They Call It A Winning Streak: 6-5-1 (54-76-14 overall)

I should have won by a lot more this week, but my pitching staff turned in a second straight week of 8+ losses, a 5.00+ ERA and a WHIP north of 1.40. Pitching has been the strength of my squad all year (I lead the league in wins, for what that's worth), but it looks like that's headed in the wrong direction. The bullpen alone posted a 1-3 record for the week with a 7.53 ERA and a 2.37 WHIP. Ouch.

Offense is showing some signs of life, though I'm still having trouble plating runs and putting up a respectable OPS number. Guessing it's mostly OBP that I'm lacking, not slugging percentage. This hurts particularly, since I tend to build my teams around the Moneyball philosophy: you have to score runs to win and you can't score runs unless you get on base.

Aside: you really should watch the trailer for Moneyball. Go ahead, take a few minutes. I'll still be here...

Picked up Lucas Duda to fill the roster spot opened up in the wake of Shin-Soo Choo's injury. They're talking 6 weeks minimum and possible surgery which could sideline him for longer. This is gonna sting a bit.

Just when I thought Adam Dunn was coming around, he falls back into his season-long slump. He's 2 for his last 26 (.077) with 16 strikeouts. He's now on pace to hit about 15 home runs and strike out over 200 times. Dunn's never crossed 200 Ks (only Mark Reynolds ever has) but he has whiffed 194, 195 and 199 times. In those years he hit 46, 40 and 38 homers respectively. Without the power numbers, Adam Dunn is little more than Mark Bellhorn.

The good news is that if this were a roto league, I'd be in 17th place. Unfortunately, since it's head-to-head, I'm in 19th again, despite my 2 week winning streak. Nuts...

What They Giveth, They Taketh Away

I wouldn't say I was gloating about Pujols' injury, just looking for the silver lining. To that end, i don't think I deserved any karmic retribution by way of Shin-Soo Choo getting a broken thumb courtesy of a Jonathan Sanchez fastball. Still, it's bothersome that this injury would befall Choo just as he was starting to come around at the plate and giving me some hope of climbing up the standings.

On the bright side, this clears up my clogged outfield problem for the next six weeks, as I'll only have Ethier, Jay, Denorfia, McLouth and Revere to rotate through the lineup. I really don't know who I'm going to get to replace Choo on the roster. There aren't many intriguing position players available in free agency. Brent Lillibridge is out there, but he doesn't get enough playing time to be useful. I could also pick up the injured Jed Lowrie and stash him away on the DL, but there's no timetable on when he'll return to big league action.

So this is a huge blow to my team, but I'm trying not to let it get me down. I mean, how much worse can it get?

Uh-oh

So yesterday, I said Jon Jay would lose playing time with a fully healthy Cardinals outfield. Scratch that, I guess. Albert Pujols' broken arm means Lance Berkman will slide into first base duty, opening up right field for Jay.

You never want to see a guy get hurt, but the reality of the game is that you have to be in position to take advantage of unfortunate circumstances. It's why you handcuff backups to injury prone stars.

So I have another full-time outfielder for the next 4-6 weeks. Jay's trade value just went up. Maybe it's time for me to make a deal.

Learning to Crawl (8-4 this week, 48-71-13 overall)

I've been away from the blog for a few weeks. I got married. Kinda took up some of my time. Maybe that's why my squad plummeted to 19th out of 20 over the last month and a half. Time to get back to business.

Lot of changes since the last time I posted. I've made a fundamental shift in my attitude regarding saves. I don't regret my non-investment in closers on draft day (though it's pretty apparent that I wasted most of my budget on chump hitters). However, just because I didn't spend dollars doesn't mean I'm not looking for saves. As previously mentioned, I picked up Mark Melancon of the Astros who was promptly elevated to the closer role upon Brandon Lyon's arm injury. I also took a gamble on Fernando Salas of the Cardinals which paid off as he emerged from the bullpen chaos in St. Louis. Slim Jim gave up on Frank Francisco last week and I quickly picked him up; looks like he's back in his closer role in Toronto. I also made a move for Matt Thornton who may earn his White Sox closer job back from Sergio Santos. Even if he doesn't, he's been a historically good reliever. Not to mention I got Jonny Venters for $2 on draft day. Smart.

I lost both of my 1B cheap power gambits. Kila Ka'aihue got sent down in favor of phenom Eric Hosmer. Adam LaRoche finally gave up on trying to play through a torn labrum in his shoulder and he's done for the season. That's $14 down the toilet. The only first baseman I have left on my squad is Adam Dunn, who finally is showing some signs that he's ready to turn things around. You would not believe some of the trade offers I've been getting for Dunn. Apparently when you're in next-to-last place, everyone in your league seems to think that you're actually very, very stupid and gullible. I'm not going to trade a 31-year-old guy with 361 career homers for a backup outfielder and a pitcher who's going to be on the DL for 2 more months. I'm also not going to trade him for a guy you picked up this morning, Hot Karl.

Back to the pitching staff, I took a flier on tomahawk-throwing righty Josh Collmenter of the Diamondbacks which has worked out pretty well so far. In 8 starts, he's 3-3 with a 2.33 ERA, 0.93 WHIP and 28 strikeouts (5.44 K/9). I'm thinking that he might be a sell-high candidate, though he's going to get plenty of turns against anemic west-coast offenses for the rest of the summer. Still, if I can get a solid bat for him, now would be the time before hitters get a book on him.

I'm also carrying 6 outfielders right now: Choo, Ethier, McLouth, Chris Denorfia, Ben Revere and Jon Jay. By the time the trade deadline comes around, it's possible that McLouth will be in a backup role as rumors are swirling that the Braves are looking to add an outfield bat. Jay is already losing playing time now that Matt Holliday, Lance Berkman and Colby Rasmus are all healthy. Revere will get playing time until Jason Kubel and Jim Thome come back, but he's impressed the Twins brass so far. I just don't know if I'll be able to pull myself out of the basement with Denorfia as a starting outfielder.

Speaking of the basement, I played AT&Love this week. As you may remember, this is the team that didn't show up for the draft and ended up with a really sorry squad. To his credit, dude has been trying the Dwight Schrute trading method to better his team, though there's really only so much talent you're going to get when you start with scrubs. Of course, he ended up with Alex Avila on draft day, then cut him and he has ended up being one of the few bright spots on my pathetic offense.

I ended up winning 8-4 despite some horrific pitching: my four losses were in the win and loss categories (3-8, ouch), ERA (5.49) and WHIP (1.43). My starters have not been as solid as they were earlier in the season. Kyle McClellan and Phil Coke just returned from the DL and aren't quite back in the groove yet. Dan Haren and Jon Lester have looked average at best. Jeff Francis is nearly useless away from Kaufman Stadium. Derek Holland is nearly useless at home. Collmenter has gotten tagged in his last two starts. The lone broght spot has been Erik Bedard, and who thought we'd be saying that this season? Besides me, of course.

I swept the offense categories, bringing home my first wins of the season in runs, homers and OPS. These were pretty much all squeakers though and a couple of bad breaks or wrong roster calls could have cost me the week. It's really sad that this lineup can barely beat an offense cobbled together from $1 draft day buys, waiver wire pickups and cast-offs from other teams.

I improve my ranking to 18th, 1/2 game up over the Love Rollercoasters and 17 games behind the division leader, Last Year's Champs. Halfway through our season and I've got a lot of work ahead of me. 8 teams make the playoffs, so I've got 10 teams to leapfrog if I'm going to have any chance. The bats need to wake up. Wish I had a hitting coach to fire so I could send a message to these guys...