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Go forward to more recent blurbs.

4/30 - This will be the day for Jermaine Dye to be dearly departed from many TSN rosters. He's been a fixture on many teams since opening day, but with a new stash of hitter trades available today, he won't go out like a lamb. If you still think he offers good value (and that's hard to argue against), just wait a week or so for his price to stabilize, and then get back in.

Although Dye will certainly absorb the brunt of the selling, there are a few others who will probably share the pain. Aaron Miles is one obvious candidate, whose best performances during the past 10 days have been his three DNP's. Even Tony Womack could continue to see more bailouts. Although Womack's dumping started last Saturday, he hasn't had a daily price drop of less than $70K, and he still appears on 29% of Ultimate rosters - which is more than Miles (24%). Womack's sustained leakage bodes poorly for Dye's prospects for the next week, doesn't it?

GuruPatron update: Through 4 months of 2004, GuruPatron donations ($3,095) are running slightly ahead of last year ($2,905) at this time. The number of contributors is down by 20, however, as 85 people had chipped in during last year's first four months. This year's 65 GuruPatrons includes 40 repeat donors and 25 first timers. Thanks to everyone for your support. And if you're wondering when you last donated, trying checking the GuruPatron Validation page.

Thanks to Gurupie Gary for today's quote.

4/29 - Barry Bonds drew his 500th career intentional walk last night. Second on the all time list is Hank Aaron with 293. Bonds has a chance to double Aaron's mark. I wonder what other career hitting records have a leader who has twice the output of the runner-up?

I picked up Josh Beckett a couple weeks ago, thinking that I'd hold him through 2 starts, and then probably bail heading into Colorado, unless those two starts were so good that I was willing to take the risk. As it turned out, those first two starts produced a total of -9 TSNP. As Snagglepuss would say, "Exit, stage left." So then he puts up a solid 70 TSNP effort at Coors Field. Go figure.

4/28 - The life of Riley was certainly short lived. Matt Riley's second straight outing in red numbers will undoubtedly send him back to the bone pile. $500K in gains wasn't worth the -105 TSNP in his last two starts, but it's a lovely parting gift nonetheless.

Arthur Rhodes has certainly turned the corner. In case you're wondering, it wasn't anything he did that precipitated the current decline. He simply stopped getting presented with save situations, and when he had plateaued on almost 40% of TSN Ultimate rosters, a small percentage of sells was enough to trigger a small loss. Others saw the loss, feared the prospect of more losses, and decided to sidestep the issue. And with the 5-day pitcher repricing, pitcher price momentum is almost impossible to stop. He's still on 28% of rosters, but with new trades available today, expect more to bail. In about a week or so, you might pencil him in as a good buy opportunity if you want a cheap pitcher.

4/27 - There was a time when then universally accepted pitching strategy for TSN was to never miss a start by Randy or Pedro. Last year, however, that approach fell flat. But if recent outings are any indication, that may be a key tactic again this year. Although neither has shown the consistency that made them "gots to haves" in their prime, both have shown flashes of the past. The latest was Johnson's 152 TSNP outing in only 7 innings last night. Still, in five starts this year, Randy has 2 games over 150 TSNP, and 3 games under 32. Pedro now has 3 triple-digit games to go with a 29 and a -38. So each has shown significant Jekyll and Hyde traits.

If you'd like to be listed in the Gurupie Standings, we've gotten them restarted. I dusted off last year's spreadsheet that was created by Gurupie RecycledSpinalFluid to see if I could adjust it for this year's TSN site redesign. Lo and behold, not much adjusting was needed, which is a great testament to the versatility and robustness of the original programming. Gurupie Dave R has volunteered to run the daily updates, so if you'd like to be included, provide your team information here.

There is a silver lining to getting off to a lousy TSN start, by the way. You can have what appears to be a mediocre night (132 TSNP) and jump up 800 spots in WWR.

4/26 - I'm not a Red Sox fan, but living midway between New York and Boston, I've been able to observe the nuances of the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry up close and personal for almost 30 years now. And the weekend's 3 game sweep by the Red Sox in Yankee Stadium has a distinct "tease" feel to it. Year after year, Red Sox fans seem to get teased into believing that this is finally their year. And then October rolls around.

I added a new feature to the sortable stats for TSN Ultimate over the weekend. There is a column near the right side, cleverly labeled "Column B", which is usually set up to show TSNP/EG averages for some alternate period. But now, for TSN Ultimate, you can also choose to display - and even sort by - ownership percent. This is the approximate percentage of TSN Ultimate rosters which own a player, and is based upon data sampled nightly by gurupie penngray, who posts more detailed data on this page. For those who like to stay aware of players with high ownership, this may help you to keep track.

I got an email the weekend asking me to mention my TSN Ultimate team's results so far. As I've lamented many times, I'm off to a terrible,... no, make that a Waltonian "hor-r-r-r-r-ible" start this season. My current WWR is 12,200. I can't even say it's because I have been chasing dollar value to the exclusion of points, because my franchise value is only in the mid 55s, which is OK, but certainly not among the leaders. Last year, I got off to a bad start too, and at this point last season my WWR was 11,080, so perhaps this year is only marginally worse than last year. And that's actually a hopeful sign, as I did end up winning 4 divisions last season in spite of the horrendous start. But today, my best division ranking is #12, so I have plenty of work to be done.

So, if you're off to a slow start as well, don't despair. And, if you're off to a good start, don't relax.

4/23 - After taking it on the chin with Matt Riley the night before, I decided to go with a proven quality starter, and Curt Schilling seemed like just the ticket, facing a Toronto team that couldn't hit, and apparently couldn't win at home. It seemed like I was getting what I paid for through six innings, as Schilling was cruising, leading 3-1, and presumably heading toward a 3-digit TSNP total. But with 2 outs in the 7th, he surrendered 4 hits and 2 runs - and a low, but positive, 2 digit TSNP seemed likely. Unfortunately, Schilling came out for the 8th inning as well, and after Chris Gomez took him deep with the bases full, red numbers were the cruel fate. Sadly, I got to watch the whole episode unfold on TV. And so the sorry saga continues. Cheapies aren't safe. Quality vets aren't safe. The only safe pitcher is one who isn't pitching.

May can't come soon enough this year. So far, it seems like every day is "May Day!"

4/22 - That low, groaning sound you may have heard as you awoke this morning was probably not the wind howling through the trees. More likely it was the collective sound of 2300 TSN managers checking their results this morning to see wreckage left in Matt Riley's wake. But while the -71 TSNP is certainly not good news, there is a silver lining, as he did gain $130K. Of course, that's the result of having 2300 new owners with buyers remorse.

It seemed like a good idea at the time. Matt Herges had gains to be harvested before they withered in the vine. And Riley, after two good starts and a near minimum price, was facing Tampa. With a decent outing, he could very well develop into the next price train.

Oh well.

I suspect that some teams may have moved into Riley to free up cash to afford Barry Bonds. If so, that didn't work out so well either, as he managed only 2 walks in 3 plate appearances. I guess they failed to infer from Alan Greenspan's testimony that this was not the best time to be buying Bonds.

I know... Groan.

Special thanks to Gurupie Hans Gruber for suggesting today's quote. I could use some of that kind of garbage.

4/21 - Not surprisingly, we are seeing an ownershift shift in the second most highly owned pitcher in TSN Ultimate. Matt Herges saw steady price gains for the first two weeks, gaining $1 million in value, and landing on roughly one-third of all rosters. But after a tough weekend, about 10% of his owners bailed yesterday, and I'd imagine more will follow suit today, with trades replenished. The 5-day lookback for pitcher trades in the repricing algorithm does a nice job of smoothing out the bumps in starting pitchers' price changes. And it has a useful inertial side effect, producing consistent daily gains during times when a pitcher is gaining popularity. But the inertia also works in the other direction, and once the tide has turned, you're generally best served by getting out of the way and letting the momentum run its course. By the way, the highest owned pitcher is Arthur Rhodes, at just under 40%. If you've got him, keep a watchful eye. He's doing fine for now but it didn't take long for Herges to make an abrupt about-face.

It will be interesting to see how TSN managers handle Roger Clemens this week, heading into his Coors Field start. He has lost a little ground in the past couple of days, but not enough to offset last week's buying surge. As a result, he's been the top price gainer the past few days. But by the time his start rolls around on Saturday, he will probably have already posted his first loss - unless his non-owners throw caution to the wind and chase him into the Rockies.

4/20 - It's unusual when the top pitcher of the day is not a starter, and didn't even get a win. But then, Cleveland's Jake Westbrook might as well have started, since he entered in the first inning with no outs and proceeded to hurl seven perfect innings, striking out 7 Tigers in the process. Unfortunately for the Tribe, his heroics were sandwiched between 10 Detroit runs (4 off of D'Amico in the 1st, and 6 off of two relievers in the 8th). And so his 126 TSNP were wasted - especially since I suspect none of you had him in TSN, or Swirve, or PSC, or even on a roto team. And if you did have him, then you're either lucky, or clairvoyant, or an unabashed Tribe fan,... or a liar.

After several weeks of unrewarded persistence, I'm finally going to cut ARod loose from my TSN teams today. I thought about it last week, but decided to hold through the Fenway series, just to see if he could break out in a good hitters park. My reward: -27 TSNP. For $8m+ in TSND, I need to find better production. I started this season with 5 Yankees - Mussina, Brown, ARod, Matsui, and Enrique Wilson. Brown was the only one to make a positive contribution. But by tonight, my roster will be Yankee-free. Hopefully, the baseball gods will take note and my fortunes will turn. I'm always a slow starter, but this year's team has been producing at a glacial pace.

4/19 - A few days ago, I remarked that Roger Clemens and Paul Wilson were both among the top five pitchers (in TSNP). Today, Clemens ranks #1. And Wilson ranks #38. Wilson will probably never see the light of the top 10 again this year. But Clemens has to be the surprise pitcher so far. His next start will in Coors Field. I had assumed it would be his first career start there, but when I looked it up to be sure, I see that he pitched there once in 2002. He lasted only 4 innings that day, but his stat line wasn't bad - 2 ER, 5 H, 3 W, and no decision. So there must have been more to the story that day.

The #2 ranked pitcher, Kevin Brown, is probably already loosening up as I write this at 9:45am. The Sox/Yankees game starts at 11am. If you had planned to pick him up today, you'd better scramble.

I see that I put a pretty effective kibosh on Miguel Cabrera last Friday when I remarked that he had been a model of consistency this year, with no negative games. His weekend netted +1 TSNP, with games of +6, -1, and -4. Sorry about that.

4/16 - Roy Halladay notched the first complete game shutout in the majors this season. Brad Radke actually outpointed him by 5 TSNP, working one less inning, but surrendering 4 fewer hits.

Now that we're halfway through April, it's interesting to look at the leading point producers. The top 5 pitchers are Brown, Clemens, Benitez, Beckett, and Paul Wilson. Brown has benefited from an extra start, although he earned at least 100 TSNP in each. Benitez is a surprise as the top closer. That partly due to Miami's team success, although in the past, Benitez has shown a great propensity for volatility. (Maybe he likes the Florida sunshine. I'm sure he appreciates that lack of scrutiny he endured in New York.) Paul Wilson has to be the most surprising name in that fivesome, however. He wasn't even drafted in the RotoGuru Invitational Baseball League. His next start is Sunday at Wrigley Field. Got the cahones to pick him up?

On the hitting side, early leaders are often a result of one or two monster games. Not so with top ranked Richard Hidalgo, who has only two negative games, with all of the others between 18-43 TSNP. Scott Rolen (#2), on the other hand, got half of his season's points in back-to-back games last weekend. Miguel Cabrera (#3) has been consistent, too, with no negative games yet. (Sorry to jinx all you Cabrera owners. At least I did it to myself as well.) There's nothing wrong with monster games. But when I look for early season opportunities, I like to find players who seem to be producing consistently. Of course, I'm a notoriously slow starter every year, so maybe you should follow a different path.

4/15 - If home court advantage turns out to matter in the NBA playoffs, the Lakers couldn't have cut it much closer. In order to secure the second seed in the west, they needed Ruben Patterson to miss two free throws to allow Kobe Bryant to send the game into overtime with a 3 pointer just one second before the regulation horn sounded. And then Kobe needed another 3 pointer as the second OT buzzer sounded to win by one. Had the Lakers not prevailed, they'd be the 4th seed instead. Maybe this is their year after all.

Or maybe not. After all, Karl Malone did sprain his ankle in the 1st quarter.

There should be some interesting series in the playoffs. It'll be nice to watch without having any fantasy implications. I'm not playing any fantasy playoff games, and I'm not keeping score for any. If you play the TSN game, you're on your own. Baseball is enough for me to handle right now.

Congratulations to Dave Richards whose "Sanforders" team breezed to the title in the First Annual RotoGuru Invitational Hoops Challenge. Dave, already a RotoGuru Hall of Famer, led wire to wire. And he didn't just win... he buried us!

But Hoops has ended, and baseball now commands full attention. I resequenced the left menu items to place baseball at the top now.

Speaking of baseball, I became aware of a system limitation at the TSN game that you should probably be aware of as well, because it is not intuitive. Once a player's game has reached its scheduled start time, that player can not longer be bought or sold. Of course, you knew that. But, as it turns out, he also cannot be shifted to another position on your roster. The rules make no mention of this limitation, and I have alerted TSN to the issue. Maybe they will correct it (it doesn't seem like a difficult programming issue - but maybe there is a tie in that I don't understand). Meanwhile, don't assume that this option is available to you.

4/14 - The final day of the NBA regular season is often maddening, when many teams have little incentive to win, and top players often rest. But today offers quite a few games with seeding implications, and many of the top players should see plenty of action. Here's how I read the situation:

• Minnesota needs a win over Memphis to clinch the top seed in the West.
• San Antonio can still take the top seed with a win over Denver (and a Minnesota loss).
• Sacramento can claim the second seed in the West by beating Golden State
• The Lakers can take the second seed if they beat Portland and Sacramento loses.
• Milwaukee can clinch the #4 seed (and home court advantage for the first round) with a win over Toronto.
• Miami can take the #4 seed if they beat the Nets and Milwaukee loses.

4/13 - Quite a night for Marcus Camby, who helped lead Denver into its first playoff series in nine years. Camby had 12 points, 21 boards, 7 assists, 5 blocks, and 2 steals, and 70.5 TSNP. That even topped the TSNP total of late bloomer Bob Sura, whose third straight triple-double required a last second "layup malfunction" so that he could collect his 10th rebound. At least he did it at the offensive end of the court, unlike Ricky Davis last year.

If you have any TSN Hoops trades in reserve, you might as well blow them today. You get another weekly dole tonight to handle tomorrow's final games, when every team but Detroit will be in action.

4/12 - If you're struggling in TSN Ultimate baseball this year, you're probably not struggling any more than I am. My point avoidance strategies are finely honed already, and of my five teams, the best is ranked 18th in its division. I guess there's nothing like spotting the field a few laps! But it's also nothing new for me. The season is long, and I'm sure I'll pull it together eventually. That doesn't make it any less maddening now, however.

I think I have all baseball site functionality now working. All versions of the Assimilator now enable you to copy in a roster from the game site. Player name menus are now up to date, active rosters are reconciled, and I believe everything is working as it should be. Let me know if you think something is still awry. There will always be opportunities for more enhancements, but for now, I don't believe anything is broken. [Knock on wood...]

I still haven't sent out prize emails for Market Madness. That will happen soon. I just got sidetracked with some baseball programming. Please be patient.

4/9 - 'Twas a night for blown saves by two of the most heavily owned relievers in TSN. Trevor Hoffman entered a 1-0 game in the top of the 9th in San Diego, and promptly converted the chance into a 2-1 deficit. Not to be outdone, San Francisco's Matt Herges evened the score in the bottom of the frame, and then, when confronted with a fresh opportunity to get the win in the tenth, promptly let that get away as well. Their combined output for the night was -58 TSNP.

But Shigetoshi Hasegawa, closing in place of injured Eddie Guardado, topped that combined performance by posting -60 TSNP all by himself, turning a potential 1-0 win into a 5-1 loss. And even he wasn't the poster boy for futility, as John Franco earned -69 TSNP as his compensation for pouring gasoline on the Braves' hot bats for 2/3 of an inning.

Amusingly, one of the day's best relief efforts came in a lost cause, as catcher Cody McKay threw 2 shutout innings for St. Louis in a blowout loss to Milwaukee, yielding only one walk and no hits.

In Hoops, those who opted to do without a schedule-light Kevin Garnett this week got hurt, as Garnett's 65 TSNP were 20 better than runner-up Nowitzki, and almost 30 better than anyone else. Several seasons ago, the common baseball mantra was "Never miss a start by Pedro or Randy." This season, always having KG has clearly been the Hoops equivalent.

4/8 - It's starting out to be the year of the catcher. At this point, 8 of the top 30 hitters in total TSNP are catcher-eligible, and that group doesn't include Posada (#34) or Pudge (#50). The top two hitters overall are now Mike Piazza and Charles Johnson, who combined for 158 TSNP last night. Johnson hasn't even gotten to Coors Field yet this year.

Don't tell that to Minnesota fans, however. They already have 2 catchers (Mauer and LeCroy) on the DL.

Now we know the correct answer to the question "Which Yankees starter should I draft to open the season in the TSN game?" Both Mussina and Brown were set to get 2 starts in the Yankees' first 4 games. Brown ended up outpointing Moose by a scant 328 TSNP. Unfortunately, I drafted Mussina. Fortunately, I also drafted Brown. So, it could have been worse - to which many of you can certainly attest, I'm sure.

4/7 - As a resident of Connecticut for more than half of my life, the last four days have been mind boggling. The state lacks a major league sports presence, so UConn essentially fills the role as the dominant sports franchise. In most states, I doubt if many grandmothers could tell you the starting five - or even the leading scorer - for the state university's men's or women's basketball teams. In this state, you wouldn't have any difficulty finding a roomful of grandmothers who could not only name many of the bench players, but would recognize them if they passed them in the shopping mall. It's a remarkable phenomenon.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

Drafting Mike Mussina on my TSN team seemed like a good idea 8 days ago. He'd get two starts against Tampa Bay before many other pitchers would start once. But the payoff has been -103 TSNP and -$110K TSND. Yech! I guess this is where I'm supposed to bring up the idea of the season being a marathon, and not a sprint. Good thing, because so far, I've done a face plant at the starting blocks.

4/6 - The scoring for Market Madness should be final. Congrats to the winners, who will be contacted by email later this week, after the dust settles and I have a chance to verify the final tally. I had one of my best finishes ever, #14 overall. However, I was only third in my family. My 13 year old daughter finished #3, and my oldest son (at Tufts) was #11. Obviously, UConn figured prominently in all of our slates.

Meanwhile, the baseball season finally got going yesterday. This would probably be a good time to review what I have to offer during baseball season:

• Yesterday's points: This sortable page lists the fantasy points scored for the previous day under the scoring formulas for each of the three covered games - TSN, Swirve, and PSC.
• Sortable stats: Cumulative stats, including points, prices, and game counts for each of the games. One unique feature is the tracking of "eligible games", which tallies the number of games that each player was on the active roster and eligible to appear. When evaluating per-game ratios, this basis provides a better means to compare everyday players vs. platoon players, and pitchers vs. hitters. As far as I know, RotoGuru is the only site to track game exposure this way.
• Player pages: These pages provide game-by-game player details for points and prices, as well as a near-term schedule outlook and various links to external sources of info (RotoWire, RotoWorld, ESPN, Yahoo, boxscores, etc.)
• The Assimilator: A very useful tool for tracking your roster and/or customized watchlists of other players. A beta version will soon be fully released which allows for direct copying of roster data from the various game sites.

4/5 - Tonight we complete another NCAA men's basketball tournament. And, for a change, the Market Madness contest winner is still up for grabs as well.

But before that game gets underway, 16 MLB teams will have opened their seasons, weather permitting. Another two teams will get started around halftime. And then we'll get the first price change of the TSN season, which might (or might not) give us a sense of whether there will be any material changes in the price sensitivities this season. My sortable stats should be updated late tonight (well, maybe early Tuesday morning, depending on the progress of the basketball game, which I'll be glued to), with new TSN prices and point totals for 2004, rather than 2003.

And, for those who are bored with baseball and disinterested in the college championship game, there is one NBA contest tonight - a Memphis/Utah game which was rescheduled from a snowed out game on January 7th.

Plenty of diversions today!

4/2 - There are only 13 days left in the NBA regular season. Pretty soon the fantasy gripe won't be injuries any more - it'll be playoff teams resting their regulars.

I started working on my Swirve and PSC rosters this morning. The first roster freeze for both games is on Monday.

The RotoGuru Invitational Baseball Challenge icon in the upper right now links to a standings recap. Of course, at this point of the season, the standings don't really mean anything, but you can also use this page to keep tabs on rosters and roster moves.

4/1 - NBA casualties continue to dominate fantasy team performance. Tracy McGrady is now done, and no doubt squashes some fantasy hopes for contending roto teams that have him. Iverson is done. Quentin Richardson has played in only one of the last eight Clipper games. Corey Maggette strained a hamstring last night. Kirk Hinrich missed a game due to food poisoning. And now it looks like Erick Dampier will be out for the duration. I'm sure I missed some names, too.

Of those listed above, the two with the greatest current implications on the TSN game are Hinrich and Dampier. Hinrich is on 22 of the top 25 teams in TSN Ultimate. Dampier is on 13. The biggest issue, though, isn't how last night's scoring was affected. It's how teams will be able to maneuver going forward, given the recent spate of injuries and the draining impact on most teams' trade capacity. If you're not in contention for a top finish, either divisional or overall, I'd understand if you just felt like packing it in yourself.

Whatever happened to conditioning?

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