Yah.

Ok this is what I have so far

F1 - Ryan Howard
2. Alcides Escobar (27)
3. Jay Bruce (23)
4. Cole Hamels (21)
5. Adam Lind (27)

I also have Jeff Nieman (27), James Loney (11), Jason Kubel (27), JA Happ (26) and Scott Feldman (27) as well as anyone else available.

Its Friday and I haven't heard from Vols so he's officially out. 2009 winners I'll figure out the payment stuff next week as it seems we're not getting Vols' $25 and I'm going to have to figure out a way to rework the numbers in a way that still covers 3rd place's pay but doesn't unreasonable screw Solly or Army. I'll get ahold of you.

I'm officially looking for a new player so if you have suggestions mention it. SG threw his name in the pool but I get the impression he's not THAT into it, just sort of willing to play if we need him. SG, if you actually have more of a desire and want your name in the running, let me know, but for now I'll limit it to "Dudes who want to play" and then "Dudes who'd be willing to play if you need them to."

This weekend I'll get together a short list of names and toss them around. I'll also start a poll or two about rule changes. Keepers go official in 11 days on Feb 1st so we can spend next week defining rules and picking a 12th. Then come Feb 1st hopefully we have our 12th who can jump right into making his team so I can set up the draft.

Why snicker? He's still going to get me a shitload of holds, and the way Lou will work them, I think he will still get around 10-15 saves as well.

And on the topic of closer, I don't know where to add this, so I'm adding it here and at ESPN. He hasn't been added to the list of free agents yet, so I would like to drop Carl Pavano and add Jason Motte (RP-STL) as soon as he becomes available.

Draft is in. League is ready to go. You may go in and manage and the '08 season us underway.

games.espn.go.com/flb/leagueoffice?leagueId=4146

Rick Porcello is not in the ESPN database. I have substituted Bronson Sardinha for Porcello. GM must keep Sardinha on his roster in place of Porcello. Dropping Sardinha amounts to dropping Porcello. If Sardinha ends up in the majors and amounts to anything we'll sub in a different guy in his place.

From here on out all minor league transactions, pick trades, or anything else that has to be managed here can be done in the pinned Transactions/Minor League thread.

natecorbitt.proboards81.com/index.cgi?board=keeper&action=display&thread=1204275508

...

Wow. I don't rule at all.

Now that I've had a chance to read the MiL arbitration idea, I like it. One question though:

If an owner pulls up a player as described before the end of the season, can the owner keep the player at a last-round Keeper price (as if he were a free agent) or would he still have to evaluate the player via the arbitration process?

For instance, when I pulled up Tim Lincecum a few years back I did it before July 31, and he remained on my team as a Keeper with a 27th (or whatever the last round is) price. Would that still be the same, or would he be evaluated through the arbitration cycle?

My thought it if you bring the minor leaguer up during the season, you should reap the Keper rewards. If you don't, however, you should pay the arbitration price. Colby Rasmus would be a good example of this on my team. As long as everyone else gets dinged the same way, I have no problem paying a higher arbitration price to keep Rasmus because I didn't bring him up during the season.

Just want to throw a big thanks out to ol' Lucky for another great job this season. Really appreciate all the work you put into this league.

Also thanks to Mike for the great stat reports every week. Could we maybe get a season finale?

You guys really go above and beyond and it makes the league that much better.

And congrats to Solly. I gladly hand the crown over to you. I might have to change my team name to "1.5 Time! 1.5 Ti" since I suppose I can count the consolation championship.

Yes. I guess that would work out as the 2nd round being #7 vs #10/#11 and #8 vs #9/#12.

You were down 6-8 in the 3rd inning of the late Rangers game... then Kinsler and Cruz proceeded to bottom out for the remainder of the game and you got average back. And if Texas had thrown O'Day a second inning and he'd gotten Seattle out 1-2-3, you would've lost WHIP, too.

That 10 week streak was among the biggest case of smoke and mirrors ever. I was stealing points seemingly every week by benching everyone, or grabbing 3 Sunday starters off the wire to get K's, and other such shenanigans. I'd be willing to bet I didn't notch a 10 spot anytime in that undefeated streak, and maybe only a couple of 9's. It was 6-6-2, 7-6-1, 6-5-3, 8-6 all the time. While I played for the title that year, my team really wasn't that great.

I remember selling last year. (I've got Hudson back, Dad. Interested?) But I don't remember being bad enough to pop a losing streak like that. Maybe I just blocked it from my memory in order to keep the good vibes so I'll continue having loads of fun with this ridiculous league.

At the very least, AA would be 3-4 games behind GM and would only have to tread water until the last week of the regular season when they go head to head.

I can't even hurt about this week because my season felt over weeks ago. I lost 1st overall, I lost 1st in the Cupcakes, next step is to miss the playoffs and I'm expecting just that.

Unfortunately I didn't get the writeup started Sunday so unless I get really inspired today I'm expecting another raw numbers wrapup. But I'll probably just skip the matchups and do a general writeup to note the significant standings changes.

I've got Lance Berkman, George Sherrill and Francisco Cordero still available. I'm really just looking for picks at this point, unless a primo keeper comes along. I'm pretty full up on young players.

Last Week

Army found himself alone in 1st place for the league after a drumming of last place Pun. Lucky lost a narrow battle with Dev picking up his first L against the Bananas League and seeing his division lead fall to 3.5 Gs. Vols laid a beating on Moose to climb back into 2nd place for the Cupcakes League. GM picked up a big win against Mikey to get within 4 Gs of the playoffs and knock Mikey back to 7.5 back in the Cupcakes League. MKid won a close battle with Solly strengthening his hold over a playoff spot and drawing even with Mikey for 4th in the league. And Grover picked up his 2nd win of the season by knocking off AA and sending him 13.5 games out of the playoffs. Meanwhile Solly kept improving his team in a bid for the playoffs as he added Hideki Okajima and Fernando Rodney from moose and Alfonso Soriano from Pun.





Lucky's Spreadsheet Studs (120-90-14) vs. GM's Comerica National Park (109-105-10)
This is their second of two match-ups this season, Lucky leads the series 1-0-0. The all-time series is tied at 3-3-0.
Lucky comes in to this week without a win in his last 4 weeks and has seen most of his division lead evaporate in that time and fell out of the top spot in the league. Meanwhile GM hasn't lost in 3 weeks as he builds up his team and makes a charge on a playoff spot. The two teams entered into the weekend in a tie at 6-6-2. Lucky's hot hitting continued as 21 HRs last week was followed by going into this weekend with 15 along with leads in R, RBI, SB, and OPS. Meanwhile GM was keeping up with pitching holding onto leads in ERA, WHIP, K, and SV and tied in HD and L. Lucky would fall just short of his total from last week with 20 HRs and stay barely ahead in RBI 55 to 54, drawing even in offensive Ks with 52, and grabbing HLDs and WHIP by dropping his down to 1.195. GM would hang onto pitching Ks 75 to 72, draw even in W and take L 5-2 to 5-3, and grab R by only 1 at 49-48. The two teams beat each other up and traded categories but things stayed tied at 6-6-2 when the week ended.


AA's 3-Time! 3-Time! 3-Time! (97-112-15) vs. Pun's It Byrne's When I Peavy (75-131-18)
This is their second of two match-ups this season, AA leads the series 1-0-0. The all-time series is tied at 3-3-2.
AA took a brutal loss to Grover last week in what could have been a big chance to make up ground in his chase for a playoff spot but which instead pushed him to sell on Monday. Going into a matchup with last place Pun he sold off 4 of his star players. But going into the weekend it looked like a potential mistake as he led Pun 13-1-0 with only a 1.45 WHIP preventing a potential sweep. AA's offense would fall off big over the weekend allowing Pun to grab OPS .886 to .831. Pun would also grab R 43 to 41, draw even in RBI at 38, and notching 2 HLDs to tie there. It would lessen the blow but still AA grabs his 2nd win of the season against Pun and despite firesaling goes over 9-3-2.


Dev's Jersey ColdFusion (111-99-14) vs. MKid's Dual National Champions (111-96-17)
This is their second of two match-ups this season, Dev leads the series 1-0-0. MKid leads the all-time series 5-2-0.
Coming into this week 1.5 Gs separated Dev and MKid in the standings as both teams have been hanging onto the last 2 playoff spots for weeks. Dev looked primed to move out of the 6th playoff spot and past Kid going into the weekend with a 10-2-2 lead. Dev's offense was delivering a strong 8 HR, 23 RBI, .317 AVG, and .904 OPS and while his pitching wasn't that strong it was enough to hold 5 categories over Kid's 1-4 W-L, 14 K, 6.75 ERA, and 1.81 WHIP. MKid's offense came on over the weekend and the two traded categories as MKid finished within .004 AVG pts and 0.02 WHIP points. He would grab RBI by grabbing 30 over the weekend, take ERA 4.72 over 4.93, taking SVs, and backing into a win in L 5 to 6. Dev would lessen the damage by grabbing a 2nd HD and breaking the tie. In the end he'd lose a lot of ground but hold on to a win over Kid 8-6-0.


Mikey's Blue Sox (112-97-15) vs. Moose's OneEyed Jacks (92-120-12)
This is their second of two match-ups this season, Mikey leads the series 1-0-0. Mikey leads the all-time series 6-3-0.
Mikey's had an up and down turn recently going from 2nd in the Cupcakes League one week to tied for the 2nd to last playoff spot the next. This week he gets Moose who has been stripping his team for weeks but managed to keep competitive regardless until last week. Mikey held a 9-2-3 lead going into the weekend with Mikey holding a strong lead with a 2.95 ERA, 1.23 WHIP, and 53 K but Moose remained close with ties in HR, RBI, and SB and only 1 W behind, 1 SV, and 0.064 pts in WHIP. Mike would start to pull away from Moose over the weekend distancing himself in AVG and R and grabbing the HR and RBI categories. Moose's pitching would pick up the slack picking up 4 Ws to grab that category and dropping his WHIP almost .20 pts but still falling short. Mikey takes it by a big score of 11-2-1 picking up his 2nd win against Moose this season, 7th all time, and becomes the first team to win 10 weeks this season.


Army's Balad Shithooks (124-85-15) vs. Grover's New Day Co-Op (84-125-15)
This is their second of two match-ups this season, Army leads the series 1-0-0. The all-time series is tied at 2-2-0.
Army picked up his 3rd W in 4 weeks to find himself alone at the top of the league last week. On the other side of things Grover picked up only his 2nd W of the season, both at the expense of the Bananas League. Against expectations Grover was lined up for his 3rd going into the weekend with a 7-5-2 lead in a close battle. Army's 2.06 ERA and 1.15 WHIP were failing against Grover's 1.42 ERA and 0.84 WHIP while Grover sat only 1 HR, 3 RBI, and 5 R ahead of Army who sat only 1 W, 1 SV, and .0096 pts in OPS ahead. Things wouldn't improve much for Army as he picked up 7 HR to draw even at 13 but Grover would take SB and improve to a 6-1 W-L record against Army's 4-6. 9-4-1 is the final score as Army loses for only the 2nd time in 9 weeks and Grover picks up his 3rd win of the season (all 3 against the Bananas Division) and for the first time this season has a winning streak.


Beat Me Solly (107-105-12) vs. Vols' Schwetty Vols (118-95-11)
This is their second of two match-ups this season, Vols leads the series 1-0-0. Vols leads the all-time series 4-3-0.
Vols has been one of the hottest teams in the league over the last couple of months and now sits only 3.5 Gs out of 1st place in the Cupcakes League. Meanwhile Solly has done a lot to beef up his team as he chases a playoff spot but hasn't won in 3 weeks. On Friday Solly looked set to pick up his first win since the overhaul of his team as he led Vols 7-3-4 thanks to with an 8-2 HR, 34-15 RBI, .290-.245 AVG, and .821-.704 OPS leads. Things were closer elsewhere as Vols led pitching K by only 1, was tied in R, L, HLD, and offensive K, and was in arm's reach of ERA 3.46-3.78 and WHIP 1.32-1.53. Solly picked up the lone HLD on the week, less Ls than Vols, and managed to sneak by him in K 51 to 49. On the offensive side he managed to stay ahead in Ks 46 to 48 while Vols would get his lone pickup in Rs 46 to 42. It wouldn't do much to help as Solly breaks a 3 week winless streak by handing Vols a 11-2-1 beating, only his 2nd loss in 11 weeks and 1st against the Bananas League.


The Leagues were tied at 16-16-4 coming into this week but the Bananas grabbed a small 3-2-1 lead on the week to pull ahead 19-18-5. With only one week left of inter-league competition the Leagues have been surprisingly even with only 1 game separating the Leagues. Barring a big win by either league this looks locked to be even in the first season of this experiment.

Standings

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The swapping Mike and Vols have played for weeks for 2nd in the Cupcakes League continues as Vols goes from 3.5 back to 8 while Mike goes from 7.5 to 3. That leaves Lucky's 1st place spot still in great threat but he did manage to shave 2.5 Gs off Army's lead on the top of the league. Army also lost 3.5 Gs off his division lead but remains 10 Gs over Dev. Dev did manage to climb up to a 4th place tie in the overall rankings with Vols 5 Gs behind Mikey, but Kid is only half a game behind them in 6th. Solly moves into 7th only 1 G behind Kid and 1.5 behind Vols and Dev. That makes the Cupcakes hold on 4 playoff spots in jeopardy for the first time in awhile and also puts Vols' spot on the line. GM sits at 4.5 back of the playoffs still in the race.

AA's big win brings him 11 Gs within the playoffs but still on the outside looking in and now with a depleted team to make any kind of strong run. Moose, Grover, and Pun remain well out of things but Grover managed to climb past Moose thanks to his big win if only by half a game. Moose now sits 25 Gs out of the playoffs and Pun 37.5 as he starts to move towards a magic elimination number.







In the vs. league average tables, 0.00 is the league average. Anything more than 1.00 either positive or negative is very strong (or weak if negative). Once you get up (or down) near 2.00 it's a number that lends itself to being a statistical anomaly and is due to come back to the pack sooner or later.





13.5 Gs out of the playoffs AA made the call to explode his team mere hours into the week with a pair of big moves on Monday that left some owners surprised. Once again everything stayed in the Bananas Division as AA traded Michael Young (SS, 3B - TEX) to Army for Colby Rasmus (OF - STL) and a 6th Rd pick. He then send Miguel Cabrera (1B - DET), Ichiro Suzuki (OF - SEA), and CC Sabathia (SP - NYY) to Gimmick for 5th and 6th Rd picks. GM continued to add to his team as he's added Cabrera, Ichiro, Sabathia, A-Rod, and Adam Lind over the last 3 weeks as he makes a bid for the last playoff spot at great cost to his 2010 draft as he's given up his 2nd, 5th, 6th, 12th, and 15th Rd picks leaving him with only 3 picks in the first 6 rounds. Meanwhile Army continues to improve his team as he looks to hold onto to the top spot in the league. A number of owners question AA's quick sales and the return on his players and with AA improving to

And a Cupcake team finally joined in on the party as Lucky trades an 11th Rd Pick and Alcides Escobar (SS - MIL) to Moose for Shane Victorino (OF - PHI) and Chad Qualls (RP - ARI). In 4 weeks of massive dealing this is the first trade to send parts to a Cupcake team. Meanwhile Moose continues to build an impressive 2010 draft as he now has 21 picks in the first 14 rounds.









Longest Winning Streak - Vols, 5 Weeks (W7 - W11); Current: Grover, 2 Weeks (W16 - W17); Dev, 2 Weeks (W16 - W17)
Longest Losing Streak - Grover, 5 Weeks (W1 - W5); AA, 5 Weeks (W2 - W6); Grover, 5 Weeks (W10 - W14); Current: Pun, 2 Weeks (W16 - W17); Moose, 2 Weeks (W16 - W17)
Longest Undefeated Streak - Lucky, 8 Weeks (W5 - W12); Current: GM, 4 Weeks (W14 - W17)
Longest Winless Streak - Grover, 8 Weeks (W1 - W8); Current: - Lucky, 5 Weeks (W13 - W17)

This Week

We're going into the final week of inter-league play. The leagues two hottest teams face off both coming off losses as Vols locks up with League leader Army. Lucky has been the top ranked team by Mikey's stats 2 weeks in a row but hasn't grabbed a W in 5 weeks thanks in large part to the schedule, so he hopes to build his Cupcakes League and get back into top overall against Moose. GM chases the playoffs as he locks up with Mikey just 2 weeks after beating him as Mikey chases the Cupcakes lead. Dev looks to improve his position in the playoff standings against last place Pun while MKid locks up with AA who is still technically hanging on but no longer tooled up for a run. Solly gets a good matchup on paper against Grover as he sits just outside the playoffs but Grover is on a 2 week winning streak including a win over the league leader this past week. In Week 19 Division play starts back up and the trade deadline passes so we're not only seeing the end of Inter-League play but the end game for the season. With 4 teams within 1.5 game of each other in 4th to 7th and GM just 3.5 out of the pack how will things look when head-to-head division play starts back up and will there be any more sales and significant team changes in the remaining week and a half?

Mikey's stats are up and my 24 hours of cursing because of this league continues as I see I was a the #1 ranked team and lost to the #2. FUCK! NOTHING is going right for the Studs right now.

I wonder who winds up with the pick I traded Grover because we all know he won't make the pick.

I am not yet giving up!

Mauer, Morneau, Pujols, and Crawford shit the bed? BOO FUCKING HOO

It's always fun to look at your rotation and see that you have 5 or 6 starters pitching on one day, until you realize it's Sunday and your rotation takes a major hit until Friday at the earliest.