And we are down to two! Last week of the baseball season!
Semifinals Recap
#1 The Duda Abides dispatches #5 Good Will Bunting: 360.83 to 309.83
The champion is no more! This year we will crown a new champion, after #1 seed Dugan had no trouble beating defending king-of-the-castle Jon A. by a comfortable margin. As has been the case all year, Dugan relied on a strong lineup composed of above-average hitters, highlighted by breakout player of the year candidate Corey Dickerson's 31 points. In the end, Dugan's batters contributed 190 points, versus only 125 for Jon's. Good Will Bunting's futility was exemplified by Nolan Arenado, who didn't play at all this week, and now has been shutdown for the remainder of the season with signs of pneumonia. You could say that Jon has coughed up the opportunity to repeat. See what I did there?
#2 AbsolutDomination crushes #3 AntarcticanAmericans: 406.67 to 327.33
For the second straight year, Doug came into the semifinals with the best team in the league on paper. for the second straight year, he'll be playing for 3rd place money. Carlos Gomez, knowing that he was playing against a Brewers fan, decided to only score 6 points. None of his pitchers scored more than 30 points, despite having two starters pitch twice. Meanwhile, Jake Arrieta threw an absolute gem, a one-hit, 13 K complete game shutout of the Reds... and Michael Cuddyer homered in three straight games, including a 17.5 point effort on Friday night. This one was never in doubt. I don't think Doug cares much about this because he won the 87-person football picks pool this week, which will cover up for what he might've made had he played in the finals. You win some, you lose some.
Skip this if you don't care about football, betting, or both. Doug went an absurd 13-2 against the spread yesterday, with the only losses being Houston at the Giants and Denver at Seattle. Now, I also had Denver in that game, getting 4.5 points in the Super Bowl rematch. How absurd was that final drive, though? Think about it... the only way Seattle can still win against the spread is if Denver converts the 2 points, they go to overtime, and Seattle scores a TD to win it. Which will only happen if they get the ball first, because they would totally settle for a FG if such a score wins the game. And that's exactly what happens. Where was Seattle's D in that final drive though? Denver ran that out-and-up play twice for like 168 yards and there was nobody within 15 yards of the receiver.
Finals Preview
#1 The Duda Abides vs. #2 AbsolutDomination:
Dugan dominated the regular season series, winning both matchups. He had 200 more points than me, has an absurd lineup, and FIVE two-start pitchers this week. Oh yeah, and my catcher has both strep throat and a kidney stone. So... how can I win? I don't know. It'll probably take a repeat of last week's hitting performance, which might be asking too much of a team that hadn't clicked all year. My team won't be hitting 10 home runs again.
Key Matchup:
D. Holland, J. Samardzija, and J. Peavy vs. W.Y. Chen.
What? What does that even mean, you might be asking... well, I made a roster move to pick up Peavy as a two-start pitcher and decided to go all-in on Monday. If I don't race to a significant lead today, I'm giving up on this matchup altogether. After today, Dugan has 11 projected starts to 7 of mine, and that doesn't account for the fact I already used one of my three roster moves.
Key Matchup #2:
Joey Bats vs. The Artist Formerly Known As E5
Only cause they are teammates and two of my favorite nicknames in all of sports... right up there with "He Hate Me" and Jake "Daylight come and you gotta" Delhomme.
Prediction:
Normally, I'm all about the reverse jinxes, even when I secretly believe I have a chance. This week, though, I am pretty sure that I'm not going to win. In fact, Dugan: where do you want me to mail the check for $525?
3rd Place Match
#3 AntarcticanAmericans vs. #5 Good Will Bunting:
Doug and Jon still have to play for $150. That's a pretty good night out, so still worth playing hard for. Not important enough for me to do a complete breakdown of the matchup. though. My money is on Doug in this one. Too much Miggy, too much Trout, too much Cruz, too much Brantley. His once amazing pitching is no more, though, and two-start weeks for Chris Sale and Felix Hernandez can swing this to Jon's side.
Actually, I'm changing my prediction just to jinx Jon... Allen wins it behind sterling efforts of his two aces.
Consolation Bracket
Ryan finishes in 5th place, after beating Ralph by a ton. Pearse has finished in 11th place, meaning that our newcomer Drew is now our Sack-o Drew. Go watch the League if you don't get that reference, you're missing out. Kyle and Bill play this week for 7th place and Mike and Jon S. play for 9th place... seriously, why even... anyway...
I'll be back next week to officially crown Dugan as champion and find out who finished in the money. See you then!
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