Circle of Jerks

It's good to be... me

2007-10-16T10:11:00.000-05:00

ahhhhh... finally. Feels good to get the monkey off my back. You can all look forward to many more years of this.

Smart 'sleeper' pick

2007-04-11T15:36:00.000-05:00

So who's the sleeper pick that's done well for you so far?
My guy is Tim Hudson. I thought I might have taken him too early but he had a great first outing. That being said, he only faced Washington. We'll see if he keeps it up.
My worst draft gaffe was taking Lidge and Dotel as my 2nd and 3rd closers.

Game On!

2007-03-29T10:06:00.000-05:00

Just 3 days till the season begins and with it the hope that your fantasy baseball team will finally fulfill the promise of a championship run. For some of us the hope is more of a pipe dream (you know who you are) while others are confident that this is their year.

We hope that our stars don't get injured, we hope that our flyers turn out to be heroes, we hope that we make the right lineup decisions. In essence the beginning of baseball is the beginning of hope.

And with that hope, our youth is rejuvenated, if not just a little bit. We think fondly back to our pick up games in the park, to our little league days when we started the season with dreams of hitting .300 or making the all star team this year, maybe winning a championship along the way.

Baseball is so much more than a collection of stats, it's about hopes and dreams and that's what is so great about the game.

Good luck everyone!

A glance back

2007-02-07T14:28:00.000-06:00

I said I had a picture of it. Here it is. The week I was in first.

Most successful CoJ managers

2006-10-12T15:40:00.000-05:00

The site has the champions of our little CoJ group back to 2001. The breakdown of the top owners is this:
Name: finish in '01, '02, '03... '06: pt ratings with 1pt for 5th and 5 pts for 1st.

Baggs: 1, -, -, 1, 4, 1: 17
Grizz: 4, -, 4, 2, 2, 5: 13
Blake: 2, -, 5, -, 3, 3: 11
Todd: 3, -, 1, 5, 5, -: 10
Jack : -, 3, 2, -, -, 4: 9
Matt : -, -, -, 3, 1, -: 8
Snap: 5, 5, -, -, -, 2: 6

Grizz has been in the top 5 the most, with Todd, Blake and me having second most top 5 finishes.

What's it take to move into first place?

2006-08-15T16:06:00.000-05:00

Apparently, it only takes one good week. I went back and looked at my lead (or lack thereof) for each period. My feeling was it was a gradual struggle, but once the lead was established I figured it'd be a lot harder to catch the team ahead of you. But look at the leads:

WK) Pts ahead/behind 1st
1) 2.5
2) -3.5
3) -16
4) -3
5) 0
6) 6
7) 1
8) 6.5
9) 7
10) 9.5
11) 10.5
12) 10.5
13) 14
14) 3.5
15) 2
16) 4
17) 4.5
18) 10
19) 12.5
20) 11.5

In week 3 when Grizz had a 16 pt lead I moved up 13 pts then took over the top the next week. But the surprising part to me was week 14, when I was up by 14 pts and Snap jumped up 11.5 pts to get within 4 pts.
As late as 2.5 wks ago I made a 5.5 pt jump to increase the lead. This thing definitely isn't over.

At the halfway mark...

2006-07-12T17:11:00.000-05:00

There's been a lot of movement over the last week. We've seen the Baggstard's 14 point lead get shaved down to just 3.5 as the Maulers moved up the board. The Schweaty Balls have surged up to third after spending much of the first half near the bottom. GLZM and the Fire Buds have really compiled huge leads in pitching points. The Ursa Majors, who were leading for quite a while and holding steady in the top three, have tumbled after getting 13 starts in one week from their pitching staff.
Baggstards appear to have made a move to get Chris Carpenter for their second half, and with Aubrey Huff playing in Houston and qualifying for 3B and OF, they may pull back ahead of the pack. But we'll see; crazier stuff has already happened this year.

Best Player Nobody's Heard Of

2006-06-27T10:41:00.000-05:00

I'm sure every team has a player that is relatively unknown but is performing well for them. Or maybe they're popular now but weren't when you got them. Which guy is it on your team?

For me, Florida Marlins pitcher Josh Johnson was a pick-up early this season (May 15) almost solely because he was going to get 2 starts in one period. Turns out that after 10 starts, he's got 7 wins and leads the league in ERA with a 2.20.

The other extreme is guys you've started at all the wrong times. Jeff Weaver's started 7 games for me, and his record in those games is 1-6 with an ERA of 6.05. 2B Jose Lopez is hitting .240 for me, but his season avg is .280. Johjima is hitting .290 with 8HR, but for me, starting him in half his games, he's .256 with 3 HRs.

CoJ Blunders

2006-05-26T09:25:00.000-05:00

Here's a thread to post your favorite (or least favorite) CoJ blunders. Whether it's a bad trade, or a bad draft pick, or dropping a future stud, or starting or not starting a guy who has a hot/cold week. This is the place.

I'll get it started with my own worst trade ever.

May of 2004, I traded Ichiro to Grizz for Jose Vidro. At the time Ichiro was hitting .250 and Vidro was at about .300, and I desperately needed a 2B. Needless to say, Ichiro went on to hit .400 the rest of the way, on his way to setting the single-season hits record. Vidro? He went on the DL about a month later, never to be heard from again.

Wake up, losers

2006-05-23T07:15:00.000-05:00

Ok, are Baggs and I the only ones that use this thing? Because I will turn this car around right now...

Maybe he and I are the only ones talking because we're the only ones in any kind of position TO talk. Hard for the bottom feeders to keep up the chatter. That's the part I kind of understand but it's way too early to throw in the towell or to curl up in a corner with your blanky...

Yeah, I know, Ben sent out his email survey. Wouldn't that have been better here? All the comments collected in one place for all to read. Yeah, that would have been easier...

There is a ton of stuff to talk about baseball-wise, let's hear some of it!

Bonds 714? Anyone care? Anyone boo quietly at home?

Are the Reds and Tigers for real?

What's up with the closers this year? Do they all suck? I can't count the number of wins I've lost because some damn "closer" got smacked around. And it's not just the closers, seems like most bullpens are just chock full of garbage. Get the starter out and yippie, it's BP time.

So, let's hear some noise out there!

Look out now, I have pitching!

2006-04-17T10:21:00.000-05:00

After years of never having a pitching staff and being all about the hitting, I finally have a semblence of a pitching staff and maybe for the first period ever I led the league in pitching for a week. Wow, you can all fight for 2nd now, I'll be at the top shortly.

By the way, I played Whistling Straits Sunday. Holy crap, it's the most awesome mother fucking course I've ever set foot on. Check out my other blog for pictures.

Blame it on Clint

2006-04-06T08:01:00.000-05:00

Great story from Bill Simmons on why Clint Eastwood is responsible for Adam Morrison crying...
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/060328

I wrote on the same subject right aftwards in my other blog.

If you don't read Bill Simmons regularly, you should start. Damn funny guy.

Player Eligibility

2006-03-31T15:13:00.000-06:00

This is not a slam on our league rules, it's just a vocalization of my frustration.

I wish I could start Aubrey Huff at 3B to start the year. He's slated to be Tampa's starting third baseman, but since he only played 4 games there last year I can't start him there this year until the second week. It sucks having someone that good on my bench because of a technicality. Maybe there should be a rule that if a player is slated to start the season at a given position, they can qualify for that position. Just a thought. Or blog. Whatever.

Myspace?

2006-03-29T10:30:00.000-06:00

Does anyone have a myspace page? My page is http://www.myspace.com/osgoodjr if anyone's interested.

Draft is over, now get back to work

2006-03-21T07:09:00.000-06:00

4 hours. That's how long it took. 4 hours. That feels very long. But, if you consider we have 11 owners and if they averaged 1 minute per pick for 22 rounds, that comes out to 242 minutes. 4 hours.

So, despite our troubles with a certain owner who shall not be named, we still finished in a reasonable time. Now, would I LIKE to go faster? Hell yes. I don't see why we can't do it in half the time. If you are paying attention during the draft you should have several guys queued up and ready to go when it's your pick.

I think next year's commish might think about the draft a little more and how it might go more smoothly. I think 1 person not having 10 beers might help too. :)

Ok, besides that, is everyone happy with their team? I think I have a decent, well balanced team. I didn't go nuts over one position as I have in the past ("this is the year I get saves") . I'm a little upset that I took Bonds but despite his evilness he could put up some big numbers. I hope he doesn't and I have to bench him or even cut him but who knows for sure. I guess the only thing we do know is that my stats may have an asterisk next to them.

Draft Order

2006-03-16T10:35:00.000-06:00

I can't believe we're back to discussing draft order for the league. We have been through every possible scenario since this league's inception... even as much as every third person gets the first pick of the next round... and I think that all this is going to do is cause a whole bunch of disgruntled owners. Last season we went with the traditional snake draft, and we had some people from the bottom, middle and top of the pack finish in the top of the league. To go last to first for any amount of rounds is rewarding those who tank... but the worst part of this is that we're basically going to see votes that help each individual's team and not what's best for the league. The bottom 5 teams will want as much last to first as possible, and the top 5 will want as much snake as possible.
This is not something that should be voted on after the draft order is set. And with Jack picking last for any consecutive number of rounds after he was basically FORCED to have certain keepers (even though they're good) - he's really being punished with this last to first possibility.

There. I feel better now that it's off my chest. Almost. Stupid commish.
Okay... NOW I feel better.

Comments

2006-03-09T07:22:00.000-06:00

Ok, I guess I need to explain a couple other things.

If you want to reply to a posting there is a little Comments link underneath that post. Click that to bring up a window to add your comments in. Think of the original posting as a trigger to a discussion. That discussion would be in the comments area.

Thanks. That way we don't have 12 million posts that are just replies to other posts.

I should have mentioned that earlier, sorry.

No rooting interest here

2006-03-08T17:26:00.000-06:00

Colombia (my mom's 100%) didn't qualify; I guess having SS Orlando Cabrera play eight positions would've been a bit unfair.
I went to the debut game (US/Mex) and kept a scoresheet... looks like the game vs Canada today would've been the better one to see! Still, it was the first time I saw Damon, Jeter, A-Rod, and a lot of stars play live, which was thrilling. (Seen Griffey, Chipper, Castilla, Lee and a few others before)
And Lidge got the save, with Wheeler doing okay in relief.

In Reply to Grizz

2006-03-08T15:43:00.000-06:00

Nope, I have no such dilemma. My mother's side is polish and my dad's Italian. They declined the Polish teams entrance to the tourney when they showed up with a bag full of bats, the winged kind.

Venezuela V. Dominican

2006-03-07T23:08:00.000-06:00

While at home to let the dogs out and have lunch, I watched some of the Venezuelan/Dominican game and realized that, having my Dad born in Caracus and my Mother born in Santo Domingo, I had heritage from both teams and didn’t know who to cheer on. Don't know if there are others with a similar dilemma.

How to Blog

2006-03-07T20:08:00.000-06:00

Or what the hell do I do now?

Ok, see that Blogger logo in the upper left corner of the screen?
Click it.

You should see this blog listed (as long as you're signed in). There is a plus sign under New Post.
Click it.

You'll get an editor window with a title bar. Enter a title and then type in your post. You can use html, images, change fonts, add links, whatever.

Have a question on how to do something? Post it, I will answer.

Blog

2006-03-07T20:00:00.000-06:00

Uhhhhh, what's a blog????

Is Andy being too optimistic that any of us will have anything worthwhile to say? :-)

Logo

2006-03-07T11:11:00.000-06:00

Hey, we could use a new logo. Who made the last one?
Can someone get on that?

2006-03-07T10:38:00.000-06:00

Okay, I joined. Now somebody better have something to say.

Welcome

2006-03-07T07:29:00.000-06:00

This blog was created as a means to share our baseball ups and downs, trials and tribulations, pissing and moaning, whatever you want to call it.

If you didn't get an email from me inviting you to join, let me know. It should have directions for signing up.