I'm going to chose to trade with the Cubs. Which is a little bit of a cop out because it's a 100% certainty that a transaction is made with the Cubs between now and the end of the world. Of course I'm talking about Theo Epstein who we've already made half a trade with, the Cubs got him. We haven't gotten anything in return, yet.

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I've been sitting around thinking about whether or not I should feel optimistic about the team going into next year. A large part of me feels that the team didn't miss the playoffs last year because of injuries, that there was some underlying issue that may or may not have been addressed yet, but I've also argued around here that I think good players play regardless of the scenario, that ultimately when they get up to bat it's just them up there, so it is possible that the Red Sox September was one gigantic naturally occurring slump by a bunch of our players. If that's the case, all things equal, we may never witness that again.

Using the roster as it looks right now, what can we expect?

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With all this talk about Yu Darvish being posted, it seemed appropriate to take a look at previous Japanese league players and how their statistics translated to Major League ball. This may provide some insight into what we may expect from Darvish if the Sox were to end up winning his posting. I'll look at players that were posted or came over in free agency, but will eliminate those who I consider to have been prospects or in development still (like our own Tazawa). Also limiting this to starting pitchers only, I think the transition for relievers is a little different because the relief game is so different. I'll take a look (if I can find the data) at their last three years in Japan and compare it to the first three of their MLB careers, largely because those three years will have the most relevance to their MLB play and it would be enough to notice any trends. After three years, I think we can largely identify what we have in a player. I'll focus mostly on the rate stats rather than the counting ones. I won't be using any advanced stats, largely because I'm lazy and don't want to do them out by hand since I can't seem to find them already calculated elsewhere, so ERA and WHIP it is...

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Alright folks, looks like we have enough to do at least 1 league.  In that league I've got the following holding spots:

Myself
Duke of Silver  --- email received
BigRedDog  --- email received
gizmosandy --- email received
Aloha
Dustins #1 Fan
baseball2515
Marisa --- email received
GroundRuleTriple99
BoldandBrash --- email received
brogshan --- email received
upCHUCK --- email received
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nuthinboutnuthin
Raj
B_Edelman --- email received
18-1 damn --- email received

I went first come first serve so everyone above the line is currently in if we do a 12 team league and those below the line have first dibs on any spots that may open up.  If we can get 4 more people interested we can break into 2 leagues of 10.  Or alternatively if anyone is interested in doubling up that would work too, but lets see how many we can get first, we do have nearly a month.

We will be going with Yahoo, the season starts Sept 8th, so I'm thinking that the draft should be somewhere between the 2nd and 4th, the weekend before opening day, seems weekends usually work better for people.  It's negotiable though, just makes sense to do it after the preseason so we have a better idea of starters and it'll weed out some injury concerns.  

So knowing the platform (yahoo) and the draft time frame (first weekend in Sept) and you still have interest, post here and send me an email at wade . paxson @ yahoo . com (remove spaces) and once we have the breakdown I'll send out the invites.  Please include your SBN username in the email so I can make sure that invites are going to where they are supposed to. 

Tweets and MLBTR are being obsessed over, players, prospects and money are changing hands, it's hot as hell and teams are gearing up for their playoff runs.

But this isn't about any of that.

It's time to begin preparing ourselves for the short break from when baseball ends, presumably sometime in mid-December, or is it January?  I forget, and it when it starts up again in February, man the season just keeps getting longer and longer. 

This time of year, is fantasy football season.  With the lockout lifted training camp has begun and the season isn't too far away.  How much interest is there in an OTM fantasy football league?  I wouldn't mind setting one up, but we'd need at least 10-12 people to fill a league.  I'm thinking Yahoo! but if there is a preference for ESPN or another service with the majority we could do that too.

I know I'm thoroughly enjoying the competitive nature of the OTM fantasy baseball leagues (what tight races to the playoffs!) and it would be great if we could keep it going a little longer.  Post your interest below and we can discuss if it's possible.

Here are the current standings:

Points leader German Red Sox is back atop the standings once again, what is most impressive is that he's done it while only making 7 moves, but points will come when you have Gonzo, Bautista, Lester, Haren and Shields on your team.  Despite a couple trades now, Total Bases has yet to win their first game under new management and the Above Averages are hanging just below their namesake.

Results from last week:

Unfortunately for DeNunez's Heater, the only other member of the 500 club this week was his own opponent, Wolfs GrittyHustlers.

Egg of the Week goes to Duct Tape Superstars and their 289.83 point performance.

Nail Biter of the Week was The Above Averages over Total Bases, winning by only 11 points, or roughly barely more than a one inning save appearance.  Although I'd like to give a shoutout to my opponent BZ who had me sweating in the final stretch, being at one point only 20 points down with a couple more starters left, (fortunately) they never pulled through for him.

This week's matchups:

I gotta call the Wolfs GrittyHustlers and SuckiestBunchaSucks, both in the top 3 of the league.  Pressure is on German Red Sox as he is up against Total Bases, #1 against #12.

Here's your occasional, once in a while, semi- weekly update for the league goings on.  Let's start with the current standings:

There is still a ton of parity in the league, no one has really broken away, except for the bottom three teams, in the wrong direction but the season isn't even half order and some good moves can easily but them back in contention with the mass of teams hovering around .500.

Team Total Bases (formerly MY FN TEAM) has been transferred to Marisa and now that she's played every team, she will be allowed to manage starting with this week.

Results from last week:

500 point club members this week are myself and SuckiestBunchaSucks.

Egg of the week goes to Monsters of the Fens with their 327.33 point performance.

Nail Biter of the week goes to the match-up between Green Fog and Duct Tape Superstars, separated by only 2.5 points.

This week's match-ups:

Watch out for the results of German Red Sox and Wolfs GrittyHustlers, they're #1 and #2 respectively in points so far this season.

In the middle of the fourth inning against the Orioles the other night the page was turned on the first 25% of the 2011 MLB season for the Boston Red Sox.  Are we where we wanted to be?  Definitely not.  Are we damned?  Certainly not.  Have our players performed up to expectations?  Some have while many have had their struggles.  Is our outlook sunnier than the record indicates?  With out a doubt.  While post-game writeups and Minor Lines are a great way to follow the team game to game, I thought it would be interesting to see how we've looked over the whole thing so far.

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Tons of movement at the top of the standings this week, very little at the bottom:

Despite having collected over 200 more points than the closest competitor, German Red Sox has been relegated to second place by a team with 400 less points, nothing seems fair in life does it German?  Congrats to BZ for his "efficient" winning style, something that might be necessary this week.

Wolfs GrittyHustlers stands second in total points but 5th in the standings with a 3-3 record, getting a lot of tough match-ups so far.

gizmosandy's Students of the Game still pace the league in transactions, which is working out as he now stands at .500 on the year.

Paging the owner of MY FN TEAM...

Week #6 Results:

With no team breaking the 500 point barrier this week, the Iron Man award goes to Suckiest Buncha Suck for his 450.33 point performance, just edging myself out by 1.33 points.

Egg of the week goes to MY FN TEAM with their 264.00 point performance.

Nailbiter of the week saw our former #1 team fall to #2 as German Red Sox lose to brogshan's Green Fog squad by a mere 3.5 points. 

Week #7 Matchups:

Matchup to follow this week is Band of Zealots against Wolfs GrittyHustlers, the first place team takes on a team that has outscored them by a couple hundred points so far this season.