Week 21 Review

Regulators DEF Karma Kameleons 7-3

For the 2nd week in a row, Regs cost himself a win by trying to be cute with his roster. Regs sat most his pitchers with an 8-2 lead and a .05 lead in whip. KK’s 2 starters on Sunday were very effective, but so were all of Regs' pitchers on his bench, and KK took whip 1.04-1.05. Doh. But, all that would affect is Reg’s ability to catch Jobu. Jobu has a 3.5 games lead over the Regs for the #3 seed, and well what do ya know… Regs faces Jobu this week. The #3 seed will face the #6 seed in round one, and Legends in round 2, as opposed to facing the #5 seed and Snot in round 2. Karma fell out of the #6 spot and they now trail Longball by 1.5 games (Blog thinks. It could be 2). They face Legends to save their season this week. The defending champs did secure the fourth playoff spot clinced so far (joining Snot from last week and Legends & Jobu this week). Regs made several moves this week, shoring up their bullpen, rotation and team speed. Karma flipped Curtis Granderson for Nate “1st half” McLouth and Jorge Cantu in an effort to try to get a few more homers, as they are 7th over-all in total dingers. Karma has also set some sort of record, going 6 straight weeks without a save. It’s been a tough stretch since Karma Kleansed the roster of closers, as they’ve gone 2-3-1 since week 15, and one of those wins came against Swine, when there wasn’t a save to be found in the entire week. Going into a matchup down 0-1 before the first pitch of the week is thrown is a disadvantage. You won’t find wisdom like that anywhere else in cyberspace.

> Stud of the Week: Rich Harden was awesome last week. 2 dominant starts. He sure would have netted Karma a nice bounty of picks had Karma been willing to part with him before the deadline: 2/0/0.64/0.29/13.50. A .29 WHIP in 2 starts!?!?! Man…

> Dud of the Week: Torii Hunter was pretty invisible last week, and will be the dud: 1/0/1/0/.241, but at least he played. Right JD?


Snot on the Ball DEF Legends 6-3-1

Snot certainly got his wish to have a lively trade deadline. 9 deals happened since 8/21, with 28 players swapping teams. 8 teams made at least one deal in the frenzy. The two teams who didn’t? L.L. Longball and Legends. Let this be a lesson to everyone: before you close on a new home, make sure you square away your internet access FIRST. Snot could sit his entire roster this week to prevent injury and he’ll still have homefield throughout the playoffs. Legends has also clinched the #2 spot by winning the ‘THOSE WHO CAN’T’ division, so the drama from this matchup wasn’t quite what Blog hoped for 10 weeks ago. Blog’s not sure, but Blog would bet that Legends would have rather won this week, rather than lose. However, just the fact that the 9-1 lead that Snot had deep into the week did not hold up should encourage Legends, or something. If Blog were to ask Legends, though, I’m sure he’d rather see Mister Rollins and Mister Beckett actually perform as expected. Snot is now very excited to welcome fantasy stalwarts Randy Winn and Raul Ibanez to his OF. Who needs Carlos Lee?!? The season starts again for these two teams on 9/8.

> Stud of the Week: J-Bay has filled in admirably for Manny in Left for the Sawx, but how about waiver wire wonder Alexei Ramirex? 4/3/11/0/.333

> Dud of the Week: In the classic words of Broadway Joe, Jimmy Rollins is St-ru-gg-l-ing: 2/0/0/0/.080


L.L. Longball DEF BOB’Z BOYZ 6-3-1

Longball put themselves in the driver seat for the right to lose to Jobu or Regs in week one of the playoffs with a solid win over the rebuilding boyz. Longball isn’t even out of the running for the #5 spot, although Papi does have a 3.5 game hold, and, well, Papi plays the BOY’Z this week, so… Longball will need to handle business with Bounty Hunters this week, and have Karma NOT destroy Legends to become the flyest poet ever in the CPL playoffs. Some very interesting stats in this matchup. BB won average with a devastating .232 average, just squeaking out the win over Longball’s .231. Blog was positive that this must have been the lowest winning average for a week, but Blog was shocked to find that .232 was a winner once before! Longball threw up a winning .232 against the Swine Nine in week 5, and the Swine Nine won average with a .233 against Jobu in week 11. Crazy. Longball lost RBI by 1, 34-33. Longball won SB 8-3. On Sunday, Longball’s roster had 0 RBI. Not a single one. But… the Longball bench had 7 RBI. Longball had SB only players like Juan Pierre and Willy Tavares in his OF despite his large SB lead, and he had RBI potentials like Vernon Wells and Pedro Feliz on his bench. In fact, had Wells played all week, he may have been the stud, but he didn’t see one game in the lineup. Fascinating.

> Stud of the Week: yuck. Just yuck. Blog will hold his nose and pick Francisco Rodriguez: 0/3/0.00/1.00/11.25. K-Rod’s reward? Shipped out of town to a contender.

> Dud of the Week: Take your pick: Marcum, Sheffield, Jacobs, Delmon Young, Werth, I-Rod, Reynolds, Howard, Renteria… Let’s give it to Mike Jacobs: 1/0/1/0/.077


Jobu’s Hats for Bats DEF Bounty Hunters 6-3-1

Bounty Hunters saw their playoff hopes take a huge hit with this loss and Longball’s win. The Hunters are actually sitting in NINTH PLACE right now, as the Swine Nine leapt them in the standings. It’s been a very disappointing 2nd half for the first year manager, as they’ve only won 2 weeks since week 7. The hunters will need to throttle Longball this week, and get help from Legends AND Snot to make sure they handle KK and Swine respectively. Blog’s prognosis is that Longball will manage to hold on to the spot, but we shall see. Jobu had a huge offensive week, putting only the 4th 20 HR week this year, and the 9th 60+ RBI week (Jobu has 3). Add CC Sabathia and James Shields to that firepower and you see why Jobu may have had the most productive weekend trade wise. Here’s hoping that Sabathia’s arm falls off after the Brewers throw him for 14 innings against the Pirates this week.

> Stud of the Week: Albert Pujols is still Albert Pujols: 3/2/10/0/.579

> Dud of the Week: Adrian Beltre once hit 40 homers. Once: 2/0/0/0/.200

Swine Nine DEF Papi’s Space Cadets 7-3

Papi missed a great chance to all but secure the 5th playoff spot last week, getting spanked by the 09 Swine. Papi should still be able to stay at 5, as they face the depleted REBUILDING BOY’Z this week, but nothing’s over ‘til the fat lady’s counted her chickens. Swine has staved off elimination until the last week, but they face a tough task to make the playoffs, as they would have to knock the snot out of Snot, and then get other help, which Blog has already discussed above. Blog can’t wait for this week to get started, and Blog just doesn’t have much else to say about this matchup, besides Papi needs his sluggers to start slugging. Hear that Maggs, Vlad, Papi??

> Stud of the Week: Mark DeRosa was very close, but Grady Sizemore filled all 5 categories: 6/2/10/4/.333

> Dud of the Week: Joe Saunders was pretty awful: 0/0/10.13/1.69/0.00

Manager of the Week: Regs is the hottest team wins-wise in the league, and at the right time.

Player of the Week: Sizemore

Pitcher of the Week: Harden

Next week, we’ll have a week 22 review, and then some playoff previews. You know you can’t wait…