There was only one objection to the idea of offseason trading in our Yahoo league. What remains to be determined is exactly when it will occur. In last week's BBFL thread, there were a couple of good suggestions, and many of you made comments in your e-mail votes. The floor is now open for more specific proposals and discussion. I like the idea of both a post-season trading period, and a window immediately prior to freezing keepers for next year's draft. I don't even care if it's unlimited trading all winter, but some may object to that. Thanks to Spicol for volunteering to maintain the offseason rosters, and with Da Box moving to yet another bigger and better server this month, I'm sure we'll be able to have some league pages on the site.
The proposal to add a fifth keeper also passed, receiving 15 "yes" votes and four reasonable objections. By a 12-7 margin, we chose to maintain the status quo on OF eligibility. Because it's a first-year league, the Head-to-Head format was new to many, and there had been much debate about our scoring categories, I thought there might have been other concerns, but we seem quite content. At the "winter meetings" we can talk about additional rule modifications, including "no more midseason changes," which at least one owner strongly supports. The suggestion to process undisputed trades faster in the future is worth discussing, and other ideas may be forthcoming.
In Week 15, the rich got richer at the top of the standings. Snelville's counting down the magic number to his first-round playoff bye, leading the third place team by a whopping 19 games. I'm 10.5 games back, but comfortably in second, and not likely to get swept by anyone -- my hitters are really hitting. Behind us, it's a war -- ten teams within 10 games, fighting for the four remaining spots in the championship playoff round. Jicks Rays made a huge move this week, from 11th to seventh, by swatting the Red Mosquitos 9-3; Spicol's team slipped from fifth to ninth. He's actually in a three way "tie" for seventh with Jicks and K-Town sporting identical .519 winning percentages; just another reminder -- we have no control over Yahoo's tiebreaking rules.
The standings, with just seven weeks (OK, 6 1/2) remaining:
I'm not complaining about an 8-4 win over Jonny last week, but it had been 9-3 for several days, and I blundered away a category Sunday with some truly inept management of my pitching staff. It may surprise some of you, but I'm not a big Jeff Weaver fan. In addition to trashing him on the game thread, I sat him against the Jays, and played a hunch -- the Giants had mauled Curt Schilling the day before, and spot starter Jim Brower was a free agent. Picking him up (and benching Weaver) was indeed clever -- cost me ERA for the week, and nearly WHIP. Oh, well. Even the best managers lose a few games for their team over a season. A hitting line of 51 50 5 .322 .377 .508 is pretty respectable, and I did pick up Chris Mears while the rest of you were snoozing.
On the trading block: Matt Morris. I am trying to win the T-shirt this year, and I fear he isn't going to be as much help in September as he will in 2004. If you're rebuilding, want a genuine keeper, and can offer me short-term pitching help, I'm listening. I'm looking for a solid starter who isn't quite a keeper. And say, did you see Jeff Weaver's line yesterday? He's available for an upgrade at catcher or middle infielder. If you have a vacant DL spot, Cliff "No, really, I'm fine, it's only a flesh wound" Politte could be a throw-in. Only 13 shopping days until the deadline.
The proposal to add a fifth keeper also passed, receiving 15 "yes" votes and four reasonable objections. By a 12-7 margin, we chose to maintain the status quo on OF eligibility. Because it's a first-year league, the Head-to-Head format was new to many, and there had been much debate about our scoring categories, I thought there might have been other concerns, but we seem quite content. At the "winter meetings" we can talk about additional rule modifications, including "no more midseason changes," which at least one owner strongly supports. The suggestion to process undisputed trades faster in the future is worth discussing, and other ideas may be forthcoming.
In Week 15, the rich got richer at the top of the standings. Snelville's counting down the magic number to his first-round playoff bye, leading the third place team by a whopping 19 games. I'm 10.5 games back, but comfortably in second, and not likely to get swept by anyone -- my hitters are really hitting. Behind us, it's a war -- ten teams within 10 games, fighting for the four remaining spots in the championship playoff round. Jicks Rays made a huge move this week, from 11th to seventh, by swatting the Red Mosquitos 9-3; Spicol's team slipped from fifth to ninth. He's actually in a three way "tie" for seventh with Jicks and K-Town sporting identical .519 winning percentages; just another reminder -- we have no control over Yahoo's tiebreaking rules.
The standings, with just seven weeks (OK, 6 1/2) remaining:
# Team W-L-T Win % GBWeek 16 is going to be short, and it's possible that one or two teams will have trouble meeting the minimum innings-pitched requirement. Sorry, I can't change that setting (or any other) -- they were locked May 9. Even more than in a typically volatile HtH matchup, anything can happen, and it probably will.
1 gashouse gorillas 115-57-8 .661 --
2 Toronto Walrus 105-68-7 .603 10.5
3 Baird Brain 95-75-10 .556 19
4 Billies Bashers 93-78-9 .542 21.5
5 AGF 93-82-5 .531 23.5
6 Mebion Glyndwr 93-83-4 .528 24
7 Jicks Rays 89-82-9 .519 25.5
8 K-Town Mashers 91-84-5 .519 25.5
9 Red Mosquitos 88-81-11 .519 25.5
10 Nation Builders 89-85-6 .511 27
11 Chatsworth Halos 88-85-7 .508 27.5
12 Sub-Urban Shockers 85-84-11 .503 28.5
13 Reykjavik Fish Candy 84-88-8 .489 31
14 Eastern Shore Birds 82-90-8 .478 33
15 Springfield Isotopes 79-92-9 .464 35.5
16 Moscow Rats 78-92-10 .461 36
17 Thunderbirds 73-100-7 .425 42.5
18 Hannibals Cannibals 67-100-13 .408 45.5
19 Garces_not_on_roids 67-104-9 .397 47.5
20 Geoffs Grumpy Group 65-109-6 .378 51
I'm not complaining about an 8-4 win over Jonny last week, but it had been 9-3 for several days, and I blundered away a category Sunday with some truly inept management of my pitching staff. It may surprise some of you, but I'm not a big Jeff Weaver fan. In addition to trashing him on the game thread, I sat him against the Jays, and played a hunch -- the Giants had mauled Curt Schilling the day before, and spot starter Jim Brower was a free agent. Picking him up (and benching Weaver) was indeed clever -- cost me ERA for the week, and nearly WHIP. Oh, well. Even the best managers lose a few games for their team over a season. A hitting line of 51 50 5 .322 .377 .508 is pretty respectable, and I did pick up Chris Mears while the rest of you were snoozing.
On the trading block: Matt Morris. I am trying to win the T-shirt this year, and I fear he isn't going to be as much help in September as he will in 2004. If you're rebuilding, want a genuine keeper, and can offer me short-term pitching help, I'm listening. I'm looking for a solid starter who isn't quite a keeper. And say, did you see Jeff Weaver's line yesterday? He's available for an upgrade at catcher or middle infielder. If you have a vacant DL spot, Cliff "No, really, I'm fine, it's only a flesh wound" Politte could be a throw-in. Only 13 shopping days until the deadline.
