Astros Franchise-MVP Baseball (World Series!)

[jonthefon]

Cleveland up 3-1, Beckett versus Sabathia tomorrow. Hopefully the Indians win, then I'll be happy instead of having to root for the underdog (a clash of two "good-guys" is always a good thing.)

[JT_55]

Just crazy. If Cleveland wins, almost every underdog in this playoffs won (BoSox-Angels are arbitary). But I always find that a showdown between the good-guys will always leave me hating one of them next year.

How about the Mavs game? Harris got pushed over just because some guy was frustrated he didn't get a foul and Josh Howard charged at the idiot. Got ejected for that, but for a good cause.

[jonthefon]

Good thing for the Mavs. They need some mongrel. Actually, a lot of mongrel.

Yeah, I really hope that Cleveland can close out tomorrow, otherwise it will be tough winning back at Fenway, although Dice-K may be a bit shaken up.

And damn, I hate pitching with Jose Contreras. His stuff is great, but any slight mistake I make on the pitching meter usually results in a hit or a home run. I've pitched four games with him; three of the games, gave up two homers in each and a bucketload of runs. In the other one, he pitched 7.1 innings giving up one run and struck out eight. It's pretty much what he did all of this year.

[JT_55]

I never bothered pitching with Contreras. Too old for my "rigged" dynasty, and too good for my normal ones. But I doubt 2003 will have the same problems.

Just need a bad start from Beckett, and the Indians can hopefully capitalize. I'm hoping the series to end as quickly as possible to avoid the Rockies being "rusted".

[jonthefon]

Josh Beckett=unbelievable.

Five hits, one run.

[JT_55]

Let's say, yikes!? Fausto got hammered by JD, I don't care how bad he was in the regualr season, but if the BoSox go on to win I think the Red Sox Nation just might forgive him and his 50+ million contract.

Schilling didn't even need a bloody sock this time.

[jonthefon]

Fuck the Sox. Ah well, Dice-K is pitching tomorrow, which may not mean good for Boston. Westbrook needs to get his sinker going early.

[jonthefon]

FUCK THE FUCKING FUCK SOX.

I'm sorry, I just really hate the Red Sox. Even worse than the Yankees or the Cards or...

[JT_55]

You beat me to it .

Oh yes, I hate the Red Sox, too. Just not to the extent you hate them. I reserve that kind of hatred for AL West teams.

Stupid third base coach. If I'm the GM, I'd fire him right after the seventh inning. Of course, no one ever could guess that the next batter (was it Sizemore or Blake?) grounded into a double play. In hindsight, of course. If Lofton got thrown out at the dish he would still be under the gun. Not an easy job, coaches.

[JT_55]

If this continues for four more games I will hate the Sox as much as you do.

[jonthefon]

I am very bitter right now.

At least I was able to get some offense going on my over-stacked Mariners fantasy dynasty. Had 7 runs after two inning after getting seven consecutive hits in the first and Byrnes swinging a 400ft homer with Mathis on base in the second. Then scored five more in the sixth. I think I should deal Victorino, because I've got a balance with Wilkerson playing center and then Kotchman slotting in at first whenever Ortiz is the DH.

[JT_55]

Let's hope Schilling gets banged up early today. That's the only thing I can't jinx because it already happened yesterday. Josh Fogg is going next game,so...it's Josh Fogg.

Ortiz should be playing DH everyday. He's not excatly Doug Mientkiewicz (I swear, I didn't look that up ). Anyway, shouldn't you keep Victorino because he's got a miniscule salary? He could come off the bench well, but if you can get a starter.

I finally managed to lose a game in my Mariner franchise. Joel left losing 3-2, staged a ninth inning comeback (two outs, Ibanez on second, Broussard hit a base hit), but Rafael Soriano promptly gave it right back in the tenth. So much for perfect season...

[jonthefon]

I disabled DH for both leagues; mainly because I don't like it; it takes away too much strategy from the game. I like the fact that you have to know when to pinch-hit your starter, when you want to dump the reliever dominating in order to try and get a boost, and such.

I played another game today. JD Drew crushes a clutch three-run shot in the first and adds a double to drive in Ortiz. Unfortunately, Santana has a meltdown to pull it back in to 5-4 and I send in Wheeler to pitch. But I get the lead back straight away as Tulowitzki and Mathis of all people get RBI's (Mathis gets two with a double to deep right). Wheeler has trouble with the final out, but he finishes with 3.2 innings, 5 hits, 1 run, Santana now 4-0. Unfortunately, Marquis is 0-4.

[jonthefon]

And over the weekend, played a few more strange games.

I play Mets-Yankees, struggle hard but get the lead to 3-2 in the top of the ninth, Wagner in to save. Matsui singles and Wagner gets two outs, then on an 0-2 count, I send a perfect bottom-corner 99mph fastball to Posada, and he slams it over the wall for a homer. I put two men on base, but then I pinch-hit Wagner for Conine, who GIDP and ends the game.

Then I beat the Devil Rays 11-9; Manny hits a three-run shot to make it 4-0 in the third, then in the bottom of the inning, Dice-K melts down badly, gives a three-run shot to Carl Crawford after an error. Two more errors afterwards results in another three-run homer, so it's 6-4. I get it back a couple of innings later when Lowell hits a grand slam to make it 8-6, but then Gagne (well, he had to come pitch in the sixth) loads the bases on a bloop single and TWO MORE errors, and a double clears the bases. Luckily, Youkilis and Pedroia gets RBI's later before Papelbon finally makes the save. Eight errors in total, and this was on assisted fielding.

And I also managed to play a eleven-inning shutout game before Willy-T double and then gets home on two sacrifice flies.

[JT_55]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FUCK THE FUCKING FUCK SOX.

I half-heartedly watched the game, as I was listening to the Canucks getting robbed of at least a tie by the zebras. But at least something good comes out of all this: opening night and the WS won't create a logjam.

Why do you have so many Boston players on your Dynasty ? Wow, three innings for Wheeler, and a 0-4 Jason Marquis. I haven't got around to playing MVP this past week, though.

[jonthefon]

Well, the ones I picked all have great stats. Ortiz is a beast, something like 95:95 against righties and pretty good against left. Drew is a great fielder and is 91:86 against righties, Papelbon of course. And along with him, I have Wheeler who has a pretty darn good slider with a fastball, Mark Lowe who flings a serious fastball and Luis Ayala who has three very good in-game pitches.

And I play exhibition games by randomising and picking home or away beforehand, so today, I randomised Yankees versus Tampa Bay with Chien-Ming Wang and Scott Kazmir pitching. It was pretty much expected. Giambi smashes a three-run homer, A-Rod has six RBI's, Wang pitches seven innings giving up just one run, a home run by Carl Crawford. And for the eighth, I bring in Farnsworth, who gives up a first-pitch homer to Iwamura with a 97mph fastball down in the far corner. He gives up five more, and I have to bring in Vizcaino to scrap up to win 12-7 after leading comfortably at 12-1.

And for some strange reason, I find it easier to strike guys out with a sinker in MVP rather than a change-up or splitter. Usually, batters don't bite at the change out of the zone and usually end up hitting the change in the zone. And the sinker? They usually completely miss it.

[JT_55]

Yep, sinker's good in MVP 03, too. Changeup and sinker doesn't do much, but I usually give them a sinker (full-blast) from Oswalt and they can't catch up with it. Good thing is, if they do hit it, they'll foul it and that sets up the curve inside.

I suppose the Farnsworth breakdown part was the most expected out of all the other events . No homers for A-Rod? Aww...

[jonthefon]

Well, his bases-clearing double came off the wall...

Most of my strikeout pitches are from the sinker or the curve. Anything else doesn't cut it.

A big problem is that with MVP 07, the pitch meter is a lot harder to time than the original.

[JT_55]

I like to use either the sinker (low outside corner), high heat, curveball (low inside corner), changeup (down and in), and the slider (down and away). Now you know why I get so many strikeouts, huh? Some, like the high heat, is cheap. The hitters fool on it almost every time and can never hit it. So I never use it.

Wow, A-Rod is allegedly asking for $350 million. I don't care how long it's for. He's good, but not that good. lol, if he sits out the next season cause no one will sign him...serves him and Boras right. Can any team actually can afford him while still have enough money to prevent having to bring me in to pitch ?

[jonthefon]

He'll give in eventually

[jonthefon]

Eh, this thread is dead, thanks to the depressing end of the baseball season.

[Jing]

Well, could change this into a baseball offseason discussion thread

I am pissed that CC won the Cy Young instead of Beckett, it should be based just on the regular season, but the entire baseball season.

[jonthefon]

it should be based just on the regular season, but the entire baseball season.

*grins at typo*

Well, they have LCS and World Series MVP...and I'm sure Beckett prefers a second ring over a CY.

[JT_55]

Well, wouldn't that be unfair to guys like Halladay who sees the playoffs once in a blue moon (and maybe even less)? I guess I don't really care much for Beckett, that's why. Even though he deserved it.

So A-Rod won MVP (suprise, suprise) and he's cosidering taking a drop off his original $350 million.

Astros made a stupid trade, giving up Lidge and Bruntlett for three guys I never even heard their names of. Probably three decent prospects, but they should've traded him off earlier.

I don't really like the Cabrera-Garland trade, mostly because now the M's have to go through another decent starting pitcher against the Angels. well, apart from that, they just re-signed Uribe, so WTF?

[jonthefon]

Well, it was a good trade for the Halos, but they really need another hitter. They have good shortstops backing up and they still have Brandon Wood (who's crazy good, from what I hear).

A-Rod's going to get...$275 million?

I didn't like the Lidge trade since it kills the bullpen, but if Dotel or Linebrink can be signed, Qualls might not be terrible at closer. After all, the Astros just got Villareal and Geary is solid. And there's still Sarfarte.

Anderson was a tough loss after coming up in September, but since we got Bourn (who apparently, is better than Anderson but I think not as good as Willy-T), we wouldn't have space to fit him and Luke Scott in.

And I don't know what the Astros will get from the Padres for Lane and Ensberg. Probably only cash, which is terrible.