BBFL Week 11: Halfway Home

Monday, June 21 2004 @ 09:41 AM EDT

Contributed by: Coach

We’ve reached the midway point of the regular season. This report will be longer than usual, as your not-so-humble correspondent reflects on the week — and the first half — that was.

After stumbling through the previous three weeks with an embarrassing 11-21-3 record, my Toronto Walrus bounced back to defeat the SABR Magicians 8-4 and maintain a two game lead. AGF, who pulled out a 6-5 win over the gashouse gorillas on Sunday, remains second. Baird Brain edged two games closer to the third-place Moscow Rats with a 7-5 victory, while Mebion Glyndwr settled for a 6-6 tie with the Chatsworth Halos to hold down fifth spot. Billie’s Bashers made the week’s biggest move among first-division clubs, vaulting from ninth to sixth with a 10-2 rout of the Austin Senators.

At the other end of the standings, where the second-half race to avoid relegation will be as intense as the one to make the championship playoffs, a 10-2 romp improved the Thunderbirds’ precarious position while burying Jick’s Rays deeper in the basement. Garces_not_on_roids whipped the Reykjavik Fish Candy 9-3; those two teams are now tied for 18th and 19th, but within striking distance (less than six games) of five other rivals and a mere 11 game improvement away from reaching the consolation playoff bracket.

Here's where we stand at the break:

  #  Team                     W-L-T      Pct    GB   
  1  Toronto Walrus          78-46-8    .621    --  
  2  AGF                     76-48-8    .606     2 
  3  Moscow Rats             75-53-4    .583     5  
  4  Baird Brain             73-54-5    .572     6.5  
  5  Mebion Glyndwr          72-55-5    .564     7.5 
  6  Billie's Bashers        72-57-3    .557     8.5 
  7  Eastern Shore Birds     70-59-3    .542    10.5 
  8  Red Mosquitos           68-58-6    .538    11  
  9  hannibal's cannibals    64-57-11   .527    12.5 
 10  Chatsworth Halos        68-61-3    .527    12.5  
 11  gashouse gorillas       65-60-7    .519    13.5   
 12  Horse Field Hammers     63-62-7    .504    15.5   
 13  Springfield Isotopes    57-67-8    .462    21 
 14  SABR Magicians          58-68-6    .462    21   
 15  K-Town Mashers          56-68-8    .455    22 
 16  Austin Senators         53-69-10   .439    24  
 17  Thunderbirds            55-73-4    .432    25  
 18  Garces_not_on_roids     54-75-3    .420    26.5  
 19  Reykjavik Fish Candy    54-75-3    .420    26.5  
 20  Jick's Rays             30-96-6    .250    49

This week, Jordan and I were separated by 0.04 in ERA and 0.02 in WHIP going into Sunday’s games, when inspiration struck. Like many a “brilliant” managerial strategy, it made no difference. Holding a safe lead in IP, I benched two of my three starters, gave my middle relievers the day off, and with a micromanaging eye on ratios, sat Shawn Chacon, who had earned three saves already. What I didn’t anticipate was Miguel Batista’s 7.1 shutout innings, which (with a big assist from Vinny Chulk) was just enough to steal ERA and prevent me from sweeping the pitching stats.

Even with the great Jim Thome going .391/.500/1.174 including a monster Sunday, I couldn't quite catch the Magicians in the hitting rate stats. Fortunately, the Walrus wheels kept spinning like crazy — for the week we swiped 13 bases and scored 48 runs, which will usually win those categories. Then, a late afternoon HR by Junior Spivey gave us the lead in RBI, which made up for ERA slipping away. It feels good to have Cabal bragging rights for another year. If only there was a Cabal.

I’m obviously delighted with the first half, after leading the league for the last 10 weeks. My draft was very good — the six guys I took in rounds 19-24 have made a world of difference. Letting all the other catchers go and “settling for” Johnny Estrada was a pre-draft strategy that worked, as did targeting Ronnie Belliard and Royce Clayton as adequate middle infielders everyone else would ignore. I landed Carlos Silva and Jason Marquis as my “deep sleeper” pitchers, and while 22nd-rounder Matt Lawton was also on my potential bargoon list, he has worked out far better than I hoped. Marlon Byrd in the 11th was the only selection I regret — the Phillies sent him to Triple-A yesterday — but nobody’s perfect on draft day. Hell, last year I took Brandon Larson and (shudder) Jeff Weaver.

I’m pleased with turning sixth- and seventh-round picks Damon and Hunter into Bobby Abreu; that was one of those trades that is supposed to help both teams. As usual, I’ve trolled the free agent list for pitching help, recycling the middle relievers I drafted for speculative picks. Waiving Flash Gordon for Terry Adams was my most severe brain cramp (Wagner was hurt at the time; I was desperate for SV) but I’m quite content with Ryan Madson, Bronson Arroyo, Jose Lima and Chad Gaudin, so far. My theory is, if you keep turning over your 25th man, and sometimes your 24th, sooner or later you might get someone good.

Who knows what to expect in the second half? There's a considerable amount of luck in fantasy ball, especially in Head-to-Head play. My chances are very closely tied to Curt Schilling’s ankle; he makes the difference between an adequate rotation and a pretty good one. If Carlos Delgado comes back strong, I may be able to trade a bat for an arm. For the short term, I’m just hoping to earn a pitching point or two this week against the awesome staff of AGF, while winning as many hitting categories as possible. There are no easy matchups in this league, but #1 vs. #2 is a big one.

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