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Berzerker
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topeka, kansas,USA
May 1999
time: 23:30
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Assuming I end up losing the last week 13-2 to the Noobies and the Sextones don't go 15-0 against the Weasels (a safe assumption at this point), I'm assured of winning the regular season with a ~196-115 record.  Too bad I couldn't pull out at least 6 categories the last week to break the 200 win mark, but here is my wrap up:
The key to my season was picking Todd Helton on the first round, still batting over .350 and over 1.000 OPS. Ironically, two outfielders I took rather late in the draft turned out be very big producers - Vernon Wells (Tor) and Preston Wilson (Col) - neither of whom I figured would be as important as they turned out to be. Sadly, I would have run away from the crowd with a much better record had I taken better pitchers or kept pitchers I gave up early to waivers. Wade Miller (ranked #11 by Yahoo) and Greg Maddux (#6) were a real drain on my season and hanging on to them as they continued pitching poorly didn't help.
I gave up on Jamie Moyer (Sea) and now he's 16-6  so the reason I had almost twice the number of transactions as other managers during the season was because I was in a constant search for a pitching staff. Hell, I don't think I have any of the starters I took at the beginning of the season and I've spent the last 5 months trying out different pitchers. Dontrelle Willis (Fla) was a really pleasant surprise as I was carefully eyeing a number of call ups from the minor leagues. I got him when he was 1-1 and he proceeded to go to 9-2, now ~11-5 as his magic has warn off a bit and the Marlins have ceased producing alot of runs when he pitches.
Gil Meche (Sea) was another nice pick I grabbed after seeing him pitch a game and he had impressive stuff, and fortunately I got him as he went on a streak and only dropped him recently as he too is getting hit. I, and I believe the manager of Seattle,
noticed he's effective up until opponents go around the order twice and then he gets hit around the 6th inning, I've seen him get pulled in the 6th and 7th innings while still cruising. I won't run down a list of all the pitchers I tried, but another very important pick was Greg Gagne, the closer for the Dodgers. Wow! He was definitely worth sacrificing a 2nd round pick... Not just 45 straight saves but K's galore... My second closer was Mike Williams of Pittsburg and while he sure piled up plenty of saves, he's so weak in other categories (ERA, K's, WHIP, and K/BB's) I dropped him when I saw Matt Mantei (Ariz) avaliable, and that turned out to be not only wise but timely, Williams was soon traded and is now a set-up man with Philadelphia where he can produce plenty of baserunners for the Phillies' opponents. 
Troy Glaus (3rd-Ana) was a real dis-appointment, a ho-hum season ending with a torn rotator cuff and I took him early. I gave up on Jason Kendall (C-Pitt) when he was batting in the .270 range and now he's around .315 - figures. Not getting one of the top catchers early on, I shouldn't have wasted a middle pick on him, but his ability to steal bases was too irresistable. Instead, I should have left catcher open till the end and picked from those still available. Edgar Renteria (SS-StL) proved to be an excellent pick even though I took him pretty early - glad I did. Luis Gonzalez (OF-Ariz) was my first OF and worthwhile, but not quite as productive as Preston and Vernon.
2nd base was another position I've been trying to fill with a hodgepodge of players, just not many top notch players at that position so if you don't get one with an early pick you're stuck playing musical chairs with a bunch of people. Soriano sure would be nice there but you'd have to grab him early... The Noobies beat me to a very nice pick, I had been watching Esteban Loaiza (P-ChiWS) and had decided to get him as a free agent but was delayed for a couple hours and when I got back to grab him, the Noobies had already taken him. 
So there you have it, now  to me, the Apolyton Pennant Champion. 
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Vlad Antlerkov
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Do you have Matt Stairs in your house?
Mar 1999
time: 23:30
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My main mistakes, as I see them, were:
-- keeping Vicente Padilla and Cory Lidle in the rotation too long (and in Padilla's case, giving up on him at the exact wrong time)
-- using Jose Jimenez. (Self-explanatory.)
-- drafting Luis Castillo instead of Jose Vidro (who went with the next pick). I picked Castillo for the stolen bases, and he's only stolen 18 to date. 
This was pretty good for a first effort, IMHO. I think I dropped Livan Hernandez at least twice during the season.  And of course, my faith in Johan Santana paid off, as Gardy had no choice but to pitch him every fifth day.
One thing that I'll try to do once the season ends is figure the runs scored (from the weekly stat) and runs allowed (ERA times IP, divided by nine) for each team, then use that to figure the Pythagorean won-lost record. Given the workload that I'll be taking on this school year, look for this analysis to be done by July 2004.
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Soul Survivor
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UChicago
May 2003
time: 05:30
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Well the Noobies proved to be.... well Noobies, but next season will be better (hopefully)
I had the 2nd most moves (56), after getting screwed the first week b/c of a change of rules.
FINALLY my guys are playing to their potential but its too little too late.
Injuries to nen and beltran early in the season, while shawn green was a HUGE bust and ordonez was flat at the beginning of the year.
Things went on, soriano got cold, traded ordonez and percival (who starting playing unbelievably as soon as I traded them) for oswalt (still on the DL) and larry walker (what the hell was I thinking).
I had to build a pitching staff from basically scratch, percival, nen and wagner were my only halfway decent pitchers.
A good number of surprises, borowski had a decent year picking up 20+ saves for the cubbies. Jose Lima was good, until he got injured. Matt Clement has been great since the all star break.
But then theres the big 2, which I somehow managed to pick up from waivers/free agents.
Esteban Loaiza, one advantage of getting no starting pitchers early on is I get to pick up a lot of guys to test them out for a few weeks. For a time I had Peavy, Chacon and others until this guy came along. He's really earning his $550,000 in chicago, Cy Young candidate.
And then there was Berz's worst move of the year. When I saw Moyer, Jamie Moyer on waivers I couldn't believe it. I think I had 5th priority at the time, but I was praying for hours on end that no one else would pick him up. Another all star, and potential Cy Young.
Recently my offense has also found its spark, I had been struggling all year for a catcher and shortstop. Then these two rookies from the Mets really start hitting at the big league level, Jason Phillips and Jose Reyes (day-to-day  ) Reyes is leading the majors in extra-base hits since the all-star break and Phillips, who played only a few games as catcher, gets eligibility in that position and finds his way into my lineup.
Another big name pickup from free agents, Torii Hunter, have a very sub-par year, but still someone who I knew wouldn't last there for long just because of name recognition.
Onwards to the consolation bracket!
Hopefully I can squeeze out a 13-2 victory over berz this week and get the 9th seed to play pent 
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Imran Siddiqui
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The Potterverse
Jan 1970
time: 00:30
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My main problems this season was injuries and underperforming players. My #1 was Randy Johnson who has been useless for much of the year. My #2 was Miguel Tejada, who has been nothing like his MVP year. My #3 was Lance Berkman who totally underachieved. My #4 was Eric Chavez who also underachieved, but has been great of late (as has Tejada). My #5 was Jarrod Washburn, who like the rest of the Angels really didn't live to potential. My #6 was Keith Foulke, who is the FIRST player to live up to his draft position.
And with all THAT, I'm still making the playoffs!
Why? Well, for some reason everyone else let Garrett Anderson fall to me in the 9th round, and Richie Sexson & Randy Wolf were good mid-draft pick ups. Lieberthal has been a solid Catcher and C.C. Sabathia was a good late season pickup. Early season I won because of picking up McDougal (the KC closer), as well as having the Foulke and Williamson.
My team has changed a great deal, but I think it is very strong heading into the playoffs. Tejada and Chavez are FINALLY hitting like they were supposed to, Anderson has been great, Isringhausen got better at the right time (and has been LIGHTS OUT). The pitching staff is juuust good enough.
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Soul Survivor
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UChicago
May 2003
time: 05:30
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1 shy of 200 for berz
I ended up 1 GB in my other league on a team that just looks significantly better than in my 'poly league.
And I did end up winning the last week 10-0 but it wasn't enough... the other guy put up good numbers
R HR RBI SB AVG W SV K ERA WHIP
21 7 27 1 .264 2 3 35 3.52 1.33 but...
34 12 44 3 .312 5 5 51 2.37 1.07 mine
Javy Lopez, Derrek Lee, Soriano, Mueller, Nomah, Reggie Sanders, Wells and Posada for my hitters.
Webb, Izzy, Ponson, Prior, Hampton, Colon and Mulder for my pitchers.
Lopez, mueller, webb, izzy, ponson and hampton I got from free agents.... now I'm hoping to win the playoffs
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31-08-2003 15:19
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