Week 5: The Tiers are Emerging

Matt at the Kentucky Derby this past weekend sipping on what appears to be a plastic-cupped Mint Julep

TOTAL			HITTING			PITCHING				Manager	Team
1	Dean	3.643	1	Arthur	2.500	1	Max	4.000		Max	My Story Begins
2	Arthur	4.357	2	Dean	3.000	2	Matt	4.167		Dean	Ender's Game
3	Michael	4.429	3	Brian/Josh	4.375	3	Michael	4.167		Arthur	DOMINATION
4	Max	5.429	4	Keith	4.500	4	Dean	4.500		Paul	South Florida Gators
5	Keith	5.429	5	Michael	4.625	5	Dave	4.500		Dave	I Hate Fantasy
6	Brian/Josh	5.500	6	Paul	5.500	6	Cory	5.167		Cory	Hebrew Nationals
7	Paul	6.000	7	Max	6.500	7	Paul	6.667		Keith	Bourbon Street Blues
8	Matt	6.286	8	Cory	7.375	8	Keith	6.667		Brian/Josh	Alternative Stats
9	Dave	6.357	9	Dave	7.750	9	Arthur	6.833		Matt	615 for the win
10	Cory	6.429	10	Matt	7.875	10	Brian/Josh	7.000		Michael	Pic'em Pelham'ed

After week 5 there are some trends that have emerged. First, there is a top tier to the league right now. Dean, Arthur, and Michael make up a top tier in the Power Rankings that represent either a) uber-high end capable performance (Dean in week 4 which will carry his Power Ranking for awhile), or b) consistent upper-end performance without putting it all together yet (Arthur and Michael). Second, there is a good bit of league-wide parity. Almost everyone in the league is actively managing their team (COUGH, Max) and it has led to an even dispersal of the good pickups so far. Finally, everything can change in a given week. Last week, Dean went 14-0 putting up probably the greatest week we’ve ever seen, this week, he was beaten fairly soundly by Paul (at least offensively) who was in last place in the Power Rankings heading into the week. Remember guys, it’s a weekly league. Anything can happen.

The headline matchup of the week was a battle of the three time champions, Dave and Michael. Dave’s team is really struggling right now hitting just .243 on the entire year and .216 in Week 5. Dave had a couple of good pitching performances (including a pretty incredible k/9 of over 11 for the week) that enabled him to save a few pitching categories against Michael’s rotation which was injured and got lit up last week. Michael came out on top in the matchup that he was lucky to escape. Michael is the new wounded gazelle of the league losing three high end performers to the DL plus 4 more of the dreaded ‘Day To Day’ designation for much of last week.

Keith topped Cory and is really putting together some good numbers. With a .270 average and sub 2.5 ERA, it was a good week for Keith. Some of the counting numbers like RBIs were deflated by a low HR week, but it was still enough to beat Cory. The most notable thing I took away from Cory’s week was him claiming Matt Harvey off Waivers who then promptly got suspended for three games. Lol. On the fantasy side, a .228 average with a 4.2 ERA….good job, good effort?

Brian and Josh beat Matt in a battle of the text thread. There was some good banter in a text thread last week between these three and Michael, although if I’m being honest, Matt seems more wrapped up in the Nashville Predators run than his 9^th place team right now. Enjoy the run while it lasts, I guess. BJ put up some decent numbers, but like the rest of the league, they can’t quite put it together yet. Their April darling Jose Ramirez came back to Earth last week with a 3 for 19 week but their pickup Marcell Ozuna and keeper Andrew Benintendi carried the load to victory.

Arthur continued his offensive run through Max to a 10-3 victory. Each week it’s someone new leading Arthur’s offense, this week Manny Machado was the monster even outperforming the breakout star, Aaron Judge. Max continued his downward turn after his 3 week ride atop the Power Rankings. Cmon Max. Don’t be that guy.

Paul beat Dean with a .300 batting average and high end counting numbers. 15 HRs and 88 Runs plus RBIs will win a lot of weeks. Matt Carpenter and Ceasar Hernandez led his chanrge. Dean smartly benched his pitchers on Sunday to persevere his pitching categories. Dean’s pitching continues to interest me. His roster is still riddled with starting pitchers that were outside of the top 25 or 30 on draft day, but when Dean plays the matchups right, he can put up good numbers. He has rostered 4 such pitchers with a very good bullpen allowing him to sit a starter or two throughout the week. It hadn’t worked much through three weeks, but weeks 4 and 5 went very well. Time will tell how consistent this bunch can be.

Monster of the Week: Michael’s pickup of Chril Tilman on Saturday night for his Sunday game got Michael a Win like he needed, but it also kept the ER/ERA/WHIP totals close such that Dave could not risk starting Louis Severino Sunday night. Michael’s Sunday pitching saved 2 full categories.

Max of the Week: Wounded Gazelle, Sr. picking up Matt Harvery was pretty funny, but not quite Max worthy. There was a nomination to give it to Max who never sat the injured Mike Trout the second half the week, but Arthur pounded Max’s offense so soundly it actually may have hurt Max to have another hitter in there since Max won hitting strikeouts by 1…even though he did lose walks by 1. So we’ll call it a draw and just say, c’mon Max. Don’t be that guy. BUT WAIT...midweek Max picked up Mr. Torn ACL, Adam Eaton, hoping he could come back later in the year...sigh. Max, you leave me no choice, Max is once again the Max of the Week.