Roughnecks Capture 4th PLPFBL Title

Congratulations to the Roughnecks on winning the 2011 $1000 1st place prize! Offensively, the Roughnecks were led by Lance Berkman, Ben Zobrist, Troy Tulowitzki, Nick Markakis, and Adrian Beltre, while Shaun Marcum, Madison Bumgarner, Ricky Nolasco, and John Axford anchored the pitching staff. The majority of the league must have been comatose when they allowed Greg to pick up rookie studs Brett Lowrie and Desmond Jennings to solidify his lead in the 2nd half.

In just five years of owning the Roughnecks, Greg Wozniak has now won the league four times. In 2011, Greg ran away with the title early and we were all playing for 2nd place since sometime in June. He settled for only 4th place in 2009, but still took home the old 2nd half prize of $100 that year. Greg has now collected $2600 in winnings for a $2300 net.

And guess who finished 2nd.... yep, it's everyone's favorite runner-up, Bret Jenkins. Bret tied his all-time transactions record of 560 on the season, and he needed every one of those moves to hang on to 2nd place. Joey Votto took the revolving door of scrubs that Bret assembled, put them on his back, and carried them all year. Heath Bell and Mike Adams look like the only pitchers that played a full season for Uhhh... Lucky Devil!.

Bert has now finished in 2nd place four times and 3rd place once, but has never captured ultimate fantasy glory. Bret has been an owner since the inception of the league and has never finished worse than 8th place. Bret's Uhhh... Lucky Devil! team takes home the $400 2nd place prize in 2011.

The trend continues with 3rd place. Chirag Amin's Chumps squad finished 3rd for the second year in a row and took home $300. The Chumps usually "sit on their team", much like the Commish does, and this year was no different. Chirag used only 103 transactions and relied on the season-long production of guys like Torii Hunter, Jimmy Rollins, Coco Crisp and Aramis Ramirez. Ryan Braun, Matt Wieters, Albert Pujols, and Carlos Lee also made huge contributions. Tim Lincecum, Jordan Zimmermann, Tommy Hanson, and Carlos Marmol led the pitching staff. Chirag also has a 4th place finish in his history and is a consistent top-10 finisher.

Fourth place ($200) goes to Commissioner Sven. The Duda Abides used an excellent second half surge and nearly reached second place in the season's final days. Dustin Pedroia and Brett Gardner led the team all summer, but they were never able to recover from the loss of Ike Davis to injury. Justin Verlander was the entire starting rotation, putting together one of the great pitching seasons of all time, while David Robertson and Eric O'Flaherty both dominated in middle relief roles. The Commish takes home his first prize money since 2006, when he finished in 3rd place as an absentee owner while traveling through South America. Sven has now finished in 4th place three times.

Fifth place goes to the most hated owner in the PLPFBL, Josh Robbins, and his Red Stripe and Reggae team. Josh's trading strategy has angered owners for years, and one owner in the bottom of the standings told me this year, "The only reason I'm still making moves is to try and keep Reggae out of the top five. I'm trying to take his points." Well, unfortunately for that ticked off owner, Reggae was able to jump seven points in the standings thanks to a final day that earned three QS, and edge out adios pantalones for the final $100 prize. Using a similar revolving door strategy as Lucky Devil, Reggae only had three players get over 300 at-bats with his team, Chris Young, A.J. Pierzynski, and Brandon Phillips. On the mound, Carlos Zambrano led the team with 77.2 IP. Yikes!

Draft Pick of the Year Award: David Robertson was selected with the last pick of the draft and he responded by picking up 34 Holds with a 1.08 ERA and 1.13 WHIP in 66.2 innings. Congrats to 69witSuzynWaldman for making the best draft pick of the year. Sorry, no cash for that.