four stat stud, but this time its a five stat stud. This all comes off the merry-go-round I have at 2B/SS, which is causing me heartburn. I (finally) dropped Sean Rodriguez, simply because he wasn't starting, and added Mike Aviles only to see him drop into the role of a spot starter. I assumed Aviles would be a starter, since he is listed as one on the Royals depth chart, but he seems to start every other game.

I was too lazy to photoshop in Rodriguez and Aviles, but you get the idea.

At least I can pat myself on the back a little over the Roy Oswalt DL situation. I knew Oswalt would only be out a week, so I managed to avoid the temptation of adding Alexi Ogando or Zach Britton. Ogando and Britton would only start once that week, also because of our waiver rules when Oswalt came back I would make those two available to the rest of the league, so I went for Jhoulys Chacin of the Rockies. Chacin is currently leading the Rockies in Wins, Ks, and ERA, plus he had two starts that week away from Coors Field. In both starts (Padres and Mets) he faced toothless teams in pitchers parks and went 1-0 with 11K, 4ER, and 8BB in 12IP, not bad. In that same week Ogando (1-0, 5K, ER, BB) and Britton (5K CG Shutout) both pitched well, so at least I didn't serve them up for everyone else. Not the league-winning stroke of managerial genius I had hoped for, but at least I made the right choice.

Its pronounced "Yo-lease"

Current Status
Bert - There's no ransom if you don't have a fucking hostage. That's what ransom is. Those are the fucking rules.
Andrew - Nothing is fucked?! The God damn plane has crashed into the mountain!