2009 LetsPlay3
Fantasy Baseball Season
First off, click on that picture up there.
It's the opening day lineup for the 1969 Chicago Cub.
Can you name them?
The answer is in the Fun section.
40 years ago. Jeez.
Congrats to the 2009 LetsPlay3 Champion... the KGG Nine!
Catch up on all the action Jackson, here: 4. Playoffs
...
Our Yahoo League is at: http://baseball.fantasysports.yahoo.com/league/letsplay3
This page: 1. Draft, 2. Draft results, 3. Regular season, 4. Playoffs, 5. Some fun
1. Draft
The draft is:- Mar 28, 2009 @ 3:00 pm
- Meet at the usual, Castle BillSkull
- Pizza afterward, fun throughout
- $50 optional money play, winner takes all
- Hilltopper Greg
- Chris Commish
- Cryo Jay
- Myles
- Justin
- Janny & Ryan
- Daryl & Aaron
- Ty
- Mrs. Killer Maltese Bobbie
- Killer Maltese Brad
- The Poap
- William T
With the (rotten) kids in play (Ty, Justin, Myles), we should have at least 8 teams. But you know the drill: recruit, recruit, recruit! It would be awesome to have 10-12 teams... more hapless souls for me to plunder on the way to my repeat. He he.
And here's hoping that Jay brings his hot, new bride to the draft... talk about over-marrying, ha!
draft this... yow, bill
PS - I heart Leo the Lip. Shit, he was a throwback in 1969. "Nice guys finish last"... huzzah!
2. Draft results
Mar 29, 2009
The draft was [pause] excellent. Thanks to all!
We started the draft with the presentation of the LetsPlay3 trophy to last year's victor, the Naperville Planets. There was much merriment. Wanna see?
... 
Enough already... here are the results:
- Draft by round - draft_results_by_round.pdf
- Draft by team - draft_results_by_team.pdf
peace... yow, bill
3. Regular season
This is the raw, gross data used to create the weekly updates: season_stats.pdf
And here are the weekly updates:
The weekly updates are now PDF files. Two things about viewing these PDF files:
- Try to right-click when viewing PDF to zoom in/out. Most PDF viewers have this functionality built-in.
- Scroll down. The weekly reports are 2 pages long.
A brief testimonial... I have finally broken my Microsoft chains. The spreadsheets below were created using Open Office. Guys, you don't have to shell out the $$$ for MSFT Office any more. Open Office works like a dream, even on the Mac. The following spreadsheets were seamlessly imported from Excel format into Open Office. Open Office did gag on creating HTML, but it creates "real", better PDF... which is at least as good.
Bottom line: Open Office rocks!
LP3 All-Star Team
Jul 13, 2009
All-Star break... F the Home Run Derby and nonsensical AS game determining home field for the World Series. Here's the LP3 All-Star team, best Yahoo-ranked guy at each position.
- C - J Mauer (min) - Rookie, #28
- 1B - A Pujols (stl) - KGG, #1
- 2B - C Utley (phi) - Kitten, #7
- 3B - M Reynolds (ari) - Devil, #11
- SS - H Ramirez (fla) - Hilltopper, #8
- OF - C Crawford (tam) - Hilltopper, #4
- OF - T Hunter (ana) - Platinum, #10
- OF - R Braun (mil) - CryoTed, #12
- DH - Prince (mil) - Destroyer, #6
- SP - D Haren (ari) - KGG, #2
- SP - T Lincecum (sfo) - Poap, #3
- RP - J Nathan (min) - KGG, #17
- RP - Ry Franklin - Brawler, #21
- P - Zack (kan) - KGG, #5
"One of these things is not like the other"... M Reynolds was snarfed in round 15 by the Devil. Nice snag, Justin.
Notable (re. surprising) guys who just missed the list: R Ibanez #14, Aa Hill #26, J Werth #18, Edwin Jackson #23.
Our first place team at the break is absolutely dominating the rankings. The KGG have 10, count em, 10 players in Yahoo's top 50 (well, B Hawpe is 51). That's silly in a 12 team league, even a goofy one like the LP3. Awesome drafting and pickups and trading (with mopes like me) by the KGG. Huzzah!
Now, on with the 2nd half!
Standings
Final LP3 standings for 2009:
| Rank | Team | W-L-T | Pct | GB |
| 1* | Killer Maltese III | 123-80-17 | .598 | - |
| 2* | KGG Nine | 123-80-17 | .598 | - |
| 3* | Cryogenic Teds | 120-82-18 | .586 | 2.5 |
| 4* | Naperville BlackCats | 119-86-15 | .575 | 5 |
| 5 | Hilltoppers | 111-87-22 | .555 | 9.5 |
| 6 | Rookies | 105-91-24 | .532 | 14.5 |
| 7 | Naperville Platinum | 102-102-16 | .500 | 21.5 |
| 8 | Vatican City Popes | 96-97-27 | .498 | 22 |
| 9 | DuPage Devils | 93-111-16 | .459 | 30.5 |
| 10 | Bay City Brawlers | 91-112-17 | .452 | 32 |
| 11 | Dallas Destroyers | 82-118-20 | .418 | 39.5 |
| 12 | Fairydust Kittens | 43-162-15 | .230 | 81 |
Congrats a-plenty, especially to:
- Congrats to the boys (Plat, Devil, Destroyer) on excellent efforts. This is a tough racket playing against a bunch of old crocodiles in the LP3. Each of the boys' teams seemed to be especially hard hit by injuries this year.
- Thanks to the girls: Brawler and Kitten. The first year is always a toughie.
- Congrats to, well, me. Naperville continued its string of playoff appearances for the 6th straight year... every year the LP3 (and its predecessor, LP2) has been around. The BlackCat are defending their 2008 title, looking to be the first-ever repeat champions.
- Congrats to the Poap as well. His string of consecutive playoff appearances (4) came to an end this year, but it was an excellent run that included the 2007 title.
- Congrats to the Cryo-Ted on his first playoff appearance. Jay is looking to add a baseball trophy to his current football hardware. We shall see.
- Congrats to KGG and Killer Maltese. These have been the two most consistent teams all year. It's the 2nd playoff appearance for each team. Good luck, boys!
A bunch of records set this year:
- BlackCat 36.3 rbi/week is a new full-season hitting record
- Rookie 3.14 era is a new full-season pitching record
- Platinum stole 18 bases in week 4... a new high
- The BlackCat went berzerk in week 14: 160 tb (new record), 19 homer (ties record), 56 rbi (3 off record)
Th-th-th-that's all folks.
peace... yow, bill
2009 All-LP3 Team
The All-LP3 Team for 2009, as determined by Yahoo-ranking, is:
| Pos | Player | Rank | Team |
| C | J Mauer, min | 14 | Rookie |
| 1B | A Pujols, stl | 1 | KGG |
| 2B | C Utley, phi | 13 | Kitten |
| 3B | M Reynolds, ari | 8 | Devil |
| SS | Hanley, fla | 3 | Hilltopper |
| OF | R Braun, mil | 6 | Cryo-Ted |
| OF | M Kemp, lad | 9 | KGG |
| OF | C Crawford, tam | 11 | Hilltopper |
| DH | Prince, mil | 7 | Destroyer |
| SP | T Lincecum, sfo | 2 | Poap |
| SP | Z Greinke, kan | 4 | KGG |
| RP | J Broxton, lad | 43 | Poap |
| RP | A Bailey, oak | 57 | Platinum |
| P | D Haren, ari | 5 | Cryo-Ted |
The thing that strikes me in this list... bo-ring! Pujols, Utley, Hanley... yawn. Pretty much the same faces as the All-Star team from the halfway point. Double yawn.
Kudos to the Devil on plucking Mark Reynolds in the 17th flippin round. And a hearty "Huzzah!" to the Plat on pulling uber-rook Andrew Bailey off the scrap heap. Huzzah!
One quick note on Pujols. There's a month left in the MLB regular season, and Pujols' line is:
- 111 run
- 44 homer
- 118 rbi
- 324 tb
Did I mention there's a month left in the MLB regular season? Jeez. Pujols is #1 in each bopping category, except RBI, where he's #2 to Prince Fielder's 123. Toss in Albert's 14 SB and you've got your MVP for the season.
LetsPlay3 2009 MVP
#1 - Albert Pujols, stl (KGG Nine)
Enough prattling... on to the playoffs!
thanks... yow, bill
4. Playoffs
LP3 Playoffs... "nuttin better" (TM) (c) (R) (etc)
QOTD
"A good friend of mine used to say, 'This is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains.' Think about that for a while."
- Nuke LaLoosh, "Bull Durham"
Championship Game
2009 Championship Game:
- KGG Nine 7, Naperville BlackCat 3 (boxscore)
Summary: The KGG stumbled out of the block Monday with a 7 earned run letdown by KGG starter Ricky Nolasco. But after that, the KGG never looked back and dominated the reigning champs in both pitching and hitting categories. Outstanding Saturday starts by Nolasco and Javie Vazquez clinched important pitching categories for the KGG. The BlackCat were led by boppers Ryan Howard and Tulo with 3 homers apiece. Napervile ace Roy Halladay, however, struggled with a Whip of nearly 2. It is the KGG's first title. Congrats, Chris!
Round 1
First round playoff matchups:
Naperville BlackCat 5, Killer Maltese III 5 (boxscore)
KGG Nine 7, Cryogenic Ted 0 (boxscore)
hit zee ball... yow, bill
5. Some fun
Two awesome sites
OK, I stumbled (well, surfed) into the most awesome site. There's everything about the 1969 Cub, including every boxscore for the whole season, available here:
And of course, if you don't know about baseball-reference, then you don't know your bid-ness:
Quiz Answer
The Cub starting lineup in the 1969 opener (and the guys in the image): SS Don Kessinger, 2B Glenn Beckert, LF Billy Williams, 3B Ron Santo, 1B Ernie, C Randy Hundley, RF Jim Hickman, CF Don Young, and SP Fergie.
Quiz #2. In the 1969 opener... what Cub hit a home run in the bottom of the 11th inning, propelling the Cub to a dramatic 7-6 comeback victory?
cub win... yow, bill