Tag Archive: Texas Rangers

Fantasy Baseball is No Longer a Fantasy

April 20, 2011 Randy Neil

It’s a nightmare. I remember watching the ESPN 30 for 30 about the start of fantasy baseball, and they made it sound so cool and neat. Our league (seen above) is turning out pretty nice actually. Aside from our buddy Sweede dropping Brandon Marrow and Chase Utley instead of putting them on the DL slots given, it’s been a pretty tight race. Everyone has pretty decent squads, including yours truly, who happens to have the 2nd best record after week 1. Big deal right? Right.

Who’s got the best record? Nonchalant Brendan. Of course he does. You know that guy who never puts effort into anything (or at least hides that effort) but still manages to walk away with the victory every time. That’s Brendan. You know that guy who works really hard and over analyzes everything perfectly to get the victory? That’s Adam. You know the guy who has a good idea and put his heart and soul into something and loses? Thaaaaaaat’s me.

What really fucked me this week was Yahoo’s lack of starter notifications. Who’s got time to check their fantasy team everyday?

Not this guy.

So what I do is run through the daily rosters for the week on Monday, and let the lineups adjust themselves for the upcoming days. Normally this is fine, except Yahoo didn’t tell me Josh Johnson and Colby Lewis were starting yesterday. They both sat on my bench… just hanging out.

That’s a quality start, 12 Ks and a 0.00 ERA from Johnson just sitting on the bench doing nothing. Damn you Yahoo!

Watched the Phillies this afternoon and it was nice to see them recover from the 9-0 loss to the Brewers last night. My credit card rewarded me with free tickets again, this time 6 rows behind the home dugout, giving me great seats to the Ryan Braun and Prince Fielder show. David Herndon got destroyed in his relief outing.

His first two pitches went like this : Ball 1, 3 Run Homer.

At least we recovered this afternoon from getting swept. That was nice.

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2011 Baseball Predictions!!!

March 29, 2011 Adam Thomas

Every year at theheadrush.com we get together to harness our psychic ability and forecast the results of the upcoming baseball season. Last year, we all did pretty good. This year, with an extra season of experience under our belt, we stand to do even better (Randy more-so than Adam.)

The picks are separated by division, with number of Wins next to their name.

Randy’s Picks

American League

 

EAST
Boston Red Sox (95)
Tampa Bay Rays (93)
New York Yankees (89)
Toronto Blue Jays (81)
Baltimore Orioles (79)

CENTRAL
Chicago White Sox (92)
Minnesota Twins (90)
Detroit Tigers (82)
Kansas City Royals (73)
Cleveland Indians (64)

WEST
Texas Rangers (88)
Oakland Athletics (85)
L.A. Angels of Anaheim (80)
Seattle Mariners (63)

National League

 

EAST
Philadelphia Phillies (95)
Atlanta Braves (92)
New York Mets (83)
Washington Nationals (79)
Florida Marlins (75)

CENTRAL
St. Louis Cardinals (91)
Cincinnati Reds (86)
Milwaukee Brewers (81)
Chicago Cubs (75)
Houston Astros (74)
Pittsburgh Pirates (59)

WEST
Colorado Rockies (90)
San Francisco Giants (88)
Los Angeles Dodgers (80)
Arizona Diamondbacks (72)
San Diego Padres (68)

Special Notes

This year I think the team’s that are going to hurt the most are the Padres and the Marlins. Padres traded away their best player, and the collapse at the end of the season doesn’t give me much hope for a weak division.

I expect more out of the New York Mets than most are predicting. I don’t expect the Phillies to get 100 wins this year, simply because the Braves are on the rise, and regardless of how bad they may be, every team in the NL East has improved except for Florida.

Adam’s Picks

American League

 

EAST
New York Yankees (94)
Boston Red Sox (90)
Toronto Blue Jays (87)
Tampa Bay Rays (85)
Baltimore Orioles (75)

CENTRAL
Minnesota Twins (92)
Chicago White Sox (89)
Detroit Tigers (80)
Kansas City Royals (68)
Cleveland Indians (65)

WEST
Oakland Athletics (89)
L.A. Angels of Anaheim (88)
Texas Rangers (87)
Seattle Mariners (64)

National League

 

EAST
Atlanta Braves (94)
Philadelphia Phillies (90)
Washington Nationals (79)
Florida Marlins (78)
New York Mets (67)

CENTRAL
Milwaukee Brewers (92)
Cincinnati Reds (89)
St. Louis Cardinals (83)
Pittsburgh Pirates (77)
Chicago Cubs (75)
Houston Astros (74)

WEST
San Francisco Giants (91)
Colorado Rockies (90)
San Diego Padres (83)
Arizona Diamondbacks (74))
Los Angeles Dodgers (73)

Special Notes

It’s going to be a tough year for Phillies fans.  Look at my picks, and you will see that I don’t even have them making the playoffs.  Crazy.  But it could happen.  Look, I think this is going to be the Braves year.  They have a lot of young talent, a lot of depth, and they added some bats.

I could be way off here, but I’m not afraid to go out on a limb and say that the Phils have flown too close to the sun on wings of Pastrami (yeah, that’s what they did…)

You look at that line-up, and the one thing that pops out is that it is old as hell.  Ibanzez (old) Jimmy (old) Victorino (pudgy) Chase (old and hurt) Polanco (old).

Besides Howard, who I expect to have a monster year, there isn’t much to look forward to on the offensive end.  Yeah the pitching will be great (at least, I hope as Cole and Oswalt have looked turrible this spring), but I just see this as the year other teams start to catch up to the Phillies. Sigh.

Playoffs:

AL: Yankees, Twins, A’s with the wildcard being the Red Sox

NL: Braves, Brewers, Giants with the wildcard being the Rockies

World Series: Red Sox over the Braves

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2010 Baseball PostSeason Predictions!!

September 27, 2010 Randy Neil

altThat time of year is almost here!  October baseball!  Getting drunk almost every day, spending a crap ton of money, eating horrific food, and losing your voice from yelling at a television…. all the good things in store that literally destroy your body in a one month span.  Yes I’m aware that wasn’t a sentence, but fuck it! It’s October baseball!!

Here’s the picks for the play-offs.

In the American League:

The Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers, Tampa Bay Rays, and New York Yankees.  The Yankees and Rays are still just trying to figure out who’s gonna be the wild-card, and who’s gonna be the division winner, but it’s a lock they’re both in.  We don’t know who’s playing each other yet, but I can tell you I’m certain of one thing :

The Yankees are going to the World Series.  Duh.  The Texas Rangers have basically a .500 record since the All-Star Break, and the OP (overpowering) A.L. East will destory them, regardless of who they play.  Right now the Rangers have an almost identical record to the Red Sox, who’s 3rd in the AL East.  OP indeed.

The Twins are good, but the only team that could legitimately threaten the Yankees are the Rays.  Do I think they ARE going to threaten the Yanks?  No.  I think this entire league has already been decided.

In the National League:

It gets much trickier to sit down and actually predict who’s gonna be in the play-offs here.  As of now, the Phillies are the only definate team, and will most likely be the N.L. East division winner, so let’s just assume that’s the case.

The N.L. Central is going to the Reds after the Cardinals decided to shit all over themselves the last quarter of the season.  I’m happy about this.  I’m glad to see the Reds come through with a winning season finally.  Dusty Baker deserves one, and the Cardinals clearly haven’t been doing anything with their recent play off runs, so give someone else a try.

Now to the dirty, dirty west.  This whole thing is a mess right now.  The Padres had it, and let it slip away to the San Francisco Giants??  I guess the fact that the Padres had it is more surprising.  I don’t doubt they are a good team, and “the real deal”, but I don’t see play-off caliber skills in them.  Latos, their best pitcher, has been struggling, and they still happen to be the 2nd lowest paid team in the NL.  That means no stars, besides Adrian Gonzalez, and they were talking about trading that dude at the beginning of the year. 

Even if the Padres somehow reclaim the West and hold it, they don’t have much of a chance… so I’m gonna give it to the Giants.  They have a better all-around team and at least can make a better play-off run. 

So now to the wildcard, which is also another large mess.  Since we gave the Giants the N.L. West, that leaves the Padres, Braves, and Rockies (sorta) in the hunt.  The Rockies are 4 games back, and no divisional games coming up, so I’m gonna write them off.  With 6-7 games left for both the Padres and Braves, it’s really going to be a neck and neck hunt for the wildcard.  The Braves play the Marilns and Phillies, the Padres play the Cubs and then have an epic 3 game series with the Giants at the end of the season.

I’m gonna go with the Braves, simply because I think the Giants will have a winning series against the Padres and that will crush the Padres hopes and record.  The Braves can beat the Marlins, and the Phillies might start resting people if they clinch the East in the next day or so. 

It’s certainly much more exciting than the A.L., that’s for sure.  As for the playoffs, the only real threat I see to the Phillies (the natural favorite) is the Reds.  They are a solid team, but they starting pitching isn’t nearly as good, so I still think the Phillies can handle them.  The Giants are not deep enough to threaten, and the Braves and Padres seem worn down, so I don’t seem momentum carrying them into some remarkable play off run.  

WORLD SERIES – Phillies v. Yankees (Phillies in 6)

Let’s GOOOOOO!!!

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