Week 20

Finally on to week 20, but things are actually cooling off as the tight bye week and playoff races have become mountainous leads. Amidst all the big rankings swings and surprises of the last few weeks, this week provides us all a chance to catch our breath as we gear up for the final 6 weeks of 2013 fantasy baseball.

There was no movement this week within the top 6, but as we all know, there are always fun narratives to be discovered in this league. Let's start with yours truly. The first pace lead has become comical, at a whopping 14.5 games, in addiiton, the Commish was able to become the first manager to officially clinch a 2013 playoff spot. So the race for the number one seed is all but over, but the race for the record books is still very much in play. The most regular season wins ever was 140-72 set by Russ in 2009. The mark for best winning percentage ever was set by John's 2011 season, when he finished at 139-71, for a record .661%. Currently, Russ sits at  121-63, with three weeks to go. He's 20 wins away from setting the new wins record, and he needs to go at least 21-9 (.700) in the final 3 weeks to complete the winningest regular season in Franchise history.

Russ got closer to the record books last week with a 7-2 victory over Perk. The loss was a bad one for Eddie,who now finds himself double digit games out of the 6th and final playoff spot. However, he's still very much in it (more on this later). The only battle of the top 6 was a good one, as Keeves edged out Dan 5-4. If you've been reading these recaps for the last few weeks, you've noticed I stay pretty high level, and rarely mention specific players (usually because I try to write these in less than an hour, and don't have time to actually look into every match-up and analyze). However, I have to call attention to Keeves' Alfonso Soriano who finished this week with a .484 average, 9 runs scored, 5 homers, 18 rbi's (!!!!!), AND 2 steals! Take Soriano out of this match-up and Dan wins 8-2, even if we plug in Josh Willingham, Keeves' replacement OF, Dan wins 6-3. But Keeves (really just Soriano) was able to end Dan's 3 week winning streak and close the gap between them to a mere 4 games.

Keeves made up some ground on dan, but neither were able to cut into Mark's hold on the second and final bye week spot. Chirokas defeated Brad 6-4 this week as he regained his footing and direction, while Brad continued his free fall, losing his 5th straight week.The biggest surprise this week was Andy taking down John 7-3. John was coming off a big win over Mark that put him just 5 games out of bye week contention, now he's left to pick up the pieces, now 8 back of second place. Meanwhile Andy's last 5 weeks have been all or nothing, with scores of 9-1, 1-8, 7-3, 1-8, and 7-3, he's been out of the running all year, and remains 15 games out.

The Cinderella story continues for Greg! An 8-2 victory over Bart puts him in a great spot with 3 weeks to go. He now owns the last playoff spot, with an 8.5 game lead ovr Brad in seventh. Greg has won 4 straight weeks posting a remarkable 30-7 categorical record, and if he stays hot we could see an upset or two at the big dance.

In this week's NyQuil sponsored match-up, Pflanz snapped a 5 game losing streak with a 5-4 victory over Richie. Richie has now dropped 3 in a row and 8 of his last 10. Both of these teams are all but out of it, and seem to have already set their sights on the 2014 campaign.

Now let's look ahead to this week's match-ups, where all 12 teams are participating with meaningful results for the just the third to last time this season...

Greg's improbable rise to the 6th playoff spot has been fun, but we have to keep in mind that Brad, Eddie, Richie and Bart were the competition during his incredible 30-7 stretch. Those teams have a combined winning percentage of 43.7%. In the next two weeks, Greg will play Russ and Mark, two teams with a combined winning percentage of 61.9%. So the real test begins this week against Russ, the undisputed #1 seed. Is Greg a legit playoff team? Or has he enjoyed the benefits of a padded schedule down the stretch? In two weeks, we will have our answer.

Although Eddie may be happy about Greg's difficult next two weeks, he doesn't have a cakewalk either. He plays 2nd place Mark this week and finishes the season against 3rd place Dan. He will have a matchup against Andy in between, but he HAS to beat Mark or Dan to have a shot at the playoffs, thee are MUST win games if he wants to play into late September. Meanwhile, Mark has told me that despite having such a hot/cold roster, he's confident that the #2 seed is his, and it's tough to argue with him, as he won't play any of the big 5 teams again until the playoffs.

The only match-up between the big 5 this week is John vs. Dan. A blowout either way would impact the standings, but I don;t see that happening. I think this one will be close, giving Mark a chance to build on his second place lead and giving Keeves a good chance to sneak into the top 4.

Keeves plays Pflanz this week, a team who's only win in the last 6 weeks was against the last place team. Keeves has looked sharp recently and still has the hottest hitter in baseball to bolster his statline. With Dan and John playing each other, Matt will most certainly be able to move up one, if not two spots in the standings if he takes care of business the way he should.

Despite being the coldest team in the league, Brad's window is not quite shut. He plays Andy this week, then Dan, then Pflanz. If he can rack up some big scores against Andy and Pflanz, and stay close with Dan in week 21, he may be able to catch Greg, who is battling a tougher part of his schedule. It starts this week however, with this MUST WIN game for Brad (an active buyer at the deadline), and Musto is coming off a big win over John so this one should be good.

Time for the Nyquil Match-up of the week! zzzzzzz Richie vs. Bryan zzzzzz

Three weeks to go, and yet things are cooling off! I think this week will turn the league on it's head. If Greg loses big, Perka and Brad can jump back into it, and this is a moving week for Keeves, I'm curious to see where he will be heading into week 21.