July Leaderboards

So much to do, so little time to do it.

Player	Team	R	$		Player	Team	R	$
Paul Goldschmidt	MBHB	75	$60		Neil Walker		20
Anthony Rendon	Bob's Aters	75	$5 (4/1)		Anthony Rendon	Bobs Aters	20	$5 (4/1)
Mike Trout	Dust Bunnies	74	$89		Jimmy Rollins	BySs	19	$1
Hunter Pence	MTMTAS	73	$23		Mike Trout	Dust Bunnies	19	$89
3 tied		72			Brett Gardner	BySs	19	$1 (7/1)

There is a little bit of shake up at the top of the runs leaderboard as Anthony Rendon crashes the party with 20 runs this month to tie Paul Goldschmidt for the league lead through July.  Unowned Neil Walker tied Rendon for the month lead and a pair of BySs pickups, Rollins (through trade) and Gardner (after teh commish dropped him) have been huge for Kyler's team.

Player	Team	RBI	$		Player	Team	RBI	$
Jose Abreu	Bobs Aters	83	$2		David Ortiz	Zattack	25	$17
Miguel Cabrera	Dust Bunnies	81	$76		Torii Hunter		23
David Ortiz	Zattack	77	$17		Chris Johnson		22
Mike Trout	Dust Bunnies	76	$89
Josh Donaldson	Les Moles	76	$22

There is not much left to be said about Cuban Missle Launcher Jose Abreu and his $2 salary, except that Bob is a dick.  The big mover here is David Ortiz, who after a sluggish start, really came on in July with a league leading 25 RBI.  As you will see, Torii Hunter had a huge month and we will get to him in a bit.  Chris Johnson had a couple of huge series this month (one of which was against the Cubs, so it really shouldnt count) that accounted for his spike in RBI. 

Player	Team	SB	$		Player	Team	SB	$
Dee Gordon	Bobs Aters	48	$3 (4/22)		Jarrod Dyson		9
Jose Altuve	Zattack	42	$20		Dee Gordon	Bobs Aters	8	$3 (4/22)
Billy Hamilton	Bobs Aters	42	$30		Lorenzo Cain		8
Ben Revere	LesMoles	30	$1
Jacoby Ellsbury	KIODL	28	$50

Nothing new on the season leaderboard as Bobs runners are sticking at the top of the board with Jose Altuve (though outside of that 10 steal week, Altuve hasnt been as valuable in the category as Gordon or Hamilton).  But on the 30 day board, a pair of KC outfielders are at the top.  Neither can hit or get on base with any consistency, but apparently Ned Yost is playing the "Let's run ourselves into wins/Let's run ourselves into losses" home game.  I cant wait til he asks Billy Butler to play.

Player	Team	AVG (290+ ab)	$		Player	Team	AVG (65+ ab)	$
Troy Tulowitzki	Dust Bunnies	0.340	$52		Chris Coghlan	LesMoles	0.383	$5 (7/15)
Jose Altuve	Zattack	0.339	$20		Jose Abreu	Bobs Aters	0.380	$2
Robinson Cano	Huckleberries	0.328	$50		Torii Hunter		0.376
Adrian Beltre	Huckleberries	0.323	$41
Conor Gillaspie		0.321

Wait...Connor Gillaspie?  As in White Sox 3b Connor Gillaspie?  He is the 5th best hitter in the Bigs right now by batting average?  No wonder people say batting average is a flawed stat.  Gillaspie is a nice player and all, but there is a reason that he is unowned in 79% of Yahoo! leagues at the moment...theres very little juice to go with that squeeze.  Chris Coghlan has been on a tear this month after getting mostly regular playing time for the first time in a couple of years (and was Peter Gammons' best hitter for July).  He is an intersting case for the Cubs as he is young enough to warrant a longer term look, but he wasnt in the teams plans coming into the season, so there is not really anywhere for him to play once the Cubs start bringing in the prospect calvary.  He might, however, allow the Cubs to give one of their younger OFers a longer look in the minors or he could become an extremely valuable OF/3b/2b backup.

Player	Team	OBP (290+ ab)	$		Player	Team	OBP (65+ ab)	$
Troy Tulowitzki	Dust Bunnies	0.432	$52		Chris Coghlan	LesMoles	0.457	$5 (7/15)
Jose Bautista	Dust Bunnies	0.414	$29		Denard Span		0.453
Yasiel Puig	BySs	0.406	$36		Jose Abreu	Bobs Aters	0.437	$2
Andrew McCutchen	LesMoles	0.404	$78
Paul Goldschmidt	MBHB	0.395	$60

Hey Twins fans, remember Denard Span and his uncanny ability to hit .280-.290 with a .330 on base percentage?  Check out that funky looking number next to his name in the 30 day board.  After watching Span in MN, I probably would have bet money that he would never have an OBP over .400 for any extended period of time, and this stretch only has his season long OBP up to .349.  But Span was one of the best hitters over the last 30 days, putting together a 370/453/413 slash line with 17 runs, 4 RBI and 7 steals.

Player	Team	SLG (290+ ab)	$		Player	Team	SLG (65+ ab)	$
Jose Abreu	Bobs Aters	0.636	$2		Yasiel Puig	BySs	0.694	$36
Troy Tulowitzki	Dust Bunnies	0.603	$52		Chris Carter		0.684
Edwin Encarnacion	Bobs Aters	0.591	$27		Torii Hunter		0.671
Mike Trout	Dust Bunnies	0.580	$89
Victor Martinez	Huckleberries	0.556	$6 (5/27)

So this is where we talk about Torii Hunter, yet another ex-Twin and likely one of the favorites of any Twins fan (especially Tom, John, and Dusty who are the designated Twinkie Homers in this league).  Somehow, Hunter has been the #1 hitter (#2 overall) in fantasy baseball over the past 30 days thanks to his 376/419/671 slash with 17 runs, 23 RBI and even a pair of SB thrown in for good measure.  Thats better than vintage Torii Hunter from even his best seasons with the Twins.  Anybody going to dare to pick him up?  Dusty would, but he is to afraid of making any changes and causing the hole in his OF to get upset with him.

Player	Team	W	$		Player	Team	W	$
Clayton Kershaw*	Zattack	13	$70		Sonny Gray*	BySs	5	$2
Adam Wainwright*	Bobs Aters	13	$42		16 Tied		4
Max Scherzer*	UCCMA	13	$39
10 tied		12

It is interesting to see those big $$ pitchers finally rising to the top of the leader board.  For much of the season, I have wrestled with wondering whether pitching is worth paying for, but as I look at the season leaderboards, I see that paying for the right pitchers is definitely worth it.  Sonny Gray is one of those pitchers who it would be smart to pay for, but Kyler was able to snag him at the end of the draft for only $2.  I have said this before, but it is worth saying again, Sonny Gray has Cy Young type stuff, is young and team controlled, plays in O.co (O.Yeah!) Stadium (it's very much a hitting surpressing environment) and has a great team behind him.  The sky is the limit for him and for the A's over the next several years as AJ Griffin and Jarrod Parker (hopefully) come back from Shommy Shon surgery next season.  Side note, sorry about all the stars *** in the player names.  In order to get excel to do a V-Lookup to get team and salary from a spreadsheet I had to put it on there because the other spreadsheet has things like Clayton Kershaw P-LAD all in one cell.  Deal with it.

Player	Team	K			Player	Team	K	$
David Price*	LesMoles	189	$36		Tyson Ross*	UCCMA	48	$1
Felix Hernandez*	MBHB	178	$44		Johnny Cueto*	KIODL	44	$10
Corey Kluber*	MTMTAS	170	$1 (4/1)		Clayton Kershaw*	Zattack	43	$70
3 Tied		167			Corey Kluber*	MTMTAS	43	$1 (4/1)

Price and King Felix stay at the top of the board, though they are closer together than they were last week, and Kluber's strong month puts him back in the top 5.  But the real story of the month is Tyson Ross, San Diego Pasta Padre.  Ross has those 48 punchouts in 41 innings and combined it with a tidy 1.10 ERA and 0.93 WHIP in 6 quality starts for the month.  The Padre starting staff has quietly been one of the best in MLB so far this year, they just dont have anything to show for it because their offense has been so bad, and because they play in the shadow of the Dodgers and Angels.  But there are good things coming out of the Whale's Vagina.

Player	Team	ERA (120 ip)			Player	Team	ERA (30 ip)	$
Clayton Kershaw*	Zattack	1.71	$70		Chris Sale*	Bobs Aters	0.85	$35
Adam Wainwright*	Bobs Aters	1.92	$42		Sonny Gray*	BySs	1.03	$2
Felix Hernandez*	MBHB	2.01	$44		Clayton Kershaw*	Zattack	1.07	$70
Johnny Cueto*	KIODL	2.05	$10
Scott Kazmir*	MTMTAS	2.37	$2 (4/22)

Kershaw finally hit the innings requirement, and jumped straight to the top of the board.  There are not enough superlatives in the English language to describe the season that he is having.  I dont think he will get quite to the modern day record 1.12 ERA that Bob Gibson put up in 1968 (in 305 innings!!!) because that number was so silly it forced baseball to change the height of the mound from 16 inches to 12 inches.  I wonder what its like to be able to say "I was so good at a major sport, that they changed a fundamental rule because of me" like Gibson (and Luis Tiant, Denny McClain, and a couple others) can claim from that '68 season.  Kershaw might not get the fundamental rules changed, but thats only because in '68 lots of guys were doing that well...in '14 there are only a couple (King Felix, Cueto, Wainwright).

Player	Team	WHIP (120 ip)			Player	Team	WHIP (30 ip)	$
Clayton Kershaw*	Zattack	0.82	$70		Clayton Kershaw*	Zattack	0.64	$70
Felix Hernandez*	MBHB	0.89	$44		Corey Kluber*	MTMTAS	0.68	$1 (4/1)
Johnny Cueto*	KIODL	0.92	$10		Felix Hernandez*	MBHB	0.78	$44
Adam Wainwright*	Bobs Aters	0.96	$42
Masahiro Tanaka*	KIODL	1.01	$19

More of the same...  Dear John, I am sorry that I have to keep rubbing how good Tanaka was doing before he got hurt in your face.  I promise, this is the last time he will show up on a leader board until he comes back and pitches again (he barely had the number of innings required to make the cut this month).  Kluber has managed to reduce the number of hits against him while maintaining his K and BB rates.  With Assdribble Cabrera no longer playing SS, Kluber might see a small increase in balls through the hole until Francisco Lindor is brought up.  Once that happens, Kluber should actually see a further reduction in hits against, as Lindor is, by all accounts, one of the most gifted infielders to come along in a while.  He isnt quite in the Andrelton Simmons category (because, really, who is?) but he will be a great improvement over Cabrera and whoever else the Indians try there in the short term.

Player	Team	QS			Player	Team	QS	$
Felix Hernandez*	MBHB	21	$44		Tyson Ross*	UCCMA	6	$1
Johnny Cueto*	KIODL	20	$10		11 tied		5
Julio Teheran*	MTMTAS	19	$15
Sonny Gray*	BySs	18	$2
Aaron Harang*	LesMoles	18	$1 (5/6)

There's that Tyson Ross again, but wait...is that the Harangatang's music? (I dont know how many of you watch or watched professional wrestling at some point in your life, but when I say "is that such and such's music?" I think about the days when there would be a match or promo going on and then the music would start and Jim Ross would say those immortal words before the guy would sprint down to the ring and blow shit up.  This was best done with Stone Cold Steve Austin.)  Somehow Aaron Harangatang is continuing to throw quality starts (18 in 22 starts) while allowing 1.39 baserunners per 9 innings.  There is simply no reasonable explaination for it, other than the Braves bullpen is repeatedly getting him out of inherited runner jams, but I havent seen much evidence to support that.

Player	Team	SV/H			Player	Team	SV/H	$
Mark Melancon*	Huckleberries	34	$1		Zach Britton*	MBHB	11	$4 (5/20)
Craig Kimbrel*	BySs	32	$29		Jake McGee*	MBHB	11	$2 (7/1)
Trevor Rosenthal*	Huckleberries	32	$16		Steve Cishek*	Huckleberries	9	$5
Kenley Jansen*	KIODL	31	$28		David Robertson*	Bobs Aters	9	$12
Felix Rodriguez*	KIODL	31	$2 (4/15)

Looks like I know why I have been doing well in this category over the past few weeks.  Britton's ascendence to the 9th inning big boy chair has gone better than the Orioles could have hoped, and McGee has proven up to the task whenever Joe Madden has deemed him worthy of a save chance.  There seems to be more volatility in the SV/H board than in the others, especially when it comes to how much the player cost to acquire.  In the top 5, there is definitely a "been there, done that" comfort that comes with some of the top players, but beyond that top 5 are a number of players who have had production at a slightly lesser rate, but for only a fraction of the cost of someone like Kimbrel or Jansen.  Obviously, those guys provide more than just the SV/H and have done it year in and year out, unlike someone like Britton (who is young and relatively unproven coming into the season) and McGee (who has had both spectacular seasons and horrendous ones).