It's been a long and frustrating season and I'm glad to see this one come to end. It didn't end with a slow burn but rather with a bang. I was in three finals and one heated race for second place. I came out on top once. One out of four ain't bad, but it sure is disappointing.
The Rentals steamrolled through the playoffs in Yahoo Winner 288574 and defeated Polish Piper 6 -2. It was an unexciting victory. I led this league all year long and was never down to Piper at any point during our two week playoff. Also, this was the league I cared LEAST about. But I won it. Yippee.
My Cubby Bears in ESPN lost a real nail-biter. I was down by a large margin to Rocky Hardman all throughout our two week final, but I pulled dead even with him on a couple of days in the final week. When the dust cleared, he was the winner by a 6 - 4 margin. I have to say that had he not picked up Odalis Perez on Sunday morning and gotten the 5 Ks he provided, I would have won the strikeout column. That would have put us at a 5 - 5 tie, and because I was leading in ERA, the tiebreaking category, the win would've gone to me. Unfortunately, in ESPN, you can pick up and drop players instantly, which is more realistic, but a little annoying. Had I chosen to do the same and pick up a pitcher or two on the last day to pad my stats, maybe the story would be different... but I believe that to be a cheap tactic (which I will discuss later, boy will I ever) so I did not do it. I really wanted to win this league, but I will not begrudge him the victory. It was hard fought. He led through the entire matchup. It was a miracle that my team fough back to contend and he probably should've won. Bastard.
The Shams floundered right to the end. After leading NL Only for pretty much the entire season, I slipped into a battle for first place for about a month and then, with about three weeks remaining, fell into a struggle for 4th. I lost said struggle and ended up finishing 5th. This was a major disappointment. After drafting what I thought to be a shitty team (I'm never drafting Bill Hall again, ever), I was in second place for the first few weeks and then shot up to first, holding almost a 20 point lead at one point. I had a stranglehold on this league until about midway through August when I began to be challenged by Medfield Monarchs. My team slowly but surely got worser and worser and the result is what you see here. Oh well. I hate roto. Fuck it.
And now here's the kicker. I had the chance to win it all in Yahoo Public 198023. My beloved Let's Pet Puppies were down 6 -4 going into the final day and I had the lead in ERA. All I needed was to tie MADDSKILLZ in one category and victory would be mine. Much like the NL Only league, I dominated this league all. year. long. As a matter of fact, out of 22 weeks of regular season matchups, I only had 5 losses and 2 ties. I dominated. MADDSKILLZ did not slip in any of his categories and I couldn't put up the numbers to catch him in a category, so I lost. But what made the loss really insulting is that he felt he needed to CHEAT to assure the victory. This asshole engaged in a practice we call "streaming" which is adding probable pitchers for only the day they are scheduled to pitch in order to pad your pitching stats. This douchebag added SEVEN starting pitchers to his lineup for the final day. They gave him an additional 3 wins and 31 Ks. Now, as I said, I wouldn't have caught him in Ks or wins anyway, but it made me so angry that he thought he had to resort to cheating in order to beat me that I was just as pissed as if it had actually mattered in deciding the outcome. Boys and girls: do not stream. It's fucking lame. Man up and play with some ethics. Maybe I'm asking too much, but I would never engage in this kind of activity.
And that brings the 2008 Fantasy Baseball season to a close. I'm glad to see it go, and I'm ready to get some serious fucking revenge next year. Game on, bitches.
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Fantasy Baseball 2008 MVP
Nate McLouthDuh. McLouth was the surprise of the season and I had him on my teams early. He delivered solid production in every category throughout the year. Here's hoping the Pirates don't give the evil Yankees their wish and trade him over. Way to go Nate!
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