Win One For The Snipper
The battles continues...
I am out of the hospital after another bout with an infection that caused all kinds of havoc with my bodies ability to regulate the appropriate temperature. I can't tell you how uncomfortable it is to be sick and have a fever with 104+ degree Texas heat outside.
My partner, Matt "Hack" Hackenmiller, has also been under the weather so content for the ol' blog has been a bit scarce. But it's Friday and I'm finally able to sit at my desk long enough to put together a post.
There is some good news in the fantasy baseball world for me personally. As most of you know, for much of the 2009 baseball season my fantasy teams have been near, or at, the bottom of the standings.
Some of my teams have made steady improvement, though my run as J.A.I.L. Champion will be coming an end after 1 year since I'm like 70+ points out at this point and battling to finish out of last place. I have to give props to the Brickley's and the Monster Mash team which has been in first place for most of the season and is primed to take the '09 crown. Of course, Joe Lano and his Jersey Hitmen will have a thing or two to say about that, as will Hal Groves and the two rookie owners Bryan Clarke and Brent Voorhees.
All is not lost for your bud, Johnny Archive, though. You see, as of today I am now officially in 1st place in my NFBC Online league! After a long and steady run I have made up a tremendous amount of ground. This is a very active and competitive league and being in front on August 14th in no way means I am going to end up there on October 1st. I can say with a fair amount of confidence, that I like my chances of staying in the thick of things for the final few weeks.
Here's a peek at the overall standings.
| NFBC ONLINE CHAMPIONSHIP, APRIL 4TH, 4 PM LEAGUE 3 STANDINGS (Last Update - AUG 14, 12:37 A.M. E.T.) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rank | Team | Batting Pts | Pitching Pts | Overall Pts | Change | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Johnny Archive Snips | 48.0 | 36.5 | 84.5 | +3.5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | No Soup For You | 35.0 | 45.5 | 80.5 | -1.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 3 | Eddie's Kingdom Killebrew | 49.5 | 30.5 | 80.0 | +1.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 4 | pluto_12's | 40.5 | 32.0 | 72.5 | -1.5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 5 | House of Pain | 39.5 | 32.0 | 71.5 | -1.5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 6 | Hackensack Bulls-3 | 20.0 | 48.0 | 68.0 | 0.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 7 | Jack&Kami | 43.5 | 24.0 | 67.5 | 0.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 8 | The End Game | 38.5 | 25.5 | 64.0 | -2.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 9 | 4-8-15-16-23-42 | 25.5 | 37.0 | 62.5 | -1.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 10 | HMS Dauntless | 18.5 | 35.0 | 53.5 | -0.5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 11 | PAGDO and PINNY | 17.0 | 25.0 | 42.0 | +3.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 12 | Phillies 2 | 14.5 | 19.0 | 33.5 | 0.0 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
As you can see, this is a league where even at this point in the season there are several teams who are seriously in contention. It is not a coincidence that my fantasy team has made a significant move during the recent hot streak by the New York Yankees -- remember I drafted all 3 of the Yanks' big ticket free agent signings Mark Teixeira, A.J. Burnett and C.C. Sabathia.
The other key move was barely winning the Tommy Hanson FAAB bidding war. He has been a huge addition to my pitching staff that had really killed me early in the season.
Another good sign is that even with my latest run and gain in points, there are at least 10 more points I can pick up if my team can remain anywhere near the recent production. On top of that, there are a few categories where I have almost locked myself into finishing 1st or 2nd. Here's a look at a few of these individual categories.
| Team | SV | Pts | Chg |
| Johnny Archive Snips | 93 | 12 | 0.0 |
| pluto_12's | 84 | 11 | 0.0 |
| Jack&Kami | 65 | 10 | 0.0 |
| House of Pain | 63 | 9 | 0.0 |
I have actually benched at least 1 Closer, I have 4 solid ones, for the past few weeks as I've tried to pick up a few more Ks/Wins. At this point, I could release all my Closers and still finish no lower then 2nd place.
| Team | HR | Pts | Chg |
| Jack&Kami | 226 | 12 | 0.0 |
| Johnny Archive Snips | 225 | 11 | 0.0 |
| The End Game | 207 | 10 | 0.0 |
| Eddie's Kingdom Killebrew | 202 | 8.5 | +0.5 |
| Phillies 2 | 202 | 8.5 | -0.5 |
| House of Pain | 196 | 7 | 0.0 |
As you can see, I'm in a tight race for the top spot in HRs. My team is led by Teixeira, Adam Dunn, Adrian Gonzalez, Matt Holliday and top Catchers Joe Mauer and Brandon Inge. One guy that should be helping but isn't is David Ortiz, but maybe he has a little "juice" left in him? No matter, finishing at least 2nd in this category looks likely.
With no disrespect to any of my other leagues, this league is probably my most important league this year. After all, in case you don't know or forgot, I pledged to undergo a vasectomy if I did NOT win this league. Thus the name, the Johnny Archive Snips.
By the way, several other J.A.I.L. owners are fairing extremely well in the NFBC this year. Congrats to Carl Brown and Brennan Brown who are not only winning their league, but are climbing up the ladder, 51st last time I checked, as one of the best teams in the entire 600 team rankings. The Snips are 71st overall -- not bad considering the huge field.
Just for fun, I'll post my roster for you all to take a look at judge. Be nice!
| SET LINEUP (8/14 to 8/16) | ||||||||||
| NAME | 8/14 | 8/15 | 8/16 | 8/17 | 8/18 | 8/19 | 8/20 | POS | % OWN |
% START |
Okay, that's about it for now. Thanks for understanding meal frantic real life intruding upon my fantasy activities. I'll be live this Sunday at 6pm ET at BlogTalkRadio as part of the Fantasy Sports Channel.
-Johnny Archive
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