Calculamatin' the Best
We were doin’ some calculamatin’ this mornin’ in preparation for the All-Star break and the expected wave of final $10 trades. While figurin’, we thought it might be fun to figure out what was the best possible score an SLPL team could have assuming it picked the top ten hitters and top five pitchers at the beginning of the season and made no trades. And the score? 2,125 total. That breaks down to 1,652 hitting and 473 pitching points. For comparison’s sake, the current league leader, Suzie Fricken’ Rochellle’s Who’s On First, falls more than 400 points below that mark and sits at 1,721 total points.
Anyway, here’s a quick screen grab from my harried spreadsheet showing how players rank based on SLPL pointages. Check out Cano, who only has 13 home runs but still breaks my 100-point cutoff ‘cause of his low strikeouts. Or look at Gallardo, who has 120 strikeouts but drops hard ‘cause he’s given up 13 dongs.
Anyway, we don’t want to
influence the trades you make this All-Star break,
but maybe this’ll give you some fodder to work with.
If nothing else, do your own calculamatin’ by
checking out the current HR Leaders and K Leaders.
Standings:
At-A-Glance
| Overall | Division | Hitting | Pitching | Past
Leaders
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All-Star Game A Week Away; $10 Trade Almost Extinct
The MLB All-Star Game is
a week away, which means big things here at the SLPL.
Besides another one of our patented side-bets--where
teams take their rosters into the Home Run Hitting
Contest and All-Star Game in an effort to be crowned
the All-Star Champ and earn at least 100 clams--it
also marks the end of the reasonably-priced $10
trade. On the first pitch of the first official game
after the All-Star game, trades will be bumped up to
$15.
Here’s a tip: If you’re planning on making some $10
trades, think hard about when you want to make them.
Are the players you’re dropping on the All-Star team?
If not, you should make the trade before this Monday
so you have the new players on your roster for the
Home Run Hitting Contest and the All-Star Game. If
the players you’re dropping are on the All-Star team,
you might want to leave them on the roster until the
Wednesday after the game; the trade will still cost
$10, but you’ll have the players on your team to earn
All-Star points for you.
A couple more reminders...
You can make your trades here.
You can bone-up on how All-Star
points are awarded here.
Standings:
At-A-Glance
| Overall | Division | Hitting | Pitching | Past
Leaders
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Balance Redux
It’s worth noting that yesterday’s lesson showing the need to balance solid pitching with hitting has already been taken to heart by some owners. The Apocalypse Dudes, who moved into 1st place Overall today, will get some pitching help after Nate Meyers dropped Sabathia and Webb and picked up Greinke and Haren. On making the trades, Nate said: “I strive for more balance. Well, more balance and first place.”
Meanwhile, the Merfelds are making pitching moves, too. Kevin and Mark dropped some deadweight on their pitching staffs, with Kevin justifying his El Hombre’s trade by saying: “Because I have eight more points than Brandon Webb this year. And my fastball tops out at 70 when I try to knock down milk bottles at the Carnival.” Mark’s Shankopotamus are currently in 12th place Overall and Kevin’s El Hombres are in 32nd place.
With 41 $5 trades made so far this season, the pot has grown by $205 since Opening Day and currently sits at $1,365. The $5 trade expires at midnight EST Wednesday, May 6th.
Standings:
At-A-Glance
| Overall | Division | Hitting | Pitching | Past
Leaders
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League How-To: Balance Hitting & Pitching
Last season’s Pitching Champ Scott Forstner is showing how a combination of decent hitting and superior pitching can make a difference in this league. His Forty Ounce Guzzlers are only in 4th place in the Hitting standings this season, but they are 1st in Pitching and have been in 1st Overall for the past five days.
To really see why the combination of good hitting and pitching is so important, take a look at Nate Meyers’ Apocalypse Dudes. While in 1st in Hitting, the Dudes are in 26th place in Pitching, dropping them to 2nd Overall, 17 points behind the Guzzlers. Or, consider the Carrboro T-Birds, owned by Brian, Adrian & Benjamin Thornburg, They’re in 2nd place in Hitting but 40th place in pitching, dropping them to 8th place Overall.
The lesson to be learned? Make sure you’ve got balance.
Incidentally, the Thornburgs appear to be learning this lesson. Three of the four trades they’ve made so far this season have been pitching moves.
Standings:
At-A-Glance
| Overall | Division | Hitting | Pitching | Past
Leaders
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How-To: Make A Trade
A couple of rookie owners have asked how to make a trade in this league, so we decided to ‘splain. It’s pretty easy, we promise.
Because teams can “share” players (i.e., a player can be on more than one team), you don’t have to worry about trying to persuade another owner to swap a player with you. Instead, you merely tell league officials (a.k.a., Rube and Pedregoso) via e-mail the name of the player you would like to drop and the name of the player you would like to add. Or, use the brand new Handy-Dandy High-Tech Trade-Submittin’ Form (yeah, we’ve got one of those now, too!) to tell us who you’d like to drop and add. It really is that easy.
There are a few other things about which you should be aware, though:
- You roster is limited to five pitchers and ten hitters. If you drop a pitcher, you have to add a pitcher. If you drop a hitter, you have to pick up a hitter.
- A trade goes into effect one day after you make the trade. As in: If you get the trade to us at 12 midnight on Tuesday morning instead a minute earlier on Monday night, the trade won’t go into effect until Wednesday. Thems is the breaks, baby.
- You only get ten trades the entire season.
- Trades are cheaper the earlier in the season you make ‘em.
Standings:
At-A-Glance
| Overall | Division | Hitting | Pitching | Past
Leaders
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