June 20, 2009

Since our last update with commentary from two weeks ago, the misfortunes of a couple of starting pitchers have significantly impacted the pool.

Roy Halladay's mild groin strain resulted in an abbreviated outing on June 12, and a subsequent missed start--with one more to come--as he dropped from the AL innings pitched lead. Assuming he returns as scheduled on June 28, and given his history as a work horse, eventually regaining that lead is far from out of reach, though.

Johan Santana has allowed 16 ER in 17 1/3 innings since that June 6 update, and seen his ERA balloon from 2.00 to 3.22. Surprisingly, he's actually won one game during that stretch, but has still fallen from the NL wins lead.

Ichiro Suzuki's ascension to the AL lead in batting average, though, has helped Joe Williams maintain his lead atop the pool, although with two correct categories fewer than two weeks ago.

This Day in Pool History: June 15, 2006

Thought it might be fun to revisit some old updates from past pools. Here's one from exactly three years ago.

We must be getting better at the HBP thing-- only one entrant (Joe Maissel) from the entire 29-contestant 2006 pool would have cracked our current top 20 in HBP totals on this date!

Note the presence of Curt Schilling in the AL leaders...

June 13, 2009

June 6, 2009

First of all, my apologies for the lack of commentary of late, but there just hasn't been all that much to write about. Or, that's my excuse, at least.

Now, as the season reaches the one-third mark for most teams--meaning David Ortiz is now on pace to hit three home runs instead of four (sorry Kristin)--things seem to be getting a little interesting. In just one week's time, no less than 13 pool participants have added the NL pitching trio of Santana (ERA), Lincecum (SO) and K-Rod (Saves) to their number of "in the money" picks, and our leader's total has doubled. Taking me back to the days when he annually dominated the rotisserie baseball league we ran together, Joe Williams has recaptured the top spot.

In the same time frame, last week's leader has unbelievably dropped to 18th place. I can't recall ever seeing such a drastic change in the pool's history. It's also exciting--at least to me--to see three newcomers--Rob LaColla, Dan Conti, and Tim Farrell--showing up in the top ten almost every update so far.

Stay tuned, though, because I'm pretty sure things are just starting to heat up.

P.S. Take a look to the right at Jud's cleverly labeled list of RBI (Real Bad Injuries), and the fact that 12 players whom at least one person picked for at least one category are currently on the disabled list--and that number doesn't include Manny Ramirez, who's not physically injured, although he still has five home runs more than Ortiz.