Odd, Ends, Predictions, Money & Moves

THE ODDS AND ENDS PART.

When trying to play catch up, and you’ve been making progress at that recently, every point can be important. That’s why the PITTSBURGH O’s had to cut ties with pitcher Chris Young and his unclear injury situation on Wednesday and select a sure thing to pitch. The fast improving Paul Maholm was the right call as he won the first of his two starts for the scoring week. 20 important points the O would not have otherwise had. By the way, it was pointed out to me this week that our ‘ole buddy Greg Brown has another new Pirate nickname out there. The O’s Matt Capps is now known as “The Mad Capper!” I don’t know; give me the old days of Bob Prince’s Tiger, Duck, Dog, Aribba, etc.

The 4th place ALABAMA SLAMMERS have the Starting Pitching set to have 6 guys toe the rubber on Sunday (Aug 26). And none are pitching against each other, which usually occurs when that many SP’s start on the same day. Then, everyone sits until Erik Bedard wraps it up for Alabama with a Wednesday start. Al had two more Triples from Curtis Granderson. Curtis hasn’t been with the Slams for the entire year, but his yearly numbers show double figures in the following categories….
32 – Doubles, 21 – Triples, 16 – Home Runs, 15 – Stolen Bases.

Another player that is well rounded like this is the LOCKHORNS Jimmy Rollins. J-Roll’s stats are….
31 – Doubles, 15 – Triples, 22 – Home Runs, 25 – Stolen Bases. And as you will see when we get to money, Harv likes the idea of 5th place pay.

The 69’ERS were knocking down pins on Wednesday and evidently unaware that a Phillies starter went on the DL. Good luck would have meant it was Jamie Moyer. However, this has not been a good luck season for Piff, and thus, it was Cole Hamels. Trivia Question: What is the record for the longest spelling of last names from a pair of catchers on the same NPL team in the 16 year history of the league?? ANSWER: The 69’ers of 2007 with PIERZYNSKI and SALTALAMACCHIA for a total of 24 letters. Hours of research led me to this conclusion!!

The ROCK CATS had 5 Starters go on Friday, and are scheduled for 5 this Wednesday to close out the week. They have a grand total of 8 Starts left for this week from Sunday to Wednesday. Looking for big pitching points to gain on the Train. In USA TODAY this week they gave listings of batters who Walk the least on average based on their Base on Balls and number of At Bats. The player who takes the least amount of free passes is Rock Cat Catcher Ivan Rodriguez. To date, 409 At Bats and only 7 Walks…

In fact, catchers seemed to be the most prevalent on this list and the KOOPERSTOWN KIDS boy from the Far East – Kenji Johjima was not much better with 12 Walks in 387 AB’s. And by the way, I’m still not ready for the two upcoming fantasy football drafts. But I think I can figure it out….. For the record, this will be my 28th straight year of dong live in-person football drafts with these two being draft numbers 40 and 41. But I’m probably not even close to being at Harv’s number!!

The BULLDOGS have a tough call with what to do with the injured – but not DL’ed Gary Sheffield. And they’re back to having 6 SP’s on the DL right now. Tony arrived back in town and Eddie was glad to see him and greeted him in brotherly fashion.

I also understand that Big Ed is now calling himself “Steely McBeam.” Yikes!! Is this an attempt to aggravate Al ???

The OWLS traditionally like batters who are “lead off” types. And now of all things, Brian Giles is batting lead off for the Pods. You know with Harv’s team earlier this season, Giles had 1 HR in 170 AB’s. As an Owl he has 6 in 141. The Owls lead the NPL in the category of HBP as A-Rod is their individual leader with 16.

But the two batters who lead all of MLB in the HBP number are two members of THE BIG TRAIN and Phillies. Aaron Rowand and Chase Utley each have been beaned 17 times. And of course, #17 for Utley was damaging to the Train. Utley’s current replacement is Brewer Rickie Weeks. This gives the BT three member of the Milwaukee infield, as Weeks is flanked by Prince Fielder and J.J. Hardy as Train ticket holders. A move that paid off for Bob this week was to cut Mark Teahen. He wasn’t DL’ed at the time, but later this week he was. And Nate the N-Dog great is scoring points in his place. How about Greg Maddux – now on the BT, bouncing back and getting a big W? The guy is like a 15 year old pit bull that keeps saving his family’s house from getting robbed even as they’re having the “should we put him down?” conversation.

And despite being in 10th place, the H-BOMBS owner John Schoming says he is no…….

He loves the game, and as soon as he gets some September moves, Justin Upton and his .152 BA may be gone, and more hitting help is coming too….. Paul LoDuuuuuuca, is on his way back very soon from a rehab.

PRE-SEASON PREDICTIONS:

The volatility of the standings actually makes this not worth plotting out at this time, but I can tell you the following….. Remember we had 12 guys doing this, as T & E did separate forms and Bryan the sticker guy did one too.

Three teams currently in the money didn’t get a lot of support. Bob (5 votes), John F (4) and Al (2) currently are there. While the Raven and Harv (9 each) had the support and are showing to be worthy of it. On the under-achieving side…. The Kids and Bombers each had the confidence of 10 voters, but aren’t showing much for it.

MONEY:

I had a question from Judy – Was I going to win any money in fantasy baseball this year? When I said it didn’t look promising….. Well, things got heated…….


I guess the good news for me is that she doesn’t have a brother named “Michael.”

Now, upon SPECIAL REQUEST from one of the NPL’s biggest fans, here is what the money looks like at this time…….

PAID IN: (or will be paid in.)

$1,000.00 - 10 entry fees
$ 912.00 - for 304 moves so far

$1,912.00 - TOTAL in league funds.

PAY OUT:

1st – 30% = $573.60
2nd – 25% = $478.00
3rd – 20% = $382.40
4th – 15% = $286.80
5th – 10% = $191.20

What you owe right now based on moves made --
BOMBS = $126.00
HORNS = $117.00
SLAMS = $111.00
B DOGS = $99.00
BTRAIN = $93.00
R CATS = $78.00
NINERS = $78.00
THE O’S = $75.00
OWLS = $69.00
K KIDS = $66.00

So, thus……. If the season ended today, and if the current top five as of today (Aug 25) win that top five money, then minus their money owed for moves, they would be receiving a check for:

TRAIN…. $480.60
R CATS…$400.00
OWLS….. $313.40
SLAMS…$175.80
HORNS…$ 74.20

Of course, the pay out is never going to look uniform, because everyone makes a different amount of moves, but take the example of 5th place……

Harv RECEIVES a check for $74.20 under this scenario, were otherwise he would be PAYING the league $117.00. And there is the $191.20 difference to someone for paying down to 5th.

Of course, these numbers will continue to grown as we have five (5) more Wednesday’s that will add to it.

MOVES:

At this time we have made 93 DL moves. In 2006 we made 93 on the year. The record is 109 DL moves made in 2005. I don’t think we would break that. The DL’s slow almost to a halt after September 1.

We’ve made 211 DROPS thus far in ’07. In 2006 we did 280, which was an all-time high. I’m not saying we won’t surpass that. It would take an average of 14 per week for each of the final 5 weeks. That could very well happen.

With those 5 weeks left…… Have fun with it…….

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And a little something for football season......

CAN THE BROWNS DRAFT PICKS LEAD THEM PAST THE STEELERS IN 2007 ?????

--KOMMISH

NPL - 6 Weeks To Go.

Haven’t posted here since before I went on vacation, so let’s take stock of what is going on in the NPL… Has it ever seemed like you’ve been busy, but when you look back, you wonder busy doing what? That’s me. And geez, with two fantasy football drafts just around the corner. Am I ready for football? Heck no. In fact, I don’t even think I could score a 10 on the Wonderlic Test right now. But speaking of football, one of our owners said they were at a wild and crazy Steelers party for the televised game on Saturday night. They e-mailed me a picture from this party, which is posted at the end of this message. But to honor their wishes, they wanted to remain anonymous…

Regarding baseball, I came across this story and it’s one that is worth sharing. As Lanny would say…. “No doubt about it.”…. If you didn’t think PETE ROSE was a Jackass before, you’ll definitely call him that now after reading the story in the link below. What else can you say about an idiot that would spew obscenities during a speech at a youth baseball camp?

http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070802/COL05/708020317/1090

And this past week was the 40th anniversary (08-16-67) of The Red Sox TONY CONIGLIARO’s beaning in the face by Jack Hamilton. As a Tony C fan at the age of 13 back then, I remember this very clearly. But just don’t ask me what I had for lunch yesterday! Conigliaro was a superstar in the making who made his major league debut in 1964 at the age of 19. He was never the same after that night in August ’67, and in 1990 at the age of 45 he passed away.

Bizarro Baseball.
Okay, it is a little surprising to see Rajai Davis play like he is for the Giants, although he has escaped the Jim Tracy regime. But what the heck is going on in Baltimore?? Tike Redmon and J.R. House have started games and are contributing to wins over there. Bizarro indeed…

NPL – Down the home stretch…… A team-by-team look….

10th Place: 69’ERS.
The Niners were in 4th place after week #9, and then went into a tailspin that they are now starting to climb out of. Having a good week in period #20, and they are chasing the Bombers for the escape from the cellar. 25 points away from an invasion of The War Room. Says thanks to Harv for Raul Ibanez. In 35 Niner At-Bats he is hitting .485 with 4 HR and 11 RBI. In this wacky season of movement in the standings, it’s not inconceivable that Piff can start a come back.

9th Place: H-BOMBS:

It may have been a sign of things to come when #2 overall pick Chris Carpenter went on the DL early on. With only the 4 extra September moves available and 400 points to gain the top division, it will be a tough task for young Mr. Schoming. But he would still love to pass the Big O. The good news is Miguel Cabrera. At .328 the Florida Marlin is hitting his weight and possibly playing himself into a permanent 1st baseman. Have you seen this kid’s waistline lately?

8th Place: PITTSBURGH O’s:

Brandon Webb is a GOD!!! In this era of pitchers not finishing games, how fortunate is it to have a guy on roll like he is? Webb was selected by Larry in the 3rd round. I took Dice-K just ahead of that pick. Way to go Slappy!! The O’s are making a strong push, and this team is definitely in the hunt for a money spot.

7th Place: KOOPERSTOWN KIDS:

Was solidly in 5th just a week and a half ago, then suddenly the wheels have fallen off. The starting pitching just can’t get it together. In fact, everyone seems to be getting a laugh out of my squad these days.

6th Place: BULLDOGS:

As Tony enjoys Hawaii, Eddie has the Dogs barking. Tony and Ed talked over strategy last week as Eddie rode with Tony to the airport.

Here’s an odd fact….. They’re the #1 team in hitting points and the #10 team in pitching points. Will old timers Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez be able to pull it out for the BD’s? How about Magglio Ordonez? Not taken until the 15th round!

5th Place: LOCKHORNS:

Harv is on that bubble spot of 5th place. It’s been kind of an up and down season for the Horns in 2007 and Harv has had moments where he has cussed out Bucco Jason Bay. Consider that back on June 1st, Bay was hitting .314 while his counterpart in the heart of the order, good ole Adam LaRoche was hitting a paltry .215. As of this morning, Bay is at .254 while Red-Beard is at .259. Harv is going to add Canadians to his ethnic shit list……..

4th Place: ALABAMA SLAMMERS:

The Slammers really turned up the heat a few weeks ago and on August 7th, had come to within 25 points of 1st place. A tough pace to keep up and now Al is trying to catch the Owls for 3rd while holding off Harv, T&E, etc. for 4th. The Slammers used all available moves until September to “get them over with”, as the start of the NFL season looms near. But will this come back to haunt them down the stretch? In any event, great individual seasons by 6th round pick SS Hanley Ramirez who may claim the NL Batting Crown off of Go Freddy Go, and Erik Bedard is looking like the K-King of MLB.

3rd Place: OWLS:

As mentioned in the website story, Mr. Consistent of the NPL in 2007. A definite threat to take a run at the title in ’07. The hitting has been solid all season and John will cross his fingers with the pitching. The Owls have those old Pirate locker room favorites of Kendall and Giles. Has even coaxed 3 HR’s out of Kendall this year and what was going on in week 19? Giles has only 7 HR’s all season, but he hit 5 of them for the Owls in week 19!! I think JF had some of Giles’ favorite steroids shipped to San Diego and Giles thought it was 2001 all over again.

2nd Place: ROCK CATS:

Now that the Cats are back on-line, can we expect a rash of roster moves this Wednesday? Interesting season for the Raven. Held 1st place from week 2 thru 8, then 2nd place from week 10 thru 15, then a dip to 3rd but now back in 2nd. The Rock Cats are all about good starting pitching. They have 6 SP’s who have 10 Wins or more and they lead the NPL in the Wins category. And in a bit of irony, the Cats are last in the Saves category. On the other hand, the Bulldogs are just the opposite. 1st in Saves and last in Wins. Of course, I have no freakin idea what any of that means. It’s just my job to report it.

1st Place: THE BIG TRAIN:

The Train has held the top spot for the last 10 weeks and like the Cats, they have good pitching. J.J. Putz is the 2nd best scoring pitcher in the NPL, with only Brandon Webb ahead of him in points. Like Magglio, Prince Fielder was also not taken until that 15th round. Anything can happen in the final 6 weeks but Bob has got to be sure that Justin Morneau will soon start to hit again. The BT has held on despite a terrible stretch by the 2006 A.L. MVP.

And on an unrelated note, I feel like I jinxed the Big Train’s weekend trip to Altoona…. Earlier this week Bob mentioned they were going to Altoona for the Curve game (Doubleheader) on Saturday. I said….. “Yeah, just your luck McCutcheon and Walker will get sent up to Indianapolis before Saturday.” And on Friday that is exactly what happened!! Sorry Bob!

And on Wednesday, September 5th which is a big fantasy football draft night, BOB will be handling NPL e-mails or phone calls for the moves……

Now, onto that Steelers party news…… I’m sworn to secrecy as to which NPL owner enjoyed the game, the party, and had “tons of fun”, but here is a picture from that shindig on Saturday night.

See ya Wednesday….
--Kommish.