Thursday, July 23, 2009

Man's League Blog: Week 14 v. Blossom Jim

Just before the All-Star break there was an epic battle of native Ohioans between yours truly and Blossom Jim, hailing from the town of Waynesfield, Ohio. Yeah, I didn't know where it was either, despite having lived all around the state. It's one of about a million things named for General "Mad" Anthony Wayne. Kind of like the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, Duke, and Batman's alter ego. But since neither team was able to put Mad Anthony himself on their roster, the result of this contest was in doubt. Let's see how it turned out!

On the hill, Jim was punting saves, but the other categories were hotly contested. Erik Bedard left the training room behind to contribute two starts, while Derek Lowe decided to rejoin the ranks of pitchers who don't smell like a garbage truck. And even though Hiroki Kuroda's bonus relief appearance didn't turn out so well, those earlier efforts were enough to snag ERA and WHIP for the Five-Ways, but not quite enough to take wins or K's.

What of the other five categories, you say? A gigantic 7-RBI Tuesday from "el monstruo de cuadrangular", Luke Scott, highlighted a very nice offensive week for the Queen City Nine. This team effort brought home all five categories. Even Luis Castillo chipped in. No, not this Luis Castillo and not this kind of chipped in. More like this Luis Castillo. Not making quite as big an impact was Geovany Soto, whose sophomore slump continues in the form of an oblique injury. He was just coming around, but my team has survived without his best all season, so hopefully they'll continue to do so.

With this victory, my squad has jumped back into 2nd place in the Division de Megan Fox with a record of 78-56-6. That's not shabby at all heading into the break. In the short week after the All-Star festivities, Traveling Pants Ben is my opponent. His fame and Man's League entry derives from his enjoyment of this in its book & long form version. His team is definitely stronger on the pitching side of things, but being that our match-up will only last four days, anything could happen. Fingers crossed...

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Week 13 v. Peanut Rico

Yes, this entry has been a long time coming. I had more urgent matters of reviewing writing I've done over the past four summers so I could handle all the hard questions to be asked about it. But now that's over and I'm practically the owner of an M.A. in Latin (take that, TMR), so let's restart the Man's League Blog.

Peanut Rico is by far the most active owner in the Man's League. He seems to be always working on some trade with someone, and he streams starting pitchers, meaning he leads the league in free agent pickups. And although he didn't max out his starts during our match-up, he was going to win strikeouts. Our week featured three head-to-head pitching duels: Geer v. Oswalt on Monday, Lowe v. Blanton on Tuesday, and Gaudin v. Kuroda on Friday night. They turned out in my favor: Ol' Roy shined in a low-scoring affair, Lowe's line had a slight edge on Blanton, but the Dodgers thrashed Gaudin and gave Kuroda a semi-deserved win. A second start from Oswalt produced more of the same warm gooey goodness and got me the boost needed to take ERA, WHIP, and wins. Finally, in the netherworld of the ninth inning, the duo of Fuentes and Soriano thumped my Franklin and Street, giving Rico the victory in saves.

The theme of duels even extended to the offensive side, where Ichiro, the Japanese Elvis, and Elvis Andrus played tit-for-tat with steals, tallying 7 between them on Tuesday evening. Isn't FantasyCast great? Rico's fleet-footed squad was able to maintain that advantage, but it would be his only offensive category win. Dye, Scott, Pedroia, Ross, and David Murphy all had nice weeks at the plate, with Murph hitting half & half (.500). So thanks to that output, the Fightin' Five-Ways prevailed (ding!) by a score of 7-3.

Looking ahead to the final week before the All-Star break, I face Blossom Jim, who is the only Man's Leaguer to have faced Pod Vader and not appear on the podcast. In addition to that, he's having a rough season. Oh, and he got into the Man's League by admitting his fandom of this fine entertainment, whose great cultural contribution consists of a four-letter word used way too often by teenagers. Poor Jim. The numbers say I should be able take this one, and it would definitely be a good thing to head into the break with a win. Fingers crossed...