Week 22 Recaps

Each of the matchups this week had the potential to impact the playoff race, but ultimately, we enter the playoffs the same way that we would have if week 22 had never happened.  There were 10 Escalator Club memberships punched this week, and a couple of more would have qualified had they gotten more than a handful of plate appearances. For the last time in the 2014 regular season, lets hit the recaps.  But first, one more time...with feeling:

UCCMA (133-117-14) - 8
Huckleberries (105-141-18) - 2
Tie - 2 (R, 24; SB, 3)

It finally happened.  On one end of the spectrum we have the Yanger Zone to signify players who hit 000/000/000 for an entire week, but no one had been the Unbreakable to his Mr. Glass...until now.  Carlos Gomez hit 1000/1000/1000 this week (who cares that it was only 1 PH at bat on Sunday), meaning someone has finally acheived perfection and that man is Gomez!  So, should another man improbably hit 1000/1000/1000 for a week, he will be said to have Gomezed (and shudders just ran down John's spine...sorry John, its like Nightmare on Elm Street come to life.)  In other news in this matchup, both Buster Posey (565/593/957 8R 8RBI) and Michael Brantley (444/500/519 4R 4RBI 2SB) Escalatored for Jimmy while Javier Baez (083/214/125 1R) hit the adjustment window like a sparrow who didnt see it coming.  On the flip side, Danny Santana (417/440/500 7R 1RBI 3SB) continued to show the Twinks that he belongs in the discussion as part of the next contending MN team (think 2018) and makes an interesting case to be kept as a keeper with is 320/358/475 season line in 354 plate appearances.  Also, Victor Martinez (who needs to present no case to be kept) continued his monster season with a 480/567/960 6R 7RBI line for Kevin.  On the hill, Jim won 5 of the 6 categories, but didnt get a truely dominant effort from anyone on the staff.  Tyson Ross struck out 15 over 2 starts, but those Ks were accompanied by a 1.63 WHIP.  The recently traded Wade Davis had 4 SV/H and 0.00/0.67 ratios, and Joe Smith picked up a pair of rogue wins to lead the staff.  Kevin got the weeks best SP effort, as Gio Gonzalez picked up a pair of wins to go with 3.00/0.83 ratios, but only got 7 Ks.  Trevor Rosenthal picked up a win and 3 SV/H to lead the relievers.

MBHB (131-121-12) - 8
Dust Bunnies (117-132-15) - 4

The plan was simple.  All Dusty had to do was beat the Bastards by 8.5 or more and he was in the playoffs.  Unfortunately for Dusty, he fell behind early and, despite a super human effort from Miguel Cabrera (500/500/1067 8R 9RBI), wasnt able to catch up.  For the Bastards, first time starter Chris Carter did what Chris Carter does...catch touchdowns hit BOMBS.  Carter finished the week 444/524/1000 5R 7RBI 1SB filling in for the injured Anthony Rizzo who was filling in for the injured Paul Goldschmidt.  Carter strikes out entirely too often and is one of the few players who may end up with more HRs + 2bs + BBs than singles in any given year (currently 100 to 105 singles), but, damn if that Houston offense isnt starting to get interesting fast.  With Carter, Altuve, Spinger, Dexter Fowler and Matt Dominguez on the big squad and a bevy of prospects including Carlos Correa and Jon Singleton  (if he ever figures out how to not strikeout every other at bat), the Astros are a lot closer to winning than people realize.  If not winning, they are a lot closer to destroying a large number of baseballs (and strikeout records).  I am all in on the 2015 Houston Astro offense.  If they offer free tacos and do a completely unnecessary countdown to the free tacos, I will officially adopt the 2015 Stros as my favorite AL team.  Also for MBHB (back to fantasy), Oscar Taveras (in extremely limited action) finally started hitting like the top prospect that everyone promised he was, posting a 500/583/800 3R 4RBI line that will keep him in the Bastards starting lineup for another week. 

On the hill, Dusty's SPs were fairly strong, but they only had 5 starts on the week, leading Dusty to lose all the counting categories.  For MBHB, Cole Hamels had a pair of quality starts (including the first 6 innings of the first combined No-Hitter in the 132 year history of the Philadelphia Phillies), but the real hero of the matchup was Brad Boxberger and his 2W 7K 0.00/0.25 1SV/H.  If only Dusty hadnt fallen asleep behind the wheel during the middle of the season...

ZAttack (130-122-12) - 6
Bobs ATers (150-96-18) - 5
Tie - 1 (SV/H, 6)

In a preview of what might be the first league championship, the two division winners squared off with Zach needing to put in a good showing to clinch the first round bye.  His win is nice, but with Tom and Kyler struggling, Zach would have clinched the bye with a much more mediocre showing.  Instead, Zach takes a win over the top team in the league into the bye.  The ZAttack was led by How Many Altuves (429/455/714 5R 4RBI 2SB) and a Nelson Cruz ressurection (407/467/963 6R 12RBI). Zach even started Shin Soo Choo, who is on the DL and is out for the year, as a giant "F" you to Bob.  Zach told me (through a medium, since I have never actually talked to Zach), "Bob can suck it.  I dont even need to field a full team to beat his bunch of scroats."  Bobs scroats struggled on offense, with no one player standing out for the week.  Jose Abreu finished with 0s in the runs and RBI categories.  Dee Gordon didnt steal a base.  Billy Hamilton finished 200/273/200.  Yuck.  Luckily, they have time to get their heads right before taking on the winner of Les Moles vs MBHB (i think...I have no idea if they re-seed or not).  On the bump, Zach got spectacular outings from Shelby Miller (1 QS 5K 0.00/0.86) and Clayton Kershaw (1W 8K 1.13/0.63 ho hum) and a decent outing from Jeff Samardzija (9K 0.86 WHIP but 5.14 ERA), as well as 14 Ks across a pair of starts from Zach Wheeler, but he was able to take only 2 pitching categories.  Bob's SP group of Wainwright, Sale, Jordan Zimmerman, Yordano Ventura, Alex Wood, and Marcus aStroman combined for 5W 37K and 7 QS.  Each of them had an ERA under 3 for the week.  Even better than the SPs, the RPs combined for 11 Ks 6 SV/H and didnt allow a single run.

Les Moles (129-124-11) - 5
MTMTAS (114-129-21) - 4
Tie - 3 (W, 3; QS, 5; SV/H, 1)

Pick me a winner Drew.

Coming into Sunday, this matchup had a very different feel.  Tyler was up 9-3, which combined with Kyler being down 11-1 meant that Tyler was in the playoffs and Kyler was out.  I sent Kyler a text in the morning asking if he was hoping for his team to turn it around or for Tom's to start playing well.  He responded with, "Both," but he was hoping that Tom's team would come around because he didnt have much confidence in his own.  Luckily, Tom's team did come around, lead by Adrian Gonzalez's 6 Sunday RBIs and 292/370/667 4R 9RBI week.  Other than Gonzo and Mauer (333/448/458 4R 5RBI), Tom's hitters were fairly average this week.  Tyler's hitters couldnt even be called that, with Allen Craig (059/273/059 0R 0RBI), Andrelton Simmons (130/167/130 1R 2RBI) and Alex Gordon (158/304/316 4R 3RBI 2SB) all failing to reach the Mendoza line and Jay Bruce (200/200/500 2R 5RBI) barely getting there.  On the pitching side, Tyler won 3 of the categories and the other 3 were tied (I think this is the first time that Tom hasnt won a pitching category in a week).   Drew Smyly (15K 2.31/0.94)  and Corey Kluber (1W 10K 1.51/1.11 1QS) led the way for the Moors while David Price (1W 19K 3.45/1.28 1QS) and Jon Lester (5K 2.25/0.88 1QS) pitched well in vain for Les Moles.