WATBL '08 - Final Standings

A crazy and unprecedented photo finish this year. Final standings:

1. Vitamin D: Annual winner of the WATBL Add-Drop Award (remember, the first step is admitting you have a problem), an underdog roaring from 23.5 games back to squeak by the Honey Nut Ichiros, demolish the Wisconsin Blizzards, and then (apparently) defeat Coliseo de Gallos when (what appears to have been) a zeroth-hour Yahoo recalculation (evidently) dropped his WHIP the last necessary hundredth of a point to eke out a 6-5 victory, well after Coliseo had (seemingly) locked up a 6-6 win via ERA tiebreaker. Instant replays have been inconclusive, as have investigations into the fundamental mathematical principles that underlie our very universe. Perhaps the CERN Large Hadron Collider will provide some answers once they have the helium leak repaired, currently scheduled for spring 2009. The Higgs boson may be implicated. We will keep everyone apprised.
   
2. Coliseo de Gallos: A truly astonishing defeat, for her second consecutive second-place finish. Winner of the She Took First Place in the Other League We Play In by Crushing Your Humble Commissioner in the Final Playoff Round, So Nobody Feel Too Bad Award.
3. Wisconsin Blizzards: Your humble commissioner and last year's victor, finishing the regular season in first place with a commanding 8.5-game lead, eliminated by HIS OWN FATHER in the second playoff round. Whether said father will be receiving a Christmas gift this year remains to be seen.
   
4. Green Man: An excellent overall showing from the fantasy-baseball rookie, finishing the regular season in firm possession of second place. Stocking up on members of the unstoppable 2008 Cubs proved a much better strategy than Vitamin D's and the Obamariners' reliance on 2007 Mariners last year. (Go Cubs!! This is the year!!!) Winner of the For God's Sake, Why Did Nobody Make Me an Offer for CC Sabathia, Leaving Me to Trade Him Away for ERIK FREAKING BEDARD, Who Did Not Pitch a SINGLE Inning for Me, While CC as a Brewer Appeared to Be the Second Coming of Walter Johnson Award.
   
5. Honey Nut Ichiros: Unfortunately found herself in the path of future league winner Vitamin D in the first playoff round. Co-winner of the Best Team Picture Award.
   
6. Obamariners: The other co-winner of the Best Team Picture Award. His hopes now rest on the real Obama finishing above .500 in November.
   
7. Upper Deck: Victor in the consolation playoffs, and winner of the Best Auto-Picked Team Award.
   
8. Glitterbugz: Production of the Wisconsin BlizzardBug continues on schedule. Winner of the This Baby Will NOT Be Born in a World in Which the Cubs Have Not Won a World Series in 100 Years, Go Cubs Go, They've Got the Power, They've Got the Speed, To Be the Best in the National League, And So Forth Award.
   
9. Full Season Fizzlers: A honeymoon trip coinciding with WATBL Draft Day left him hobbled from the start--a mistake he surely will not make next year. Winner of the Most Romantic Ninth-Place Finish Award.
   
10. B.C. Goonies: Someone has to finish last--but he can take pride in his shiny Best Team from Canada Award.
    

Thanks, and see everyone next year! (And, if I haven't made it clear: Go Cubs!!)

Jim, aka Wisconsin Blizzards
WATBL Commissioner

Last Letter of the Season

Saturday night. September 27. It comes down to this: After two little noticed and sporadically observed championship playoff weeks, we are Vitamin D-lighted to be tied with Coliseo de Gallos. 6-6. One day to go. Half the categories still up for grabs. Good luck, Liza. (...but I really wish ERA was not the tie-breaker.)

...to be continued.

Sunday afternoon. One game left...and...we're still tied. Alas, we have no pitchers left and we can't make up that measly 0.01 WHIP we need to make it 6-5-1. Unfortunately, the Commish confirms that ERA is the tie-breaker. So ... congratulations to Liza.

Now, we're on to cheering the production of New Baby Human 1.0 in Madison in a few weeks.

--Vitamin D-uncan a/k/a Grandpa 2B.

Monday morning update: We won?

Bow Down to Carlos Z:

'nuff said. Well done.

--Vitamin D-elighted at your performance (Liz saw it on TV) and that we (Vitamin D) weren't facing you.

Dear Commish:

Well, Dad2B, we are close going into the final day. Only HR, RBI, SB, & W appear to be decided and they are split 2-2. We each have only one starter going, both are middle-of-the-staff types (Danks for you; Myers for me). You apparently have at least 9 closers to my 3, so odds are good for you in Saves. The rest are up for grabs.

We're off to enjoy the last rays of summer. Cheers.

--Grandpa2B (11:00 am PDT)

Ps: Ok, just checked at 3:30 PDT. Yikes. We're ahead, but on the verge of a meltdown. Here's where we are:




...to be continued. Nap time now.
--G2B.

End of Day: Jim, you called it in our tele conf this afternoon: thanks in no small part to Louis Ayala who went "inf" in relief for the Mets, we finish 8-3 and are in the finals. Wow. Nice. (And it's on the same day that Carlos Z threw the first Cubs' No-No in approximately 40 years.)





On to more important things: Looking forward to seeing you and the Mrs. and Baby No.1 in November.

--G2B

Dear Honey Nut Ichiros:

We were a great matchup in Round One of the 2008 WATBL playoffs. Matchup was 6-5 in my favor on Sunday morning. You had Adam Wainwright and Cole Hamels starting; I had Josh Johnson & Paul Byrd available to start, but decided to sit Paul Byrd against the slugging Rangers. (Another Vitamin D "overthink?" Like sitting Josh Beckett this week on his first start coming off the DL, only to have him win a game, give up no runs and get 7 freaking K's!)







[to be continued...I'm off to do yard work in the Seattle sun.]

Eight hours later ... here's where we ended up Sunday night.




Whew! That was waaaay close ... and even closer than it looks. We were tied (6-6) going into the last game on the last day. I had two hitters left (Rollins, Delgado) who were hitting against Santana and Hamels, respectively. And the white hot Cole Hamels, was your remaining player. Yikes.

Rollins tanked, of course (oh-fer against Johann), but Carlos surprisingly hammered Cole for 2 HRs (l-o-n-g, too) and the threat to WHIP was gone and HR's were now tied ... and we escaped with at 6-5 win.

So ... good match, Jen. See you next spring for the Baby X "coming out party."

--Vitamin D Ownership.

Ps: Yes, 20-20 hindsight shows The Sitting of Paul Byrd was a mistake as he went 6.2 innings with no earned runs and got the W against the suddenly anemic Rangers. (Combined with Beckett boo-boo mentioned above, it cost us the W's category.)

Dear WATBL Owners:

I've seen some good pitching in playoffs (and, granted, we're not "done" with Friday night of Round the Oneth, c. 2008), but I found this pretty impressive. When is the last time you saw five (5) pitchers that were all under 2.00 ERA and under 1.00 WHIP in the same head-to-head matchup series ... after this many innings?

--Vitamin D-elighted at the quality pitching in our series. (Way to pick'm, Jen.)