Week 9 NewsletterJune 9, 2009PHONY LEAGUE BASEBALL NEWSLETTERVol. 25, No. 9 PHONY LEAGUE BASEBALL ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Sometimes the advice CBS Sportsline hands out is infuriating. Who hasn’t been told by them that a key player is out for weeks, only to have him go on a tear while he warms your bench? Other times, it’s so obvious as to be useless. For instance, the wise ones at CBS, in response to Chad Orvella being released from the Jays’ minor league system, opine “Ignore him in all fantasy leagues right now.” Really? Who knew? The Kiwis make a big move up this week, thanks to a heavy-duty offense, while the Ham Fighters’ pitching makes a lot of hitters look silly. Otherwise, the pack seems to be moving pretty much in tandem as we round the one-third mark of the season. Since it’s one-third over, it’s time to take stock of how our seasons are going. The Ghost Riders thought that they’d be doing well in offense and middle of the pack in pitching, and instead are buried in the offensive cellar and the pitching isn’t a lot better—if not for Zach Greinke saving my bacon week after week it’d be significantly worse. The law of averages caught up with Stinky Greinke this week though, and the GR were left without a safety net of any kind. Ugly. Send me your opinions about your team for next week’s newsletter. Or even more entertaining, send your opinions about the teams of others and see if we can start a food fight. PLAYER OF THE WEEK NOMINATIONS: Player of the Week on the Bench is the Scapegoats’ Lyle Overbay, with a .500 batting average and 35 OP to go with a 1.944 OPA. A close runner up is the unclaimed, unloved (possibly unwashed) Scott Podsednik, with the Pod Person hitting an unreal (for him) .327 with 33 OP to go with it. TRANSACTIONS: June 3: June 4: June 5: June 9:
REMINDER ABOUT FREE AGENT CLAIMS: When claiming a free agent, you must specify whether the player being released is in the lineup or not. The status of the released player is the status on the day before the claim goes into effect, which means in most cases it is the status on the day you send the claim. If the released player is not in the lineup on the day you send the claim, you can just note NIL, which, of course, means not in lineup. If the released player is in your lineup on the day you send the claim, you must report who will replace that player in your lineup. I do not care if you already reported a sub to your “checker.” You must also report the sub in the free agent claim. If it makes it easier to understand, when you make the claim just forget that you have a “checker” for your lineup and pretend that all your substitutions are reported to the person receiving the player claim. Then, report the substitution in the free agent claim.
Questions? E-mail Steve |