Hangin' tough

Do you remember that New Kids on the Block song, Hangin' Tough? It's the one that had the chorus that went something like this:

Ohh ohh ohhh ohhhhhh oh oh... Hangin' tough!

Well, my fantasy team is hangin' tough in a New Kids on the Block sort of way. That is to say that even though we suck, with the noise we're makin' we could still defy all logic and shoot to number one.

Here's my current roster:

C - Dioner Navarro
1B - Prince Fielder
2B - B.J. Upton
SS - Stephen Drew
3B - Chipper Jones
OF - Hideki Matsui
OF - Hunter Pence
OF - Ryan Ludwick
Util - Fred Lewis
Util - Randy Winn
Bench - Mark DeRosa
Bench - Carlos Pena (hurt)

SP - Dan Haren
SP - James Shields
SP - Ted Lilly
SP - John Maine
SP - Wandy Rodriguez
RP - Joakim Soria
RP - Jon Rauch
RP - Matt Capps
RP - Todd Jones
RP - Dan Wheeler
DL - Chris Young
DL - Chad Cordero

Note: I traded away Edwin Encarnacion for Stephen Drew, which so far has been a blah trade. I need Drew to get back to his .350/.500 ways.

Here's how my team is doing in each category through Saturday, June 7:

Runs -317 (T-9th, 47 off category leader)
HR -83 (6th, 12 off)
RBI -313 (T-7th, 37 off)
SB -43 (8th, 34 off)
OBP - .362 (2nd, .034 off)
SLG - .456 (3rd, .041 off)

W - 33 (T-3rd, 5 off)
L - 28 (T-5th, 9 off)
SV - 48 (5th, 9 off)
K - 442 (4th, 24 off)
ERA - 3.72 (4th, 0.72 off)
WHIP - 1.25 (2nd, 0.15 off)

Here's a snapshot of the UPL's overall standings through Saturday, June 7:


Some things have changed quite a bit from my previous UPL standings update. First off, you'll note that Westy's Slugs have sunk like a rock (about one month ahead of schedule). Also, you'll see that UPL rookie Black Sox has surged 33.5 points to put himself back in contention.

But other things haven't changed, such as the fact that six weeks later I'm still sitting on 94.5 points. The good news is that my team isn't completely inept at runs and steals anymore. Although, in all honesty, this is mainly due to the fact that some of my original guys have finally started hitting and stealing (B.J. Upton to name one).

About a week ago Westy's Slugs offered me Josh Hamilton for Prince Fielder straight up. I actually liked the offer, but I couldn't quite pull the trigger because I felt Fielder was starting to come around and Hamilton has yet to put an entire season together. In the end, Westy managed to move Hamilton to the Jabrones for Manny Ramirez. We'll see how that goes.

I'm glad that I took this time to go through my league's stats. It's already given me some ideas going forward. My next league update will be during the All-Star break. We'll see if the '90 Reds at that point are still hangin' tough.