Are You Ready For Fantasy Baseball - 2009?

I note that there was a minor earthquake today in Mexico City. Evidently nothing too serious. Tico is GOOD, pulling out all of the stops.

It was a short quake, but it sure didn't feel minor, I tell ya.

I believe Tico has -very unsportsmanlike- sent some distractors to my players. De la Rosa was looking elsewhere while pitching. Or he must have been.
As soon as I gather the evidence -presumably next monday if PFM loses, which seems likely-, I'll post it.

Read about the earthquake, not sooooo small, 5.7, centered in Puebla, right?

It didn't feel 5.7.
A few weeks ago we had a 6.1er and felt like nothin'.
This one felt like 6.5 - 7.0, but what do I know.

I believe you more than whatever news I read. At least re "earthquake feel", whatever the monitors say. It did mention swaying skyscrapers..

I finally found an AP story. 5.7 according to U.S. readings; 5.9 per Mexican folks. Centered near Puebla, some 90 miles SSE of Mexico City. The movement was estimated to be some 36 miles underground, which is pretty deep. The closer to the surface, the worse things get.

I dunno ... you seem to be having a Friday, while the Ticomaniacs appear to have taken the day off.

And I wish my slow-footed catcher had taken the day off, rather than try to steal a base.

That's at least 2 CS today ... so there's a category I just handed back to you.

Really, Johnboy, chill. Why are you pacing the room? Just because your pitcher has thrown 8 innings of scoreless ball -98 pitches in all-?

Go Johnboy go.

And for the benefit of the newbie, what's a CS?
And what is WHIP?

CS = Caught Stealing

A category in which the Tubas excel.

WHIP = Walks, Hits per Innings Pitched, a measure of how many guys your pitcher allows on base per inning. I think it's a useful stat to mind when you're picking pitchers off the waiver wire, at least this early in the season. There may be guys with high ERA and low WHIP, who've given up an unlucky HR to, say, a Longoria or Pujols. On the other hand, guys with low WHIP and high ERA often suck pitching from the stretch (when guys are on base), or have a tendency to leave a breaking ball waist high a few times per game.

sigh. He didn't get to pitch the 9th. He'll get the win but no CG or SO. He threw 98 pitches through 8. The max for most SP's is about 110. His downfall was, I think, that he was also a batter. No DH. He got on base in the 7th and 8th and spent a lot of time on the field, standing out there for 15 minutes. Too much time. Arms can go dead.

****, I hadn't thought about that. In this league it's way better to draft AL pitchers. I've got all these NL studs, Billingsley, Peavey, Haren, Webb. They ain't gonna get too many CG.

That's annoying.

Thanks Gargamel. Appreciate it.

Yeah that bites. I often wish baseball or all pro sports for that matter were more game and less business.

On the subject of CS - Caught Stealing, you might find this amusing.
- Go to "League" on Yahoo.
- Click the box on the right (just above "Moves") that says "Head to Head Stats."
- You will be shown something. Choose the other option which I think is "Totals."
- Slide over to the column labeled "SB" and click it.

There you will see us ranked by the number of SB and, in the next column, CS.
Alex leads with 50 and his guys seem to be successful 82% of the time, Jose's Gushies can't match the # of SB but his dudes are successful 90% of the time. Gargamel isn't too bad, despite what he says: 79%.
Look at the bottom. Osso's boys don't try to steal bases that often. For good reason. They must be slow and fat - with a success rate of something like 54%.

Slow and fat, I relate to that...

Have read about the Molina brothers and their childhoods.. Apparently they're all as slow as molasses rounding bases, but they have other qualities. (Wish Jose could pick up his stats, alas.) Last year I had Bengie, bless'm, and, this year, Yadler. Like them both.

I had some base stealers to start with, including Weeks, but since I get such a kick out of the process of getting and spending new players (I'll temper this behavior some day, maybe next year), I've de accessed away from SBs.

I watched (as it were, on CBS game center) Wainwright be pulled at 8.2 innings after a cool game, 1 guy on base, an out to go, if I remember correctly. Grrrrrr.

Yeah, re dead arms.
I don't how Vargas will last as a pitcher, has a good start in the bigs with mixed capability competition so far, though I figure rough weather is coming up. But... Randy Johnson was pitching a strong game for the Giants last night (both pitchers faced teams with poor hitting stats) and went into a tharn inning that lasted seemingly forever. One of the gloggers guessed a forty minute inning, but I didn't check (and where would I check that if I wanted to?). Anyway, Vargas lost his snap when he was pitching next inning, though it was also late in the pitch count. Still - not a bad game for Vargas.