Well, the all-star break is behind us, and so is our extra
long week 14. Keep in mind, these matchups had 3 extra days of stats, so when
you double take reading some of these statlines, I’ll know you didn’t read this
intro part.
Buyers and Sellers
The hot stove is heating up! We’ve already seen some
blockbuster deals and I have a feeling we’ll see a few more before this week is
done. Here’s what we know about who’s buying and who’s selling so far.
Buyers:
Andy – His groupme is muted, but he usually surfaces just before
the deadline to make a few deals.
Russ – Picked up Holland and Crawford a month ago, now adds
Cueto, he might be done at this point.
Eddie – No moves yet but this was his ‘all-in’ year after
tanking last season, expect some wheeling and dealing soon.
Pflanz – Has been in trade talks, he will make a splash soon
too, I think.
Mark – Just picked up King Felix and Ortiz, although had to
give up a good amount to get them, and got a higher draft pick out of it. Slightly
more of a ‘buyer’ move than a lateral move though.
John – Already added Kershaw, Always buying.
Richie – Very confident, very aggressive, grabbed Adrian
Gonzalez from Brad.
???
Dan – Only recently pushed himself towards the buyers group
after giving up picks for Posey and Upton, but left himself enough room to flip
sides if he has to.
Scanlon – Never sure what he’s doing. I guess it seems like
he’s buying? He just likes trades.
Sellers:
Brad – Shipped off Kershaw, Holland, and Adrian Gonzalez,
would probably deal more but this carcass has pretty much been picked clean.
Eric – Has already collected 2 first rounders, to go along
with his own, and still has assets to shop.
Greg – Has put up the white flag, listening to offers on all
but Harper.
The bottom line is, it’s a good year to be a seller, and I
don’t know why more teams didn’t embrace it. Brad made his decision early, and
probably traded a lot of his players too early when he could have waited to get
a bidding war. Greg’s decision has been made for him, as he’s pretty far out of
it. And Eric, in my opinion, made a really smart play by throwing in the towel
this year and collecting draft picks for next year. He’s zigging while everyone
else is zagging. Last year, Pflanz, Perk, Russ and Greg were big sellers, and
the market was pretty clogged, leading to a lot of last minute deals. This
year, a lot of the biggest available trade chips have already been moved, and
we’re still 6 days from the actual deadline. I’m still waiting for a lot of
buyers to make moves, should be a great 6 days.
Week 14 Recap:
Russ 8 – Dan 2
Russ was able to hang on, despite a great Sunday night start
from Eduardo Rodriguez, to beat Dan by a large margin. With solid offensive
numbers, including a .380 OBP (second in the league for the week) and 6 net
steals (tied for first), Russ took 4 of 5 offensive categories to go along with
4 of 5 pitching categories. The Commish brilliantly motivated team captain
Carlos Gonzalez by dangling him on the trade market. CarGo responded with a "Franchise Player of the Week" 9-5-12-.452-0 line. For the record, he ain't going anywhere. Pedestrian
numbers were enough to help Russ win 4 of 5 pitching categories, though I will
point out Craig Kimbrel had a 0.00-0.17-10.50-0-6 line in 6 innings. It’s the second straight 8-2 victory for Russ,
as he has moved into second place in the standings. News came out this morning
that Russ is dealing away a first round pick for certified ace Johnny Cueto.
The only weak pitching category he had was quality starts, and adding a 5th
starter to the mix should help. Will he make more moves? Stay tuned.
This loss knocks Dan back to 8th place, but still
just 4.5 games out of a playoff spot. Dan is just 4-15 over his last 2
matchups, but made some moves on Sunday to show the league he’s probably a
buyer. Chris Davis was his most effective offensive piece in this matchup,
hitting 3 homers and collecting 8 RBI’s (which proved big as Dan won RBI’s by
3). Unfortunately Cole Hamels’ no-hitter didn’t translate into many category
wins for him, although his team did lead the league with 9 QS this week. All 6
of Dan’s starters were solid, but he still barely missed out on all 3 ratios
categories. Dan recently closed on a deal that would send Ellsbury, McCann, a
first round, and a sixth round draft pick to Eric for Buster Posey and Justin
Upton (the #2 and #3 picks of the draft this year), so it’s clear he’s focusing
on improving his lineup. It’s a message to the league that despite two tough
losses, it’s an odd year and he’s going to try to make the playoffs, so watch
out.
Richie 7 – Brad 2
Midway through this one, Brad’s best offensive player moved
from his dugout to the opposition’s. Adrian Gonzalez put up better numbers for
Brad than for Richie in this matchup, with a 5-3-5-.516-0 line, but it wasn’t
enough as Richie took over the offensive categories by a 4-0-1 score. Both
offenses looked rough in this one, though. Richie’s 42 runs ranked 4th
in the league, but homers, RBI, and OBP all ranked in the bottom third of the
league…yet he still went 3-0 in those categories…now if only someone could put
together some charts and numbers that show when people get away with lucky wins…
Richie also enjoyed a breakout week for Ian Desmond, a player associated with
being one of the worst trade prizes this season. Desmond tossed up an
8-4-7-.405-0 line to lead Richie on offense.
On the pitching side, Richie was able to take three of the
five categories and came close to winning the other two. Richie’s Gerrit Cole
was the most effective pitcher on either side, posting a 1.80-.80-8.40-2-0 line
over 15 innings. But overall, the pitching, like the offense in this matchup,
was underwhelming. Richie won WHIP with the 7th best mark in the
league, and did the same with QS. He did have 9 saves, tops in the league…but
he could have won the category with 0 (Brad posted a -1). So as Brad continues
to track towards the basement, Richie gets a big win, his second straight 7-2
victory, and it moves him into 7th place. He’s now just 2.5 games
out of a playoff spot, he’s certainly not done making deals, and he’s got some
talent coming off the DL soon. I don’t know if I’m ready to call him a
contender, but he’s making a pretty good case.
Andy 6 – Eddie 2
This was one of the rare times in season we got the #1 and
#2 teams matched up against each other. On the offensive side, Perk had a
bounce back week, ranking 2nd in Runs, 3rd in homers, and
3rd in steals. The loss of Miggy is still hurting him, but offense
is why he’s been so great this year, so it was good to see some of the
production come back, this time in the form of Todd Frazier (7-2-10-.279-2) and
Kyle Seager (11-3-4-.375). Unfortunately, that’s where the good news stops for
Perk. He only won 2 out of 5 offensive categories, and he got swept in
pitching. Perk’s starting pitching has seen better days, and the Carrasco, Jimemez,
Verlander attack might not get it
done down the stretch.
Andy’s pitching wasn’t the spectacular machine we have gotten
used to, but still, it was enough to sweep against the #2 team. Liriano (1.50-1.00-16.50-1-0
in 6 innings) and Greinke (1.20-0.73-8.40-2-0 in 15 innings), quite possibly
the league’s best 1-2 punch, was electric once again, but the
back of the rotation faltered, and pushed Andy’s ratios up. He still finished
in the top 6 in ERA, K/9, NSV, and tied for second in the league with 9 QS, so
yeah….that’s somehow a bad week for Andy.
Offensively, Musto continued to churn out
homeruns, belting 13 on the week and getting great lines out of Bautista
(6-4-6-.275-0), Jay Bruce (5-3-11-.341-(-1)), and Josh Donaldson
(5-3-8-.350-0).
So in 2 matchups without Cabrera, Perk is 4-13. But the real
problem seems to be on the other side of the ball; he’s 3-10 in pitching categories
in the last 3 matchups. This team does not look as rock solid as it did a month
ago, he’s dropped to third place and Pflanz is just 4.5 behind him in 4th,
look for Perk to make some moves soon.
Andy on the other hand is in first and his lead is growing.
He has 8 games over second place Russ and his lineup is firing on all cylinders
offensively and defensively. He’s 45-20 since his last loss in week 8. If he wakes
up and jumps on the horn to make some trades, he could really turn this team
into a juggernaut.
Jeremy 8 – Eric 2
This was the straw that broke the camel’s back. After a
great rookie playoff run in his first Franchise season, Eric is now cleaning
house and re-positioning for the 2016 campaign.
I can’t say I blame him, he’s 1-7-1 in the last 9 weeks with the 1 win coming
against Greg. This team has (or, had) a lot of talent, but just couldn’t get it
done. Having said that, Eric’s offense was actually pretty good this week; 3rd
in RBI, 1st in OBP (.396 wow!), and top 6 in the other 4 categories.
Good enough to win a couple of offensive categories. The pitching however,
lacked any sort of punch besides Shelby Miller (1.35-.90-8.10-2-0) and Cueto
(1.50-1.25-5.25-1-0). The loss moves Eric back to ninth, and I expect things to
plummet from there.
Scanlon, still behind Eric in the standings even AFTER
beating him 8-2, still has his foot on the gas, cruising toward the playoffs
despite the more than likely odds that he won’t be able to find a parking spot.
He put up some nice offensive numbers this week, ranking in the top 3 in
homers, runs and RBI’s thanks to Pujols (7-3-6-.317-1), Hunter Pence
(5-2-8-.425-0) and especially from the now departed David Ortiz (6-4-11.378),
who’s Sunday night numbers pushed homers and RBI’s in favor of Scanlon. A
bigger story was on the pitching end, where Scanlon swept all 5 categories from
the struggling Eric. Jeremy’s team pitching line (2.40-109-8.20-7-9) was one of
the best in the whole league this week. A holy trinity of fabulous statlines
from Colin McHugh (2.08-1.46-5.54-2-0), Andrew Miller (1.80-.40-12.60-0-5) and
the now departed Felix Hernandez (1.38-1.15-8.31-2-0), led the way in the
sweep. I should mention that Jeremy has since traded two of the
biggest impact players in the win, plus a higher draft pick, for a different
number 2 (Price), and another closer (Jansen).
Peculiar. But still, 10th place and CLIMBING! Scanlon is
15-4 in the last 2 matchups and had a very good week. He will also make more
trades, this is a fact.
Pflanz 7 – Mark 2
For the second week in a row, Pflanz is the victor in a
heavyweight offensive battle. Last week he combined with John for 25 homers and
70 RBI’s, this week (in extended time of course), he and Mark combined for 30
homers and 93 RBI’s! After taking home the “Offense of the Week Award” last
week, I think I’ve got to give it to Pflanz again. He finished with a team
statline of 54-15-43-.374-4, or, by ranking: 1st-1st-3rd-4th-5th.
Pretty damn good for the second week in a row. Joey Votto was his most valuable player,
with a 11-3-6-.638-0 line (.638 in an extended week WTF?!?!), but Dozier
(5-2-5-.371-0), Machado (4-2-3-.410-0), and Cain (5-3-4-.318-1) were all great complements.
Coincidentally, Mark also had a stellar offensive week, and played Pflanz to a
2-2-1 tie in the offensive categories. (This was the only reason I didn’t want
him to get the offense of the week. But no one else can beat his numbers so…congrats
Pflanz). Mark had Robinson Cano finally wake up to post a 10-4-11-.409-0, and
A-Rod kept on carrying with 7-5-7-.303-0, Melky Cabrera also deserves mention
for his 7-2-10-.390. This was a great offensive stalemate from two teams in
similar positions.
So Mark had a great offensive week and matched Pflanz’s
award-worthy offensive week. But even one of Mark’s best pitching performances
of the season wasn’t enough to grab a win from Pflanz on the pitching side. Pitching
is where Pflanz grabbed the hammer and drove Mark into the ground. In the third
pitching sweep of the week, Pflanz had the most impressive line of
anyone in the league. Leading me to bestow upon him, the coveted, “Pitching of
the Week Award”. Yes that’s right, Pflanz is getting both awards. He had a hell
of a week. His pitching line (1.93-1.04-10.33-6-3) featured the league’s best
ERA, WHIP, and k/9, while still ranking 5th in QS and 7th
in NSV. Chris Archer (2.08-1.00-10.38-2), Jacob deGrom (1.32-0.51-10.54-2-0),
Madison Bumgarner (1.50-1.00-7.50-1-0), and James Shields (0.90-1.70-11.70-0-0)
made up a elite rotation. Besides A.J. Ramos, who threw all of 2.0 innings,
every pitcher had an ERA under 2.70.
As I said, Mark’s week was excellent as well, he ranked in
the top 3 of every ratio category after a great last week from long time player
Davis Price (1.80-0.87-11.40-2-0). But Jeurys Familia’s +5 NSV last week caught
up to him in the form of a -2 this week, and Jordan Zimmerman had another tough
week. For Mark, the loss knocks him back to 5th, as he continues to
struggle with anything but bad teams.
For Pflanz, the second great week in a row moves him up to
4th place, just 4.5 games behind a sliding Perka. I expect Pflanz to
make a few moves to solidify what is already a surging lineup and pitching
staff. This is the hottest team in the league.
John 5 – Greg 5
Well this will kill the champ’s momentum. A 5-5 tie to a
team that STILL hasn’t plugged in a utility player. What the fuck Greg!!! Greg
had just 3 homers this week (John thankfully beat him there), and was also
able to put together a very good OBP of .375. Bryce Harper (5-1-3-.429-0) continues
to have a great season and Greg has rightfully expressed that he’s the only
untouchable on the team. John had a nice week from Teixeira (6-2-3-.486-1) and another
‘Holy Shit!’ week from Mike Trout (7-5-9-.410-1), but he still only took 3/5
offensive categories.
Greg, despite not winning a week since week 6, managed to
steal 3 of the pitching categories to force a draw in this one against the
defending champ.. Good weeks from Lester (1.26-0.70-8.16-2-0), Cashner
(1.29-0.86-6.43-1-0), and Volquez (1.96-1.07-7.07-2-0) should serve as good
showcase lines for the right buyer at the upcoming trade deadline (HELLO EDDIE,
ARE YOU OUT THERE?).
John had his first ‘I’m so happy I got Kershaw!’ week (0.00-0.35-13.24-2-0)
and 2/3rds of his closer trio was pretty solid, but his other starters pretty
much blew up, and this will be a tough outcome to swallow as we approach playoff
crunch time.
This is the first non-loss for Greg since back to back draws
in weeks 8 and 9. He remains in last, and I suspect we will see players start
flying off his roster very soon. John will stay in 6th although he
missed out on a great chance to move up to 5th place. He’s just 1.5
games behind Mark, but now Richie is a little closer on his tail. John will
probably look to make more moves before the deadline is over.
Commish’s Power
Rankings
1. Andy (last week: 1) – He had a "King of
the Hill" match and defended the belt, he deserves to be 1.
2. Russ (3) – Just as in the real
standings, Russ moves up to #2. The addition of Cueto is icing on the cake.
3. Pflanz (6) – Has put up better numbers
than his record shows in the last couple of weeks, hottest team in The
Franchise.
4. Eddie (2) – A beatdown at the hands of
Andy, who hasn’t been there this year? This team did show some improvement
5. Richie (7) – Another week, another 7-2
victory, and I have confidence that his trade karma will come around
6. Mark (6) – Had a good week despite the
loss, still struggling with good teams, but Felix and Ortiz should help with
that.
7. John (4) – You tied Greg? Come on man.
He doesn’t even have a utility player!
8. Jeremy (10) – Call it crazy all you
want, he wants the playoffs. He’s only lost 1 of the last 6 weeks.
9. Dan (8) – Another week, another blowout
loss, how much longer will he hang on?
10. Eric (9) – Already has 3 first round
picks in the 2016 draft, that’s how you sell.
11. Brad (11) – Football is right around
the corner
12. Greg (12) - Make some deadline deals to show us you’re
still alive?
Week 16 Matchup
mini-preview
Eric vs. Russ Russ
will look to continue his quest for a bye week against a team that conveniently
just traded all it’s best players.
Richie vs. Dan
Richie will try to make Dan’s buyer/seller decision for him
Perk vs. Brad Nothing
gets you back on the winning track like a week against 11th place.
Only 3 more weeks til Miggy’s back.
Pflanz vs. Scanlon
Two teams on a tear, if Scanlon wins this, he belongs in the discussion.
Greg vs. Mark
Mark needs a win to get back on track, can Greg play spoiler again?
John vs. Andy
Andy could knock the champ out of the playoff picture, while John could use a
statement bounceback.
