CONGRATS PROFESSOR

[stones]

A title well earned and a job well done. Congratulations on the title.

As for me I am just glad its over.

Hope everyone comes back next year, when I go for my second title.

[redhots]

I will second the congrats! Wish someone would have given you a better run for your money! I really enjoyed my first year of hopefully many in the CFCL. Thanks to all of you for making this a league worth being part of.

[davidsruffins (archived)]

Here’s a post mortem, for anyone who cares. Like you, Mom. Thanks for visiting the board. See? Your boy finally made something of himself.

Thanks to everyone for the congratulations. I’d like to say I was really, really smart this year, but the reality is that good fortune smiled on me repeatedly. Unlike the last few years, about which I whined to Dave, bemoaning my fate ad nauseum, everything seemed to break my way this time around.

Guys who normally get injured stayed healthy for all (Drew) or most (Johnson, ugh) of the year. Guys I cut (Valentin), who remained on my roster because I got outbid for somebody else (thanks, whoever you are), went on to have wildly good years relative to expectations. Guys I drafted and immediately regretted (Piazza, .10 in that park?!?) went on to earn their keep. Guys I shopped early (Byrnes, Gonzalez) were – rightly at the time – rejected, only to turn things around almost immediately. Guys I traded for stayed healthy and produced. Guys I almost traded for, but had some doubts about, went on to get injured or kinda suck. Hell, one player was so disturbed upon hearing the news he was an ex-Ruffin – something that in years past would have triggered great joy – that he decided to knock down the CF fence with his face. (Sorry, Rich. Was it unethical of me not to disclose during our trade talks that Aaron Rowand is, um, insane? You should have seen the ravings he left behind on the walls of the clubhouse bathroom, real tinfoil hat stuff.)

I had one significant obstacle to overcome early in the season – lousy starting pitching due to an apparently WBC-addled Jake Peavy, an injured Ben Sheets, and a complete lack of anything resembling depth. For two months I flailed around, generally pouring gasoline on the fire. I trusted Tony Armas too much and watched helplessly as Sean Marshall rotated quality starts on my reserve list with tossing BP while active, at times against the same opponent over consecutive starts. Then came the two best trades I made all year: Peavy found himself and Sheets got healthy. Oh, and that Clemens guy did ok too. Once I could go with those three plus Carpenter and five reasonably competent relievers, everything seemed to click.

The pinnacle of it all came right around the trade deadline. This was the period when the Ruffins were a freakin’ cocked and locked, rip roarin’ menace, the Big Silver Sequined Machine. The starters were lights out. Isringhausen was not only piling up desperately needed saves, but his saves were of the 1-2-3 variety, as opposed to the allow 2 runs with a 3-run lead kind (a.k.a., The Dempster). And the offense.... At about this time in the season, every single Ruffin hitter, with the exception of Pierre, who apparently brings other skills to bear (such as getting caught stealing), sported OPS’s above .800. Paulino? Check. Vizquel, for god’s sake? Check. Valentin? Check. Eric “Splendid Splinter” Byrnes, who I drafted as a placeholder, to ace once Young and/or Quentin emerged? Check, and then some. Everybody. Some regressed by the end of the year, but it was this push that allowed me to put the TB category out of reach, and surge ahead in RBI and R. Let me tell you, it was something to behold. And the benefits reached beyond the field to the Ruffin front office. Suddenly, I didn’t feel the need to overreact at the deadline. I could reject the myriad offers I received for Wright. (Sorry, guys, but I was neither smart enough, nor brave enough to figure out a way to send The Franchise packing, even for a raft of decent-to-good players.) And I felt safe in turning down the blockbusters, the Alexander-for-Smoltz kinds of deals that seal this year’s championship at the cost of lessened hope for next year.

Crazy. Everything just seemed to go right. Wish I could bottle it. (And give it to Andy MacPhail. Check that, Dusty Baker. Scratch that, Jim Hendry.) If someone had told me I’d win the league going away, I’d have thought he was talking about last year’s team. I felt I was loaded in ‘05 and the clear favorite coming out of that draft, with just some fine tuning necessary. And then everything that could go wrong, went wrong. Besides all the big-ticket injuries, you know it’s not your year when the kid you pick up in order to nab a handful of steals gets hit in the head with the first, and to this point, only major league pitch he’s ever (almost) seen.

This year, however, Karma took a U-turn, and I was happy to welcome her with open arms. Of course, Johnson’s freakish, stomach-turning injury may signal that Karma will make one of you her pregnant dog next year. But at least she stuck with me until things were pretty well decided. Flags fly forever, whether Karma makes a play for one of you in 2007 or not. And let me be perfectly clear, I won’t give her up without a fight. I’ve dropped ten pounds and just replenished my Binaca supply. I’m taking her out to dinner and we’re doin’ it twice!

OK, with that rattling around in your heads, I’ll wrap up by saying have fun at the banquet. (I’ll be sure to pour Yoo Hoo over my head that evening. Honest.) See you at the draft, and keep in mind that I’ll have CR’s and MI’s ready to move after Winter Waivers. Keep in touch.

Oh, before I sign off, let me just nominate the Splinters for a new award. I'm not sure what to call it, but anyone who wins the OBA crown with Jeff Francoeur soaking up 700 PA's deserves kudos. It would like taking the ERA title despite rolling Les Walrond out there for 35 starts. Amazing. What would the Splinters' Francoeur-less OBA have been, .500?

[motherruffin]

davidsruffins said:

Here’s a post mortem, for anyone who cares. Like you, Mom. Thanks for visiting the board. See? Your boy finally made something of himself.

Davey,

I am sooo proud you. But I must correct you, you have always made me very proud. My love for you has no bounds!

Now that you are done with this silly baseball thing, can you please make your bed and bring your laundry downstairs so I can wash it!

By the way, who is that hansome guy with the yellow hair and handlebar mustache that said so many nice things about you? He is quite the looker! Is that that Matt boy you are always cursing? Oh and stop that potty talk. Matt seems like a very nice boy. A little touched in the head perhaps but nice!

Love and hugs my snugglepuss champion little man!

Mother

[MGrage]

Wow, my very own secret admirer. I'm such a lucky guy. Wrinkles rule!! Do you have blue beehive hairdo too? *hubba-hubba-hubba* Mahalo

Matt