Week 16 Review (No seriously!) Right here!

Ok, the advice column was so much fun, maybe we can try this ‘writing more than every 3 months’ thing here. And we’re off.

Snot on the Ball DEF Bobz Boyz 5-4-1

What? That’s it? 5-4-1? Wasn’t Snot like 250-3? And Bobz Boyz was a run and a steal away from winning 4-3-3?? Bobz Boyz? Let’s park here for a bit. (Snot will be thrilled after begging Blog to get back in the saddle, that Blog picks up right in the middle of Snot’s return to fantasy Earth after spending the first 15 weeks in the fantasy stratosphere). Bobz Boyz is the only team in the CPL that currently does not have a losing record against Snot (9-9-2). Bobz Boyz is the only team to defeat Snot this year (week 7; 4-5-1), but is that a reflection of how good Bobz Boyz is (answer: no, not really), or a reflection on Snot? Let’s start with what we know for sure.

Snot has spent the past 22 months building, planning, scheming, plotting and Adam Linding just for these next 2 months.
He’s assembled one of the all-time, on-paper rosters fantasy has ever seen.
In spite of an owner’s best intentions, there is a certain element of luck in fantasy baseball. For 2 examples, see Bobz Boyz defeating Snot in week 7, and see Live Chicken having a winning record so far in 2010.

It’s this unknown component that must have Snot really sweating right now. His playoff spot is secured, but that was done in March. He needs to win for 2009 AND 2010 to be a success, but this unknown component may actually be starting to add some drama to this stretch run. How else can the recent slumps of Wright, Hanley, Braun, Phillips, Butler and McCutchen be explained? How else can Tilt-A-Whirl’s unexciting 2010 mediocrity be accounted for? All of a sudden Jonathan Broxton loses velocity and starts getting hit hard? All of a sudden Adam Wainwright is getting drilled? Has the fantasy devil come 2 months too early for Snots fantasy soul?

Again, the answer is no. Snot still has multiple studs at every position. If 90% of his roster is on, he’s a 10-0 score just waiting to happen. He’s still clearly the odds-on favorite to win in 2010… but… stranger things have happened… Is there an Appalachian State lurking for his Michigan? Can a USA emerge to out-skate his communist dynasty? Anything is possible, it’s why we play the game. Should playoff teams head into the trade deadline conservatively under the false belief that they have no chance of winning? Absolutely not.

Stud of the Week: Mark Teixeira is a bona-fide 2nd Half Stud. A SHS. 10-2-8-0-.435

Dud of the Week: Brandon Phillips is terrible, unless I am betting against him: 0-0-0-0-.095

Regulators DEF Jobu No Help You Now 5-3-2

After getting destroyed 1-9 by Snot in week 9, The Regs were 35-53-2 and had publicly mailed in the season, trying to acquire picks and keeper upgrades by offering terribly one-sided deals to both contenders who are able to trade draft picks. But now, after going 39-25-6 in the last 7 weeks, winning 6 and tying 1 week, The Regs find themselves in the thick of the playoff hunt, in 6th place currently, but only ½ a game out of 4th place as of this writing (7-28-10 3:10PM Yes, Blog should be working…). This brings up a slew of interesting questions. Should The Regs now become a buyer instead of a seller? Should teams like Live Chicken and Jobu throw more picks at Regs to eliminate him as a 2010 threat? If they did, would Regs even bite? Jobu needed a solid Sunday to avoid going down 7-3, but they are still sitting atop the CAN’T division. And, now that they’ve acquired James ‘ the Anvil’ Loney today, well, frankly, Blog doesn’t think that changes a whole lot. However, the fact that Jobu traded Adam Lind as ‘the roster drop guy in a draft pick trade’ closes the chapter on one of the most lopsided trades in CPL history. So long Adam Lind era (or error he he he!).

Stud of the Week: Miguel Cabrera is the new Albert Pujols: 5-2-9-0-.500

Dud of the Week: Aaron Hill was good once, honest… : 2-0-0-0-.240

Live Chicken DEF uBOB 7-2-1

Live Chicken was able to extract some revenge over uBOB after his week 7 loss (5-4-1). As covered in the last post, Blog is very amazed that Live Chicken is able to maintain a winning record with this team. The elite talent is fairly thin (Prince, Lee, Pedroia) and injuries have really taken their toll on this team (Pedroia, Ramirez, Quentin, Choo, now Hart). It really seems to be a situation where his players seem to be balancing out their hot and cold streaks. Prince starts the season cold, but Vernon Wells is raking. Wells cools down and Brennan Boesch goes off. Boesch slows down and Carlos Quentin comes off waiver to mash. Quentin slows and now Aramis Ramirez goes off… and so on and so forth. It also never hurts to have an ace like Lee anchoring a rotation. uBOB better start making some trade offers before the deadline passes if he’s going to salvage anything from this disappointing year.

Stud of the Week: Aramis Ramirez 5-4-10-0-.360

Dud of the Week: The Carlos Silva resurgence was fun while it lasted: 0-0-45.00-9.00-0.00

Brain Freeze DEF Swine Nine 5-4-1

This may very well be the most amazing victory in the history of fantasy baseball. Brain Freeze won the week despite, get this, setting or tying futility records in 4 separate categories!! Runs – 27 RBI – 22 AVG - .194 SV – 0. The RBI and Saves tied to records, but now Runs and Average are BF’s alone. 4 home runs… 5 steals… an average that was almost lower than his era (.194 to 1.91)… and he still wins!?!?! That is amazing. This win is directly attributed to BF’s starting rotation. BF had 9 players bat below .200. 3 more below .222. It’s very difficult to bat .194 for an entire week! Bravo sir. Swiney, congrats on the 6th round pick. Trade Strasburg now before his shoulder falls off.

Stud of the Week: Could be Rickie Weeks, but Roy Halladay will take it: 1-0-0.00-0.75-10.13

Dud of the Week: So many options! Nick Markakis: 1-0-1-0-.083

Legends DEF Future Champs 6-3-1

3 weeks ago, Future Champs was a playoff team, but after getting decimated by Snot in week 14 1-8-1, they’ve slowly started to fade as The Regs took control of the 6th spot. Future Champs may have had better luck this season if they would have, you know, done stuff, but apparently that’s not their style. It’s too bad that the uber-season that Josh Hamilton is having will be lost into the consolation tourney. Legends needed this W badly after losing 4 in a row and 6 of their last 7. Legends has some serious pieces to move if they want to get serious about improving their rotation, which is their clear weakness. Having 3 offensive players sitting on that bench is a strategery that Blog is 100% against. Wasn’t BJ Upton supposed to be good?

Stud of the Week: Nelson Cruz is a fun FBL player: 2-2-7-2-.400

Dud of the Week: Pablo Sandoval needs to eat more salad, or less salad, or take steroids: 1-0-0-0-.083