LetsPlay2 2004

Life at the Halfway Point

July 5, 2004

The "real" All-Stars were chosen today, and we're at the halfway point of the MLB season as most teams have played around 80 games. So, here's some shenanigans for you to enjoy...

LP2 All-Star Team

The All-Star team was chosen using Yahoo rankings as of July 5, 2004. No, they're not perfect, but sue me.

Pos	Player (team)	Yahoo Rank	Team
C	I-Rod (det)	38	Pelican
1B	Pujols (stl)	6	Homowner
2B	M Young (tex)	37	Cameltoe
3B	S Rolen (stl)	5	Golem
SS	A-Rod (nyy)	14	Jelly
OF	Vlad (ana)	1	Golem
OF	Abreu (phi)	3	Cameltoe
OF	Bonds (sfo)	8	Whiteshark
DH	Beltran (hou)	9	Pelican

SP	Big Unit (ari)	2	Cameltoe
SP	J Schmidt (sfo)	4	Homowner
RP	A Benitez (fla)	13	Storm
RP	Gagne (los)	20	Pelican
P	Schilling (bos)	7	Golem

Reserves (players ranked in the top 20): M Ramirez (bos) Homowner J Thome (phi) Cameltoe R Clemens (hou) Whiteshark B Sheets (mil) Gspot M Lawton (cle) Whiteshark H Blalock (tex) Gspot C Crawford (tam) Pelican D Ortiz (bos) Storm

Some tidbits:

3 teams have 3 All-Stars each: Golem, Pelican and Cameltoe... not counting reserves (then why the hell did I post them? he he)
Pity the Gspot as the league's only All-Star free squad... though he does have 2 reserves: Sheets and Blalock.
The Golem also sport the league's halfway MVP in Vlad.
All the 22 All-Stars and reserves, only one player was un-drafted and picked up during the season: M Lawton of the Whiteshark.
Two low, low, low round draft picks made the All-Star team: M Young, selected in the 14th round by the Cameltoe and A Benitez, picked in the 16th by the Storm.
5 of the 8 first round picks are All-Stars. The busts? Sheffield, Soriano and Boone of the Storm, Cameltoe and Gspot, respectively.

LP2 Standings after 12 weeks

Snarfed from Yahoo, here's the standings at the halfway point:

Rank	Team	W-L-T	WPct	GB	Last Week	Moves
1	Gotham City Golems	72-38-10	.642	-	2-7-1	9
2	coocheyvillecameltoe	63-51-6	.550	11	7-1-2	2
3	Naperville Homowners	60-53-7	.529	13.5	7-2-1	9
4	westmont pelicans	58-51-11	.529	13.5	2-6-2	14
5	LaGrange G-Spots	55-52-13	.513	15.5	6-2-2	8
6	whitesharks	53-53-14	.500	17	7-2-1	7
7	Hilo Storm	50-59-11	.463	21.5	1-7-2	11
8	KY Jellies	28-82-10	.275	44	2-7-1	13

The first half has been a tale of two teams. The Golem have been mighty all year long... out to a commanding (though not insurmountable) 11 game lead on the field. The Jelly have been just as consistent a train wreck.

Assuming neither of these two primary stories changes in the second half, then two questions remain for "the pack". Who will get the 2nd place bye? And more importantly, who will get the 7th place lottery pick along with the Jelly? Yow!

BPR

The Bill Power Rankings at the halfway for pitching, hitting and overall:

Pitching

Cameltoe 34
Homowner 30
Golem 28
Gspot 25
Storm 21
Whiteshark 18
Pelican 16
Jelly 8

Hitting

Cameltoe 36
Golem 32
Pelican 28
Gspot 28
Whiteshark 18
Storm 15
Homowner 14
Jelly 10

Overall

Cameltoe 65
Golem 55
Gspot 48
Pelican 40
Homowner 39
Whiteshark 31
Storm 31
Jelly 13

The Cameltoe first place stats belie their second place status. We'll see if this trend continues in the second half.

The Jelly are only 8 bprs off the worst possible score, achieved only by being the worst in every category in the league. The Jelly are worst in 7 of our 10 categories, with his best showing as the 3rd-ranked SB team in the league. Geez.

cub win... yow, bill

williamt@williamt.com