Academic

How 2 innings can turn around a bad fantasy baseball day

By Tung Yin

So there I was, checking out the late baseball games and lamenting the awful day that my fantasy baseball team had been having.

My best player, Ryan Braun, had gone 0-4.  In fact, every Milwaukee Brewer on my team went 0-4, and I had two others (Jim Edmonds and Casey McGehee).  I had been expecting good things from my two Texas Rangers (Elvis Andrus and Josh Hamilton), and they went a combined 1-7.  Meanwhile, the starting pitcher that I benched (Max Scherzer) had a decent night, but the one I started (Cole Hamels) got shelled.  At least one of my hitters did some of the shelling (Kelly Johnson, with 2 home runs).  Still, it was looking like a grim night.

But the last two innings of the Angels-Yankees game salvaged the night.  First, one of my relievers (Fernando Rodney) pitched a scoreless top of the 8th inning in a tied game.  Then in the bottom of the inning, my first baseman (Kendry Morales) cranked a 2 run home run to give the Angels the lead, with Rodney now as the pitcher of record.  Then my closer (Brian Fuentes) came in and slammed the door.  So from those two innings I got a home run, 2 RBIs and a run, a win, a save, and 2 innings of 0.00 ERA and 0.50 whip.  Go Portland Drizzles!

Full post as published by The Yin Blog on April 24, 2010 (boomark / email).