Week 15 2009

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…