The Creature FeatureAdd to Google Reader or Homepage

By RonE B

Hello there Mr. and Mrs. Bleacher Creature reader. My name’s Ron. I like sports and sport accessories like fantasy athletics. The piece you are about to read is a part of a greater series known as The Creature Feature. The Creature Feature is intended to be a diary of my fantasy successes and follies in managing fantasy teams. I also like to contribute to my own site the Front Office Fan. Come by and say hello. Maybe we can be friends.

The fantasy baseball season features my team, MoVaughn MoProblems, in competition with the best of Beerballs, my league. It is a 12 team, 3 divisions, keeper-league that is scored on a head-to-head basis in the 5x5 format. Scoring categories include Batting Average, Home Runs, RBI, Runs Scored and Stolen Bases on offense, and ERA, WHIP, Strikeouts, Wins and Saves in Pitching. Weeks begin on Monday and end on Sunday and at the end of the week the team with the best score in each category wins (most home runs/wins, best batting average/ERA). The end of the week score is then scored in Wins-Losses-Ties. A tie in a category is generally more common with categories like Home Runs, Wins or Saves. At the end of the season the top 6 teams make the playoffs with the top-2 division leaders getting bye weeks in the first round.

Base-Balls

9/19/9 - RonE B

If we’ve been taught one thing in the history of championships it’s that it takes a lot of luck to get the title.

Don’t get me wrong good teams will win, but they can’t do it without luck.

I would be lying to you if I didn’t tell you that a good decision and a lot of luck put me in the position I currently stand.

I beat my wild-card opponent in the playoffs and am in the semi-finals.

I won, because I’ve got balls.

You don’t start a rookie in pressure situations, regardless of their recent history. I did, I’m awesome.

Homer Bailey single handedly won me the first game of the playoffs. On the surface you wouldn’t think he did much for me: 0-1 record in 11 innings through two games, 14 hits, 7 walks (1.909 WHIP), 4 earned runs (3.273 ERA). Ultimately those stats didn’t affect the outcome, I won all those categories. This story begins and ends with his 12 strikeouts.

Let me explain the disaster that is fantasy sports in playoff crunch time: tie-breakers.

There is nothing more heart-breaking in fantasy sports than to lose on a tie-breaker. If there is anything I could challenge you all to create, it would be a better form to decide a playoff winner than going to the bench, choosing the best record in the regular season, better in match-ups, common opponents, points, etc., etc..

But I digress.

Going into the week I had a major problem to deal with: my power was seriously decimated. I traded away Mark Teixeira for Man Crush of the Year (MCY) winner Andrew McCutchen and the pop hasn’t been quite there ever since. And if that wasn’t enough, both my third basemen, Michael Young and Gordon Beckham started the week injured. I chose to bench Young and start the questionable Beckham rather than finding a stop-gap replacement in Free Agency. Beckham finished the week strong for me, but it didn’t help much.

MVP won batting average and steals but lost in the homers, RBI and runs scored categories. That makes the score 2-3-0. We won ERA, WHIP, and Wins. 5-3-0. Lost Saves. 5-4-0.

Notice a stat category missing?

Power wasn’t my only problem when it came to roster decisions. I needed to decide on pitchers. The Hunters would be having six starts that week and I couldn’t afford to face him with only 4 starters to my name. The decision from management was to start Homer Bailey over Ryan Dempster. It paid off.

Bailey wasn’t phenomenal, but as a role player, he was the best. Bailey struck out 12 and MoVaughn MoProblems won the K Category 36-35. My other options to pitch that week were Brett Anderson (4 Ks), Johnny Cueto (3Ks), Ryan Dempster (4 Ks), and Brian Matusz (3 Ks). Had I started any of them, had Homer Bailey not been able to throw such good stuff, or had the Hunters just managed two more strikeouts in their extra 3.2 innings, the game would have been tied 5-5-0 and I would be playing Fantasy Football.

But none of that happened. We won 6-4-0 and I am anxiously anticipating the remainder of the season.

In the semis I play perennial contender/perennial choke artists The Isotopes. The Topes, more often referred to as the Chokes, won a bye week out of luck but should not be where they are. We intend to crush them.

We intend to be in the championship.