Monthly Archives: September 2012

BGB Fantasy League 2012 Week Twenty Two

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After 22 weeks of matchups, which teams have made it through for a chance of glory in the BaseballGB Fantasy League playoffs?
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
Bonestalkers 20 4 21 4 .256 .640 2 0 16 1 6.33 1.36 0
Chatham Anglers 31 12 36 7 .296 .905 3 2 28 4 2.90 0.97 12

We begin with a huge win for the Anglers, who ended the regular season with a clean sweep against Bonestalkers, booking their playoff place in the process. Adam LaRoche had a five-homer week, with Miguel Cabrera and Ethier each going deep twice. On the mound, Gio Gonzalez picked up another win and Casilla and Storen contributed victories out of the bullpen. Soriano hit three homers for Bonestalkers.

R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
The Wright Stuff 31 10 27 9 .349 1.024 4 3 40 2 3.93 1.21 10
YD33’s 20 4 17 3 .259 .757 3 2 25 0 3.31 1.19 2

The Stuff warmed up for the playoffs with a 10-2 win against YD33s. Jay Bruce hit four homers, McCann and Trout went deep twice and Revere stole five bases in an offensive sweep, while Anderson, Latos and Peavy each picked up wins. Headley had a monster week for YD33s, belting four homers and driving in 13 while CJ Wilson helped take ERA and WHIP.

R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
BD Yankees 24 8 23 1 .281 .867 1 0 18 5 4.08 1.13 2
Richie’s RBI’s 28 10 37 6 .249 .767 1 3 29 0 3.90 1.50 10

The RBIs are also into the playoffs. They ended the regular season on a high note, crushing the Yankees 10-2 after their opponents failed to hit the 20-inning minimum limit and forfeited all of the pitching categories. Zimmerman, Hill and Aoki had nice weeks with the bat for the RBIs, while Hughes and Rodney were the pick of the pitchers. The Yankees had five homers from the Harper and Fielder combination, but all were solo shots.

R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
Ridge Bolts 25 9 32 5 .238 .767 1 1 41 4 3.00 1.03 8
The Cheddar Chasers 20 6 19 3 .229 .717 4 1 32 2 1.93 0.75 3

The Bolts recorded an offensive sweep as they defeated the Chasers 8-3. Stanton homered four times, Reyes drove in eight runs and Andino and Martin each homered twice. On the mound, Samardzija racked up 17 strikeouts and the trio of Bell, Marshall and Downs took care of holds. Shields won twice for the Chasers, while Dickey and Fister each added victories and Beltre hit three homers.

R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
SWAT* 25 8 26 6 .248 .745 3 6 61 1 3.84 1.23 3
tavira expats 32 12 29 6 .321 .960 4 0 49 0 3.67 1.00 8

The Expats ended their season with an 8-3 win against SWAT. BJ Upton and Mark Reynolds each belted five homers and Jeter was also in very good form as the Expats took five offensive categories. On the mound, Darvish was the pick of the starters and the team still managed to take ERA and WHIP despite Phil Humber’s meltdown (216.00 ERA, 27.00 WHIP). SWAT salvaged saves, strikeouts and holds thanks to Medlen, Nathan, Reed, Johnson and Robertson. Adam Jones had a three-homer week.

R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
Boyd’s Base On Balls 17 4 14 3 .293 .779 1 2 27 3 6.75 1.76 4
Weston-Super-Sox 21 7 20 5 .249 .748 2 0 38 1 5.83 1.71 8

Four category wins in offense and pitching added up to an 8-4 victory for the Sox against the Base On Balls. De Aza and Kubel were the pick of the hitters while Kelvin Herrera’s two wins out of the bullpen proved valuable in a rough week for both pitching staffs. The Base On Balls had two homers and two steals from Desmond and Chris Perez recorded the only saves of the matchup.

R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
Iron Men 21 2 25 5 .281 .732 4 2 27 4 3.38 1.28 7
daebhid2 23 8 27 8 .269 .775 1 0 21 0 6.15 1.52 5

A pitching sweep helped Iron Men edge past daebhid2 7-5 and go into the playoffs. Mike Adams had two wins in relief to go with his two holds, and Frieri picked up a win and a save. Braun, Espinosa and Montero helped win average. Daebhid2 had plenty of offense from Michael Young, who belted three homers, while Seager homered twice and joined Gordon and Goldschmidt in swiping two bases.

R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
NE Riverkings 25 3 21 7 .256 .667 4 2 52 1 3.10 1.21 5
Pontypridd Pirates 30 9 24 4 .307 .907 3 4 23 0 1.91 1.24 7

The Riverkings suffered a rare defeat at the hands of the Pirates. Cano, Konerko and Morneau had nice weeks with the bat while Hamilton belted three homers. Cishek, League and Balfour took care of saves while Hudson and Sale made the difference in ERA. Greinke won twice for the Riverkings, joining Hellickson and Haren in taking WHIP and Everth Cabrera stole four bases.

R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
Beck ‘Nams (GB) 21 4 14 6 .195 .541 4 6 40 0 2.52 1.22 6
Pretzel Vendors 15 3 16 3 .231 .645 1 6 44 1 5.18 1.60 5

Beck ‘Nams ended the regular season at .500 after narrowly defeating the Vendors 6-5 in matchup which was light on offense. Davis, Ellsbury, Cruz and Andrus all went deep for Beck ‘Nams while Pagan and Aviles swiped two bases each. On the mound, Maholm, Niese and Halladay helped take ERA and WHIP and Papelbon won twice in relief. Rios and Hart drove in 12 of the Vendors’ 16 runs while Holland and Kimbrel combined for a win, six saves and 19 strikeouts.

R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
Orpington Isotopes 25 7 19 1 .247 .700 2 1 24 3 6.55 1.58 5
stevenston angels 16 3 19 2 .253 .694 2 0 36 2 5.25 1.47 5

Finally, my Isotopes and the Angels played out a 5-5 tie. Weeks had a three-homer week and Rizzo went deep twice for my team, with Marmol and Thayer taking care of saves and holds. Pierzynski and Morales helped take average for the Angels, while Alvarez and Lee helped take ERA and WHIP in a matchup which didn’t see much vintage pitching.

So the results mean Iron Men, the RBIs and the Anglers are safely into the championship playoffs, with the Chasers finishing 3.5 games back in ninth place overall.

The Stuff finish top of the standings, two games clear of the Riverkings, with a 22-game gap to the Sox in third. Iron Men finished half a game ahead of the RBIs and SWAT.

The first week of the playoff matchups are as follows:
Stuff (1st) v Anglers (8th)
Isotopes (4th) v Iron Men (5th)
Sox (3rd) v RBIs (6th)
Riverkings (2nd) v SWAT (7th).

Well done to the managers who made it through, and here’s hoping for some good playoff battles.

Five early MLB games this week

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Just as the MLB action is really heating up, we’ve been handed a disappointing day-game fixture list for the week ahead.

There are only five games beginning before midnight U.K. time this working week and one of those only dips under the time barrier by 25 minutes.

So it’s slim pickings in terms of the number of games, but the ones we do have should be well worth watching, particularly the Josh Johnson-Cliff Lee match-up on Wednesday and the pair of AL games on Thursday.

All times are in BST.

Monday 10 September

No early games

Tuesday 11 September

No early games

Wednesday 12 September

21.05. Miami at Philadelphia (Johnson – Lee) *ESPN America
23.35. St. Louis at San Diego (Lohse – Richard)

Thursday 13 September

17.35. Tampa Bay at Baltimore (Hellickson – TBA) *ESPN America
20.35. Oakland at LA Angels (Anderson – Wilson) *ESPN America

Friday 14 September

19.20. Pittsburgh at Chicago Cubs (McDonald – Berken) *ESPN America

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  The early games being shown on ESPN America are highlighted above, while the full ESPN/ESPN America schedule can be found on their website.  BBC 5 Live Sports Extra can be found on digital radio, digital TV and on the BBC.co.uk website (coverage on the website is only available to UK residents). The complete schedule for this week’s MLB games can be found on MLB.com.

Sunday’s MLB games

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Stephen Strasburg’s 2012 playing season is now officially over. He will join the ranks of the millions of us that live through every single pitch from the sidelines helpless to affect the outcome of the game, save for the help that lucky charms, prayers and rally caps can bring.

It’s a role Strasburg is familiar with following his recovery period from Tommy John surgery. That won’t make it any easier for him, in fact he will probably feel he’s missed enough time already without being asked to sit out again now when he is healthy.

Even though the Nationals’ caution is understandable, it’s going to be painful for Strasburg to sit in the dugout and watch his teammates perform without being able to play an active part the rest of the way.

Strasburg will continue his watching brief in Washington today as Edwin Jackson takes to the mound intent on helping the Nats win the rubber game of their series against the Miami Marlins and to maintain their decent lead at the top of the NL East ahead of the surging Atlanta Braves.

The full schedule of Sunday’s games is listed below, with all times in BST.

18.05. Colorado at Philadelphia (Chatwood – Hamels)
18.10. Houston at Cincinnati (Gonzalez – Cueto)
18.10. Atlanta at NY Mets (Hanson – Young)
18.35. NY Yankees at Baltimore (Garcia – Britton)
18.35. Toronto at Boston (Villanueva – Buchholz)
18.35. Miami at Washington (Nolasco – Jackson)
18.35. Chicago Cubs at Pittsburgh (Rusin – Locke)
18.40. Texas at Tampa Bay (Oswalt – Shields)
19.10. Kansas City at Chicago White Sox (Guthrie – Santiago)
19.10. Cleveland at Minnesota (Kluber – Vasquez)
19.15. Milwaukee at St. Louis (Marcum – Kelly)
20.35. Detroit at LA Angels (Sanchez – Greinke)
21.05. Arizona at San Diego (Corbin – Werner)
21.10. Oakland at Seattle (Milone – Vargas) *ESPN America
23.35. Colorado at Philadelphia (Pomeranz – Cloyd)

01.00. LA Dodgers at San Francisco (Kershaw – Zito) *ESPN America

Every team needs a win at this stage of the season, but perhaps none more so than the Pittsburgh Pirates. A six-game home-stand against the Houston Astros and Chicago Cubs was an ideal opportunity to get their playoff push back on track. Instead, they must win today behind Jeff Locke to salvage a 3-3 split.

The Dodgers and Giants have shared a win apiece so far in their series at AT&T Park and Clayton Kershaw will pitch for L.A. tonight trying to bring his team to within 3.5 games of their rivals in the NL West. Meanwhile the Yankees need to channel their anger from a controversial loss to the Orioles yesterday to earn a victory and a 2-2 series split at Camden Yards today.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  The games being shown on ESPN America are highlighted above. 

Team GB suffer 3-1 defeat to France in 2012 Euro opener

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Team GB will need to show some British bulldog spirit on Saturday after suffering a 3-1 defeat to France in their opening game of the 2012 European Championships.

There are no easy games in international competition, but on paper drawing France first gave Sam Dempster’s team a good chance to get their tournament started with a victory.  The French are the lowest ranked team (41st), based on the International Baseball Federation’s rankings, among the six in Britain’s Group B and they are 18 places behind Team GB (23rd) in that system.

Great Britain got off to the perfect start by taking a 1-0 lead in the first inning. Third baseman Michael Johnson struck a triple off French starting pitcher Patrice Briones to bring home Aaron Hornostaj, who had led off the game by reaching base on a hit-by-pitch.

France levelled the score at 1-1 in the second inning when left-fielder Frederic Hanvi scored on a ground-out by catcher Boris Marche. The frustration for Team GB came from the fact that Hanvi had reached third base with a certain amount of help, getting on base via a walk by GB starter Aeden McQueary-Ennis and then making it around to third on catcher Sam Wiley’s throwing error in trying to stop Hanvi from stealing second base.

Hanvi caused havoc again in the fourth inning as the French scored twice to take a decisive 3-1 lead. France’s left-fielder repeated his first inning trick by patiently working a walk and then stealing second base and coming home on a throwing error by McQueary-Ennis. Yan Dal Zotto reached first base on the same run-scoring play and he ultimately made it around to home plate for France’s third run of the game, doubling the frustration caused by the initial error.

McQueary-Ennis got out of a bases-loaded jam to end the inning and to limit the damage; however the damage that had been caused would prove fatal to Team GB’s hopes of an opening day victory.

Paul Waterman pitched four outstanding innings in relief to keep France off the scoreboard for the rest of the game, allowing only two base-runners, both on singles, while striking out four.  Unfortunately the Team GB bats just couldn’t get much going against Briones.

The French starter’s most vulnerable point actually came in the top of that fateful fourth inning when Great Britain had runners (Wiley and Matt McGraw) on first and second, only for Briones to escape thanks to a Craig Pycock pop-up to the shortstop.

Briones matched Waterman’s efforts by allowing only two hits over the next four frames and that meant Great Britain came to bat in the top of the ninth inning trailing 3-1. McGraw gave British fans hope of a come-from-behind win with a two-out double, yet he would get no further as Briones struck out pinch-hitter Richard Klijn to end the game.

The final scoreboard proved to be a frustrating sight for Team GB. They out-hit the French six to five, but the four errors to France’s none were the difference.  On the same night in MLB, the Pittsburgh Pirates committed seven errors (leading to a brutal nine unearned runs) against the Chicago Cubs showing that such days can happen to any team when they are playing hard to earn a ‘W’.

Great Britain will put it down to experience and come back fighting against the Czech Republic. The Czechs, ranked 20th in the world by the IBAF, showed their ability and battling qualities by pushing Germany beyond the regulation nine innings on Friday, ultimately losing 5-4 in ten innings.

Both the Czechs and Team GB will be out to get their first win on the board in Utrecht on Saturday. First pitch is scheduled for 19.30 local time, 18.30 British time, and the action can be followed on a live basic play-by-play feature on the CEB’s website (click on the Live Utrecht link when the game is in progress).

POSTSCRIPT: Bob Fromer’s full game report can be found on the BBF website.

2012 European Championship begins

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Great Britain’s Senior Baseball Team will jog out onto the diamond in Utrecht, Netherlands on the evening of Friday 7 September to begin an exciting month of tournament play.

Tonight’s game against France (first pitch at 18.30 U.K. time) is Team GB’s opener at the 2012 European Baseball Championships.

The twelve teams involved in the tournament have been split into two groups of six. Great Britain and France are joined in Group B by the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. The teams will all play each other once in a round-robin event over the next five days. The top three teams in the group will progress on to the latter stages of the event, culminating in the Final on Sunday 16 September.

Team GB’s Euro adventure has a slightly different feel about it this time around as it is not their only focus. Sam Dempster’s men will move on from the Euros to compete in their World Baseball Classic qualifier in Regensburg, Germany, later in the month (the min-tournament begins on 20 September).

As in football, the Euros historically have been the second most prestigious international event for European teams, just behind the World Cup. The emergence of MLB’s World Baseball Classic in 2006 as the premier international tournament effectively moved the two more-established events down one slot in the pecking order.  The WBC has been expanded for the 2013 event, the third time of it being staged, affording Great Britain its first opportunity to try to qualify for the main event next year.

Team GB has never won the European Championships and would dearly love to do so, but if the team and us fans had the choice right now of winning the Euros or qualifying for the main World Baseball Classic event in 2013 I’m sure most, if not all, would favour the latter.

Of course, no team can hope to choose which event they want to win. Achieving either major goal will be a real challenge due to the fierce level of competition the team will face.

The WBC roster will be quite significantly different, and in theory significantly stronger, than the smaller Euro roster and should have a better chance of success, particularly in the shorter format that comes with the WBC qualifier.

That doesn’t mean the Euros will simply be a warm-up for the main event though.

There is much to play for even alongside the tournament title itself. A solid performance will put Team GB back into the top Pool A of European teams (meaning we would not have to go through a qualifier to get to the next European Championships, as we had to do this time around) and finishing in the top four would book a place at the next World Cup.

More than anything, beyond qualification for other events and potential medals and trophies, there is the simple pride of wearing the GB jersey and cap and representing everyone involved in baseball in the U.K. Baseball and softball were not part of the Olympics – and there’s no need to go back over that depressing tale one more time here - but the team can still be part of a glorious sporting summer for the nation.

I’ve no doubt that Sam Dempster and his team will do us proud in the Euros and, once completed, we can then look forward to the WBC qualifier with even more excitement.

Further details about Team GB’s September events can be found on the BBF website.

Full details about the European Baseball Championship can be found on the CEB website.

BGB Fantasy League 2012 Week Twenty One

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The race for the final championship playoff places is hotting up in the BaseballGB Fantasy League. Two more teams are safely in and just three places remain in the final week of the regular fantasy season. Which teams are making a late run, and which teams are hoping not to throw away their lead?
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
Iron Men 35 10 42 7 .259 .762 3 2 55 3 3.20 1.16 11
Weston-Super-Sox 24 8 22 3 .256 .732 1 2 52 1 4.02 1.40 0
We begin with an 11-0 win for Iron Men against the Sox, who may put this down to a hangover after securing their playoff place the previous week. Braun, Delmon Young and Howard helped Iron Men to an offensive sweep, while Estrada was the pick of the starting pitchers. Frieri earned two saves and Adams had a pair of holds. Wei-Yin Chen and Burnett pitched well for the Sox without a win to show for it, while Hanley homered three times.
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
The Wright Stuff 28 9 34 2 .254 .754 5 6 51 2 3.07 1.11 11
daebhid2 15 3 17 2 .207 .524 1 0 25 0 4.15 1.50 0
Despite securing their playoff place last week, the Stuff show no sign of slowing down, defeating daebhid2 11-0. Anderson, Latos, Scherzer and Kendrick helped the Stuff sweep the pitching categories, while Romo and Jansenn had three saves each. Aramis Ramirez was the best hitter by far. Dempster picked up a win for daebhid2, while Escobar and Craig secured a tie in steals.
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
SWAT* 27 6 26 3 .256 .702 3 4 39 2 2.03 1.13 10
YD33’s 18 6 22 3 .241 .679 2 3 22 0 5.68 1.54 0
Another pitching sweep saw SWAT shutout YD33s 10-0, as Harvey, Medlen and Beavan all picked up wins, while Johnson and Nathan had two saves each. Encarnacion homered three times, while Pence and Rutledge also had nice weeks offensively. Headley was YD33s best hitter by far, while Wilhelmsen had three saves.
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
Bonestalkers 19 3 17 5 .262 .700 1 0 12 0 5.23 1.40 1
tavira expats 33 11 24 2 .279 .901 5 0 46 3 3.28 1.07 10
The Expats were also big winners, thumping Bonestalkers 10-1. Reynolds homered four times, while David Murphy and Garrett Jones also had big weeks with the bat. The Texas duo of Holland and Darvish combined for three wins and 21 strikeouts. Aybar helped Bonestalkers take steals, while Soriano homered twice.
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
Boyd’s Base On Balls 26 3 18 3 .286 .744 2 0 33 1 6.15 1.51 2
NE Riverkings 33 4 26 7 .302 .801 4 3 27 0 3.48 1.09 10
The Riverkings hit double digits, defeating Base On Balls 10-2 with an offensive sweep. Carlos Gomez homered twice and stole four bases, while Butler, Markakis and Jackson were also in good form with the bat. Greinke, Haren, Arroyo and Hellickson all pitched well, while Motte and Clippard took care of saves. Verlander racked up 17 strikeouts for the Base On Balls, while O’Flaherty had the lone hold of the matchup.
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
Ridge Bolts 17 3 21 4 .237 .675 0 3 23 1 2.84 1.21 3
Pontypridd Pirates 21 5 17 1 .238 .656 0 2 31 0 6.67 1.58 9
The Bolts failed to reach the 20 inning minimum, costing them four categories and turning what would have been a win against the Pirates into a 9-3 defeat. Cano had a three homer week for the Pirates, while Hamilton went deep twice, but all five homers were solo shots. Sale racked up 12 strikeouts while League, filling in for Kenley Jansen, picked up a save. The Bolts had speed and slugging from Reyes and Freese, while Champman had three saves.
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
BD Yankees 23 10 33 1 .294 .886 0 2 23 5 6.75 1.42 3
Chatham Anglers 33 5 28 4 .340 .889 5 2 34 3 2.45 0.94 8
The Anglers hit an impressive .340 for the week in the 8-3 win against the Yankees, with Hunter, Ruggiano and Miguel Cabrera all red-hot at the plate. Santiago Casilla had two wins and a hold in relief, McDonald racled up 12 strikeouts and Gio Gonzalesz helped talke ERA and WHIP with his shutout. Alvarez and Harper gave the Yankees power, while Broxton and K-Rod combined for five holds.
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
Orpington Isotopes 36 5 25 6 .306 .818 7 2 52 4 3.75 1.27 7
The Cheddar Chasers 26 9 27 3 .260 .797 1 2 27 0 3.21 1.22 4
A huge week from Rickie Weeks (finally!) helped my Isotopes to a 7-4 win against the Chasers. Weeks scored 11 runs and stoles four bases, while Chris Carter homered twice. On the mound, Iwakuma won twice, while Thayer had three holds. Beltre and Crisp provided power for the Chasers, while Dickey and Shields helped take ERA and WHIP.
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
Beck ‘Nams (GB) 29 8 24 7 .260 .732 2 7 40 1 5.31 1.58 4
Richie’s RBI’s 36 6 32 5 .301 .831 3 3 40 0 4.03 1.39 7
The RBIs also recorded a 7-4 win against Beck ‘Nams. Colvin, Salvador Perez, Aoki and Moss all had big weeks offensively, while Hughes, Milone and Parnell all picked up wins. Beck ‘Nams had power from across the team, as seven different hitters went deep, while Pagan and Ellsbury helped take steals and the closing trio of Axford, Papelbon and Putz combined for seven saves.
R
HR
RBI
SB
AVG
OPS
W
SV
K
HLD
ERA
WHIP
Score
stevenston angels 22 8 24 4 .250 .750 3 2 29 1 2.65 0.91 6
Pretzel Vendors 24 8 23 3 .293 .893 1 6 26 4 4.03 1.38 5
Finally, the Angels used some good pitching to defeat the Vendors 6-5. Jackson, Cueto and Lee all picked up wins while posting stingy ERA and WHIP numbers, while Morales and Rollins helped take RBIs and steals. Hart, Rosario and Fowler had nice weeks offensively for the Vendors, while Greg Holland, Lopez, Kimbrel and Joel Peralta took acre of saves and holds.
The results mean SWAT and my Isotopes are safely into the championship playoffs, with the remaining three places to be decided this week. Iron Men, the RBIs and the Chasers are currently the teams in possession, but the Anglers, Vendors and Beck ‘Nams will be hoping to spring a late surprise.
The week 22 fixtures are as follows:
Iron Men (6th) v daebhid2 (20th)
RBIs (7th) v Yankees (16th)
Chasers (8th) v Bolts (14th)
Anglers (9th) v Bonestalkers (19th)
Vendors (10th) v Beck ‘Nams (11th)
Riverkings (1st) v Pirates (13th)
Stuff (2nd) v YD33s (17th)
Sox (3rd) v Base On Balls (12th)
Isotopes (4th) v Angels (15th)
SWAT (5th) v Expats (18th)

John W. Henry typing on two fronts

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John W. Henry is fighting – or, more accurately, typing – on two fronts right now.

Henry and Red Sox General Manager Ben Cherington have travelled to Seattle to meet up with their brow-beaten Boston club, setting off rumours – quickly denied by Henry by e-mail – that manager Bobby Valentine’s ill-fated tenure could be close to its end.

Whilst taking to his laptop or mobile device to answer reporter’s e-mails, Henry tapped out an open letter responding to the concerns created by Liverpool FC’s lack of transfer activity at the deadline and their 2-0 defeat by Arsenal on Sunday that condemned the team to their worst start to a season in 50 years (after three league games, that is).

No one ever said owning a sports team was easy and being part-owner of two of the most iconic makes you a lightning rod for criticism when things are not going well.

And it’s fair to say things definitely are not going well for either team.

Boston did at least receive a stroke of luck recently courtesy of the new ownership group in Los Angeles. A week ago I was pondering the Dodgers’ trade for Gonzalez, Crawford and Beckett, querying whether the Red Sox’s owners could be fortunate enough to find a willing partner to rid their English football team of a similarly burdensome contract or two.

QPR were the obvious free-spending match in terms of ownership bravado; however they didn’t play the Dodgers’ role and come to Liverpool’s rescue. Instead it was Big Sam Allardyce’s renowned love of a big man up front that won the day and saw Andy Carroll move to West Ham. Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing remain on Merseyside with their transfer fees being a running joke for the rest of us.

Player contracts and transactions work quite differently in baseball and football. The Red Sox were able to completely wash their hands of players who, fairly on them or not, had outstayed their welcome.  Although Liverpool were able to move Carroll’s £80k per week off the wage bill by loaning him to West Ham, that has only provided them with a temporary respite from their £35m mistake and the wage money saved plus the £1m or so loan fee in return doesn’t amount to much money to ‘invest’ in new talent.

Henry had the courage to write of “our own mistakes in a difficult first two years of ownership”, describing it as “a harsh education”.  The money spent by the team on British players can certainly be filed under the ‘mistake’ heading.

There is some value in ‘buying British’ and primarily the premium appears to be paid on the basis of the reduced level of risk against a foreign recruit being able to settle in the country and to perform well in the English game. However, considering the size of that premium, this isn’t exactly a market inefficiency that Liverpool has exploited.  There were no obvious sabermetrics, or soccernomics, principles being applied to Liverpool’s dealings.

Instead, from the outside it looked like Henry and his fellow owners took their ‘football newcomer’ tags to their hearts. Specific players were targeted by Damien Comolli, the former director of football, and Kenny Dalglish and the ownership group put their faith in their employees by backing them irrespective of the cost (presumably within some sort of overall budget limit).

In this respect, Andy Carroll perhaps can be seen as the equivalent of Carl Crawford.

John Henry made some surprisingly frank comments back in February in which he stated he was ‘personally opposed’ to the Crawford contract. He actually made some sound points on the Red Sox not needing additional left-handed hitters, but they got drowned out by the noise of the soundbite quote.

Similarly, Henry initially justified the Andy Carroll transfer price by describing it as a move in tandem with the sale of Fernando Torres, claiming that the price for Carroll was simply going to be £15m less than the price they received for Torres.  That sounds logical enough, yet things are rarely quite that simple. When you pay £35m for someone, you place an enormous amount of pressure and expectation on them. Had they only received £25m for Torres, the £10m Carroll might well have flourished at Anfield.

You could also bring Clint Dempsey into the equation. Henry’s statement in his open letter that “our ambitions do not lie in cementing a mid-table place with expensive, short-term quick fixes that will only contribute for a couple of years” has quickly been interpreted as a knock against the American, who signed with Spurs on Friday after Liverpool refused to pay Fulham’s asking price.

That interpretation is most likely correct, yet, as with Crawford, the media focus will be on the alleged ‘slight’ rather than a clear assessment of the situation, one in which they are learning from their mistakes and focusing on “getting maximum value for what is spent”.

Henry will be pilloried for his statement as that’s just how things work, sadly. Remain silent and you are criticised for being a Yank that ‘doesn’t understand football’ and isn’t taking a full interest in the club; make a statement and you’re criticised for being a Yank that ‘doesn’t understand football’ and is now interfering.

The suggestion that he and his fellow owners might be taking advice from “internet nerds who sit at laptops downloading football manager software” is also a depressingly inevitable reaction from such an insular sport that sadly seems to treat with suspicion anyone that flirts with having something vaguely intelligent to say about it (which is presumably why TV companies hire the likes of Robbie Fowler to appear as pundits and then see no problem at all in them merrily admitting, as Fowler did on ESPN this past Saturday in respect of Jack Rodwell, that they haven’t actually seen much of the respective player that they are providing their ‘expert’ opinions about).

Perhaps Henry and co. bought Liverpool in part so that if things weren’t going well with Boston they could at least focus on the positives on their other team, and vice versa.  If so, that plan hasn’t worked too well so far.

Not so much twice the joy, more double the trouble.

Nineteen MLB day-games this week

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Monday is Labor Day in the States. That means we have a bumper crop of 13 day-games that can be watched during the British evening to start the week, followed by a further six early games combined over Wednesday and Thursday.

 Monday’s games include an excellent match-up from the AL East as aces will collide at Tropicana Field in the form of CC Sabathia and James Shields. The Phillies are starting to show some decent form, so they should prove to be a tough opponent for the Cincinnati Reds and Johnny Cueto, who is looking for his National League leading 18th win of the season.

The two major series on the west coast see the Giants hosting the D-Backs and the A’s hosting the Angels.  Oakland had won nine games in a row heading into their game on Monday.

There should be some good pitchers on show in the early games on Wednesday. Roy Halladay is scheduled to start for the Phillies, R.A. Dickey and Adam Wainwright are matched against each other in St. Louis, Jake Peavy starts for the White Sox against the Twins and Dan Haren faces one of his former teams.

There are only five MLB games in total on Thursday, two starting before midnight U.K. time, with most three-game series running from Monday to Wednesday this week.

All times are in BST.

Monday 3 September

18.05. Cleveland at Detroit (Kluber – Sanchez)
18.05. Chicago Cubs at Washington (Samardzija – Detwiler)
18.07. Baltimore at Toronto (Saunders – Happ)
18.10. Colorado at Atlanta (Chatwood – Medlen)
18.10. Philadelphia at Cincinnati (Cloyd – Cueto) *ESPN America
18.10. Milwaukee at Miami (Fiers – Nolasco)
18.10. NY Yankees at Tampa Bay (Sabathia – Shields)
18.35. Houston at Pittsburgh (Gonzalez – Locke)
19.10. Texas at Kansas City (Darvish – Chen)
19.15. NY Mets at St. Louis (McHugh – Kelly)
21.05. LA Angels at Oakland (Wilson – Milone)
21.05. Arizona at San Francisco (Corbin – Zito)
21.10. Boston at Seattle (Buchholz – Vargas)

Tuesday 4 September

No early games

Wednesday 5 September

17.35. Philadelphia at Cincinnati (Halladay vs Leake)
18.45. NY Mets at St. Louis (Dickey – Wainwright) *ESPN America
19.10. Minnesota at Chicago White Sox (Walters – Peavy)
20.35. LA Angels at Oakland (Haren – McCarthy)

Thursday 6 September

17.10. Colorado at Atlanta (Chacin – Hudson) *ESPN America
17.40. Milwaukee at Miami (Estrada – Johnson)

Friday 7 September

No early games.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  The early games being shown on ESPN America are highlighted above, while the full ESPN/ESPN America schedule can be found on their website.  BBC 5 Live Sports Extra can be found on digital radio, digital TV and on the BBC.co.uk website (coverage on the website is only available to UK residents). The complete schedule for this week’s MLB games can be found on MLB.com.

Lots of MLB games to enjoy on Sunday evening

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If you wanted an example to show that anything is possible on any given day in MLB, yesterday’s game between the Houston Astros and Cincinnati Reds was perfect for you.

The Astros have been awful this season and went into their game against the NL Central-leading Reds trailing their opponents by a staggering 39.5 games in the standings.

The Reds took the series opener 9-3 on Friday and yesterday, with Homer Bailey pitching brilliantly, you would have expected the Reds to come out on top yet again.

However, Brandon Phillips was ejected in the top of the eighth inning due to getting into an argument with the home plate umpire, resulting in Wilson Valdez taking Phillips’ place at second base. With the score tied at 1-1 and two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, Houston’s Jose Altuve hit a routine groundball to Valdez which should have led to a put-out and the game heading into extra innings.

Instead, the ball scuttled through Valdez’s legs allowing Matt Downs to score the winning run in a 2-1 victory for Houston.

The standings do not lie: the Reds are a vastly superior team to the Astros this season. Yet with a good pitching performance (courtesy of Lucas Harrell) and a bit of luck, it’s still possible in baseball for the lesser team to find a way to win every now and then.

It’s not likely you’ll see another team win on a walk-off nutmeg in today’s games, but anything is possible in this sport.

All times are in BST.

18.05. Texas at Cleveland (Holland – McAllister)
18.05. Baltimore at NY Yankees (Tillman – Hughes) *ESPN America
18.07. Tampa Bay at Toronto (Price – Romero)
18.10. NY Mets at Miami (Young – Buehrle)
18.35. St. Louis at Washington (Westbrook – Strasburg)
19.05. Cincinnati at Houston (Arroyo – Norris)
19.10. Minnesota at Kansas City (Vasquez – Mendoza)
19.10. Pittsburgh at Milwaukee (McDonald – Gallardo)
19.20. San Francisco at Chicago Cubs (Cain – Wood)
20.10. San Diego at Colorado (Kelly – Francis)
21.05. Boston at Oakland (Matsuzaka – Anderson)
21.10. LA Angels at Seattle (Weaver – Iwakuma)
21.10. Arizona at LA Dodgers (Miley – Capuano)
22.05. Philadelphia at Atlanta (Hamels – Maholm)

01.00. Chicago White Sox at Detroit (Sale – Verlander) *ESPN America

The Orioles-Yankees series has lived up to its billing so far and we go into the finale of the three-game series today with it all squared up at 1-1.

The Cardinals won a wild one yesterday 10-9 to give them a shot at securing a creditable four-game series split in Washington today, although Stephen Strasburg will be intent on spoiling that bid in one of his few remaining starts before the Nationals shut him down for the season.

The Pirates need to start winning games in bunches and they were dealt a blow yesterday as Corey Hart hit a walk-off home run to make it two loses in a row at the hands of the Brewers.  James McDonald is on the mound for the Buccos today trying to rescue a win from the series before they begin a six-game homestand against the Astros and Cubs.

The ESPN Sunday Night Game looks set to be a cracker between the White Sox and Tigers.  Detroit has taken the first two games of the series to close to within one game of Chicago and they can draw level at the top of the AL Central with a victory today.  With Chris Sale and Justin Verlander on the mound, you couldn’t ask for a better pitching match-up to close out the day’s schedule of games.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com.  The games being shown on ESPN America are highlighted above. 

September baseball arrives

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The calendar has flipped to September, the month where MLB teams battle to determine their fate: the start of a long winter or the beginning of a playoff run.

That’s the theory anyway.  The regular season now actually extends a few days into October and, in the new postseason format starting this year, that resultant playoff run may consist of a single game.

But let’s put those little details to one side and stick with the original premise. September is the month where all of the hard work put in so far either comes to fruition or turns to heartbreak.

And that makes games in September all the more exciting. These are the games you can follow live during the British evening, with all times in BST.

18.05. Baltimore at NY Yankees (Chen – Phelps)
18.05. San Francisco at Chicago Cubs (Lincecum – Germano)
18.07. Tampa Bay at Toronto (Niemann – Alvarez) *MLB.com Free Game of the Day

21.05. LA Angels at Seattle (Santana – Hernandez)
21.05. Philadelphia at Atlanta (Lee – Hudson)
21.05. St. Louis at Washington (Lohse – Zimmermann)
21.10. Minnesota at Kansas City (De Vries – Smith)

There are plenty of good-looking series this weekend, but for many a neutral the one that stands out the most is from the top of the AL East where the Orioles continue to defy their detractors. Miguel Gonzalez is an unlikely hero but he played the role well yesterday, shutting out the Yankees over seven innings as Baltimore took the series opener 6-1. Wei-Yin Chen has proved to be a solid free agent pick-up for Baltimore this season and the Taiwanese pitcher makes arguably his most important start so far in his MLB career today.

In the other two games starting just after 6 o’clock U.K. time, the two playoff place contenders – the Giants and Rays – both took a defeat yesterday and will look to bounce back today.

As for the 9 o’clock starts, the Cardinals’ bats need to come back to life quickly and today would be a good day for a re-birth after the Nationals took the series opener 10-0 yesterday thanks to a complete game shut-out by Gio Gonzalez.

The Phillies are entering their first September for a while in which they haven’t been active players in the playoff race; however they can still make an impact by being a spoiler and that’s what they did yesterday to the Braves with a come-from-behind extra inning victory.

In the American League, the King’s Court will be in session at Safeco Field as Felix Hernandez faces the L.A. Angels, while a rain-out yesterday means the Twins and Royals will play a double-header today.

All of these games are available to watch live via the MLB.TV subscription at MLB.com. There are no MLB games on ESPN America today as the channel focuses on college football instead. The full schedule for today’s games can be found on MLB.com.