Fantasy Baseball

[Jack Dempsey]

Im looking for a big bat ( at 1b if possible )... willing to give up some of my pitching talent if anyone is interested. Im Father Joe's btw.

[resdubwhite]

Lads, willing to listen to realistic offers. NEed a catcher.

thats realistic offers Jack Dempsey.

[heganboy]

the helmets are a bit light in the hitting department, interesting trades for pitchers considered...

[heganboy]

anybody want to trade an outfielder for a catcher , Patterson Chris Young and Melky Cabrera are all available for a catcher. They're all in the top 12 OF for last month.

[Don]

Trading season is over I believe, home stretch around the corner now, quiet a few active players which is now

[Gabriel_Hurl]

Trade deadline was last Sunday

[heganboy]

So the last week in the regular season starts today. Playoff spots are up for grabs.
Res Dubs and Father Joes Dynamos have pretty much been 1-2 for the last 10 weeks and have both their payoff spots already clinched. As a good indicator of form the Dubs spanked the dynamos last week 8-3.
There are 7 teams in contention for the next 4 spots:
crossmaglen Hitmen
helmets
Dodgers
Hoya Now
AZ Diamondbacks
Big Apple Orchards
Ardboe Blue Jays
as luck would have it there are a couple of them playing this week in what can be viewed as playoffs. AZ takes on Howya Now and must win convincingly to get through, and its an uphill battle, a couple of lineup changes may help though as hes only scoring 8 of his 9 players with a strong bench. Pitching should favour Howya, but A-rod and Suzuki are a really strong batting combo, and both on form.

Helmets take on the Blue Jays, Ordonez and Big Papi are on top of their game and anything is possible here offensively for the Blue Jays,  the helmets had a freakishly good week last week but that has been a one off recently despite a good start to the season. Pitching wise the Helmets look to have the edge in relief, but starters like brandon Webb, last weeks highest ranked players means that the BJs look to have an easy run.

Dodgers take on the isotopes and should be looking at a convincing win. texeira and Abreu are flying and Carlos Guillen's bad day is better than most players good ones. The dodgers pitching has been their weakness all season. The isotopes havent really done much, and their highest rank player for the season Ryan Howard is languishing on the bench. Cano Alou and Matthews jr ar enot on hot runs of form at the vital times. Again selections issues for the isotopes as their strongest starter Beckett is a bench warmer and one of their spots lies empty.

Hitmen play the Orchards in an all Armagh managerial contest. The cross boys are flying and the Orchards need a massive win to make the play offs.
Fielder Cabrera, Guerrero and Jermaine Dye are putting the numbers up, And even with such a good line up you'd question the benching of Carlos Lee. Solid pitching has been vital for the Cross men to back up their big bats and Saito and Okaima have been solid closers, the starters have been slowly but surely racking up the wins For the orchards posada has been brilliant but their scores eflect that hideki matsui and Jose guillen arent ecoring whilst benched. Same on the pitching side since Hughes' return he and clemence have been pitching well, but not scoring from the bench. Cross should take this handily and could probably lose by 7/8 and still make the playoffs.

So thats how it stands, next Monday I'll do a recap and a look forward to the playoffs, if I make them other wise feck the lot of ye!

[Don]

Great Stuff Heganboy, any odds updates at this stage

[Gabriel_Hurl]

Playoff schedule released

Main Playoffs



Consolation playoffs

[heganboy]

so here we are half way through the first week of the playoffs.

Just a quick note to explain how the scoring works. there are 11 categories 6 batting and 5 pitching, batting runs, RBI, Home runs, stolen bases, walks and batting average. Pitching, Wins, saves walks, strike outs and ERA. whatever your active players do during the week are totaled and then matched up against your opponent. You only get a point if you are ahead in that category. So Howya now is ahead in 5 categories, and the hitmen in 2 the other 4 categories are drawn as of Wed am

the top 2 teams have a bye week, and I have to say it would be daylight robbery if anyone other than these 2 wins, as they finished so far ahead of the chasing pack.

Howya now takes on the Crossmaglen Hitmen in the first game. Howya now has got himself a completely new tean with 8 transfers in the last week, not to be outdone the hitmen have a few fresh faces in too.
Current score is standing at 5-2 to Howya now however most of the categories are very very close. Mike Lowell is keeping Howya ahead almost on his own , Prince Fielder and Vladimir Guerrero haven't really got into their stride yet this week, so the hitmen should pull this back by Sunday night.  Its a battle but I think the Hitmen may just have too much strength in the tank to do it.

The helmets take on the Faithful Dodgers in the other championship playoff. The helmets last years champions started well and have faded badly in the last 6 weeks, Ryan Braun, Grady Sizemore and Carlos Beltran have been steady if unspectacular at bat for the helmets, but of the dodgers Cabrera, Teixeira, Carlos Guillen and Bobby Abreu have been red hot the last few weeks and should do enough to give the dodgers the advantage in the batting categories.
Pitching is a bit closer and the edge may go to the helmets, Papelbon and Mariano are getting the saves in, and Wang and Dice K have been pulling in regular wins. For the dodgers, Corpas is scoring well, Lowe Francis and Wainwright have been steady. So its going to come down to the oldest rule in baseball- they say good pitching always beats good batting... its 8-3 to the helmets as of Wed morning but every single category is a tight one.

Res Dubs to win this over all, i think

In the consolation games AZ and Big apple orchards are on a week off. Red hand hitters are 10-1 up and look uncatchable. The isotopes and the blue jays is too early to call, but it looks as if  rom Cano, Gary Matthews Jr and Julio Lugo are doing the business, Maglio Ordonez hasnt hit this week though and he could be enough on his own to bring the Blue Jays back. He's the only player even close to catching A-rod for MVP.  Not over yet, but not looking great for Toronto...

A-Rod in AZ's team should carry him to the Tommy Murphy cup too.

[resdubwhite]

Res Dubs to win this over all, i think

Oh christ.

The kiss of death.
Boys.

If the helmets get through they have a great record against me. I'm 0-2 for the season on a 10-12 scoreline.

all to play for still.

[heganboy]

so last weeks predictions weren't great (ringing bells from last year already)
Howya now beat the Hitmen - his new team just held on but it was damn close, another run given up by any of his pitchers and it would have been 5-5, and the hitmen's  better ERA would have brooken the tie-breaker in his favour. Thats what I call a close game.
Howya now takes on Fr Joe's Dyanmos who have an amazing offense led by the Mets David Wright and ably backed up the whole bloody team. His bats have 8 out of this years top 75 players and it shows. Fr Joe and Res Dubs ran away from the rest at the top of the league and they finished 10 games ahead of mid table obscurity.  Howya's pitching however has the edge overall- but Fr Joes pitching management has been pretty good so far this season. Fr Joe to go through comfortably I'd say

Res Dubs, the regular season winner is in action against the helmets. Last years winner vs this years leader. Res Dubs has the advantage in batting and is not too far behind on the pitching match up. Jones Byrnes and Pena have been solid all year, and Johnny Damon is hitting form at the right time for the Dubs. For the dubs pitching cordero and Haren are excellent, and Carmona has been  a surprisingly great selection this year.  In order to challenge the Helmets will need a big week from Carlos Beltran, still recovering from injury, another injury worry at catcher with Molina suffering from concussion may be enough to rule out the helmets who will as usual be relying on pitching to stay in the game. Nathan Rivera and Papelbon should be enough in saves, but Matzuzaka, davies and Vazquez are all coming of bad games. So res Dubs to take this one to go on to slug it out with Dynamos in the finals.

The Dodgers take on the hitmen in the 5th place playoff and you would fancy the hitmen, however after 1 day the dodgers are flying and the 40.5 ERA is the highest I've ever seen in this league for the hitmen, could be a long road back, just ran out of time last week, and the same could happen again this time...

Back in the littlewoods the red hand hitters actually was a prediction I got right and Ordonez, Ortiz and co brought the Blue Jays back to keep a smile on Gab's face this week. This week A-rod takes on and should beat the red hand hitters ( AZ does have other players but doesn't seem to need them) while a close game lies ahead with the Blue Jays against the Big Apple Orchard. BJs to win just because they're called the BJs...

[Jack Dempsey]

Father Joe's are going all the way I truely believe

[heganboy]

"so I'm yapping cos I got bate" as we say in Ballyhegan.
Going into the last game of the night last night, I needed a walk and a run from Melky Cabrera, and a scoreless save from either Mariano Rivera or Papelbon (who were both ready and playing each other)
Didn't happen! Cabrera goes 0-4 and rivera gives up a run in the save. Bastards- did they not realise the importance of the situation.

Anyway congrats to the rightful winner resdubs who goes into the final against what has really been his only competition this year Fr Joes Dynamoes, who won against an injury hit Howya Now.

This year has been marked by wholesale changes and not player loyalty and the Dubs went in this week with 7 new players from waivers at the weekend, at his gamble paid off in spades. Fit again Chipper Jones made the difference in offense with 3 runs, 1 HR, 5 RBI and batting.538. Had his back up 3rd baseman Melvin Mora played I would have won the tie 6-5 not that I'm bitter (yes I am). Great Pitching management worked well for the dubs with Carmona delivering as promised, But add that to the week of his life that Huston Street had for Oakland with 4 saves in 6 games (to add to the 12 he made in the other 165 games of the year- did I say I was bitter?) and Blanton and Suppan both contributed well. Poor pitching on the helmets with Wang losing his first game in 3 months, added to winless Davis, Dice K Bannister Shields and Vazquez and the team was fecked!
To be honest had I won it would have been a steal- He finished 20 odd games ahead of me for the season.

anyway moving on the the Dynamoes vs Howya now in 2nd vs 6th in the league. For Fr Joe another career week performance, this time from Florida short stop Ramirez who went 7 runs, 3 Homers, 6 RBIs and 4 walks, not too shabby. 2 of Howya nows players weren't ready to concede that handy, and Lowell's 5 runs, 5RBIs and .478 average added to LA's short stop 9 runs and 8 stolen bases meant that it wasn't quite the cake walk that could have been expected. Congrats to Fr Joe and this year we end up with the league's 1 and 2 in the final. expect a good game, but the Dubs should just edge it, However Fr Joe is a kerryman, and they tend to show up for big games...

In the consolation my prediction kiss of death struck again as AZ was pipped 6-5 in a cracking battle by the Red Hand Hitters. The red hands go on to face the Big Apple orchards who had enough to beat Gab's Ardboe Blue Jays. Armagh Tyrone final for the consolation, been that way all year really...

[rdw]

thanks for the nice words hegan.


Great fight.

Egghhh.


it appears the final has finished in a draw?
5 a piece.
how is the league decided.