As always, we hand-rolled every pitch and swing over these 40 games, and are keeping our own stats. We don't have the budget to hire an official scorekeeper (my younger brother's price quote was outrageous).
We'll begin with the stats through 40 games - hitting first and pitching after. Please note: we added some new categories this season, runs and "backwards." Backwards represents how many times a hitter has gotten out on his own chart (since I've always counted strikeouts on a hitter's own chart as a strikeout looking, or backwards K).
My Team
Jeff's Team
As you can see, I have outscored Jeff 238-189 on the season despite hitting 10 fewer homers. This makes sense - my lineup consists of more solid contact hitters like Ichiro, Erstad and Grace compared to Jeff's more boom/bust players like Durazo, Gant (or Lord Gant as he is known around my house), and Valentin. Scoring is lower than the 2002 season since OB is topped at 10 (aside from Delgado's 11).
Hitting Notes
I drafted 2 different versions of Brad Ausmus - one from Detroit and one from Houston. The Detroit one is a better card, but he sucked so he was benched for the Houston card and eventually dropped for Jerry Hairston so I can add another pinch runner to my bench. My original plan was to keep 3 catchers and mostly pinch hit for them when it was their time to hit, but the pinch hitters aren't so much better as to actually make a difference. Plus having 2 Ausmus's was kinda cheap. But the commissioner looked into it and said it was fine.
Jeff has gotten out on his own chart a whopping 111 times, led by Pudge and Edgar Martinez at 20 apiece. I have only gotten out on my chart 78 times, with Darin Erstad leading the way at 14, including a 3 game stretch where he got out 6 times on his own chart. This prompted me to fling him across the room where he rudely hit my dog. Sorry Gingersnap, and thanks for not eating the card.
The highlight of the season belongs to an epic power barrage from Lord Gant. After homering 4 times over a 2 game stretch, I proclaimed him Lord Gant, and when it was his turn to hit, I blared my trumpet and announced for the world to hear, "ALL RISE, LORD GANT IS UP TO BAT!" He immediately got the advantage and launched another bomb that finally landed a few minutes ago.
Stolen bases are basically non-existent. With speed maxed at 20 in this set, and with good defensive catchers on both sides, it's not worth the risk. Speed is a factor on getting extra bases though (like scoring from first on a double or from second on a single). I am getting demolished in this area, successfully taking extra bases about 10% of the team while only preventing it about 10% of the time. Very frustrating.
You may be asking yourself how on God's green Earth is Erubial Durazo leading the league in home runs (well, tied with A-Rod and Delgado). Good question! I have no idea what's going on. Hopefully he starts to cool off.
Let's move on to the pitching stats!
My Team
Jeff's Team
And here lies the difference in the season. I focused on starting pitching in the draft, nabbing Tavarez and his godly +6 control, Randy Johnson, and Matt Morris. Jeff focused on bullpen, drafting arguably the 3 strongest reliever cards in Gordon, Nelson, and Sasaki. But his strategy is not paying off so far - I have been able to beat up on Gordon and the rest of his pen, almost nullifying his advantage in that area. Meanwhile, Tavarez and Morris are leading my rotation to a big advantage (4.77 ERA in 270 innings vs 6.70 ERA in 243 innings). This is why I am up 22-18.
Pitching Notes
Tavarez is amazing. Having a +6 out there lets me roll with confidence (even though he's only a 1-14 out). Thanks to his 5-12 ground ball and my infield defense of +9, I am able to turn a lot of double-plays to snuff out rallies.
Matt Morris has also been outstanding for me, with a 6-0 and 6 quality starts out of 8.
Ryan Dempster, Bruce Chen, and Jamey Wright started off the season getting repeatedly shelled outing after outing. Clearly they were not ready for the big leagues, although each of them has started to turn things around lately.
Flash Gordon has been the biggest disappointment. With a +6 control, he was supposed to anchor the bullpen and shut the door for Jeff's team. But he has struggled mightily, weirdly giving up the advantage waaayyy more often than he should. We'll see if he's able to turn things around - Jeff just removed him from the closer role for the time being.
Scott Strickland is ass. I drafted him to be a multi-inning weapon (+5 control) to bridge the gap between my lower-tier starters and Urbina in the 9th. But he can't seem to ever go an outing without giving up at least one run.
The game of the season so far was a duel between aces Tavarez and Park. It was 0-0 entering the 8th, when Jeff finally broke through with a run. In the 9th, I was able to tag Gordon for 2 runs to take the lead. I brought in Urbina for the save in the bottom of the 9th, but he promptly gave up a tying home run. I was able to bounce back and score again in the 10th, only to watch Mike Fetters give up 3 consecutive hits, including a walk-off 2-run double, without recording an out. Fetters was immediately optioned to AAA Albuquerque and Dan Miceli was called up.
Award Races
Here are the top 3 candidates for season-ending awards:
MVP:
1. A-Rod (329/441/684; 15 HRs, 43 RBI; gold-glove defense)
2. Carlos Delgado (358/452/711; 15 HRs, 33 RBI)
3. Erubial Durazo (318/421/662; 15 HRs, 36 RBI)
Jeff voted for Delgado since he his carrying his offense. I voted for A-Rod since he has 10 more RBIs and is a +4 at SS. Plus he's my guy and I'm winning.
Cy Young:
1. Matt Morris (6-0, 3.56 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, 6 QS)
2. Julian Tavarez (4-3, 2.82 ERA, 1.43 WHIP, 6 QS)
It's a 2-man race, with Morris the surprise leader. We expected Tav to be one of the best pitchers this season, but Morris's surprisingly strong start gives him the edge.
Rolaids Relief
1. Jeff Nelson
2. Urbina
3. Sasaki
Nelly gets it for being pretty good over a huge workload (39 innings in 40 games). Urbina and Sasaki have the best numbers but in too small a sample size to win the award. Plus Nellyball has been hot of late.
So there you have it. I am reasserting myself as the Showdown king in our group of 2, but we do have 122 games to go. I'll post an update when we are halfway through with stats, analysis, award leaders, and All-Stars.
Feel free to comment below predictions for the rest of the season - who will win between Jeff and I, which players are taken home the hardware, and what crazy outbursts I'll have the next time I get out on my chart with the bases loaded, down by 1.
Until next time!
Joe
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