Week 15 Review (aka… Oh what a beautiful Mooorning!)
Regulators DEF Swine Nine 9-1
My, my, my… It’s clear that Swine Nine has been to favorite in 2009 right out of the gates. It’s also clear that not many conclusions can be drawn for the All-Star week results. Who’s to say what would happen in the 3 days of stats excluded from this shortened week? Even so, the records count just the same, and this score looks very sweet from the Regs side (Only 2 RBI kept Swiney’s name from changing…). With this win, Regs jumped from 5th place to 3rd place, and now sits just 4.5 games back of Brain Freeze for the CAN division lead (BF and Regs battle in week 16). This is only Swine’s 3rd loss of the season, and really, the numbers weren’t all that bad, but at least for a week, the #1 overall spot is no longer an automatic for Swine. Swine will take on Bounty Hunters in week 16, so in the blink of an eye Swine could be .500 over the past 2 weeks, but this is a big a ‘must win’ between a #1 and a #10 seed that you can have. Regs meanwhile finally got the offense to go along with the stellar pitching he’s gotten all year. Regs has the best ERA, WHIP and K/9 so far, and also has the most wins. Regs 5 SP’s are all ranked in the top 21 SP’s overall, and they just traded away a 6th for much needed MI help. Regs also has 4 of the top 15 closers… wait for it… none of which he drafted! Tada! If the offense can take 2 categories a week (and Regs is 12-3 in SB), they are going to be tough to beat down the stretch.
Stud of the Week: Seriously? Nyjer Morgan? Ok… 4-0-1-4-.529
Dud of the Week: Several options, Drew, Blalock, Billingsley and Loney all stunk, but Swine needs Joe Mauer to be a little bit more like the Super Joe we saw back in May: 1-0-0-0-.077
Jobu’s Hats for Bats DEF Bounty Hunters: 8-2
For the 2nd week in a row, Bounty Hunters put up some very solid numbers… and got smoked. It’s a terrible combination to be bad and unlucky, but that’s enough about BH for this week. Jobu busted out of his 3 week slide in a ferocious way and leapt back into 5th place with this very impressive performance. Jobu had hit 26 home runs over the past 3 weeks ( about 8.5 per week). This week Jobu hit 11 in only 4 days! Jobu posted an ERA of 0.89… and lost! Both staffs only gave up 2 runs, but BH had a few more IP to take it. Jobu batted .359 which would be the new high water mark if short weeks counted in the record book (they may for Yahoo, but not for Blog).
Stud of the Week: Thor was very Thorish once again, but so was Frankin Gutierrez and this week’s Stud, Yunel Escobar: 4-2-8-0-.500
Dud of the Week: Carlos Beltran… oh wait, he’s on the DL. Jose Reyes… oh wait, he’s on the DL. Randy Johnson oh wait, he’s over the hill and on the DL. Let’s go with Garrett Atkins then. When your keeper is healthy but only plays in 1 full game over 4 days, you may need to go get Billy Butler or somebody… 0-0-0-0-.000.
Bobz Boyz DEF Ryan Howitzers 5-4-1
Well it may have taken longer than Blog would have predicted, but Ryan Howitzers has fallen out of the top 2 of the CAN division for the first time in 2009. They’ve now lost 4 of their last 6 weeks and watched the Regs leap into 2nd with a .5 game lead. Neither team really put up solid numbers in this matchup. Speed and Power were low (12 HR/SB combined between the 2 teams) and the %’s were pedestrian. As far as the Boyz are concerned though, the important this is that this is their 3rd win in a row, and they are now only 3 games out of the loss column for the 6th and final playoff spot (beware Snot…). This is actually the first time that the Boyz have ever won 3 weeks in a row! Blog’s not sure if that’s something to celebrate or move past quickly. The #6 and #7 seeds face each other in week 16.
Stud of the Week: Very tough to find a stud here. Matt Cain had the best across-the-board line though: 1-0-1.29-1.00-10.29
Dud of the Week: We have to rename the Dud of the Week award to the Uggla of the Week: 0-0-0-0-.111
Karma Kameleons DEF Snot on the Ball 5-4-1
Karma finally returned from his own personal All-Star Break $5 poorer but with a touch of revenge against the commish as Karma took Snot down for the 2nd time this year. After going 8 straight weeks without a loss, which brought Snot from 2010 mode into the playoffs, they’ve lost 2 weeks in a row and opened the door to some serious contention from the Boyz and KK. Karma has been hit pretty hard by the injury bug, but they still managed to make all their hits count this week, as they hit 8 bombs, but only batted .199. Has the Ricky Nolasco mini-magic evaporated? He’s been less-than-stellar in his past 2 starts after threatening to become this years waiver wire miracle. Maybe he should rub some jalapeno up his nose… Week 16, Boyz vs Snot for control of #6…
Stud of the Week: Karma really missed this guy when he was hurt: Raul Ibanez 3-2-5-0-.500
Dud of the Week: Hill and Span stunk too, but hype-machine Matt Wieters has been pretty darn bad: 0-0-0-0-.000
Brain Freeze DEF Legends 5-4-1
Interesting fact, Legends gave up 1 earned run this week (stupid Dan Haren… cut him!) and posted a microscopic era of 0.39. His WHIP was also 0.65. Both of these would have been record lows… but as we already confirmed, short week records don’t count. Regardless, those are cool numbers. Brain Freeze was still able to take 4 offensive categories to win the week and give Legends their first loss in 5 weeks. Despite Legends mini-run, they still sit in 9th place overall. Reason # 4,258 why Bounty Hunters should be trying to get as many 2010 picks as he can now… because if Legends decides to become a seller, it will be like choosing to eat at The Capitol Grille or Arbees. Legends has so many trade chips it’s not funny. Power and speed at quality positions, closers and aces would all of sudden become available and would probably fetch a serious return for Legends. BH should be taking advantage of Legends desire to salvage 2009 NOW… but he won’t. Oh well.
Stud of the Week: Lackey and Halladay were both very good, but Brian McCann takes it for nice contributions in 4 categories: 5-1-4-0-.375
Dud of the Week: Wow… Jason Bay has really stinked lately: 1-0-0-0-.091.
Player of the Week: Yunel Escobar… only in a short week…
Pitcher of the Week: J.P. Howell recorded 3 saves in 4 days with solid %’s. Yes please.
Manager of the Week… REGULATORS … here we come baby…
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Week 14 Review 2009
Week 14
Brain Freeze DEF Jobu’s Hats for Bats 8-2
And just like that, Jobu has lost 3 weeks in a row, sits in 6th place currently and is only 2.5 games up on Bobz Boyz. Maybe it’s bad to win week one 10-0? Brain Freeze only batted .244 for the week, but all of their hits were home runs (19). That pesky Magglio Ordonez is still sitting on that roster though… bizarre… Jobu meanwhile may have some serious pitching deficiencies. RJ, Joba and Harang have been serverly mediocre, if not worse, and Kazmir’s been terrible. Carpenter and Kershaw have been elite, but can they maintain it, and will it be enough? It’s also clear that when Thor is mortal, Jobu’s offense is not intimidating at all. For some reason this team fascinates Blog, both in the way it was constructed through the draft and the deals made since. Blog doesn’t take joy in ‘I told you so’s’ (he he, that’s such a lie), but Blog can point to ½ a dozen moves/picks at least in the past 6 months that Blog would not have done, and Blog can’t wait to show Jobu that was why he didn’t make the playoffs this year.
Stud of the Week: Brain Freeze didn’t win average, but he won everything else with a lot of help from Jayson Werth: 6-4-11-1-.292
Dud of the Week: I guess Aubrey Huff was pretty bad: 2-0-1-0-.105
Regulators TIED Legends 5-5
Regs can’t speak for Legends, but this tie was just so disappointing. Both teams had stats that they could have/should have taken but could not. Regs jumped out to huge lead early as he hit 6 home runs by Tuesday night, 3 alone from Paul Konerko. Of Course, Regs hit 3 home runs total over the next 5 days. How infuriating. Regs also stole 14 bases this week. Only 5 other times this season has a team stolen at least 14 bases (Regs has 3 of them). Of course, one of those other times was this week, as Legends stole 17, led by 5 from an all-of-a-sudden relevant Jimmy Rollins, and 5 from Jason ‘Crazy Legs’ Bay. Don’t get me started. Legends was also very close to taking WHIP and K/9, which possibly could have driven Regs to give up fantasy forever. Regs is sticking by his claims of bad luck though… Had Regs played Jobu in week 14, Jobu would have been skunked. Legends would have won 8-2. Figure that one out… Legends has now gone 4 weeks without losing. Of course, they haven’t won more than 5 games in any of those weeks. In fact, Legends has won more than 5 in a week once… in week one.. a 6-3-1 victory over… Bounty Hunters.
Stud of the Week: There were several studs this week, but for Jimmy Rollins, Mr. Invisible in the 1st half, to secure steals the way he did is noteworthy: 8-0-2-5-.370
Dud of the Week: Tough call, but we’ll go with Mike MacDougal. Is the rare possibility of a save worth these numbers? 0-0-20.25-5.25-0.00. Legends won saves without getting one from this scrub, but he may have cost Legends WHIP.
Swine Nine DEF Snot on the Ball 6-4
Snot will live with this score after being threatened by a skunking early on in the week. Rafael Soriano had as many saves (4) this week as Joe Nathan, Francisco Cordero, Dan Meyer and Fernando Rodney combined. That is super news for Brain Freeze who apparently has just swapped the Braves closer with Snot without changing players. Bizarre. Swine still sits firmly entrenched in first place overall, but over the past 4 weeks, they’ve been a very pedestrian 19-20-1. Every team has slumps, and they have managed to stay the course despite their decrease across the board in production, so they can be positive about that… Still… there seem to be some cracks in Swine’s armor that perhaps some feisty team can take advantage of in the upcoming short week. he he he…
Stud of the Week: Had Snot won, it would have been Chase Utley, but for this week, it should go to the other 2B: Brandon Phillips: 5-3-7-1-.280
Dud of the Week: Several star duds in this matchup: Morneau, Wieters and Braun really stunk for Snot, but Swine’s going to need Adrian Gonzalez to do a little better than this down the stretch: 1-0-1-0-.111
Ryan Howitzers DEF Bounty Hunters 6-4
Well, it’s going to be 50% harder for Blog to rip Bounty Hunters this week, as they put their best offensive week of the season: 51-9-52-8-.299. The two ‘50’s’ in runs and rbi mark the first time that BH reached the 50 mark in either category this year. Yet, in a hilarious twist of cruel, FBL fate, BH lost all 5 offensive categories to possibly the best all around offensive week we’ve seen this year from Ryan Howitzers: 57-13-58-9-.354. the .354 average was .001 off of the record set by Brain Freeze in week 8. If RH would have been able to get anything close to something resembling good pitching, they would have crushed anyone this week, but they instead, their pitching was terrible. 5 pitchers with era’s over 7 and 4 pitchers with WHIP’s over 2 will not get it done any week. RH is a legit playoff contender, but as Blog has pointed out before, when Gallardo and Hamels are off, so are their chances of winning. All BH had to do was beat RH’s 1.43 WHIP to secure only their 2nd non-losing week of 2009… but they posted a 1.75 whip, which, of course, is not better. Once Again, time to plan for 2010…
Stud of the Week: RH’s lineup was remarkably balanced, with props going to Mr. Howard, Zobrist and the Flyin Hawaiian, but BH got a great week from Michael Bourn: 10-1-6-5-.286. Too bad it didn’t deliver one category victory…
Dud of the Week: Since we can’t put “Both Rotations” here, we’ll pick Carlos Villanueva, who probably cost BH a tie: 0-0-54.00-7.50-6.75. Blog would also like to point out that Blog advised BH to cut this waste waaaay back in week 11’s review. The lesson? Blog is wise… Heed his advice… Reject it at your own peril.
Bobz Boyz DEF Karma Kameleons in absentia: 5-4-1
The #7 Boyz earned a smidgen of separation from the #8 Kameleons by winning their 4th week in their last 6 (4-1-1). Ryan Ludwick had a solid month this week, as he’ll probably take player of the week honors, but Blog will get to that in a bit. First: a moment of silence for Jay Bruce’s wrist. That was just yucky. … ok… Thankfully, Karma has been found and has returned to his team just in time to start trading chips like Cabrera, Kubel, Hill, Damon and closers for picks. What a disappointment Brandon Webb has been this year. If he can possibly come back down the stretch, maybe Karma can get something for him too? Unlikely though. Meanwhile the Boyz have bid adieu to Scott ‘Widowmaker’ Baker, because, let’s face it, when you can add Brian Moehler to your roster, who isn’t expendable?
Stud of the Week: Ryan Ludwick could become Thor’s best friend down the stretch: 5-3-12-0-.478
Dud of the Week: Johnny Damon has, as the kids say, ‘cooled’: 1-0-1-0-.125
Player of the Week: Ludwick
Pitcher of the Week: Verlander (lucky for Karma).
Manager of the Week: Big win for Brain Freeze.
Blog is soooooooooooooooooooo looking forward to the week 15 review….
Brain Freeze DEF Jobu’s Hats for Bats 8-2
And just like that, Jobu has lost 3 weeks in a row, sits in 6th place currently and is only 2.5 games up on Bobz Boyz. Maybe it’s bad to win week one 10-0? Brain Freeze only batted .244 for the week, but all of their hits were home runs (19). That pesky Magglio Ordonez is still sitting on that roster though… bizarre… Jobu meanwhile may have some serious pitching deficiencies. RJ, Joba and Harang have been serverly mediocre, if not worse, and Kazmir’s been terrible. Carpenter and Kershaw have been elite, but can they maintain it, and will it be enough? It’s also clear that when Thor is mortal, Jobu’s offense is not intimidating at all. For some reason this team fascinates Blog, both in the way it was constructed through the draft and the deals made since. Blog doesn’t take joy in ‘I told you so’s’ (he he, that’s such a lie), but Blog can point to ½ a dozen moves/picks at least in the past 6 months that Blog would not have done, and Blog can’t wait to show Jobu that was why he didn’t make the playoffs this year.
Stud of the Week: Brain Freeze didn’t win average, but he won everything else with a lot of help from Jayson Werth: 6-4-11-1-.292
Dud of the Week: I guess Aubrey Huff was pretty bad: 2-0-1-0-.105
Regulators TIED Legends 5-5
Regs can’t speak for Legends, but this tie was just so disappointing. Both teams had stats that they could have/should have taken but could not. Regs jumped out to huge lead early as he hit 6 home runs by Tuesday night, 3 alone from Paul Konerko. Of Course, Regs hit 3 home runs total over the next 5 days. How infuriating. Regs also stole 14 bases this week. Only 5 other times this season has a team stolen at least 14 bases (Regs has 3 of them). Of course, one of those other times was this week, as Legends stole 17, led by 5 from an all-of-a-sudden relevant Jimmy Rollins, and 5 from Jason ‘Crazy Legs’ Bay. Don’t get me started. Legends was also very close to taking WHIP and K/9, which possibly could have driven Regs to give up fantasy forever. Regs is sticking by his claims of bad luck though… Had Regs played Jobu in week 14, Jobu would have been skunked. Legends would have won 8-2. Figure that one out… Legends has now gone 4 weeks without losing. Of course, they haven’t won more than 5 games in any of those weeks. In fact, Legends has won more than 5 in a week once… in week one.. a 6-3-1 victory over… Bounty Hunters.
Stud of the Week: There were several studs this week, but for Jimmy Rollins, Mr. Invisible in the 1st half, to secure steals the way he did is noteworthy: 8-0-2-5-.370
Dud of the Week: Tough call, but we’ll go with Mike MacDougal. Is the rare possibility of a save worth these numbers? 0-0-20.25-5.25-0.00. Legends won saves without getting one from this scrub, but he may have cost Legends WHIP.
Swine Nine DEF Snot on the Ball 6-4
Snot will live with this score after being threatened by a skunking early on in the week. Rafael Soriano had as many saves (4) this week as Joe Nathan, Francisco Cordero, Dan Meyer and Fernando Rodney combined. That is super news for Brain Freeze who apparently has just swapped the Braves closer with Snot without changing players. Bizarre. Swine still sits firmly entrenched in first place overall, but over the past 4 weeks, they’ve been a very pedestrian 19-20-1. Every team has slumps, and they have managed to stay the course despite their decrease across the board in production, so they can be positive about that… Still… there seem to be some cracks in Swine’s armor that perhaps some feisty team can take advantage of in the upcoming short week. he he he…
Stud of the Week: Had Snot won, it would have been Chase Utley, but for this week, it should go to the other 2B: Brandon Phillips: 5-3-7-1-.280
Dud of the Week: Several star duds in this matchup: Morneau, Wieters and Braun really stunk for Snot, but Swine’s going to need Adrian Gonzalez to do a little better than this down the stretch: 1-0-1-0-.111
Ryan Howitzers DEF Bounty Hunters 6-4
Well, it’s going to be 50% harder for Blog to rip Bounty Hunters this week, as they put their best offensive week of the season: 51-9-52-8-.299. The two ‘50’s’ in runs and rbi mark the first time that BH reached the 50 mark in either category this year. Yet, in a hilarious twist of cruel, FBL fate, BH lost all 5 offensive categories to possibly the best all around offensive week we’ve seen this year from Ryan Howitzers: 57-13-58-9-.354. the .354 average was .001 off of the record set by Brain Freeze in week 8. If RH would have been able to get anything close to something resembling good pitching, they would have crushed anyone this week, but they instead, their pitching was terrible. 5 pitchers with era’s over 7 and 4 pitchers with WHIP’s over 2 will not get it done any week. RH is a legit playoff contender, but as Blog has pointed out before, when Gallardo and Hamels are off, so are their chances of winning. All BH had to do was beat RH’s 1.43 WHIP to secure only their 2nd non-losing week of 2009… but they posted a 1.75 whip, which, of course, is not better. Once Again, time to plan for 2010…
Stud of the Week: RH’s lineup was remarkably balanced, with props going to Mr. Howard, Zobrist and the Flyin Hawaiian, but BH got a great week from Michael Bourn: 10-1-6-5-.286. Too bad it didn’t deliver one category victory…
Dud of the Week: Since we can’t put “Both Rotations” here, we’ll pick Carlos Villanueva, who probably cost BH a tie: 0-0-54.00-7.50-6.75. Blog would also like to point out that Blog advised BH to cut this waste waaaay back in week 11’s review. The lesson? Blog is wise… Heed his advice… Reject it at your own peril.
Bobz Boyz DEF Karma Kameleons in absentia: 5-4-1
The #7 Boyz earned a smidgen of separation from the #8 Kameleons by winning their 4th week in their last 6 (4-1-1). Ryan Ludwick had a solid month this week, as he’ll probably take player of the week honors, but Blog will get to that in a bit. First: a moment of silence for Jay Bruce’s wrist. That was just yucky. … ok… Thankfully, Karma has been found and has returned to his team just in time to start trading chips like Cabrera, Kubel, Hill, Damon and closers for picks. What a disappointment Brandon Webb has been this year. If he can possibly come back down the stretch, maybe Karma can get something for him too? Unlikely though. Meanwhile the Boyz have bid adieu to Scott ‘Widowmaker’ Baker, because, let’s face it, when you can add Brian Moehler to your roster, who isn’t expendable?
Stud of the Week: Ryan Ludwick could become Thor’s best friend down the stretch: 5-3-12-0-.478
Dud of the Week: Johnny Damon has, as the kids say, ‘cooled’: 1-0-1-0-.125
Player of the Week: Ludwick
Pitcher of the Week: Verlander (lucky for Karma).
Manager of the Week: Big win for Brain Freeze.
Blog is soooooooooooooooooooo looking forward to the week 15 review….
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Week 13 Review 2009
Week 13 Review (1/2 through week 15)
Snot on the Ball DEF Ryan Howitzers 9-1
This matchup will be known in CPL lore as ‘The Luck Bowl’. The 2 luckiest franchises in 2009 pitted their luck against each other… and one got throttled. If Snot had some extra closers (Blog bets that he has at least 4 full timers by the time the playoffs start), this would have been a skunk. None of the categories were really close. Snot jumped out to a 9-1 lead on Monday and pretty much cruised through the weekend. Though the wins/saves weren’t there, Snot had a pitching week for the ages. Snot posted an ERA of 1.62, and set the league record for WHIP with a silly low 0.70 number. That’s pretty insane.
(I wrote the above paragraph on 7/7. It is now 7/14, so the rest of the review will be far less relevant or interesting… enjoy!)
Stud of the Week: I don’t see any way around giving Co-Stud’s this week. I think the #’s will back me up:
Justin Morneau: 4-4-8-0-.480
Tim Lincecum: 2-0-0.00-0.44-9.56
Morneau may have competition for player of the week, but Lincecum’s sewn up pitcher of the week right there…
Dud of the Week: Cole Hamels was pretty stinky this week, but Ryan Howard smelled a lot worse: 0-0-1-0-.190
Bobz Boyz DEF Brain Freeze 7-3
The Boyz continued their late season push towards the playoffs by winning their 3rd match of the last 5 (3-1-1) and by seriously handling the CAN division leading Freezers. The Boyz did catch BF on a bad week, as they posted a record low average of .198. Up to this week, BF was 2nd in total runs and 1st in RBI, but they only managed 38 and 32 respectively. The Boyz were pretty solid across the board though (except saves… the only way the Boyz can win saves is if their opponents sits all their pitchers for some reason). One question for Brain Freeze… does Magglio Ordonez still warrant a roster spot at this point? It is pretty impressive that BF has cut his 1st round pick and received 0 production from a keeper, yet still they sit in first… for now.
Stud of the Week: Shin Soo Choo may have taken this on most weeks, but Jacoby Ellsbury won the Boyz SB (9-6): 6-2-4-4-.375
Dud of the Week: Justin Upton was terrible, but Evan Longoria was a much larger disappointment: 0-0-1-0-.056.
Legends DEF Jobu’s Hats for Bats 5-4-1
Both teams this week had 9 saves. Now that’s interesting... honest. Legends finally wins 2 weeks in a row, and Jobu has now dropped 2 in a row for the first time. Have we mentioned how terrible that Reyes+ for Braun+ trade has been for Jobu? Just wanted to remind people. Even though Jobu paid way too much for Lind (Snot has pretty much admitted he’d have given Lind away for peanuts), Lind has been huge for Jobu, so that one stings a lot less now. Legends hasn’t made a trade in 16 months, which just does not sound fun. As far as this matchup: David Price cost Jobu ERA, and Willy Taveras still stinks. Now THAT is some stellar analysis. Legends really should have lost this week, but here were his Sunday Pitching numbers: 9.1IP 1W 3SV .96 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 9.64 K/9. Without those #’s, Legends loses saves, ERA and K/9 and ties wins. Very nice.
Stud of the Week: Thor was very Thorish this week, helping Jobu take 4 offensive categories, but Legends won with pitching, thanks a lot to Dan ‘First Half’ Haren: 2-0-1.38-0.92-10.38.
Dud of the Week: Call Blog cynical, but shouldn’t a leadoff hitter get 3 runs a week? If Willy Taveras did, Legends wins 5-3-2: 0-0-0-0-.167
Swine Nine DEF Bounty Hunters 6-4
That makes BH 1-12 so far this year. Repeat after Blog: 2010… 2010… 2010… 2010… 2010… It’s ok to admit defeat, but it’s unforgivable to not put yourself in the best position to win, whether that’s for this year or next year. Get dealing BH! Declare the fire sale on! Wakefield, Zambrano, Marquis, Dempster, Volquez, Peavy… cut or trade them all on the cheap and devote your roster to speed and youth! Then trade that if you can! If you make the playoffs in 2009, I’ll change my team name in 2010 to whatever you want. It’s not going to happen. How is this fun for you? Give yourself some hope for next year! Sigh… Swiney won again. They are 10-2-1 so far and have really been fortunate some weeks (like this one… offensively they went 32-5-41-5-.264… and still won the week!!). What a waiver find AJ Burnett has been.
Stud of the Week: 3 Pitching Studs in one week! Roy Oswalt: 2-0-1.06-0.47-7.41
Dud of the Week: Carlos Pena was lousy: 0-0-0-0-.095
Regulators DEF Karma Kameleons 6-4
Regs took all 5 pitching categories for the 2nd time this season, and for the 2nd time, only won that week 6-4. Swine has won all 3 pitching categories 3 times… and in those 3 weeks he lost all of 4 offensive categories… total. Weird how their overall records are so far apart. Regs was fortunate that KK took this week off. Victory was directly related to 2 roster moves this week: KK keeping John Danks on his bench, and Regs adding Nick Blackburn. If those 2 things don’t happen, KK takes Wins and WHIP and Regs is really, really peeved. Has anyone seen Mark Teixeira’s power anywhere? Anyone?
Stud of the Week: Carl Crawford was solid across the board, but let’s give this one to Vlad the Impaled. It may be his last: 7-2-7-0-.345
Dud of the Week: Didn’t you used to be Alfonso Soriano? 0-0-0-0-.100
Player of the Week: Jacoby Ellsbury
Pitcher of the Week: Tiny Tim
Manager of the Week: Snot on the Lucky Charms.
Snot on the Ball DEF Ryan Howitzers 9-1
This matchup will be known in CPL lore as ‘The Luck Bowl’. The 2 luckiest franchises in 2009 pitted their luck against each other… and one got throttled. If Snot had some extra closers (Blog bets that he has at least 4 full timers by the time the playoffs start), this would have been a skunk. None of the categories were really close. Snot jumped out to a 9-1 lead on Monday and pretty much cruised through the weekend. Though the wins/saves weren’t there, Snot had a pitching week for the ages. Snot posted an ERA of 1.62, and set the league record for WHIP with a silly low 0.70 number. That’s pretty insane.
(I wrote the above paragraph on 7/7. It is now 7/14, so the rest of the review will be far less relevant or interesting… enjoy!)
Stud of the Week: I don’t see any way around giving Co-Stud’s this week. I think the #’s will back me up:
Justin Morneau: 4-4-8-0-.480
Tim Lincecum: 2-0-0.00-0.44-9.56
Morneau may have competition for player of the week, but Lincecum’s sewn up pitcher of the week right there…
Dud of the Week: Cole Hamels was pretty stinky this week, but Ryan Howard smelled a lot worse: 0-0-1-0-.190
Bobz Boyz DEF Brain Freeze 7-3
The Boyz continued their late season push towards the playoffs by winning their 3rd match of the last 5 (3-1-1) and by seriously handling the CAN division leading Freezers. The Boyz did catch BF on a bad week, as they posted a record low average of .198. Up to this week, BF was 2nd in total runs and 1st in RBI, but they only managed 38 and 32 respectively. The Boyz were pretty solid across the board though (except saves… the only way the Boyz can win saves is if their opponents sits all their pitchers for some reason). One question for Brain Freeze… does Magglio Ordonez still warrant a roster spot at this point? It is pretty impressive that BF has cut his 1st round pick and received 0 production from a keeper, yet still they sit in first… for now.
Stud of the Week: Shin Soo Choo may have taken this on most weeks, but Jacoby Ellsbury won the Boyz SB (9-6): 6-2-4-4-.375
Dud of the Week: Justin Upton was terrible, but Evan Longoria was a much larger disappointment: 0-0-1-0-.056.
Legends DEF Jobu’s Hats for Bats 5-4-1
Both teams this week had 9 saves. Now that’s interesting... honest. Legends finally wins 2 weeks in a row, and Jobu has now dropped 2 in a row for the first time. Have we mentioned how terrible that Reyes+ for Braun+ trade has been for Jobu? Just wanted to remind people. Even though Jobu paid way too much for Lind (Snot has pretty much admitted he’d have given Lind away for peanuts), Lind has been huge for Jobu, so that one stings a lot less now. Legends hasn’t made a trade in 16 months, which just does not sound fun. As far as this matchup: David Price cost Jobu ERA, and Willy Taveras still stinks. Now THAT is some stellar analysis. Legends really should have lost this week, but here were his Sunday Pitching numbers: 9.1IP 1W 3SV .96 ERA, 1.07 WHIP, 9.64 K/9. Without those #’s, Legends loses saves, ERA and K/9 and ties wins. Very nice.
Stud of the Week: Thor was very Thorish this week, helping Jobu take 4 offensive categories, but Legends won with pitching, thanks a lot to Dan ‘First Half’ Haren: 2-0-1.38-0.92-10.38.
Dud of the Week: Call Blog cynical, but shouldn’t a leadoff hitter get 3 runs a week? If Willy Taveras did, Legends wins 5-3-2: 0-0-0-0-.167
Swine Nine DEF Bounty Hunters 6-4
That makes BH 1-12 so far this year. Repeat after Blog: 2010… 2010… 2010… 2010… 2010… It’s ok to admit defeat, but it’s unforgivable to not put yourself in the best position to win, whether that’s for this year or next year. Get dealing BH! Declare the fire sale on! Wakefield, Zambrano, Marquis, Dempster, Volquez, Peavy… cut or trade them all on the cheap and devote your roster to speed and youth! Then trade that if you can! If you make the playoffs in 2009, I’ll change my team name in 2010 to whatever you want. It’s not going to happen. How is this fun for you? Give yourself some hope for next year! Sigh… Swiney won again. They are 10-2-1 so far and have really been fortunate some weeks (like this one… offensively they went 32-5-41-5-.264… and still won the week!!). What a waiver find AJ Burnett has been.
Stud of the Week: 3 Pitching Studs in one week! Roy Oswalt: 2-0-1.06-0.47-7.41
Dud of the Week: Carlos Pena was lousy: 0-0-0-0-.095
Regulators DEF Karma Kameleons 6-4
Regs took all 5 pitching categories for the 2nd time this season, and for the 2nd time, only won that week 6-4. Swine has won all 3 pitching categories 3 times… and in those 3 weeks he lost all of 4 offensive categories… total. Weird how their overall records are so far apart. Regs was fortunate that KK took this week off. Victory was directly related to 2 roster moves this week: KK keeping John Danks on his bench, and Regs adding Nick Blackburn. If those 2 things don’t happen, KK takes Wins and WHIP and Regs is really, really peeved. Has anyone seen Mark Teixeira’s power anywhere? Anyone?
Stud of the Week: Carl Crawford was solid across the board, but let’s give this one to Vlad the Impaled. It may be his last: 7-2-7-0-.345
Dud of the Week: Didn’t you used to be Alfonso Soriano? 0-0-0-0-.100
Player of the Week: Jacoby Ellsbury
Pitcher of the Week: Tiny Tim
Manager of the Week: Snot on the Lucky Charms.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Week 12 Review 2009
Ryan Howitzers DEF Brain Freeze 5-3-2
It’s uncanny at this point. I know Blog’s been kind of harping on the luck of the Howitzers, but how else are these wins explained?? RH won average batting .269. He won ERA with a 4.22. He won WHIP with a 1.55! Those numbers simply are not normally winning numbers. There’s certainly some jealousy here. Regs put up an ERA of 2.75 and a WHIP of 1.28… and lost both. Bad wins happen all the time in fantasy, just like in poker. In both games there is only so much you can control, the rest is up to… chance? luck? voodoo? Whatever it is, Ryan Howitzers has it in spades. Just look at Kevin Millwood’s season for confirmation. This win puts RH % points ahead of Brain Freeze for first place in the CAN division. Brain Freeze went 0-4 with spot starters this week watching Mazzaro, Braden, Cahill and Pineiro all shockingly stink out the joint; hence the bad ERA and WHIP wins for RH. BF also saw 3 of his 4 closers post ERA’s over 13. For those scoring at home, that’s not good. Remember when Evan Longoria was the next Mike Schmidt? Well, here are his numbers for the last month: 7-3-8-0-.221. Not quite elite material. He’s still ranked 30th for the season, but only 769th for the month, and 1215th for the week. News Flash: BF is really going to need April Evan to come back if they’re going to try to make noise in the 2nd half.
Stud of the Week: Not a whole lot of offensive studliness here… do we give this to a closer (Mo) or a one start starter (Yo)? We’ll go with Gallardo: 1-0-1.17-0.91-10.57
Dud of the Week: There were so many bad pitchers here… Robby Cano was awful, but his 1 SB was very useful to BF… We’ll go with Russell Martin for seasonal disappointment: 2-0-0-0-.238
Karma Kameleons DEF Jobu’s Hats for Bats 9-1
Here are two numbers for Jobu to chew on. 4-16. Jobu has played KK twice since skunking them in week one, and Jobu’s record since against KK has been 4-16. That means, despite losing the first meeting 0-10, KK wins the season series against Jobu 16-14. That’s kind of remarkable. This comes one week after Jobu throttled the mighty Swine 8-2. Jobu is clearly allergic to momentum. In week 12 Thor was only slightly above human, instead of immortal… and look at what happens. Karma has found pitching gold from Zach Duke and John Danks. That’s just nuts.
Stud of the Week: As Jobu clearly recognized, Aaron Hill went off: 7-4-8-1-.346.
Dud of the Week: I know you can’t expect awesomeness from the catcher position every week, but if Jobu gets one run from his C, it changes the score: Yadier Molina: 0-0-1-0-.200
Snot on the Ball DEF Regulators 6-4
As Snot has pointed out, this makes 7 lossless weeks in a row for the team that was supposedly punting 2009. They have mailed miserably in that regard, so… na na na na na. This win puts Snot ½ a game out of the #5 seed, and if the week 13 scores hold up, Snot will have it... taking it away from Regulators… who are the most mediocre, vanilla, boring team ever. Snot is the same team that has moved Cruz, J-Up, Ethier, Street, Holliday and Lind for, essentially, picks. Yet they still have lost only 9 offensive categories since week 4. Catch that: Out of 45 offensive contents since week 4, Snot is 32-9-4. By comparison, Swine is 37-8 in the pitching categories during that same time period. The big difference is, of course… Swine has been trying to win this year. Snot can attribute their 09 success to 2 things: 5 uber-stud, top 10 players, and the impatience of other teams. Morneau, Wright, Utley, Braun and Lincecum are awesome. Put them on Bounty Hunters roster and even they would be .500. But Snot has been able to snatch up the roster fodder of teams like Regs and Jobu and turn them into functioning fantasy options. Jose Lopez… JJ Hardy… Ricky Nolasco…CJ Wilson… Juan Rivera… for some reason these guys suffer through career long slumps on other rosters, but perform like HOF’ers on Snot’s roster… oh… and he has 5 #1’s next year… Huzzah…
Stud of the Week: Snot won SB by 1 and HR by 1… Ladies and Gentlemen… Adam LaRoche’s week 12 line: 6-2-5-1-.458. I give up.
Dud of the Week: There really wasn’t blatant suckiness on either roster… we’ll give this to Wandy Rodriguez, who didn’t exactly help Regs compete in the pitching %’s: 0-0-6.00-1.83-4.50
Swine Nine DEF Bobz Boyz 5-4-1
A fairly competitive matchup here between #1 and #7. Blog has already documented Swiney’s recent ‘issues’, but they’re still putting up above average numbers across the board. The Boyz continue to be much more competitive since the first third of the season, but they’re going to need to get a couple of blow outs if they’re going to sneak into the playoffs… or of course they could just wait for the Regs to completely implode. AJ Burnett, remarkably, was most likely responsible for this score not being reversed. Swine won K/9 with a 9.18, beating BB’z 9.16. Burnett’s pitching line was 1-0-0.00-0.57-12.86. Good enough to edge Yovani for pitcher of the week, but not good enough to beat out…
Stud of the Week: Hanley Ramirez: 5-3-15-2-.385. Swiney still lost RBI, HR and average… which should have Swiney concerned.
Dud of the Week: Rafael Furcal, quite possibly, could stink: 2-0-0-0-.200
Legends DEF Bounty Hunters 5-3-2
The battle for VA Supremacy was riveting and amazing… or boring and uninteresting… yeah, let’s go with that one. These 2 teams are pretty much battling for last place in the CPL, and with KK’s ownership of Jobu, 8th place may be slipping away as well (FYI, the trade deadline is 8/16/09). Legends does get Manny back this week, but unless Manny can get Jimmy Rollins on female fertility drugs soon, there might not be much hope for the Legends SS to be productive in 2009. If Rollins were cut right now, would teams use a waiver position to grab him? Probably… but it’s not nearly as automatic as it would have been a month ago. As for Bounty Hunters, another week, another L. Blog has been there/done that. Best of luck down the stretch.
Stud of the Week: A-Rod helped Legends tie HR and win RBI by 3. If A-Rod can maintain his momentum from this week and Manny can come back as Manny, Legends may win more offensive categories than they lose the rest of the way: 5-2-9-0-.368
Dud of the Week: Wow. Just wow. Jimmy Rollins: 1-0-0-0-.000.
Manager of the Week: Kongrats Karma. You have proved it’s not so bad to drink Jobu’s Rum.
Player of the Week: Hanley Ramirez
Pitcher of the Week: AJ Burnett
It’s uncanny at this point. I know Blog’s been kind of harping on the luck of the Howitzers, but how else are these wins explained?? RH won average batting .269. He won ERA with a 4.22. He won WHIP with a 1.55! Those numbers simply are not normally winning numbers. There’s certainly some jealousy here. Regs put up an ERA of 2.75 and a WHIP of 1.28… and lost both. Bad wins happen all the time in fantasy, just like in poker. In both games there is only so much you can control, the rest is up to… chance? luck? voodoo? Whatever it is, Ryan Howitzers has it in spades. Just look at Kevin Millwood’s season for confirmation. This win puts RH % points ahead of Brain Freeze for first place in the CAN division. Brain Freeze went 0-4 with spot starters this week watching Mazzaro, Braden, Cahill and Pineiro all shockingly stink out the joint; hence the bad ERA and WHIP wins for RH. BF also saw 3 of his 4 closers post ERA’s over 13. For those scoring at home, that’s not good. Remember when Evan Longoria was the next Mike Schmidt? Well, here are his numbers for the last month: 7-3-8-0-.221. Not quite elite material. He’s still ranked 30th for the season, but only 769th for the month, and 1215th for the week. News Flash: BF is really going to need April Evan to come back if they’re going to try to make noise in the 2nd half.
Stud of the Week: Not a whole lot of offensive studliness here… do we give this to a closer (Mo) or a one start starter (Yo)? We’ll go with Gallardo: 1-0-1.17-0.91-10.57
Dud of the Week: There were so many bad pitchers here… Robby Cano was awful, but his 1 SB was very useful to BF… We’ll go with Russell Martin for seasonal disappointment: 2-0-0-0-.238
Karma Kameleons DEF Jobu’s Hats for Bats 9-1
Here are two numbers for Jobu to chew on. 4-16. Jobu has played KK twice since skunking them in week one, and Jobu’s record since against KK has been 4-16. That means, despite losing the first meeting 0-10, KK wins the season series against Jobu 16-14. That’s kind of remarkable. This comes one week after Jobu throttled the mighty Swine 8-2. Jobu is clearly allergic to momentum. In week 12 Thor was only slightly above human, instead of immortal… and look at what happens. Karma has found pitching gold from Zach Duke and John Danks. That’s just nuts.
Stud of the Week: As Jobu clearly recognized, Aaron Hill went off: 7-4-8-1-.346.
Dud of the Week: I know you can’t expect awesomeness from the catcher position every week, but if Jobu gets one run from his C, it changes the score: Yadier Molina: 0-0-1-0-.200
Snot on the Ball DEF Regulators 6-4
As Snot has pointed out, this makes 7 lossless weeks in a row for the team that was supposedly punting 2009. They have mailed miserably in that regard, so… na na na na na. This win puts Snot ½ a game out of the #5 seed, and if the week 13 scores hold up, Snot will have it... taking it away from Regulators… who are the most mediocre, vanilla, boring team ever. Snot is the same team that has moved Cruz, J-Up, Ethier, Street, Holliday and Lind for, essentially, picks. Yet they still have lost only 9 offensive categories since week 4. Catch that: Out of 45 offensive contents since week 4, Snot is 32-9-4. By comparison, Swine is 37-8 in the pitching categories during that same time period. The big difference is, of course… Swine has been trying to win this year. Snot can attribute their 09 success to 2 things: 5 uber-stud, top 10 players, and the impatience of other teams. Morneau, Wright, Utley, Braun and Lincecum are awesome. Put them on Bounty Hunters roster and even they would be .500. But Snot has been able to snatch up the roster fodder of teams like Regs and Jobu and turn them into functioning fantasy options. Jose Lopez… JJ Hardy… Ricky Nolasco…CJ Wilson… Juan Rivera… for some reason these guys suffer through career long slumps on other rosters, but perform like HOF’ers on Snot’s roster… oh… and he has 5 #1’s next year… Huzzah…
Stud of the Week: Snot won SB by 1 and HR by 1… Ladies and Gentlemen… Adam LaRoche’s week 12 line: 6-2-5-1-.458. I give up.
Dud of the Week: There really wasn’t blatant suckiness on either roster… we’ll give this to Wandy Rodriguez, who didn’t exactly help Regs compete in the pitching %’s: 0-0-6.00-1.83-4.50
Swine Nine DEF Bobz Boyz 5-4-1
A fairly competitive matchup here between #1 and #7. Blog has already documented Swiney’s recent ‘issues’, but they’re still putting up above average numbers across the board. The Boyz continue to be much more competitive since the first third of the season, but they’re going to need to get a couple of blow outs if they’re going to sneak into the playoffs… or of course they could just wait for the Regs to completely implode. AJ Burnett, remarkably, was most likely responsible for this score not being reversed. Swine won K/9 with a 9.18, beating BB’z 9.16. Burnett’s pitching line was 1-0-0.00-0.57-12.86. Good enough to edge Yovani for pitcher of the week, but not good enough to beat out…
Stud of the Week: Hanley Ramirez: 5-3-15-2-.385. Swiney still lost RBI, HR and average… which should have Swiney concerned.
Dud of the Week: Rafael Furcal, quite possibly, could stink: 2-0-0-0-.200
Legends DEF Bounty Hunters 5-3-2
The battle for VA Supremacy was riveting and amazing… or boring and uninteresting… yeah, let’s go with that one. These 2 teams are pretty much battling for last place in the CPL, and with KK’s ownership of Jobu, 8th place may be slipping away as well (FYI, the trade deadline is 8/16/09). Legends does get Manny back this week, but unless Manny can get Jimmy Rollins on female fertility drugs soon, there might not be much hope for the Legends SS to be productive in 2009. If Rollins were cut right now, would teams use a waiver position to grab him? Probably… but it’s not nearly as automatic as it would have been a month ago. As for Bounty Hunters, another week, another L. Blog has been there/done that. Best of luck down the stretch.
Stud of the Week: A-Rod helped Legends tie HR and win RBI by 3. If A-Rod can maintain his momentum from this week and Manny can come back as Manny, Legends may win more offensive categories than they lose the rest of the way: 5-2-9-0-.368
Dud of the Week: Wow. Just wow. Jimmy Rollins: 1-0-0-0-.000.
Manager of the Week: Kongrats Karma. You have proved it’s not so bad to drink Jobu’s Rum.
Player of the Week: Hanley Ramirez
Pitcher of the Week: AJ Burnett
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