If Caleb goes...

0 for his next 152, then we are tied in batting average. Caleb, can you hear the footsteps?

Prediction

My prediction is that Mark or I will win the league this year. I know Bill has been the favorite, but there are a couple big factors now in play that will change things. Those factors are Andrew and Spencer, because now that both of their teams have been pretty much stripped of all their point scorers for the rest of the season, they're going to get passed in a lot of categories by the rest of us. Just who exactly gets the most points from this will get a big boost towards winning the league. So let's take a look at each team and see how they are set up to get points from passing Andrew and Spencer:

Bill: Behind Andrew in 3 categories, AVG, ERA, and WHIP, but is far behind and probably won't catch him in any of them. Behind Spencer in 2 categories, AVG and WHIP, and has a good chance of catching him. However, all of these are rate categories, not totals, so Spencers lack of producers remaining on his team might not really affect him there. Points: 0-2.

Caleb: Behind Andrew in 2 categories, HR and RBI, and looking at Andrew's team, is just about guaranteed to catch him in both. BUT, Caleb is already ahead of Spencer in everything. Points: 2.

Mark: Behind Andrew in 4 categories, SV, K, ERA, and WHIP. Just about guaranteed to catch him in SVs, kind of 50/50 on Ks, and probably will not catch him in the rate categories ERA and WHIP. Behind Spencer in 3 categories, SV, K, and WHIP. Guaranteed to catch him in SVs, probably better than 50/50 on Ks, and has a good chance of getting WHIP. Again, however, WHIP is a rate category and won't be affected as much by Spencer's trades. For Mark, whether or not he catches both in Ks depends on whether or not he decides to stick with his 6 closers (5 now that Guardado is in MIN) or put in more starting pitchers. Either way he'll catch them in SVs, but if he sticks with the closers, I also might catch him in Ws while he passes me in SVs. Ignoring the Ws and SVs races between Mark and I, his points to be gained from Spencer and Andrew are: 2-5.

Luke: Behind Andrew in 4 categories, HR, RBI, SB, and SV, and I think pretty much guaranteed to catch him in all of them. Behind Spencer in 1 category, SB, and tied in SV. Guaranteed to break the SV tie, but about zero chance of catching him in SB. Points: 4.5.

My bet would be that from all of this, the points will go like this:
Mark: 5
Luke: 4.5
Caleb: 2
Bill: 2

There are obviously a lot of other factors in play, and a lot of things that could still change, but this is gonna be a big one.

The Perfect Day?

As of 6:50 PM I am 0/13 across my team. With only Delmon Young and Denard Span to go a truly perfect Pete Rose Legacy O fer day is finally in reach. Keep checking this blog posts for exciting updates.

Trade Winners and Losers

I don't have time to do a full analysis but off the top of my head:

Winners:

Bill - With good value in the first round next year, losing crawford was not a big blow, and Quentin, with another HR today, will at least be pretty good next year with a waiver wire pick up. Meanwhile, he strengthened his position for this year, which he needed with all the injuries.

Andrew - Andrew will now be keeping Cabrera, Crawford, and Longoria, just to start. That's a pretty nasty start to a line-up. Oh, and he also has Jacoby Ellsbury, Adam Jones, Chris Davis, and Brandon Morrow. Drew should be in great shape next year.

Slight Winner:

Mark - This was a trade Mark needed to make but Longoria is arguably the best keeper in the game. It should make for a VERY interesting end of the year race, but things would look a lot better if he had managed to block andrew's second trade with Bill. As it is, MZ is still well positioned keeper wise with granderson and sizemore, but can only watch in pain if this year's title slips away and has to watch longoria hit 45 HRs next year.

Caleb - Again, good value in the first round next year (Texiera, Bay) so i like the ordonez trade for him (even though I pulled the trigger). I learned the hard way about pitcher keepers, but halladay and kazmir are much more of a sure bet than frickin clay buccholz. Doesn't have the killer keeper that Bill or Andrew has, but looking better for next year.

Loser:

Spencer - I just really wanted Ortiz on my team. But aside from that, while Andrew made 4 or 5 dump trades, I had to content myself with getting delmon young, and brandon wood. Not exactly laying the groundwork for a return to glory. The bottom line was that Andrew had the players to trade, while i had total crap like Sheffield and Paul Konerko. What an utter disaster of a season.


???????

Youuk - I can't decipher all of the trades Youuuk made - at first I thought he was positioning himself for keepers but then he traded me for carlos pena? He added a lot of talent for this year, some good keepers (Beckett, Cano) - so I'm not sure how to figure it all out. But he's still very much in it this year, so he's a dark horse for taking the title this year.

And Bill loses crawford...

...not that Bill needs him given his lead in steals, but just another blow to the juggernaut.

Holy shit...

Favre's a Jet. How weird is that?