Week 11 Recaps

This was a heavy intradivision week with the maximum (4) matchups between division mates and 1 Crossroads special.

This week, I am feeling Froggy so the recaps are going to go in no particular order.

MWP Masters (57-70-5, 4th place H, 16.5 GB) 8
Merry Tyler's Moor AS (59-64-9, 3rd place H, 12.5 GB) 3
Tie  1 (Quality Starts, 4)

Apparently Starling Marte did not take kindly to my words of discouragement towards him last week as he rebounded with a 469/485/688 4R 6RBI 2SB line this week for Tyler.    For John, Evan Gattis continued his ridiculous month long run with a 480/536/840.  I watched a bit of the Angels-Barves game last night and learned that Gattis's nickname is "The White Bear" or "El Oso Blanco" on occasion.  I am not particularly great at making up nicknames, but I can give props where props are due.  El Oso Blanco is a kick ass nickname.  Google "The White Bear Evan Gattis."  You're welcome.  There werent a ton of other highlights in this matchup which featured 6 hitters failing to get to the Mendoza line and the teams split the hitting categories 3-3.  On the hill, Kamakaze Tanaka and Johnny Cueto did Taneto like things for MWP, each strking out 10+ with sub  WHIPs and yielding 2 runs total between them to lead John's pitchers to 5 category wins and a tie.  Stephen Stratsburg continued his surprisingly subdued season with 12 Ks over 2 quality starts to lead Tylers pitchers.


Dusty's Nustys (73-52-7, 1st in BT) 9
UUCMA (55-72-5, 4th in BT, 19 GB) 2
Tie                                  1 (Quality Starts, 5)

Not even Michael Brantley (538/625/885 9R 3RBI 1SB) could overcome Yangervis, Matt Carpenter (111/200/111), Jean Segura (143/182/143) and an injured Michael Cuddyer (0 plate appearances) against the Nusty onslaught.  Led by Mike Trout (417/516/875), Tulo (368/478/526) and Joey Bats (360/448/520), Dusty rolled to wins in all 6 hitting categories, including stolen bases for one of the few times this season.   Unlike the rest of the season, Dusty's pitchers showed up.  Amongst Dusty's staff, only Chris Tillman (1.38) and Luis Avilan (1.50) had WHIPs over 1.00 and no one had a higher ERA than Francisco Liriano's 6.00 but 5 pitchers did post 0.00 ERAs for the week. UCCMA also had 5 pitchers post bagels this week, but the 10 hits that James Shield gave up in 6 innings on Sunday pushed Uncle Jimmy's WHIP higher than Dusty's. All told, Dusty won 3 pitching categories and split a 4th.


MBHB (72-55-5, 3rd in BT, 2 GB) 7
Huckleberries (51-74-7, 5th in BT, 22 GB) 4
Tie   1 (Quality Starts, 3)

Bumgarner had more homers this week than George Springer

As I have said before, I watch my matchup much more closely than everyone elses, so I dont know if this is true of any of the other matchups, but this one was back and forth all week with a wide range of possible outcomes heading into Sunday's slate of games.  I believe that the categories were close enough that this could have ended anywhere from 8-4 in favor of MBHB to 7-4 in favor of Huckleberries.   The RBI category wasnt determined until Jason Heyward hit a solo HR in the 7th inning of the Sunday Night game, the quality start category wasnt halved until the Giants brought Madison Bumgarner out to pitch in the 7th inning of the Sunday later afternoon game and he gave up his 4th run, negating the quality start and ensuring that we would both end with 3.    There are 3 things to noe about this matchup. 1) The first baseman: Victor Martinez (375/423/875 4R 6RBI) and Paul Goldschmidt (375/483/917 5R 5RBI 1SB) raked all week.  Every time I checked the early games, Martinez had gotten another hit or driven in another run and when I checked the late games when I woke up, Goldy had always responded.  2) Brian Dozier-  Dozier only had 3 hits this week because he missed nearly 20 innings of baseball due to a back injury, but all 3 hits were HR.  Talk about bang for your buck.  3) Ernesto Frieri - Frieri had 2 appearances this week.  In the first, he struck out the side without allowing a baserunner.  In the second he did not record an out, and gave up 4 runs on 5 hits.  That left him with a 36.00 ERA and a 5.00 WHIP.

Backyard Superstars (72-52-8, 1st H) 8
ZAttack (62-64-6, 2nd in H, 11 GB) 4

The battle between the top two Harmonizers was incredibly even in the hitting categories, with Kyler taking the 3 counting stat categories (by 1 R, 1 RBI and 1 SB) and Zach taking the 3 rate stat ones.  Daniel Murphy (BySs) pitched in 5R and a SB, while Brandon Phillips pitched in 7 RBI for the week to lead Kyler's squad.  For Zach, Salvador Perez (.350/409/600), Jose Altuve (385/429/538) and Kung Fu Sandoval (381/440/571) led the rate stat charge, picking up the slack for Ryan Braun (115/233/231).  On the bump. BySs picked up 5 category wins, with only a rogue Jonathon Papelboner win for ZAttack claiming that category.  Tim Hudson (1W 0.00 ERA 1.14 WHIP 5K 1QS) continued his stellar season but Mike Minor blew up the stat box this week (2 starts 9ip 11.00 ERA, 2.89 WHIP 26 base runners, only 9 Ks) leaving Zach with little hope in the pitching ratios.  Kyler held onto the counting categories thanks to 10+ K starts from Alex Cobb and Yu Darvish as well as 10 Ks and 4 SV/H from Craig Kimbrel.  As I said, I watched the Barves game last night and Kimbrel came into pitch the 9th after David Carpenter had allowed a couple of baserunners.  I have seen it before, but I had forgotten about Kimbrel's "I have to shit but if I can just hold it for 3 more minutes I'll be all good" pre pitch stance.  I am not sure what purpose that serves other than to really confuse the hitter and make the second base umpire scared hes going to have to deal with nuclear blowout when that shit finally busts loose.

I am not sure whats in the water in Atlanta, but all 4 of the Barves who came out of the pen were throwing 96 MPH+ heat.  In addition to Kimbrel, Jordan Walden brought the heat (97 and 98 MPH hearters) and carved through the Angel lineup.  There was one sequence where David Freese was doing his best to foul balls off before he finally swung through a fastball with two strikes.  I remember Walden from his rookie year (2011) with the Angels, where he took over as the closer when Fernando Rodney blew up only a few games into the season.  Waldon made the All Star team that year and ended up with 32 saves.  I dont remember anything about his pitching motion being a news story.  I watched him earlier this year on MLB Extra Innings Preview and noticed the motion then, but for some reason I completely forgot about it.  During last night's game, the announcers were making a big deal about it...he literally jumps.  It leads to funny things like this:

I am not entirely sure that's legal because I think you have to be in contact with the rubber in order to, you know, pitch a legal ball.  Maybe not though because he has been doing this for years apparently and it still works.  Walden is listed at 6'5" but with that jump his release point has to be close to someone 6" taller or more.  I wouldnt ever advocate teaching some poor kid to try to do this, but I am surprised that, if legal, there arent more failed pitchers trying this in an effort to mess with hitter's timing mechanisms and eye levels.  Yeesh that's nasty...Carlos Beltran is an amazing hitter with 9125 MLB plate appearances...and he swings at that ball that lands 5 or 6 feet in front of the plate.