Week 14 Newsletter

July 14, 2009

Vol. 25, No. 14
Season Week No. 14
July 14, 2009

PHONY LEAGUE BASEBALL
popculture.incompetech.com/baseball/
Newsletter Editor: Mark S Zimmer

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As we sit through the frustrating three days of baseball wasteland (better known to some as the All-Star Break), the BoSox begin to make a big move, while the Instigators tenaciously cling to that first place position.

One might expect the best teams to be loaded up with All-Stars, but the Phony League offers a surprising amount of parity there this year. The most All-Stars on any one team is five (Foxes and the Instigators, who unsurprisingly are riding high), and the fewest is three (the bottom-feeding Carp, Ham-Fighters, Mastodons and Trade Winds). Seven different Phony League teams had a starter in the game; the only teams with two starters each were, you guessed it, the Foxes and Instigators. The best budgeting award goes to the Bovines, who managed four All-Stars for the princely sum of $1.60. There was All-Star talent on the cheap, too, with five different players earning a whopping dime each (Ben Zobrist, Ryan Braun, Mark Teixeira, Jason Bartlett and Evan Longoria).

PLAYER OF THE WEEK NOMINATIONS:
Team………. Player……………….. BA.. OP….. OA.. Special Achievement
Carp……….. Dustin Pedroia……… .462. 38…… 1.462. 12 Hits, 6 Doubles
Instigators…. Alex Rodriguez…….. .348. 34…… 1.478. 3 HR
Bovine Sox.. Hank Blalock……….. .455. 32….. 1.455.
Foxes……… Paul Konerko………. .391. 32…… 1.391. 3 HR
Bovine Sox... Ben Zobrist…………. .455. 32…… 1.455 5 Walks

Team………. Pitcher………………. ERA OOBA. PP.. Special Achievement
HamFighters Josh Beckett……….. 1.15. 0.70… 13.8.. 2 Wins
Carp……….. Justin Verlander……. 2.08. 1.15… 12.5.. 2 Wins

The Player of the Week is Dustin Petunia. The Player of the Week on the Bench is free agent Mark Hendrickson who picked up two vulture wins over the week. Move along, nothing to see here.

TRANSACTIONS:

All BoSox, all the time.

July 9:
BOVINE SOCKS acquire free agent Andruw Jones releasing Ryan Raburn.

July 14:
BOVINE SOCKS acquire Dave Bush on waivers releasing Grant Balfour.

The last day to postmark or deliver a waiver claim for the players released in this newsletter is Monday, July 20, 2009, the fortieth anniversary of Neil and Buzz landing on the moon. If a claim for one or more of those players is postmarked or delivered on or before that date and does not specify whether it is a waiver claim or a free agent claim, it will be considered a waiver claim. Announcements of all free agent and waiver acquisitions are subject to change if a late arriving letter or postcard is received from a team with a superior claim. Any free agent claims for astronauts will be honored in the order received.

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