Mile High Minute :: ECB 2009, Week 3

Continuing their roller coaster season, the Mile High Mackerel claimed a 6-3 victory, edging LA of Anaheim by 57 points to establish their first winning streak of the season. Less impressive was the point total put up by the Mack, 353.5, which was the third lowest in the league.

“We need to get better, especially on the mound,” said GM Jon Bielecki, “We’re okay in the win column right now, but we’re a hair’s breadth from having a couple of 2-7 weeks, or worse.”

The pitching for the Mack was inconsistent again, with erratic performances both good (W, 8IP, 12K from Tim Lincecum) and worse than not playing at all (-.50 points from A.J. Burnett).

“We were in a tough spot last week,” Bielecki said, “I was banking on Lilly going twice, but he got pushed to Wednesday. Also Valverde got hurt and Papelbon has been less than solid.”

The offense dropped off a bit, producing it’s lowest score of the season. However the 238 points was very much a team effort. Six players scored 20 points or more, with no one over 33 (Nick Markakis). The Mack bats were hampered by slow weeks from Jimmy Rollins (9 points) and Chris Duncan (5 points). Rollins and Duncan have gone back to the bench for Week 4 with Kelly Johnson returning the lineup and Shin-Soo Choo joining the outfield. But Bielecki’s focus remained on the mound.

“Jimmy will start hitting one of these days,” he said, “It’s sort of like having someone on the DL right now. What we really need is to get more points out of our pitching. We’re giving up too many walks and that needs to stop. Again, I’m confident we’ve got a good core team assembled, it’s just going to take a few more weeks to get all of the pieces together.”

The Mack can take some solace in the fact that the ECB is in the midst of a league-wide parity never before seen. Although they have scored more total points than only LA of Anaheim, they trail second place Baltimore by less than 70 points.

Mile High Minute :: ECB 2009, Week 2

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Roaring back from a Week 1 bed-shitting, the Mile High Mackerel responded better than expected in their Week 2 matchup against the Marshall Street Menace. Raúl Ibañez led a well rounded offensive attack that resulted in 299 offensive points, just 26 points less than the entire team’s output in Week 1.

The pitching also came around, led by 2 wins from Gavin Floyd and a one-hit performance by Ted Lilly on Monday. Lilly was scheduled to pitch again on Sunday, and may have helped Mile High make a run for Team Of The Week honors, but the game was canceled because Adler controls the weather in Chicago.

“A sigh of relief? Yeah,” said GM Jon Bielecki, “It’s hard to know what to expect when a team stumbles out of the gates like we did in Week 1. It was nice to bounce back. Hopefully we can be more consistent in the coming weeks.”

With a 6-3 victory, the Mack move into sole possession of 3rd place in the standings, despite scoring the second least amount of total points on the season. Offensively, they rank second in the league behind Woosta and the bats will be needed this week, as Mile High only has one two-start pitcher going against LA of Anaheim.

H2H :: Back By Popular Demand Or Something

THE REAL DEAL, OR TAKE THE FIELD?
Speedway Starwiped the league, putting up a stunning 533.1 points in week 1, sweeping the weekly awards and embarrassing the Cones. Are they the real deal this season, or will you put your money on anyone else?

I take the field. Speedway has potential, but, well, it’s just that, there are too many “buts.” But will the Mets win for Johan? But will Stephen Drew deliver? But will Ryan Braun hit a home run? But will Magglio Ordonez, well you know. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Speedway isn’t any good, but I don’t see Josh Johnson putting up 63 every week. I will call Speedway the scariest team to have to play. Just about every Wipe could have a monster week, as Week 1 showed, but I don’t think the consistently will be there as the season progresses. So who do I take in the field? That wasn’t the question. My answer is: not Speedway, and I’ll leave it at that. Jon?

This is like taking the field versus Tiger, right? So Frieds is Tiger in this analogy? I love you Frieds, but the closest thing we have to Tiger is Braden in SBL. And that includes Adler’s ECB team. I agree, this team is built to destroy, but that destruction is going to rely heavily on big weeks from veterans Miggy Cabrera and Chase Utley. I think a key to them running the table this year will be the consistency of Evan Longoria and Ryan Braun. So far Longoria is raking, but it remains to be seen if the rest of the league can make adjustments to shut him down. If the season ended today, yes they would win, but I’ll take the field on this one.

YOUR MOM SUCKS
Both Mile High and Chicago had a terrible first week, but were lucky enough to be playing each other, playing to a 5-4 outcome. Which one of these teams should be more worried about starting the season which such a meager total?

Why would I say my team? Because after the draft, I really didn’t like my team. I can be honest about this. Papelbon? Really? That guy is like king douche, he has no businees wearing the glorious black and teal. I gotta give props to Grashow for having his shit together, because honestly I'm the type of GM that likes to have 5 minutes or more to make a pick. On those back-to-back picks it was bam-bam and I was totally unprepared, hence the Jose Valverde pick. Anyway, there were more question marks than not after the draft for me, and the first week didn't help my constitution any. Needless to say I'm sharpening the guillotine...

So what was your answer to the actual question? I got it. You’re not happy about drafting Papelbon in the first round. Good move, though, because 3 or 4 more rounds and I probably would have drafted him (salt in the wound?) Come on, man, get over it, you’re the defending champ. You’ve got Hanley Ramirez. That guy is so good he wears black and teal in real life! Rollins will come around, and your Yankees will start to swing the bat.

MVP-I-M-P ROOSTA
Since 2002 the league MVP has belonged to Woosta. Will this continue this season?

No. The glory days are over in Woosta. Despite my lack of faith in the team as a whole, I think Speedway has a good group of individual performers. It would not surprise me to see I see a ‘Wipe bat as MVP this season.

Unfortunately, I have to say that as long as A-Rod and A-Lbert reside in Woosta, it’s hard to see the MVP trophy leaving the hands of the Pimps. And I’m okay with that, because it’s got to pain most of the owners in the league to send the MVP award to Woosta every year, and sometimes make it be a Yankee. In fact, since this league’s inception, I think the MVP award has been synonymous with a-hole that I wouldn’t want on my team anyway. Would I like the buck the trend? Sure, but even if they’re winning awards every year, the Pimps still aren’t getting it done as a team. There’s no “I” in “put my name in the cup.” Yes there is.

LUCKY 7!
New Haven has finished in seventh place in overall scoring in each of the last two seasons. Is there some jackpot to be expected if they go 7-7-7, or will the T-Cones find their way into the playoff race?

The 7-7-7 sweep would have happened last year, if I didn't screw it up and finish 7th in '06, so my apologies there for not tanking it. You know what they say about sunshine and a dog's ass? Well you, my friend, are the dog's ass this year (not to be confused with the cat's ass, which ALWAYS GOES TO EIGHT BALL!). I predict at least a 6th place finish for the T-Cones this year. That being said, have a feeling that it's going to be a log jam from 3rd to 6th place, at least in the win column and there will be some "I can't believe I scored XXXXX points this year and didn't (or did) make the playoffs" after all is said and done.

I hate to talk good about my team as my KFS trophy case remains empty, but I’d like to agree. I’d like to see the Cones as part of that logjam you refer to. You’re absolutely right about that too. The past few seasons, in all KFS sports that has definitely been an increase in parity, especially in that 3-6 place area. I think that in itself is great, and I might be thinking that I might have a chance to maybe make the playoff cut this season. Kind of. Maybe.

ACCORDING TO BIFF’S SPORTS ALMANAC…
Predict the following:

League MVP

Jeff Says… Miguel Cabrera Speedway

Jon Says… Grady Sizemore Baltimore

Draft Steal

Jeff Says… Heath Bell New Haven, Round 25

Jon Says… Matt Garza Baltimore, Round 23

Draft Bust

Jeff Says… Mariano Rivera Marshall Street, Round 6

Jon Says… Alexei Ramirez LA of Anaheim, Round 8

Worst Keeper

Jeff Says… Russell Martin LA of Anaheim

Jon Says… Dustin Pedroia Marshall Street

MORE FROM BIFF’S SPORTS ALMANAC…

Jesse Orosco
Award Most Teams Played For

Jon Says… Brad Hawpe He's a power hitter and he's streaky. More than a couple of teams will try to ride the Hawpe Express as it's making its way uphill... Nice deer.

Jeff Says… Troy Percival But, apparently all those teams will be the Chicago Tiger Army.

Chris Carpenter Award
Most Likely To Spend More Than Half The Season On The DL

Jon Says… Chris Carpenter Annnnd done.

Jeff Says… Lastings Milledge Does half the season on the farm count? HA!

The Aubrey Huff Award
Biggest Second Half – Individual

Jon Says… Nick Swisher I think he'll platoon for the Bombers during the first half of the season, then someone will go down (NOT TEIXEIRA!) and he'll be a full time player batting behind A-Rod. A good place to be.

Jeff Says… Ichiro He’ll be back soon, and take some time adjusting to leadoff. He’ll still steal 40+ bases, though.

The Oakland Athletics Award
Biggest Second Half – Team

Jon Says… Speedway Weiters and David Price are imminent. Or am I just saying that so Frieds will keep them on his roster?

Jeff Says… Chicago Burrell, Bruce, and Kemp will produce and the tribe will give Kerry Wood save opportunities.

AT THE BUZZER…

	Out of time. We’ll try to do better next time. Good night Canada…you suck.
	Well said. I hope I’m wrong about everything I said in this episode. Lates, y’all…

Mile High Minute :: ECB 2009, Week 1

One of the few problems with living at altitude is that hangovers are long and painful. Such was the case with the mighty-mighty-Mackerel who dropped perhaps the biggest, smelliest hangover dump in the history of the ECB in Week 1.

Having picked up AL Cy Young winner Cliff Lee in the draft, pitching for the Mackerel should have been the story. It was. Lee and Tim Lincecum combined for less than 18 total points over 4 starts. Aaron Cook contributed 3.7 points on the week, bringing Mackerel two-start pitchers to a total of 21.3 points over 6 total starts.

“I feel like I’m more mature now,” said GM Jon Bielecki when asked if he would be breaking anything in response to his team’s performance, “Besides, XBox controllers are like 40 bucks. That’s a little steep.”

“I think Tim and Cliff will be okay,” Bielecki added, “We’ll wait until Cliff’s next two start week to put him in the lineup though.”

Time will tell what the future holds for Aaron Cook. “I have a red goatee,” he said in a post-game press conference, “Also, why the hell did the Rockies trade Matt Holliday?”

Offensively, the Mack were in the middle of the pack across the league. They weren’t helped by the fact that new toy Mark Teixeira sat out most of the weekend with wrist tendonitis. “I was pretty disappointed with my managers,” Bielecki said, “All we needed was a couple of hits to get a win and Tex, Damon, Helton, and Johnson all sat the bench on Sunday.” Helton has since packed his bags and slumping keeper Jimmy Rollins is not playing this week in favor of Robinson Canó.

Mile High plays Marshall Street this week, who put up 400 points in Week 1. “We’ll be back, probably,” Bielecki said, “There are a lot of new faces around here, so we need to figure out how to make this thing work.”