Sparkakis!

What do you/Grey expect from him in the 2nd half?

It’s actually a very strange feeling to be doing well at the ASB. I’ve never made a conscious effort to hold back or do poorly in the 1st half, but that’s always been the result these last few years. I do wonder what effect this quicker start will have on my final standings, even if anecdotal.

I’m really hoping that Ty Colvin is this year’s Mike Morse. He’s certainly been on fire lately, and his most recent outburst has been on the road too. I’m feeling optimistic!

Good luck in the 2nd half, and thanks for reading.

Pitching will be key for me – and I took a hit the last two weeks in ERA with a bunch of lousy starts from Romero, Fister and Masterson – but I was due to get nailed there I guess.

We are going to try to bring it home for Mastersball.com in the second half. Thanks Vin for the updates.

But, please ask more experty types for better advice.

His pitching isn’t bad either; he has 5′s for both ERA and WHIP, but 0 saves. He’s already used 150 starts, so assuming he doesn’t show up, he’ll soon be done with pitching. Maybe he’ll turn up before the deadline and trade all his starters for closers. But, not likely.

C Ruiz
1B Butler
2B Uggla
3B Encarnacion
SS A. Escobar (Tulo on DL)
INF Goldschmidt
OF Kemp
OF McCutchen
OF Choo
OF Victorino
Ut: rotation of Pagan, Colvin, and Aoki

SP: Greinke, A. Sanchez, Beckett, Burnett, S. Diamond, F. Morales, J. Quintana, F. Liriano
RP: Motte, Betancourt, Frieri, and Clippard

Vin, thanks for reminding me! Well, that can’t work out worse then trading the Beachy Boy for Trout. That one will haunt me for years to come.

It looks like Chris (RV), also known as the Living Legend, is making his move early – usually he waits until late August to dash our false hopes of somehow sneaking by him for a victory.

Thanks for the work you do. Hey, BTW, thinking of trading Cruz, Joey Bats, and the Panda straight up for Plouffe. Just because I love the name. Wadda ya think?

You sure have made the right decisions on closers. You’ve had 23 saves in the 3 weeks since you traded Casilla. I’ve totaled 21 on my 2 teams in that period.

Alex Avila, Det C
Miguel Cabrera, Det 1B, 3B
Daniel Murphy, NYM 2B, 1B, 3B
Martin Prado, Atl 3B, OF
Alexei Ramirez, CWS SS
Marco Scutaro, Col SS, 2B
David Freese, StL 3B DTD
Giancarlo Stanton*, Mia OF
Melky Cabrera, SF OF
Jason Kubel, Ari OF, DH
Mike Trout, LAA OF
Ben Revere, Min OF
David Ortiz, Bos DH

Basically, I will probably not be able to keep all my good contract guys so I need to maximize every dollar. So who should I move into what contract? If I put someone into Morales’ spot I can delay that decision for one of the two players.

For instance…I could drop Weeks and put Cabrera in his spot and put Moustakas in Morales spot and decide later on if I’m keeping him in place of Stubbs or Zimmerman.

My league has contracts and a salary cap for keepers going into the offseason (along with restrictions on how many players you can keep)

I have M. Moustakas and Melky Cabrera as DL replacements for N. Markakis and J. Ellsbury so I need to make decisions.

Here’s what I can do with them, what would you do with who…I am not competitive this year and only looking towards next year.

1. I have K. Morales as V. Martinez’s DL replacement, I can move either guy into this spot and hold them in limbo until either Martinez comes back or the season ends.

2. I have D. Stubbs for 2 years, $1. I can drop him and add one of them into this spot at a $1 cost.

3. I have R. Weeks for 2 years, $3. Same deal as above.

4. I have R. Zimmerman for 2 years, $1. Same deal.