Thursday (Official)
(NB: Edited to officialize scores)

Jab me for Halladay's -6.

I originally did my projection for which of my SPs would start which games about three weeks ago, at which time I had Halladay not pitching last night.

So there I am, sitting here getting ready to bench him, and then thinking it all over....Boston on a big losing streak....Ortiz still out....not hitting at all....starting Tavarez.....

A case of too much thinking.

[whine alert]

BTW....the way that the Boston-Toronto game ended.....

Score tied 4-4, bottom of the 7th.

Boston's Alex Cora hits a long fly ball to right. Toronto rightfielder Alex Rios has it in his glove, then juggles it over the wall for a Cora home run. :rolleyes:

[/whine alert]

Friday (official)

So Plaw... you benched all those D/H players you have? :p

Saturday (official)

I didn't bench 'em all because I wanted to...I just couldn't use 'em all.

Who knew that there would be a second doubleheader?

Here's where we stand with "Remaining Pitching Starts".

Remember, please don't schedule more than 162
If you wind up with more than 162, I'm gonna deduct from your total score the points from the game(s) above 162 on the day you went over 162.

If, for example, you have 161 starts on Friday, and schedule 3 starts for Saturday, the two highest Saturday scores will be deducted from your total score.

Gotta love Ryan Howard (3 HR) and A-Rod (2 HR)

Sunday (official)

Current Smack Talk

JL - "I'm seriously disappointed with the lack of competition" :rolleyes:
JG - "Okay, NOW I'm worried... thanks to my POS pitching
DJ - "Let's Go Blue Jays!!"

JG's Cole Hamels (jinx ) with a no-hitter (jinx, jinx ) going through five (jinx, jinx )

[Been a long time since I brought this little guy ( ) out.]

Hmmm.....

September is here.....guess I better change my little poetic offering.

Edit: How's this....

I trail by 20, where will I land? But in early September I have 10 starts in hand.

Well, it worked... some mediocre (.247) minor leaguer they just brought up just hit one out for his first career major league hit. Of course. :rolleyes: At least Clemens is out... :p Oh yeah, and Howard just hit one out.

What a streak this Howard is on. Can't recall ever seeing one quite like it altho I know there have been some similar monster streaks by players in the past.....

10 homers in his last 13 games, and 21 homers in 39 games since July 28th. Hats off to him.

Funny, JG, how your offense was weak at the beginning of the season and you were hanging in there with your deep starting pitching, and now you seem to get a decent start only rarely, and it's your offense that's keeping you in the game.

Meanwhile, I figured at the beginning of the season that I had the second best offense (second only to DB) which, along with merely "decent" starting pitching would carry me, and here I am with offense that has been slumping all season trying to win on the strength of my starting pitching.

Why are teams still pitching to Howard? He has nobody batting after him (Burell) for protection. :rolleyes:

There was one game I remember that some team didn't pitch to him and he walked like four times.....lemme check his game log.....brb

Edit: Florida walked him 5 times in 5 at bats, way back on July 30th, in the second game of a four game series.

He homered in two of the other three games, and went 0-4 with two strikeouts in the other.

The way he's going right now, though, I'd only pitch to him when a homer couldn't hurt me - Right now I'd give him the Barry Bonds treatment of the last coupla years - at least until he cools off a bit.

I didn't start out with "deep" SP as much as just a lot of it. But my "rare" decent starts lately are only because I've had so few of them: because I've had so few starts at all lately. But my SP's have all done "decent" (15+) lately. Not to mention RP Cordero's 22 pts in the double header (W & SV)

And obviously Howard has helped a little. And A-Rod has been starting to help (finally) -- I think you'd be in big trouble had A-Rod been A-Rod all year long...

Howard had a 5-walk game in one game of the 6/30 FLA D/H yet still scored 2 runs. In the other game he was 3/4 with a HR. I guess they learned... but yeah, he only has 76 BBs in his first 500 ABs, with 154 Ks, 154 hits, 52 HRs. I'll take it.

Tie game, bottom of 9th, and they're walking leadoff batter Howard. There you go - some respect for ya.

Well, well, well...now I've seen the light. This must be the real JG.

Yup.....They're giving Howard the Bonds treatment (finally). The guy was treating major league pitching like he was still playing Home Run Derby.

Anyway.....Yeah, I'd be in big trouble had A Rod been A Rod all along, but I have a few players I could say the same thing about.

I got somewhat less than I could have reasonably expected to get from guys like Chavez, Cantu, and Burrell.

Also, Andruw Jones had an entire month in which he did basically nothing, and Tejada had an entire month with no power, although in all fairness he did keep his batting average up there.

And Dunn had a long slump, too.

Remember also that I had to scramble all season to put together a regular starting rotation (Hence all the extra starts I now have) because of season-ending injuries to two guys I was really counting on: John Patterson for one, but to a much greater extent Rich Harden, who was 10-5, 2.53 last year and arguably the second best starter on a team (Oakland) that many – myself included – were picking to win the division because of their outstanding rotation (Zito, Harden, Haren, Blanton), and possibly one of the best starting pitchers in the majors.

In all fairness, of course, I had guys who exceeded their expectations just as you had guys who did better and guys who did worse than what you were figuring on also, and it’s not my intention to sit here and analyze who got the shorter ends of their respective sticks over the course of the season.

You lost Sheffield for the year, I lost Matsui. You had guys who slumped, I had more key guys who were lost for the season.

And so it goes. It’s all part of the game, in both fantasy and reality…..

Hey now! I have Hamels & Howard on my team: I gotta do what I gotta do! :p I picked Hamels despite the fact that HOU has been beating up on PHI the last 3 years, going 12-0 or something against them. And vs the Rocket. I'm proud of him, and myself, thank you.

But I was gonna tell you how excited I was about seeing your Willy tonight...!

that got my attention.....

Well, they're going up against teams that are mostly out of contention for the entire month of September, so I hope they give him his shots.

As for the rest of your post, you're exactly right.

Don't think that discussing my Willy is going to get you off the hook.

You jinxed Rocket into a strained groin.

And I'm proud of Charlton Jimerson for homering in his first AB, off of your friend Hamels. :p

Except we still ended up losing...which was also your fault.

What about this?

Doesn't help Roger...

But you're good.

Too bad you know my weaknesses. Just remember, I know yours, too. :p

Monday (official)

BTW, Gina (and Crabby)...

Lakewood BlueClaws will play Lexington Legends for Northern Division title

The BlueClaws will begin postseason play on Wednesday. The BlueClaws have clinched a spot in the South Atlantic League Playoffs for the first time in team history.

Single-A affiliate of the Phillies, the BlueClaws will take on the Lexington Legends, affiliate of the Houston Astros, in the first round of the playoffs.

6 for Monday?? Is that a typo? What happened?