Week 16: The Plot Thickens

Matt was hanging at the CMA fest with his girlfriend, Sharron, back in June (sorry, this one got buried a bit by Africa and guest bloggers)

TOTAL			HITTING			PITCHING				Manager	Team
1	Brian/Josh	3.86	1	Brian/Josh	3.00	1	Michael	2.83		Max	Poorly* Managed
2	Michael	4.57	2	Dean	3.25	2	Dave	3.17		Dean	Ender the Season
3	Dean	4.71	3	Arthur	3.25	3	Matt	4.33		Arthur	PURE DOMINATION
4	Arthur	4.79	4	Max	5.38	4	Brian/Josh	5.00		Paul	South Florida Gators
5	Dave	5.21	5	Keith	5.88	5	Cory	5.50		Dave	I Hate Fantasy
6	Max	5.57	6	Michael	5.88	6	Max	5.83		Cory	Hebrew Nationals
7	Matt	5.79	7	Dave	6.75	7	Keith	6.17		Keith	Bourbon Street Blues
8	Keith	6.00	8	Matt	6.88	8	Dean	6.67		Brian/Josh	Smoak Ish
9	Cory	6.43	9	Paul	7.00	9	Arthur	6.83		Matt	615 for the win
10	Paul	7.29	10	Cory	7.13	10	Paul	7.67		Michael	Pic'em Pelham'ed

Michael is in the middle of a run up the Power Rankings, reaching solo 2^nd on the year to date data, but now is the time of year where the focus understandably shifts to the Yahoo Standings. Brian/Josh, Dave, and Arthur are holding serve on the field right now, they have a leg up on securing a playoff spot with 5 weeks to go. Dean, Keith, and Michael are fighting for every win and have to avoid disaster because any big loss will likely take them out of playoff contention. Ragbri (Tour de Iowa) likely took Paul out contention this week. Well, that, and his 7.29 Power Ranking. This week there are two big matchups with enormous playoff implications. A scuffling-lately Arthur takes on the red-hot Michael but if Arthur can turn it around it could knock Michael out of the playoffs. Meanwhile Dean and Keith will be hoping for Michael to pull Arthur back to the pack to make another playoff spot vulnerable. These two (Dean and Keith) will face off in their own head to head battle with the winner having a far greater chance at a spot as well as any playoff tiebreakers when we get to the end.

Michael roared back with a huge Sunday to overcome a 10-4 deficit entering the day, to an 8-6 win over Dean. Michael made a near-disastrous streaming choice of Julio Teheran on Friday night who gave up 8 runs in two thirds of an inning to ruin what had been fantastic pitching numbers up to that point in the week. Michael’s hitting was very good but was barely better than Dean’s very Dean-like week (great average, walk, and strikeout totals). Dean is in a very precarious spot. His early season success has faded and he is trying to find his footing in a very tough time. He has faced an incredibly hard schedule and can’t catch a break, opponent-wise.

Brian and Josh held off Dave in a battle for first place in the standings. Dave was ruined by 10 runs from Yu Darvish but had very good pitching numbers overall to end up at a 3.4 ERA. BJ’s hitting was just too much, totaling 86 R+RBI and a .286 AVG. It was a very close matchup with BJ winning just enough tight categories to get the win. BJ’s run up the rankings and standings has stalled for a couple of weeks now. As we get to the stretch we will see if they can re-ignite the fire with a couple of pickups to make another run.

Arthur knocked Paul down a number of pegs but this loss was more about Paul not putting up enough ABs to be competitive offensively. Arthur out-ABed Paul 268 to 236…and Paul STILL had 76 strikeouts. No Bueno. Arthur’s pitching was very good. Paul did actually still pay attention through his Tour de Iowa enough to stream his way to 77 IP, but Arthur piled up the Wins and 44 good innings to get a big win.

Max and Keith tied. Keith was incredibly lucky here on the pitching side. Both he and Max had around 50 IP, and 5 wins…but Keith somehow did so with a 4.69 ERA while Max was balling with a 1.56 ERA. Tough nuts. Keith’s offense was good with a .285 AVG but he only had 7 HR. Keith is still in the thick of the playoff race but has been the least talented of the remaining contenders. He will need to find some mojo to make a move.

Cory beat Matt in the race to find talent for the Bourbon Street Championship in 5 weeks. Neither team hit all that well but Matt actually missed the Pitching innings requirement to forfeit all the pitching categories and took the overall loss.

Monster of the Week: Michael. After BJ stalled recently the door was open to find the next best team in the league. Michael is filling that void. This week he hit 14 HRs with 98 R+RBI and a .302 AVG. His pitching overall was ruined by that 8-run outing by Teheran, but Michael streamed his way to 3 Wins and a bunch of Ks on Sunday to save his season. Huge week, we’ll see how long this run lasts.

Max of the Week: Matt. Matt only had 23 Innings Pitched, he gets the obligatory ‘YOU BLEW IT.’ Thankfully his matchup didn’t have significant playoff implications or I’d be a lot more mad. Per the rules, he has a few days to rectify his pitching situation or the commish is allowed to step in and add pitchers for him to hit the 30 IP total.