The draft is tonight. Erik has the first pick. Who's he gonna pick?

Here's the 2006 draft results from April 1.

Erik Khans
1) Alex Rodriguez, SS
2) Albert Pujols, 1B
3) Vladimir Guerrero, OF
4) Manny Ramirez, OF
5) Chase Utley, 2B
6) Andruw Jones, OF
7) Miguel Tejada, SS
8) David Wright, 3B
9) Ken Griffey Jr, OF
10) Felipe Lopez, SS
11) Derek Lee, 1B
12) Amaris Ramirez, 3B
13) Javier Valetin, C
14) Carlos Beltran, OF
15) Pat Burrell, OF
16) Jorge Cantu, 2B

Matt's Mighty Mashers
1) Victor Martinez, C
2) Mark Teixeira, 1B
3) Miguel Cabrera, 3B/OF
4) Jason Bay, OF
5) Michael Young, SS
6) Hideki Matsui, OF
7) Todd Helton, 1B
8) Gary Sheffield, OF
9) Chone Figgins, 2B/3B
10) Adam Dunn, 1B
11) Bobby Abreau, OF
12) Vernon Wells, OF
13) Carlos Lee, OF
14) Alfonso Soriano, 2B
15) Raul Ibanez, OF
16) Eric Chavez, 3B

To see who had a better draft, let's take the starting lineup and look at the points each player got from last year (2005) and their 2006 projected stats.

Khans
2005 2006 Player, Pos
293 283 Javier Valentin, C
912 843 Albert Pujols, 1B
731 680 Chase Utley, 2B
767 735 Miguel Tejada, SS
923 801 Alex Rodriguez, 3B
735 732 Vladimir Guerrero, OF
828 725 Manny Ramirez, OF
735 622 Pat Burrell, OF
5924 5420

Mighty Maulers
2005 2006 Player, Pos
642 595 Victor Martinez, C
896 857 Mark Teixeira, 1B
720 612 Chone Figgins, 2B
830 777 Michael Young, SS
829 743 Miguel Cabrera, 3B
844 755 Jason Bay, LF
791 711 Hideki Matsui, LF
751 689 Adam Dunn, LF
6303 5738

The Maulers have the Khans beat based on 2005 stats by 379 points. And based on 2006 projections, the Maulers are projected to win by 318 points.

However, this is based on the Khans catcher performing way below the league standard for catchers. A decent catcher should rack up 500 points in one year. So let's figure in a 500-point catcher for the Khans in 2005 and 2006. The scores will now be:
last year 2005: Maulers win by 172 points
projected 2006: Maulers win by 101 points

The 172/101 alot better than last season where the Maulers had an advantage of 347/310 (2004/2005).

Here's all the 2005/2006 stats in a nice bar graph.
http://www.spudart.org/blog/images/2006/2006-starting-lineup-project.jpg
It really looks like the catcher position is the one that is going to make a difference this year. Everything else is pretty even across the boards.

day one
albert pujols
two homers, four rbis, two walks

mark teixeira
one single, zero rbis, zero runs, zero wallks

how's your projection of teixeria doing better than pujols doing?

i screwed up and didn't start my #3 outfielder, vlad guerrero. he hit a homer today too. that was purely an accident.

oh by the way, i JUST watched arod hit a GRANDSLAM!

The Khans may have started the season with the best ever point total with 79 points against the Maulers decent 35, but the second day the Mashers got an impressive 49 points versus the Khans wimpy 22.

The Khans totally wimped out on the second day after their tirade on the first day. Did they get too tired?

Summary:
Day One:
79 Khans
35 Mashers

Day Two:
22 Khans
49 Mashers

Looks like this might be an interesting year
The Mashers scored 52 to the Khans 45 yesterday bringing the Mashers to withing just THREE POINTS of the Khans. 178-175.

LEAD CHANGE: With yesterday's win 32-24, the Mashers are now in the lead! 207-202!!!

Decided to drop Griffey, eh? I thought he was gonna be your big sleeper pick in the draft.

LEAD CHANGE: The Khans won yesterday 33-13 and now pull into a six-point lead 299-293.

You picked up Detroit's 1B Chris Shelton? Like what? You are gonna play him over Pujols?

pujols isn't doing to well. shelton is on fire. 12 for 24. that's incredible.

Everytime I hear the name Shelton, I think of the WWE wrestler Shelton Benjamin.

What is up with your pick up of Bill Meuller?

Wow Shelton Benjamin is leading the majors in homeruns.

I wonder which brand of steroids he's using

lemon-flavored

look for jimmy rollins to have a big weekend. He's been one of the hottest shortshops in the last week and now he gets to play in Coors Field this weekend. KABOOOM!

Mmmmmm .... lemon ....

You pick up Reggie Sanders and drop Chase Utley. Then moments later you drop Reggie Sanders and pick Chase Utley up again. Make up your mind. Here, I will make it up for you. Both of them suck. Just drop both.

back in the lead... ah.... now that pujols is finally hitting you be in big trouble.

LEAD CHANGE:
Khans: 583
Mashers: 567

Pujols has nine hits in the past seven days. wooo. i'm shaking. look at me shaking! woooooo! Although five of those hits are HR, so that is pretty nice. Now how about Adam Dunn. Six hits in the past week and every single one is a homerun. Can you say suh-wingin for the fences!?

morgan ensberg hit two homers today!

I have FIVE thirdbasemen on my team:

1. Morgan Ensberg
2. David Wright
3. arod
4. Aramis Ramirez
5. Bill Mueller

Mueller is a 2B/3B. I'm starting him at second today.

I can't believe you have FIVE third basemen when you already have arod. That's like having the world's coolest car and then trying to stuff four other cars along with it in a two-car garage.

You have an obession with third basemen. You should see a doctor. It would get worse and spread. Your acute case of 3bitis could spread and you'll end up with nine 3B and one player at every other position. You are already over half way there.

Treat yourself before it gets worse!

LEAD CHANGE:
Mashers: 627
Khans: 622

Mashers stomped out 60 points yesterday
Victor Martinez 15 points. Bam!
Miguel Cabrera 10 points. Bam!
Jason Bay 16 points. Bam!

Too bad I didn't start Carlos Lee 21 points!

what the freak? DLee breaks his wrist on Wednesday. The news comes in Thursday that he is out at least six weeks. Today is Friday and I don't see a "DL" next to his name.

ha! Deelee out! And i just picked up the hot Prince Fielder too, you can't have him! Watch he'll be the next Poolhose.

ALLLLLFFFFFOOOOONNNNSSSSSOOOO SSSSOOOORRRRIIIIIIAAAANNNOOOOO! Three homeruns and a double yesterday for 25 points. Mashers 71 points one day.

and that was soriano at home in washington. maybe he'll end up to like playing there.

The three hottest guys on my team are the three positions that typically perform the worst. C (V. Martinez), 2B (Soriano), SS (M. Young).

finally dlee is on the DL. he broke his wrist on wednesday. the news comes in thursday that he's out for at least six weeks. and he doesn't get placed on the DL until SUNDAY! The cubs are the worst sports franchise when it comes to reporting injuries.

we have a problem. i can't put dlee on the DL. There is a red "DL" next to his name, but it won't let me put him on the DL so I can pick up another player. I went to Monday's roster to see if it requires 24 hours before you can put a player on the DL and it is doing the same thing.

I think it's a setting the Commissioner's Settings. Can you please look at this?

I am putting Todd Helton on the DL.

I went into the commissioner settings and the DL problem is one that cannot be changed at this point in the season. bummer. So we'll have to do it manually. Go ahead and drop Derek Lee, but drop a note on our discussion board here and say that you are putting Derek Lee on the "DL." and i won't pick him up.

The thing that sucks about this is that we dont' have a quick and easy way to see when the player gets back and playing again. But we'll have to do it by honor system, if I know Derek Lee is off the DL, i will tell you. At that point, you will have to decide to either put him back on your roster or to really drop him and make him available.

I'm going to do that now with Todd Helton. So i'll drop him, but you can't pick him up.

the last two days the Khans have outscored the Mashies. Do I sit and relax and ride it out?

NO, SIR! I cleaned the clubhouse with a record 5 transactions in one day.

Please welcome Craig Biggio, Brandon Phillips, Damian Miller, Carlos Delgado and Luis Gonzalez who combined for 58 hits in the last week. That's 11.6 hits per player for the last week.

Here is my analysis of your pickups. Old dud, who?, dud, ok, ancient dud. 58 hits last week. Your team is SOO last week.

you're just jealous that you didn't get Delgado. I know it. Just watch. He will go on a 2005-derrek-lee-like tear.

Delgado always seems like he has the potential to live up to those expectations, but the dude is gonna be 33 years old in june. He was a great player in the late 90's to 2000. And then he didn'tquite play so high after that. He had one more stellar year in 2003, so that gave everyone hope. But this is now 2006.

But I do have to hand it to him for ranking high in HBP. Since 1999, he's been in the top six every year with leading the league in HBP in 2000.

Here's an interesting tidbit. When Delgado played for the Blue Jays and the Marlins, he refused to stand on the field for the "God Bless America."
read more about it here:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2239461
Did this make big news when it happened? I'm surprised I never heard of this.

yea, i remember that. he was protesting the war. he was smart. He knew that Bush had bad intentions for invading Iraq. "war on terror", etc.

delgado is welcome in the Khans clubhouse anytime (provided he is hitting the cover off the ball)

who's gonna pick up bonds? he got three HR in the past five days

If we got someone to play in our league next year, we would have to figure out which team to drop. The Tator Tots or the Performas. I would have a hard time choosing.

i'd drop the tater tots. drop em like their hot. drop em like their hot. if the tater tot's got an attitude, drop em like their hot, drop em like their hot.

ooooooohhhh. magglio ordonez. i'm scared. mr. consistency. he will pound my team to death by scoring 3 points every day. oh no. i am fearful.

Oh the ridicule! I cannot stand it. I just dropped Ordonez for Pat Burrell.

Say, the Tator Tots beat us both yesterday:
Tots: 48
Mashers: 38
Khans: 24
Now THAT is embarrassing.

My starting roster walked 13 times yesterday. 13. This stinks. What's up with pitchers walking all the hot players lately?

miller: 1
pujols: 5
phillips: 3
arod: 2
tejada: 1
berkman: 1
hawpe: 2
ramirez: 0

pujols walked 4 times, not 5. he managed to score a run on one of those walks to make his point total for the day 5. whoop-dee-do. I have the best player in baseball and all he does is walk all day.

My top two drafted outfielders are sucking it up.
Jason Bay: 4 hits in the past week
Miguel Cabrera: 4 hits in the past week

both those players are on terrible, terrible teams. They aren't seeing many pitches to hit. Plus they won't score many runs and won't drive in many runs because they are on terrible, terrible teams

i want j. willingham on FLA. Can you please drop him from the Tater Tots?

j willingham fla tot has been dropped like a tot into the toilet.

i'm doing terrible on the bts game. My best streak is 2 games. And i only did that once! how bad is that! It's May 5th already. I'll be lucky if i can string together a 4 game streak before the all-star break. whoa, cowboy. calm down. Let's get to a three game streak first before even thinking about 4. goodness.

stretch.

whoa. let's keep all the Beat the Streak talk to the page dedicated to Beat the Streak at: http://www.spudart.org/blogs/randomthoughts_comments/3545_0_3_0_C/

thanks for baking those tater tots so fast.
Josh Willingham is a Khan now.

I HEREBY DELCARE, ON MAY 5TH 2THOUSAND6, THAT JOSH WILLINGHAM WILL FOREVER BE KNOWN AS A KHAN.

stretch

I don't understand how you have not caught to me yet. You have the top four players with the most points in the past week.

Josh Willingham is forever meant to be a tator tot. Much like a tator tot, he is hot out of the oven. But he will soon cool down to be a cold tot once again--maybe even going back to the freezer WHERE HE BELONGS.

uh. willingham is batting 326 for the year. sounds like a khan to me.

stretch

yea, i'm bee-wildered by my team's lack-luster performance. I have the four hottest players in baseball and my teams scores 14 points. those 4 players are johnny damon, bill hall, shea hillenbrand, and lance berkman. Granted i didn't start damon yesterday and he rips out 15 or so points. berkman was decent with 8, but the other two bozos did nothing.

that's ok. willingham will turn things around for the khans.

stretch

perhaps my team is just really consistent. Yours sounds pretty sporadic. Super hot players, but then also cold players.

cold players like what willingham will become. A COLD TOT.

i see you added shawn green. i can't stand that guy. I have picked him up at least 8 times in the history of our league. Every single time he went ice cold when putting on a khan uni.

that's part of the trick to this league. You'll see guys go on nice hot streaks. It's a matter of getting those guys in the middle or beginning of their hot streak, not at the end or after their hot streak. If I had to name one player that has burned me the most with going ice cold after a hot streak, it would have to be shawn green.

good luck with mr. ice.

stretch. ( you like how i'm adding "stretch" to end of my posts? iz coo)

stretch

i made 33 transactions for the month of April. And April wasn't even a full month. They started the season on what? the 4th? I wonder what the record number of transactions is. 33 seems pretty high. I'm going to say that 33 transactions is the record.

I'm not going to end this email with "stretch". It's getting old.

Let's compare the number of transactions this month with last year.

Last year the Mashers had 174, Khans 76.
With 181 days in the season, that's 0.96 transactions/day for the Mashers and 0.42 for the Khans.

This month had 27 days. The Khans had 33 transactions. That 1.22 per day. You are on pace to have 221 transactions. That's pretty cool. Try to top 200 this year.

Here's how I got 174 last year. I dropped and picked up a catcher like every other day--just like the fate of of wellingham or whatever his name is.

matsui? that's the best player you can pick up? I bet you're wishing you picked up beltran. he's hit three homers in the last three days. i have the three hottest players in utley, beltran, and glaus.

btw, wellingham hit a homer on saturday. atta boy, wellie!

HOLD THE PHONE. Glaus is now hot? I just dropped him days ago. Glaus? You mean TROY Glaus, right?

Matsui. He rocks. Easilly the 4th best outfielder in baseball.

Beltran is weird. I don't know why. He just seems odd. Much like how Johnny Damon is odd.

Here's a suggestion to keep the league interesting though the year. If a team is getting beat by 100 points (let's call that team, the Khans), the Khans can trade for any player on the Mashers.

Of course, this is too dramatic. The Khans can pick any player on the Mashers, but the Mashers can pick any player on the Khans that is not on the Khans protected list.

The Khans can select 8 players to put on their protected list. The Mashers would be able to select outside that 8 player list.

Yeah, this messes with the legacy of the league. But who really cares about that? We don't have exact point totals from most the years anyways. Besides, i'd rather have the league be fun all year long. I don't want either of us to get blown out. It would make for some interesting trades too.

What do you think?

And oh, this would keep happening for every 100 point total. So let's say that one team gets behind 100 points. The trade occurs. Then the team gets behind by 200 points, another trade occurs. The team gets behind by 300 points, another trade occurs. It would make for some really interesting things to happen.

It pretty much guarantees that a team will not get blown out by over 300 points.

On another note, you make fun of me for picking up Matsui! Look who you picked up! Ordonez! Yeah, if i ever get behind by 100 points, I know that I'm gonna take Ordonez away from you.


NOT.

i'm sick of this. i start the redhot players and they put up squat. screw hillenbrand. screw glaus. screw ordonez. And my megasuper stars have been ice cold. now pujols, giambi, and ramirez put up monster numbers last night.

14 points yesterday for me. 7 for you. there were like 50 rain delays yesterday. i don't understand why the sox angels game was called hours before it started. It was just drizzling in elmhurst the whole night. wusses.

hear about matsui? 3 months out with broken wrist. he had like a 500 games played streak going and he had played like 15 million consectutive games in Japan. I kinda feel sorry for the old yank.

Thanks for the heads up on Matsui, i'm putting him on my DL.

That's one of the things make consecutive streaks so amazing--having no injuries. So it was his time to finally have an injury. Then again, the way he was hitting he might as well have gone up there swining with one hand-a la whiffleball style.

bonds swings one-handed in batting practice sometimes. it's true. i'm not joking.

matsui broke his wrist doing a shoestring catch. I wish i could see the replay on that.

i also heard that aaron rowand broke his nose running into the wall making a catch with the bases loaded. Now, there's a clip i want to see. I can't stand aaron rowand. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's cuz he has no shoulders. or maybe it's cuz he was your prototypical moron sox player. I need to change my opinion on him though. You gotta love a guy who breaks his nose running into the wall making a catch. He's earning his salary unlike players like Jock Jones who doesn't know fundamental baseball.

so you're not on IM anymore, mr. busypants.

I just picked up Jock Jones for kicks.

I can't believe you picked up Matt Holliday. I just had him in my queue this morning to add, but when I clicked "submit," Yahoo told me he was an another team.

WE HAVE A NEW TEAM IN FIRST PLACE!
WE HAVE A NEW TEAM IN FIRST PLACE!
WE HAVE A NEW TEAM IN FIRST PLACE!

KHANS: 1436
MASHERS: 1435

LEAD CHANGE: With yesterday's win 58-21 the Khans are now in the lead. 1436-1435

you're 100 point trade sounds good. Though I would say that the person who is behind has the option of whether or not they want to trade. The person in the lead will have no option.

Picking up Nomar Garciaparra was my 50th transaction of the year.

The lead is now 20 points. Better start planning on who you want on my team once the lead gets to 100 points.

I don't know if like this idea. I figured out my 8 guys i would protect. There are 7 guys that are currently locks for the season. That leaves me with one hot player to protect. Eh. we could try it once and see what happens. This may be a year where no one gets a 100 point lead anyway.

I think you misunderstood the 100 point trade. Let's say the Mashers are the team behind by 100 points. The Mashers get to pick any player on the Khans.

Now the Khans don't get to pick just any player on the Mashers. That would be pointless and not help the 100-point behind team. The Mashers get to protect 8 players. The Khans get to pick any Masher player outside of that eight.

what a minute. if i'm leading by 100 points. You can take ANY player on my team? And you get to protect 8 players? no way. no way. no way.

I happen to have the four hottest shortstops in baseball right now:

garciaparra, furcal, tejada, and freddie lopez.

They have 42 hits in the latest week between them and 8 homers. the nice thing is that garciaparra can play third and lopez can play second. so i have 3 starting shortstops in my lineup.

and no poo lil' derek jeter to be found. poo lil' thin

If I get behind by 100 points, I want to take all four of your shortstops.

I'm catching up! With my 39-23 win yesterday, I am within 4 points of you! 1530-1526.

ah nuts. I have 5, count 'em, FIVE starters in the Dodgers Rockies game. That's over half my lineup. And guess what. The score is 1-0 in the 7th. Looks like my 4 point lead is going to disappear.

LEAD CHANGE: Thank in part to the Alfsono Soriano homerun we witnessed yesterday at Wrigley Field in person, the Mashers won 33-21 changing the lead to 1575-1567

LEAD CHANGE: The Khans won yesterday 46-28 making them the new leaders overall with 1613-1603

Look at who just snook onto the Khans: lifetime Masher, Bobby Abreu. He just so happens to be the best player in baseball the last week. Actually I think Abreu started his Maldre League Baseballl career as a Khan. Welcome back, Bobby. Now just hit some more homers, will ya?

Abreau. He's washed up. Yeah, two homeruns in the second half last year. Good luck with him. He WAS a great ballplayer. Not anymore.

Speaking of washed up ballplayers, Griffey has eight hits the past week. How come he's not a Khan?

Yesterday's homerun by Abreau was his first since April 19. He almost went an entire month without hitting a homerun. Actually, look at his career stats. He never hit more than 31 homeruns in one season.

washed up players? if i wanted a washed up player, i'd pick up todd helton. oh wait. he's been on your roster the whole season.

yesterday's point totals:
Khans: 61
Mashers: 52

That has to be one of our highest point totals combined ever for one day:

113

You picked up Carl Crawford and Nomar Garciasucko? Thanks for pratically handing the lead over to me.

ok, mr. ken griffey junior.

Oh i'm so embarrassed by that comment. So I decided to drop Griffey and pick Corey Patterson.

while you're at it, word is coming from Dusty Baker that newly acquired Tony Womack is going to save the Cubs this year. You might want to pick up Dusty's new favorite player.

between us, we have the 13 hottest players in baseball for the last week. that's pretty unusual. Usually there's a few oddball players in the mix. Though you did pick up C. Granderson. whoever he is.

oh wait. the totts have k. youkillis. So it's the top 12 of 13.

Yesterday, May 29, we both eclipsed the 2000 point mark. I wonder what date we got to 2000 in past years.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

that's the sound of me pulling away with the lead

see. it's the greater than symbol AND it looks like tire tracks. Maybe that will be my new signature for this blog post

i'm contemplating offering you a trade: Vlad Guerrero for V. martinez and Soriano

39 transactions for the month of May for the Khans. new record.

if i wudda known i was up to 39, i would have made one more move to hit 40. There's always June.

That's a pretty funny trade offer. Vlad Guerrero for V. martinez AND Soriano. So far this season Gurerrero has the 12th most points for outfielders. Ok. Not too bad. Respectable for an aging ballplayer. Now let's look at Soriano. He has the 2nd most points for outfielders. So you want me to trade the 2nd best OF for the 12th best OF. Then you want me to toss in one of the best catchers on top of that? And on top of that Soriano can also play 2B.

You've been too busy making road tracks emoticons.

Also, you know better than to say that a mere 27 point lead is running away with the lead. 27 points? Thank you, because now you just jinxed yourself.

or did you just double jinx yourself because you just said i jinxed myself. ha! you're in trouble now.

has soriano been that good? i honestly haven't checked. I was originally thinking v.martinez for guerrero, and i just threw soriano in there. they totally shouldn't list soriano at a secondbaseman. has he played one game at second this year?

would you consider vlad for victor? The V trade.

That is much more reasonable trade. Especially since Victor has been so cold recently. Seven hits in the past 21 games. That's 7 for 56. But looking at his stats from 2005, he was a poor hitter in April and May, but in June he turned it ON.

But given that this game is a game of advantages, Vlad doesn't really give me much advantage over you in the OF position. In fact, he would probably be a bench hog. While Victor has the chance to let me gain 100 or so points on you for the year at catcher.

So my NUMBER ONE draft pick stays a Masher.

you don't want Vlad for Victor? oooooooook.

what's going on with my team?

arod: out since friday with "stomach ailments"

giambi: out since saturday with "stomach virus"

pujols: out for several weeks with oblique injury (happened saturday. can you say "steroids"?)

manny: in and out with back and knee problems

and last but not least: carl crawford out since friday with knee problem. He injured his knee AFTER he slid into home. He was so upset that he was called out that he jumped up and down like a little baby and threw his helmet down which bounced and hit his knee. GREAT.

I don't like how Yahoo's Fantasy Baseball page doesn't list how many games are left. They did that in years past. http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1
Now they just list what week it is. We are now in week 10 of 25. But that makes it inaccurate to project our points and transactions for the year.

i was double checking my team and i have three phillies starting tonight: howard, utley and abreu. earlier in the season i started three dodgers at once and they all tanked. hmph. howard, utley and abreu have been pretty hot in the last week.

To keep track of high scores, I'm gonna start posting anything over 60 here with the format of this:

HIGH SCORE: 67 mashers wed 6/14

Check out the top four players with the most points on the season:
http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/316783/players?status=ALL&pos=B&cut_type=33&stat1=S_S_2006&sort=PTS
D. Wright 432
G. Sizemore 421
J. Reyes 417
M. Holliday 415

Whodda thunk it?

It's also weird to see Raul Ibanez 14th on the list with 396 points. That makes him the 11th best outfielder.

HIGH SCORE: 69 khans wed 6/29

I made my 100th transaction today. I dropped Aramis Ramirez and picked up Geoff Jenkins. I didn't realize Geoff was my 100th transaction. How cool is that!

I wanted to dump Aramis cuz he's just plain bad and there's no available players out there that i would start so i picked up geoff as a lucky charm.

Plus considering I would not pick up aram now, cuz I have three--count 'em--three rockin third basemen. Wright Rolen Cabrera.

LEAD CHANGE:
7/1
khans: 3211
mashers: 3205

HIGH SCORE:
7/1
khans: 62 points

looks like Geoff Jenkins IS a good luck charm. It took me only two days to get the lead once i picked him up as a lucky charm

i only had 28 transactions in june.
april:33
may:37
june:23
total through june: 100

pick up your transaction pace there. you gotta get 200. Here's some advice, drop pujols.

yesterday was the half way point of the season. an donly 6 points seperated the khans and the mashers. that's less than 1/5 of a percentage point. (0.018)

200 transactions. yea, i'm not sure if i'm gonna get there. july and august we tend to hang onto our players more in hopes of them getting hot. though september we purge our superstar roster for the hot no-namers. we'll see.

that pujols suggestion is a good idea. who needs the best hitter in baseball. apparently the mashers don't need him. he'd rather have the mighty victor martinez. oooh. that was cold, but not as cold as victor's bad. ohhh! another zinger. oh wait. another zinger indeed. pujols hit another homer last night.

i meant to say "victor's bat", not "victor's bad". though "bad" is an easy word to associate with victor.

HIGH SCORE:
75
khans
7/2

75. ouch! you are killin me. stop it! You are making Victor Martinez very mad.

I am one point behind! 3384-3383 The percentage difference on that is: 0.000295% That's less than one percent
That's less than one-tenth of a percent
That's less than one-hundredth of a percent
That's less than one-thousandth of a percent!

yea, pretty crazy stuff. This has to be our closest race ever. We're less that a week away from the all-star game and one point seperates us.

I'm glad that we don't account for defense in our league: "C Victor Martinez was unable to throw out any baserunners Wednesday, July 5, as the New York Yankees took advantage of his shortcomings in that department to swipe six bases. It was the third time this year the club had allowed an opposing team to steal six bases in a contest. Martinez fell to 7.5 percent (5-for-66) in throwing out attempted base stealers."

FIVE FOR SIXTY-SIX! MAN HE SUX.

Wow. A few days ago when I was one point behind you, I thought, "surely when the all-star break comes we are gonna have a bigger lead. But man.

It's the all-star break and just one point separates us.
Khans 3540
Mighty Mashers 3539

The first day of games after the All-Star break, Thursday July 13: Khans 33 Maulers 33. Still a one point lead!

The second day of games after ther All-Star break, Friday July 14: Khans 27 Maulers 26.

Now the lead has grown to a whopping two points!

khans 3603
maulers 3601

high score
khans
66 points
7/15

3669-3640

i think we've reached a season high point difference. The Khans are now winning by 102 points.
khans 4059
mashers 3957

high schore
khans
67 points
7/25

khans 4059
mashers 3957

look who i'm starting at first base tomorrow (saturday). Oh uh! Spaghetti-os! It's Mark Teixeira!

It's the same Mark Teixeira that the Mashers dropped a mere three days ago. Seems Teixeira is enjoying his freedom from not being on the Mashers any more.

He's one of the hottest 1Bmen in the game and he gets to play Kansas City at home in Arlington this weekend.

He's pulling a 2001ChipperJones on you! I don't know if 2001 is the correct year, but I had Jones riding my bench the first half of the season and I dropped him a couple weeks after the all-star game. He immediately became the hottest player in baseball and continued his streak through the end of the year giving the Mashers the championship. I remember I went to Daytona Beach on vacation with Andrea to visit her Grandma that summer and I dropped Jones right before we went down there and I was reading in the papers how he was hitting all these homeruns. It seemed like it was before 2001, but I don't remember.

Just in case you haven't heard Justin Morneau is this years Mark Teixeira. Teixeira is soooo 2005. Justin Morneau is soooo 2006.

The Mashers are mounting a comeback now. Just 60 points behind.
Khans 4112
Mashers 4052
Teixeira is weighing your team down! The Mashers are fleet-a-foot with him being booted off the island.

And now the 2006 version of Teixeira, Adrián González, is opening a series at Colorado. Adrián González looks like an elf. Elfboy is gonna get me some homeruns!

You watch, years from now we will look back on this and it will be like us talking about Albert Pujols in his first year. It will be funny. But actually, I don't think that will happen. I'm just saying that will happen just in case it actually does happen, but it probably won't happen.

Teixeira goes 1 for 5 yesterday with a single. That sounds about right. 200 batting average, 200 slugging.

high schore
khans
75 points
7/29

khans 4216
mashers 4111

high score
khans
69 points
7/30

khans 4285
mashers 4135

150 point lead and widening

Man. The gulf is finally happening. And I don't like the side of the gulf that I'm standing on.

You gotta let me catch back up in the league. Maybe you dno't play anyone for three days straight. Actually five days straight would be great. Your team needs a break. They have been playing so hard recently. C'mon whaddya say? Don'tcha wanna be like Dusty Baker and bench your hot players? They deserve it.

You should write letters to all your ballplayers and give them thanks for playing so well.

i've been able to build this 150 point lead without Darth Pujols or arod. I haven't started either one of those dopes in weeks. They are losers.

khans transaction totals
april:33
may:37
june:23
july:30
total through july: 130

Some fun facts about Minnesota Twins first baseman Justin Morneau on Wed, Aug 9:

Morneau needs one homer to become the first Twins player to hit 30 in a season since Kent Hrbek, Tom Brunansky and Gary Gaetti all did it in 1987. Morneau would also become just the fourth Canadian to hit 30 homers in a season, joining Larry Walker, Matt Stairs and Jason Bay.

And he's a Masher.

three guys in one season, huh? and then a 19 year drought. wow. puckett never hit 30 homers? i just looked it up. the only time puckett hit over 30 homers was 31 in 1986.

I wonder if Walker, Stairs, and Bay hang out. I bet they meet at Walker's house now that he's retired. Maybe they'll start inviting Mourneau to the BBQ.

mark derosa of the texas rangers got 24 points yesterday. i wonder what the most points a starting player received in our league.

Two days after Derosa got 24 points, he got 19 points. Incredible.

I'm dropping Aubrey Huff right at the wrong time. He maybe 3/27 the past week, but he's playing the cubs now. So that means he'll go 8/11.

Oh just for the record, somewhere in there i got 61 points.

I'm looking back at the draft from this year. How in the world did you know to pick up Chase Utley as your fifth pick. That is pure brillance. (note there is no sarcasm here, it's serious).

At least I got Michael Young at fifth.

Both of our sixth picks were duds. You: Andruw Jones. Me: Hideki Matsui.

i knew utley was the best secondbasemen out there. Look at his numbers from last year: 291, 28, 105. Those are awesome numbers for a secondbaseman. He's 27 so he's only going to get better.

You want pure brillance? I picked Ryan Howard to win the homerun crown. Right now he's tied with Big Pappie with 41. Second is Soriano with 38. Mark went to Vegas in the offseason and brought back a homerun crown odds sheet. I told him that Ryan Howard was going to win it. I would have put down 10 bucks on Howard. Vegas' odds for Howard was 80-1. That's right. 80-1. He was far down on the list. There were probably 30 guys ahead of him. Guys like Ortiz and arod were like 2-1. If Howard wins the crown, then i would have won 800 bucks on my 10 dollar bet. That'd be enough to send Andrea and I to Vegas for a few days and cover our room at the Belaggio, food, and gambling. I really wish Mark had called me when he was in Vegas. That way he could place the bet for me. Oh well.

it's amazing how certain players' stats get padded just becasue they go on a hot streak for 2 or 3 weeks. Corey Patterson was notorious for that. He'd hit 240 for the whole season, then go a tear for 3 weeks and bring his average up to 270.

I'm not saying Utley is like that. Though he was batting about 300, 305 before he went on his july tear. Now he's batting 323.

Of the 12 players with the most points in the past week. The Mashers have 6. The Khans have 2. Look out. Here come the Mashers gonna tear down that 150-point wall.

Oh my. Of the 11 players with the most points in the past week, the Mashers have 7. The Khans have ZERO.

The Mashers have narrowed the lead down to 101 points. 4894 - 4793.

And I have reloaded up on my 9th draft pick. Chone Figgins. He's finally gonna pull through. (i hope).

You have to go down to #15 to get a Khan that is on the most-points-in-the-past week list. That's the MPIPW list. And it's Ryan Howard. The Khans are a hurtin.

oh wait, i could probably take out the I in MPIPW. Sow now it's a nice acronym. MPPW.

khans are just taking a little nap right now and saving energy for the big push.

Can i take this opportunity to comment on arod's disappointing season? 287, 27 homers. And he has never been in the top ten for hottest players of the week. he's been consistently hitting 287 all season. he's a complete bust.

arod is an adud.

finally, i outscored you by a decent margin. i don't think i won one contest this week. i think the khans are starting to wake up from their nap. It's too bad for the mashers. You never broke below 100 points. I think the closest you got was 101 yesterday?

Story of the season thus far. Of the top 12 players with most points so far this season, 8 of them are Khans. 4 are Mashers.

that's quite an interesting list. We're so focused on who's hot for a particular week, that we hardly look at the season as a whole.

1.soriano (m)
2.manny (k)
3.utley (k)
4.howard (k)
5.pujols (k)
6.beltran (k)
7.sizemore (m)
8.crybaby cabrera (m)
9.reyes (m)
10.c.lee (k)
11.vlad (k)
12.tejada (k)

I also have 5 of the top 6, though you have the number one player. (Well, Big Pappie is number one, but he doesn' count cuz we banned him this year.)

I'd say the most surprising is ryan howard. I would have never guessed he was number four let alone in the top 12! Sure he hits alot of homers, but his numbers seem to be inconsistent when i look at how he does on a day-to-day basis. Though i did pick him to win the homerun crown with 80-1 odds.

Sizemore also amazes me. It just seems so weird that a guy hitting 296 with 18 homers, 56 rbis, and 98 runs can be ranked so high. Maybe it's those runs. 98 is a lot for august 19. and he has 18 swipes.

I'm surprised soriano is still number one. Hasn't he been in a slump?

And all the way down at number 19 is arod.

high score:
74
khans
8/18

khans 5005
mashers 4856

major contributors were pujols with 14, arod with 18, and manny with 21. Thanks, fellas.

The Khans have crossed the 5000 mark by scoring 74 points! The lead is back to 151 points. ahhhhh. feels good.

The official record high is 75 points by whomelse, but the Khans on 7/2.

high score
60
khans
8/19

khans 5065
mashers 4903

high score:
57
mashers

Khans 5154
Mighty Mashers 5028

So far there has been nine changes of lead this year. With the last one putting the Khans into first place in July 1. But how can it just hang at nine. There will be 10 lead changes and it will remain at 10.

Check that out. I even have a little spark by my team name on the league homepage. http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/b1/316783

My team is HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT HOT!


HOT!

ummm... we're only posting high scores when they are 60 points are more. 57 isn't good enough to be a high score, not even 59. must be at least 60. or maybe we could implement a new rule that a high score for the mashers is 40 points or more and a high score for the khans is 60 points or more. Maybe that would make it more fair for your team.

Laugh all you want now moose, because it shall be I that is laughing at the end of the season!

Johnny Damon has 70 points in the last week? SEVENTY? I don't think I've ever seen a player with so many points in one week. Then you got KC 3B Mark Teahen (.301 16HR season) with 62 points! Sheesh! These guys just gotta chill out! NYY 2B Robinson Canó with 56 points? Who in the world is THIS guy? WHO ARE THESE GUYS GETTING ALL THESE POINTS?

My high pointers are classics. You don't even have to list their first names, positions or teams. Delgado 65. Abreau 61. Giambi 51. Cabrera 45 (and i'm not talking about the no-namer Cabrera of the Melky NYY OF). Oh, I do have a no namer: Nick Markakis OF Bal 59 points.

Looks like this might be a slugfest to the end.

you might want to pick up andy milonakis

The Mashers continue their march to first place defeating the Khans 40-27 making it a mere 106 point lead with 5228-5122.

Carlos Delgado was quoted saying, "I'ma no stop home run hit until the Masher in place of first."

hello. i would like to request that the commissioner release dan uggla from the tater tots. the khans would like to pick him up. thank you.

khans transaction totals
april:33
may:37
june:23
july:30
august: 25
total through august: 155

high score
khans
9/2
65 points
5589-5446

high score
khans
9/3
65 points
5654-5472
lead extended to 182 points! snap.

my boy, ryan howard, hit three homers yesterday (29 points). Yes, he played both games of a double header, but he hit all three homers in the first game.

darth pujols also hit three dingers yesterday (23 points).

who to start at first? who to start? woe is me.

yesterday (9/5/06) had to be one of our lowest ever point totals combined. We both got 10 points for a total of 20 points. There were two games postponed due to rain.

HIGH SCORE:
Mashers
9/7
69 points

Khans 5791
Mashers 5623

The day was a combined effort led by cabrera:
V. Martínez 10
G. Atkins 10
J. Reyes 12
M. Holliday 10
Mi. Cabrera 16

It's too bad that the Khans also got 58 points. boo.

yesterday was a crazy day. Most teams had an off day.

The Khans had only one player on the bench and was missing a starting thirdbaseman.

The Mashers had two players on the bench and full lineup.

127 points is pretty impressive when there were only three players total on our benches.

At least I'm winning this month with most transactions.
Mashers 16 transactions
Khans 8 transactions
It feels like I should have 40 already this month.

high score
9/9/2006 sat
khans
61
5894-5706

berkman hasn't been anywhere near the top 20 for outfielders, but I started him yesterday on a gut instinct and he got 20 points.

That makes me sick. sick.

you had a high score for 9/10. it was something like 68 points. why is it so hard to break 70?

i'm a bit sickened by the hottest hitters in baseball lately:

Corey Hart?

Chris Duffy?

Michael Cuddyer?

Scott Spiezio?

who are these bozos?

I don't care who they are, I'm pickin them up! ~**POWER BOOST!**~

I think today (9/13) is the first time I've changed my starting lineup so drastically. There are five players in my lineup who weren't in it yesterday. That doesn't sound like a lot, but as I was making the change, it seemed like a lot--especially for a non-off day.

i have a feeling your starting lineup will change in equal drasticacation very soon.

high score
9/13
khans
63 points
6016-5836

Khans 6039
Mighty Mashers 5849

LOOK! I'm ten points ahead! oh wait. i read that wrong, i'm 190 points behind.

You are offering a real trade of Manny Ramirez for David Wright. The same Manny Ramirez that: "Sep 13 Boston Red Sox OF Manny Ramirez (knee) missed his third straight start, Wednesday, Sept. 13, against the Baltimore Orioles, because of a sore right knee, according to the Associated Press."

THe same Manny Ramirez that is 1/9 the past week. For David Wright who is 9/19. Uh right.

Manny has never been a Masher in the seven years of our league. He's certainly not going to be a Masher in the last two weeks of the season with him batting 1/9 with a bum knee and with my team behind by 190 points.

REJECTED!

oh. is manny hurt? oh. gee wiz.

the following players i have just placed on the League Trading Block:

L. Berkman
V. Guerrero
C. Utley
J. Mauer
A. Pujols

The Mashers have just made THREE trade offers to the Khans.

Masher: D. Wright (NYM - 3B)
for
Khan: C. Utley (Phi - 1B,2B)

Masher: V. Martínez (Cle - C,1B)
for
Khan: J. Mauer (Min - C)

Masher: M. Cuddyer (Min - 1B,2B,3B,OF)
for
Khan: R. Canó (NYY - 2B)

Will the season turn around for the Mashers if the Khans trade away all three players?

wright for utley? why? why? there's a ton of great thirdbasemen. there's only a couple great secondbasemen. supply and demand. i keep utley.

victor for mauer? no. victor is so 2005. mauer IS 2006.

I'll think about cano for cuddy.

the khans have widened the lead to over 200 points!

6098-5893
9/16

the day you drop Jason Bay was the day he became one of the hottest hitters in baseball!

Jason Bay is a Khan now and he's a starting OF today.

Bay has reported as saying he really enjoys playing for a winning team.

The lead has expanded to a season high 254 points

9/23
Khans 6384
Mashers 6130

Bay was a flash in the pan. I dropped him. He's no good.

Mashers have taken the lead in transactions.
Mashers: 181
Khans: 180

by taking the lead in transactions the mashers have also yielded the highest point differential of the season:

295 points

9/24
khans 6437
mashers 6142

Man. I am getting ka-illed! Is there some sort of inverse relationship of transactions to points? There must be.

time to get the calculator out again.

for the third day in a row, the khans have smashed (or should i say smashed) the season-high point lead.

325

9/25
khans 6495
mashers 6170

I couldn't make any changes to my team this morning, so I cancelled the previous team for team trade offer, then IMPROVED the Mashers. And now I offer you THE DEAL OF THE YEAR. The entire roster of the Mashers for the entire roster of the Khans.

There is now no Masher who has less than 41 points in the past week. (look at the Mashers for Thursday, not Wednesday, there's five new Mashers for Thursday, I had to drop the sorry butts of Tejada, Guerrero, Morneau, and Bonds. I mean really, who are they anyways?)

Raúl Ibañez has 68 points in the past week. That has got to be one of the hottest streaks so far.

trading teams? are you insane? have you been reading my posts for the past three days? In a matter of three days I have widened the lead from about 194 points to 325 points.

three days : over 125 points added to lead.

and you want to trade teams?

oh, by the way. the lead was widened further yesterday.

343 points

9/26
6545-6202

Insane? Yes, I would say that I am insane. And yes, I would say that this trade offer is INSANE. But you know what? The past month has been insane. It's gotten out of control. Our two teams were neck-to-neck for the majority of the season, and then mysteriously it just all goes hay-wire. And it never went back to normal. The opposite of normal? Insane. For an insane ending of the year, I offer an insane trade. Because I am insane, the league has gone insane, your lead is insane, my team has gone insane, your team has gone insane, we need an insane trade.

I wouldn't call the whole season neck and neck. Only the first half of the season was neck and neck. (Remember the All-Star break when I was winning by one point and the next three days I was still winning by one point? Priceless)

When was the last day you had the lead? June 30.

The second half I started to build a comfortable lead and it never became uncomfortable at any time.

On July 26, the point difference reached 102 points. From that day on, the lead never dipped below 75. For two solid months, I was on cruise control.

high score
khans
9/27
61 points

new season-high point differential

351 points

6606-6255

That's 5 days in a row where the lead has expanded each day. It could be more than 5, but I only started keeping track when I started beating you by like 25 points each day.

it's interesting to compare the individual stats

You are winning in:
2B, SB

I am winning in:
R, H, 1B, 3B, HR, RBI, SB, BB

The mashers have more CS. So I guess I'm leading in that as well.

The closest race is probably Runs. You trail only by 25. 854-828. There may be a closer category, but I don't have the will power to figure percentages with a calculator.

I wonder what this breakdown was at the All-Star break when I was winning by only one point. Now that'd be interesting to see.

Today is the last day to make transactions, and I have toppled the 200-mark! 204 transactions! I WIN! I WIN! I WIN!

Here's the day-by-day point total summaries for 2006:

Mashers 207
Khans 202
Apr 08, 06

Khans: 583
Mashers: 567
Apr 18, 06

Mashers: 627
Khans: 622
Apr 19, 06

KHANS: 1436
MASHERS: 1435
May 14, 06

Khans 1530
Mashers 1526.
May 17, 06

Mashers 1575
khans 1567
May 19, 06

Khans 1613
Mashers 1603
May 20, 06

khans: 3211
mashers: 3205
Jul 02, 06

Khans 3384
Mashers 3383
Jul 06, 06

Khans 3540
Mighty Mashers 3539
Jul 10, 06

khans 3603
maulers 3601
Jul 15, 06

khans 4059
mashers 3957
Jul 26, 06

Khans 4112
Mashers 4052
Jul 28, 06

khans 4216
mashers 4111
Jul 30, 06

khans 4285
mashers 4135
Jul 31, 06

khans 5005
mashers 4856
Aug 19, 06

khans 5065
mashers 4903
Aug 20, 06

khans 5589
mashers 5446
Sep 03, 06

khans 5654
mashers 5472
Sep 04, 06

Khans 5791
Mashers 5623
Sep 08, 06

Khans 5894
Mashers 5706
Sep 10, 06

Khans 6016
Mashers 5836
Sep 14, 06

Khans 6039
Mighty Mashers 5849
Sep 15, 06

Khans 6384
Mashers 6130
Sep 24, 06

khans 6437
mashers 6142
Sep 25, 06

khans 6495
mashers 6170
Sep 26, 06

khans 6545
mashers 6202
Sep 27, 06

khans 6606
mashers 6255
Sep 28, 06

Khans: 6,714: 185
Mashers: 6,387 23 3 204
FINAL