See, Ryan's on my main fantasy baseball team. And this league, it's not high stakes money-wise, but the bragging rights? Intense. Plus, the loser of the week often has some dumb chore assigned by the winner. Last time I lost big, I had to wash the commish's car. Not fun. So, yeah, I pay attention when my guys pitch.
Getting Down to It
So first thing I did was pull up Ryan's recent starts. You gotta see how he's been throwing, right? Looked decent mostly, but you know how pitchers can be, hot one day, cold the next. Then I checked the Diamondbacks' lineup. Who's hot, who's not? Do they hammer guys like Ryan? Spent a good chunk of time just clicking around, looking at stats pages, trying to get a feel for it.
It's never simple though. One site says one thing, another says something else. You kinda just gotta go with your gut sometimes.
The Process- Checked Ryan's game logs.
- Looked at Diamondbacks' recent hitting stats.
- Scanned some fantasy analyst opinions (mostly noise, but you look anyway).
- Thought about the ballpark - Arizona can be hitter-friendly sometimes.
- Finally decided, heck with it, gotta start your studs, right? Put him in my active roster.
Then came the actual game time. Couldn't watch it live 'cause of other stuff going on, dinner with the family, you know how it is. But I had my phone nearby. Kept refreshing the score app like a maniac. Every time the Diamondbacks came up to bat, my stomach did a little flip.
Saw he gave up a run early, thought, "Oh boy, here we go." But then he settled in. Started racking up some strikeouts. That's what I needed for the fantasy points. It wasn't like a super dominant shutout or anything, but he battled. Kept my team in the game, both the Twins and my fantasy squad.
End Result
He ended up pitching pretty well, actually. Got the win, decent number of Ks, didn't totally blow up. Kept my fantasy matchup close, which was all I could ask for. Avoided car washing duty for another week, thankfully. It's funny how much brainpower goes into this stuff sometimes, just for a fantasy game. But hey, it makes watching the games more interesting, gives you someone to root for, or against.
