The Brilliant Bums

We want to give a nod to the Bleacher Bums, those Modesto twins Doug and Frank, who have somehow finished fourth and fifth the past two years despite making a grand total two FAAB pickups.

We don't know how these guys do it, exactly, but they've developed some kind of new paradigm in rotisserie baseball. We give full credit to the most creative geniuses in BABI for sure, and who knows what larger territory. We bet there is no true rotisserie league in America in which a team finished fifth and made money with no transactions.

In 2004 these guys let half their pitching staff freeze, finished with a total of 3 saves (2 from Dempster and 1 from Dreifort) and still finished 4th with 34 pitching points. The key was that they spent 78 dollars on 5 starters, none of whom hurt them during the season. They were:

• Jason Schmidt 20-05C They purchased him way back when at a time he was hurt.
• Kerry Wood 23-05 They love this guy, and thought he had a disappointing great season, he didn't put up bad numbers.
• Jake Peavy 10-05 He really came into his own, and they'll have to consider extending him in 2005.
• Carl Pavano 8-06 A true bargain of the auction, and we kick ourselves for not saying "9", except we had absolutely no money and couldn't. That said, he's an American Leaguer now.
• Brad Penny 17-06 Doesn't get the wins on that bad team, but he's matured into the stud we always expected him to be.

What a great staff. They had some injuries during the year or else they wouldn't have blown that ratio point by picking up Shawn Estes, who is now keepable at $5, we'd like to remind them. At one point we offered them the steal magnate, Scott Podsednik along with Woody Williams for any of the above 5 pitchers. They passed (a mistake, as Pods kept stealing like crazy and Woody finished the season stronger than he started it). But it was at that moment that we realized these guys actually had a plan for their team as opposed to randomly playing for next year.

We can't remember any team basing their success on top quality starting pitching, which is such a risky strategy. But they'll all be back again, save Pavano in 2005. Throw in Jason Bay, a 1 dollar Wily Mo Pena (10 letters, 5 syllables), Kahlil Green and Pedro Feliz. (all picked up in the 2004 auction) throw in a $2 Dempster and a $1 Ankiel, and they have an excellent core of players at 10 for $118, despite losing Pavano and their $22 superstar Adrian Beltre to the AL. If they can restrain the love of their Giants at the auction, maybe this year they'll make the push to the real race instead of the mid-level race they've gotten used to.

We're big fans of players who do not follow the conventional wisdom. We had absolutely no objection the crazy Ken's strategy to blow the innings minimum in order to finish 8th rather than 7th (missed it by not reading Larry's set of rules). Jeff Busch is a true contrarian, bidding big when others are not and waiting patiently when others are overspending early.

But no one compares to Doug and Frank. You never know what they'll do next. Hey, maybe this year they'll buy a closer! They're true originals. We love having them in BABI.