Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged

Got a fairly good grip on 6th place and just managed to break the 80 point barrier, 80.5 to be precise, with a slight shot at 5th if the team ahead drops the ball big style. A bit of a fly in the ointment is that I’m running out of games for certain positions, 1st and 2nd base are done, already completed 162 games so having to use Delgado and Utley in the utility spot, the outfield spots will be done before Sunday as well. Made a last couple of moves, Aaron Miles, Cameron Maybin and Manny Delcarmen looking, as I seem to have been dong for the last few months, for help with AVG, WHIP & ERA. And seem to have had some success, putting on 10 points in the last 6 weeks, 8.5 on the pitching side, will have to start thinking about what’s to be learned from this year, seem to have proved the old adage that hitters hit as I still have the majority of position players I started off with, but only have one of the pitchers, Joba Chamberlain.

Just watching the game I recorded on C5 last night and wondering who will miss it more, the season ticket holders who have been there many, many times or baseball fans, such as myself, who have never been there and now will never have the chance? A friend of mine visited there in the late seventies and I was always jealous of him, he’s not even a sports fan let alone baseball or Yankees fan, which only goes to show the lure of the place. And just makes me all the more envious of him now baseball is done there.

I loved this performance, it was everything I expected from a team managed by Capello but was starting to wonder if it would ever be produced. The absent Gerrard has got to be worried, I’m not sure how well he would fit into a team that played so cohesively; great shape and discipline and everyone making good decisions on distribution, delivering crisp accurate passes. We showed great patience, and could afford to due to the way we moved the ball and effectively pressed Croatia when they were in possession, but not to the point of stagnation that we seemed to reach against Andorra. We must still understand that we have reached a position where, as supporters, we are entitled to ask; are we Jekyll or Hyde? Are we really the team that performed tonight or the one that turned out on Saturday or against the Czech Republic? The performance can’t be knocked by carping about the opposition or that they went a man down, we were bringing it to them when they had 11 and they have a home record we would sell organs for but it is still just one performance, show me another three similar to this and I will start to get really excited! We need to continue to do it against opposition of the calibre of Croatia but also against lesser opponents who will put 10 and 11 men behind the ball for much of the game, will we be able to stay patient and confident in front of a chippy home crowd when it’s 0:0 after 60 minutes?
I saw the game live on Setanta and I don’t know what was finally resolved by way of a highlights package but let’s stop knocking Setanta about the way they are trying to sell the highlights. I’m no fan of Setanta, they pissed me off royally with their handling of NASN a few years back but they purchased an asset and with it the right to derive revenue from that asset. The question should be asked of the FA; why did you give up showcasing the national team on terrestrial television as a hostage to fortune in the first place? The maximum price a terrestrial broadcaster should have to pay for such a package should have been incorporated in the contract or the rights to the highlights kept in the hands of the FA so that they were in a position to place them in the best interests of the game.

Let the clichés begin, ‘no minnows in international football’, ‘all we wanted at this stage of the competition were three points’, ‘a good, workmanlike performance’, ‘they were only interested in defending and kept 11 men behind the ball’ and just because they are clichés doesn’t mean they are not true, but equally they don’t tell the fundamental truth of the game, at least as I saw it, England did what the talking heads wanted them to do, we tried to play a ‘technical’ game, ball on the ground, quick passes to feet, pretty patterns. And prior to the opening goal, from a set piece mind, it delivered fuck all. I’m not about to go looking for match stats but my impression was that apart from dealing with the odd cross and picking the ball out of the net twice, the Andorra goalkeeper was required to make about as many saves as David James. How can this be when we have about 70% possession? I’m sure he wasn’t as relaxed as James with the ball spending so much time in the Andorra half but it’s not as if we were limited to two goals due to him standing on his head. Terry showed his limited distribution skills, Lampard should have been all over this game like white on rice and was anonymous again with Barry being the most effective in midfield, Wallcott was good but, ultimately, never delivered the killer ball.
Chris Waddle was dribbling on about how well we were playing this technical game whilst it delivered nothing, there is nothing wrong with having this sort of game available but plan B is still needed, maybe if we hadn’t have scored then it might have been forthcoming after about 60 minutes but that remains to be seen.

I did manage to spend a whole 24 hours in 6th place yesterday, back in 7th now though. For the past couple of months 6th has looked like the realistic limit to my ambitions this year, the team in 5th bounces around in the mid to late eighties and, as of today, I’m at 76.5 points, though the guy had a bad day yesterday losing 3.5 points on a day of very few games so he might just be a little vulnerable still. I’m still not entirely sure what has generated this surge, other than having a bench full of hitters to move in and out of the team as someone gets hot, working the free agent pool and spot starting pitchers. But this is something I’ve been trying to all season long and I don’t feel that I have any better an approach to this strategy than I did at the start of the season. I’ve certainly cashed in on a few hot streaks, though it’s starting to look a little more than that for Delgado. Picked up a hot Fernando Tatis, and since flipped him for what I guess to be the other half of the platoon, Ryan Church, had Alexei Ramirez and then dropped him for Shin-Soo Choo and with Russell Martin in a bit of a slump I dropped Ramon Vasquez for Kelly Shoppach with Martin now being eligible at 3rd I’ve got him splitting time with a pretty cold Troy Glaus, though both are riding the pine at the moment as I have to find room for a hot Casey Blake. For all this activity though it looks from the points splits between pitching and hitting that it’s the pitching that’s moved me up the table having gone from 25/75 a month ago to 30/70. I’ve held on to Nolasco but with Chamberlain on the DL the other starters have been spot starts, Glen Perkins for a few, Braden Looper, Josh Johnson, Jonathan Sanchez, Manny Parra and even the venerable Jamie Moyer. Chamberlain is back now but it’s not clear what the Yankees have in mind for him, he made a relief appearance a couple of nights ago. Picked up Frankie Francisco as he seems to have the closing job for the Rangers, I don’t think I can make up anything in SAVES but I have points to protect there as a couple of teams are fairly close behind but the nearest in front is 10 ahead, though you never know, I could have a 4 SAVE night with Broxton, Francisco, Gonzalez and one of Ziegler or Devine and that might make things a little more interesting. Principally looking at WHIP and AVG to pick up more points though, but this has been the case for quite a while and they become harder to move as the season goes on, WHIP is at a seasons best of 1.36 but only comes down at a glacial rate yet seems to leap up disproportionately at the whiff of a 2 inning, 6 run outing. The line-up I have going tonight has a combine average of .326 for the past week and if this continues then I hope to keep the AVG moving up. Choo was picked up for nothing but average, going 10 for 18 in the past week and I suspect there will be other free agent pickups if they show a hot hand.