Fantasy baseball 2017

Looks like Peralta is going to have to go. The Diamondbacks sat him against a right-handed pitcher tonight. This after he just had a day off Saturday. WTF?!

Edit: Never mind. He has the flu.

 

Bird to the DL, not likely to return after the minimum 10 days. I had to drop him, though I'd rather not. Picked up Travis Shaw in his place.

 

Seems like the right call at this point. Maybe Bird has more long-term upside, but Shaw is useful and sure seems like the better bet for the rest of 2017.

 

Can't catch a break in my points league. I've scored the fourth-most points entering this week (and will put up a monster 275 or so for this scoring period), and I'm about to drop to 1-4.

I had a 56-point lead entering the day with three starting pitchers on the docket. I sat Gray, and McCarthy and the Dodgers got postponed. Because of the rainout and because my opponent had Sale, Wacha and Severino going today, I decided at the last minute to start Quintana against the Orioles. He scored minus-10. Meanwhile, my opponent has 80 points so far (when Severino notches the win, he'll get an additional 10), and suddenly he leads me 280-272.

At least if I had sat Quintana, I'd lead 282-280 with Betances and Wade Davis in the hole.

 

Ouch. That's why I've never been a big fan of head-to-head leagues.

I had another type of frustration. Pulled up Corey Knebel to add him to my roster and the Mrs. called me into the other room. I came back and clicked add and got a "Not Available" message. Somebody else grabbed him. Knebel is currently second in the majors with 10 holds, a category my league counts, and has fantastic ratios. My team has all of six holds, though part of that is my middle guys, Reed and Neris, getting save chances so far.

He who hesitates is lost. I should have grabbed the guy a week or two ago.

 

Ouch. Something similar happened to me last week with Berrios, but he didn't end up taking the start on Tuesday (and, I assumed he would follow with a second start today), so nothing lost there.

As frustrating as it is, a tough loss (or thrilling comeback win) is exactly what I love about head-to-head leagues. Rotisserie does nothing for me. Trying to improve my BA or OBP over the course of a season holds no appeal to me. Trying to beat an opponent (and the trash talking that ensues) is much more interesting to me than simply building a better collection of players than 11 other guys.

 

Crazily enough, Betances scored me some points and then Chapman blew the save, but didn't lose the game, giving Davis a chance to come in and strike out the side.

I now trail by 0.3 points and the other guy has Kris Bryant in his lineup. If the Cubs can get a baserunner in the bottom of the 11th to bring Bryant to the plate and he strikes out, I can possibly win.

This is why I love H2H.

(It should be noted, that if I had pitched Sonny Gray today, I'd be leading by 0.3. MFer.)

 

0-2 popup by Bryant, I'm likely going to lose by a third of a point. I'm not sure there's anything more pointless than posting play-by-play of a fantasy baseball loss, but whatever.

 

No fucking way. Bryant just struck out on three pitches in the 14th and suddenly I'm leading again. Now I just need this fucking game to end before he gets back up and has a chance to take it away from me again.

 

I just saw that game went 18. I wonder if pern has even seen the result yet.

 

I didn't make it to the 18th. And Bryant got up again and drew a goddamn fucking walk to win it for my opponent. Only thing that makes me feel better is at least the Yankees won. Motherfucker.

 

Ain't fantasy baseball grand?