Man's League Blog: Week 17 v. Stand Up Jill

In a way, this was a great turning point. The final match-up of the Man's League season that, by itself, didn't have a lot riding on it. With my stretch run schedule including Pod Vader, four of the five teams ahead of me in the standings, and then the final regular season week, this was the only time the Five-Ways could serve up something not-so-tasty and still have the time to recover.

I was already going with a small crew hampered by injury with Bedard and Wakfield on the shelf. Then on Monday, Roy Oswalt strained his back delivering a tray full of waffles to table 14. Now my IHOP was seriously under-staffed, and it felt like a Saturday morning rush - only Hiroki Kuroda and Derek Lowe remained to take most of the tables, I mean, toss a significant amount of innings. So I had to suck it up and get a few fill-ins, who ended up being Aaron Laffey and Kevin Hart. Laffey was disappointing, but Hart managed to pick up a victory despite doing only okay work. But praise to my closers, who combined to log the equivalent of a 1-run complete game, while netting five saves. Thanks to the them, I took the pitching half 3-2.

At the plate, Cristian Guzman showed off the benefits of Nyjer Morgan bumping him down in the Nats' lineup - an octopus worth of RBI plus six runs scored. Cody Ross jumped into the top 50 outfielders on the player rater with a series of blasts. Strong weeks from Pedroia, Ethier, and the rest of the crew was enough to secure 3-2 on this half too. Add up your paragraphs and you have a standard 6-4 victory.

What can I really say about Pod Vader? If it weren't for his original unmanly Diet Soderberg League, this or any other 06010-sponsored Man's League would not exist. And we all know he's not the world's greatest fantasy baseball player, but his team with Manny is a whole lot scarier than his team without Mr. Ramirez. Geovany Soto should return from the DL during the week, but my pitching may or may not be healthy. I will probably have to pick up a start or two from the waiver wire to piece together a rotation, which definitely feels like playing with fire, even if it might be my only chance to defeat the dark side. Fingers crossed...