Week 4 v. Margarita Matt

Well, it was bound to happen sometime. I lost a match-up in the Man's League. Margarita Matt, a fellow BGSU Falcon, defeated me 7-3. Even though I had been trailing almost all week by that same 7-3 score, I thought I had a shot at it on Saturday afternoon, when a furious rally managed to even things at five-all. But it was not to be, even with my brilliant pick-up of currently-raking but in a platoon Kevin Millar and Russell Branyan's crazy-hot streak. So as I cry into my Cheerios, I figured I would do a little analysis to determine why I lost and decide whether to panic, er, how much to panic.

The only categories I took were steals, wins, & saves. That's right, I lost all the average categories (ERA, WHIP, AVG). Hmmm. I did manage to maintain that winning streak in wins, where I'm 4-0 on the year. A closer look at the numbers on the season is even more revealing:

		GP	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG		GS	K	W	SV	ERA	WHIP
Matchup 1 (Apr 5 - 12)		78	41	6	27	6	.237		10	43	5	0	3.52	1.16
Matchup 2 (Apr 13 - 19)		71	45	13	49	2	.319		5	36	4	2	3.26	1.40
Matchup 3 (Apr 20 - 26)		71	38	5	30	3	.313		6	32	4	3	3.28	1.26
Matchup 4 (Apr 27 - May 3)		77	35	6	29	5	.237		7	26	4	2	3.67	1.39

Except that uber-powerful second week against BARF, my numbers are pretty consistent across the board. Kind of amazing considering this is a weekly league we're talking about. There are supposed to be wild ups and downs. Only my team batting average is playing that way right now. But that doesn't have me worried.

So then, am I concerned about HR & RBI? No, not really. Take out that 2nd week, and I know what I'm getting: 6 HR, 27-30 RBI. Where I am concerned is in crossing the plate. I have designs on winning this category with 'top-of-the-order' type guys who should get more opportunities to score. Cristian Guzman & Luis Castillo didn't take care of that in Week 4. Both have been banged up, yes. But that just shows me how important they are to my squad and how much my strategy depends upon their chances. It makes me a little nervous.

Pitching-wise I am seeing insanely solid numbers, even though it was my worst ERA week of the year. Justin Verlander single-handedly beat me here with a stud performance on Sunday. Credit to him and Margarita Matt. I am worried about strikeouts just a little because they keep going down and I'm really dependent on Oswalt & Wakefield to get them.

In conclusion, I'm not going to panic. I have been offered a trade that would cost me my only closer but would let me get a power hitter I really like. I'm not going to do it. I'm just going to sit in second place behind Gotta Have Faith Steve and try to beat him down in this week's match-up. Fingers crossed...