Tom Eppenberger Jr’s blog

Half-way through the season, and I’m sitting atop the Pioneer Sports baseball league (although I can see my demise coming soon). Let’s take a look at how things have changed with my team since my last post right after our draft.

Catcher:
Then: Jorge Posada - NYY
Now: Jorge Posada - NYY

First Base:
Then: Jason Giambi - NYY
Now: Adrian Gonzalez - SD

Second Base:
Then: Robinson Cano - NYY
Now: Chase Utley - PHI

Third Base:
Then: Alex Rodriguez - NYY
Now: Alex Rodriguez - NYY

Short Stop:
Then: Felipe Lopez - WAS
Now: Hanley Ramirez - FLA

Outfield:
Then: Carlos Lee - HOU, Andruw Jones - ATL, Nick Markakis - BAL
Now: Eric Byrnes - ARI, Casey Blake - CLE, Nick Markakis- BAL

Utility:
Then: Miguel Cabrera - FLA
Now: Kevin Youkilis - BOS

Bench:
Then: Paul Konerko - CWS, Bobby Crosby - OAK, Curtis Granderson - DET
Now: Adrian Beltre - SEA, Chris Duncan, STL

Starting Pitchers:
Then: Roy Halladay - TOR, John Lackey - LAA, Jeremy Bonderman - DET, Dontrelle Willis - FLA, Pedro Martinez - NYM, Noah Lowry - SF, Jose Contreras - CHW
Now: James Shields - TB, John Lackey - LAA, Brad Penny - LAD, Kelvim Escobar - LAA

Relief Pitchers:
Then: Chad Cordero - WAS, Bobby Jenks - CWS
Now: Bob Wickman - ATL, Billy Wagner - NYM, Hideki Okajima - BOS, Rafael Betancourt - CLE, Carlos Marmol - CHC, Manny Corpas - COL

The biggest lesson that I have learned, shortly after the season started, is that there is a maximum number of innings pitched allowed per team. Therefore, there isn’t a need for as many starting pitchers as I initially drafted. I’m still trying to recover from this, and am currently 60+ innings over the limit. While this might seem bad, it’s nothing compared to another team that is nearly 150+ innings over the limit… I’m not sure if they have figured this out or not.

I’ve been fortunate enough to have had some of my trades work out very well, especially getting Chase Utley and Hanley Ramirez in two separate trades. I’m also very happy to be rid of Andruw Jones (aka Fantasy Baseball Team killer) and his below .200 AVG. The last year of your contract, aka the contract year, is a bad time to be hitting below “the mendoza line.”

I’ve become very addicted to this whole fantasy baseball thing, and ended up getting two other teams in public leagues before the mid-season leagues started. I’m sitting comfortably in first place in one league, while in the middle-of-the-pack in the other. Man, this really is a lot of fun… which means that, yes, I am a big nerd.

Yeah, it’s been awhile. So, here’s an attempt to catch-up… in no particular order.

Lane colored a lot of Easter eggs this year, and then got to find some at Phil’s house for the first time. I forgot my camera to a bunch of things, so there are only really photos of Lane coloring eggs at our house and of him getting his Easter basket at home. My flickr set from Easter is here.

We went to the Sacramento Zoo to celebrate Aaron’s birthday. The party was a blast, and it was great getting to see everyone. However, I have to say that the Sacramento Zoo is awesome. It is one of the best zoo’s that I have ever had a chance to see. All the animals seemed to be extremely happy, it was very clean and kept up, and the layout of the facility made it very easy to get through without looking at a map every five minutes. If you have the chance to get there, please do yourself the favor. My flickr set from the birthday party is here.

The NHL playoffs started. Yeah, this probably has nothing to do with the fact that I haven’t posted in a week… The first two games of the Sharks series have been, well, intense I guess is a good word. Seeing two Sharks players having to be helped off the ice because of the other team sure hasn’t been fun though. This week’s games should be very… interesting. I’m looking forward to going to Game 4 on Wednesday night.

We went out to dinner with a bunch of friends last night. It was our first time to P.F. Chang’s. Good food, etc. The dinner was to celebrate Ted’s wife Jen’s birthday, but we also celebrated Rich’s wife Regina’s birthday and our 5th wedding anniversary (yeah, five years tomorrow). If nothing else, all the celbrating helped us all get some really yummy desserts on the house.

Our DirecTV HD DVR didn’t record the Sharks game tonight like it was supposed to, and so it’s very lucky that I didn’t throw it off the front deck tonight when we got home and I discovered three hours of a white screen instead of hockey. The fact that the Sharks lost in OT probably had something to do with that.

I had been very happy with our HD DVR for the first few months, but lately it has had some problems. It seems to lose the signal from the dish at random times, but rebooting the unit brings everything right back… which tells me that there is nothing wrong with our dish. Guess I will be calling DirecTV this week.

The one and only league that I am playing in (with other folks who are playing in many fantasy baseball leagues) had its draft tonight. No idea how I did really, as it is always somewhat of a crap shoot. Plus, this is the first time I am playing fantasy baseball, so who knows.

A funny thing that I noticed when the draft was over, was that from my starting infield, you might think that I was a Yankee fan. And, from my team as a whole, you can tell that I am definitely an American League guy. 13 of my 21 players are from AL teams.

Anyways, here is who I ended up with…

C - Jorge Pasada - NYY
1B - Jason Giambi - NYY
2B - Robinson Cano - NYY
3B - Alex Rodriguez - NYY
SS - Felipe Lopez - WAS
OF - Carlos Lee - HOU
OF - Andruw Jones - ATL
OF - Nick Markakis - BAL
UTIL - Miguel Cabrera - FLA
BN - Paul Konerko - CWS
BN - Bobby Crosby - OAK
BN - Curtis Granderson - DET

SP - Roy Halladay - TOR
SP - John Lackey - LAA
RP - Bobby Jenks - CWS
RP - Chad Cordero - WAS
P - Jeremy Bonderman - DET
P - Dontrelle Willis - FLA
P - Pedro Martinez - NYM
BN - Noah Lowry - SF
BN - Jose Contreras - CWS

My brother called me last week and asked about trading Sharks games. He had tickets for this Friday’s game, and I had tickets for tonight. I didn’t even hesitate, and told him that it was no problem… I’m a nice guy that way.

Well, it turns out that in hind sight I am totally kicking myself. The Sharks destroyed Chicago tonight 7-1! And, to make things worse, Billy “the butcher” Guerin scored his first three goals as a member of the Sharks… yeah, a hat trick. Damn! It was a great game, and I wish I had been there.

If nothing else, at least by staying home tonight I discovered that the games broadcast on Versus are in fact available in HD on DirecTV! I had no idea. And, to think that I had watched the previous two Versus games in SD… oh, the horror.