California Penal League 2015 - Weeks 9/10 Review

Traveling for a conference last week, back this week with double the dose of fantasy baseball news!

Week 9-10 Recap

A tie! There was a tie! I hope everyone is taking snapshots, because for the first time in 32 weeks of regular season action, a matchup has ended without a winner. Heading into Sunday night, it looked like Walker Texas Rangers had it in the bag. All they needed was 2.5 points from Anthony Rizzo, Joey Votto, and Aroldis Chapman, right? Wrong! Rizzo (0/5, 2 K's) and Votto (2/5) combined for 2 points, sending both squads unhappy with a very unsatisfying draw.  The draw means that Ryan drops from 3rd to 5th, while Shidler drops another half game back from 6th place and the last playoff spot. We could look back at this matchup as the one that decided both of these teams' fate.

Elsewhere, in our pillow fight of the week, TonyClarkTime (3-7) beat The Duda Abides (1-9) 194 to 192. Needless to say, both of these teams would've lost to everyone else in the league. Shame of Dugan for losing to a team with two starters on the DL, two players short of a full roster, and Ian Desmond playing a prominent role (see below). Not to be outdone, Dugan boasts of two starters on the DL and a player on the DL that was activated a week ago. Then again, you wouldn't be paying attention either if your team was 1-9.

Allen continues to ride his good luck, somehow in 3rd place even though he is 6th in total points. Regression is a dish better served cold. Pearse sits in 4th place by literally the slimmest of margins (0.5 pts). At the bottom, Kyle is out of last place thanks to our newcomer Kris' horrendous performance. Shidler and Bill are on the edge of the playoff chase. Barring a miraculous run, the bottom 4 are virtually eliminated from playoff contention.

Awards

A little curveball this week. Awards for the last two weeks of play!

Hitter of the Week - Giancarlo Stanton (MVPuig/Good Will Bunting): 74.5 pts

The first blockbuster trade of the year saw Jon send power prospect Joey Gallo to Kyle for Giancarlo Stanton, he of the monster bombs. Stanton has been a one-man wrecking crew in the last couple of weeks, connecting 8 times for round-trippers, driving in 15 runs, and scoring 12 times, all of which lead the majors in this timespan. Hitting almost .400 is a nice bonus as well. Continue mashing, Mike.

Goat of the Week, Hitter Edition - Ian Desmond (TonyClarkTime): 6.5 pts
You know what's the insane part about Demsond's 6.5 pts over two weeks? That 10.5 of those came during the first 7 days. Desmond has been borderline atrocious the last week, striking out 13 times while going 1/21. That means that during the last week, he's struck out 59% of the time. That performance is worthy of being in Game of Thrones.

Pitcher of the Week - Chris Sale (Good Will Bunting): 73.5 pts
Nice balance between hitting and pitching has been achieved in this league. Just look at the performances of the top hitters and pitchers. Sale led the pack in the last 14 days, picking up 3 quality starts and a 2-1 record. An obscene 39 strikeouts in 21.2 IP is otherwordly. Sale has struck out more than 10 batters in 6 of his last 7 starts. How dare he strike out only 7 in 8 innings of one run ball against Cleveland on May 18th?

Goat of the Week, Pitcher Edition - Yordano Ventura (Schweddy Balls): -9 pts
The fireballer has been knocked around a bit, making it through only 6 IP in his last 2 starts. Only 6 ER were scored against him, as this could've been way worse. Way, way, worse. 2 losses is bad enough, though, as I'm sure Ralph will attest.

Surprising Hitter of the Week - Maikel Franco (FA): 53 pts
One of the few bright sports in the worst team in baseball. Franco hammered 4 long balls while hitting north of .400 over the last couple of weeks. Had a 10 game hitting streak snapped yesterday. The pedigree is there, full endorsement!

Surprising Pitcher of the Week - Jorge De La Rosa (FA): 55.5 pts

3 wins, 3 QS, 18 punch outs in 20 IP. What else could you ask for? Make the move! 10 walks though, proceed with caution.

Week 11 Preview

#1 Doug vs. #12 Dugan:.Oh no! Oh no! Run away! This is not safe.
#2 Ralph vs. #6 Luis: I need to start paying more attention to my team.
#3 Jon A. vs. #5 Ryan: Allen is the big favorite this week. I will keep touting him as the favorite until he loses. Then I will keep doing it.
#4 Pearse vs. #9 Kris: Pearse with the easy win. And a likely jump into 3rd place.
#7 Jon S. vs. #10 Drew: Drew's trying really hard. I promise.
#8 Bill vs. #11 Kyle: If the Gas House Gorillas are ever going to make a run, now is the time and this is the opponent.

Next week: Mid-season awards!!!!

California Penal League 2015 - Week 8 Review

End of semester vacation meant no posts. Hopefully back in a rhythm now!

Week 8 Recap

The dream is over. There will not be an undefeated H2H baseball champion this seasons, as Doug suffered his first loss of the year being AbsolutelyDominated by yours truly in a high-scoring affair. The AntarcticanAmericans produced a respectable 317 points, 5th most this week, but came nowhere close to the 354.5 points posted by their mighty opponents. The entire match-up was decided by one guy, who will be discussed in more detail in our next section.

Elsewhere, Ralph continued his hot start, dispatching Pearse by 30 pts. Met dandy Lucas Duda was the hero in this one. Schweddy Balls is now tied for 1st place, although a distant second in points scored. Good Will Bunting made quick work of MVPuig, as Kyle continues to embrace his new role as "Mike Soltys". Maybe it's a bad idea to have a guy suck in the DL as the namesake for your team and logo. This team's mojo is clearly disturbed. Meanwhile, Jon A. continues his lucky to ride his good luck, putting up big numbers against weaker competition. 3 teams below the standings have more points this year than his team. Regression is a cruel mistress, remember that.

Despite the loss to Ralph, Pease's Gas House Gorillas maintain a nice 5-3 record, tied for 4th in the league. We are beginning to see some clear separation between the top teams with winning records and the bottom feeders. Stuck in between is Jon Shidler's Wain's World at 4-4. Again, what's up with the team names after dead (baseball-speak) players? I guarantee Shidler and Kyle would have more than 5 combined wins if they had different team names.

In the bottom of the table we find Homegrown Hitters at 3-5, TonyClark Time and Limpy Noodlesy at 2-6, and The Duda Abides and MVPuig at 1-7. Ummmm, Dugan? Why is your team name "The Duda Abides" when you don't even have Lucas Duda in your team? I'm telling you, there's a correlation between number of losses and team names.

Now, let's recognize the best of the best and the worst of the worst.

Awards

Hitter of the Week - Josh @#$%^ Donaldson (AbsolutDomination): 55.5 pts

Wanna know how dominant Mr. Donaldson was? He scored 16 more points than the 3rd best hitter of the week (Goldschmidt). Only the hitters in this week's top 10 didn't get doubled up by Mr. Donaldson. Of course, 55.5 points don't happen all at once, but it certainly felt like it. On Tuesday, Monsieur Donaldson went 4/4 with 2 HR, 5 R, 4 RBI, and a walk, just because he can. The 21 points are the most by a hitter in a single game this year. Did I mention that the 2nd HR was of the walk-off variety?

Goat of the Week, Hitter Edition - The Artist Formerly Known as E5 (The Duda Abides): 0 pts
1/24 with no runs, no rbi's, no extra base hits, only 2 walks and 6 strikeouts. This is especially bad when you compare it to the guy I just finished raving about in the previous paragraph, who bats just ahead of him in the same lineup, facing the same pitching. Ooooof.

Pitcher of the Week - Carlos Martinez (AbsolutDomination): 42.5 pts
It was a considerably bad week for pitchers, as Martinez was the only one to crack the 35 point mark this week. Of the top 9 pitchers of the week, 4 are free agents, 2 are owned by Allen and 3 are in my team. And that doesn't even include stellar starts by Chris Sale (29.5 pts) and Max Scherzer (28.5 pts). These players belong to.... you guessed it! Good Will Bunting and AD.

Goat of the Week, Pitcher Edition - Julio Teheran (TonyClark Time): -6 pts
I hate doing this to my fellow Colombian, but Teheran has been brutal. In two starts this week, he got rocked by both the Giants and the Dodgers. Ok, fine, he didn't get rocked by the Giants, but getting a quality start for throwing 6 mediocre innings (3 ER, 4 Walks) is everything's that's wrong with the Quality Start stat.

Surprising Hitter of the Week - Joe Panik (FA): 32 pts
Joey P. bashed his way to a top 10 finish among hitters, thanks to his 8/27 with 2 homers and 7 ribbies. That double-play combo in San Fran is looking mighty good with Panik and fellow out-of-nowhere fantasy revelation Brandon Crawford. Panik! at the Disco. There's a good name for a winning team. Make the move!

Surprising Pitcher of the Week - Charlie Morton (FA): 33 pts

Morton made his first two starts of the season after beginning the year in the DL. He doesn't get a ton of swings and misses (5 K's in 14 IP) but the control is obviously there (1 BB). Numbers are a little bit inflated thanks to the 2 wins, but someone to keep an I on nonetheless.

Week 6 Preview

#1 Doug vs. #7 Jon S.: The Doug victory train looks to get back on track.
#2 Ralph vs. #10 Drew: I think we can say safely now that Ralph's team is for real.
#3 Jon S. vs. #9 TonyClark Time: When is your luck going to run out, Mr. Allen? Another easy matchup.
#4 Ryan vs. #5 Luis: Ryan is the Arsenal of this league. Always in 4th place. That ends this week.
#6 Pearse vs. #8 Bill: Pearse hasn't been this high in the standings during the month of June since the 1994 strike-shortened season.
#11 Dugan vs. #12 Kyle: Whenever #11 plays #12 in this league, I'm going to call it the "Battle for the Mike Soltys Memorial Trophy". Which obviously goes to the loser.

Stay safe, kids.