Follow The Fantasy Week 3: The Civil War

Week 3 of the fantasy baseball season was a tense and quiet time for me.  I had to keep all my fantasy knowledge close to the hip and not arbitrarily announce some brilliant sports morsel that popped into my mind.  All this secrecy because there was a traitor, a snitch, a Benedict Arnold amongst us, we shall call him Robert, and he’s my roommate and my week 3 opponent.

 

It wasn’t the most glorious of fantasy weeks as I only squeezed out a 5-5 tie to my co-inhibitor.  But really, I was lucky to eek out a tie as I was trailing for most of the week.  On Sunday I knew I desperately needed a big showing.  I had lost games to bad weather in Denver, and the terrible occurrences and the ensuing manhunt in Boston.

After a stirring f-bomb latent speech David Ortiz would lead his team through an emotional double header. Alex Gordon of the Royals played both games hitting .375 with 3 runs, a home run and an rbi. Those runs would lead to the sole offensive category I would capture this week. I picture Alex Gordon literally grabbing an oversized W from my roommate’s furry little palms.

Pitching wise I again dominated in the saves category winning 8-5. For the third straight week I also won the strikeout category.  As in real baseball good pitching doesn’t always translate into victories.  I had an ERA of 3.16 almost a full point better than my opponents and a lower whip but he had 2 more victories.  What is truly alarming is I only collected 1 win all week.  I currently don’t have a free roster spot to pick up a spot starter a few times a week to steal some W’s but it’s a strategy I have utilized in the past.  As I’m currently trying to shop a third and/or first baseman maybe some roster space will be achieved shortly.  Visualize a door to door salesman pitching corner infielders and closers.

I released Kelvin Herrera who didn’t seize the Royals’ closer position for St. Louis Cardinals’ closer Edward Mujica.  Mujica is 4 for 4 in save opportunities thus far this season.  My other transaction of the week was to drop John Lannan after he landed on the disabled with a strained tendon and took Chase Headley off the DL. David Ortiz was eligible to also come off the DL but I had no roster space for him. After all he is, “Big Papi” if fantasy baseball was anything like airplanes, Oritz would need to occupy 2 roster spots.

This week’s thrifty pick-ups both come in the form of shortstops. First Brandon Crawford of the defending World Series Champion San Francisco Giants. He had 3 multi-hit games last week and is batting around .320. The power stroke (yeaaaaa) is starting to come for this 25 year old as he has already tied his homerun total from last season with 4.  The second pickup of the week is the power lacking Jean Segura for the Milwaukee Brewers.  Segura is just 23 years old but has shown he can hit for average in the big leagues.  As of last Saturday he was hitting .386 and has stolen a base in almost every game this week. Considering I have gone 0-3 in stolen bases and just 1-2 in average he might just find a spot on my roster.  Crawford in available in more than 50% of yahoo leagues and Segura is available in over 30%.

Week 4 will surely be a tumultuous week as I’m playing TheBeastModeBar10der, a man who (probably) has multiple league championships in baseball and football. Currently sitting in fourth place, Gee as we will call him is just a game and half behind me who is sitting in second. I’d still be perched atop the mountain in first place if Slim Charles didn’t get shutout by the Commish. Gee has a powerful lineup including Mark Trumbo, Matt Kemp and just acquired Starling Marte who is starting to turn it on for the Pirates of Pittsburgh. He may have a silly name but Marte can certainly rake.

Check in next week where we will hopefully summarize another chapter of VICTORY. If not we’ll summarize my first inevitable defeat and discuss (make excuses) as to how and why I should have won.

 

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