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2008 Fantasy Baseball Search Expert League
Weekly Report
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Fantasy Baseball Search Expert League Weekly Report
Vol.1 Iss 2
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Listen Every Sunday at 7pm EST on BlogTalkRadio.com
to The Fantasy Baseball GURUS Show as we discuss all
the news and updates in fantasy baseball including
expert league talk and interviews with the experts!
Rob Reed of
Baseball Geeks
will be a guest on our
next show!
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Contributors:
Todd "The True GURU" Farino , Patrick "The General DiCaprio
This was a wild week 3 in our expert league. We had very close match ups and some surprises as well. The two match ups of the week went down to the wire and were decided in the last game Sunday evening. Checkout the results of Fantasy Baseball Search Vs. Fantasy Geeks and Fantasy Fanatics Vs. Fantasy Baseball Generals.
Trades this week:
Pro Fantasy Games traded Derek Lee and Derek Lowe to Melnick and Greco for Brandon Phillips and Chad Qualls.
Notable Free Agent Pick Ups:
Players Added: Jon Danks, Brian Fuentes, Jon Lester, Boof Bonsor, Joey
Gathright, Joey Votto, Aaron Rowand, Dan Wheeler, Ryan Ludwick, Braden Looper,
Brandon Morrow, Erick Aybar, Carlos Silva, Mike Pelfrey, and John Bowker.
Players Dropped: Ty Wigginton, Frank Thomas, Jeremy Accardo, Brian
Fuentes, Jeremy Guthrie, Jon Lester, Braden Looper, Jon Garland, Milton Bradley,
and Brandon Inge.
THE MATCH UPS
RotoDoc.com 5
Melnick And Greco 4
Troy over at Rotodoc.com played his team
to near perfection earning a big win this week over Melnick and Greco (M&G).
Even know he was
 over
matched offensively he managed to win both runs and
stolen bases relying on key speedster Jacoby Ellsbury who had an amazing 9
runs and 4 stolen bases this week. That alone won him both those categories.
M&G's power slid this week and only managed 4 home runs, which was a tie, but
managed to take both RBI and average with .284. The key batters for M&G were
Chris Young and Victor Martinez. On the pitching side Rotodoc pulled out a 3-2 victory taking saves, WHIP and
ERA. He had an outstanding week from Jonathan Papelbon with 3 saves along with
Huston Street coming out with 2 saves. His starters also performed well with
Haren and Ervin Santana notching 3 wins. IN the end it wasn't good enough to
stop Paul Greco and his "Pitch and Ditch" strategy who got 6 wins and 37
strikeouts to take those categories. Paul managed to get 6 wins from six
different picture's. Felix Hernandez was a star in this one get 8 K's and a 1.00
ERA in his win.
Overall this match up was very tight and could have gone both
ways. Rotodoc held off Melnick and Greco's furious pitching attack and still
grabbed 3 categories and would have swept the categories if it wasn't for Paul
pitcher streaming. Good job to both of you.
Fantasy Baseball Search 6
Baseball Geeks 4
This was one of if not the best match up of the week. It
literally went down to the wire to decide if the game wou ld
be 5-5 or 6-4. Everything depended on Brad Lidge coming out for his save
Sunday night. If he gives up 1 or less hits, Fantasy Geeks wins WHIP, if he
gives up 2 or more hits/walks Fantasy Baseball Search retains WHIP. He did
give up a walk and a hit. Even know FBS only won 3 offensive categories, he
had his best offensive output for the week and ended up crushing his
opponent in home runs hitting 14. His offense was led by Chipper Jones and
his 4 home runs and .565 batting average. Hanley Ramirez and Josh Willingham
also had a great week for me. On the flip side Fantasy Geeks won batting
average big with a team average of .335 and also narrowly won runs 43-40.
Miguel Cabrera, Carlso Guillen, G. Soto, and Tori Hunter led the way for the
Fantasy Geeks.
On the pitching side it was much the same, but much different. Both fantasy
owners replied on pitcher streaming to round out their rotations, and the
mistake proved to be costly for Fantasy Baseball Search and ended up losing
me ERA. FBS easily won saves, but after that nothing was an easy win. I
pulled out WHIP 1.43 to Rob's 1.44. Just as close was my 2-1 Wins victory.
My pitching staff was guided by great starts from Fausto Carmona and Oliver
Perez. Kerry Wood chipped in two perfect innings and a save to notch the
WHIP category.
Fantasy Geeks threw 6 starting pitchers and only managed 1 win from a great
performance from John Smoltz. Smoltz and Harang combined for 24 of his 49
strikeouts as he easily won that cateogry 49-30. He also took ERA thanks to
a rogue and stupid start of Braden Looper by Fantasy Baseball Search.
Overall this was an extremely close match up that came down to quick and
smart manager moves. Rob made the better moves late, but Todd's smart play
early forced Rob's hand into desperation.
Fantasy Baseball Geeks 7
Pro Fantasy Games 3
Enter Pro F antasy
Games. In his first match up taking over on Tuesday for the junkie Stoney's
Lounge he got slammed by the surging Sean Sultaire of Fantasy Baseball
Geeks. FGB's lost two close categories in home runs and RBIs along with
average. After that he did not look back. winning runs and stolen bases. Pro
Fantasy Games out slugged him with the help of Derek Lee and Alex Rodriguez.
FBG's ripped stolen bases 7-1 led by Jose Reyes and Carlos Gomez. Pitching was a shutout for Fantasy Baseball Geeks 5-0. He
clearly dominated all 5 categories and did it with stellar pitching from
Rich Hill, Daisuke Matsuzaka, and Adam Wainwright. Also, Billy Wagner and
Frank Rodriguez saves an astonishing 7 games that week between them! Pro
Fantasy Games pitching struggles and managed only 2 wins and 3 saves. Todd
Jones was effective this week, but Clay Buckholz and Derek Lowe were awful.
This was a match that Sean Sultaire held from the beginning and never
relinquished.
FaMock Draft Central
6
Junkyard Jake 4
Despite his well reasoned pleas
and the fact that MDC's logo is a giant pear, RC's entreaties lead only to a
moral victory. MDC is looking very tough so far as their top starter and speed
strategy has vaulted them to second place in the tough division. RC's team puts
up a very fine showing, and helps out the rest of the teams in the Major League
division as he keeps Mock Draft Central in everyone's sights.
Still this was a solid showing and wake up call for the Junkyard Jake squad, as
they faced one of the Titans of the league with a strong showing. In many weeks
Jake would have routed his opponent, he just happened to run into a tough
matchup. Jake's plucky squad even beat the vaunted speedsters of MDC 8-7 in
steals, with even Conor Jackson pitching in to help the cause. This could have
been an 8-2 victory against many other teams.
MDC's pitching heavy strategy is looking very strong so far, as even John Danks,
Jair Jurrjens and Cliff Lee, all of whom were waiver bait in the preseason have
turned in shining performances under Geoff Stein's leadership. Who knows if it
will continue, but MDC has the horses at the top of the rotation to be a
contender every week.
Roto Authority 8
Fantasy Baseball Mafia 2
The luster is clearly off the
FBM squad as my number one overall team gives them a licking. Facing the
specter of a rout this week, Evan Dickens decides to leave the Wiretap radio
show in order to prepare for his eventual demise in week 4. So far
RotoAuthority is the best team in the league.
Brian Bannister and George Sherrill were the culprits this week in the FBM
loss. Bannister had a 9.00 ERA and 2.00 WHIP as he comes crashing back to
earth after a hot start. Sherrill was even worse with a 16.875 ERA and a 2.625
WHIP. SHerrill has traditionally had problems with right handed hitters, aside
form a fortunate 2007 with a mere 76 righty batters faced, so it is possible
that his tenure could be short lived. This would spell fantasy disaster for
the FBM squad, who this week face the Powerhouse
Fantasy Baseball Generals
team.
RotoAuthority is right now the class of the league, facing the top notch
competition of the East division with aplomb. They were one homerun and two
RBI away from a complete rout of the team touted by RC Rizza and Todd Farino
as the best team in the league.
Fantasy Baseball Generals
5
Fantasy Fanatics
4
Thanks to Chase Utley and a two
homer game, the Generals eke out a victory in the Major League division. Said
Utley, "I am tired of hearing my owner made fun of by Todd "Boston Rob"
Farino." The Fanatics offense wakes up and gets 4 HR from Manny Ramirez, as
the Generals' reliever strategy flops again.
This was a hard fought matchup all week with both teams struggling for ground
all week. Despite getting a promotion to the closer's job, Generals'
wunderkind Rafael Betancourt is facing some bad luck so far, with a 38% hit
rate that will go down henceforth. More leaks are apparent with Takashi Saito
having a very rough week with a 13.5 ERA and a 2.5 WHIP. Saito is fine skills
wise though with a 2.84 xERA and is beset by a 50% strand rate. So it looks
like the Generals are primed for a rebound in the luck department in the near
future.
The Fanatics are off to a slow start at 8-19 but they are looking to rebound
soon. They were hurt by Mark Buehrle, about whom all should be concerned, and
by Chien Ming Wang who just ran into a buzzsaw this week. Buehrle has an xERA
of 5.18 and is within normal limits in strand rate so it could be a long
season for him.
One analyst even predicted Buehrle to have an ERA close to 5.00 this year.
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