BBFL Week 13: Better Lucky Than Smart

Monday, July 05 2004 @ 09:39 AM EDT

Contributed by: Coach

With nine weeks remaining in the BBFL regular season, absolutely nothing has been decided, but it's nice to have a little more breathing room at the top.

My Toronto Walrus defeated the Gashouse Gorillas 9-1, in a contest that was much tighter than the score suggests. Second place AGF won the all-California matchup with Chatsworth Halos by a 7-5 margin. Baird Brain turned things around on the weekend to defeat the Springfield Isotopes 7-4 and take over sole possession of third spot. The Moscow Rats stumbled a bit, losing 7-5 to the Reykjavik Fish Candy, but remain fourth. Billie’s Bashers took over fifth by beating the SABR Magicians 8-4, while sixth-place Mebion Glyndwr battled to a 6-6 draw with Red Mosquitos. The Eastern Shore Birds, who edged the K-Town Mashers 7-5, remain in the thick of the race, and the Horse Field Hammers, with the most lopsided win of the week (10-2 over the Thunderbirds) jumped from 12th to 9th in the standings.

Twelve teams are above .500, jockeying for playoff positions, then there's a gap of 5.5 games to the second division, where Jick's Rays, despite whipping Hannibal's Cannibals 9-3 this week, remain the distant cellar dwellers. Seven other clubs are bunched within ten games, with a chance to move up into the Consolation playoff bracket, but perhaps more focus on avoiding relegation. Our Commissioner's trade of a keeper, the injured Vernon Wells, for immediate pitching help from Brad Radke, is an example of how this new rule is changing our league. Props to King Rat for pulling it off; I had suggested something similar to Moffatt, but was too worried about my pitching depth. Here's where we stand through Week 13:

  #  Team                      W-L-T       Pct    GB   
  1  Toronto Walrus           93-52-11    .631    -- 
  2  AGF                      88-59-9     .593     6 
  3  Baird Brain              87-62-7     .580     8  
  4  Moscow Rats              86-66-4     .564    10.5 
  5  Billie's Bashers         85-67-4     .558    11.5 
  6  Mebion Glyndwr           84-66-6     .558    11.5 
  7  Eastern Shore Birds      83-70-3     .542    14 
  8  Red Mosquitos            80-69-7     .535    15   
  9  Horse Field Hammers      77-72-7     .516    18 
 10  Chatsworth Halos         77-74-5     .510    19   
 11  hannibal's cannibals     73-72-11    .503    20  
 12  gashouse gorillas        74-73-9     .503    20  
 13  Springfield Isotopes     68-78-10    .468    25.5   
 14  Austin Senators          67-78-11    .465    26  
 15  SABR Magicians           68-80-8     .462    26.5  
 16  Reykjavik Fish Candy     67-86-3     .439    30   
 17  Garces_not_on_roids      67-86-3     .439    30 
 18  K-Town Mashers           63-85-8     .429    31.5 
 19  Thunderbirds             61-90-5     .407    35  
 20  Jick's Rays              43-106-7    .298    52

In our match, Snellville had three pitchers starting early games on Sunday, while I could wait until 4:30 before deciding whether to use Carlos Silva. All three Gorillas pitched into the sixth, giving him the lead in IP, but when Capuano had one bad inning and the Cleveland bullpen coughed up a “sure” Westbrook W, I figured there was a good chance at regaining IP and a remote shot at a win (the Twins were facing Randy Johnson) at the risk of squandering my lead in the pitching rate categories. I was leading 8-3, but greedy. Though Silva was shaky early, he came through. What I didn’t expect was 10 unanswered runs by the Rockies, who had been trailing 8-zip, and a tying SV from the often erratic Shawn Chacon.

So that worked out OK, but I made another questionable managerial decision, blowing my #8 waiver priority on Paul Byrd, whose first two starts of the season (after missing almost two years with TJ surgery) were promising before he was rained out after two innings last time. I have always admired the crafty righty, but if he gets lit up against the anemic Expos in now pitcher-friendly Hiram Bithorn today, I’ll feel very foolish. Then I'll remind myself that every GM — real or fantasy — makes mistakes, and continue the never-ending quest to find another castoff pitcher who might help.

The Hammers are sure to be a formidable opponent, especially this week, as the quirks of HtH scheduling give Geoff two starts each from Clemens and Schmidt. He also has that Bonds guy, so my team, which might get the Delgado kid back, will need to be on its toes again just to split. After that, because of the All-Star break, the "Week" 15 matchups will be only four days, which makes luck, including pitching rotations, an even bigger factor than usual.

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