One last nail-biting week...

[overkill94]

The NL-only keeper league I'm in with GladHeAteHer came down to the last few innings of the season. Going into the day I had a 1/2 point lead on 2nd place with only 1 more point separating 2nd from 3rd (GHAH). My two starters (Cliff Lee and a newly-acquired Jeremy Hefner) gained me a point each in ERA and WHIP...until Collins left Hefner in for the 8th and he gave up 2 more baserunners and 1 more run - which lost a point in both categories. After the day games ended I still had a 1/2 point lead and my OBP had gotten a minor bump (3 of us had been jockeying for days now), but then 2nd place gained a point in WHIP due to Vogelsong and Kershaw's fine outings. Things were looking bleak for a while since my hitters were not doing my OBP any favors, but luckily my combatants' hitters were performing equally bad. With most of the night games reaching the halfway point I was still a 1/2 point behind but my offense suddenly grew some balls and I made my way back to the top of the hill among the 3 OBP contenders. While sweating this, 2nd place got a win from Kershaw, gaining him another 1/2 point. Sitting in 2nd place by a full point now, my offense finally started getting on base and then I finally had another pitcher get into a game (Putz). A perfect inning would've gained me 2 points while a scoreless inning would bump me up 1 point in ERA. While his outing was far from ideal, he still ended up not allowing a run so I temporarily gained a point in ERA and OBP, leaving me with a 2 point lead over 2nd place. I only had 2 pitchers left myself (Motte and Broxton) while the other ERA challenger had one reliever (Mujica) so as long as none of my pitchers took the mound I'd keep that ERA point. Unfortunately, Broxton came in and gave up a 1-out single (which should've been an out) before coming out and seeing his replacement let that run score. At this point I had lost that ERA point but was still holding tight to the OBP love due to Venable, Headley, and Schumacker getting on base in their subsequent at-bats. With the next opponent rostering Braun and Carlos Gomez in his search for OBP superiority I was rooting against the Brewers badly. Luckily they both made out in their next at-bats so even though my Padre fellas failed to reach base in their final at-bat I was able to hold on for a 1 point victory and a purse twice larger than that which I would've held had the preceding events not taken place.

Sorry for the long post, I'm still basking in my first win of this magnitude.

[rhd]

Well, it ended up as I expected in my money leagues:

22-team, 5x5 mixed - 1st by 34 pts (led at the end of every week except Week 2)
12-team, 5x4 NL - 1st by 2 pts (on last day, managed to hang on to a BA pt, a Ks pt and an ERA pt and gained 1/2 SB pt). Plus, extra money for winning 2 categories. Only 3.5 pts separated 1st place from 4th place and out of the money. Whew!
11-team, 5x5 AL - 4th (last money place, 1.5 pts behind 3rd place team. 3 more HRs and 4 more runs would have gotten me into 3rd)

My best year ever (why isnt every year like this?). Sum of my winnings will come to $3800+

[virgonomic]

Yahoo has live stats with the Stat tracker.

Yep, that's what I was basing my observations on.

I won my AFA league by 1.5 points. I got the point in runs and he lost a 1/2 point somewhere else.

[Steve]

Finished 3rd. 1 more HR and 1 more SB and I finish second. Rats.

[Judge Jude]

checked my Ratio loss - 1.2926 to 1.2930
and my AVG loss - .26876 to .26876
#yesreally

needed either one for free and clear $120

Or I could check and see what would have happened if I had one more K this year: then 3-way tie for 4th, but tiebreaker could mean I'd have gotten $120, $90, $60, $30 - or $0. not sure I'll bother.

meanwhile Mrs Judge's new job is so lucrative that she will make incrementally more before lunch today than her previous gig than I lost in this stupid game all year. but dammit, I wanted to be in the money....

[Mithrandir]

Some tight categories in my league:

I had 1 more run than the second place team.
2nd place team had one more "K" than 3rd place team.
I had 2 more HR's than 3rd and 4th place teams who tied in HR.
3rd place team finished .01 behind another team in ERA.
3rd place team finished.004 behind 4th place team in WHIP.

[Mithrandir]

checked my Ratio loss - 1.2926 to 1.2930

I could check and see what would have happened if I had one more K this year: then 3-way tie for 4th, but tiebreaker could mean I'd have gotten $120, $90, $60, $30 - or $0. not sure I'll bother.

meanwhile Mrs Judge's new job is so lucrative that she will make incrementally more before lunch today than her previous gig than I lost in this stupid game all year. but dammit, I wanted to be in the money....

You got that right..always want to be in the money. You need a special mix to win, but to at least be in the top 4 each year is what i shoot for.

[mjl]

due to EJax and Lee pitching well yesterday and final-week pickups Zito, Floyd and Vogelsong pitching tremendously, I made up a .0041 WHIP gap on the final day to move into first, but a non-contending team passed me in HR so I only ended up with a tie for first.

[Erik]

I held on in Mock One. I had a lead as big as 40 over the summer, but as guys stopped playing over their heads, it dwindled drastically. My final margin of victory was 2.

I also won in my HTH league, entering the playoffs as the 4 seed and getting hot. I was 1st or 2nd most of the year, then got cold and fell out of a first-round bye spot, then returned to form.

Of course I did little in my two leagues that involve money, finishing 6th and 8th.

[dslaw]

My kid beat me 7-4. I had a 25 game lead in the final standings but my hitters were pretty average over the last 3 months. Thanks to Ian Kinsler for batting .179 the last 10 days as I tied in hits and lost average by 2 points. The kid is 25, you would think he could pay entry fees but no, I get to do that. But when he wins he wants the winnings. 2 wins in the last 4 years in this H2H league, one win in our roto league. I think I am cutting him out of the will.