Week 2: Postponements, Missing 30 Innings Pitched, and a Near Skunkaroo

Michael played in a golf tournament for work on Monday at Peachtree Golf Club in Atlanta and his team came away victorious. Yes he played golf for work and lived the dream for one day.

TOTAL			HITTING			PITCHING				Manager	Team
1	Michael	3.36	1	Michael	2.13	1	Brian/Josh	1.33		Cory	Hebrew Nationals
2	Paul	3.57	2	Dean	3.50	2	Paul	2.50		Arthur	PURE DOMINATION
3	Brian/Josh	4.07	3	Paul	4.38	3	Cory	4.33		Dave	I Hate Fantasy
4	Cory	4.86	4	Cory	5.25	4	Dave	4.33		Brian/Josh	Smoak That Ish
5	Arthur	5.57	5	Keith	5.38	5	Michael	5.00		Paul	CWS champion Gators
6	Dean	5.93	6	Arthur	5.75	6	Arthur	5.33		Dean	Future father
7	Matt	6.07	7	Matt	5.75	7	Matt	6.50		Matt	615 for the win
8	Keith	6.43	8	Brian/Josh	6.13	8	Max	7.17		Max	this is stressful
9	Max	6.57	9	Max	6.13	9	Keith	7.83		Keith	Bourbon Street Blues
10	Dave	7.00	10	Dave	9.00	10	Dean	9.17		Michael	The Flooded Farm

Michael, Paul and Brian/Josh made big jumps up the power ranks this week. Michael’s team is firing on all cylinders. Getting lucky with production from a number of early season pickups like Josh Harrison and Jose Martinez and late round draft picks like Andrelton Simmons, he is just enjoying the ride while it lasts. It is Michael’s first time atop the power ranks since week 12, 2015. Also notable here is our current basement-dweller, Dave. Not much is going his way right now.

It was a rough weather week across the Major League Baseball landscape last week. Last year we averaged 262 At Bats per team per week.  Last week, we only averaged 222 At Bats. Cory was able to avoid most of the weather and got 266 ABs while Brian and Josh, Max, and Matt were all below 203. This also affected pitching strategies. We can’t draw a straight parallel with average Innings Pitched and the weather because there is more strategy there and people may choose not to throw pitchers…but there was one casualty: Dean didn’t get to 30 IP. This one is hard to analyze, its not a straightforward Josh Marcley circa 2015 or Matt last year who just stopped paying attention and didn’t get to 30. Dean had a plan for his pitching, it just didn’t work, Dean ended the week at 29.2 IP, literally one out short. Rich Hill going less than the 6 IP Dean needed to get to 30 IP in his start Saturday was foreseeable, but all of the Relief Pitcher PPDs over the weekend were a tough blow for a pitching roster that was in a tight battle of futility with Arthur (both teams had ERAs over 6.00 for the week). This one will hurt for Dean and is a gift to Arthur, but hopefully it can be a lesson for everyone to not take innings for granted and to have multiple backup plans when you’re playing with fire with the 30 IP threshold.

Michael came within one stupid save of skunking Max. Michael couldn’t even muster a single save despite owning several closers throughout the week. Max didn’t have much going his way this week with PPDs and injuries, he has made some good pitching adds this season already and when he gets healthy he will have plenty of good weeks to look forward to.

Brian and Josh beat Matt with more stellar pitching. Their rotation of Scherzer/Degrom/Berrios/Bundy are all playing very well right now. Matt’s hitting didn’t get much going but saved a few categories with 13 HRs and 7 SBs.

Dave, despite his poor power rank, edged out Keith 7-6 somehow. Dave hit .204 for the week but had a good pitching week with an ERA under 3, 4 wins, and 4 saves. Keith didn’t much going either with only 5 HRs and 53 Runs plus RBIs (for reference Michael had 97 R+RBIs this week). Keith got a good week from Kyle Seager but nothing else went his way.

Arthur beat Dean with the help of 2.5 pitching categories gifted to Arthur by Dean not hitting 30 IP. Offensively Dean had a solid week, hitting .296 with competitive numbers across the offensive board. Arthur didn’t have a great week, but he still sits 5^th in the power ranks with plenty of team talent. He would probably love to take the Ozzie Albies trade back though since Kenley Jansen’s velocity and strikeouts are nowhere to be seen and Ozzie has been scorching hot since the trade.

Paul overpowered Cory with elite pitching and a poor offensive performance from Cory. Paul has a strong rotation of his own with Carlos Martinez/Ohtani/Godley/Strasburg. Cory, despite leading the league in ABs, was unable to do much with them, hitting .207 for the week. It was a good pitching performance with 53Ks in 43 IP and a 3.12 ERA, it just wasn’t enough to keep up with a strong Paul team right now.

Monster of the Week (I forgot to do this last week, how did no one call me out on it?): Michael, Michael’s team is on fire right now, he was hitting .350 until Saturday and even had more offensive walks than strikeouts until late Friday. It was fun. Finishing off the skunk would have put an exclamation mark on the week, but as it is he will just enjoy the ride.

Max of the Week: Sorry Dean. I know this one isn’t easy to swallow, but if you miss 30 IP it's an automatic Max. I wrote enough in the blog into, so I’ll let this one lay. Dean wins the Max of the Week.