Today marks the end of the third week of real and fantasy baseball alike. After 5-5 ties in both weeks 1 and 2, I am taking a thumping by my opponent this week. I'm losing 2-7, and it appears that will be the final.
What's going wrong? Outside of my teams lack of steals this week, nothing. My pitching was clicking on all cylinders- 5 wins, 7 saves, 1.86 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, with 71 strikeouts! Unfortunately, every now and again there is a clusterfuck week, where you hit a team that is even hotter... my opponent's pitchers (anchored by the strong Zack Greinke and Rich Harden) were dominant. His roster had 46 innings pitched, with only 6 earned runs yielded. Fuck me!
So, while I still grabbed saves and strikeouts, I reluctantly handed him ERA and WHIP. We pushed with 5 wins apiece. The wheels fell off my offense this week- a fact that I will attribute to a low .238 AVG (and an assumed low OBP, which meant few basestealing opportunities).
Bottom line- my pitching would have gone 5-0 against 9 of the other 10 teams in the league this week (4-1 against another). My 3 steals would have actually won that category more often than not, meaning that in any other matchup the potential to go 5-5 or 6-4 was there. Sometimes matchups dictate otherwise... That is the joy, and pain, of head-to-head leagues.
Current Record:
12-17-1 (8th place)
Due Up:
My week 4 opponent has a battered pitching staff, but has some speed potential with both Ellsbury and Jose Reyes on offense. With 0 closers on roster (1 SV to date as a team), and 5 inconsistent starters, I should take all 5 pitching categories. It will be a dogfight for steals. Outlook: 5-5.
Recent Moves:
-4/5/2009: Placed Ervin Santana (SP - LAA) on DL, added Hiroki Kuroda (SP - LAD) in time for April 6 start. Kuroda currently on roster, but on DL as well.
-4/12/2009: Dropped Dan Wheeler (RP - TB) for Rafael Soriano (RP - ATL). Wheeler has since struggled, while Soriano has pitched 5 quality innings, notching 2 saves.
-4/14/2009: Dropped Lastings Milledge (OF - WAS) for Randy Winn (OF - SF). Milledge was optioned to AAA; up till now Winn has yet to provide any real value.
-4/21/2009: Dropped Grant Balfour (RP - TB) for Scott Downs (RP - TOR). Balfour did not offer any value at this point, while Downs has since stepped in and converted 2 saves.
