My Irrational League hitters came alive in September, slamming homer after homer.

Unfortunately, my pitching stunk worse than month-old lobster. Collapses by Chris Carpenter and Mat Latos meant that Jason Marquis was my ace for the last six weeks – and yes, that’s as bad as it sounds. Not only did I fall out of the money after climbing back into it in August, I finished in fifth.

My final stats:

.269 batting average (3rd, down from 2nd in August)
232 HR (1st up from 6th)
945 RBI (2nd, two RBI out of first)
131 SB (5th, down from 4th)
4.18 ERA (10th down from 6th)
1.28 WHIP (4th down from 3rd)
78 wins (9th down from 7th)
56 saves (6th up from 7th)

What went wrong?

I estimated my final hitting stats would come out to something like .280, 250 HR, 1015 RBI, and 180 SB – all overestimates, but this was a pitching year. An average of .275 won the category, and I essentially did as well as could be expected in HRs and RBIs. I lost 50 SB to Matt Kemp’s (19 SB, 15 CS) and David Wright’s (19 SB, 11 CS) inefficiency and Lasting Milledge’s drop in speed (5 SB, 3 CS). I had predicted those three to rack up 75 SB instead of 43. Oh, yes, and then there was Nate McClouth, who had a whole season of went wrong.

My pitching failed at the start of the year as Jason Marquis and Kyle Lohse both stunk up the joint before going on the injured reserve list. Trevor Hoffman just stunk. Nobody picked up the slack after August, when Latos and Carpenter pitched like gods. In September, they pitched like dogs.

See you next year, Irrational League. It’s hockey season!