Let's play one more!!
Well, first of all, I know the content has been weak for the final seven days of the season, but to be honest, I was sweating out the finish in my two primary leagues (both rotisserie) and found it very difficult to concentrate on writing recaps of the 2009 season. In one, I had jumped into first at the beginning of September and while I held a 6+ point lead for most of the month, the start of the final week began with a lead of only 1 1/2. In the other I was holding onto 4th place by 5 points only to see my team drop into 5th place on Saturday and then come back to take a 1 point lead by the end of Sunday night. In each league, the top 4 teams receive prizes and the fight to the finish was agonizing.
But just as the title of this post says, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over,” and while most leagues (Yahoo! and ESPN.com) have officially ended their seasons yesterday, both of my leagues (on CBS Sportsline) are using tomorrow’s Twins/Tigers game for regular season stats. Nothing is over. Nothing is finished. One more game to go. Oh the humanity!!!
In the first league, Cooperstown Classic, it doesn’t look like the outcome of Tuesday night’s play-in game will have much affect on the standings. I have Scott Baker on my team, the guy with Rick Porcello is way down in the standings and there’s not enough wiggle room in any of the category standings that would cause a team to rise or fall from their place in the overall. Same goes for the hitting categories. Barring some sort of catastrophic divine intervention, it looks like I have taken the championship this season.
The other league, Big Stick, is not so kind. The guy in first has a 2 point lead over the guys who are tied for second and third place. I am in 4th with a 1 point lead over the 5th place team who has been on my heels and up my butt all week. I have no shot at even third place so my concentration is focused on just hanging onto where I am at.
But here’s the scenario breakdown…
Hitting wise, I am barely…and I mean barely…ahead of the guy in first place in batting average. I have no Tigers or Twins and he has Nick Punto. One hit by Punto in less than 4 at bats screws me out of 1 point. The guy behind me has Gerald Laird and Miguel Cabrera, but isn’t close enough in any offensive category to gain or lose points.
Pitching, on the other hand, has a little more to offer to the chaos. One of the guys tied for second owns Baker and also happens to be in a 3 way tie with the 5th place team in the wins category. If Baker grabs the win, then that will take away atleast a half point away from the 5th place team and regardless of how Punto does, I will maintain my place in the standings. It’s an agonizing category to need something to happen, but with the way the Twins have been playing, I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
But wait!! It doesn’t end there. The guy who owns Porcello sits right behind me in the WHIP category, so if he pitches a great game and crushes it in the WHIP department, then I’m done. How I wish I could get just one more appearance by Justin Morneau. Now based on the standings and some of my calculations, it would have to be a tremendous game for Porcello for him to take a point away from me, but my nerves are wrangled nonetheless.
Now there’s some other potential for movement in the Big Stick League, but nothing that affects me. The top 3 all have points at stake and each one of them are going to be sweating out Tuesday’s contest as much as I’ve been this entire week. Thankfully, not an added concern of mine though, so my focus remains on two players. If you’re following at home, basically all we’re looking for is a Scott Baker win and/or a Nick Punto 0-3.
But so with all of this, there’s a great debate opening up. There are many that are in favor of using the tiebreaker game as a part of the regular season and then there is the contingent that says 162 games is all you get. Where do you stand?
To be honest, and I’m not saying this because of the agony I am forced to endure tomorrow, I think the fantasy season should end with the end of the regular season. If two or more teams are tied in the standings, and a one game playoff is needed to see who gets to advance to the post-season, well, that’s exactly what it is…a playoff game. The fantasy season coincides with the MLB regular season and the length of that season is already determined by MLB rules that state that each team will play a total of 162 games.
If MLB wants to change the number of regular season games, as they have done in the past, then obviously, fantasy leagues can and should make the adjustment. But just because there is a tie breaking game needed to finish determining the playoff matchups, doesn’t mean that fantasy ballers should get screwed with a 163rd game.
Tomorrow’s game is a playoff game, no matter how you slice it. The winner advances to the ALDS while the loser goes home. By definition, a playoff is, “ (in competitive sports) the playing of an extra game, rounds, innings, etc., in order to settle a tie.”^ That to me says it all. The season is 162 games, no more and no less, and any games needed to break a tie are and should be considered playoff games. You’ve built your championship fantasy team based on a 162 game season. You shouldn’t lose it all because two teams have to play one more to advance.
^definition courtesy of dictionary.com
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I agree 100%, there is no need for the select few owners to gain additional points because they happen to have players still playing in a “playoff” game!