Week 17 Recaps

UCCMA (91-101-11) 8
Dust Bunnies (100-96-8) 3
Tie 1 (W; 3)

Adam Banks told me that if I could hold the bat out
and rotate it then my wrist was just fine.

First off...holy schnikies, Dust finally has an entire roster worth of players who are actually playing this week...wait...no, Luis Avilan is still there even though he is in AAA.  BUT, at least there is no longer a gigantic hole in the OF and Tulo is not longer starting despite sitting in a Yankee Stadium luxury box for most games.  So there is that.  Unfortunately for Dusty, it comes as his team is plummeting towards mediocrity.  This week, Chris Davis became the lastest member of the Yanger Zone, hitting 000/111/000 with 0 runs and 0 RBI and bringing his season line to 194/304/382...a line for which Dusty paid $42.  When 2 players in the lineup are out and another player puts up an entire bakery full of bagels, its not going to be a good week.  Jimmy, on the other hand, got a 300/400/500 week from Michael Brantley (391/481/696), 5 RBI from TMGS (who also hit a HR on the day of Uncle Jimmy's son's birth) and Matt Carpenter and 3 SBs from Carlos Gomez.  On the hill, Dusty got a pair of great starts each from Francisco Liriano (1W 17K 2.08/0.77 2 QS) and Chris Tillman (1W 12K 2.25/0.92 1 QS) but also got a couple of ugly ones from Fatolo Colon (1W 11K 5.11/1.54 1 QS)  and an abysmal one from Tiny Timmy Lincecum (2K 13.50/2.40) and lost 4 of the pitching categories.  Had it not been for a blow up from UCCMA's Ken Giles (5K 6.75/1.88 1 SV/H), this could have been a 9-2 final margin.  The Tyson Ross train kept rolling this week, with 1W 14K 2.25/1.33 and 2 QS to lead those who shall be called Al.

BySs (99-89-16) 7
MTMTAS (83-105-16) 3
Tie 2 (W; 4 - SV/H; 4)

Does anyone else hear "From the Window...to the
wall" when they look at this picture?

Heres the week that Kyler missed by not starting the ridiculously schorching hot Brett Gardner (the one who I dropped..yup this guy over here thought he shouldnt be on his team anymore): 478/571/1261 with 8 runs 7 RBI and a SB.  That might be the best line of the year.  He actually caused Yu Darvish to talk about his parents after Gardner went yard twice against the Rangers ace.  Darvish said, "I just blame the parents of Brett Gardner. I just blame them for creating a great hitter" in his post game interview.  Even still, Kyler won 5 of the 6 hitting matchups thanks to a 522/522/783 3R 5RBI line from Aramis Ramirez and a 550/590/900 line from the Cuban Gozer the Destroyer, Yasiel Puig.  Tyler got the first useful week of the season from Dustin Pedroia (400/400/600 4R 5RBI), but also started Brian McCann (077/235/154), Andrelton Simmons (150/261/200) and Allen Craig (125/222/250).  On the hill, both teams got great efforts (MTM - Ervin Santana 1W 17K 1.23/1.02 2 QS, Corey Kluber 1W 8K 0.00/0.33 1 QS; BySs - Darvish 1W 16K 1.93/1.14 2 QS 1 immortal quote, Alex Cobb 1W 12K 1.13/0.63 1 QS) and both team had stinkers (MTM - Drew Smyly 2W 7.20/2.20, Joba Chamberlain 2K 13.50/3.75; BySs - Rafael Soriano 2K 15.43/1.71), but in the end they split the categories 2-2 with 2 ties.

The Jason Hammel, Oakland A experiement hasnt
gone to plan.  It is probably because of something
on his left hand.

Huckleberries (84-109-11) 7
KIODL (89-108-7) 5

There were some ugly crooked numbers in this one.  The Kilmers pulled out 5 of the hitting categories by continuing to do what they have done so well over the last couple of months, get hits at a higher rate than anyone else in the league.  Six of the 8 starters had avg over .286 this week, led my Robby Cano's 364/462/545 line and Victor Martinez's 8 RBI.  John, on the other hand, had only Alcides Escobar's 316/350/421 line over .286 and Tacoby Bellsbury's 091/167/227 and Jason Kipnis's 154/214/308 dragging the ratios down.  Pitching was the anthesis of the hitting, as John got great weeks from James Shields (1W 7K 1.91/1.00 2 QS) and Johnny Cueto's hair (1W 9K 1.29/0.71 1 QS) and Kevin got...well...with the exception of Yovanni Gallardo (1W 5K 0.00/0.71) and Trevor Rosenthal (6K 0.00/1.00 2 SV/H), Kevin got a whole lot of crap, with 6 pitchers allowing more than 1.80 baserunners per inning topped out with Jason Hammel (2.31), Gio Gonzalez (2.45), Chad DJ Qualls (2.63) and Steve Cishek (2.14) all posting WHIPs over 2.00.

Bob's ATers (114-77-13) 7
MBHB (109-85-10) 4
Tie 1 (QS; 6)

Abreu missed squaring that one up and still hit a line drive that landed a dozen rows back.

There are things that happen in fantasy matchups that make you realize that you didnt have a chance.  Some things, like Jose Abreu hitting 476/609(!!!!!)/762 with 4 runs and 5 RBI, you can handle because...well...he is Jose Abreu and he has been blowing every reasonable projection out of the water all season long.  It pains me that Bob will get him for $2 until the end of time.  Likewise, when Dee Gordon steals 5 bases, it isnt unexpected.  But when Elvis Andrus (the career 274/337/348 hitter) puts up a line of 400/483/480 with 4R 5RBI and a SB, that is when you know that its going to be tough competiting with the hitting.  That goes double when your lineup includes Paul Goldschmidt (176/300/353 before being broken), David Wright (143/182/190), Kold Calhoun (185/290/259) and Jayson Werth and Jason Heyward, both of whom missed time last week due to injury.  Not surprisingly, Bob won 5 of the 6 hitting categories.  On the pitching side, Bob got a combined 2W 27K sub 2.00 ERA, sub 0.95 WHIP and 4 QS from Hisashi Iwakuma and Jordan Zimmerman, but it wasnt enough as all 10 MBHB pitchers posted WHIPs 1.00 or under, including 15 shutout innings with 14Ks from Cole Hamels over a pair of starts and MBHB won 3 of the pitching categories and split a 4th.


LesMoles (95-103-6) 8
ZAttack (101-93-10) 4

These are two teams going in the opposite directions.  LesMoles has been on a tear recently and would be in the playoffs if they were to start today.  Zach's bunch has fallen out of first place in Harmony after losing matchups for 3 straight weeks.  In this one, Zach won the pitching matchups 4-2 behind Zach Greinke (13K 1.13/0.75 1QS), and the recently dealt Tanner Roark (1W 7K 1.29/0.71 1 QS).  For Tom, Anibal Sanchez had 1W 18K 2.70/0.75 1 QS, but Mike Minor's bad outing (5IP 5ER 1K 9.00/2.20) was enough to give Zach the edge in the ratio stats.  The hitting categories belong to the Molesters as Chris Coghlan (423/483/615 5R 2 RBI 1 SB) led the way and Devin MesoHornyroco (320/414/560 5R 6 RBI) and Adrian Gonzalez (333/400/500 2R 4RBI) each joined the 300/400/500 club (which will now be refered to as the Escalator Club).  Also for Tom, Chase Utley had 6 RBI despite hitting 050/167/200.  Manny Machado was the only one who put together a respectable line for Zach, finishing with 357/379/571 3R 3RBI.  Salvador Perez (130/125/174), Shin-Soo Choo (115/143/154) and Nelson Cruz (048/091/095) all failed to reach the Mendoza line.  Cruz's fall has been especially painful as he is 19 for his last 93 with 11 runs and 7 RBI over the past 30 days.  Thats a far cry from the 314/384/672 he was hitting on June 1st.  Choo is also struggling over the last 30 days, ranking as the 1487th player in the Yahoo! game with a 175/226/206 line 3R and 4RBI (John McDonald, Dodger infielder is 1485th and he is 0 for 19 with 1 run in the last 30 days).



As you can see, there is no Mike Shaw Subaru Super Mo Replay Matchup of the Week this week.   The matchups were all decent, but none was particularly great and none stood out for any reason.  Hopefully we can all motivate our players a little better this coming week and get back to the Super Mo.