Good afternoon, everyone. It's hard to interject too much happiness in these trying times (ok, maybe that's a little bit dramatic), so I'll keep it short and to the point today. Remember, the leaderboard reset, so we have results for the season-at-a-glance challenge last week as well as a new one for this week. You'll also see I put last season's champ in the banner, marking the quickest turnaround for something I said I'd do. Small victories. Anyway, hit the jump, etc, etc. Only a small bit of sadness, I promise.
Due to the relatively brief nature of the entries this week, I'll go ahead and post all of the comments that received at least a single rec. Remember, every got a point per rec. The top-rec'd comment was blank_38's, with "Melvin Mora gone, let's celebrate.". Jim McLennan's was the only other entry with more than one rec, garnering two for "Veteran Presence Prevents Runs". Then, kishi got a point for "Second place? What the hey?", Clefo one for "D'Backs Baseball: Still Not Torture" (though...), njjohn one with "Hitless baby, Juan Mora time.", Nonpartisan with "Encouraging, but will it last?" and, finally, dback4life with "Arizona Diamondbacks...relevant again!". Blank also had another one with two recs that I'll share with the class due to its poignency:
"Drew breaks angle... Season over."
:(
I've introduced a new column ("+") that I'll use for adding extra points throughout the season. You'll see what I mean after reading today's challenge, but it's easier to understand how things are scored when arbitrary "medals" aren't given out and instead bonus points are just credited. Here's the leaderboard, ripe and in the shortest form you'll see it this year:
#
G
S
B
+
Total
1
blank_38
0
0
0
4
4
2
Jim McLennan
0
0
0
2
2
3
kishi
0
0
0
1
1
-
Clefo
0
0
0
1
1
-
Nonpartisan
0
0
0
1
1
-
njjohn
0
0
0
1
1
-
dback4life
0
0
0
1
1
Yup, so blank's established himself as the current person to beat. Jim's taken a quick second place (as he did last season, early on), while the others have a headstart on those who didn't participate last week. Now, we'll go to this week's challenge, a format that's fun to read and laborious to score...
This challenge is in the parlay-esque format (read this post for details). Pick either "A" or "B" (or, alternatively, "T" for tie) for each of the options. You'll get a point for each one you get right, top three get medals next week.
Over the next week...... will Justin Upton's batting average be ABOVE .290 (A) or BELOW OR EQUAL TO .290 (B)?... who will steal more bases: Willie Bloomquist (A) or Chris Young (B)?... who will hit more home runs: Brandon Allen (A) or Justin Upton (B)?... who will have the lower ERA: David Hernandez (A) or Josh Collmenter (B)?... who will bat for a higher average: Dan Hudson (A) or Sean Burroughs (B)?'BONUS LEADERBOARD POINT OPPORTUNITY: Who will start this Sunday vs. the Rockies? Only valid if answered before we find out!
The stats from tonight's game will count as "this week", but you can submit your entries up until tomorrow's first pitch. Anyway, yeah, gogo.