Week 12 Recaps

There were 2 interdivision grudge matches this week, 2 interdivision matches between not mortal fantasy baseball enemies and 1 crossroads matchup.  And, just to be clear, when I say not mortal enemies, I mean they are not enemies who dislike each other to the core but they do have to battle one another, not that they are enemies who also happen to be immortal.  This is real life, this isnt the Highlander or Army of Darkness.

Let's do this quick...itll make it sting less.  The parenthesis raking is the overall ranking this week.

MBHB (81-57-6, 3rd) 9
UCCMA (57-81-6, 10th) 2
Tie 1 (RBI, 21)

Hitting was at a premium in this one as there were 4 batters (2 from each team) that finished the week under .100 (Jose Reyes 083/120/208, Jayson Werth 087/250/130, Kendrys Morales 077/143/077, and the Yanger Zone 000/308/000).  The difference was that pretty much everyone but those 2 on MBHB walked and had extra base hits when they made contact.  All 6 other players finished the week with OBPs over .385 and David Wright (444/448/815) and the recently released Devin Meso(Hory)raco (357/500/1143) each had 5 runs and 6 RBI.  For Jimmy, Jean Segura's 2 HR game in Colorado boosted his SLG line to 615, but the BA and OBP remained low (231/310).  TMGS had a pair of SB (UCCMA's only 2 of the week) to go along with a 308/333/577 slash line and Buster Posey came out of his season long coma with a 421/455/526 week.  On the hill, MBHB won 5 of the 6 categories due to Monday blow ups from both Max Scherzer and Tyson Ross putting UCCMA behind the 8-ball at the outset of the matchup.  From there, 10 K from Felix Hernandez and 14 K over 2 QS from Cole Hamels sealed the deal.  Jimmy texted me this morning and said, "As of right now at least everyone will be drinking good beer at the draft next year."  Did that hurt less doing it first Uncle Jimmy?



Bob's ATers (83-56-5. 1st) 9
Dusty's Nustys (76-61-7, 4th) 3

This week, in bizzaro world, Bob beat Dusty in all 6 hitting categories and Dusty won 3 of the pitching categories, including ERA and WHIP.  Up is down, black is the new orange and the tides are controlling the phases of the moon.  On the hitting side, Dusty's team hit a speed bump for the first time this season with AJ Pierzynski, Crush Davis and Joey Bats all hitting under .200 for the week and with Wil Myers still starting in the OF despite wearing one of those rollerblade braces on his wrist all the time.  Bob's offense did what Bob's offense does.  He had mashers, (Edwin Encarnacion 304/385/826), good contact guys (Anthony Rendon 360/429/760) and Billy Hamilton.  Hamilton gets his own blurb.  All he did this week was hit 360/385/520 with 5 runs and 5 RBI.  Oh yeah, he had enough stolen bases to beat every single other fantasy team in our league this week (6).  Talk about a matchup changer.  I've mentioned it before, but Hamilton going for $30 at auction looked like an all time gamble on a boom or bust player (I think I called him Vince Coleman 2.0), but it has paid off nicely.  Billy Goat has turned into a legitimate MLB hitter and he is the most dangerous thing on the bases since Rickey Henderson's prime.  On the mound, Dusty's team managed only 21 Ks over 45 innings, but exploited bad games from Hisashi Iwakuma, Greg Holland and a blow up from Aroldis Chapman to win the ERA and WHIP categories.  For Bob, Adam Wainwright threw 8 innings and allowed only 1 run on 6 hits (no walks) and struck out 7.  UCLs everywhere are safe from my wrath...for now.


MWP Masters (65-74-5, 7th) 8
Les Moles (58-81-5, 9th) 4

John shut down his mortal enemy Tom this week by taking a clean sweep of all 6 pitching categories and doing just enough to win a pair of hitting ones.  Looking at the collective hitting box score in this matchup is like staring at the aftermath of a Civil War battlefield; there is ugliness everywhere.  I started counting guys who hit under .250, but then I realized it would be easier to list the guys who hit over .300, MWP's Yadier Molina (.364) and LM Coco Crisp (.350), the guys who OBPed over .400, Molina (.462), and the guys who SLGed over .500, Molina (.545)...and thats the entire list from all 16 hitters used in the matchup.  At least Joe Mauer's sideburns knocked in 7 for Tom.  Yuck.  The pitching was much better, but it was mostly on John's side as he got spectacular numbers from all 5 of his SPs, particularly Josh Beckett (1W 8K 0.00 ERA 0.86 WHIP) and John "Lurch" Lackey (9K 0.00 ERA 0.44 WHIP).  For Les Moles, Jon Lester was stellar (1W 10K 1.93 ERA 0.79 WHIP over 2 quality starts), but the Harangatang remembered that he is a 36 year old who hasnt been good at baseball since 2007, giving up 16 baserunners (3.20 WHIP) and 8 runs (14.40 ERA) over 5 innings against the Phillies and Dallas Kuechel had his second straight bad outing.   The advantage, at least in this battle, goes to John.  But the War of the Homies is far from finished.


Backyard Superstars (78-57-9, 2nd) 6
MTMTAS (64-70-10) 5
Tie (SV+H, 9)

Many things happened in this matchup.  Kyler won 5 hitting categories. Tyler won 4 pitching categories.  Tyler's team had 7 quality starts but only 1 win, including Julio Teheran's 2 starts totalling 15 innings with 16 K and 2.40 ERA and 0.87 WHIP...and no wins (the Barves scored 1 run in those two games combined).   Kyler's team tied for the most RBI in a single week so far (36).  But the biggest thing that happened was one Aramis Ramirez and his 500/517/964 slash with 9 R and 10 of those 36 RBI.  I have a number of fond memories of ARam playing 3rd base for the Cubbies and of him hitting a ton as the weather warmed up (2004-06 are especially excellent in my memory), but I cannot remember a single week like this.  Ramirez had an RBI in every game this week except Wednesday's ballgame and he finished the week on a Coors' binge going 8 for 13 with 2 2b, 2 HR and 6 RBIs over the 3 game set.  There may very well be a slight uptick in babies born to Brewer fans in the March time frame...and many of them might be named Aramis (some might be Porthos or Athos, just to mix it up a bit...but no D'Artagnans please).