From Castaways to Contention

The "what ifs" eat at the heart of every manager who gives a care if Dave Roberts stole a base while he's on a date asks himself. I could have had Big Papi for Mark Teixeira before the season. I once said that Justin Morneau should be put on waivers and that I had zero interest in him (he was in fact on waivers in early May). I remember Curtis saying "I don't think Ryan Howard will hit for as much power as everyone thought" in early April.

But then I thought about the moves I have made - not the big trades, but the subtle moves. The free agents I added at the right time. And as I look at my team now, I believe I am the favorite to win the playoffs as a result of taking 4 players from free agency that the other 4 contributing members to this blog gave up on.

Bill Hall was dropped by Sean in late March before the season started. An understandable decision considering Hall wasn't even going to start. Hall got picked up later in the season by Curtis when Hall began to start games as a result of Brewers injuries. Curtis picked up Hall as a result of injuries on his own team to Marcus Giles. When Giles returned to action Curtis made the mistake of dropping Hall (other bad drops by Curtis include Jermaine Dye and Eric Bedard) in early June. I saw the opportunity and promise of Hall, a guy who hit 17 homers and stole 18 bags the year before. He was eligible at 3 different positions. Even though Rickie Weeks appeared to be emerging as a top 5 second basemen, Michael Young was coming off a batting title, and Melvin Mora was treading water at third base I thought that Hall could eventually be valueable. Now Rickie Weeks is done, Melvin Mora got cut, and Michael Young got traded. Hall just leads all shortstops in dingers and is currently helping me pass Curtis in the standings.

Brian McCann was dropped by Brablc (Brablc's premature drops are why he won't win the playoffs. They include Hanley Ramirez, Jeff Francoer right before he got red hot, Ryan Freel, and Brablc's binky - Rocco Baldelli) on April 6 after he thought he had gotten the greatest steal in Josh Willingham since Abu took the lamp in the movie Aladin. Willingham has been up and down this season as he currently sits where Brian McCann sat on that 6th day in April waiting for someone to make him their fantasy. McCann has been the second best catcher in baseball this season and over the last month far and away the best catcher in all of baseball - even better than Joe Maeur. A look at the post all star break numbers of the two young catchers

McCann 8HR 24RBI .360 AVG
Maeur 3HR 19RBI .313 AVG

Brablc should win the regular season, but an off season of bragging rights only belongs to the playoff champ - the guy who gets hot at the end, kind of like McCann right now.

Andy Pettite was dropped by Alvarez right before he began to show signs of life again (other Alvarez mistakes include dropping Nomar right after he came off the DL*, Aubrey Huff when Huff was turning it around in early July, Eric Bedard, Ryan Freel, Takashi Saito, Dan Uggla, and Orlando Hernandez**). So since he was dropped by Alvarez Pettite's numbers look like this in 3 starts:
2 Wins 2.66 ERA 0.98 WHIP, 10.62 K/9 innings
The fantasy baseball trade deadline this year was like MLB. Everyone wanted starting pitching so it was really hard to come by. Instead of adding a quality number 2 starter for Prince - excuse me - Matt Holliday I added Andy Pettite who is motivated once again by the Astros playoff chances.

Tim Hudson was dropped by Sean (other regular season champ costing drops include: Bill Hall, Kevin Mench before he went on that dinger binge, Hanley Ramirez, and Chien Ming Wang) about one month ago and just now is starting to show signs that he is in fact Tim Hudson. The guy has a track record of being great and although he is a little smaller in stature than most pitchers he is a young 31 year old.

Sean believes he has the best team in the league and he was very hesitant to do anything at the deadline. While he has a better chance to win this year than he did last year at this time (Bozo & Krusty the Clown were his starting pitchers) history tells us that Sean always makes too many moves and eventually it comes back to haunt him. For awhile it seemed like trading Liriano was that move this season, but he is hurt now and it appears Sean did the right thing in acquiring Clemens. Now, the cloud of uncertainty appears to be clearing, but the forecast is calling for the Hudson to flood Sean's great championship chance.


*This move is a mircocosim of how Alvarez missed the playoffs the previous two years. This year he will barely make it because he inherited the fantasy equivalent to Bill Gates company.
**El Duque only made the cut cause he got dropped like 37 different times by Alvarez. I mean can't a Cuban just look out for another Cuban?