2005 Fantasy Camp Diary
Day Five: Luck Is the Factor of the Day
(Fri., Feb. 4, 2005)
By Meg Goldsmith for Kerry and Craig
Sometimes in baseball it all boils down to luck. That isn't very satisfying, particularly to the sabremetric crowd, but it exists. And that is what happened to the Grizzlies today. They had the best record for the camp's "regular season" so got the #8 seed for the opening round of the playoffs and they lost. The score was 9-4, with them being behind 5-1 in the bottom of the second, but Kerry said it wasn't really that lopsided. All the breaks went to the Vultures-- their infield dribblers got through and their bloops fell in whereas the Grizzlies had hard hit balls that were caught. But it wasn't just the Grizzlies who were bitten by the bad luck bug. Kerry said that three of the top four seeded teams lost in the first round and the #3 seeded team had to overcome a 12-4 deficiet in the fifth inning to advance in The Ring championship round. So tomorrow the Grizzlies will be playing in the Trophy tournament against Andy Etchebarren's Thumpers instead of in The Ring tournament. Kerry said it was a real disappointment.
Despite that, he had a very good day. In the playoff game he went 2 for 3 with a double and two runs scored. He singled in the bottom of the first and came around to score for the Grizzlies first run, lined out to third in his second AB, and doubled in the bottom of the sixth. Unfortunately, as he was going from first to second he tweaked his right hamstring and it caused him problems the rest of the day. He said the weather was bad today-- cloudy, cold ("never got out of the 50's"), windy (20 mph winds all day), and rain in the morning. Kerry pitched the third inning and gave up 4 runs, only two of which were earned. He played third the rest of the game and had no chances. Craig was working on his second day of bad sleep and went 1 for 3 with 2 walks and an RBI. He played centerfield, second base, and left field in this game.
In the afternoon, they played the All-Star Game. This is a first for Fantasy Camp. Three players from each team were chosen for the All-Star game and the 24 players were divided into two equal teams. Kerry wound up on the team that was managed by Rocky Johnson and played even though his hamstring was a problem. He said this was an amazing game because all the plays that should've been made were made. There were no errors. As it turned out, the team he was on won 4-0 in a four inning game. Kerry pitched two innings, giving up 1 walk, 0 hits, and 0 strikeouts, earning the win. He went 0 for 1 at the plate, hitting into a fielder's choice to third in his only AB. He was on deck when the final out was made so only had the one AB. In the field, he sat out the first inning, and then played first because he figured there would be less running there. As it turned out, he had to run into foul territory to catch a popup in foul territory and only caught it by making a sliding catch.
While the All-Star game was being played, the rest of the campers were divided into teams to play against the pros. These are three inning games, with the pros always serving as the home team because they don't figure on having to bat in the bottom of the third. Because of the All-Star game and the two playoff games scheduled for Sat., the Pro games were played on two fields this afternoon instead of staggering them over two days as has been done in the past. In his game, Craig went up against Dave Johnson, who always throws his "A stuff" against the campers. Craig managed to foul a few pitches off but ultimately made an out. Kerry said it was 9 up, 9 down. Because of the All-Star game, the two All-Star teams went up against the pros where Kerry faced Dave Schmidt in the first. With one out, the batter doubled, the next guy moved him to third, and Kerry singled him in for the first-- and only (for the campers)-- run of the game. Kerry said Brooks gave him a High Five when he got to first. (Brooks plays first in the pro games these days.) The pros answered with two runs in the bottom of the first. Kerry did turn a double play against the pros when Jeff Tackett hit a grounder to him at second. Kerry tagged the bag and then threw Tackett out at first. Kerry said he almost caught a ball that Brooks singled up the middle but the sore hamstring wouldn't let him stretch as much as he normally would. And while playing third base in the second inning, he threw out the last pro who came to the plate. The final score was 3-1 but Kerry said it should've been 2-1. He said that in Tackett's second AB, he grounded into what should've been another double play but the runner on first threw up his arms and waved them causing the shortstop to throw the ball away and that led to the third run.
Some news that Kerry shared with me: Mo Drabowsky wasn't present in camp this year. He had a pacemaker inserted recently and they had hoped he'd be able to make it down for the weekend, but they got word that he is going to have to undergo another round of chemotherapy. So he didn't come down to camp afterall.
Kerry said he spoke to Elrod today and Elrod told him he's going down to Florida early. Several pitchers-- Sidney Ponson, Hayden Penn, Matt Riley, and Rick Bauer-- asked him if he could come down so they could throw to him. Elrod told Kerry that Sidney is in really good shape this year. He's already lost 15 or so pounds and hopes to lose some more. He has shin splints so can't run on hard surfaces but has been running on the beach in shallow surf. Apparently Sidney worked out for Ray Miller recently and Miller told Elrod he was very impressed with what he saw.
Craig's Stats:
| Date, Game | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | TB | R | RBI | TBB | SO | HBP | SH | SF | BA | OBP | SLG |
| 1/29, G1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 2.000 | |||||||
| 1/29, G2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.500 | |||||||
| 1/30, G1&2 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1.000 | .800 | 1.250 | |||||
| 1/31, AM | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .000 | .000 | |||||||||
| 1/31, PM | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | |||||||
| 2/1, AM | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .500 | .500 | .500 | ||||||||
| 2/1, PM | 2 | 1 | 1 | .500 | .500 | .500 | ||||||||||
| 2/2, AM | 3 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.333 | |||||||||
| 2/3, AM | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | .667 | .667 | .667 | |||||||||
| 2/3, PM | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | |||||||||
| 2/4, AM | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .333 | .333 | .333 | ||||||||
| TOTALS | 26 | 19 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 6 | 12 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .731 | .733 | .885 |
| Pro Game | 1 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
Kerry's Stats:
| Date, Game | AB | H | 2B | 3B | HR | TB | R | RBI | TBB | CS | SO | HBP | SH | SF | BA | OBP | SLG |
| 1/29, G1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .500 | .000 | ||||||||||
| 1/29, G2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .333 | .000 | ||||||||||
| 1/30, G1&G2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .250 | .250 | .250 | |||||||||
| 1/31, AM | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .500 | .667 | .500 | |||||||||
| 1/31, PM | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | .500 | .667 | .500 | |||||||||
| 2/1, AM | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | .500 | .667 | .500 | ||||||||
| 2/1, PM | 1 | 0 | 1 | .000 | .500 | .000 | |||||||||||
| 2/2, AM | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | .500 | .750 | .500 | ||||||||||
| 2/3, AM | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | .333 | .500 | .667 | |||||||||
| 2/3, PM | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 | ||||||||||
| 2/4, AM | 3 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | .667 | .667 | 1.000 | |||||||||
| TOTALS | 24 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 12 | 1 | 9 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .417 | .576 | .417 |
| All-Star Game | 1 | 0 | .000 | .000 | .000 | ||||||||||||
| Pro Game | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 1.000 | 1.000 |
| Date, Game | G | GS | IP | H | R | ER | HR | SH | SF | HB | TBB | SO | W | L | Sv | ERA |
| 1/29, G1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0.00 | ||
| 1/30, G1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0.00 | ||||||||
| 1/31, PM | 1 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.00 | |||||||
| 2/1, PM | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0.00 | |||||||
| 2/2, AM | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0.00 | ||||||||
| 2/3, AM | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0.00 | ||||||||
| 2/4, AM | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 12.00 | ||||||||
| TOTAL | 8 | 1 | 13 | 12 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.92 |
| All-Star Game | 1 | 2 | 0 |
1 |
1 | 0.00 |
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