Fantasy spectrum

Even when most of the news is from other sports, my posts will be primarily about baseball. I'm kind of easing into that mode; I haven't really allowed myself to follow baseball much since the World Series and my fantasy leagues ended. I still have to send out some hard-copy reports to the computer-challenged and those without sufficient equipment, and some checks to the winners. A couple of interesting player moves. A year ago at this time, OF Marlon Byrd had to go play winter ball in the Mexican Pacific League to prove himself worthy of a major league contract. He was coming off a year that included a drug suspension. He was a valuable addition to the Pirates' lineup down the stretch and in the postseason. Now he's a valuable addition back with his original team, the Phillies, who signed him for 2 years and $16 million. The Blue Jays signed 1B Dan Johnson. He has had some really ugly statistical seasons, but has elevated his game in September/October crunch time for just about every team that has employed him. After some false alarms, is Toronto really ready to make a run for the postseason. I'd like to see that for John Gibbons' sake if nothing else. * * * After this week's first NFL game, I'm leading 15-0 in one league and trailing 15-0 in the other. I seriously doubt that the leader will stay the same in both leagues, and maybe not in either. The league where I'm ahead is points-only. I scored 9 with Rob Bironas and 6 with Delanie Walker. But now I have just six players remaining, and my opponent has all eight of his. In the other league, a points/yardage/bonus setup, my opponent's points came from Adam Vinatieri -- 3 PATs and 3 field goals with some bonus points for distance. She has eight players remaining, but I have all nine of mine. * * * Remember how one of my tips for fantasy hockey was to make sure you make your daily lineup revisions early so you don't forget them? As I was driving to Fort Worth this afternoon, I thought I'd forgotten to make mine. Then as I began writing this, I made some moves late last night, late enough that it was after midnight and the moves would register for Friday. Perhaps I should have made all the moves. I put Torey Krug in the lineup to replace Milan Michalek. Krug was -2 and Michalek +2. My goalie woes continued, but to a lesser degree. I'm still having trouble gaining wins. Steve Mason played very well, stopping 36 of 38 shots, but the Flyers lost to Washington in a shootout. Mason did help considerably with his 1.85 GAA and .947 save percentage. I stayed at 61 points, but dropped into fourth place, half a point out of third. My team's plus/minus, driven by the 4-point swing between Krug and Michalek, now is only one ahead of my league's fifth-best team in plus-minus. My goalies are within 4 percentage points of ninth place, and within 5 points in save percentage but the 3.02 team GAA is 17 percentage points out of ninth place.