Sunday, November 6, 2016

We have a winner! ...A...different one!

From the This Is Why I Ask You To Check My Math files...I cross-checked the numbers for the top four finishers with the cumulative-postseason totals on MLB.com, and something didn't look right. Like, a "we had a different winner entirely" kind of "didn't look right." So I checked it again, combing through every relevant box score to tote up the left-on-base numbers, and swearing very colorfully at myself for not setting up an automated spreadsheet ahead of time like I promise myself I will do every year, then forget about doing until September 30.

I don't know where the arithmetic initially got biffed, and I apologize for not catching it sooner...but the money is in fact

Shee/Bell 227.33
Arbour 206.33
Simone 197

and Williams at 189.

I ran this set twice to make sure and am reasonably confident this is correct and final BUT I am going to hold payouts for a day, to make sure nobody is seeing different results on their end. Again, so sorry about this, but I'd rather get it right late than not at all.

Questions/alternate totals, feel free to comment or email me -- and belated congrats to our winner, the Sheehan/Bell household! [bustles off to set up Excel automation]

Thursday, November 3, 2016

CHC 8, CLE 7 (10); Cubs are World Champions

What a crazy game. And now the season's over; gross.

Points below. Just a reminder as/if you're looking over the totals for the pool that, when pitchers bat, they are eligible for hitter points -- and liable for LOB deductions as well. I may have forgotten to make that explicit.

Not relevant to last night's contest; just thought I'd mention it.

Baez 2
Bryant 0
Rizzo 2
Russell 1
Zobrist 0

Hendricks 5.67
Lester 6

***

Bauer 1.67
Kluber 4

Napoli -3
Santana 2

-----

Hendricks and a last-game surge put a first-time player as the BPP champion; congrats, Arbour!

Arbour 203.34
Simone 201
Williams 193

Shee/Bell 190.01

160s Johnson 1, Yuhan 1

150s Bingham 2, Reid Love

140s Stempel, Cameron 1

130s MacEachern, Drake, Bauer 1

90s Ekard, Bauer 2

80s Shotwell

Which I guess leaves Simone as the Cleveland of this outfit this year. Sorry, kid. Nice little haul for you, though, still. Thirty-two slates at $10/pop = $224 for the leader, $64 for second, $32 for third. 

I will leave these here for the day and wait for the arithmetic errors to be pointed out (heh/sigh) but I don't expect much to change in terms of the final rankings. I'll do another cross-check in the evening, and send out everyone's winnings tomorrow. Any questions or errata, emailing me is faster: bunting at tomatonation dot com.

Watch this space and thanks again to everyone for playing!

Cuuuuuu-UUUUUUUUUBS!!

Hell of a thing, towards the end of a year that has tried our souls. Days before an election that isn't really going to end even after the polls close, now we have this, this poem. The David Ross part of it alone...just one of half a dozen subplots in this year's postseason that a network executive would have sent back for rewrites because it's too on the nose.

Roger Angell finally saw a Cub championship. Three out of my four grandparents were born and died without seeing that. The other, my dad's dad, was a year old in 1908. He was also an A's fan, which is probably what killed him at age 46. ("'Probably'?" - Cameron.) Wherever he is, he gets it.

I thought the pool would never see it! I feel like we've been making these jokes since the very first year, that you can bet your heart (the Cubs) or you can bet to win, that I hated seeing a bunch of Cubbeenie picks because it meant half the pool got knocked out by the LCS. Not this time. Not anymore.

So, Cubs fans, from a Met fan minted in 1985 and schooled in the Met-history catechism, that our first crown in 1969 came with a big assist from y'all (and a brunet feline), who remembers the Dawson Cubs and the Manny Cubs and wishes Mr. Banks had stayed just a little bit longer so he could have shared it with you guys: call in sick, dump all those books about the curse on Half.com, and enjoy it. 

And welcome back to the ranks of rooting neuroses NOT tinged with history. You're just like the rest of us now. 

(Indians fans, my condolences. This team will never really get its due -- see also: 1919 Reds, Cincinnati -- but you guys were great and I'd have loved to see you win too. And if ownership/management's casting about for something to blame, I'd strongly suggest the name and mascot, and get rid of it, yesterday.)

"Buntsy. Come on man. Where's the money." I'm right on top of that, Roses, just got some day-job/life stuff to check off. Stand by. 

Wednesday, November 2, 2016

CHC 9, CLE 3

By the time I got home last night, this game was functionally over...and now we spend the day biting our nails and waiting for 8 PM. I have no predictions, nothing to say, no idea what awaits us.

Wait: I do have something to say. Anyone who thinks baseball is boring is fucking insane.

Speaking of madness: points.

Baez 1
Bryant 9
Rizzo 8
Russell 9 (and that's after 4 LOB)
Zobrist 1

Arrieta 11.67

***

Napoli -1
Santana -1

---

This is going to come down to the wire thanks to Hendricks getting the nod for tonight and Arbour taking over authoritatively in second place:

Simone 191
Arbour 189.67
Williams 183

Shee/Bell 181.01

Johnson 1 161.34
Yuhan 1 160.34

Bingham 2 152

Stempel 143.67
Reid Love 140.33

MacEachern 138.34
Cameron 1 133

Drake 129
Bauer 1 126

Ekard 96.33
Bauer 2 92.66

Shotwell 87.67

---

Now is the time to check my math.

8 PM ET: Hendricks v. Kluber, drought v. drought. Let's do it.

Monday, October 31, 2016

CHC 3, CLE 2

I imagine some of the folks at the top of our standings are torn: root for the Cubs, or root against Arrieta getting another shot at racking up points?

I don't have these problems, since Drone Boy's performance last night still won't have dragged me out of last place, but as a human being I'm glad the Cubs didn't get routed at home.

Points:

Baez -2
Bryant 5
Rizzo 2
Russell 1
Zobrist 0

Lester 9 (left two on)

***

Napoli 1
Santana 1

Bauer 11

Standings after the jump!


Sunday, October 30, 2016

CLE 7, CHC 2

You know, at times like this, I think maybe the Met-fan mentality -- "we'll cock this up somehow, just wait" -- is prophylactic. It's not that we never have any hope; it's that defeat, when it comes, is expected. It is a return to a familiar natural order. The disappointment remains, but is not crushing.

I'm not saying that Cub fans should think this way or that it would make their pain any easier to bear. But if you've ever read Bill James's long essay about the 1985 World Series, and his observations from the Royals-fan side of the aisle about the mental breakdown the Cardinals suffered after "The Call," you might agree with me that being the presumptive heirs to the ultimate W all year long -- not believing they could or should win, which is appropriate, but assuming they would, which is not always smart -- may have put the Cubs up agin it in terms of the ability to handle their current psychological situation.

Again, I don't know. I have no degrees and we're just talking here. But amid the nonstop slavering ballyhoo going back to March over the Cubs' murderers' row of hitters this and arms race on the mound that and Maddon the pressure sensei the other thing -- and these things all existed, but October can be a volatile bitch -- Cleveland just quietly got their shit done. Also had scary good pitching, much of which they didn't get to bring to the postseason with them. Also had a nasty lineup (including, apparently, the AL's MadBum at the plate?). Are not getting the tongue bath the Chicagoes are, and if it's because FOX isn't comfortable showing thousands of fans wearing a racist cartoon that Cleveland isn't getting the same invented-flush-toilets coverage, okay.

...Wait, I've seen at least half a dozen Trump ads during the Classic so far. So I guess your racist cartoon only gets coverage if he pays for it.

ANYWAY, all this by way of saying that I really felt for Vince Vaughn last night, because I have been at actual, literal funerals where that would have gone better for him. And I am not sure it's going to go a whole lot better for the Cubbeenies tonight.

Points:

Baez -3
Bryant -1
Rizzo 4
Russell 0
Zobrist is the new Rizzo -4

***

Napoli 0
Santana 7

Kluber 12 (6 IP + 6 K - 1 BB + 1 TB, nobody left on)

Standings after the jump!

Saturday, October 29, 2016

CLE 1, CHC 0

An old-school pitchers'-duel nailbiter ends in a victory for Cleveland and, fortunately for all of us, no off day in which the baseball commentariat might work itself into a tiz about the pressure facing the Cubs.

Not that FOX has any compunction about doing so for us while detailing Tom Verducci to make pretentious pronunciamenti from the infield involving Chicago poets. Shut up, FOX. I'm-a shove the lot of you into that pool McConaughey keeps backflopping into and hold you under. ...Well, I guess A-Rod's okay, and Burkhardt.

Someone's trying to drown the offensive points, that's for sure:

Baez -1
Bryant -1
Rizzo 0
Russell -1
Zobrist -1

Hendricks 8.33

Napoli -2
Santana 0

---

Here comes Arbour. Standings after the jump.


Thursday, October 27, 2016

CHC 5, CLE 1

The little bears even the score with a fairly authoritative night at the plate; Drone Boy managed not to soak the mound with gore this time but has never exactly been Greinke when he's not injured, so it's not surprising the Cubs solved him.

But did anyone else find this game hard to keep his/her attention on? Not to blame Joe Buck for everything (although muttering imprecations about him at a pile of cat vom does take the edge off), but something about the unmodulated blaring of Buck and John Smoltz just kind of turned the entire audio experience of that game into the PA system in that Felicity episode when they get stuck in the subway. I should just mute the TV and listen to it on the app, I guess.

Anyhoodle: points!

Baez -4
Bryant -1
Rizzo 2
Russell 0
Zobrist 5

Arrieta 8.67

***

Napoli 2
Santana -2

Bauer 3.67 [Roger Daltrey rock scream] [hee]

You know the drill...


Wednesday, October 26, 2016

CLE 6, CHC 0

...Huh.

As I've said before, I don't know how much stock to put in foolishness like "mo," or "the zone," or "clutchiness." It's like ghosts; I believe in them, while freely admitting that I can't prove their existence.

With all of that said, while I wouldn't put too much stock in relative amounts of time off before the Classic, or in home-field advantage, and while I did expect the...Clevelanders (I can't with the name anymore, and especially Wahoo, so if nobody minds, I think I'll go back to calling them the Naps around here) to win Game 1, I expected more of a head-to-head pitchers' duel. Lester gutted it out out there, but it felt to me like he knew somebody was going gopher on him eventually; Kluber never thought that would happen. Sometimes that's the difference.

(I don't think it was the throwing-to-first thing no matter how much the booth snarked on it. If Joe Maddon thought it mattered he'd have fixed it.)

Points, and it's a grim one:

Baez -1
Bryant -1
Rizzo -1
Russell -4
Zobrist 4

Lester 9.67

***

Napoli -1

Kluber 15

Standings after the jump!


Sunday, October 23, 2016

CHC 5, LAD 0; Cubs advance, believe it or not

...I'm still not sure I do, the next morning, and as thrilling as it is to see something that hasn't happened in over seven decades, I can't help wishing this had been a little less pathetic on the Dodgers' side of things. I respect Kershaw's grim struggle, but it seemed to infect the whole team, that they lay down and let looming destiny step over them after that first inning.

But now it's on to The Classic Of Narrative. Or, depending on your slate, the scrapheap. First, the points:

Baez -2
Bryant 3
Rizzo 7
Russell 3
Zobrist 0

Hendricks 12.33 (left one on base)

***

Seager -1
Turner 0

Hill n/a
Kershaw 9
Maeda n/a

And of course the gents below the asterisks will be leaving us, and taking a few poolies with them, but let's look at the standings first, after the jump.


Friday, October 21, 2016

CHC 8, LAD 4

There was discussion in the baseball commentosphere about whether Kershaw should have started last night's game, for psych-out reasons. I thought they should save him for the road, keep the ace up their sleeves, and I imagine they're glad they did.

Not sure what to expect on Saturday, honestly. The momentum has shifted back to Chicago, but off days are funny things.

Points:

Baez 5
Bryant 4
Rizzo 1
Russell 7

Lester 8 (left four on)

***

Seager -1
Turner -1

Maeda 7.67

Standings after the jump!


Thursday, October 20, 2016

CHC 10, LAD 2

The Cubs of pre-pennant ballyhoo showed up with a vengeance last night, particularly one Rizzo, who came close to wiping out a postseason of futility to date with 10 points. Interesting that guys who had carried their pickers for a while -- Baez; Seager; Bryant -- have quieted down at the plate somewhat. 

As Charley Steiner noted on the L.A. radio broadcast last night, it's down to a three-game series, functionally. In the meantime, your points...

Baez 1
Bryant 0
Rizzo 10
Russell 8
Zobrist 1

***

Seager -4
Turner 2

Money and current standings after the jump!

Wednesday, October 19, 2016

CLE 3, TOR 0; Cleveland advances

This is a happy story for Cleveland, though somewhat distressing for the pool; they have a great team, and I'm not the only one who's underrated them all along.

But I don't think it's underrating Cleveland, or disrespectful, to suggest that we all expected quite a bit more lively a performance from this Toronto team. They've looked exhausted for days. That win yesterday may have used up their last reserves of energy.

The points:

Napoli 0
Santana 6

***

Bautista 3
Donaldson -1
Encarnacion -2

Happ 0
Osuna 2

And the five gentlemen below the asterisks will be leaving us. Technically this doesn't leave anyone without any picks, so we'll stand pat for a bit, probably until we have both World Series teams.

The money:

120.33 Simone
119.34 Yuhan 2
118.33 Williams

100s MacEachern and Stempel

90s Bingham 2 and Shee/Bell

CHC at LAD starts in a few minutes; good luck!

LAD 6, CHC 0

The Trolley-Dodgers take a 2-1 series lead, and in the space of three days, the narrative has gone from "it's cool, it's fine, no presh" to "Are Cubs fans maybe possibly starting to freak out, a couple of them?" to "EVERYBODY BURN SOME SAGE OMG." Baseball as a season of a reality show has been giving the Cubs the smug-victory edit all year, and I do kind of want Chicago to win so we can finally bury this particular editorial angle, forever...but I don't completely hate seeing them realize that they actually have to go out and win the games with the core of their offense shitting the bed.

And...you know. I root for a team whose offense has been shitting every piece of furniture between here and the sea for like five years. It's a little easier to take if you're used to it. Cub fans aren't, and the adjustment is painful to watch.

I'm not particularly concerned for the team's chances -- Urias is...variable; they'll have their opportunities -- but if Joe doesn't at least consider sitting Russell, who knows what they'll be able to do.

Enough chitchat: points.

Baez -2
Bryant 1
Rizzo 0, which I wouldn't ordinarily bother noting but what a nice surprise that it isn't a negative number, eh? ...oh wait, here's...
Russell -2
Zobrist -2

Arrieta 10

***

Seager 4
JuTu 3

Hill 9 (cost himself a point with an LOB)

Money/standings after the jump.


TOR 5, CLE 1

The Jays stave off elimination for themselves -- and much of the pool -- with a nailbiter afternoon win, 5-1, and a fair number of points to go around. Well, except for the guy who's putting the "au(gh)" back in "Bautista." Come on, guy.

And speaking of "come on," I get that the Cubs are "the narrative" of Postseason '16 and that that game is on PT now, but...maybe give the ALCS a primetime slot? Like, one?

Ready for primetime as well are your points:

Santana -2

Kluber 10

***

Bats -1
Donaldson 6
Encarnacion 4

Osuna 3

The lead changes hands temporarily:

Simone 120.33
Williams 114.33
MacEachern 112.34

Yuhan 2 just off the pace at 109.34, Stempel and Bingham 2 around 100.

Back momentarily with the NL score and full standings.

Tuesday, October 18, 2016

CLE 4, TOR 2

I meeeeeean...before the bloodletting literally began, the drone story still wasn't that cute. Doesn't Bauer (not our Bauer, who aside from the neuroses that attend any Mets season-ticket holder seems properly socialized) (...hee) have a history of kind of not "getting it" re: being a big-leaguer? Maybe I'm remember that incorrectly, but I feel like he got dumped by the D-backs for maturity issues.

TBS should get dumped by MLB for nausea issues; we only need maybe one middle-distance shot to get the point. Bauer's uniform pants looked like a fucking Gallagher show. WE GOT IT, CAMERA FOUR.

Of course, those of us counting on Bauer to Hail-Mary us into the money really started to feel dizzy when we realized he became possibly the first BPP pick to leave the hill with negative pitcher points, because the gore compromised his control. What a world.

Speaking of points...this Jays lineup is becoming death from above the last few days. I don't tend to put a ton of stock in momentum but you have to wonder what happened to these hitters between Boston and now.

Napoli 9
Santana -2

Bauer -0.33 (...ffs)

***

Bats 1
Donaldson -2
Encarnacion -3

Osuna 2

Money, full standings after the jump.


Monday, October 17, 2016

LAD 1, CHC 0

Los Angeles evens the series at 1-1 to send it back to Chavez Ravine...and a low-scorer like this, while a pleasure to watch for fans of the game, sent various slates down ravines of their own. Rizzo Seager LLC needs to file for bankruptcy, mang.

Points:

Rizzo -1
Russell -1
Zobrist -1

Hendricks 6.33

***

Seager -3

Kershaw 12

Another fine outing by Double Deuce restores MacEachern to the top spot:

108. 34 MacEach
106.33 Simone 
104.34 Yuhan 2

100s Williams, Stempel

80s Bingham 2 and Shotwell

70s Ekard

60s Shee/Bell

high-50s hopefuls Reid Love, Arbour, Currie, Cameron 1

And everyone else staggering along behind. Nobody with a slate above 70 points picked Rizzo. I'm not saying; I'm just saying. I'm also not saying for sure that Adrian Gonzalez is locking up the Shane Victorino Memorial "THAT Guy?!" Award, but I'm seconding Bean's nomination of him for sure. It's kind of weird; every other year he's been eligible, he's been an extremely popular pick. This year, nada. Shows what we know.

Toronto tries to leverage its SkyThunderDome fans for a hometown win at 8 ET on TBS, Bauer v. Stroman. See you then.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

CHC 8, LAD 4

This was a wild one that had baseball Twitter fuming over IBBs and poor ol' "Say It Ain't So" Joe Blan'on getting pwned by a pinch-hitter, and yeah, I guess Roberts made some "dumb" moves, or got the percentages flipped, or whatever you want to say. I wouldn't have played with that kind of fire given this offense, but it could have worked.

What it did do was bring some of the only sincere joy or wonderment I've heard from Buckwad during a baseball game in several years. Like, narrating that Montero mama, he actually sounded like he didn't hate being there/Jack Buck's kid. It was nice.

Too bad Smoltz made "up" for it with incomprehensible attempts to slam "stat guys." FFS, retired players: get over it. And we're not all guys. And shut up.

(Not you, Pete Rose. Your making it awkward by inviting yourself on A-Rod's plane is in my top three things that happened yesterday.)

ANYWAY. Points:

Baez 4
Bryant 4
Rizzo, continuing to goddamn kill us -3
Russell, don't help -4
Zobrist 1

Lester 8

***

Seager -2
Turner 1

Maeda 6 (yep, that includes his lone futile base)

Money/standings after the jump!


CLE 2, TOR 1

This series is shaping up like the pitching-duel-rich matchup you'd expect from the NL series...which you're sort of getting. It just takes twice as long because Roberts never met a pitching change he couldn't overthink, but we'll get to that. In this one, Cleveland stymied the Toronto bats once again.

Well, except for one. Congrats to this games sole-pick holders, who get to jump up the standings unaccompanied

Napoli -2
Santana 6

***

Bats -2 (geh)
Donaldson 3

Happ 8
Osuna 1

Money looks about the same, but Stempel closes the gap some:

Simone 94.33
Williams 93.33
MacEachern 92.34


Yuhan 2 91.34
Stempel 89

But this is all going to get shuffled up with Cub/Dodger points; next update should see Yuhan 2 back in the lead. Stand by!

Saturday, October 15, 2016

CLE 2, TOR 0

How very postseason pool of Marco Estrada to throw a CG when nobody picked him...and lose on two runs.

Fun game to watch; National League levels of tension, without all the PH futzing.

Points!

Napoli -1
Santana 1

Kluber 10.33

***

Bats -3, because gah
Donaldson 2
Encarnacion 2

New leader! Standings after the jump.


Friday, October 14, 2016

LAD 4, WSH 3; Dodgers advance (!)




Pretty much. (Can someone find me that Brian Kenny STOP BUNTING shirt, though? Or maybe I should just use the same graphic and print my own with CAN'T STOP WON'T STOP.) I mean, did anyone even know Kershaw had teeth?

I do feel bad for Nats fans, to the extent that someone who had to put up with Murphy losing ground balls in the sun in the infield for however many years (and...not hitting like that even remotely until 2015) can feel bad for them. Cubs fans, meanwhile, should be delighted. They can piranha this series and let the bones sink to the bottom in five games tops. 

A few slates will have to do that as well. First, last night's points.

Seager -2
JuTu 5

Hill 6.67
Kershaw (!) 1.67

***

Harper 0
Murphy -1
TreTu 0

Scherzie 9 (6 IP, 7 K, 2 BB; 2 LOB)

And those four are out. Are <em>you</em> out? Standings and recalibrashe, after the jump.

Wednesday, October 12, 2016

CHC 6, SF 5; Cubs advance

I feel a little silly not having expected exactly this outcome, but of COURSE the Giant bullpen cracked. I suppose the only real surprise is that the series went to a fourth game.

The points:

Baez 3
Bryant 1
Rizzo 1
Russell -1
Zobrist 1

***

Belt -4
Pence 1
Posey 1

And we lose those three plus Bumgarner, Cueto, and the injured Pagan.

Full standings after the jump.


Tuesday, October 11, 2016

LAD 6, WSH 5

I'd like to tell you I was conflicted about watching Chase Utley punch the game-winner past a diving Murphy, but...past a diving Murphy. I'm not sure the Dodgers can finish the job, but it sure is nice to see the Nats squirm.

Points!

Seager -5
JTurner 4

Kershaw 18.67. Love it.

***

Murphy 5
TTurner 6

The money:
78: Yuhan 2
75.67: MacEachern
70: Williams, Stempel, Simone

high 50s: Bingham 2, Ekard, Shotwell

40s: Bunting 2, Shee/Bell, the Johnsons, Yuhan 1, Reid Love, Currie, and Quinn

30s: Arbour 1, Reid Hate, Cameron 1, Bingham 1, Brady, Green, Crase, and Bauer 2

20s: Bauer 1, Drake, Broomfield, Cameron 2, Bunting 1, Winklepleck

10s: Elodie, Arbour 2

SF 6, CHC 5 (13)

I fell asleep listening to this game, and woke up in the middle of the night to the dulcet tones of Jon Miller's wrap-up...which sounded to ME like the Cubs had won, which was sort of how I'd left it when I dropped off.

Nope! Los Gigantes went blown save for blown save with the bears apparent and lived to fight another day. You're killing me, not-smalls!

But in a good way, at least pool-wise. Your points:

Baez 1
Bryant 10
Rizzo -4 (argh)
Russell 2
Zobrist 1

Arrieta 17 (6 IP, 5 K, 1 BB; 4 TB, 1 R, 3 RBI, 1 LOB)

***

Belt 2
Pence -4
Posey 4

Bumgarner 8

Standings after the jump!


Monday, October 10, 2016

CLE 4, BOS 3; Cleveland advances

I'm happy for Cleveland, but I hate to see Papi go out like that, NOT TO MENTION HALF OF US. God, this is grim.

The points. SIGH.

Betts 2
Bogaerts 1
Bradley -1
Ortiz 1
Pedroia 2

Buchholz 7
Uehara 2

***

Napoli -3

Departures and leaders, after the jump.


WSH 8, LAD 3

..Ugh, although Murphy's negative-number performance warmed my heart a bit. Well, until the Cleveland/Boston game ended, and I don't know when I'll have the strength to get to that, so let's get this done first.

Your points:

Seager 1
Justin Turner -1

Maeda 5

***

Harper 4
Murphy -3
Trea Turner 1

Your money is currently as follows:

Williams 65
Yuhan 2 64.33
Stempel, Simone 55

Ekard and Reid Love just behind.

But now...I have to calculate the lava flow that is the Red Sox loss. Talk about a horror movie. And Arrieta just hit a home run. I don't even know.

TOR 7, TEX 6 (10); Blue Jays advance

Mighty courteous of the Jays to wait 'til I switched over from the debate to beast the Ranger defense, but that was about as much excitement as I could take in one night...

It felt all September like people kept forgetting the Rangers had won their division/existed, and it felt all week like they were never really in the LDS. And...now they're not, and I wonder whether Banister isn't going to pay for this Groundhog Day result with his job, deservedly or not. 

Your points:

Andrus 4
Beltran 1
Odor 8

***

Bats -5
Duck Donaldson 7
Encarnacion 9

Osuna 4


The following picks have gone dark:

Andrus
Beltran
Beltre
Darvish
Hamels
Odor

As knockouts go, this is not disastrous, but a few slates will suffer for the series not going longer (Hamels was set to start a Game 4, I think, which wouldn't have gone well but could have carried a few slates a little longer). 

Standings after the jump.

Sunday, October 9, 2016

WSH 5, LAD 2

Finally, someone makes a series out of the LDS! ...Too bad it's the Nats, all of whom I'd like to shoot into the sun. No negative points, though, so that's a nice change of pace.

Seager 4
Turner, J 3

Hill 6.33 (buncha Ks, left 3 on)

***

Murphy 6 (ugh)
Turner, T 3

View's still more or less the same at the top:

Williams 57
Simone 51
Stempel 46

Bunting 2, Yuhan 2, and Reid Love also in the low-to-mid-forties. I was expecting some shuffling up today with three games going on, buuuuut we're back down to two because it seems the Biblical downpour we were getting here at midday is movin' on up to Boston, so CLE/BOS is tomorrow at 6 ET. Showdown in the Skydome still on for 7:30 as far as I know, since...it's a dome.


CHC 5, SF 2

As a TV critic, it's great that some of these serieseses seem set to end in three; it frees up my primetime for, you know, my job.

As a poolie...enh. Would anyone like to put up a fight here? The years when half the pickers drop out after Week 1 aren't any fun for anyone.

From last night's authoritative win by the Cubbeenies:

Baez 2
Bryant 1
Rizzo -4
Russell -1
Zobrist -1

Hendricks 6.67 (3.2 IP, no K, no BB; 1 R, 2 RBI, 0 LOB)

***

Belt 1
Posey -1

everyone else cancelling their TBs out with LOB

Money, standings, and schedule after the jump.


Saturday, October 8, 2016

CHC 1, SF 0

Anyone else watch the FS1 crew watching Bill Murray's face on the replay as Javi Baez's homer sailed? I should just clip that as a GIF the next time someone's like, "But baseball's so dull and fiddly." I can't really argue with that.

But who can argue with this:


Your points!

Javi "Girl" Baez 5
Bryant 2
Rizzo -1
Russell 0
Zobrist -1

Lester 13

***

Belt 0
Pagan 1
Pence -1
Posey 3

Cueto 18

Compare these numbers, in a one-run pitchers' duel, to those of the Dark Hose. Pretty creditable job staying in the positive column! Full standings, after the jump.


Friday, October 7, 2016

LAD 4, WSH 3

Thaaaat's more like it. Almost everyone out of negative territory! ...Except Maniel Durphy, and this Mets fan is looooving that.

Seager 6
Turner, J 8

Kershaw 11

***

Harper 2
Durph -2
Turner, T 1

Ol' Husky Eyes 11

Now we've got a horse race; standings after the jump.


CLE 6, BOS 0

Man, these Boston hitters are KILLING US. Not to mention that they too are now down 0-2 going into the AL off day. Boston has the highest number of picks in play; this could get ugly fast.

..."Uglier." FTFM.

Betts -2
Bogaerts 1
Bradley -1
Ortiz -3
Pedroia -2

Price 4.33

***

Napoli 1
Santana 1

Kluber 11


The money:

Bunting 2 23.67
Williams and Simone 20
Ekard 18.33

Reid Love, Bingham 2, Stempel, and Yuhan 2 just off the pace.

A few folks banging around in the negative numbers, and Arbour Prime is not yet on the board. Still too early to freak out about anything until we've gotten through a couple NL games.

Back shortly with the LAD/WSH scores. As always, feel free to check my work.

TOR 5, TEX 3

It's getting late early for Texas, y'all -- and now they have to enter the maw of the Skydome on the brink of getting swept. Which is a fitting punishment for what they're inflicting on their pickers. Fuck's sake, Beltran, people are trying to make money over here!

Nice day at the office for off-the-beaten-path picks, though.

Andrus -1
Beltran -4
Beltre 0
Odor -2

Darvish 8

***

Bautista 1
Josh Ramone -1
Encarnacion 5

Happ 9
Osuna 4.67

The money:
Bunting 2 26.67
Reid Love 16
Stempel and Yuhan 2 15

Quinn and Ekard just off the pace.

Other AL game's in progress as we speak, and my shiny second-day lead won't last long with Price and Kluber pitching.

CLE 5, BOS 4

Ah, the vagaries of the pool. This looked like a game that would let everyone "eat" points-wise, but the Boston picks LOB-bed us big-time.

Beaneaters:
Betts -2
Bogaerts -2
Bradley -1
Ortiz -2
Pedroia 2
HanRam 4

Porcello 10.33
Uehara 1

Wahoos:
Santana -1

Bauer 10.67

...Hmm. I seem to be occupying the top two spots so I must have made an arithmetic error (now as in the past, please bring any math cock-ups to my attention). Broad standings after the jump...

TOR 10, TEX 1

I did get to watch this curb-stomping on the plane, in fact. My attempt to shorthand why I was excited about it for pool reasons to my seatmates didn't go well.

Plenty of points, but not all of them in the positive column....

Andrus 5
Beltran 1
Odor -1
Hamels 1.33 (oof)

Bats 9
Duck Donaldson 10
Encarnacion 1

So after the cocktail-hour contest we have Yuhan Deuce in the lead with 11, a huggermugger of Donaldson pickers at 10, some other people, and everyone else waiting to get on the board. Stand by for the nightcap.

Thursday, October 6, 2016

Here we go!

Welcome, new poolies! Welcome back, old hands. BPP 2016 is now underway!

A few notes before I huck the laptop into my bag:

- we don't appear to have any dupe slates, somehow, despite some very popular picks like...

- Kris Bryant (our most popular) and Max "Ol' Husky-Eye" Scherzer (most popular pitcher pick, trailing KB by just one)

- y'all seem equally dubious about Washington (only four players represented) and Cleveland

BPP veterans well know that betting with your heart (i.e., on the Cubs) frequently sees a decimated pool population by Week 2, but almost nobody DOESN'T have a Cubbeenie on his/her roster, so let's hope things go differently this year, for a bunch of reasons.

Any early nominations for the Shane Victorino Memorial "THAT Guy?!" pick nobody made? Somebody wised up and picked Justin Turner this year so he's out (hi Lauren!). It's going to be some goddamn backup catcher, I bet.

Snap of the picks after the jump. Good luck, everyone!



NL Wild Card: SF 3, NYM 0

Well: yeah. The 2015 postseason was exhilarating for a Mets fan, but also exhausting, and the 2016 campaign had its pleasant surprises but, if only for recuperative purposes, needed to end so everyone could go lie down with a green shake and let their bones knit.

Now it's on to BPP 2016 and hoping the Cubs finally win this fucker so we, and they, can stop talking about it.

Do I think that will happen? ...I don't. But that's why they play the games, and that's why WE have the BPP.

Picks are due at noon ET. 

Because I'll be over Nebraska somewhere when this shit gets rolling, start times et al. after the jump...


Wednesday, October 5, 2016

AL Wild Card: TOR 5, BAL 2 (11) and a reminder

No, I don't get the Britton thing either. Yes, that means we have seven out of eight potential teams in play, to wit:

BOS
CHC
CLE
LAD
TEX
TOR
WSH

Reminder: points do not accrue on wild-card games. The clock starts with the first division series; it did not start yesterday. A few of you have submitted picks that may not survive the day. bunting at tomatonation dot com if you have questions or need to make adjustments.

And of course the deadline, which is tomorrow, October 6, at noon ET. I am traveling tomorrow but I will do my best to respond in a timely fashion.

Monday, October 3, 2016

BPP 2016: How it works

Hey, all. With 162 in the books (more or less), the 2016 postseason officially gets underway tomorrow (that's Tuesday 10/4) with the AL wild card game. NL's wild card game is Wednesday.

You're welcome to wait and see who makes it out of the play-in; you're also welcome to send picks in now. Just a reminder in case you've forgotten/misplaced the email about the points and whatnot, after the jump.

Anything changes due to rainout/what have you, I'll let you know.


Thursday, September 29, 2016

[tap tap] Is this thing on?

[kaff] Heyyyy ever'buddeh. It's getting to be that time again! And: "great" news, the Cubs have returned to inflict the agonies of head-vs.-heart pool-picking upon us for another year!

Watch this space (and your inboxes) for the specifics, but as of last night, we do have all six division winners in place, so you may pick from

WSH
CHC
LAD


BOS
CLE
TEX

or you may wait until the last possible moment to see what the wild-card action looks like.

Said last possible moment as of this writing is Thursday, October 6 at noon ET.