Free Fallin'...

... and no, that isn't the sound of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers playing his huge classic on my PC... rather, that is what has happened to my fantasy baseball teams over the past couple of weeks. Before I went on my little vacation to Washington D.C. and Nashville, four of my five CBS Sportsline teams were in the top four positions, with a couple of them being in second place... With free internet access at both the Best Western hotel I stayed in while in our nation's capital and at the fabulous Radisson Opryland hotel I stayed in while in Nashville, I figured I wouldn't have much trouble managing my teams. And actually, I did quite the nice job with my roster moves, most especially reacquiring Derek Lowe of the Dodgers in four of my five leagues and riding his two wins last week and also getting Jonathan Sanchez of the Giants and getting his two wins in a couple of leagues.

Unfortunately for me, the Lowe and Sanchez pickups were the only things that seemed to go right in my leagues while I was away from California. "Big Papi" went on the DL on June 3rd with an injured wrist. He could be gone for the season. As is, he's out for at least a month... I have him on two of my teams. The next night, Carlos Pena broke his finger. He's out for six weeks. I had him on three of my teams. The following night Rick Ankiel is mysteriously missing from my lineups for a second consecutive day... he's now missed a full week. Ankiel was on three of my teams as well. For the week, the three combined to play in two games, getting two hits in six at bats, with a home run, three RBI's a run and a steal. When you figure your average player is going to get you 25 at bats a week, you can see just how much of a hole this put me in for the week... I also got Ryan Zimmerman's goose egg in a league last week. Taken as a sum, I was missing nearly 14% of my offense combined in those four leagues.

Now you probably know the reason for the "Free Fallin'" title... as I type this at 7:00 PM on 6/9/08, I have NO TEAMS in the top four positions!!! Since these are all money leagues that I'm talking about, this is pretty disheartening. If you win the league, you get the big cash prize. You get nothing for coming in second. Just two weeks ago, my teams were tracking very nicely. Today, I am scrambling to replace injured players and make something of my teams that are suddenly resembling M*A*S*H units! Perhaps the Beatles classic "HELP!" may me the next song title I use in describing the plight of my fantasy baseball teams... though I'd prefer to keep on "Running Down A Dream" of winning at least one of these leagues...

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