Fantasy baseball update: week 14

As I alluded to in my last fantasy baseball update, last week was a tough one—at least in HATE THE YANKS '06. Coming off 2 straight victories and playing the team with the worst record in the league, my spirits and expectations were high. Unfortunately, they came crashing down thanks to my hitters' collective decision to go cold as ice (they hit a combined .221) and I lost, 6-5. 7 of my hitters hit .200 or worse, including many of my better players, unfortunately. My only saving grace was my pitching, where I had a nice 3.47 ERA and 1.11 WHIP, although I got screwed out of the strikeout and win categories (more on that later).

Certain events served to tell me that I wasn't meant to win this week. First, I had Curt Schilling going on Sunday against the White Sox, needing a victory to take the lead in that category. He left with a 3-2 edge and the Boston bullpen managed to hold that lead until the bottom of the 9th, when normally reliable closer Jonathan Papelbon gave up a game-tying homer to Jermaine Dye. To make matters worse, one of my hitters, Trot Nixon, got 9 at-bats in the entire 19-inning game and got NO hits. Nice job there! Ugh... Later that evening, when Scott Rolen homered in the Sunday night game to tie up the home run category, I was feeling a little better. I still had reason to be concerned, however: both my opponent (Braden Looper) and me (Adam Wainwright) had Cardinals relievers, and there were several pitching categories that were either tied or where I held a slight lead that could be affected by those pitchers. Well, wouldn't you know it, once the game goes into extra innings, good old Tony LaRussa decides to put in Looper, who ends up pitching for 2 innings and tallying 3 strikeouts and the win, notching both categories for my opponent. To make matters worse, Scott Rolen had a chance to be the one to drive in the winning runs, but he struck out so that bench jockey Aaron Miles could be the hero. This urther illustrates that it just wasn't my week!

As usual, my saving grace this week was my team in the Jack Bauer's Agents league, which won 10-4. My pitching was huge: I had a 2.05 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP. My hitting wasn't the best, but it was a hell of a lot better than in my other league!

Anyhow, here's what we're left with as the dust settles:

HATE THE YANKS '06
Bricks and Ivy: 100-85-11, 4th place, 26 games behind the first place team and 6 games ahead of the best non-playoff team

Jack Bauer's Agents
Soulpatch's Cubs Mug: 106-64-26, 1st place, 13.5 games ahead

Fantasy Stud of the Week (Tie)


Edgar Renteria, SS, Braves
.464, 13 H, 10 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI


Erik Bedard, SP, Orioles
2-0, 1.29 ERA, 0.71 WHIP, 13 K

Fantasy Dud of the Week*


Trot Nixon, OF, Red Sox
.050, 1 H, 1 R, 0 HR, 1 RBI

-Mark

*-It was hard to choose only 1, believe me!