July 30, 2010

July 29, 2010

July 23, 2010

It should come as no surprise that Tim Lincecum, once again, has fallen out of the NL strikeouts lead. That see-saw ride has been going on for the entire season thus far. It's probably already been pointed out here that only three pool participants did not make that pick, but what's interesting is that two of those three were identified for their uniqueness just two weeks ago.

Aaron Smith and Steve Craig still own bragging rights for the only two currently correct unique picks, Joakim Soria (AL saves) and Carl Crawford (AL runs), respectively. They're also among the three who did not pick Lincecum for NL strikeouts, so that development benefits them as well, although it's only good for vaulting them to the middle of the pack.

Defending champion John Agnello still holds onto first place, by seven HBP over relative newcomer Jason Zelesky. The standing of David Jones, though, shows us that two-plus months to go in the season are an eternity, as he moves from first place on July 12 to 16th place, less than two weeks later.

Happy Hall of Fame Weekend!

July 18, 2010

Just as last year, when Jon Pauley made a run at repeating as pool champion, the second half of 2010 kicks off with last year's champion, John Agnello, at the top of the standings, as of the beginning of play today.

July 12, 2010 (All-Star Break)

July 10, 2010

Ryan Howard's power is back. After ending the first two months of the season with just 8 HR and 33 RBI in 50 games, Howard has added 9 HR and 32 RBI to his totals in 35 games since. In moving into a tie for first place in the NL RBI race, he is the difference between Michael Orobona and David Jones for the top spot in the pool's standings.

Of course, about half of the pool's participants picked Howard for NL RBI, so relatively speaking it's not as big of a deal as Joakim Soria moving into the AL saves lead (a week ago) and Carl Crawford climbing to the top of the AL runs list. These two stand as the only currently correct unique picks, for Aaron Smith and Steve Craig, respectively. Unfortunately, at the moment, they're all the glory Aaron and Steve, who rank 18th and 19th in our standings, can claim.

July 8, 2010

July 5, 2010

July 3, 2010

Besides a real shakeup in the actual leader boards—Albert Pujols moving to the top of the NL home run race and Francisco Cordero sliding into a three-way tie in NL saves—the real story is Sid Harris's almost worst-to-first turnaround. In 22nd place (out of 23) just two weeks ago, Sid has climbed to 5th place as of this morning. Although not quite as HBP-challenged as Amy Gill, Sid is still a little deficient in the tiebreaker category, so it's going to take a little more magic for him to climb to the peak of the standings.

Of course, thanks to Pujols, Cordero and Tim Lincecum's see-saw moving to the "up" position, the pool as a whole is up to an almost season high of 3.74 correct picks per person. At just short of the season's mid-point, David Jones is back on top, but only by a few HBP over Jud Ehrbar and Michael Orobona.