The YanksBlog.com Fantasy Baseball League entered the playoff rounds today, just as the Yankees Bloggers League did. Thank you to everyone who participated this season. Anyway, here are the final regular season standings:

Rank  Team                 W-L-T       Pct   GB
*1.   Patrick (YB)         139-64-17   .670  -
*2.   Hip Hip Jorge        111-93-16   .541  28.5
*3.   Sports!!!            107-99-14   .518  33.5
*4.   terpballaz           103-103-14  .500  37.5
*5.   The American Idiots  95-112-13   .461  46
*6.   The Holy Muffins     91-114-15   .448  49
7.    yanks#27in07         92-120-8    .436  51.5
8.    Seamus               87-120-13   .425  54

As you can see, I took first place, so congratulations to me on that. :) And congrats to everyone who made the playoffs, including Hip Hop Jorge, who has earned a 1st round playoff bye due to finishing in 2nd. The match ups for this week:

3. Sports!!! vs. 6. The Holy Muffins.
4. terpballaz vs. 5. The American Idiots.

Good luck everyone.

Andy Pettitte lost to Tampa Bay for only the second time in 20 career starts as he surrendered 11 hits and five runs. He was able to work his way out of several jams until he surrendered a homer to Carlos Pena to make the score 5-1. The Yankees would add a run to make it 5-2 but then Edwar Ramirez gave it right back and then some by giving up gopher balls to Josh Wilson and Akinori Iwamura.

The Bombers looked kind of flat all weekend after sweeping the Red Sox. The good news is that the Seattle Mariners have lost nine straight and the Yankees still maintain a two game lead over them.

The season gets even more interesting starting Monday afternoon when the Mariners visit the Bronx for a Labor Day afternoon tilt. Young phenom Felix Hernandez is on the hill vs. Roger Clemens in the first of a three game series.

A-Rod currently sits at 45 home runs. The Yankees have played 137 games and he has played 135. He's on pace to hit 53 home runs. Only 3 Yankees have ever hit 50 home runs or more. They are Roger Maris (61 in 1961), Babe Ruth (60 in 1927, 59 in 1921 and 54 in 1920 and 1928) and Mickey Mantle (54 in 1961 and 52 in 1956). Not too shabby. If he hits 50, he'll do something for us that no one has done in 46 years.

It's playoff time in the Yankees Bloggers Fantasy Baseball League. The top 6 teams in the league made the playoffs and those teams are Mike (River Ave. Blues), James, Ben (River Ave. Blues), Dave (Pride of the Yankees), me and Aziz (Pride of the Yankees). So, we've got two teams from River Ave. Blues, two teams from YanksBlog.com and two teams from (Pride of the Yankees). And no two guys from the same blog will have to face each other until, possibly, the championship game as the top and bottom brackets each feature one person from each of the three sites. It's funny how that worked out.

Congrats again to everyone who made it. Mike and James took the top 2 spots in the league, so they both receive first round byes and will not be playing this week. Let's take a look at this week's match ups.

3. Ben (Regular Season Record: 112-98-10) vs. 6. Aziz (108-103-9)

Previous match ups:
Week 8: Ben wins, 7-3.
Week 17: Aziz wins, 5-4-1.

Ben's strengths: home runs (2nd in the league) and batting average (3rd).
Aziz's strengths: runs (3rd), home runs (3rd), RBIs (2nd), batting average (1st), saves (1st) and ERA (3rd).

Ben's weaknesses: stolen bases (8th).
Aziz's weaknesses: wins (9th) and strikeouts (8th).

Finally, I just wanted to highlight the comeback that Aziz had to make, just to sneak in as the last save by 1.5 games. He won his final 4 matches, 3 of which were against playoff teams, beating Mike (5-2-3), Dave (7-3), James (7-2-1) and EJ Pinstripe Potentials and Pending Pinstripes) (10-0). Huge comeback there.

The winner of this game will face James.

4. Dave (111-97-12) vs. 5. Patrick (109-103-8)

Previous match ups:
Week 4: Dave wins, 9-1.
Week 13: Dave wins, 8-2.
Week 22: Patrick wins, 7-2-1.

Dave's strengths: batting average (2nd) (the brothers Nekoukar have batting average locked down).
Patrick's strengths: runs (1st), home runs (1st), RBIs (1st) and strikeouts (3rd).

Dave's weaknesses: runs (8th), wins (8th) and strikeouts (9th).
Patrick's weaknesses: stolen bases (10th), ERA (T8th) and WHIP (10th).

The winner of this game will face Mike.

Good luck everyone.

This is my weekly recap of the performance of the YanksBlog.com teams in the Yankees Bloggers Fantasy Baseball League.

Last Week

James crushed Seamus, 9-1. In every category he won, James won big, winning runs by 11, home runs by 8, RBIs by 19, batting average by .038, wins by 5, saves by 3, strikeouts by 48, ERA by 4.59 and WHIP by .40. Seamus managed to take stolen bases by 4, though. James' offense was led by Lance Berkman (4 R, 3 HR, 6 RBI, 1 SB, .391 AVG) and Miguel Tejada (5 R, 3 HR, 4 RBI, .391 AVG). Garrett Atkins (3 R, 2 HR, 8 RBI, .318 AVG) and Pat Burrell (5 R, 4 HR, 9 RBI, .192 AVG) also made some big contributions. Carlos Delgado led Seamus' side, thanks to a 5 R, 3 HR, 9 RBI, .346 AVG week.

James had a pair of 2 win weeks, thanks to Chad Billingsley (15 Ks) and Jake Peavy (20 Ks). Adam Wainwright also had a win. His saves came from Bobby Jenks, Billy Wagner and Jose Valverde. Seamus had 1 win (Jered Weaver) and no saves. Brandon Webb struck out 11.

With a playoff spot on the line, I beat Dave (Pride of the Yankees), 7-2. In our two earlier meetings, he had had his way with me, winning 2 matches by a combined score of 17-3. But, I finally got one. We tied in the offense side with each of us taking 2 categories and then tying in RBIs. My offense was boosted by Freddy Sanchez (3 R, 1 HR, 8 RBI, .480 AVG), Dan Uggla (5 R, 3 HR, 4 RBI, .400 AVG) and Alex Rodriguez (3 R, 1 HR, 8 RBI, .480 AVG). Dave's biggest bats were Alex Rios (7 R, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 SB, .400 AVG) and Vladimir Guerrero (4 R, 1 HR, 6 RBI, .462 AVG).

Pitching is where I went ahead, as I swept all 5 categories. My pitchers had a great week, picking up 8 wins, 7 saves and 62 strikeouts with a 3.89 ERA and 1.36 WHIP. I got 2 win weeks out of Brian Bannister and Huston Street (10 Ks) as well as wins from Andy Pettitte (13 Ks), Joe Borowski, Justin Verlander (10 Ks) and Scott Kazmir. Mariano had 3 saves, Borowski had 2 and Manny Corpas and Danys Baez had 1 each. Dave's only win came from Tom Glavine with saves coming from Al Reyes (2), Matt Capps (2), Jason Isringhausen and Joaquin Benoit.

Top 3 teams in the league:

1. Mike (River Ave. Blues) (123-88-9)
2. James (117-89-14)
3. Ben (River Ave. Blues) (109-90-11)
3. Dave (109-90-11)

Clinched playoff spots (3 available): Mike, James, Ben, Dave, me and Aziz (Pride of the Yankees).

This Week

This week starts the first 3 weeks of the playoffs. I am going to have a separate write up soon, talking about the matches. Congratulations to everyone that made for it and congrats to Mike for finishing 1st. For everyone that didn't, I definitely want to thank you for participating. It has definitely been a fun, competitive league. Here are the final, regular season standings:

Rank  Team     W-L-T       PCT   GB
*1.   Mike     123-88-9    .580  -
*2.   James    117-89-14   .564  3.5
*3.   Ben      112-98-10   .532  10.5
*4.   Dave     111-97-12   .532  10.5
*5.   Patrick  109-103-8   .514  14.5
*6.   Aziz     108-103-9   .511  15
7.    Jen      105-103-12  .505  16.5
8.    Joseph   99-103-18   .491  19.5
9.    EJ       82-123-15   .407  38
10.   Seamus   75-134-11   .366  47

With the rosters expanding, in additon to Kennedy, Doug Mientkiewicz, Alberto Gonzalez and Jose Veras have been added to the roster.

Sir Ian Kennedy (I hear he has a wonderful middle name) made the first major league start of his career this afternoon and he did not disappoint, throwing 7 innings of 5 hit, 3 run and 1 earned run ball to go along with 2 walks and 6 strikeouts. I'm not sure how he only got 1 ER and not 3, but that's what the box scores are telling me, so let's go with it.

The Yankees offense came out in support, putting up 7 runs in the first 4 innings. A-Rod got the team started in the first with a 2 run shot (number 45) that scored Abreu. A-Rod had a huge day, going 3 for 4 with that homer, plus a double and 4 RBIs. Devil Rays manager Joe Maddon tried to derail his day by taking his bat before his second at bat, but A-Rod had no part of that. In the 2nd inning, Joe Torre asked for Akinori Iwamura's bat to be examined (it has a flat end, apparently) and it was confiscated. So, the next inning, Maddon did the same. You can watch the video at MLB.com (click "A-Rod's bat confiscated"). Whatever.

Both Abreu and Giambi grounded runs in in the 3rd to score the 3rd and 4th runs. They would add 3 more in the 3rd, thanks to Abreu walking with the bases loaded and A-Rod doubling home Jeter and Molina.

The Devil Rays finally answered back via a B.J. Upton home run in the 6th. Kennedy came back out to pitch the 7th, retiring the side in order and finishing his day with a strikeout. He threw 99 pitches on the day - 66 for strikes.

A pair of RBI singles in the bottom of the 7th made the score 9-3. Jose Molina singled to score Shelley Duncan and Melky singled to score Andy Phillips.

Jose Vizcaino came out to pitch the 8th and it didn't go so well. He walked the lead off man and then allowed an RBI double with the runner advancing to third, thanks to an error by Melky. A sacrifice fly cleared the bases and made it 9-5 with 1 out. B.J. Upton doubled and Delmon Young singled to make it 1st and 3rd. A second sacrifice fly, this time off the bat of Brendan Harris, pushed Young to second and another run across the plate. With Greg Norton pinch hitting and a runner on second, Torre made the call to Mo. Not taking any chances today. Mo answered, getting a ground out from Norton to end the inning.

Mo was flat out dominant in the 9th, striking out the side in order to end the game and collect save number 23. The Mariners lost to Toronto, 2-1, so we now hold a 2 game lead in the Wild Card standings. The Red Sox play tonight at 7:05 PM ET. Tomorrow, we have the series finale with Andy (12-7, 3.70) going against Jason Hammel (1-4, 7.44).

Andy Sonnanstine was brilliant through eight innings allowing only one run on an RBI single to A-Rod and Phil Hughes looked ineffective for the third straight appearance as he was constantly behind hitters.

Carlos Pena got two homers for the Devil Rays and Carl Crawford added a few hits as Tampa Bay romped to a 9-1 victory.

Chris Britton also gave up a homer to Pena and was largely just in for mop up duty. The series resumes on Saturday afternoon with Ian Kennedy making his major league debut for the Yankees.

From the AP:

I was thinking a bit about Luis Vizcaino because of this Roger Clemens quote from Mark Feinsand:


It's been a funny year for Mr. Vizcaino, a pitcher who, coming into this season, had thrown 3 consecutive seasons of at least 65 games and an ERA no higher than 3.75. Nothing to bowl you over, but a solid mid to end of the pen guy. He had a terrible April (15 G, 1-1, 1 BS, 5.79 ERA) and a horrific May (10 G, 1-0, 1 BS, 9.00 ERA) and (a lot of) Yankees fans wasted no time dismissing him. As often happens in the fan base (and the blogosphere), we can be too quick to throw someone aside. It reminds me a bit of what happened with Proctor.

Of course, if you were just tuning in today, you wouldn't know that because Luis has been on fire for 3 months now, providing a huge rock where one was desperately needed. Dating back to May 28, he is 6-1 with 1 BS and a 1.27 ERA. When it seemed, at least, like everyone around them was hit or miss depending on your luck, Viz and Mo held it down. With some, he went from DFA candidate to bullpen savior in a relatively short period of time. Prospects aside, by himself, he's made the Randy Johnson trade look like a great one. He's been an important piece to the puzzle.