From Eric (who voted for Vaughn): Greg Vaughn (6A), a masterful pick
From Greg (who voted for Galarraga): Who'd have thought he's have this kind of year outside of Coors.
Cy Young of No Fehr league (first-half)?
- a) Kevin Brown (Splinters, 25C)
- b) Jose Lima (Peelers, 1A)
- c) Andy Ashby (O'Men, 16A) - 4
- d) Jeff Shaw (Harrys, 9B)
- e) Greg Maddux (Starfish, 34B) - 2
- f) Other (list player)
Biggest surprise?
- a) Two expansion teams near the top at the break - 3
- b) The Peelers' two bargains: Greg Vaughn and Jose Lima - 2
- c) Wickman, Radinsky and Wagner give O'Men saves lead
- d) Large number of No Fehr trades in the first half - 1
- e) Other (list)
Biggest disappointment
- a) Infections-killing duo of Gant and Gilkey (again) - 1
- b) BatBold's fall from first to tenth
- c) Al Martin's sub-par season for the Irish
- d) Bruce Ruffin (22D) leaves Peelers desperate for saves - 2
- e) Other (list):
From Jeff T.: Leiter brothers. Saves and ERA.
From Greg: Everyone's whining and bitching about almost every issue.
Worst trade of the first-half?
- a) BatBold gets Jose Guillen (5B) and a 6th-round pick from Harry Careys for Ramon Martinez (20D) - 2
- b) Winning O'Men gets Mike Hampton (15B) from Stanwyk Shepherds for Brian McRae (21D) - 1
- c) Winning O'Men gets Barry Bonds (47B) and Tony Batista (1A) from BatBold for Jeff Brantley (17A), Lou Collier (3A) and Tyler Green (6A) - 2
d) Other (list trade)
From Greg (who voted for the Martinez/Guillen trade): Only because Martinez is all done.
Best trade of the first-half?
- a) Cactus League Peelers get Carlos Perez (11B) and John Olerud (15C) from Opportunistic Infections for Greg Vaughn (6A) - 3
- b) Master Batters get Francisco Cordova (6C), Todd Helton (10B), and second- and fifth-round picks from Cactus League Peelers for Dante Bichette (32A) and Jerry DiPoto (14A) - 1
- c) Opportunistic Infections get Bob Abreu (10B) and first- and second-round picks from Cactus League Peelers) for Francisco Cordova (6C) and a first-round pick
d) Other (list trade)
From Greg: Both O'Men trades because they have dramatically helped me.
From Doug (who voted for the Vaughn/Perez deal): The Everett/Anderson deal between the Irish and Oriole also was big, helping both teams stay in the race.
Best reserve player?
- a) Kerry Wood (Infections, 1st) - 2
- b) Mark Leiter (Starfish, 10th) - 4
- c) Other (list player)
From Greg (who voted for Leiter): Leiter because Matt's in 1st place, although Wood is a much better long-term prospect.
From Doug (who voted for Leiter): Leiter has been a key to the Starfish’s success. You always need a guy like Leiter to come out of your reserve draft to win it all.
Best reserve draft?
- a) Opportunistic Infections (Wood, Loewer, Chad Fox) - 4
- b) Big Johnsons (Rivera, King, Boehringer)
- c) Fighting Irish (Darwin, Bergman, Cook)
- d) Cactus League Peelers (Beltre, Graves, McElroy) - 2
- d) Other (list team): Stanwyk Shepherds
From Mike (who voted for the Peelers): Infections if Carlton Loewer and Matt Clement stick
From Doug (who voted for the Infections): Making the pre-draft trade to get in position to get Wood makes this easily the best draft. I’d put the Peelers second.
Worst reserve draft?
- a) Master Batters - 2
- b) Harry Careys
- c) BatBold - 1
- c) Big Johnsons - 2
- d) Other (list team)
On average, I check the No Fehr website:
- a) Daily - 3
- b) 1-2 times/week - 1
- c) 3-4 times/week - 2
- d) 1-2 times/month
- e) We have a website?
Best team page:
- a) BatBold - 1
- b) Master Batters
- c) Harry Careys
- d) Opportunistic Infections - 1
- e) Cactus League Peelers - 3
- f) Other
From Eric (who voted for the Peelers): The chick says it all.
Commentary | by Mike (BatBold)
Bonds: "I Am Not A Crook"
Barry Bonds has reportedly fallen into a steep depression after the early season deal that sent him from last year's champs to the O'Men. Even though he is now playing for a contender, verbal abuse along with scathing e-mails has taken its toll on the $47 star. He is subject to a wide scope of accusations, ranging from the mundane "you're damaging the league" to provocative suggestions that ownership is dabbling in homosexuality with said roomate.
This reporter wonders why such a fuss for a player whose statistics fall short of at least 10 other players in the league. Could it be that his name recognition stirred the ire of other owners? It's difficult to imagine another player, say Javier Lopez (whose statistics are superior to those of Bonds), attracting such negative publicity if he had been traded in place of Bonds. In that case, this reporter doubts a peep would have been heard from around the league.
Having said this, the trade has influenced the standings, by about 7 points in the O'Men's favor. This computation is not Elias-based, but rather the result of a whopping 5 minute glance of the statistics. Bonds has given the O'Men offense, slightly offset by Lou Collier's starting roll, while the absence of Tyler Green and Jeff Brantley has hurt the O'Men's pitching. Let's not forget either that Brantley, Green, and Collier are A players, while Bonds is a B.
The nature of trades is that they influence the No Fehr League's standings. This is why trades are made. Let's hope that hard feelings die a quick death in the face of rational debate and that Barry Bonds will not be heard muttering to himself "I am not a crook" as he was last weekend at 3COM Park.
Rule Suggestions
To be discussed in detail during off-season
From Barry:A couple ideas for new rules I would like to have voted on for next year:
- No trading until the auction and reserve draft is over.
- To keep people from blowing off a year like I did, last place should have to bring (or pay for) a case of beer for the next years auction.
From Mike:
1. No trading of draft picks. I'm still in favor of this one. (There is a potential problem with) some owners not even returning the next year. At least if an owner that isn't returning trades a real player, that player may be retained through an expansion draft or by a new owner assuming an old roster. Basically, I don't like the idea of trading picks/prospects in our league because unlike in real baseball, we can't develop a player without commiting a large portion of our budget to do so.
2. The IP penalty. I'm now in favor of carrying out the penalty for all of those who do not meet 1150. They would suffer in the standings. But those teams should not be rewarded with higher draft position. We would simply calculate draft position for the entire league based on the standings prior to the penalty. In the case (Doug) suggested where a team stockpiles 9 relievers, there are no adverse effects: I assume this team would finish 1st in ERA and WHIP. This team is subject to the penalty which would certainly push them to last (and therefore out of the money). The other teams would gain all gain in the standings. But when it comes time to determining draft order, those teams that have not met the IP requirement would draft as if they incurred no penalty whatsoever (in other words, a higher position).
Basically, if you want to come in last in our league, fine. But if you attempt to do it through pitching less than 1150 IP, you are not rewarded. This is what we should have done last year with Robb. As it was, he got a higher draft position.
This year, we may have a scenario where a team in the middle of ERA/WHIP fails to reach 1150. In the past, it has been the worst pitching teams. My team for example may come up just short (by 10-20 IP maybe). In this case I would fall some, but those lost points would not be used to determine my draft position. Interestingly, a team like mine may only fall 1 or 2 spots, and instead of everybody gaining a point, maybe only 1 or 2 teams in the $ gain a point.