Qualls Must be a Bad Word in Some Countries

When I moved Alex Rios for Chad Qualls about a month ago, I thought I got a sweet deal. One of my manager friends in our dynasty league still calls it a "slam dunk" in my favor, but I still have to cry about him today.

Since the acquisition, he's posted the following line for Team Inchon (Not including this afternoon's BS):

12 IP, 2 SV, 4 K, 6.75 ERA, 1.31 WHIP

Okay, honestly, I still feel that I got a sweet deal. But I'd be lying if I said that I've been impressed with Qualls. I'd still be lying if I said that I'm content with Qualls. I'm starting to basically hate the man. I definitely fully resent him right now.

Going into the ninth with the Diamondbacks nursing a single-run lead, I IM'd the above mentioned friend:

Watch Qualls fuck up this one, too.

Sure, I dearly hoped that I'd be wrong and I was just protecting myself from the coldest, most heartless closer known to fantasy baseball owners, but I honestly believed that Qualls was not going to be able to protect the one-run lead.

After starting out the bottom of the ninth with a nice 1-2 count, Qualls allowed a single, as he wasn't able to coax Jerry Hairston to swing out of the strike zone. The 2-2 pitch was very close to a called strike but of course, it was not, and on the 8th pitch of the at bat, Qualls served up a fastball high and middle of the zone and Hairston pulled it into left for a single.

After Hairston got on, Joey Votto blasted a fly ball all the way to the wall that Alex Romero flat-out missed. I mean, the man, filling in for the injured Eric Byrnes, simply lost track of the ball as he backed into the digital scoreboard in left. Where do I write hatemails to Romero?

To make things worse, Jose Lopez was not able to turn a possible double play, as he dropped the ball (!) while transferring it from the glove to his throwing hand, after Mark Reynolds made a great diving stop of a sharply hit ball by Brandon Phillips.

And the tying run scored on a grounder up the middle that Qualls got a piece of with his foot and, well, that was that. I couldn't even finish watching the inning.

Sure, it wasn't entirely Qualls's fault, but I can still blame him for refusing to strike out anyone. The decrease on his K-rate is alarming to say the least (less than 5 per 9).

On a related note (another downer), I lost the arms race for the sole SP-qualified closer-type in Dan Meyer, as another owner moved about half his team for Adrian Gonzalez and Meyer.

On a positive note (but with a slight downer), Derrek Lee took it out of Wrigley Field twice tonight, appeasing the pain of the open wound that was the homer Reynolds ripped on my bench.