It's Weak Sauce No Matter How You Stir It

Another week, another episode of volatility and variance.

Fantasy baseball suddenly dropped its +EV status. This is due to changes in rules AND site instability. I'm not risking any more DQ's to site difficulties. I'm not sure yet whether I'll change sites or keep playing.

Stud 8 is definitely the flavor of the week. I'm playing a bunch on FTP with decent results. However, I'm rather disturbed that ratholing is going on with abundance there. You can leave a table and re-sit IMMEDIATELY (minimum buy-in) with no penalty. I'm going to post on the FTP forum and see if I get any response.

Lord Gezinkor is alive! I did see him on my IM list one day before his most recent post. It appears he is even doing well at the tables.

Highlight of the week was catching a Chiefs game in Syracuse. 70 degree weather, cold beers and a 13-6 win to go with my mild sunburn. Not a bad day at all.

Random Inspirational Observation Of The Day*

"Some people have more faith in you than you have in yourself, but you just have to perform to the best of your ability and the hell with everything else."

*Quote lifted from my favorite weekly seer who shall remain nameless.


Well, the learning curve in baseball is about complete. Here's what I've learned:

You can't win squadoosh without a decent pitching performance. In other words, pitching is EVERYTHING.

In hockey, the goalie is a key player. However, the scoring is balanced enough that your goalie can get negative points and you can still win.

Baseball is different. The scoring is not balanced. You need at least 10 points from your pitcher to have any shot at a winning day. The only pitcher that's even come close to being a lock for those must have points is Jake Peavy. (Don't even bring up Cliff Lee... just don't, OK?)

My pitcher coughed up a stout -7 on Sunday (Thanks Braden!), yet I still managed to win 3 heads-up contests. I guess sometimes your only hope is that someone picks the same lousy pitcher.

I'm actually playing poker daily (again), perhaps just to deflect my attention from my fantasy nightmare of the week.

More later.

Darknessssss.....

I'm running very bad this week. I'm glad I was white hot to start the month, because that first week is keeping me in the black for now.

I'm not doing anything wrong, just not getting the breaks. Lots of one point losses. No love from my starters. Kuroda, Dice-K, Hamels, Bannister, Halladay have all coughed up shitty performances.

Meanwhile, I'm getting crushed by Nelson Figueroa, Javier Vazquez and Cliff Lee. CLIFF LEE. Raise your hands if you think any of these guys are better than Halladay or Hamels.

I didn't think so.

Nothing else to do but keep diggin'. No NASCAR this week. I'm playing a little smaller until I turn it around. One nice byproduct of losing is you get lots of action. I'm still thankful for that.

Hopefully I can get out of this funk. When you need help with your Buffalo funk, only one name comes to mind.

More Of The Same

Thanks, Saito.

Another 9th inning miracle costs me a winning day.

Never mind that the next batter had an injured shoulder, and was a righty/righty matchup that couldn't hit a HR if his life depended on it.

Just go ahead and take on the best Pirates hitter after giving up two singles, 20+ pitches into the inning.

(I'm looking at you, Joe Torre.)

Sheesh, these Japanese pitchers are giving me fits. It's amazing I only finished down a few bucks on the day.

That is all.

All Over The Place

I'm sitting here listening to the Red Sox choking away their big lead to the Yankees. Dice-K's performance had me upset enough to turn off the TV.

This week has seen:

1) On Wednesday, I had my biggest losing day to date. Kuroda failed me. French vanilla tilt.

2) On Thursday, Albert Pujols was credited with a 9th inning uncontested SB DOWN 5-0, which turned a winning day into a loser. Listerine tilt.

3) Saturday was heavy traffic and I had my biggest winning day to date. Results would have been better if Harvick and Smoke did not run out of gas.

4) Today, there were server problems. I was DQ'd in three contests outright. Incomplete rosters on 10 contests. After a solid hour of Rutger Hauer tilt I settled down and played another round of contests at 4pm. With the Dice-K walkfest, it's looking like my NEW biggest losing day.

So volatility was the theme of the week. I have the bankroll to handle the swings. I did reward myself with a healthy cashout this week.

Speaking of cashouts, it appears that ePassporte is no longer an option for poker players. This is bad for me, I get all of my affiliate payments through poker sites. Now I have no immediate method to collect the funds.

Fantasy came along at just the right time, I guess. It's making me more consistent money than poker. I'll have action all year - MLB, NHL, NFL, etc. It's the only good development resulting from the UGIEA.

Hang On, This Ride Gets A Little Bumpy

After crushing baseball for the first week (winning over 70% of my contests), I finally had a loser. My biggest one day $$$ loser to date, much to the delight of my regular foes.

It was one of those days where everything just fell apart. Studs that were 5/10 lifetime vs. SP took the collar. Also injuries and late inning heroics did me in on a few close ones.

Surprisingly, I did not venture past french vanilla tilt into the other realms. After running hot, I was due for a cooler. It just seems that fantasy can't tilt me because it's out of my hands once the games start.

Hockey is over (for me, anyway) while NASCAR is running weekly for the next month. I broke even in last week's race, Truex blowing up in the last 10 laps cost me all my profit.

Hopefully, I can bounce back and continue to get action at my current levels.

Nice Try, Schaubs

I believe that's 3-1, me. Correct me if I'm wrong. See you next season.