Shea will not be named Manager of the Year (PHOTOS)

Apparently, Shea thinks this is a free public league we are in. Here is a day-by-day look at Shea's managing this week so far. In pictures.


MONDAY


TUESDAY


WEDNESDAY


THURSDAY


I asked Ken, his opponent, to comment on these shenanigans. "I'd like to thank Shea for letting me move on from the nightmares I've been having about [purposely] benching Homer Bailey on Tuesday," Ken said. "I will thoroughly enjoy watching Verlander throw a complete game and keep my team breathing in the pitching categories."

I did not reach out to Shea for comment. Why bother? He probably won't see this post for at least a week.
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Looking back at the top draft blunders

We're pretty close to the halfway point of the season, so it's far enough to begin analyzing shrewd moves and poor mistakes.

We start with the mistakes. More specifically, draft-day mistakes.

I've compiled a list of the five biggest draft blunders. You'll see the recipients varied in how they took to getting the award. Some agreed, others were not happy.

Without further ado, the list - in chronological order from the draft.


Mike selects Jacoby Ellsbury over Carl Crawford with the fifth pick in the first round.
We said this was going to be a mistake, and it obviously has been. Crawford has been everything you can ask for out of a speedy guy, while the only thing fast about Ellsbury was the way he went on the disabled list.
Mike says: "Picking Ellsbury definitely set our team back some. Looking back, I'm in awe that I took him over Crawford and (Matt) Holliday."

Andy and Joe select Adam Lind and Carlos Lee, respectively, over both Nelson Cruz and Adam Dunn in the third round.
Bob is clearly reaping the benefits of this one, as he took both Cruz and Dunn with back-to-back picks. Andy had both Lind and Cruz last year, but he mistakenly traded away Lind early in the season. That was a mistake. Two years in a row now.
Joe, on the other hand, can't be faulted for taking the always-productive Lee. Who would have thought he'd be so bad this year?
Andy says: "I guess I just figured Lind was for real, although part of me wanted a little do-over from last year. No doubt about it, that was on my mind."
Joe says: "We don't know what the numbers will look like. It's friggen June. He has been tremendously better this month, but whatever."

Ken takes Javier Vazquez over Matt Cain in the third round.
I'm sure this is one Ken would like to have back, but we'd be unfair if we didn't mention that Vazquez has been pretty decent lately. Cain, though, has been one of fantasy baseball's top pitchers, and Vazquez was awful when Ken couldn't win early on.
Ken says, inebriated: "Fuck Cain. I don't regret taking a Yankee starter at all, given his past and the fact the Yanks are dirty. I'm making playoffs. Kids rule."

Chris selects Wandy Rodriguez over Ubaldo Jimenez in the fourth round.
Ouch. Just ouch. Chris was trying to decide between the two, and inexplicably, he took Rodriguez. Why inexplicably? Because he had Jimenez last season and knew how good he was. Where's the loyalty? Jimenez was the next pitcher taken after Rodriguez.
Chris says: "Despite the blunder, I still have the lowest ERA and top-three WHIP in the league. Scary to think what my staff would be like had I made the right move."

Jack selects Matt Wieters in the eighth round.
Wieters was the first third catcher taken (not including the keeper Mauer), and boy, what a mistake going so high. He's been awful. Plenty of catchers who were drafted way lower have been putting up much better numbers.
Jack says: "Hard to peg just Wieters as being a bust so far this season on my team - so many of my team have underperformed so far this season. There is a lot of the season left - so I am hopeful that he and others on my team that are under-performing will right the ship. I just need wins."

Did I miss any? Let me know below.

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A massive mistake by Yahoo!

In case you haven't noticed, Yahoo! has made a change to its tiebreak system in the playoffs.

Previously, the playoff tiebreaker was ERA. This year, however, it's different.

In the event that a playoff game ends in a tie, the deadlock will be broken using the following system:
1. Winning percentage against this opponent during the regular season.
2. Playoff seed.

Ridiculous, right? They also note that custom leagues cannot set their own tiebreakers. Looking for answers, I took the liberty of e-mailing Yahoo!.

I wrote:

Hello - as a longtime Y! fantasy customer, I was curious as to
your decision to change the playoff-matchup tiebreakers. Can you explain
the reasoning for switching to a tiebreak system of regular season
head-to-head followed by overall seed?

Why was an option not provided for custom leagues to keep the classic
way that Y! had used in the past?

They replied:

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Fantasy Sports.

I understand you would like the option of customizing the playoff
tiebreakers.

I apologize for any inconvenience, regretfully, the feature you're
requesting is not currently available. However, we'll be happy to
forward this feature to the product team as an enhancement request. We
appreciate your suggestion and we will give it consideration when we
prioritize new features for Yahoo! Fantasy Sports.

No, Yahoo!, I didn't write to you because I wanted the option. I wrote to you because I wanted answers as to why you made this absurd change that makes no sense.

Thanks for nothing.
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Assessing the draft: Fireballs Ten

(Editor's note: This is the start of a series of posts briefly breaking down each team's draft. It will culminate in the debut of the 2010 Power Rankings at the end.)

Rick is always a force in this league, and he took his fans on a roller-coaster ride at the end of last season. Apparently, he enjoys it, because the draft had some ups and downs for him.


Focus: Pitching, as usual. Like he does every year, Rick loaded up on pitching - starters and relievers. Why question him at this point? He simply gets it done year in and year out.

Storyline: Rick was the root of one of the most chaotic draft scenes of all time. Due to an autodrafter, we had to improvise with a strict set of rules. Rick chose to go all Jack Bauer on our asses, becoming a rogue drafter. He didn't follow rules and still got his way. Straight out of the TV show.

Headscratcher: Always meticulous about his moves, one has to wonder what Rick was thinking leaving an empty hitting spot. Did he forget Kendry Morales isn't OF-eligible? Check his roster if you don't believe me. He's missing an outfielder! Go ahead, click the little "boneheaded moves" label below and see who leads the count for posts about him.
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It's midnight for Ricky

He gave us all a great run, but all great things must come to an end. For Ricky - or Cinderella - it's midnight.

The underdog story is over. The big story, however, is what happened Saturday night. The matchup was still close. Bob had already stiffed. Ricky absolutely needed to in order to give himself a chance to win.

But he didn't.

"Very surprised, one might say astounded," Bob said of the lack of stiffing. "He had five moves left to make, I don't know if he was saving them for the last week or just plain didn't care. If he stiffed he could have kept the matchup more competitive and might have snuck out a win."

So what happened? You're never going to believe this.


I'll let Ricky tell it like it is. Remember, Ricky lives in California, so he is operating on a three-hour time difference.

"At the risk of being laughed at, I'll tell you the truth," he said. "I meant to stiff. I meant to pick up four guys and overtake innings and wins both...at least. So I'm sitting here (Saturday) night on my couch watching SportsCenter at 11:15 p.m. pacific, and i set my alarm for 11:55. I honestly thought that I had more time past 12 (3 a.m. eastern) because I could have sworn that in the past I've come home late at night after 12 and made moves for the following day. I guess I was wrong.

"The whole reason I was waiting was because I wanted to wait long enough to make sure Bob wasn't going to counter at 3 a.m. eastern! ...and it backfired. I had the guys I wanted picked out and everything. Then at the last minute, I went to start the pickups at like 11:58 and saw that my first choice had disappeared! Then i looked and Joe had swooped in! Then I panicked and by the time I went back to add players, it had changed to Sunday already! 12 on the dot!

"I couldn't believe my eyes. My heart sank and I felt like such an idiot. Lucky for me, my stiffs wouldn't have made a difference (Sunday) because my bats blew it or else I'd be kicking the shit out of myself for such a bonehead move. So yeah, that's why i didn't stiff."

Wow. What do we even say after that? The best part is we can all imagine it taking place as we're reading it, right? Incredible.

Ricky falls just short of the title game for a second straight year - the matchup ended 13-6 but was pretty close. The key to Bob's win, however, was pitching. Just incredible all week. He finished 8-1 with a 2.02/1.11 in 66.2 innings. Just wow.

"You gotta give credit to the Miners staff," Ricky said. "I had a good week, but man, their starters were lights out."

Bob obviously was elated at how well he threw the ball.

"My pitching was amazing," he said. "I think I won for my first eight starts or something and I didn't allow a lot of baserunners. My hitting struggled most of the week, but had a good enough weekend to win it."

Meanwhile, as Bob moves on after his first career playoff win, Ricky - and his fans - go home thinking, "What if?" Will historians remember Ricky's season by his awesome run to make it into the semifinals? Or will it be remembered by Stiffgate '09?

"Am I happy with my season? One word answer...No," Ricky said. "We didn't win. It's that simple. I'm proud how much heart the guys showed and how we kept fighting down the stretch, especially to get into the playoffs with that big win over Chris. There were great moments like that, don't get me wrong, but there were some mistakes along the way and ultimately it cost us another shot at the championship.

"Losing in the semis for the second straight year is tough after tasting the finals two years ago - we know what it means to win, but sometimes you need a little luck on your side too. I'll say that I look forward to next year. I do wanna get on the medal stand though so it's time for us to get ready for the third place game."
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Sunday night magic for Ricky! (UPDATED)

Ricky had a comfortable lead heading into Sunday - it would have been very hard for Chris to comeback and win. But, in an absolutely mind-boggling move, Ricky stiffed for absolutely no reason. He had absolutely nothing to gain from it.

And it almost cost him. Chris cut off a decent deficit and turned it into a lead late in the day.

But going into the Sunday night baseball game between the Dodgers and Padres, Ricky led 10-9. A quick flashback to what happened last time Adrian Gonzalez was involved in a late matchup: Adrian F'n Gonzalez!. After the jump, check out what went down.


Chris trailed walks by one with Adrian Gonzalez and Orlando Hudson, while Ricky trailed holds by one with Luke Gregerson. The advantage was certainly in Chris' favor. A win or tie gave him a playoff spot.

Adrian Gonzalez walks in his second at-bat! Chris tied it up 9-9! But the Padres lead 3-1 going into the sixth inning.

Gonzo comes up again, and he gets ahead in the count 3-0!!!! WOW! But, wait! A strike and a foul ball, and then he blasts a homer! Chris has probably never been so angry over one of his players homering. Still 9-9, though another walk would have clinched it.

4-1 Padres into the bottom of the seventh, when in comes Gregerson! He gets the third out of the inning but comes back out for the eighth! When...with two outs, Hudson comes up! And he gets ahead 2-0 but proceeds to swing at three balls, including one with a full count!!! WOW!! Gregerson gets the hold, Ricky takes a 9-8 lead!

"I was pacing and holding my head," Ricky said of the numerous 3-ball counts.

Padres put a couple runners on base in the ninth, but Gonzalez is left on deck, and L.A. doesn't force extra innings! Ricky wins! Ricky clinches the final playoff spot!

"Luke Gregerson is my new hero for saving my ass," an elated Ricky said Sunday night. "I stiffed to try and get a win to keep the category and keep strikeouts but it backfired. Luke saved me with that hold."

When contacted for comment, Chris handled the loss with absolute class.

"Die," he said.

Sources also tell me he wished disease on one of our other managers, whom will not be named.

As for Ricky, it's back to the playoffs.

"I just told my guys to enjoy the clinching win but to get a good night's sleep because this is just the beginning," Ricky said. "We've got a big week ahead of us."
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Richie does it again

Barring a miracle, Richie will lose 10-9. All he had to do was bench his pitchers - he couldn't lose - and he would have won 10-9.

He would have made me look like a fucking genius. Instead he plays some bum named Clayton Richard, who goes on to walk six guys. He even benched his guys Saturday night!

Ricky survives, and anyone on the wildcard bubble - Andy, Chris, Mike, Adam - should be very very unhappy with our last-place friend.


Chris and Bob even left him some nice little message on the matchup smack talk.

This is the second time, at least, Richie hasn't paid attention on a Sunday.

So, on behalf of the league, fuck you Richie.
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Does Richie want last place?

(Editor's note: This post is being written from the point of view as Andy and not the commish)

Richie has managed his team this week like a little kid searching for that toy in a just-opened cereal box: lost and hopeless.

Richie lost this week 10-9. He could have won 13-4. THAT IS NOT A TYPO.

Part of me thinks Richie enjoys losing. He is now 1-14 and likely to "win" last place. Yes, I'm bitter because he handed Ken, my closest rival in the standings, a victory on a silver platter. Literally just walked right over to him, turned around, unzipped, pulled down his pants and bent the fuck over!

Let's take a look at just how badly he fucked up by simply not setting his lineup and then not paying attention.


First, he benches Roy Oswalt after the All-Star Break. So he had two days to set his lineup. Oswalt threw a complete-game four-hitter. So, he would have tied wins, complete games, and taken WHIP and IP.

Then, with a win locked up heading into the 8:00 game, Richie (leading 11-8) inexplicably keeps Josh Hamilton in his lineup against a finished team. So much for that locked-up win. Hamilton's 0-for-5 night costs Richie AVG and OPS!

Now, I can understand that he may not have been home, able to check his lineup, etc., etc. I'm not as bitter over Hamilton as the Oswalt thing. This is the second straight week Ken gets an assist from a doormat opponent.

"At this point, who cares?" Richie said to me late Sunday. "Sorry to disappoint."

Sigh.

Dammit Richie, start playing spoiler better.

(Editor's note: Coming Monday: Week 15 rankings, Week 16 preview, updated all-time records. Goodnight.)
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