I take pride in winning expert leagues. But I take even more pride in winning my A.L.-only league. 2011 was the league's 25th year in existence (and my 16th). Entering 2011, I had taken home four titles - more than any other owner since that first year back in 1996. But it's never enough. I want to win every year. When I stop wanting to win, I'll stop playing.
Coming into the season, I thought I had a third or fourth place team, but nothing like a winner. There were two teams that came in with strong freeze lists and had solid (if not spectacular) auctions that I thought kept them the front-runners.
Was I right?
2011 Gianella Quints, Billy Almon Brown Graduate League
# | Player | $ | Sal | +/- | MY BID | |
C | Mike Napoli | $28 | $19 | 9 | $17 | |
C | A.J. Pierzynski | $12 | $10 | 2 | $10 | |
1B | Adrian Gonzalez | $38 | $41 | -3 | $34 | |
2B | Gordon Beckham (F) | $6 | $10 | -4 | $17 | |
SS | Marco Scutaro (F) | $15 | $3 | 12 | $9 | |
3B | Mark Reynolds | $20 | $23 | -3 | $21 | |
CO | Matt LaPorta (F) | $9 | $10 | -1 | $10 | |
MI | Orlando Cabrera | $6 | $2 | 4 | $6 | |
OF | Brett Gardner (F) | $25 | $16 | 9 | $25 | |
OF | Ryan Langerhans | -$0 | $1 | -1 | $1 | |
OF | David Murphy | $15 | $8 | 7 | $10 | |
OF | Juan Pierre (F) | $20 | $29 | -9 | $25 | |
OF | Michael Saunders | -$2 | $2 | -4 | $5 | |
DH | Ramon Castro (F) | $2 | $1 | 1 | $2 | |
P | Josh Beckett | $29 | $15 | 14 | $17 | |
P | Erik Bedard (F) | $6 | $7 | -1 | $7 | |
P | Kyle Farnsworth | $28 | $4 | 24 | $5 | |
P | Dan Haren | $32 | $31 | 1 | $26 | |
P | J.P. Howell | -$3 | $1 | -4 | $2 | |
P | James Shields | $36 | $14 | 22 | $13 | |
P | Kevin Slowey | -$9 | $1 | -10 | $2 | |
P | Matt Thornton (F) | $4 | $6 | -2 | $24 | |
P | C.J. Wilson (F) | $26 | $6 | 20 | $12 | |
Total | $345 | $260 | +85 | $300 |
As it turns out, I bought a much better team than I possibly could have dreamed of buying coming into the auction. Not only did I buy more value than any other team, but I blew away the next team by $22.
The problem I had was that while I had the most value, I didn't have the best team.
2011 Billy Almon Brown Graduate "Draft" Standings
Team | HR | RBI | SB | BA | W | SV | ERA | WHIP | TOT | $ | |
Kirby's Jihad | 10 | 12 | 9 | 12 | 2 | 12 | 4 | 10 | 71 | $323 | |
Glanvillage People | 7 | 8 | 10 | 5 | 7 | 11 | 10 | 11 | 69 | $312 | |
Gianella Quints | 5.5 | 6 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 6 | 12 | 12 | 67.5 | $345 | |
The Benedictines | 1 | 5 | 12 | 11 | 3 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 57 | $295 | |
JSC's | 11 | 10 | 6 | 3 | 4.5 | 10 | 7 | 5 | 56.5 | $272 | |
Philly D Batteries | 12 | 11 | 8 | 7 | 4.5 | 3.5 | 5 | 3 | 54 | $269 | |
Whit Fielders | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 8 | 9 | 7 | 50 | $261 | |
Ivry Towers | 9 | 9 | 11 | 8 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 45 | $234 | |
Dewey Decimators | 5.5 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 42.5 | $212 | |
Guerrero's Gueros | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 3.5 | 11 | 9 | 40.5 | $217 | |
Good Fellas | 8 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 11 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 38 | $208 | |
100% Fun | 2 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 10 | 2 | 6 | 2 | 33 | $187 |
An extreme lead in a category leads to value not producing points...and the pitching staff I bought was incredible. Beckett, Haren, Shields and Wilson were the core of an incredible staff and Farnsworth gave me the closer that Thornton was supposed to be. The result was a 0.36 ERA lead and 0.101 WHIP lead over my closest competitors.
This presented opportunities I didn't anticipate having when the season started...but also challenges I would have to meet in order to maximize my point total to produce a winner. I'll look at how I revised my strategy - and what worked and what didn't - next time out.
No comments:
Post a Comment