Results tagged ‘ jail league ’
J.A.I.L. Football Anyone?
Hey everyone,
We have 1 spot left for our 12-team JAIL Fantasy Football League! If you think you can handle tough competition then why don’t you take this opportunity to prove your skills? The draft is tomorrow Saturday (8/29) at 7pm ET. We’ll be releasing the draft order as soon as we fill this final spot. It’s a $50 entry fee (BAIL) with all the money returned in prize money.
Let me know if you are interested by emailing me at johnnyarchive@johnnyarchive.com. I’ll be broadcasting the draft live on BlogTalkradio.com starting at 6:30pm ET.
-Johnny Archive
JAIL Commish
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 | BYE WEEK |
8/14 | 8/15 | 8/16 | 8/17 | 8/18 | 8/19 | 8/20 | AVG PTS |
LAST WEEK |
STATUS | 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
Buc’s, Bucks & Baseball
I just got back from “Big D” and the entire Archive Clan had a great time. We took in a Rangers game, hit Six Flags and shopped the new Lego Store. Good solid fun…and after all the “issues” lately, definitely earned. The Ball Park in Arglington is an absolutely beautiful place to watch a ballgame. Yeah, I’ve been there before, but it strikes me everytime I go just how nice a stadium it is.
Okay, once again Hack has been cranking out some great baseball stuff. Here’s his latest article about the Bucs.
The Pirates’ Bounty
The Pittsburgh Pirates made a flurry of moves at the 2009 trade deadline. They ended up trading away many veterans that left the fans and critics to question the sanity of the Pirates’ front office. What really angered the detractors is that these moves were made amidst the Pirates’ fifteenth consecutive losing season, almost assuring a sixteenth losing campaign. Despite all of the acrimony in the Pittsburgh area, the question remains, were these trades really that bad for the organization?
In various trades over the last month and a half, the Pirates have traded away Nate McLouth, Adam LaRoche, Freddy Sanchez, Jack Wilson and Nyjer Morgan. All of these players were nice veteran hitters, but none of the all that special. None of them were
|
Chart I. |
OPS |
Rank by Position |
|
Adam LaRoche |
0.770 |
10 |
|
Freddy Sanchez |
0.776 |
6 |
|
Jack Wilson |
0.691 |
10 |
|
Nyjer Morgan |
0.707 |
19 |
|
Nate McLouth |
0.819 |
7 |
considered to be a player the franchise could be built around. In fact, as Chart I. shows, only two of them ranked in the top ten in OPS at their position. Wouldn’t it make sense, then, for the Pirates to try and trade some of these subpar players for some younger talent? What is the problem in that?
One trade that I found particularly intelligent was that trade of Morgan, a career minor leaguer, for Lastings Milledge, a talented, but often troubled outfielder. At the time of the trade, Morgan was enjoying his best stretch as a major league player. In returned, the Pirates received a player with much more upside. This type of move has much more logic in it than trying to sign a fringe player like Morgan to a long-term deal after one successful season. That would be a Gary Mathews, Jr.-like signing.
It is also important to remember that when General Manager Neal Huntington inherited this club in 2007, this core of players was already in tact. The minor league system was bare after the previous regime had botched high draft pick after high draft pick. So Huntington was in a position of having an unspectacular group of veterans at the major league level and no prospects in the minor leagues to improve the club. With that said, the organization felt that none of these veterans were worth the money, and rightfully so, to sign to long-term deals. So he made trades to try and improve the farm system and hopefully build talent for the future.
Like most businesses in America, the economy has had an affect on baseball as well. The steel industry in Pittsburgh has been hard hit, which has obviously had an impact on the city. The Pirates’ attendance was down this season even with those veteran players, so bringing in those younger players shouldn’t be that much of a detriment in that area. But if the salaries those players trades away are examined more carefully, we would see how money matters even more. Jack Wilson, he of the .691 OPS, makes 7.25 million in 2009 and has a club option of 8.4 million in 2010. Again, doesn’t it make sense for a franchise to try and trade away an over paid, unproductive player to save money in these uncertain economic times?
It is still up for debate how much talent the Pirates received in these trades. Outfielder Lastings Milledge, catcher Jeff Clement, and pitcher Tim Alderson have all been considered top prospects at one time or another. A lot can happen between now and when some of these players come up in two years. However, it is a time in baseball when many organizations are following the model set up by teams like the Tampa Rays and Minnesota Twins, which were built around young prospects. So, now more that ever, major league teams are very reluctant to trade away young talent. Consider the Cliff Lee trade. The Philadelphia Phillies did not have to give up any of their top echelon of minor league talent to get the reigning American League Cy Young Award winner.
As fans, we want to see that our teams have a plan of how the organization is going to be built. Huntington faces a tough proposition of trying to turn around a continual losing franchise. The plan that was in place prior to 2007, obviously was not working, so a change was in order. Here’s hoping, for the Pirates’ fans sake, that this plan has a positive ending.
Plagiarism-Gate Update
Okay, thank goodness it’s FRIDAY! Woot!
Let’s get into this. As some of you know, yesterday I touched on my poor start in my main leagues and that my two more casual free leagues were doing OK. I also stated that, since a good chunk of the league members condoned an owner who was blatantly plagiarizing several websites and blogs on a daily basis, I would be leaving that Yahoo league.
Well, here’s a little update. Turns out one of those owners read my blog yesterday and cut-and-pasted a portion of my post and put it up on the league message board. He also added his personal opinion on your beloved fantasy writer. Let’s see, to save time…the best way to describe his comment… is to say …he was… soooo proud of his opinion that he wanted it to be quoted for all to see! I’m touched and honored.
This owner is known to a lot of you out there, not by name, but by his fantasy style. It’s extremely easy to tell who his favorite MLB team is because his fantasy team is loaded with Derek Jeter, Robinson Cano, Mickey Mantle, C.C. Sabathia, etc… Yeah, he’s that guy. Since he can no longer afford to see the Yankees in person, thanks to the outrageous prices at the new ballpark, he just owns as many as possible on his fantasy team.
I have a tremendous sense of satisfaction after reading Yankee-boy’s post, though. Remember, my problem with the league was the massive amount of plagiarized stuff on the message board. You see, Yankee-boy correctly posted a link directly back to this blog giving proper credit to the source. *wipes a tear* ArchiveMan has accomplished his task here! Up, up and away!
On a serious note, there is a ton of good information out there on fantasy baseball. If you are going to copy and paste something you find on the web, do the decent thing and at least post the source and add a link. I know for some people it may not seem like a big deal. But believe me it isn’t as easy as it looks to write a blog on a consistent basis.
Don’t fall into the trap of saying,”well I just read the posts, I don’t actually copy-and-paste myself”. If you enjoy the content, then don’t you want to know who the true author is? Maybe that author has even more stuff that you’d find enjoyment out of reading? Maybe the guy cut-and-pasting will stop and you won’t know where to find it on your own. At the very least it’s common courtesy to give credit to the creator of content, but when people take it and then claim as their own then it’s that much worse — and technically it’s illegal if the content is copyrighted.
Again, I understand, nobody wants to be lectured to about rules, laws or how to treat each other. But I can assure you, if you put the time and effort into writing a good article and then you found out someone was taking credit for it, you wouldn’t be very happy.
Moving on to some meaty fantasy baseball strategy talk. Yesterday, I spoke about what I was going to do in my NFBC leagues, where you cannot trade. Today, I want to discuss my other leagues, mainly my J.A.I.L. and FSWA leagues, where trades are allowed.
First step was to look at the rosters, not only mine, but the other owners’ as well. Spotting potential weaknesses with my team is only half of the project. I have to then find an owner who has a strength on their roster and ideally has depth so they would be willing to perhaps part with a player I covet.
For example, if I need a 1B and I find the team with Albert Pujos, but they have no other 1B eligible players then I know that I will either have to include a 1B in the deal or else there’s no way the owner will be able to accept my offer, regardless how good it is. So, before you shoot off a bunch of offers make sure they make sense, not just for you, but for the other guy, too. Not only will it save time, but it will demonstrate that you are serious about these negotiations.
I talked to Ward P. in the J.A.I.L. about the availibility of C.C. Sabathia and got the typical “anyone’s available”. While that maybe didn’t seem like much, at least he didn’t flat out say “no way” I’m keeping C.C. You see, Ward, is a fan of the pin-stripers and I was curious if he was angry over their recent homestand where they gave up a bunch of runs. Sometimes, people will get frustrated with their fav’ MLB team and the players on their fantasy team who happen to also be on their favorite MLB team. Sometimes they are more willing to move these players out of spite.
The guys in the J.A.I.L. are pretty experienced players, but with the struggles of Sabathia and the Yankees overall, even loyal fans have to be a bit concerned. With a glimmer of hope about the prospect of obtaining Sabathia, I took another look at my team and realized pitching was not my most pressing issue.
I was actually stunned that I had forgotten that my hitting in the J.A.I.L. is not good right now, wait that is not accurate, my hitting is atrocious. I’m last in HR/AVG/RBI. So, I decided to put the C.C. quest on hold. Let me add this though, sometimes when I go shopping and start opening up dialogues with owners I stumble onto a situation where a player I like is tossed my way. I will do a deal even if I don’t technically need that player right now.
So, don’t be absolutely averse about any aspect of your team when talking trade with a league mate. Just like in the draft, you always want to have your eyes open for value. Getting a solid 2nd or 3rd component in a trade who is undervalued is sometimes the key part of a trade.
Another issue I have is when you are in last place, guess what? Yep, you have players who aren’t playing particularly good and thus don’t have the highest amount of interest. I have to decide is it worth it to offer up one of my elite guys like Ryan Howard — who not exactly on fire right now — or Curtis Granderson — who is on fire — in hopes of being able to get maybe a couple of players who could help me?
That question takes me back to my team.
Do I have a team I like that is filled with players who are simply struggling now, but I still feel will be fine once they get going or was my original valuation flawed when I drafted these players? I’m going to take a little break, then I’ll be back and we’ll run down some players on my teams and review their current values and how far off that is from what I orginially thought of them prior to the draft.
Be back soon…
-Johnny Archive
2009 J.A.I.L. YouTube Promo
Here it is, the long awaited 2009 J.A.I.L. Baseball League Promo Video. Enjoy!
Goodwill Hunting
Hey Guys,
A little update on “the haps” of Johnny Archive.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again. It is crucial to be extremely sweet and caring towards the wifey/gf/sig other just prior to the start of training camp. After all, if everything goes well and you turn on enough charm, you can build up enough goodwill to get yourself to mid-June or so with ample fantasy baseball time.
At that point, a wonderful 4th of July family event can get you through the rest of the season. Remember, the goal is to earn “free time”. Free time means fantasy baseball time!
Once you have banked goodwill, be sure to casually mention little reminders at the right time. I’m talking precision here, guys. At the first sign of trouble — usually a comment or two about some “project” like cleaning out the garage or painting something — be sure to re-live the fond memories garnered at the “Fabulous February Activity” event.
If you let the warning signs go unattended to, you can only blame yourself.
Okay, the two JAIL members who have earned “Trustee” Status and will be representing us in the NFBC are John Page and Bill Brickley. These two have shown their skills over the past seasons by always putting up competitive JAIL teams. I intentionally didn’t want more obvious team owners working because I wanted some healthy difference of opinion — just look at Congress and imagine the total opposite. heh
And though I did appreciate the rookies showing interest, I want to see what you guys have first before I entrust the JAIL banner to you. Don’t be offended, it only takes one solid season to earn you some major ‘pect around here.
I’m still figuring out exactly which draft and event they’ll be in, though I have a good idea, but I will announce the details as soon as they are known.
The podcast — The Johnny Archive Fantasy Baseball Show — will makes its season debut this Sunday Feb. 22nd at 11:30AM ET. So, if you get a chance, check it out live at BlogTalkRadio.com or catch a download at iTunes.com. Simply search for “Johnny Archive”.
I’m also working on a few other little goodies. Stay tuned for those.
Of course, we will once again have “JailBreaks” this season! For the rooks, JailBreaks are random little events that enable every owner, regardless of where they are in the standings, to win a nice little prize or prize package. I’ll announce when one starts so don’t worry, you won’t miss it.
I’m also going to be broadcasting our draft live at BlogTalkRadio.com. You are encouraged to listen to the podcast during the draft, or even call in if you’d like.
11 Days and counting until DRAFT DAY!!! WOOT!!!
-JohnnyArchive
Playing Risk With Milton Bradley
It’s the new year and it’s getting closer and closer to baseball season. All in the world is right. Seriously, this isn’t my medication talking here, what an exciting time to be alive!
Feeling pumped yet?
Good.
First, I know you are just dying to know what St. Nick hooked Johnny Archive up with this year since Johnny-boy was oh sooo good this year. Well, besides being blessed with the greatest gift anyone could ever ask for, the fact that I get to be a part of a wonderful family everyday, I did score some other cool goodies.
Santa was paying attention and is apparently quite versatile because the most *needed* gift ended up being a new computer. I know what you’re thinking, yeah sure Archive, you just wanted a new ‘puter. Contrare, mo-frare. I was trying to be good and just update my old machine, ya know and be a part of the green team. Usually, the best way to get some new bang from an old computer is to add some new memory, which I tried, but I somehow blew up my desktop.
Well, maybe “blew up” isn’t accurate, but after adding 2 gigs of new memory, which was made in a rather crowded country that recently gave out a bunch of medals to an American swimmer, my video card went poof and I couldn’t get my machine to boot up.
So, guess who got a new computer!? Wootage! No worries, I made sure I got a good deal. Anyone else out there really enjoy the hunt for a new computer like I do? I’m not just talking about cruisin’ the web for deals or catching a sale. I get out there and hit the pavement. My goal is to find a closed out model that is a high end model that is loaded with goodies, but for whatever reason is not being made anymore in the future.
I scored a brand new, in the box, HP quad core processor with 6 gigs of ram and a 640 gig hard drive for….$381! Thank you, thank you very much.
I also got a cool new gizmo that will be a huge help for The Johnny Archive Fantasy Baseball Show which will be resuming within the next week or so, check back here or directly at iTunes or BlogTalkRadio.com for exactly when. What’s the new ”gizmo”? You’ll have to check out the podcast to find out. I know, I’m eviiilll.
To sum up, I had a great Christmas and I think Mrs. Archive and the little Archivers would agree that they made out well, too.
Um, excuse me Johnny, but we are quite far into this post and yet we have no baseball talk and this info has nothing to do with the title.
You’re right. Let’s talk a little basbeall.
Okay, I found it interesting that there was two fairly big free agent signings with comprable players changing uniforms on the same day (Monday). Pat Burrell goes to the Rays, while Milton Bradley leaves the Rangers for Cubbieville.
Now, I bet most fans think these moves are modest improvements for their new clubs. I’d disagree. I think one move is a tremendous move while the other has bust, danger, explosive product written all over it. Can you guess which move I really like and which one I think is a disaster?
It’s a new year, so let’s start off positive. Pat “the Bat” heading to the AL where he can get a fair amount of ABs out of the DH slot and hitting in the middle of a lineup with burners loaded at the top is huge fro him and the Rays. Let’s face it, Burell is a bit ”stiff” in the field, but is a decent clubhouse guy and pounds lefties. I’d say 100 RBIs, which for all the homers he’s hit has been an elusive number for him to eclipse, is very much a realistic floor for him in 2009.
The Rays don’t have the bucks to toss about like their division rivals, the Yankees and Red Sox, but boy are they making some great roster moves lately. A good fantasy baseball fan always appreciates good front office work!
Okay, now onto the gas can in the hen house move (I’m not sure what that means either). Mr. Bradley puts the “grunt” in disgruntled. I’m serious, this guy has to be on some kind of mission to lace up his cleats or else he is just useless. And if there is no great struggle in his life at the moment, he’ll go out of way to create one. Let’s see here, a ballplayer who is just itchin’ to burst being managed by Lou “the Igniter” Pinella…hrmmm I wonder how this will turn out? I predict there will be all these spring training reports stating how amazing well Lou and Milton are getting on, then oh about week 3 Bradley will pop a pimple, go on the DL and it will be “on” for the rest of the season.
I think I’m the first to ponder this idea, but it must be tough to be a Cubs fan. If the Cubs win it all this year with Bradley on the team all year, I’ll walk from Austin to Chicago. Seriously.
A few notes, we are gearing up for the 3rd year of Johnny Archive Invitational League baseball and we are expanding to at least 2 leagues. If you want in, please shoot me an e-mail at johnnyarchive@johnnyarchive.com and we’ll see if you are JAIL material. I don’t want to scare you, but guess who is the the reigning champion? Oh yeah, big daddy, yours truly and I’m not parting with my crown without a fight!!!
JAIL #2 will be a 1-year auction style draft with both AL and NL players. We have a few spots still open, but I will be filling these asap as I want to get the owners set as quickly as possible so we can focus on tweaking the ruleset and setting the draft date that works for everyone.
JAIL #1 is full as of this writing, but I am still waiting to hear from a few guys. Only the cream of the crop is eligible for JAIL #1.
Well, that’s a wrap for now. Look at all that text! Is there any doubt JA is back and as full of hot air as usual?!
-Johnny Archive
We Have Movement
Soon, very soon, it will be time to get back into the swing of things. 2008 was an excellent season, full of many fond memories, but after we pass out the post-season hardware it’ll be time to turn our focus to 2009.
Sure, we can take the knowledge and lessons we learned from 2008, but every year is different and we need to prepare ourselves for the future. One of the toughest things to do, actually, is to continue to perform at a high level in sports and that includes fantasy sports.
So, while we here at the Johnny Archive Fantasy Sports Empire achieved most of our goals set for 2008, we have to remember that past accomplishments are simply just that…in the past.
Fantasy sports enthusiasts want to read blogs, listen to podcasts and basically associate themselves with people who not only have had previous success, but are continuing to divulge useful information and analysis about the current season.
However, Johnny Archive believes strongly in learning lessons from the past, whether they be positive or negative revelations. Even in a year where I won the two most prestigious leagues I participated in (J.A.I.L. League and the MLB.com Fantasy 411 Ron Cey Listener League), I did not have a perfect season and thus there is plenty to learn from the mistakes I made last year.
Over the course of the next few weeks we’ll review the 2008 baseball season. Yes, we’ll talk about what went right, but also discuss what didn’t pan out like we had hoped or expected. During this process, we will begin to formulate some early indications and trends that may benefit us as we prepare for the upcoming 2009 season.
In a nutshell, I’m back baby and it’s time to get back to work!
What about the podcast? I’ll be doing a new show just after Thanksgiving and we’ll go from there. I had a great time doing it last year and look forward to another year of talking fantasy baseball at BlogTalkRadio.com and iTunes.com.
Oh yeah, one other thing. I will have a fairly big announcement within the week. Johnny Archive is an ever-evolving persona and as I affiliate myself with other well-known fantasy sports personalites and organizations I will proudly make them public.
Before I wrap up today, let me congratulate Tim Lincecum on winning the 2008 NL Cy Young Award. He definitely deserved the honor. Although, if it were up to me I would have given it to Johan Santana who pitched absolutely perfect the final 4 months of the season doing everything he could to live up to the massive preseason hype and his big-dollar contract.
By the way, did you hear that Johan was having a little problem with his right knee this off-season? Do you remember that I predicted he would deal with some issues with his right knee because of the enormous torque that he conjures up with his delivery and I was especially concerned now that he was in the NL and batting from the lefthand batter’s box, thus exposing that same knee?
Certainly, it’s something to keep an eye on going forward.
*looks around*
Ahhh…feels good to be home again.
-Johnny Archive
And Down The Stretch They Come…
Here’s an update as to what’s going on in two important fantasy baseball leagues: the JAIL league and the MLB.com Fantasy 411 Ron Cey listener league. It’s been a very competitive year in the JAIL league, which is full of very active owners. The Ron Cey league has been fun as well, though the owners haven’t been as active.
I have led both leagues for about 4 months. It’s been nice being out front, but I always knew things would tighten up before the end of the season. Sure enough, my leads are down to 12 points in the Ron Cey league and 10 1/2 in the JAIL. I was up by as many as 36 points in the 411 league and 22 in the JAIL.
I am done with pitching in both leagues as I have run out of innings in the Ron Cey and have fallen on the ball in the JAIL. So, hitting will decide the final standings. I like where I’m at in both leagues, but there is definitely multiple scenarios where I could end up losing the lead…which would obviously be very disappointing since I have been in first for so long.
As long as I get decent production from my hitters, I will be fine. However, if my crew slumps in the final days and the second place teams have a monster weekend, I could end up with the silver medal. I don’t think I can finish worse than 2nd, which is cool, I guess. The weather on the east coast could make things very interesting.
–
The final MLB.com Fantasy 411 show was today. As most of you know, I have not been a huge fan of most of the changes that were made this year to the show. It wasn’t easy to voice my concerns about the show because nobody is more dedicated to Mike Siano and Cory Schwartz and the entire 411 crew than myself.
I was genuinly disappointed by Casey Stern abandoning his team in the Ron Cey league. I still have not heard exactly why he stopped managing his team within the first few weeks of the season. It was never anything personal from my end against Stern. I just never felt he was a hard-core fantasy baseball fan and the 411 has always been geared towards serious fantasy enthusiasts.
Stern is a Mets fan and in my opinion his devotion to the Mets is really important to him. I think that’s great. Most baseball fans are loyal to their teams and live and die with their success and failures. Fantasy fans, however, really have to remain as neutral as possible to properly evaluate a player’s value.
Stern closed today’s 411 by dedicating the season to me. If he or anybondy else wants to make me out to be the “bad guy,” that’s OK. I think most people know Johnny Archive was always about verifying what was said and done on the 411…whether it was good or bad. I always tried to be fair and most of the time what Mike and Cory said ended up being accurate. But there were plenty of times where they were wrong and they were never afraid to be called out.
In the past, the last few weeks of the season were always a fun time on the 411 with listeners calling in and sharing their stories, most of them successful, about their teams. Even with the live chat session that took place after today’s 411, which ended early because it didn’t seem like many people participated in it, the listener interaction was most definitely missing this year.
The 411 community had always been a place where hardcore fantasy baseball fans converged. New listeners were welcomed, though sometimes you had to somewhat prove yourself. Simply listening and participating for a few weeks was usually enough to earn entry into this exclusive family. The biggest bummer this season, in my opinion, was the loss of that closeness. As the year went on long-time listeners, even Hall of Famers, were prevented from being involved with the show.
Again, this is just my opinion and I say these things in an effort to give feedback to anyone who cares to hear what a dedicated 411 fan has to say. I congratulate Mike, Cory, Zach and Casey on putting forth the effort to make the Fantasy 411, 2008 edition, a reality. I truly appreciate being allowed to be a particpant of the Ron Cey Listener League, as well as Siano coming on my podcast and them linking my blog from their blog.
Hopefully I can win the Ron Cey League and then move into the main 411 league and compete against Mike and Cory directly in 2009!
Have a great weekend everyone!
-Johnny Archive
Freaky Friday
It’s that favorite day, the day when everyone is happy and gay! Well, you know what I mean. Unfortunately, I am being pulled in several different directions these days with my boys starting school, some other real-life issues and, of course, football season just around the corner. So, my writing time is being severly reduced. Boooo.
I should be back to normal next week, just in time to gear up for the sprint to the finish in fantasy baseball. Of course, you can always get your Johnny Archive fix by checking out my podcasts over at BlogTalkRadio.com. The links are just over there. ———->
I did make a couple of trades in the JAIL league. I have built up a 17 Save league, so it was definitely time to unload some closers since I had seven of them. So, here’s what I did:
I traded away Ryan Braun, Jonathan Broxton and Brad Ziegler for Ryan Howard and Aubrey Huff.
I traded away B.J. Ryan and Brian Fuentes for King Felix.
Not only will these deals help my team with the addition of the new players, but by adding Saves to my trading partners, I hopefully have placed some Saves which may help me as well.
Have a great weekend and I’ll be doing my Friday Night Football podcast tonight at 9:30PM ET and The Johnny Archive Fantasy Baseball Show on Sunday morning at 11:30AM ET. Tune in if you can!
-Johnny Archive
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