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Gordo

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Gordo Legend

Gordo

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Taking "applications" for Season 2. Not sure the exact format we'll be using (off-season trades enacted, etc.), but the essence of the league will remain intact as above. PM, e-mail or AIM me if interested. We're hoping to conclude regular season games through January and maybe get playoffs done by end of January - beginning of Feb.

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Gordo Legend

Gordo

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Congrats to Mike and the Red Sox for clinching 1st place and therefore home field advantage in the playoffs!! Nice job.

Spots 2 and 3 look to be a dog fight between my ChiSox and Dave's Rays. Our recent game closed the gap a little more. However, a collapse by either team and a surge by any of the other teams could change up the pairings.

Spot #4 to face those mightly Bosox seems to presently be a dogfight between the Phils, Angels and Mets. However, the Phils hold an advantage in the win column. They have 2 "pivotal" games against the Mets. The Angels are not to be ignored in this mix. And as mentioned, should any of those teams win out coupled with losing out by either the Chisox or Rays and we have a different picture.

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golfguy10 Major Leaguer

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Tampa Bay 2 Chicago 0

Game 1 of the White Sox/Rays series featured 2 starters who were in complete command of the game. Scott Kazmir pitched 6 innings giving up 3 hits and striking out 6 while Javier Vazquez pitched 8 strong innings striking out 7.

The Rays scored a run in the 5th when Willie Aybar led of with a single and took second on a wild throw. Jason Bartlett singled Aybar home while going 3-4 at the plate.

Greg Gross homered leading off the 7th giving the Rays a 2-0 lead.

The White Sox loaded the bases with 2 outs in the top of ninth but Ken Griffey Jr. struck out to end the game.

Troy Percival picked up his first save in the playoffs.

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operaboy990 Draft Pick

operaboy990

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The opener of the Mets/Red Sox series began tonight at Fenway Park as the OFL Playoffs began in fine form. It was no surprise to see the Sox send their ace Josh Beckett to the mound after checking in this 20-game season with a 4-0 record, 42.33 innings pitched 43 K's, and an astounding ERA of 0.81 in 5 starts. The Mets surprisingly countered with the righty John Maine who was chased after 5 innings of work in his start at Fenway Park during the regular season where he gave up 9 hits and 7 runs.

After Beckett struck out the side in impressive fashion in the top of the first inning, rookie sensation Jacoby Ellsbury led off the bottom of the first with a hard double off Fenway Park's famed green monster, the 27ft mammoth wall that stands towering in left field. Manager Terry Francona's shrewd adjustments to his batting lineup, which deviated quite a bit from what he had used throughout most of the regular season, would pay off quickly as RBI machine Mike Lowell (Lowell led the team with 17 RBI in 65 AB) came up two batters later and swatted a ringing single that drove the speedy Ellsbury from second base in to score the first run of the game. Even though there was much baseball left to be played, a 1-0 lead for Josh Beckett at Fenway Park in the playoffs can be an almost impossible deficit to overcome. It seemed like this might be a long night for the Mets.

After getting himself into and out of some trouble in the second in which two men would reach on a single and error respectively, Beckett would soon find himself in trouble again in the top of the third. After this seemed like it would be a quick inning for Beckett who got Marlon Anderson to fly out and punched out the lightning fast Jose Reyes (whom no pitcher EVER wants to let on base), Beckett would make a mistake to Endy Chavez with a fastball that got belted into right center for a single and then yet another mistake to the always dangerous Carlos Beltran with a change up that missed the target and was left out over the heart of the plate and got hammered all the way to the wall for a double. This scored Chavez all the way from first and tied the score at 1 apiece against the almost invincible Jost Beckett. It would be the last mistake Beckett would make all night.

In a very head-scratching move by the Mets' manager, starter John Maine was pulled after only 2 innings of work and 25 pitches thrown. He was replaced by Luis Ayala who was actually not too far from being moved up as the #2 or #3 starter in this series. Ayala actually pitched quite well for 2.33 innings retiring the first 7 batters he faced. Then in the bottom of the 5th Kevin Youkilis checked in with the second Red Sox run of the night by driving a high change up just far enough over the left field wall where it hit the light post and earned a circling motion from the hand of the home plate umpire. The very next inning who else but Mike Lowell would drive in yet another run. This time it was himself as he turned on an inside breaking ball and crushed it 400 feet out of the ballpark over left field making the score 3-1 Red Sox where it would remain for the rest of the game.NYM___BOS_playoff_gm1.htm

Although the line on Ayala would have earned him a grading of "B" by most baseball analysts as he gave up only 3 hits in 5 innings, two of those hits were very costly round trippers that gave the Sox a one run lead and then basically put it out of reach by making it a two run deficit. Turning in a "B" or even "B+" game is nothing to sneeze at and often times it will even get your team a win. Unfortunately, when your opponent is the best pitcher in baseball and he brought his "A" game with him, a "B+" performance just isn't good enough.

Josh Beckett would strike out a mind-boggling 16 batters in 8 innings of work giving up 4 hits and 1 run before turning things over to his closer Jonathan Papelbon who forced two ground outs 6 to 3 and the final out 3 unassisted by Kevin Youkilis. Papelbon not only picked up the save but secured a game 1 victory for the #1 seeded Boston Red Sox.

Game 2 of this best of 3 series will shift to Shea Stadium in New York where the Sox will have a chance to close it out. However, the Sox do not typically generate as much offense on the road especially against NL teams where their pitchers are forced to bat and Kevin Youkilis is not in the lineup. If necessary, the rubber match will be played at Fenway Park.

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operaboy990 Draft Pick

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After a very hard fought battle and an ugly 2-1 win over the New York Mets, the Boston Red Sox are headed to OFL's first ever championship series.

Today's elimination game for the Mets was played in their own backyard at Shea Stadium where the Red Sox bats had struggled somewhat in the past. This time was no different. As expected, Japanese phenom Daisuke Matsuzaka took the hill for the league's #1 seeded team boasting a 3-0 record in 33 IP with 38 K's and 7 Walks in 5 starts. Yet once again, even facing elimination, the Mets' ace left-hander Johann Santana failed to see the mound in this series as the home team put their other lefty Oliver Perez to work. Of course there may have been a little strategy involved in this move as the Mets' manager surely had to be hoping he would force a game 3 and thus save Santana for the rubber match. More to that point, Perez was the only pitcher for the Mets to get a win against the Sox out of their 4-game series this season, downing Terry Francona's club 6-1 at Shea as Perez would pitch 5 innings and only give up 4 hits and 1 run.

Unlike game 1, it was the Mets who drew first blood in this contest when Carlos Beltran was pegged with a pitch that put him on 1st base in the bottom of the 1st inning and then subsequently scored after the next batter, Carlos Delgado, hit a long single into the outfield and scored the speedy Beltran all the way from 1st.

The Mets would hold the 1-0 advantage until the top of the 4th when the Sox Left Fielder, Jason Bay, led off the inning with a weak grounder to first that pulled Carlos Delgado just enough away from the bag and forced him to make a bad throw to pitcher Perez who was covering. Up to this point Delgado was the hometown hero in the game, but he would have that title stripped in a hurry as Bay would eventually come around to score when the Sox cleanup man David "Big Papi" Ortiz returned Delgado's fire in similar fashion by driving a ringing single into the outfield and scoring Bay all the way from 1st base.

The only spot where Perez found himself in hot water throughout his six innings of work came in the top of the 5th when he walked right fielder J.D. Drew on 4 pitches to lead off the inning and then gave up a single to short stop Jed Lowrie who was a late addition to the lineup after Francona decided to keep Alex Cora on the bench and get another right hander up against Perez. The young Perez would next strikeout his counterpart Matsuzaka on 3 pitches but not before he made what would turn out to be the most costly error of the game. With men on 1st and 2nd and nobody out, the runners, who most likely had no intention of a double steal considering the lack of speed from the lead runner, took small leads off of their respective bags. This eventually drew a quick throw from Perez to 1st base in an attempt to pickoff the trail runner Lowrie. He overthrew the bag and allowed both runners to advance 90 feet setting up a 2nd and 3rd situation with nobody out. Perez would then complete the strikeout of Matsuzaka and then on the next batter he would allow Coco Crisp (playing in CF for the left handed hitting rookie Jacoby Ellsbury) to push an outside breaking ball into fairly shallow right field. Right fielder Ryan Church would make the grab for the second out and in a very gutsy move, Church's not so fast counterpart J.D. Drew decided to tag up and make a break for the plate. Even though Church's throw was accurate and on time, catcher Brian Schneider simply could not make the tag and the Sox took a 2-1 lead.

From that point on through the top of the 9th only three batters total between both teams combined would ever reach base again. Two of them came for the Mets in the bottom of the 8th against Red Sox relievers Justin Masterson and Hideki Okajima. After Matzuaka's day was over going 7 strong giving up one hit, one run, and striking out 8, Masterson would face one batter and prove ineffective as he allowed Ryan Church to reach base on a single and be pinch run for by the much faster Argenis Reyes. Okajima would not fair much better as he walked the first batter he faced in Luis Castillo presenting a 1st and 2nd situation with no outs. Thankfully for the Red Sox, Okajima would get Ramon Castro to ground out but in return this would advance both Reyes and Castillo to 3rd and 2nd respectively. With one out, 2 runners in scoring position, and clinging for dear life to a one-run lead, manager Terry Francona's hand was forced to signal for an early entrance by closer Jonathan Papelbon. On this day, the young closer with the rocket arm would need to retire not 3 but 5 batters to get the save. One of those outs came via a pickoff move for the second out of the 8th inning in which Reyes, who was taking an abnormally large lead off of third base could not return in time to beat Papelbon's snap throw. This was just one more small oversight by the Mets that proved costly in the long run.

Papelbon would find himself in even hotter water in the bottom of the 9th as he would prepare to face the toughest part of the Mets' lineup while receiving no insurance runs from his teammates in the top of the inning. After retiring the first two batters, it was time to deal with the mighty Carlos Beltran who once again proved to be thorn in the side of the Red Sox pitching staff as he reached base on a solid single to center. With the winning run striding to the plate in the imposing form of Carlos Delgado, Papelbon wisely tipped his cap and delivered 4 pitches that weren't all that tempting to swing at. After the unintentional/intentional walk that allowed the winning run on base and the tying run to move into scoring position, David Wright would represent the last hope for the Mets. Wright was able to make the young closer work hard running the count to 2-2 before jumping on a 95mph fastball that would simply not get enough good wood on it. The ball floated easily into center field where Coco Crisp would record the final out of the series that would secure a 2-1 final score and a 2-0 series win for the boys from Boston.

While it is true that the Red Sox were favored in this series and it is in fact they who await the winner of the Rays/White Sox series to determine who they will face in the championship, the storyline of this series was certainly how the New York Mets, a team that started the season 4-9 and were left for dead, were able to finish 6-1 in their last 7 games, make it to .500 with a final record of 10-10 and give the #1 seeded Boston Red Sox more of a dogfight than they had been in all season. They played with tenacity (almost to a fault), they never backed down, they showed grit, they weren't intimidated, they pitched lights out and most likely would have beaten any other team they faced. This season, after an abysmal start and reaching a point where they appeared just about ready to pack it in, the New York Mets proved everybody else wrong when they found a way to flip the switch. They beared down, refused to give up and with just a tiny bit of help from that oh so special lightning in a bottle, they came within a few precious runs of capping a Cinderella season. In the end, though, it wasn't quite enough and they just barely fell short. However, this is without a doubt the team/manager to watch next season.22.BOS___NYM_playoff_game2.htm

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Gordo Legend

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Game 2 * Tampa @ Chicago

Tampa jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 4th thanks to a Rocco Baldelli single and stolen base. Rocco was knocked in by Willy Aybar. After a lengthy rain delay, the ChiSox answered in the bottom of the 5th with back to back homers by Konerko and Pierzynski. The Sox tacked on a run in the 6th when Jermaine Dye walked and then advanced to 3rd by a combination of a Thome single and a Carlos Quentin sac fly. With 2 outs Konerko reached on an error, scoring Dye. Down 3-1, the Rays made a bid to come back in the 7th as Evan Longoria went yard for a solo shot with 2 outs. However, in the bottom of the same frame, lead off batter Alexei Ramirez reached 2nd on a throwing error. Crede pushed Ramirez to 3rd. Orlando Cabrera then laid a sac bunt to the 1st base side of the mound on a delayed squeeze allowing Ramirez to score the Sox 4th run. This would be all they would need as Buehrle scattered 11 hits for 2 earned runs. 2 more insurance runs on 2 hits and 2 walks in the bottom of the 8th gave closer Bobby Jenks all the breathing room he needed with a 6-2 lead which turned out to be the final count. This forces a 3rd and deciding game for the right to meet the Boston Red Sox in the finals.

Game 3 * Chicago @ Tampa

The deciding game featured a couple of #3 pitchers for each squad. The Sox got to Matt Garza early, ringing up 3 runs on 4 hits in the first, including a Carlos Quentin 3 run shot. Both pitchers and defenses tightened up until the 6th when the Sox added 2 more runs and opened up a 5-0 lead thanks to a pair of singles by Quentin and Griffey followed by a Paul Konerko triple. A solid performance by Sox starter John Danks had his shutout stopped in the bottom of 6 when Rocco Baldelli went deep to left. However, this would be the only offense the Rays would see as they hit into a double play in the 7th and went down in order in the 8th. Dan Wheeler gave up a large number of runs in the top of the 9th, but refused to come out of the game. At one point it appeared he yelled out something about avenging his dead pet hamster from 8th grade and was clearly emotional on the mound. The Sox knew nothing about the hamster and rocked Wheeler for 7 runs.

Chicago wins the series 2-1 and advances to the OFL finals making it an all Sox series!!

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operaboy990 Draft Pick

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OFL WORLD SERIES: GAME 1

The best of 3 Championship Series of the OFL kicked off it's first game last night in what was sure to be an epic battle between The Chicago White Sox and The Boston Red Sox from beautiful Fenway Park. The Red Sox, coming in as the league's best, took their stunning 16-4 regular season record into the postseason and had to fight tooth and nail through every pitch to sweep the resurgent New York Mets in the semis. The White Sox, who struggled slightly down the stretch and finished as the 3 seed with a final record of 11-9, did not have an easy road to this series either as they had found themselves in an early 1 game to nothing hole against the Rays and then trailed 1-0 in game 2 through the 4th inning before their bats finally woke up just in time to take their semi final matchup in 3 games with impressive 6-2 and 12-1 final scores.

Just as with their series against the Mets, the Red Sox found themselves favored going into game 1 of the finals, but there was certainly an air of uncertainty amongst fans and the media as to whether or not the Red Sox could actually close the deal on a dominant season. Most of this speculation stemmed from the fact that of all of the Red Sox opponents this year, the White Sox very quietly asserted themselves as the only club that Boston had significantly consistent struggles with as far as matchups. They were also the only team that Terry Francona's boys did not have a winning record against as they split the season series with the Southside Sluggers 2-2. To make matters worse, one of the Boston wins took until the 10th inning to secure when the two clubs dragged a 1-1 score through to extra innings as the normally lights out Jonathan Papelbon blew his only save of the season because he could not hold Josh Beckett's 1-0 lead for a mere 3 batters. And finally, an additional key factor going into Thursday's series opener that did not bode well for the Red Sox - both of their losses to the White Sox came AT FENWAY PARK. The White Sox were undoubtedly the one team that the Red Sox did NOT want to see in the finals.

With hitting being a major problem for the Red Sox in the semis, they could ill afford to repeat their disastrous efforts against the pale hose and they would have to simultaneously pray that their pitching would be just as dominant as it was against the Mets. Ozzie Guillen's boys boasted the league's most patient lineup as they far exceeded the competition at hitting for average with an unfathomable mark of .298. They also were the most difficult team to strike out (even though lately it had gotten only slightly easier to fan them), they drew a very sizeable number of walks, and they had a terrific ability to run counts to 3-2 and foul off several pitches thereby forcing starters to make early exits. Red Sox ace Josh Beckett knew he would have a tall task ahead of him and that he would have to be just as untouchable in this series as he was against the Mets. Beckett said after the game that the plan was to exploit their lineup's one weakness which was hitting with runners in scoring position.

Said Beckett, "They're tough. They're really tough. The minute you let your guard down they'll start chippin' away at you and load the bases. They can get the power hit from the middle of the lineup or they can play small ball with sacrifices and steals. Hell they even had a successful suicide squeeze in the semis. Pretty soon it's 5-0 and your relief comes in while you head back into the clubhouse before the sun even sets. They're gonna get their knocks there's no doubt about that. But if you can find a way to buckle down when they're threatening to bring runners across the plate, more often than not that's gonna be a victory for the good guys. In game 3 of the semis we all certainly saw what they're capable of. That was a good example of what they can do to you if you don't focus when they've got runners on, and that was certainly something we didn't want to see: them riding a 12-1 win into the championship when we hadn't even played in over a week. I mean I'd love to sit here and tell you that I'm gonna no hit them but that just aint gonna happen. What IS more reasonable is to just admit that you're gonna find yourself in those big jams against these guys and make sure you have a plan for getting out of them and I think I was able to do that successfully tonight."

Right out of the shoot Beckett found himself in deep trouble in the top of the first. He gave up a single to Orlando Cabrera on his first pitch of the game but quickly recovered by getting Jermaine Dye to erase both himself and Cabrera on a rare 3-6-1 double play. Just when Beckett seemed like he would have the smooth first inning he was looking for, he proceeded to let the next 3 White Sox batters have 1 bag apiece. He would first issue a walk to the always dangerous Jim Thome. Next came a single to the recently red hot Carlos Quentin who would not only do his part in this game by going 3-4 and scoring the only run that the White Sox could muster, but he was also the early hero of game 3 of the semis when he belted a three-run jack off of Rays starter Matt Garza in the top of the 1st inning thereby putting the Rays in an early hole that they would never dig out of. The ageless Ken Griffey Jr. was next at the dish with hopes of giving the White Sox the early lead they so desperately needed on the road. Red Sox nation would hold its breath as he would smoke a Beckett fastball right back up the middle glancing off the ace who threw it. Although he wasn't injured on the play, Beckett simply didn't have enough time to recover, find the ball, and deliver it to first before Griffey was able to reach. Curiously, the scorer charged Beckett with a tough error, but that was the last thing on the young righty's mind as he would now have to face a bases loaded situation with two outs. Paul Konerko was ready to test his strength against the phenom from Texas and although he made Beckett work hard for the out, the out was exactly what Beckett got as Konerko would ground weakly right to the second baseman Dustin Pedroia who made a soft toss to first for the final out of the inning. It was almost as if Beckett had a crystal ball going into this matchup as he predicted this exact type of situation. Surely, it boosted his confidence a great deal by getting out of a real sticky spot so early in the game. Bad news for the White Sox to boost the confidence of the guy who's already the best in the league.

Having the pitcher's confidence boosted would luckily rub off on the bats as well as leadoff man Jacoby Ellsbury would reach on a solid single to center in the bottom frame of the same inning. An early mistake to (in this writer's humble opinion) the team MVP, Mike Lowell, would launch Boston to a 2-0 advantage which would be quickly followed by a solo shot from team captain Jason Varitek in the second.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Josh Beckett had finally settled into a groove and was doing what he does best. Aside from a minor blip in the fourth where he gave up a leadoff single to Quentin and two batters later a double to Paul Konerko, Josh Beckett was able to execute his plan to near perfection. Beckett would pitch a complete game, his fourth of the season, all the while unimpressively giving up 8 hits scattered throughout. But as he said afterward, while giving up hits is not something he WANTS to do, against the White Sox it's something that WILL happen. "They can have all the hits they want, but I knew if could find a way to keep them under 3 runs we would have a good shot to win." Beckett's line - 9 IP, 8 Hits, 1 ER, 1 BB, and an very stout 8 K's which is not to be overlooked against this team.

While most would not argue that Beckett's heroics should once again earn him player of the game honors (not to mention capping off the campaign toward his first Cy Young), I think even he would agree that the star of this game would have to go to Jason Bay. Clinging to that same 3-1 lead in the bottom of the 7th, the team knew that they had to get Beckett some insurance runs which would help him stay in the game and in turn keep the bullpen fresh for game 2. Running out of chances to do just that, the Red Sox made two quick outs in the bottom of the 7th via a groundout from Youkilis and a fly out from Cora. It seemed as if those insurance runs would have to wait until the 8th inning courtesy of the middle of the Boston lineup. That's precisely when Dustin Pedroia said not so fast as he checked in with his only hit of the night, a timely two out single. Ellsbury would be next with his third hit of the night; another single that created a first and second situation with two outs. Members of Red Sox nation were all thinking the same thing: if Bay could just find some way to get on base we could get Lowell and possibly even Ortiz to bring a couple guys in and give Beckett that extra cushion. Bay had other plans as he dialed in with frightening accuracy on an inside change up that left the entire ball park in a HUGE hurry. Afterward Bay said he would've whiffed hard if he hadn't known exactly what was coming and where it would be. "Somewhere between the windup and the delivery I changed my mind from fastball to change up and I just guessed right," Bay commented after the victory. This 3-run homer was the dagger in the heart for the White Sox, and even though Beckett would have a little scare in the 9th by allowing two singles (one to Konerko and the other to Pierzynski), he would complete his nine innings of work only surrending that lone run in the 4th.

Of Beckett's 9 innings of work, 5 were three and out meaning that the White Sox 8 hits were scattered over only 4 innings. Of those four innings, the 1st, 4th, 6th and 9th, the White Sox would get 2 hits in each. In the 1st they would actually have 4 men reach base and they came away with zero runs. The stats show that the White Sox hits came in clumps against Josh Beckett just as he foretold. And if the blueprint wasn't out on how to beat the White Sox before this game, it certainly became public knowledge tonight. 1 run on 8 hits tells people all they need to know. If they hit the ball a lot don't panic as they tend to have trouble turning hits into runs. It must be comforting for Mr. Beckett to know that when his career as a Hall of Fame pitcher sadly comes to an end that he'll have a great fallback option as a soothsayer. Or maybe it's simply a matter of regular season statistics playing out exactly the way they're supposed to in the postseason. You be the judge.

Final score: Boston - 6, Chicago - 1 23.CHW___BOS_Finals_game1.htm

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