If I can manage the time, I would like to do weekly recaps of what happened, and my thoughts on the week past. Last season I did a monthly recap on the spreadsheet, and it helped me later on for when I went back to evaluate things.
WEEKLY RECAP
May 10th- May 16th
RUNLINE BLITZ
It was a pretty scary week here as loss after loss piled up. The week began on Game 1 and by Saturday we were faced with a rare Game 5 situation. The middle of the week saw the St. Louis Cardinals as heavy favorites 3 days in a row in their series with the Astros. Unfortunately, Houston pulled off the very improbable sweep as many were left confused by what had happened. It was a huge System loss for many people (including my own
Top 7), but for us it was just games 2-4.
The weekend brought new hope as Colorado sought to become our savior. After a rain-out on Friday, the skies cleared for an afternoon matinee with the Majors top pitcher on our side. As per the luck, he was faced by the Majors #2 ERA guy, yet somehow this was still the biggest favorite of the day. Vegas just loves to screw with us sometimes.. Our Ace was brilliant, as expected, but so was theirs matching him almost pitch for pitch. When hope seemed to be lost with just a 1-run lead late, the Rockies heart of the order produced a much needed 3-spot in their final chance to save us. Relief, it was, as we finally gained our +1 Unit.
The week ended just as it started - with a loss. The Chicago Cubs won the game, as I predicted they would, but it was not the blowout I thought it might be. A 1-run win leaves us with a Game 2 on the horizon as a new week begins tomorrow..
Weekly Record: 1-5Units: +0.05TOP 7 HOME TEAM
The week began with the surging New York Mets against an under-the-radar Washington squad. We knew it was going to be a tough series, but the Mets secured the win in game 2 for us.
Tuesday saw 2 new series begin, both Double Unit Plays. The Minnesota series was only 2 games, but the match-up looked good. Unfortunately, our Game 1 curse continued as we hit the wall once again. Final series games are always a little more stressful, and this one was no different. They fell behind by 2 right off the bat, but managed to put together a couple of solid early innings themselves to grab a 3-2 lead. The pitching was dominant from that point as this ended as the final score. The other series on Tuesday was our eventual loss this week, St. Louis. This looked like a huge mismatch on paper for at least 2 of the 3 games, and rightly so. The Cards were rolling along nicely and Houston was considered by many to be the worst team in the Majors. Game 1 was going as planned until the Cards imploded in the 7th inning with a 2-0 lead. By the time it was all said and done, the Astros had scored 4 times on their way to a 6-3 victory. Game 2 had us a bit more cautious as we knew Wandy Rodriguez had the potential to shine any time he's on the hill. Houston built an early 6-1 lead and eventually hung on for a 9-6 win. Game 3 was a shocker as Houston once again put up 4 early off Ace Chris Carpenter. St. Louis surprisingly couldn't get anything going on offense and fell 4-1 to complete the Houston sweep. We weren't the only System which was hit hard with this loss, so there was not even a filter elsewhere which could possibly be learned for the future. The fact this was a Double Unit Play made it all the tougher to swallow. Total loss was -21.41 Units.
This left us to regroup for our weekend series as 3 more kicked off. Thoughts were these series were going to be tough, so we didn't go after our Unit Recovery too aggressively. We upped the Atlanta series for 3.25 Units and finally managed to win a Game 1 for the first time this season. The Detroit series was played standard and they came back from a 6-1 deficit in Game 2 for our win there. We took a shot to win 2.5 Units in Game 1 of the San Diego series as it was felt this was their best shot to win any of the weekend's games. They didn't, and we became really worried after this. We scaled back to win just the standard unit for Game 2 and were able to have some insurance as a Dog Play. Still no dice. Not liking our chances for Game 3, we caught a break with arguably the Majors MVP so far, Andre Ethier, breaking his pinky and having to sit this game out, too. Once again tho, we were able to get the insurance with the Dog Play and this time it saved our lives. Wade Leblanc tossed a no-hitter into the 6th but that wasn't even good enough to beat these Dodgers, as Chad Billingsley threw smoke all day on his way to a 1-0 win. Our Dog Filter saved a series loss last season with Tampa Bay, and once again saves us from our 2nd loss in less than a week.
We also had 3 more series this week which were filtered completely out of play. The first and third, against a Top 7 Road Team, won on Game 1. The second, against a Division Leader, saved our skin again. San Francisco was swept under the rug by San Diego 3 straight.
This means that thanks to our Filters, 2 series losses were avoided in the same week. One which earned us an additional win, and one which prevented a huge loss.
Even tho this was a losing week, it could have been so much worse, and that is what we will remember as we move forward. The schedule makers are throwing nothing but curveballs in the week ahead as we'll see all 2-game series and some Interleague play next weekend.
If we can get through the rocky path ahead next week, we'll be feeling much better about the rest of this season..
Weekly Record: 5-1 (series) 5-8 (games)
Units: -13.16
Continued Success
I didn''t like anything about this game or the rest of the weekend for them.. 
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