Exactly one year 6 months and 2 days since I posted this, I can now claim... THE CHAMP IS BACK!!!
My lifetime winning percentage took a dip. This a deeeep league with very knowledgeable managers. To be surrounded by such great baseball minds (or baseball nerds) is quite humbling.
Full recap below:
Those final 3 weeks was mind numbing if not heart stopping. From the final day of the regular season where the Weeds ties me and I get pushed to 4th place due to the tiebreaker.
To week one of the playoffs, the Quarter-finals, where I'm streaming to the very last day of the to stay ahead.
To the semi-finals... where I go up against the behemoth Childish Bambinos, the defending champion and back to back years of winning the regular season. There was so much strategy and chess-moves. I'd guess what moves he'll make.. then try to block him. He'll see what my needs are and counter me. It came down to him being too aggressive throughout the season leaving him with no money. Using my measly $21... I nabbed one FA after another. It was poetic. By Saturday... I had created a 14-1 lead. Large enough cushion??? Heck no... He threw the kitchen sink at me and streamed all of the Mississippi on a fine autumn day. The streamers wrecked him all week.. .but today... all the chips fell his way. Going into the afternoon games... there were 5 flippable categories. In any given week... you might have 50 - 60 IP's. We had 120+ IPs with all the streaming we did!!! Alas... the Bambino himself ran out of gas. But I could not tear myself away from the phone, refreshing GameCast, refreshing the fantasy-app. Trying to get the latest updates.
To the finals... where I'm up against my nemesis. The one manager I hadn't beaten all season. I actually wanted to play him in the finals. Had we met in the semi's... I fear I wouldn't have gotten to at least come in 2nd place (and 30% of the bootie). Optimus vs. Megatron. Daniel-San vs Johnny. Nine Continents vs.... just about everyone. The final showdown. One will rise. One shall fall.
Monday is always a weird day to start because half the teams are resting or on travel. He sneaks out to a quick 3-6 lead, respectable due to the one pitcher Ryan suggested I nab and the fact his pitcher blew up. And the fact I overmanaged and didn't pick up Cobb... my go-to stream pitcher all season. Too early to tell.
Tuesday starts getting interesting. My blue chippers are faltering. But my late season pickups are suddenly carrying. Yet... his perennial .200 hitter is raking it. Our pitching is pretty even but he tips the scale his way. 5-8. Not too worried yet. I always start slow... and then mid week, I make my move.
Wednesday starts getting interesting. I have my 3 best starters going... time to make a move and not look back. Only... I end up with 1 W and 1 QS only. One of the blown QS was at the hands of my own Giants!!! Was having a great game... until the stoopid manager kept him in for one inning too long. BAM!!! In comes the 4th run... out goes my QS. By early evening... my hitters start cranking... and the score is suddenly a very odd looking score of 3-5. So many categories are tied. This can go either way. I call on my "advisors" for help. What to do?!?!? Then they start over-analyzing my team... they who I defeated during the season were rooting for me. Their advice...? Meh... Then by late evening... I flipped it!!! 8-3. "Tables have turned... how to maintain?" I texted them.
Thursday rolls around and is another travel rest day. Up till now... I didn't even look at his team. Was just focused on my team... and my numbers. I haven't streamed yet and really didn't want to... was hoping for an organic win with "MY TEAM." Well... my closers play for Detroit and KC. Both eliminated from post-season play... not a lot of SV opportunities. My other two closers are from LAD and Hou... both teams' offensive crushes the opponent. Seeing the SV/H is so scarce... I strategically pick up a Holds guy. Y'know... to pad my lead a little. The move backfires... and he gaves up 3 walks!!!! (WHIP!?!??!). Heh... The stars starting aligning. Jeff texts me that Turbooooo still has Carrasco on the IL (11K's, WHIP of 1 and ERA of 1.50, with a W and QS). Then I started counting remaining starts left... can I take all the pitching cats?? Or do I go for stacked vs ratio'ed?? Since there wasn't much going on... just a lot of strategizing and calculating. I hold serve and maintain the lead.
Friday is do or die day. Well... it's Sunday, really. But Friday is do or die Friday. Last night... I decided to go all in with pitching and started to stream my @$$ off. Picked up Taijuan, German (heh), and Keller. Oddly... Taijuan plays Keller... so I was going for ERA, WHIP, K and QS. Can't have opposing pitchers with 2 wins. Notched 3 QS's and started to sniff ERA and WHIP. When the late game started... my bats exploded. 6HR's, 16 RBI's, 12 R, with an ERA of .372 and an OPS of 1.260. All that... while I left 2 HRs on the bench. That's how stacked my bats were!! Ended the night with an 11-3 lead. There was no way he'll catch up with my hitting. Time to focus on pitching,
For everything that went right on Friday... it went exactly the opposite on Saturday. Friday night... I lined up 3 more pitchers to put away stacked pitching cats. But I wake up to find that my pillar, Cueto, is out sick!!! My other pitcher... the one that set me off on the right foot on Monday... gave up 2 Runs in 1IP and was pulled! BOOM!... ERA of 18.00. That was it. No coming back from that cat. I have close to 70IPs.... but only 3 Wins' to show for it. Turbooooo has half the IPs, but twice my W's. There was no way I can catch W's either... even though that's the whole purpose of streaming. You go after W, K's and QS.... sacrifice ERA, WHIP and BB... with SV/H being the deciding factor. The night before... I did my research... and stacked up my relievers including those that are positioned as SP!! And that one SP/RP.... was playing a doubleheader. This has gotta work. 6 relievers... playing 7 games. I must get at least 1 SV/H, right?? I got two... but at a very pricey expense for ERA. As for the bats.... the Red Hot Chili Peppers became the Stone Cold Steve Austins. The Undertaker came out and buried me with his Tombstone piledriver. I had double digit leads for all the hitting categories... but they were dwindling.. one hit, one run, one RBI at a time. What I thought was insurmountable became very surmountable. I had a AVG gap of 60 points. But my anemic 8/54, .148 AVG narrowed that gap to an easily attainable 10 point. He's now just 3 Hits and 6 Runs away while being up by 1SB and 1BB. I'm watching on Gamecast... begging my hitters... "Take a pitch! Draw a walk!" The count goes 3-0, 3-1.... then.... LINE OUT. Or GROUND OUT. DANG IT!!!!! All the while... somehow he manages to line up his team play against the Cubs... the Giants... the Pirates. All of the worst teams in the league! The worst was yet to come. He somoene managed to get 4 players on two teams that played double headers... and all his players drew walks, stole bases, got hits. With the very last game on Saturday night... going into extras!!! A normal 9 inning game stretched out to 15 innings. Everytime his players came up... they'd do something. Everytime my player came up.... ZILCH!!!
Oscar Gonzalez - bases loaded on 3B... can't get home.
Oscar Gonzalez - bases loaded. Only needs a BB to win the game. Ground Out
Oscar Gonzalez - man on 1st and 2nd... strikes out swinging.
Oscar Gonzalez - on 2B to start the next inning... basehit up the middle.. .rounds third, heads up... and is thrown out!!!
I'm begging... just one BB. one H. One RBI. One Run. Nothing. I couldn't squeeze a drop of water out of that dry towel. He was mounting a comeback. 9-5.
Sunday - the Lord's day of rest. But my day of unrest. Ugh... last night ended with a slew of strategies. Going for SV/H, going for W's, going after SB and BB's. Protecting my lead of QS and K's. There was no right answer. But sooooo many wrong answers. Ending up sacrificing my Keeper and long-time anchor of baseball... Charlie Morton (who blew a QS earlier this week). And also said sayonara to Greg "I only shorten your lifespan" Soto. Good riddance. Stacked my line up with relievers... and a few SP's in case Turboooo streams on me to go after QS. I had the right counter. He didn't. He was quiet.
( I have to credit him. We have $100 fantasy dollars to spend and he didn't spend $1 all season. He somehow makes his moves in the beginning of the week and looks away. Doesn't bother looking back. He's stable. Calm. Calculating. His baseline team is what got him there... it's what will get him past the finish line. No streaming. No strategizing. The strategies were done on draft day... and on Sunday when lineups were due. Sunava-gun..... How does he do it? )
The day would start out early for me... and end late for him. My first batter plays at 9:45AM PT. His last player ends with Sunday Night baseball... Dodgers/Giants of all games. And it's off to a good start!!! Bobby Abreu with a double. 1.000 AVG and 3.000 OPS. But wait.... oh.... my.... lanta.... Realmuto and Goldy are benched. My BB and SB machines. Silenced.
Time to head to church. I won't look. Today is the Lord's day. I needn't be tempted. But they won't stop texting!! "Uggggghhhh." And "Ohhhhh..." I tried to stay away from the Fantasy and ESPN apps... but there are other ways to get you, yes there are.
What started out as preparations for my victory lap... ended up being a 1/8 morning and a dismal (DISMAL) .184 AVG. Going the wrong way guys!!! The AVG gap narrowed more. Turbooooo was within striking distance. All he needed was an average day... coupled with my horrendous performance and this is over.
And for whatever reason.... he did NOT stream to gain QS (good, I bench my guys with a chance of WHIP) and for some odd reason... he predicted exactly who was going to be benched and who was gonna start. Dang this guy is good.*
After church... the kids wanted Costco for lunch and chillax at home. PERFECT. I get to lie in bed and watch Gamecast in peace. One by one... my players came up and choked. Nothing. Nothing since that opening base hit. Majority of my players were done. He had a barrage of players in the afternoon games. If each person had just 1 hit.... he'll overtake H's and AVG. At best... it's a tie, but he wins the tie breaker cuz he won the season H2H.
It was pouring outside... the first big rain of the year. And just as the rain let up a bit... and a rainbow appeared out of the sky... Jimmy G (in for the injured Trey Lance) throws a TD to Dwelley. IKF... one of my pickups for a SB gets a hit. Realmuto... my catcher that's been benched gets a pinch hit HR.... and then... my playoff pickup... Rengifo... hits not 1 HR... but 2 HR's!!!!! In a matter of 15 minutes.... I widen the gap in H's, R's and retake AVG!!!!
And then... my lineup sleeps. I'm done with the exception of one closer. My one starter... my ace... lowered WHIP to a sub 1.00.... but is it enough??? Can I flip that cat??? He has Heaney against the Giants... unlikely. And Turbooooo has 6 players left. Not a situation I wanna be in. Even though he originally had 8 players... the Dodgers sit two of them. Kinda balances out my Realmuto / Goldy benching, right???
I'm watching the Niners game. I'm waiting for volleyball to start. I'm refreshing 10 screens at a time. And lo and behold.... this batters are O-fering. My Saturday... was becoming his Sunday. It was his turn to not be able to buy a hit. Wider and wider became our AVG cat.... and I flipped it back my way. I was now up by 10 points. I now have a 7 run differential... and my 3 Hit margin ballooned to 7 Hits. He has 3 hitters going.... 2 of which are in the latter parts of their games. With biblical intervention... he continues to widen his BB leads... no way Bubba or IKF will catch up. And with my Elvis Andrus SB that tied the category.... he gets a failed HNR steal that swung it back his way.
We were now down to one hitter... Max Muncy... of the hated Dodgers. Lux and Smith are benched... hopefully for good. There was no way Muncy can get 6 hits... but weirder things have happened. I'm up 9-6.... but the swing of one cat... and it becomes 8-7... and just a mere tie of 7-7.... and I lose.
I can't watch.
We head to church volleyball... and for all intent and purposes... I've won. Until.... the baseball gods interrupt this season with a rain delay in SF!!! A rain delay means starters get cold... and benched players come into play... or at least pinch hit. He potentially can recapture this as the greatest comeback in the history of fantasy.
After volleyball is over... the LA/SF game is still going. He's still down by 6 hits.... a mighty cushion. But not a big enough cushion. Muncy gets a hit. WALK THE GUY!!!! I DON'T NEED BB!!!! It's so close now... I can taste it. But I dare not stick out my tongue to taste. Too early.
The Discord channel is silent. They don't want to jinx it. They know I'm on pins and needles. And as it was scripted... the Giants game go into extra innings. Meaning... more the chance of him getting AB's. Which translates to chances to catch up. No!! NO NO NO!!!! End it. I don't care if Giants lose!!! END IT!!! RIGHT HERE!!!!
That'll be too easy, right??
Muncy comes up to bat again. He draws a walk!!! Which means... no base hit!!! Which means... AVG doesn't move. This is happening!! It really is happening!!! 19 years in the making and it's happening. I'm doing it!!! Dodgers take the lead. Giants are trying to mount a comeback and.... it.... fails!!!
Last game OVER!!
The day is OVER!!
Fantasy Season OVER!!
A new champ is crowned. And that champ.... is me.
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