Week 22: Playoff Preview and Consolation Bracket Drama

Are you ready for the playoffs!? It’s time to crown the champion yet again. This week is not about Michael complaining about strength of schedule (but since I mentioned it, Cory, Paul and Dean played the 3 easiest schedules this year). This week is about celebrating what is to come the next two weeks to put their name up on the trophy

Dean, Dave’s Demise, 2015 champion

Dean’s alliterative prowess helped him make a huge comeback on Dave from his low point in week 12 when he was near the bottom of the middle tier in the power rankings and Clayton Kershaw has just gone down with injury. Dean rode year-long contributions from stellar draft picks David Ortiz and Daniel Murphy, as well as a strong second half surge from Joey Votto and a great keeper selection in Francisco Lindor. What makes this team a matchup nightmare though is the pitching. Dean’s pitching has been the difference maker in the 2^nd half of the year. When most of the fantasy level starting pitching were faltering…and I do mean MOST…Dean’s starting pitching locked in and helped him pull away from his opponent week to week. Dean is what I would consider a heavy favorite right now going into these two weeks, come and get him.

Dave, Dave’s Resurrection, 2009, 2011, 2013 Champion

Dave has been a puzzling team this year. His huge lead in the power rankings in the first half of the year was no doubt due to his strong keepers and high end draft picks leading to a head start on the field for the first month or two. There was a hidden problem in this though, this created a roster headache for Dave. He had no roster flexibility nor droppable players for a very long time. On some level, this jaded him from making moves throughout the summer. By being slow to react on players like Cameron Maybin as he faded, and making some highly questionable Disabled List decisions such as keeping severely injured Hunter Pence, a near replacement level hitter, owned for 3 months while his hamstring was torn, led to a lack of team talent during the summer. Dave missed out on a number of worthwhile pickups that have become a staple of his success in the league. Dave enters the playoffs on an extended skid, but he has enough team talent to be competitive if his hitters get hot. Time will tell. Oh, Dave should be congratulated for winning the Power Rankings this year. He held on to 1^st by the equivalent of 3 rankings places in one category, 0.214 points.

Cory, Hebrew Nationals, 2007 (Inaugural Floored year) #1 seed

Cory is the toughest team for me to get a read on of the playoff teams. Prior to Dean’s late season pitching run, Cory had by far the best pitching staff all year behind Jon Lester, Jose Fernandez and Noah Syndergaard. These three players and a solid bullpen carried this team. Cory’s offense has been poor-to-middling most of the year (unless he’s playing Michael), but has shown streaks where it can put up big numbers. The addition of Trea Turner has been a boon to the offense carried by Josh Donaldson and Edwin Encarnacion. There is no doubt this team can get hot enough to win, but Cory is the underdog heading in the week.

Paul, 2007 Champion

Paul’s 2^nd half run cooled off after week 19, but picked back up again the second half of last week. He enters the week playing very well. What has carried Paul has been the trade he made early in the year to let go of elite keeper Manny Machado to buy high on Robinson Cano and Evan Longoria…it worked. Paul has been in the lower half of the middle tier of the power rankings for most of the year, he was probably the biggest beneficiary of the easier scheduling, but that is nothing to take away from what this team can do in the playoffs. Paul also has a very good bullpen and enough Starting Pitching to keep the innings pitched low to try to steal categories so that he can let his hitting win the matchup. Paul’s season has been a mix and match of brilliant and questionable moves. He will need to manage well to keep up with Dean in round 1.

Consolation Bracket discussion

Due to some weekend drama, China Basin Bombers used their 3 game buffer to qualify for the playoffs in the Yahoo system. There has been nothing I have been able to do to fix this. So. We are going to go a little un-conventional for the Consolation Bracket this year. All six, non-championship-qualifying teams will compete in a power-ranking-showdown. There are some significant logistical and communications pitfalls to this. Here is what I need to say for now. Play out your team to the best of your ability. I will update statistics at the end of each week at a minimum. I can’t guarantee much more. I will send an email out tomorrow to the consolation teams with more details. The blog is not the place to handle it.