Following three straight weeks of announcements that the next time the Capitals played was "a huge game," my fiancée finally agreed with me. Coming into last night's game, Washington and Buffalo were tied with 84 points, but the Caps had the edge in the first tiebreaker with one more regulation plus overtime win. Both teams had six games left in the season. If either Buffalo or Washington were to win in regulation, it would be a massive blow to the other team's playoff chances. So we did what any good Caps fans would do -- we went to StubHub and bought the cheapest tickets we could find.
After catching up with some friends at Redline, we headed into the Verizon Center, justifiably nervous for the outcome. The Caps were starting, for all intents and purposes, their third string goalie. And although young Braden Holtby has played well in spurts, we got the feeling that it was a huge gamble on Dale Hunter's part. Sure enough, Holtby gave up three goals and was yanked only a few minutes into the 2nd period. The Caps offense could only muster one lousy goal before a terrible turnover at the power play point by Ovechkin led to a Sabres shortie that sealed Washington's fate. Now the 5-1 score is a little misleading. The Caps peppered Ryan Miller with 45 shots, and even though a lot of them were unscreened and from outside the slot, he stood tall when he had to and made some key saves on drives from Ovechkin and Laich, among others. Simply put, Buffalo had a world-class goalie, and the Capitals didn't.
Japers' recap compared it to the last game of the 2008-09 season for the Caps, a 6-2 throttling at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins in game seven of the conference semis. I remember watching that game at one of my favorite bars, Chadwicks. It was embarrassing, deflating, and in my estimation created the media firestorm which still lingers today about what is wrong with the Washington Capitals. And while the feeling last night wasn't as grim (there is, by definition, nothing more grim than losing a game seven) the questions surrounding the team are louder than ever. Forget Ovechkin -- he's signed through the 2020-21 season and will remain the captain despite the media's needling over his leadership abilities. But the Caps' current roster was assembled to win this year, and after decidedly not winning, come July 1st it may look very different. There are six relevant unrestricted free agents (Semin, Knuble, Halpern, Aucoin, Wideman, Vokoun) and two massive decisions to make on restricted free agents (Green, Carlson). Throw in two more tweener RFAs (Perreault, Beagle), the likely drama with their Russian imports (Kuznetsov, Galiev), and anyone who George McPhee considers trade bait (*coughSCHULTZcough*) and you could have over half of the active roster in flux.
That is, if McPhee still has a job after the season. Whatever happens between now and October, it should be interesting for everyone in the organization, from Ted Leonsis on down. Just don't ask me what I would do if I were McPhee or Hunter. I would have started Holtby last night, and just like Hunter, I would have been wrong.
Musings on pop culture, sports culture, and my personal life... culture.
10 March 2012
Redskins Trade Up
NFL.com news: Redskins acquire second overall pick in deal with Rams
Washington gave up three first round picks ('12, '13, '14) and one second rounder ('12) presumably for the rights to Robert Griffin III. To which I say:
Washington gave up three first round picks ('12, '13, '14) and one second rounder ('12) presumably for the rights to Robert Griffin III. To which I say:
This Is Not My Fantasy
On Saturday, my friends and I had our annual fantasy baseball draft. We have tailored our league's selection process to create the maximum amount of work for me as commissioner. First, we have a 15-round auction portion, followed by a 9-round snake draft to complete our 24-man rosters. We call our beloved system "the drauction." Our budget for the auction portion is $225 ($15/player) and no dollar value is assigned to drafted or free agent players unless they are kept the following season for a flat rate. There are 11 teams in the league, 5x5 rotisserie scoring, with 4 OF spots.
I came into the day telling myself I was going to buy two out of three superstars who would be the cornerstones of my team; Justin Upton, Evan Longoria, and Troy Tulowitzki. They are my favorite non-Cubs in baseball, and I was prepared to go up to $45 for each one of them, essentially soaking up about 40% of my auction money for 13% of my auction players, if I was indeed successful in getting two. The first round of the auction saw Justin Verlander fall into my lap for below market value, but still at a steep enough price that I was wary of overspending for my targeted bats. So I let Longoria go for $41, which I thought was high but still below my ceiling, and intended to buy Upton and Tulo. To my surprise, Tulo went for $50, followed by Upton for $48. I give myself credit for my restraint, instead settling on Joey Votto for $44. The rest of the auction was a bit of panic mode on my part -- since most of my roster projections included Longo at third, I ended up overpaying (in my opinion) for Ryan Zimmerman at $26. I also overpaid for some of my favorite pitchers, and was left floating guys I wanted for $1 at the end of the auction and hoping everyone passed. It worked most of the time, but it cost me a shot at Matt Wieters, Michael Cuddyer, Dee Gordon, James Shields, B.J. Upton, Freddie Freeman, and Anibal Sanchez, all guys I thought were undervalued.
Now, without further ado, here is my team as it stands after draft day:
AUCTION
Analysis after the jump...
I came into the day telling myself I was going to buy two out of three superstars who would be the cornerstones of my team; Justin Upton, Evan Longoria, and Troy Tulowitzki. They are my favorite non-Cubs in baseball, and I was prepared to go up to $45 for each one of them, essentially soaking up about 40% of my auction money for 13% of my auction players, if I was indeed successful in getting two. The first round of the auction saw Justin Verlander fall into my lap for below market value, but still at a steep enough price that I was wary of overspending for my targeted bats. So I let Longoria go for $41, which I thought was high but still below my ceiling, and intended to buy Upton and Tulo. To my surprise, Tulo went for $50, followed by Upton for $48. I give myself credit for my restraint, instead settling on Joey Votto for $44. The rest of the auction was a bit of panic mode on my part -- since most of my roster projections included Longo at third, I ended up overpaying (in my opinion) for Ryan Zimmerman at $26. I also overpaid for some of my favorite pitchers, and was left floating guys I wanted for $1 at the end of the auction and hoping everyone passed. It worked most of the time, but it cost me a shot at Matt Wieters, Michael Cuddyer, Dee Gordon, James Shields, B.J. Upton, Freddie Freeman, and Anibal Sanchez, all guys I thought were undervalued.
Now, without further ado, here is my team as it stands after draft day:
AUCTION
- Justin Verlander, SP, DET ($32)
- Joey Votto, 1B, CIN ($44)
- Michael Young, 1B/2B/3B, TEX ($20)
- Ryan Zimmerman, 3B, WAS ($26)
- J.J. Hardy, SS, BAL ($6)
- Brian McCann, C, ATL ($20)
- Jered Weaver, SP, LAA ($34)
- Adam Wainwright, SP, STL ($23)
- Matt Garza, SP, CHC ($9)
- Neil Walker, 2B, PIT ($2)
- Carlos Marmol, RP, CHC ($1)
- Colby Rasmus, OF, TOR ($1)
- Jordan Zimmermann, SP, WAS ($1)
- Derek Holland, SP, TEX ($2)
- Brandon Morrow, SP, TOR ($4)
- Martin Prado, 3B/OF, ATL
- Carlos Beltran, OF, STL
- J.J. Putz, RP, ARI
- Rafael Betancourt, RP, COL
- Nick Swisher, 1B/OF, NYY
- Peter Bourjos, OF, LAA
- Dexter Fowler, OF, COL
- Brett Myers, SP/RP, HOU
- Brennan Boesch, OF, DET
Analysis after the jump...
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