By JIMMY D / Pitching betrays Jimmy; lead is gone in baseball | Jimmy's archive

If you would have told Jimmy back in April that in early September, with his fantasy baseball season on the line, he would waiving goodbye to Jeremy Bonderman and picking Ubaldo Jimenez, you probably would have gotten laughed out the door.

But oh, how a few weeks of pitching mess can change things in your baseball pool.

The past two weeks have seen a total of zero wins by Jimmy’s starters, a total of one save from his relievers and about 10 strikeouts in 50 innings. The result has been a predictable nosedive for Jimmy, falling from a comfortable first-place perch to a tie with two pretender GMs (one named Dave, the other named Dave).

And the unsung hero hitters who kept Jimmy’s Jackals far ahead in the hitting categories – Jeff Francoeur, Orlando Hudson, Miguel Cabrera and others – have caught a collective case of Rob Deeritis.

Older poolies will recall this serious, career-dooming affliction suffered by many whiffers in the 1980s. Other hitters have been afflicted with Pete Incaviglia-itis, which is equally severe and causes batters to hit a home run once a week, strike out every other at-bat and make bizarre errors in the field.

So with two weeks left and after patiently waiting on some of his Jackals to turn it around, Jimmy has pushed the panic button. Jeremy Bonderman is gone. And to think how happy Jimmy was to scoop the Tiger ace off waivers three weeks ago. What a disaster. He bombed spectacularly again Sunday, earning a trip back to Waiver World.

Jimmy entrusts two-start righty Rockie Ubaldo Jimenez with getting a few wins and K’s this week. May the fantasy Gods smile upon poor Ubaldo and poor Jimmy.

Johnny Damon is gone. See ya. One good game since mid-August. Somehow, red-hot Garrett Anderson of Anaheim was still on waivers, so he gets a chance to prop up the hitting categories.

Tim Wakefield and two-start Curt Schilling remain on the staff (both pitch against Tampa Bay) for desperate Jimmy and speedy (injured) Chone Figgins remains benched in favour of Corey Hart, which has resulted in stolen base trouble.

Jimmy is feeling like Gene Mauch with the 1964 Phillies (they led by 6.5 games with 12 to play but lost 10 in a row to lose the flag), watching the pennant slip through his fingers with loss after pathetic loss.

Can the Jackals recover to win the title? I know, the tension is killing you. Check back next week for an update. Looking for some last-minute help from your waiver wire?

Pedro Martinez and Rick Ankiel have likely both been snapped up, but Kenny Rogers is back and might be out there for you. Ditto Brewer righty Carlos Villanueva, who slipped in a nice start in place of injured Claudio Vargas.

And Hank Blalock is back and apparently healthy in Texas. The 3B spent most of the year on the DL, but came off Sept. 2.

NFL fantasy Week 1

A bunch of low-scoring games through Sunday (bookended by the Indy rout on Thursday and the 45-35 Giants/Cowboys debacle Sunday night) kept fantasy production to a minimum.

But New England lived up to early billing with a rout at the Jets, led by Randy Moss finished second in fantasy scoring and briefly quieted the naysayers who predict he will doom the Pats clubhouse (183 yards and a TD).

For the Jackals, Brian Westbrook was good, but not great in Philly’s gag loss at Green Bay and Travis Henry lived up to Jimmy’s pre-draft hype with 139 rushing yards in Denver’s win at Buffalo. Jimmy benched TE L.J. Smith in favour of Ram Randy McMichael and both accomplished jack squat. And everyone was still waiting on the twin-bill Monday Nighter where Jimmy had Matt Leinart and Larry Fitzgerald going for the Cardinals.

For the record, Tony Romo and Plaxico Burress were the top fantasy producers of the week with 41 points. Other top fantasy performers of the week (scoring based roughly on Yahoo!-style roto):

Peyton Manning, QB, Indy: 27 points
Steve Smith, WR, Carolina: 26 points
Tom Brady, QB, New England: 28 points
Randy Moss, WR, New England: 34 points
Andre Johnson, WR, Texas: 28 points
LT, RB, San Diego: 28 points (despite only 25 rushing yards)
Reggie Wayne, WR, Indy: 31 points
Ronald Curry, WR, Oakland: 30 points
Jon Kitna, QB, Detroit: 27 points
LaMont Jordan, RB, Oakland: 31 points
Eli Manning, QB, New York Giants; 32 points

Baseball winds down, football winds up and hockey preseason is right around the corner. It’s busy. Stay busy and get lucky.

Jimmy D

Email Jimmy at jpoole@herald.ca .