For the first time in four years, the Los Angeles Dodgers have won the National League West. St. Louis Cardinal reliver Chris Perez got Augie Ojeda to fly out to end a just completed 12-3 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks at Busch Stadium, mathmatically eliminating the D-Backs from playoff contention. Congratulations to the Dodgers on winning the division and keeping alive that "Freeway World Series" that I've always hoped would happen!
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Thursday, September 25, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Dodgers Cut Magic # to 3!
Chad Billingsley survived a shaky outing and Nomar Garciaparra and Blake DeWitt each hit 3-run homers to give the Dodgers an easy 10-1 win. In combination with the Arizona Diamonbacks losing to the St. Louis Cardinals behind Randy Johnson, the Dodgers cut their magic number from five to three yesterday. Any combination of three Dodgers wins and Diamondbacks losses between now and the end of the regular season on Sunday will clinch the NL West division title for the Blue Crew. GO DODGERS!
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Tuesday, September 23, 2008
In Search Of...
... Jermaine Dye's bat. If anyone has seen it, could you please return it to him ASAP. His power outage this month is just killing some of my fantasy teams.
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Sunday, September 21, 2008
Fantasy Football: More Luck Than Skill
We are two weeks into the football season and since I've been sooooooo involved in trying to win my fantasy baseball leagues and making all of the possible moves to give my teams the best chance at winning, I've paid very little attention to my football teams. In fact, up until a few minutes ago, I had not even looked at my football teams since last Sunday. So how did I do last week? Well, every one of my seven ESPN fantasy football teams WON!
And now it's confession time. I will admit now that I did not study AT ALL for my fantasy football drafts. Every one of them I "winged it," picking my players on the fly and looking at average draft lists while the drafts were happening and going with my gut on a few players. I also made my "Favre Pledge" and avoided any and all Packers players at all costs... My main draft day targets this year were an up and comer named Anthony Gonzalez along with his teammate Reggie Wayne of the Indianapolis Colts and any receiver wearing an Arizona Cardinals uniform. On these same teams, I avoided stalwards Marvin Harrison and Edgerrin James.
While the trend has always been to focus on the "next big thing" at running back on draft day, I tend to look the other way and focus on the receivers. Rarely do I target defenses, but I had a gut feeling this year that the Chicago Bears D would rebound in 2008 after being so disappointing last year.
The season has a long ways to go, but it's nice to see that my teams are doing so well so early on with next to no preparation.
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And now it's confession time. I will admit now that I did not study AT ALL for my fantasy football drafts. Every one of them I "winged it," picking my players on the fly and looking at average draft lists while the drafts were happening and going with my gut on a few players. I also made my "Favre Pledge" and avoided any and all Packers players at all costs... My main draft day targets this year were an up and comer named Anthony Gonzalez along with his teammate Reggie Wayne of the Indianapolis Colts and any receiver wearing an Arizona Cardinals uniform. On these same teams, I avoided stalwards Marvin Harrison and Edgerrin James.
While the trend has always been to focus on the "next big thing" at running back on draft day, I tend to look the other way and focus on the receivers. Rarely do I target defenses, but I had a gut feeling this year that the Chicago Bears D would rebound in 2008 after being so disappointing last year.
The season has a long ways to go, but it's nice to see that my teams are doing so well so early on with next to no preparation.
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Saturday, September 13, 2008
K-Rod Saves Record 58th!
For the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the hits have kept on coming even after they clinched the American League West crown three days ago. Two nights ago, Francisco Rodriguez tied Bobby Thigpen's 18 year-old record for saves in recording his 57th. Last night catcher Mike Napoli hit a walk-off two run homer to give the Angels an exciting 5-3 win against the Seattle Mariners.
Tonight though, the focus was all on "K-Rod" as Rodriguez has come to be known. A strikeout of the Mariners' Raul Ibanez closed out a 5-2 Angels win and with it K-Rod recorded save #58 to set a new record. With 15 games to go, there figure to be many more opportunies for K-Rod to extend his mark and make more history. Congratulations to K-Rod on setting this new mark!
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Tonight though, the focus was all on "K-Rod" as Rodriguez has come to be known. A strikeout of the Mariners' Raul Ibanez closed out a 5-2 Angels win and with it K-Rod recorded save #58 to set a new record. With 15 games to go, there figure to be many more opportunies for K-Rod to extend his mark and make more history. Congratulations to K-Rod on setting this new mark!
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Hacking The Hackers...
One of my spare time (and that's a very rare commodity for me these days) hobbies is working on and maintaining a few Wikipedia pages. My personal favorite is my first page, the one I created on my friend, 2006 Miss District of Columbia, Kate Michael. Now while my Wiki page on Kate hasn't had many attacks of vandalism, I cannot say the same for some of the other pages I help maintain. Often these attacks are anonymous with the user's IP address showing on Wikipedia. Needless to say, it's a little frustrating to find that an anonymous person has messed with your work. Well now, there's a way to actually find where the IP address originated from! It's an IP address locator tool courtesy of Geobytes.com.
Click on this link IP Address Locator to find the actual city and state that is supplying the IP address. If you find the address you can put a little note on the user section of the Wikipedia IP Address page for the user telling them their city and state in addition to giving them their requesite first warning. Needless to say, this kind of note usually spooks the hackers and makes them go away. :)
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Click on this link IP Address Locator to find the actual city and state that is supplying the IP address. If you find the address you can put a little note on the user section of the Wikipedia IP Address page for the user telling them their city and state in addition to giving them their requesite first warning. Needless to say, this kind of note usually spooks the hackers and makes them go away. :)
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Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Angels Clinch AL West!
The New York Yankees may own a lot of World Championships, but there is one team they certainly do not own - the 2002 World Champion Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The Angels are the only team in all of baseball to sport a winning record against the Yankees over the past 10 seasons. Since Mike Scioscia took over As their manager before the start of the 2000 season, the Angels owned a 44-36 record against the pinstripes going into today's contest.
This afternoon, the Angels and Yankees played the rubber game of their three game series at Angels Stadium. Dustin Moseley pitched a strong five innings and Francisco Rodriguez struck out Hideki Matsui to record his 56th save in a 4-2 Angels victory. With the win, the Angels clinched a tie for the American League West crown. They then watched in the lockerroom as Seattle Mariners closer J.J. Putz struck out Texas Rangers shortstop Michael Young in a 4-3 win to clinch the title for the second straight season and 4th time in the past five years.
Congratulations to the Angels on clinching, and here's hoping that the crosstown Dodgers (who lead the N.L. West by three games as of this writing) can join them in the post season. Maybe that Freeway World Series isn't such a farfetched thought after all!
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This afternoon, the Angels and Yankees played the rubber game of their three game series at Angels Stadium. Dustin Moseley pitched a strong five innings and Francisco Rodriguez struck out Hideki Matsui to record his 56th save in a 4-2 Angels victory. With the win, the Angels clinched a tie for the American League West crown. They then watched in the lockerroom as Seattle Mariners closer J.J. Putz struck out Texas Rangers shortstop Michael Young in a 4-3 win to clinch the title for the second straight season and 4th time in the past five years.
Congratulations to the Angels on clinching, and here's hoping that the crosstown Dodgers (who lead the N.L. West by three games as of this writing) can join them in the post season. Maybe that Freeway World Series isn't such a farfetched thought after all!
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Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Liberal Media Attacks on Palin...
I'm not one to speak on politics here very often, but what the left wing blogs and the liberal media have been trying to do to Republican Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin these past few days is just outright sickening! Here is a family woman with values, integrity and class (even a former beauty queen), and they're trying to run her into the ground.
John McCain trumped Barack Obama and the Democrats by picking a woman who many women can actually relate to, and the response of the liberals tells me that the reason they are trying to smear Sarah Palin is that they are running scared. It is sad and pathetic what the liberal left is doing at the moment.
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John McCain trumped Barack Obama and the Democrats by picking a woman who many women can actually relate to, and the response of the liberals tells me that the reason they are trying to smear Sarah Palin is that they are running scared. It is sad and pathetic what the liberal left is doing at the moment.
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Monday, September 1, 2008
Not One, but TWO Cycles in One Night!
Hitting for the cycle is a VERY rare feat - so rare in fact that even a no-hitter is more common. Last week, Cristian Guzman of the Washington Nationals hit for the cycle against the Los Angeles Dodgers in our nation's capital. Tonight, for only the second time in Major League history, TWO players hit for the cycle in the same day - the only other time it happened was on September 17, 1920!!!
Tonight in Arizona, Stephen Drew went 5-for-5 against the St. Louis Cardinals in an 8-6 Diamondbacks victory. Drew singled in the first, tripled in the third and homered to right in the fifth inning off Cards starter Joel Piniero. He completed the cycle with a ground-rule double to center off Kyle McClellan in the seventh. Drew then added another double in the eighth off of Brad Thompson. Drew scored three runs on the night.
In Texas, Adrian Beltre hit a home run on a two strike pitch off Rangers starter Matt Harrison in the second inning. Beltre singled in the fourth and again in the sixth off of Harrison. In the seventh inning, he doubled off of Luis Mendoza. In the eighth, Beltre completed his cycle, mashing his first triple of the season into right field corner off of Josh Rupe. He had a chance to collect six hits, but grounded out in the 9th inning against Warner Madrigal to end the night 5-for-6. Amazingly, Beltre scored all five times he reached tonight (and also drove in three) in the Mariners 12-6 win.
And FYI, Beltre was back in my Thrasher's team lineup (as is Jimmy Rollins) for this week's games, so I got to enjoy his cycle even more!
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Tonight in Arizona, Stephen Drew went 5-for-5 against the St. Louis Cardinals in an 8-6 Diamondbacks victory. Drew singled in the first, tripled in the third and homered to right in the fifth inning off Cards starter Joel Piniero. He completed the cycle with a ground-rule double to center off Kyle McClellan in the seventh. Drew then added another double in the eighth off of Brad Thompson. Drew scored three runs on the night.
In Texas, Adrian Beltre hit a home run on a two strike pitch off Rangers starter Matt Harrison in the second inning. Beltre singled in the fourth and again in the sixth off of Harrison. In the seventh inning, he doubled off of Luis Mendoza. In the eighth, Beltre completed his cycle, mashing his first triple of the season into right field corner off of Josh Rupe. He had a chance to collect six hits, but grounded out in the 9th inning against Warner Madrigal to end the night 5-for-6. Amazingly, Beltre scored all five times he reached tonight (and also drove in three) in the Mariners 12-6 win.
And FYI, Beltre was back in my Thrasher's team lineup (as is Jimmy Rollins) for this week's games, so I got to enjoy his cycle even more!
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5 Down, 1 To Go...
As Labor Day 2008 winds down, it also means that five months of the 2008 baseball season have come and gone and that there is just one month left to go. For those of us that play the fantasy baseball game, these final four weeks are the most crucial ones of the year. Though many of you may now be focused on your fantasy football leagues, I for one am really focusing on doing what it takes to win my baseball leagues.
With the close of August, here's how my teams in my five most important leagues stood:
Angels: 1st place - 70.5 pts, 4.5 ahead
Crusaders: 2nd place - 72.5 pts, 4.5 back
Crushers: 2nd place - 69.5 pts, 3.0 back
Thrashers: 3rd place - 60.5 pts, 5.0 back
Waves: 3rd place - 64.5 pts, 3.5 back
Yes, I'm in a position to possibly win each of my leagues! This is a far cry from the midpoint of the season when most of my teams were struggling just to stay in the middle of the pack.
The Waves team had a truly amazing week 22, making up 14 points on the lead! That team went from 54.0 pts to 64.5 (a 10.5 pt gain) as the leader lost 3.5 pts from the 71.5 he started the week with. Jason Werth with a .500 BA, 4 HR, 9 RBI's, 8 runs and a steal paced my hitters, while Jake Peavy's 20 K's and Bronson Arroyo's two wins led my pitchers. And I would have made up even more ground in that league if I hadn't benched a slumping Jimmy Rollins for Orlando Cabrera in that league. I benched Rollins (along with Adrian Beltre) on the Thrashers team as well. Combined they did this on my bench for that team: 25-54 for a .463 BA, 4 HR, 13 RBI, 9 R, 7 SB. OUCH!!! I can only hope that this doesn't come back to bite me come the end of September. Regardless, it's been an incredible roller coaster ride this year for me in my leagues... it definitely should be quite the finish in all of them.
Last year, things were quite different. I did three of these leagues and had one won by now coasting with a 15 point or so lead. In another I was hopelessly out of it, in 7th place and playing only for pride. In a third, I was in the runner-up position and made a mad dash to vault into a tie for the lead as the regular season closed. Unfortunately for me, Jake Peavy had to pitch that extra game at Coors Field for the Padres and I ended up losing 2.5 points and finishing second after a valient run from 17 points down...
What will the final month for me hold? Only the man above knows, I just hope He's smiling upon me and my teams!
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With the close of August, here's how my teams in my five most important leagues stood:
Angels: 1st place - 70.5 pts, 4.5 ahead
Crusaders: 2nd place - 72.5 pts, 4.5 back
Crushers: 2nd place - 69.5 pts, 3.0 back
Thrashers: 3rd place - 60.5 pts, 5.0 back
Waves: 3rd place - 64.5 pts, 3.5 back
Yes, I'm in a position to possibly win each of my leagues! This is a far cry from the midpoint of the season when most of my teams were struggling just to stay in the middle of the pack.
The Waves team had a truly amazing week 22, making up 14 points on the lead! That team went from 54.0 pts to 64.5 (a 10.5 pt gain) as the leader lost 3.5 pts from the 71.5 he started the week with. Jason Werth with a .500 BA, 4 HR, 9 RBI's, 8 runs and a steal paced my hitters, while Jake Peavy's 20 K's and Bronson Arroyo's two wins led my pitchers. And I would have made up even more ground in that league if I hadn't benched a slumping Jimmy Rollins for Orlando Cabrera in that league. I benched Rollins (along with Adrian Beltre) on the Thrashers team as well. Combined they did this on my bench for that team: 25-54 for a .463 BA, 4 HR, 13 RBI, 9 R, 7 SB. OUCH!!! I can only hope that this doesn't come back to bite me come the end of September. Regardless, it's been an incredible roller coaster ride this year for me in my leagues... it definitely should be quite the finish in all of them.
Last year, things were quite different. I did three of these leagues and had one won by now coasting with a 15 point or so lead. In another I was hopelessly out of it, in 7th place and playing only for pride. In a third, I was in the runner-up position and made a mad dash to vault into a tie for the lead as the regular season closed. Unfortunately for me, Jake Peavy had to pitch that extra game at Coors Field for the Padres and I ended up losing 2.5 points and finishing second after a valient run from 17 points down...
What will the final month for me hold? Only the man above knows, I just hope He's smiling upon me and my teams!
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