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Follow The Fantasy – Week 2: The Rise To Greatness

Follow The Fantasy – Week 2: The Rise To Greatness

The baseball gods reached out and touched my index finder as I was drafting this beautiful team of superstars who have me sitting pretty atop the standings after… week two of fantasy baseball. That’s right a decisive 7-3 victory has me ahead of the pack by a whole ½ of a game. I smell a wire to wire championship on the horizon.

Roster moves this week were crucial in propelling me towards victory. I dropped Edinson Volquez, who was only added last week, for John Lannan of the Philadelphia Phillies. Volquez was really just a spot start which backfired and his numbers so far have been atrocious. Lannan pitched well Friday against the beleaguered Marlins. Throwing 6 innings of one run baseball allowing only one walk, Lannan isn’t blowing anything by anyone. He’s been solid thus far in the season posting a 2.77 ERA and .69 WHIP. If you’re looking for a pitcher to help average out a ballooning ERA Lannan is a good pickup and is available in 97% of yahoo leagues.

I prematurely dropped Chris Capuano for Kelvin Herrera and this was premature for a couple of reasons. Herrera looked like he was going to take over as the Royals closer but Manager Ned Yost has decided to stick with Greg Holland for the time being. Put Herrera on your watch list because with his velocity and Holland’s inconsistency it may only be a matter of time before Herrera is the 9th inning man. Capuano who had been the odd man out with the Dodgers loaded with starters, had been the long man out of the bullpen so far. But with Zach Greinke’s collarbone injury Capuano gets inserted back into the rotation. Herrera and Capuano might be again swapping positions between waiver wire and my roster again shortly.

Popular pickups to score this week are Edward Mujica who is the newest option at closer for the St. Louis Cardinals. Starling Marte of the Pirates has been putting together a nice stat line of .347, 7 RBIs, and 7 runs scored. A solid left fielder pickup, especially if you play in outfielder specific type league.

As part of my 7-3 victory I swept the pitching categories. Going into Sunday Night Baseball, I had Hiroki Kuroda slated to pitch. Knowing that I had already secured victory in the Win and Strikeout categories I decided it was best to bench the Yankees’ pitcher. Coming off two poor outings Kuroda only could have hurt me by raising my ERA and WHIP. Instead he threw a complete game shutout, with 5 strikeouts. While his excellent performance didn’t hurt me in any way, this decision is just a microcosm of my managerial instincts. Obviously I lack any shred of said managerial instincts. (EDITORS NOTE – Wait until Football season)

As you can see from the graphic I didn’t have a dynamite week, but still better than my opponent #42Forever. This leads me to my next point, if you use this symbol #, once known as “the pound sign” now referred to as “Hash tag” outside of twitter or instagram you should be castrated.

Offensively my team had a mixed week. The runs and home runs were consistent getting contributions up and down the lineup. Dexter Fowler has certainly been a phenomenal surprise so far this season especially since I picked him LAST. That’s correct the man hitting .298/6 HR/ 9 RBI/ 10 runs was my final pick in the 22nd round. But you already know that since you read both parts of my Fantasy Baseball Draft article to the very end.

Stolen bases are still lacking as I was defeated again in that category. My team again only amassed 1 stolen base losing to a whopping 3. Jason Heyward who has been horrible offensively so far, rode the pine pony  much of the week (EDITORS NOTE – he also didn’t play this week) so I didn’t collect his lone stolen base. Alex Gordon who has started hitting including a walk-off single on Sunday has yet to record a stolen base. While mistakenly overlooked in real baseball, stolen bases count just as much as any other category and shouldn’t be overlooked. I’ll have patience with my base stealers going forward but there obviously needs to be some improvement.

David Ortiz and Chase Headley are set to come back from the disabled list this week giving me a crowded roster. I’ve already sent out some trade feelers to see what starting pitchers may be available. With Youkilis, Headley and Adrian Beltre eligible for 3rd base, and Pujols, Youkilis and Ortiz eligible to play 1st base somebody has to go. I’m sure whoever inevitably gets traded away will surely hit for the triple-crown and have an amazing season that will burn me in the championship.

This coming week my team will again take the fictional fantasy field, and fiercely battle a team named BustHerPosey. (EDITORS NOTE – Icky) Managed by my roommate, it has become apparent that he hates flowers. In anticipations of the matchup, I changed the Wi-fi password and have urinated on his Iphone. Victory will be mine.

 

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To contact Greg, or any AFRSports columnist, please E-mail: Contact@AFRSports.com

 

Greg Vitucci is a New York based writer. He is a phenomenal drunk.

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