By The Jersey Hitman

League 6

League 17

I barely found the time to write my column this week. But I did it! It’s been hard to find the time to do a lot of things lately. I have been so busy that I almost missed Chipper Jones’ birthday. Raise your glass for a toast. \~/ … here’s to a healthy year for Chipper. Hey, it could happen. And maybe Carlos Delgado can turn things around too. : )

The Good: Chipper Jones

There are certain players I stay away from on draft day - always have done, always will: aged players who I feel are high injury risks are in this group. For that reason, you will not find Chipper Jones on any of my rosters this season. Going into my drafts, I felt he wasn’t worth the risk. 130 games played, tops, was my thinking. Now, my thinking is … I was wrong.

I am writing this column on Chipper’s 36th birthday. He celebrated it by going 3 for 3, hitting his 7th home run of the year. This “aged, high injury risk” player has played in all 22 games for the Braves this season, batting .442 with 20 RBIs and 18 runs scored. He may very well be NL Player of the Month.

Chipper may not play all 162 games this year, and I am pretty sure he will not hit .400 for the season. But he is off to one hell of a start. I wouldn’t mind having him on any of my rosters, now, even if he does only play 130 games.

The Bad: Finding time

Time has become an issue for me lately. I am sure there are others out there who have the same problem: finding the time to set my lineups everyday; finding time to look over the waiver wire and read injury reports.

I usually set my lineups for the next day at night before I go to bed — when I have the energy, that is. I try to remain as active as all my fellow owners in all my leagues, but, occasionally, at the end of a trying day, I forget. It only happens, rarely, but when it does, it is when I find that a few of my starters didn’t even play. Meanwhile, sitting on my bench was a guy who went 3 for 4 with a HR. It gets very frustrating, and every time it happens, I tell myself that it’ll be the last time I let it happen.

More annoying is that the revolving door on closers seems to spin without me. By the time I find out that Brian Fuentes is now the closer for the Rockies, he has been picked up in every league. This is why, regardless of what the experts tell me about closers, I always try to draft two good ones.

I still manage to find the time to ‘pitch and ditch’, however, but usually have to look a few days ahead to find a pitcher I like who hasn’t been picked up yet.

Time may not be on my side, but I manage to find just enough of it to compete. I will be here all year long!

The Ugly: Carlos Delgado

Carlos Delgado is falling. His batting average has fallen below .200; his place in the batting order has fallen from 4th, last season, to 5th, at the beginning of this season, to 6th, now, and with Moises Alou set to come off the DL, a further fall to the 7th spot may not be too far away.

In fact, the bench may not be too far away. There is plenty of talk in New York about Alou playing some first base and Angel Pagan sticking in left field, especially when the Mets are facing a lefty.

Last week, I wrote about the terrible start David Ortiz was having; this week he has been on fire. Maybe Delgado will do the same, but I sure do doubt it.