Tiger on the Block?

I'm accepting offers for the #1 choice in the 2006 PGL draft.

Week #4 Wrap Up

It was a tough week fielding a team for most owners, with the very few top 50 players in the Shell Houston field (thanks for the research Aaron). Jon and I both ended up fielding solo squads... dismal.

Game of the Week:
Men with Yellow Hats knocks out You take drugs, Danny? -6 to 25
It was three on one and despite some questionable managerial tactics early in the week, Geo punched through for his first win of the season over a listless Jon. It's unclear whether Jon even looked at the field prior to submitting his starters.

Other Games:
Long John Holmes outlasts Arjun's Army 3 to 7
Choi's Chums destroys Tommy's Guns -21 to 4
The Leopards jumps past The Au Pair Posse -3 to 15

We have this week off before resuming the following week with the Wachovia Championship (May 4-7). Please submit your add/drops for this week by tomorrow (Tuesday) at noon (to me via email).

Shell Houston Open Chatter

Week Four - Shell Houston Open
Long John Holmes vs The Arjunless Army
Choi's Chums vs Tommy's Guns
Men with Yellow Hats vs You take drugs, Danny?
The Leopards vs The Au Pair Posse

It's going to be a battle of attrition in most of the matches this week. File this week under "It's our first year and it's a learning experience."

Week #3 Wrap Up

Filed from sunny Key West...

Game of the Week:
Choi's Chums nips Arjun's Army -6 to -4. In the end, the Jonathan Byrd ruling had no impact on the contest, but owners are starting to wonder whether Jeff needs to re-name his team to appease the golf gods. Especially now that Arjun is a Man with a Yellow Hat (see below).

Other Matches:
Long John Holmes trounced The Au Pair Posse -24 to -3.
Tommy's Guns stepped on Men with Yellow Hats -21 to 2.
The Leopards limped past You take drugs, Danny? 2 to 11.

Add/Drops:
Men Without Hats (Geo) cleaned house by dropping Immelman and Jobe and picking up Week 3 winner Aaron Baddeley and the aforementioned Arjun Atwal. Good luck Geo! The only other owner to put in was Hugh (Baddeley for Duval), but since Geo has the least wins he was able to pick up Baddeley first.

Shell Houston Open Line Up Thread (a.k.a. The PGA doesn't take a vacation! Where are your line-ups??)

Line-ups for this week are due four hours ago in the comment field.

Jeff

ps... I'm a donkey... ;-)

Trade Talk

Offer for Trades....

Verizon Heritage Chatter

Use this thread to share horror stories, trash-talk with an opponent and/or wax poetic about your team. Discuss...

Verizon Heritage Line-Ups

Please post your lineups for the Verizon Heritage (a.k.a. The Davis Love III Invitational) by commenting below. Thanks.

Masters Wrap Up

We had a strong week by most teams and a pitiful match between Rick and Hugh. To put it in perspective, both of them would have lost to any of the other teams (winners and losers) in the other games. Nice effort gentlemen!

Choi's Chums over The Au Paire Posse (7 to 10) - David edged me out in a battle than came down to Sunday afternoon. Luke Donald posted a big number that did me in, but an exciting game all around. Six of the nine starters that made the cut ended up under par in what I thought was as painful a loss as one could have... until I saw...

Long John Holmes over You take Drugs Danny? (6 to 8) - This one went back and forth throughout the afternoon, with Aaron taking it in the end by a nose (Jim Furyk's). Ultimately, the three shot penalty (Tom Lehman missed the cut) did Jon in. Great game.

Arjun's Army over Men with Yellow Hats (14 to 19) - The Arjun-less Army took it to Geo's squad with eventual winner Lefty providing the cushion needed for the win.

The Leopards over Tommy's Guns (28 to 37) - 50% of the players in this game missed the cut and the only player under par was Vijay (-3). Given the way CBS covers these tourneys, it couldn't have been a fun afternoon for these guys. Rick's got a firm hold on the basement... up next: Men with Yellow Hats.

Please post your lineups for the Verizon Heritage in the previous post. Any questions... send me an email.

Starters Missing the Cut - More Discussion

I thought it would be good to capture a conversation Aaron and I had via email and let the other owners chime in with comments. The topic is how to penalize starters that do not make the cut. With the latest rule change David had concerns that it could potentially result in the wrong team winning. I tried to give Aaron an example of how this could happen and he responded... here's the complete transcript - feel free to comment with your thoughts.

Jim: "We might make another change to the way we calculate scores for players that miss the cut. instead of assigning everyone that misses the cut with the highest score, we should probably only assign one player from each team with that # and then go to the next worst score for the next player, etc. it ends up being a lot more fair. clear as mud, eh?"

Aaron: "Why is that more fair? If you miss the cut shouldn't it be a really stiff penalty? And if you have more than one miss the cut I think the penalty should be worse, not better. That's my two cents."

Jim: "Well, the best i can do is give you an example and have you respond.

let's say you have three guys miss the cut and your opponent has one miss it. your two remaining guys finish 1-2 in the tourney. three of your opponent's guys finish in the middle of the pack and his third guy completely tanks over the weekend.

AC
player #1 = -10
player #2 = -9

Jeff
player #1 = E
player #2 = E
player #3 = E
player #4 = +15

Who should win this week? I'd argue you should win, even though fewer of your guys made the cut. but if we apply the current rule this is what it looks like:

AC: -8, -6, +18, +18, +18 = 40
Jeff: 0, 0, 0, +15, +18 = 33 (WINNER)

If you step the penalty the way I'm thinking, this is what it looks like:

AC: -8, -6, +18, +3, +3 = 10 (WINNER)
Jeff: 0, 0, 0, +15, +18 = 33

I'm sure there are more scenarios that might make this clearer, but this is what I came up with on short notice. I just want to make sure the "right" guy wins week to week. I also don't think it's right to be rooting for one of your players to tank on the weekend just so your opponent gets cement shoes.

What do you think?"

Aaron: "I think it's more fair to reward the guy who has the most players make the cut. I think the reason you have ten players and have to strategize every week is because you need as many players as possible to make the cut. Allowing a guy to ride two or three good players negates the reason for having a draft and strategizing in the first place. By your reasoning, if LeBron puts up 35 a night, his team should win every night, no matter what the rest of his team does. The way it is structured now, people get rewarded for making good picks deep in the draft and starting these guys. Witness Jon against me with Nick O'Hern - the guy missed the cut in the Players and Bellsouth and has only played one other time in the US this year. But right now it looks like Jon made a nice call with him. If I have two guys who shoot lights out and he has five guys like Nick O'Hern, then I might win even with three guys who miss the cut. I don't like that. As we discussed in the beginning, if a guy doesn't make the cut then he should suffer the most because his guys weren't good enough to even make the weekend. And in every other pool I'm in, if your guys don't make the cut you're out. I vote to keep it the way it is."

MASTERS LINE-UPs

Put your line-up for the week in the comments of this post.

Line-ups? Line Up!

Hey. I think it's a great idea to have our line-ups mailed to your opponent and to Jim, but wouldn't it make sense to just log on here and post them in the comments of a blog entry?

E.g - Someone will create an entry each week, like this week it will say MASTERS LINE-UPS, and then the comment field will have everyone's line-up. Put it there by the deadline and then everyone can see who has whom playing.

Just a thought. Let me know your thoughts.

Trade Bait - Mickelson on the Block

Make me an offer. I'm building my team around Arjun and O'Hair. The future is where it's at and I'm embracing it fully.