HarleyQuinn

My first trade of the year should be pushed through... dealt Gary Sheffield and his current injured underperforming ways for another closer in Huston Street. My offense has been solid enough w/o Sheff and getting another guy to give me Saves makes me really happy.

True but my current record (and 8-1 standing right now) says otherwise. As long as you have "innings eaters" at MR and at least one SP go 2 starts a week, you should be fine. Ideally you'd get 3 SP: 20 IP minimum (Assume an average of 5 IP with 1 guy going 2 starts) 4 RP: 8 IP (About 2 IP from each reliever) Not accounting for injuries, one could easily get 30-33 IP out of such a grouping (SP = 24 IP at 6 per with RP at 8). The key to this tactic of course is getting good starters who can go well over 200+ IP and relievers who can throw 60-80 innings a year. Essentially "starting" 4 pitchers if you combine the innings of the relievers. For example, last year I could've had 3 SP at 202+ IP each with a "#4 SP" at 204.1 IP. Granted there is a ton of risk with such a scenario but the rewards could be as equally enriching... one could essentially "count" on ERA/WHIP each week and given a dominant enough offense, win most weeks easily.

Even with my relievers a plenty chipping in innings, I have to be honest when I say that I'm crossing fingers at times in hopes that at least 1 starter will get multiple starts over the week. I'm lucky this week that Randy will probably start Sunday so I should get at least 10 IP from him. Granted, I could go the 4 SP a week to "be safe" but I'd rather not give up the ERA/WHIP categories just to meet an arbitrary minimum.

I'll agree that the rivalry is possibly more intense fan-wise, in part because the Red Sox have won 2 World Series in recent times while the Yankees have been on a "slide" so to speak in that regard. It reminds me, like Bauer said, of just good old fashioned hate between the two. I'd like to think that the fans wouldn't kill each other but to be honest, it really wouldn't surprise me either. In terms of on field play... I hate to say that any year(s) are the pinnacle like King said just because there may be future years that are equal or better. Although 2003/2004 definitely ranks up there with the back to back ALCS meetings. As a Boston fan I have an inherent dislike of most things New York as is, with the Yankees just being a larger focal point of the package. I'd also make the argument that the rivalry continues to maintain the heat with the A-Rod fiasco from 2003, Johnny Damon's signing with the Yankees, and the recent back and forth from the management.

I also think part of the issue... haven't read all the recent posts... but from what I've noticed even on games on NESN is the penchant for the batter to "step out of the box" in between every.single.pitch! This makes a long game even longer when you have two teams that can and will take pitches and be happy with multiple 6-8 pitch at bats. Has anybody "timed" an at bat? A quick mathematical formula done in my head... let's assume it takes 10-12 seconds in between each pitch for the pitcher to get ready, hitter to step back in, etc. (never timed this so can't say for sure). A 3 pitch at-bat would come out to almost 40-50 seconds not including any foul balls that have to be chased down by the ball people, the umpire switching balls with the catcher/pitcher, or mound visits. Another thing that galls me is when a hitter stands there for 5-10 seconds after a called strike as if the umpire will change their mind. You struck out and the ump made his call on a 'questionable' location, suck it up and go away!

I made several roster moves to help better my defense which will definitely be seen more vs. LHP at the moment... I grabbed Rick Dempsey, a defensive minded LHP killing machine at SS named Alvaro Espinoza and everybody's favorite former ESPN analyst at 2B Harold Reynolds! Also made some RP changes to try and help shore up the bullpen some to tackle LHB or RHB depending on the situation with Jerry Reed and Brad Havens against LHB and Bill Dawley against RHB.

Fair enough... I'm sure that there are some teams who may serve as better nominations but here's my top 10 list in no discernible order. The '69 Mets were 9-14 at one point but were pretty strong since then honestly just playing in a tough division. My 10 in no order... Atlanta Braves 1914 (12-28) Toronto Blue Jays 1989 (9-17) Oakland Athletics 2001 (8-18) St. Louis Cardinals 1949 (12-17) Replacement (For Al): Washington Senators 1924 (13-17) Pittsburgh Pirates 1979 (12-18) Houston Astros 2005 (12-23) Colorado Rockies 2007 (17-25) Florida Marlins 2003 (16-22) Kansas City Royals 1984 (27-35) Detroit Tigers 1987 (10-18) I included Kansas City just because of the surprise and no, I didn't stick to the first 3-4 weeks/20-40 game guideline so meh.

Through the first 2 months, their records were as follows. 2000: 27-26 2001: 26-26 2002: 25-28 2003: 31-23 2004: 26-23 2005: 19-32 2006: 24-29 2007: 26-26 I think it's kind of a myth that Oakland "started slow" as most of those records aren't really hard to overcome deficits outside of 2005 and maybe 2006. I think it's more widely thought simply because Oakland just got so hot after the all-star break that their 1st half always "seemed" like a slow start in comparison. Here are the 1st Half/2nd Half breakdowns (Baseball-Reference) 2000: 48-38 vs. 43-32 2001: 44-43 vs. 58-17 2002: 50-38 vs. 53-21 2003: 54-39 vs. 42-27 2004: 47-39 vs. 44-32 2005: 44-43 vs. 44-31 2006: 45-43 vs. 48-26 In all of those years, they were above .500 in the 1st half. Not exactly "slow" at all.

My offense is really coming alive for the 2nd straight week... I'm at 8/5/15 with 1 SB and also leading in OBP/SLG. That is without Cliff Floyd possibly starting until tomorrow too. My main concern over the season will be if the pitching staff can match the production of my offense on any given week.

Wow... since backing off I've gone 6-1 in my last 7 games including a run differential of: 22 with my only loss being a 1-0 game. I had 4 games with 11+ runs scored including ending a 2/3 series with a 16-7 beatdown. I still lead the league in Runs Allowed but am sitting in 4th in Runs Scored. I'm 15-12 (27 games) in 1 run games and 5-4 in extra inning games. My hitting has definitely been my strong point though: As for team stats, 2nd in AB, 1st in BB, 2nd in BA, 1st in OBP, and all this despite being 2nd to last in SB (79.4% as a team). I also have the 3rd fewest HR as well.

What they said with longer-term numbers (i.e. 1/4 of the year) 1998: 20-21 1999: 15-26 2000: 17-24 2001: 18-23 2002: 19-22 2003: 18-23 2004: 20-21 2005: 26-15 2006: 19-22 2007: 18-23 They have been suck to average for every single season with the odd exception of 2005, where they ended up losing 88 games anyway.

4 game winning streak complete with sweep... nice. I finally decided to stay hands off on micro-managing.

Here's a question for Sunday Night and West Coast/Western Coast teams like Arizona/Colorado... Given the 8 PM ET start time, that'd mean 5 PM on the West Coast. Is this normal? Near as I can tell, the games are usually 7 PM WC (10 PM ET), or 1 PM WC (4 PM ET) on weekends, correct? I honestly don't know so I'm curious. I think time zones may also be an issue when it comes to scheduling West Coast teams but then again, maybe not.

Edwin nailed it. Separate releases so they'd have to be selected with 2 picks.

I'm curious to see how the Sox and in particular young players like Jon Lester and Ellsbury perform in what should be 2 tough series against the Tigers and the Yankees. Only good thing is that the home opener is perfect timing as the weather should be hitting the 60's and possibly 70's by the end of the week.

$3.18 here (New London, NH) is the cheapest in town anyway. Since I'm at college, I'm lucky in that the farthest drive is 10-15 minutes to the grocery store although to hit a movie theater involves about 30 minutes on the highway. Driving home and back though is 2 hours each way (4 in total).

My offense has been utterly dominant although my pitching hasn't... I'm nearing 30 R on the week and around 15 RBI so far but it doesn't help that I'm facing half the Orioles starting lineup. I also made a couple RP grabs (Mark Lowe & David Riske) for next week for their potential to give me Saves.

It's been 24 hours so StevieKick is on the clock. Sperm can make his pick at anytime.

Since I'm an idiot, I've decided to start tinkering with the per game starters and lineups so anything good that I had going is starting to turn bad. Doesn't help that one of my best hitters, Rick Burleson, is out for this series against the Hellraisers.

Looks like I'll get lucky on the minimum IP as Kason starts Friday and C.C. Sabathia on Saturday. Offensively, Mark Grudzielanek has been a nice pick up. He's scored another run for me so far today and given me a .667 SLG. I'm just hoping my relievers start seeing some time (Gardner saw 1 IP for 2 K on my bench... damn)

Injuries are suddenly dismantling my squad and my "genius" tactics as manager resulted in a sweep... blah.

Penis is right... didn't realize it was a 2 show event. I'll PM mw and ask him to re-pick.

At this point I'm desperately hoping I can reach the minimum inning limit. I grabbed Kason Gabbard just to get some innings in after remembering that Petit is in the bullpen. I'm hoping my relievers can salvage 8-10 IP between all of them.

Took 2 of 3 and am currently sitting at 22-23 on the season. I find I'm tweaking my rotation/lineup to better match up against not only the opponents pitching/lineups but also the ballpark. Hoping it will pay off down the long run.

Hey, I reconsidered, so I made you the same offer, if you're still interested in making that trade. I nixed it. The original deal was Youks for Manny although I'm not sure how willing you'd be to part with Manny now.