Floored Kickoff 2024! Rules, Keeper Trading, Draft Date Picking

	t			h			p			Manager	Team
1	Dave	2.500	1	Dave	2.375	1	Cory	2.333		Arthur	...Arthur
2	Dean	4.286	2	Michael	3.625	2	Dave	2.667		Max	…Max
3	Marcley	4.929	3	Keith	4.250	3	Dean	3.500		Marcley	China Basin
4	Michael	5.214	4	Marcley	4.375	4	Arthur	5.500		BJ	Good Betts
5	Cory	5.500	5	Dean	4.875	5	Marcley	5.667		Keith	Bourbon St
6	BJ	5.714	6	BJ	5.625	6	Max	5.833		Paul	soflagators
7	Paul	6.071	7	Paul	5.875	7	BJ	5.833		Dean	Bad Hammy
8	Keith	6.286	8	Max	7.375	8	Paul	6.333		Cory	Hebrew Ntl
9	Max	6.714	9	Cory	7.875	9	Michael	7.333		Dave	Hates Fantasy
10	Arthur	7.071	10	Arthur	8.250	10	Keith	9.000		Michael	Bringing up Rear

Maybe I’m not feeling too creative this morning, or maybe I’m just bumming over nearly getting beaten by Max yesterday but I couldn’t think of a good theme this week. The big winner of last week was Paul. He took down Dave for Dave’s first loss of the year, giving the rest of us some hope that it can be done. Dave had an off week and Paul’s pitching and HR hitting was fairly untouchable. Also, Paul pulled off the first trade of the year buying high on Ben Zobrist. Paul capitalized on Michael panicking about his 9^th ranked pitching staff and was quick to cut bait on his pre-season keeper trade target, Jacob DeGrom.

Dean knocked Arthur back a few more pegs on a solid all around team performance. Dean actually was the biggest riser in the rankings, but it was through no particularly strong showing, he merely gained a little bit of ground in enough categories to separate him from the field in the rankings. Note, I didn’t publish a chart this week. The chart doesn’t post to blogspot very well and it is all kind of mushy with Dave being so far ahead, then Dean, and then the rest of us. Anyway, maybe I will put it in the email once in a while…you get the hint from the table above. Ok back to this matchup, I did notice Arthur and Dean slugged it out on the pitching side. Both teams threw a ton of innings with high strikeout totals and kept their ERAs under 3.00, very impressive.

In what would have been the upset of the week most weeks, Keith took Cory down. The early season shine is coming off of the Hebrew Nationals. Both these teams hit less than .230 with low counting stat totals. At least he has this going for him, even in an off week Cory’s ERA is less than 3.50. Keith has also lost his early season shine, after being 2^nd in the power ranks after week 1, he has slid down to a distant 8^th. Both of these teams will need some fresh pickups or a trade or two to compete moving forward.

In the Joshes battle, Marcley beat Waring while Brian took a 48 hour trip back from the eastern hemisphere. Marcley now finds himself third in the rankings as well as the Yahoo standings and is in prime position to make a move. His HR totals are low, but he can hit for average, walk, and steal bases. This team has potential. But of course, it’s Marcley; the summer swoon is coming. Challenge…accepted?

Last but not least Michael out-lasted Max. Michael and Max both dominated the first half of last week only to fall back to mediocre the second half. The final numbers are pretty ho-hum. Max’s pitching was the big star of the matchup. BUT it was not enough, Max loses.

Monster of the Week: Paul, big win beating Dave. He played the pitching matchup perfectly and his hitters put up just good enough numbers to get the W. Congratulations.

Max of the Week: right now it’s preseason-Michael that keeps looking like a Max. Trading away Matt Carpenter and letting Rougned Odor go for free has led to two top 30 players being out of his control. Plus there is the trading for Chris Archer and the trading up in the draft to target Justin Upton, both of whom are not very playable right now. In reality, this isn’t what the definition of a ‘Max’ move was supposed to be, but I am just kicking myself about it.