HBL Week 5: Hey Carl Crawford, Hit Or Get Off The Pot!

And we're back for yet another year of blogging my fantasy baseball team.  Because, quite honestly, I found great pleasure in re-reading some of the craziness I posted in relation to the 2010 season.

I signed Benji Molina  year ago today.  Really?  Really?  Things are so much better this year (kind of).

Here's the deal.  My fantasy team is rolling with Russell Martin at catcher while Carlos Santana works the kinks out.  I was able to pick up Martin in exchange for Ian Kennedy a couple weeks ago.  I liked Ian a lot, but quite frankly I was never going to trust him enough to play him this year.

I went the value pitching route this year, rather than throwing all my money into say CC Sabathia or Dan Haren.  Although, at this point, those would have been great moves.  I'm suffering from Win-itis on my team right now.

You see, on a weekly basis, I trot out some combination of 4 or 5 starters from a group of Brett Anderson, Josh Beckett, Derek Lowe, and Ricky Nolasco.  I've been smart enough not to pitch John Lackey up until this point, although I did make the mistake of running Narveson out there this week for 2 starts.  But anyway, as I was saying, these cats aren't winning any games, and while I've been rolling out three closers in Papelbon, Marmol, and Bell that also means that I'm dead last in Ks.

ERA and WHIP are great, which is the reverse of a year ago.  It took every fantastic 2 start option I could find last year to pile up enough Ks and every safe SP start to bring down my ERA and WHIP from the mountains they began the year on in 2010.

Although in 2011 I face a similar problem to what I like to call the Lance Berkman fiasco from last season.

CARL CRAWFORD.  WOULD YOU PLEASE HIT THE BASEBALL AND STEAL SOME BASES?  YOU ARE DRIVING ME INSANE.

I can handle Aubrey Huff not hitting.  That happens.  Frequently.  But Carl Crawford was supposed to walk on water in Boston with PEDroida, Gonzalez, Big Youk, Ellsbury, etc.  Now he hits 8th behind Jed "Career Year" Lowrie and right infront of Jarrod "Way Too Much" Saltalamacchia.

I'm benching Carl Crawford next week, and I'm sick about it.

Week 5 should also mark the return of Evan Longoria.  Finally.  A month without Longo.  Thank God I have Jose Bautista as well.  Chipper Jones and Scott Rolen were both trotted out for a couple of weeks, but they can't seem to stay in the lineup much of the time and Rolen hit the DL already.

The only people I can applaud on this team up to this point are Rickie Weeks and Troy Tulowitzki.  Thank you guys.  Thank you for doing your jobs.  Now let's go out there this week and start the march toward back to back titles.

We Are The Champions!

Totally nerdy, but my fantasy baseball team took down the title. This is my fourth in 11 years. Very, very exciting stuff.

I plan to take some of the winnings and get some cards. Maybe break a box and get a couple cards of my team MVPs: Troy Tulowitzki, Evan Longoria, Carl Crawford, and Jose Bautista.

So many choices.

I'm looking forward to being at Target Field on Wednesday night for Game 1 between the Yankees and Twins. Although I think the Yankees are the better team, and the Twins pitching is sputtering, I feel like it's just time for the Twins to move past these guys in a short series. I'll be cheering my heart out on Wednesday night!

The Post Season Is Looming

It doesn't seem like that long ago that the Brewers were riding workhorse CC Sabathia's arm into the October lime-light . . . . ahhhhh the memories.

I really do get excited for playoff baseball. Although I wonder why the first round is played during the day, but I digress.

Lucky me, I've got tickets to Game 1 and Game 5 (if necessary) at Target Field to see the loser of the Yanks/Rays divisional battle take on the Twins in the first round. I couldn't be more excited.

I've never seen playoff baseball (remember, grew up near Milwaukee, with the Brewers, enough said). For Game 1 we'll be sitting in the RF bleachers near the open plaza area where Thome likes to swat those moon shots. So excited. The Twins really are my adopted team, and even though I grew up a Brewers fan I've gotten extremely close with this team as well.

The Twins pitching seems to be sputtering a bit here down the stretch, but hopefully these silly 5 game series help out a bit with that. I've never been a huge fan of Carl Pavano, but he pitched decent most of the year. Hopefully he and Liriano can pitch a couple of gems next week and allow me to also see my first ALCS. Tickets are in hand for that, should it happen.

And finally, a little nod to my fantasy baseball team, making a run for the title in the final week. Currently in first place, trying to power through the loss of Longo, only 5 days remain before I find out if I bring home title number four in 11 years. I've got midweek starts coming from Derek Lowe (he's been on fire of late), Ian Kennedy, and Justin Verlander. I'm praying for good outings.

I still owe a couple people trade posts, and I'll get to those this week. Promise!

Here we go!

I had quite the man-crush on Luke Scott going into the year, for fantasy baseball purposes. Even though he's a streaky hitter, I love his power, and I thought he'd slot nicely into the middle of that Baltimore lineup giving him plenty of RBI opps.

Because of this, my buddy Brian got me a Luke Scott autographed ball while he was down visiting Rays and Twins spring training, oh, you know, 5 months ago. Better late than never I always say.

So that's what you've got going on the the picture up there. Luke Scott.

Speaking of Luke Scott, he, along with about 12 other guys have been leading a charge for my fantasy baseball team of late. We've surged back up to 4th place after being as low as 10th two weeks ago, and as high as 1st 8 weeks ago. What an up and down season it's been.

Sadly for Luke, he's been way too hot to keep rolling with, and Aubrey Huff has been way to cold to not gamble on.

So this week I'm rolling out VMart, Huff, Weeks, Rollins, Longoria, Crawford, something called Gregor Blanco, Bautista, and Tulo.

It was a tough call at DH between Jeter and Tulo, but Rollins provides more SBs than Jeter, and Tulo will provide more RBIs than both. Plus I just played Tulo through a .150 stretch last week and I'd like to make some of that up if he gets hot.

As for pitching, we've been rolling out as many 2 start guys off the waiver wire as possible to try to catch up in Wins. We're middle of the pack in WHIP and low in ERA, so we might as well try to gain 7 points in Wins. Last week we went 5 for 12 in Wins. Not terrible.

This week we're going 3 starters and 4 closers: Verlander, Dickey (FA pickup), Rzepcynski (FA pickup, I love this kid for next year), and Bell/Marmol/Wagner/Kuo for the saves. Should be an interesting week. Only 5 starts, but plenty of nice save opps.

As for the card collecting front. I sent some minis off to JD's Wild Cardz today since he's diggint that sort of thing of late.

Anyone else out there doing some notable trading? I'd love to get back into the game.

HBL Week 14 & The Ginter Code Update

I can sum up how I already feel about this week of fantasy baseball in 2 words. John Ely.

Sweet jebus man, all I wanted was your super safe ERA and WHIP, mediocre Ks, and possibility to notch a win in 2 starts and you go and DESTROY me last night. Thanks buddy. If Jake Peavy hadn't become a man in recent weeks I'd probably be more upset.

So I'm rolling 6 starters out there this week. Ely and Medlen are pitching out of the relief spots in my rotation (thank you dual eligibility), to go with Peavy, Verlander, Niemann, and Kennedy. Billy Wagner is the only closer getting a shot this week. Marmol has been brutal on the WHIP lately and Heath Bell has been brutal on it all year, albeit in limited innings. I can roll three closers later, time to catch up in Wins and Ks (fingers crossed).

I'm doing some ridiculous stuff on offense this week. I was forced to pick up Ronny Paulino to after playing without a catcher last week (VMart), and now I'm starting Russell Branyan at first base. Yup, I am. Weeks, Jeter, Rollins, Longoria, Crawford, Byrd and Aubrey Huff (I think he's back to hitting) round out the rest. Looking forward to climbing back into 2nd or 3rd place if I can have a good week.

On the baseball card front, I busted my box of 2010 Allen & Ginter last Friday. I didn't do scans, but I took pictures of every pack as I ripped it for the Gint-a-Cuffs contest. I'll have to spend some time tallying up and posting the break soon.

I continue to work on the Ginter Code. It's brutal. As far as I can tell, no one solved it in the first week. Not even the two champs teaming up have broken it, or if they have, they haven't said anything yet. I quickly scanned some of the other blogs and forums this morning but haven't seen anyone claiming to have solved it yet.

The Ginter Code

I'll be honest, my fantasy baseball team and my card collecting has me depressed of late. I can't seem to get anything scanned (lack of time, not motivation) and my baseball team keeps getting more and more decimated by injuries.

Quick rundown shows I tried to do something about it though. Traded Uggla and Thornton for Rollins and Wagner this week - which looks lopsided but I can't keep either player next year and the other guy can keep both . . . details.

VMart (if he plays, really don't want to call up wonder boy Carlos Santana), Berkman (wait? I thought you stopped playing him???), Weeks (he'll be hurt in 20 minutes), Jeter & Longoria (these guys did NOT hit in June), Byrd (jebus, really?), Crawford (will he log more than 7 ABs this week? hope so!), Magglio, and newly acquired Jimmy Rollins. What will I do with 3 shortstops in August when Tulo comes back? No idea.

Back to what's important, the Ginter Code. Last year's co-champ, Nick Jacoby, already has a headstart on this years code. Thanks Nick for letting me steal that Code advert from your site!

From what I've been able to assess based on early ebay listings (no code cards), the wrapper Nick posted on his site (no code parallels listed), and from my gut feeling based on how quickly it was solved last year by Mike and Nick, I have a feeling that the code itself won't be as obvious this year. Meaning, you probably need to actually investigate each card or maybe some of the subsets/short prints to "see what you can see".

Although, for now, until cases, boxes, and packs show up, only Nick Jacoby (and any other early busters) know for sure.

It's Been A While

This is a smaller version of a post I've been meaning to write for a while.

As I've said in the past, I have been digging through the tens of thousands of cards I've been slowing bringing back to my house from my parents basement.

This card caught my eye the other day. It doesn't scan well, so my apologies for that, but it's a 1992 Rookie Sensation card of Darren Lewis. For starters I was unaware that Darren played for 13 seasons. I was aware that he was a speed guy with little to no power. I think even Craig Counsell's career OPS puts him to shame.

Anyway, I was struck by the blue card. I remember I was chasing someone's rookie sensation card from this set, but I can't remember who. I do remember really liking the blue cards and it might explain my infatuation with the 2003 Topps set. Anyone else have any memory of this subset?

On a side note, my fantasy baseball team is in a state of disarray. It's like I'm in a game of No Limit Hold 'Em and I can't survive the swings, they're killing me.

Tulowitzki's yearly broken bone and subsequent 2 month absence is really going to put a dent in my championship plans. I'm pondering dealing him for a Ryan Howard/Prince Fielder type guy with a closer tossed in to round out my rotation that's apparently now rounding into shape.

Jake Peavy's dead arm may finally be a thing of the past, but I fear that it's too late for him (and Verlander) to help me make up the distance in the K category. I was counting on those two guys for ~500 Ks. I might get 400. That's going to cost me 6-7 roto points. Darn you two.

As for the offense. Sadly, Nick Swisher is all I have to go on at first base and since he's still batting over .280, I'm going to be taking the plunge when his average dies, total bases dry up and RBIs go away. He'll probably still walk a bunch and score runs if they let him bat second enough.

Victor Martinez, Kid Swish, Uggla, Jeter, and Longoria will round out the infield for now. Crawford, Magglio (gosh, wish I didn't have to sit him last week due to injury concerns), and Marlon Byrd make up the outfield, and this is how dire things are. I'm starting Rickie Weeks at DH. Yup, Rickie Weeks. It's bad. I can't even bring myself to look at Berkman or Jose Bautista.

The pitching staff seems okay, but I really wish I had Brett Anderson healthy. Peavy and Verlander are joined by Kennedy (tough luck guy lately, pitches great, can't win), and Jeff Niemann. 5th starter d'jour continues to be Kris Medlen until he makes me think otherwise. Marmol and shaky shaky Heath Bell are the two savers.

I really do have a backlog of post ideas I need to get out here, I've been stuck on a side project for a while now, and I don't envision it getting any better anytime soon with the Ginter Code dropping this week. Take care. Until next time!

News & Notes

Last week I officially pre-ordered my box of Allen & Ginter. I'm very excited for the release even though I don't necessarily dig the cards themselves that much. There are, however, a couple of reasons to be excited.

#1 - GINT-A-CUFFS. I made a decent showing last year and I'm hoping to pull off a win.

#2 - The Ginter Code. One half of last year's championship duo is already talking repeat. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out this link.

One quick note about fantasy baseball. My team has started to roll, even if Derek Holland blew out his rotator cuff the same week I dropped a pile of money in his lap.

Lance Berkman has finally been given the heave ho at first base. Nick Swisher is in the lineup in his stead. Once he goes cold it's anyone's guess who we plug in there. VMart, Kid Swish, Weeks (Uggla is cold as heck), Tulo, Longoria, Crawford, Magglio, JD Drew, and Derek Jeter round out the potent offense.

On the pitching side of things, Ben Sheets takes Derek Hollands place, this only after I lost out in the bidding for John Ely. Sheets, Blue Steel, Bell, Marmol, Kennedy, and Niemann join Brett Anderson this week. That's right, finally got Brett back. Hope he sticks around. Jake Peavy has joined Lance Berkman in the pariah club. Welcome to the bench Jake.

HBL Week 8: My Big Splash

Victor Martinez was my big fantasy baseball acquisition this past week, as seen here in his 2006 Topps Turkey Red card.

I felt I needed to make a move to put another above average bat in my lineup and Victor Martinez was in the unenviable position of playing for one of the last place teams in our league along with having a contract that is doubling (basically expiring) at the end of the year.

I won't say VMart came cheap, because he didn't. I laid out Jay Bruce and Tyler Flowers to land VMart and Ben Sheets. I was hoping to grab Sheets and let him sit on my bench for a while to see if he built arm strength and became useful even for a small stretch of the season. He did have a nice outing this weekend against the Giants.

My lineup now feels much better, but I could use another bat. Why? Because Lance Berkman is turds. There, I said it, pure turds. But I have been calling the Astros the worst team in baseball since very early April. They are horrid. Even Astros coverboy, Roy Oswalt, wants out. It's that bad. Berkman isn't hitting, Carlos Lee isn't hitting. No one is hitting.

So Lance is problem number one. Problem number two is icy cold Marlon Byrd. I still think based on park factors and his lineup slot that he'll be fine at the end of the year, but I would like a hot hand to swap in for him this week. Sadly, I didn't act fast enough and I'm adding JD Drew today. He won't officially suit up for us until next week and Byrd might be out of his 2x32 slump by then. Or he could be up to 3x56 and lose his job, who knows. All I know is I no longer have Jay Bruce to swap in. I'm really okay with this. I couldn't count on Bruce every week and he has a contract that wasn't totally desirable either (long term).

Martinez, Berkman and Byrd are joined by the other stalwarts: Dan "Red Hot" Uggla, Jeter, Tulowitzki, Longoria, Crawford and Magglio Ordonez. I love my lineup, just wish I had a 1b. I'm pondering playing Gaby Sanchez at 1b this week but can't seem to pull the trigger. Lance Berkman is a thorn in my side. He's hitting .292 over his last 14 games, but .190 something over his last 7. What to do?

Well, one thing I've worried very little about since April left town is the pitching staff. Jeff Niemann is living up to the hype I created for him this spring, Verlander and Peavy have gone back to being dominant, and Ian Kennedy looks like a young stud in AZ. Carlos Marmol has 44Ks out of the bullpen to go with a few saves, and we're starting to build some depth at SP with Sheets and newly acquired Derek Holland. We had to lay out a decent chunk of cash for Holland, but I'm hoping it's worth it. We've also added Kris Medlen. I like his arm, and so does Bobby Cox. It doesn't hurt that both Medlen and Holland are RP eligible if we decide to roll 7 SPs out there for a couple weeks to try to catch up in Ks and Wins.

That's all for this week, my goal is to get that box of 1998 Donruss Updates scanned this week so I can tell the tale of the Search for the Crusade Cards.

HBL Week 6

I figured I'd kill two birds with one post. Above is the third of four Goudeys I picked up in an ebay lot a couple weeks back. I've been slow to post and wanted to get it out there. I believe if they'd have made an entire set of these cards I'd have collected that as well. I like the cartoon details on the front, it just appeals to me.

Over to the HBL. My team has made great strides in the past two weeks. The pitching has really picked up with Peavy, Verlander, Beuhrle, Kenndedy, and Jeff Niemann. I can't say enough good things about Jeff Niemann this year. He's really starting to make his move toward the top tier of pitchers. He always had a really nice K rate in the minors and I've been comparing his career path with Ben Sheets (hopefully not the injuries). It took Sheets three full seasons before he finally brought the WHIP down and K-rate way up.

As good as the pitching has been the hitting has been equally terrible. Then came the injuries . . . to Benji Molina and Troy Tulowitzki. Molina, fine, I'll put AJ Pierzynski back in. Tulo? Well Tulo I was counting on busting out of his yearly slow start pretty soon, but he's hurt again. Am I surprised? Nope. Did I plan for this? Yup. Derek Jeter, you're a lucky man. You were going to grab some pine this week due to your all around crappy play, but you get a reprieve in the form of a Tulo quad injury.

I've been unhappy with Jeter all year due to his non-base-stealing. At this point I'd rather be playing Rickie Weeks at DH. More RBI, more runs, and more SBs, but then again, Rickie is due to be hurt in a week or so.

Lance Berkman is the other hitting I'm putting on notice. We will not abide another crappy week from you Lance. One more week Lance, that's it. We're sitting in the top half of the standings and I won't let you ruin things.

Lastly, Jay Bruce, I love you, but it's time to sit. I've got Marlon Byrd burning a hole in my pocket as well as most of the NL pitchers. So that's it, Jay Bruce sits till he hits (above .270).

HBL Week 5: Hey Lance Berkman, Hit Or Get Off The Pot!

Yes, that title will do nicely. It sums up my feelings leading into fantasy baseball Week 5.

Here's what has happened since we last checked in.

I promoted Jeff Niemann a week too late, Brett Anderson was promoted and promptly got injured, and I started stock piling draft picks for our upcoming minor league draft.

Week four was a banner period for the team. There are only two things I was upset about. Rickie Weeks and Dan Uggla have gone cold at the same time, and Lance Berkman still hasn't hit. Sure there are a variety of things I could complain about like my ERA being over 5 to start the period and my WHIP going over 1.50, but these things have started to work themselves out. Verlander had a nice game yesterday, and overall the pitching staff lead by Verlander, Peavy, Ian Kennedy, Jeff Niemann, Carlos Marmol, and Heath Bell can't possibly be this bad all year.

One thing I really love is that no matter how many guys Marmol puts on base, and no matter how many games the Cubs win by more than 4 runs (READ: All of them), he strikes out all three batters he faces like clockwork. Half the reason for acquiring Marmol and his saves was the K appeal.

But I digress, the pitching should be fine. If I can't have faith in Peavy and Verlander, I built my team completely wrong to start with and there's nothing I can do.

What I can be upset with is this turd of a month Lance Berkman has had. Are you healthy Lance? If not, go sit, I'll find someone else to fill in like I did with Huff for a couple weeks. I'm sick of playing you and seeing no power, no hits, just a bunch of sac flies and RBI ground outs. That's just turds. A word that is starting to become deeply synonymous with Lance Berkman. So that's it, Lance, hit.

Other moves I made were claiming Bengie Molina off waivers, putting in a bid on Wilson Ramos while he's filling in for Joe Mauer, and grabbing Marlon Byrd. I don't really think Byrd is all that great, but I'm playing defense here. Every other hitter I don't think is that great is currently on another roster continuing to put up solid numbers for the competition (I'm looking at you Callaspo, Alex Gonzalez, Kelly Johnson, Jose Guillen, Garret Jones, Polanco, Headley, and Ian Desmond). So this is pure defense. If I could tuck away Andruw Jones I would. But his batting average tells me no one is this 12 team league will touch him.

So that's the scoop, not much to report. We finished in 1st place for the period and are currently in 7th place overall. WHIP, Wins, and ERA are the only things holding us back right now, and hopefully that ship will right itself this week. If only I could find a way not to have to play Mark Beuhrle. I'm crossing my fingers and praying that the Toronto Wells don't light him up later this week. Until next week . . .

HBL Week 4

Once upon a time I thought Dave Bush would be a solid #3 for the Brewers, and even after two years of injuries I thought Dave could be a productive member of the staff.

I believed this because he was very good about not putting many runners on base. I believe he finished top 5 in WHIP in 2007. This is definitely not 2007.

Last week I pondered starting Jeff Niemann against Boston and Toronto or Dave Bush against the Pirates and the Cubs. Bush normally pitches much better at home, and well, the Pirates are still the Pirates. This decision looked like there was no way I could lose after the first Bush and Niemann starts. Bush took an easy win during the Pirates series that saw the Brewers outscore the Pirates 36-1 which included a 20 run outbust on Wednesday.

Well the plane definitely crashed into the mountain yesterday for Bush when he was just destroyed by Kosuke "April" Fukudome and the rest of the Cub bats.

Normally I could handle this sort of implosion, especially from a borderline fantasy starting pitcher, but after Jake Peavy and Justin Verlander, my aces, both imploded on the same night last week, well I'm at wits end. I've got a 5.22 ERA and 1.49 WHIP to chisel down starting this week. So welcome to the show Jeff Niemann. You join Brett Anderson (elbow), Verlander and Peavy, and Ian Kennedy in the rotation this week. I'm sitting Beuhrle due to general suckiness combined with the fact that he pitches @TEX and @NYY.

The lineup is pretty much status quoa. Pierzynski (better hit this week), Berkman, Weeks as my 2b d'jour, Jeter, Longoria, Crawford, Ordonez, Bruce (3of d'jour), and Tulowitzki. Tough to sit Uggla, and tough to play Musical Outfielders with Bruce and Francouer since guessing will probably lead to guessing wrong again. Sat Bruce last week and he outhit Frenchy by a mile.

I'm hoping to bring myself some good luck, I sent the Peavy T206 card I mentioned here over to White Sox Cards. I feel like I need to exercise some Verlander demons as well. Anyone interested in receiving a T206 Verlander in the mail this week? Just let me know.

As a side note, thus far this season I started stashing away some minor league talent including Josh Bell and Todd Frazier. This is in addition to Gaby Sanchez who I have no real need for but I'm hoping shows some promise as a late bloomer.

Jeff Niemann Auto

Jeff Niemann. I love you, but I'm scared to know if you love me back. That's why I couldn't possibly have started you this week in fantasy baseball.

You see Jeff, it's been a long time since I had feelings like this about a young pitcher - and well, I don't want to be hurt again.

Many have hurt me Jeff, too many to recount. But I'll try. Just last year there was Johnny Cueto, Jon Sanchez, and Chris Volstad to name a few. Oh, before that there was Phil Hughes, and his AL East cohort Clay Buchholz. Go back further and you'll find Joel Zumaya. I'm telling you, this list could go on forever.

That's it Jeff, while I totally dig this dorky photo on your 2009 Topps card, along with the sweet autograph you supplied my friend Brian while he swung by Spring Training last month, I simply didn't have it in me to see if you would love me back this week against Boston and the Toronto Wells. Yes, at this point, Vernon Wells has become bigger than the team itself, hence I move for them to rename the franchise.

Now if you somehow find it in you to destroy the Wells, and the Rays have won 12 straight, I'll have no choice but to see how you fair next week. But all I ask is that you don't hurt me Jeff. It would set me back a decade.

For the record, I went with Dave Bush against the Pirates (tonight) and Cubs if you'd like to see how I fare.

This begins three days of Rays autos that I'd like to post. I have a mini-obsession with that franchise, especially their pitching.

Let's Talk Baseball & Cards & HBL Week 3

Let's talk about everything and anything. It feels like a month since i last posted. Oh wait, it has been? Totally makes sense. Apparently these little baseball fans in training, newborn children, take up quite a bit of your time. Who'd have thunk that? My little guy's name is Theodore William.

I assure you we didn't name him after Teddy Higuera and Will Clark, two of my favorite players from the 80s. Nor did we name him after Ted Williams, but many of my baseball friends are already calling him Teddy Ballgame. Too funny. Theodore was a name we both liked and William is a family name, but no one has to know if I secretly appreciate his name for the baseball roots, right?

The nice part about my three weeks off from work is that I was able to get some scans in and recall some long lost trades I did.

My friend Brian and I also ran a team 50K race, so the Hoffman Rookie Card may or may not have changed hands, I'll have to do an update on that as well. What I can tell you is that we busted a box of 1998 Leaf Updates in search of the Crusade cards. If you've never seen these fantastic cards, take a look. I'm going to do a long post on that box break this week as well.

So back to where I started, the image that kicked off this post, the Jim Palmer Sports Royalty Goudey Graph. I actually purchased this card sometime back in January or February. I took such a liking to what most people decided was a horrible set - I knew my first Palmer auto should be from it. I'm very happy to have added it to my collection. I also spent some time bidding and losing out on a couple different Jim Palmer rookie cards from the 1966 Topps set. I'll likely make another run at one. Since I know there are many Palmer collectors out there, do any of you have one? Did you use ebay to snag it? Just curious.

Speaking of Jim Palmer, I could really use him on my fantasy team this week. First a quick recap of the first two weeks of my season.

Berkman got hurt, I got mad. Signed Aubrey Huff and Luke Scott. Guess which is still on my team? As a flier I also picked up Gaby Sanchez last week. Everything I've read says he should be a middle of the order bat for the Marlins down the road. I'd like that very much. He's hit 8th much of the season, but I've got the patience to wait on him. I like him.

I've also had to scramble at the outfield position. While I still like Jay Bruce, I can't let him do to me this year what BJ Upton did to me last year. I continually started Upton all year despite his lack of usefulness outside of stolen bases. I always thought to myself "this is the month he gets the power back". It never happened. While Bruce has 2 steals, he also only has 1 run scored and 2 RBI in two weeks. That's killing me. So I made the hot waiver pickup, Jeff Francouer. Other than the 20 inning extravaganza that was played last night he's been on fire. Taking walks even! I can't believe it. But I'll try to ride his hot streak this week.

Another guy on my 'list' is Raul Ibanez. I traded for him in the off-season full well knowing I despised the guy because I didn't understand where he came from and why he was good. He played in Philly and hit behind Howard and Utley so I was willing to give it a go. Well the Phillies decided to hit him 6th this year which makes him mostly useless to me. He was rendered completely useless by not hitting, ever. At all. Luckily I was able to trade Justin Frasor right before he lost his closer job for Magglio Ordonez.

The other trouble spot for me so far has been starting pitching. Verlander and Peavy had terrible first weeks, and while each had 2 starts this week, and both pitched better, I still didn't get a win out of either pitching. In fact, I don't think I have a win this week. Brett Anderson and Ian Kennedy also both had 2 starts and neither won their first game on Tuesday. Both also pitch today. Realistically I'm just looking for Kennedy not to get BLOWD UP, and Anderson to pitch well. Here's to hoping.

And to round out my first (long) post back in a while, I'll give you the tough calls I made this week in fantasy baseball.

I like the Marlins going on the road to Houston and Colorado. Houston might be the worst team in the NL. I've been saying that since before the season. Because of this, I'm going to give Gaby Sanchez a start at 1b instead of Aubrey Huff, and I'm going to play Dan Uggla (red hot) over Rickie Weeks (also red hot) just because I don't necessarily need the steals from Rickie right now. I can still cheer for him all week.

My last tough call is whether or not to promote Jeff Niemann this week to pitch against Boston and Toronto. Boston's lineup scares me, and no one has been able to stop Vernon (back on the roids) Wells. Seriously, does anyone else think that Wells was sick of being a punchline and just decided to do whatever he had to do to stop getting picked on? I do. Anyway, I can't decide if I want to use Niemann, double down on Ian Kennedy for a second week, or use Dave Bush on the road against the Pirates and at home against the Cubs. Leaning toward Bush. Bush is normally great at home and poor on the road, but it's the Pirates on the road. Bush would join Peavy, Verlander, Anderson, Beuhrle, Marmol, and Heath Bell for Week 3.

As for the rest of my hitters, catcher is set with AJ (ice cold) Pierzynski. Third base, shortstop and DH are set all season with Longoria, Derek Jeter, and Troy Tulowitzki - also known as the heart of my team. And Carl Crawford takes the other outfield spot next to Maggs and Frenchy.

This post got super long, but I'm glad to be back, I might have enough in me to do 2 posts a day for a while, so long as I can find the time.

One last note since I talked with a few of you other bloggers about MLB The Show. I spent three weeks playing this game, bought the PS3 just to play it, and I love it. I honed in on a set of sliders that make it realistic and fun for me, and now that I have I'm starting a Brewers dynasty. Let's see how much I get to play now that I'm back at work.

HBL Dynasty Team

It's that time of year again. My hopes and dreams are alive and well. All the various hamstrings, rotator cuffs and elbows are secure and in place.

The Hampshire Baseball League is a dynasty version of fantasy baseball. I created the league back in 2000, where it was still run with spreadsheets and email/phone call transactions. It wasn't until 2001 that we took our show online to CBS.

I'll be honest, I have no idea how I put the concept for this league together, but somehow we ended up with a fantasy game that mimics the MLB pretty well.

For starters, our twelve team league rolls with a 25 man roster. We start nine hitters, one from each position plus a DH, and seven pitchers. We're required by commissioner decree to play at least three starting pitchers and two relief pitchers. The other two pitchers are dealers choice.

Our rosters round out with a 9 man bench. In addition to this, we conduct a yearly Minor League Player draft during the All-Star break. This is to fill our 10 minor league spots. You can draft whomever you'd like in this draft so long as they've not exhausted rookie eligibility requirement as established by MLB.

As I said in the beginning, this is a dynasty league. A keeper league but with no real limit on the number of players you can keep. It breaks down like this.

We use a salary cap of $54.25. That's real money (we've since added a buy-in fee of $50 to spice things up as we've gotten older and more established financially).

You may use that $54.25 as you wish across your 25 players. After the season, each player you decided to keep will cost you an additional $0.50. A $1.00 player will become $1.50 in Year 2. Every three years, a player's salary will double instead of moving up $0.50. Here's an example, the best from our league, Albert Pujols.

2001: 0.25
2002: 0.75
2003: 1.25
2004: 2.50
2005: 3.00
2006: 3.50
2007: 7.00
2008: 7.50
2009: 8.00
2010: 16.00

We actually thought no one would ever survive 10 years on the same contract, but after owning AP for 9 years, the original owner who plucked him off the waiver pile in 2001 for a quarter just traded him to a team that found a home for his $16.00. Incredible.

As you can see, keeping even 10 players will increase your overall salary a minimum of $5, and if any of those players is doubling you may find yourself strapped for cash in a heartbeat. Especially when doling out $16.00 to AP.

This is why the Minor League Draft is critical. Much like MLB, growing your own talent is crucial to building a competitive team in this league. Each year, the auction we have in March is filled with players who were dumped because their salaries became unmanagable for one reason or another. As you can imagine in this dynasty league, the pickings are slim in the March auction and this leads to over-inflated prices. Sure you can find some deals, but someone like CC Sabathia is now available every March because someone will inevitably overpay for pitching.

This is why I say our league mirrors the MLB setup quite a bit. Players drafted in the Minor League Draft are given a salary (once promoted) based on the round they were selected. $1.00 for first rounders, $0.75 for second, $0.50 for third, and $0.25 for fourth. With this structure in place, the contract increase and doubling system basically works as our arbitration process. If a player is good enough to keep, in his first 7 years in the league he may make: $1.00, $1.50, $2.00, $4.00, 4.50, $5.00, $10 before finally becoming a Free Agent.

I wanted to share this unique setup because I feel like there are a lot of 32 man roster, $260, cookie cutter leagues out there now and I'm proud of the very unique league my friends have helped me build over the years. As a kicker, I'm proud to say I've won three titles in this league, although my last came in 2005 and I've since taken over the former last place team in the league while allowing another set of friends to take over my old team. Without further ado, I present to you my roster for the upcoming season.




C: AJ Pierzynski
1B: Lance Berkman
2B: Dan Uggla
SS: Troy Tulowitzki
3B: Evan Longoria
OF: Jay Bruce
OF: Carl Crawford
OF: Raul Ibanez
DH: Derek Jeter



SP: Jake Peavy
SP: Justin Verlander
SP: Mark Buehrle
SP: Jon O. Sanchez
SP: Ian Kennedy
RP: Carlos Marmol
RP: Heath Bell

2B: Rickie Weeks
OF: Lastings Milledge
SP: Wade LeBlanc
SP: Pedro Martinez
SP: Billy Buckner
SP: Dave Bush
SP: James McDonald
RP: Scott Downs
RP: Jason Frasor

Our in-season Free Agency opens up on March 29th, a week before the season kicks off and some of these guys will already be dead weight. Normally we wouldn't have auctioned so early, but with the due date of the new baby scheduled for March 26th, we didn't have much choice other than to tuck it into the last week of February. I look forward to regaling you with tales of our championship season, and displaying some cards of my players from week to week.

For the record, my off-season moves entailed moving a bunch of guys (Zobrist, Cueto, Chris Davis, De La Rosa, Ryan Howard) for Evan Longoria and Carlos Marmol. My big free agent signings were Jeter and Peavy for $8 each, and I traded Colby Rasmus who will eventually be up for $0.25 - I'll probably regret that, but I needed help now - for Carl Crawford who is $7.50 and has two years left before he doubles again (making him a FA). I'm currently sitting on Brett Anderson, Carlos Santana, and Jeff Niemann in my minors. I'm hoping all three will contribute this year, thus all the fliers at the back-end of my rotation and at catcher with AJ.

Favre Bowl

I've got a backlog of posts coming in the near future after doing a little trading to kick off October, but I must admit that my attention was pulled away for the Vikings-Packers game last night.

I fully admit that I'm a Favre backer. 20 years from now, my kids aren't going to ask me "Dad, what was it like to watch the Packers in the 80s?", they're going to ask "what was it like to watch Favre play" and I'll happily recount the story of Favre sticking it to the Pack on Monday Night Football.

Just like there had to be a day when Brett Favre was no longer a Packer, thankfully there will also be a day when Ted Thompson will no longer be the GM, and that day is getting closer and closer and I'll be happy.

Sorry to digress from cards, but I just wanted to go on record.

Lastly another digression, but after I stopped including my fantasy baseball team updates here on SS92 they started to go on a bit of a tear in the second half.

Even though my pitching failed miserably this year and Justin Verlander and Heath Bell were the lone bright spots, the offense took off.

Ryan Howard, Troy Tulowitzki, Ben Zobrist, even Vlad and Beltran once they got healthy came back and carried my team out of the cellar of a 12 team league and into 6th place.

This is quite an accomplishment. Heck even Chris Davis finally showed up and showed off his power potential down the stretch.

So here I sit, ready to watch game #163 for the Twins and Tigers and I could lose my 6th place finish if Granderson or Miggy are credited with an RBI today. I lead a team by .5 pts in the roto standings and lead the team with those two players by 1 RBI. 1 RBI and I tie for 6th place. 2 RBI and I lose it.

The only reason I'm semi-interested in my 6th place finish is that teams that finish in top half of the standings in my league (but out of the 3 big money slots) are given sandwich picks in our minor league draft the following year. We just added this wrinkle to increase competition down the stretch and it's seemed to work.

Well, I'll return with some card posts soon.

HBL Week 12

Headed toward the halfway point in the fantasy baseball season. Let's recap last week:

1. Tried and failed to move Carlos Beltran, and of course he's injured again now. Go figure
2. The 2B, SS, 3B, OF, 1B, DH platoon of Vlad, Zobrist, Tulo, Scutaro, Berkman, Howard, Werth, Hart, Upton, Beltran, and Branyan is still in effect. It drives me crazy.
3. Added some random players last week in hopes to catch pitching lightening in a bottle. Something called Mazzano, Scott Richmond who promptly lost his two-start status this week, and a catcher called Hannigan for the Reds.


I don't really have much to add. Last week the pitching melted down that's to bad performances by Verlander and Cueto and anyone else in our lineup I'm sure. Downs was hurt all week as well, so that didn't help. We did manage to catch up to the bottom of the pack in RBIs and AVG, but we're still basically in last in those categories and need another huge offensive week to crawl back into it. I'll give it another couple of weeks before trading off Beltran (if he's not out for the year) and Coco Cordero.

HBL Week 10

Week 10 begins with our heroes stuck somewhat firmly in the bottom half of the leagues. Yes, still. The Golden Valley 55ers sit in 9th place as the week begins - 31 points behind the Winona Whizards.

There is hope however, as the 55ers finished last week as the third hottest team, and climbed significantly up the offensive categories. Jayson Werth did turn it around, as projected, but hit only 7 singles. I called him the only "sure bet" in my outfield plays last week. The others being Bossman Junior and Carlos Beltran. Beltran ended up missing a series with that lingering flu, and batted only .235 in his return, not exactly what we were hoping for. This week I'll mix my prognostications up a little bit:

Sure Things:

Johnny Cueto should have two easy wins against WAS and KC this week.
Justin Verlander should continue to be the best pitcher in baseball, although I hate the White Sox park for pitchers.
Bossman Junior Upton will continue to terrorize pitching and the basepaths.

And that's where it stops folks, it's all tossups from here.

Should Be Good:

Lance Berkman is batting .360 something over the last two weeks, he's getting hot and that's getting me hot.

Ryan Howard is on a power binge, but isn't making consistent contact right now.

Russell Branyan will never be a sure thing, but here's to hoping the streak continues.

My closers, Francisco Cordero, Scott Downs, and Heath Bell should hopefully combine for more than the 2 saves they posted last week. I'm doubling down and leaving all 3 in.

And now for my ever favorite category . . .

Who Knows What You're Going To Get:

Troy Tulowitzki. He can't be this bad all year, can he? I'm starting him at SS and banking on a breakout.

Ben Zobrist. Power is still there, but the average is down, but I'm calling Scutaro "done" for now even though he snagged a base for me last week. Its Zobrist at 2B and Tulo at SS until I find another 2B hot streak to ride.

Welcome Rod Barajas. John Baker is gone after playing only about 3 games last week, Barajas has had a good year in TOR and I'm hoping to cash in on a little of it. Please don't go cold now!

Vlad Guerrero . . . you've never hit under .300, time to pick up the pace now that you've been back for a week. I see you stole a base last week. Please feel free to continue that this week.

Carlos Beltran is batting way over his career average, he's due to come back down, but I'm never going to have him out of my lineup, I'd be silly to miss any of his hot streaks.

Finally, there's . . .

Hi, Who Are You? :

Jeremy Bonderman has 2 starts this week. I'm likely insane for playing him, but I'm not touching Jon Sanchez and Chris Volstad has only one start in STL against Wainwright. I'll pass.

That leaves only a handful of players I'm not touching this week. As I said, no Jon Sanchez, Zumaya hasn't been handed the keys to the 9th inning yet, Doumit and Weeks are hurt, Scutaro is likely done playing over his head for a while, and I just can't trust Chris Davis yet. I want him to be RED HOT when I plug him back in for Branyan. No sense trying to buy the pot when there is so little to gain over Branyan.

Jayson Werth and Corey Hart both sit this week in favor of Vlad. Hart isn't hitting in a useful spot in the Brewers order (and likely won't all year) and Werth didn't show me anything I couldn't live without as he runs into Johan, Daisuke, Beckett, and Lester this week.

HBL Week 9

The only way to describe this fantasy baseball season is "painful".

I don't recall a season in which so many teams were suffering through injuries to their top players.

For my squad, the Golden Valley 55ers we were dealing with Beltran being in and out of our lineup all week and it looks like whatever virus he caught is going to keep him out of Week 9, so we're sitting him again.

This also means our roster is now filled with mostly "of the moment" guys like Marco Scutaro, Russell Branyan, and Ben Zobrist. I'm very excited about the Zobrist acquisition. This kid can hit and he'll stay eligible at 2b throughout this year and next.

Since I'm getting on the Zobrist bandwagon, I'd like to find someone with an auto or relic card of his to trade for . . . just a thought . . .

I decided to stop riding Kurt Suzuki's hot streak and jumped over to John Baker of the Marlins at catcher. Ryan Howard has finally started to heat up at first base. Troy Tulowitzki has not heated up at SS. I'm tempted to play Zobrist there and look at some other combination of outfielders.

Speaking of outfielders, I'm trying to find the hot hands each week. After dumping Delmon Young this past week, we're now carrying Corey Hart, Carlos Beltran, Vlad Guerrero, Jayson Werth, Ben Zobrist, and BJ Upton. Upton is still not batting over .200 and I've resigned myself to benching him, that is, if Beltran wasn't sick.

Ideally, I'd run out Beltran, Guerrero, and Upton if all were playing well, but this week it looks like Upton, Zobrist, and Werth. Zobrist is red hot and Werth is heating back up. Vlad hasn't gotten going yet, but should soon.

So as I was saying, I could throw Zobrist at SS, sit Tulo and put Upton, Werth, and Vlad in the outfield, or take my chances with Beltran coming back early in the week.

Over to the pitching side of things, I'm done with Liriano. I'm not going to deal him after seeing what he did last year after the same sort of start, but wow, he's destroyed my ERA and WHIP this year. In a roto league, that hurts, a lot. So for now we only have 3 serviceable starting pitchers: Chris Volstad, Johnny Ceuto, and Justin Verlander each with one start this week. That means we're running out 4 relievers, but we can't afford to do that very long. We're at the top of the K leaderboard but middle of the pack in Wins and Saves, and near the bottom in ERA and WHIP. Scott Downs, Joel Zumaya, Francisco Cordero and Heath Bell round out our staff.

My last note for this week . . . I can't believe I just played Chris Davis through a 3 for 40 stretch. Please Chris, find that sweet stroke again, we need it. And when you do, please share the secret with Upton, Berkman, and Tulo. K Thx.

HBL Week 7

Looks like I've missed a week or two of documentation, plus I've got a bunch more card posting to do.

Such is life while on vacation.

Pulled off what I deemed a fantastic trade this week. Sent out Mike Gonzalez and Bret Myers for Lance Berkman. With Berkman, a career .300 hitter sitting at .208 on the year, he's prime for a 15-30 stretch with 8 HRs. At least that's what I'm hoping for. We're still rolling three closers out there with Downs (for now), Heath Bell (who pitches once a month), and Francisco Cordero.

Meanwhile, here's to hoping Verlander stays hot and that Liriano can find his dominant self again. I don't think we've started Liriano much this month, which is fine, he's been mostly terrible. Chris Volstad will also have to pull it together. Johnny Cueto has been complaining to us lately about a sore back from carrying this pitching staff all year. Sheesh.

Don't fear Johnny, Jorge De La Rosa is in the fold now, and Old Man Randy Johnson was kicked to the curb. I can't believe I'm counting on De La Rosa to help deliver us to the promise land. That guy was such a wack job when he was in Milwaukee, but maybe he's blossoming late (at 28) like "they" say lefties do. Whoever they is.

And then there's the really bad news for Week 7. Rickie Weeks is going to see a specialist, again, about his wrists, again, but this time his left wrist. Nothing about this makes me happy. No backup 2b, not a decent FA option (screw you Marco Scutaro), and I was about a week away from finally saying "I told you so" to the rest of the league about Rickie finally proving that he's got MVP caliber talent. Oh Rickie, why did you have to do me like that.

My prediction for this week, Ryan Howard, Lance Berkman, and BJ Upton all get hot and start leading our team back up the standings.

Tomorrow my goal is to post about the current Goudey obsession a friend and I are going through. I did pull a memorabilia card from one of those 8 pack blaster boxes, but that's all you get is a teaser right now.