Week 5: Oh the Calamity, Injuries Take Over Floored

The babies of Floored had a very photogenic Easter. Lilah wins for the biggest smile, George wins for best attempt to eat the plastic Easter egg, and Erin wins for best caretaker to make sure George wasn’t successful (or possibly she was ready to give George the next one if he *was* successful).

 

Year to Date Power Ranks
TOTAL			HITTING			PITCHING				Manager	Team
1	Dean	3.71	1	Dean	2.13	1	Arthur	3.00		Dave	I Hate Fantasy
2	Dave	4.14	2	Dave	3.88	2	Dave	4.50		Arthur	PURE DOMINATION
3	Max	4.29	3	Matt	3.88	3	Max	4.67		Dean	[changing too often]
4	Arthur	4.50	4	Max	4.00	4	Michael	5.17		Brian/Josh	Smoak that Ish
5	Matt	4.57	5	Arthur	5.63	5	Brian/Josh	5.50		Cory	Hebrew Nationals
6	Michael	5.57	6	Michael	5.88	6	Matt	5.50		Paul	Gators gotta go
7	Cory	6.50	7	Cory	6.50	7	Keith	5.67		Matt	Nashville Marketer
8	Keith	6.64	8	Paul	6.63	8	Dean	5.83		Keith	Bourbon Street Blues
9	Brian/Josh	7.00	9	Keith	7.38	9	Cory	6.50		Max	Polygraph Anyone?
10	Paul	7.00	10	Brian/Josh	8.13	10	Paul	7.50		Michael	Erin's Wrist Rolls

There are two clear tiers that have developed, with Michael still trying to figure out which one he belongs in. Dean, Dave, Max, Arthur, and Matt have had a great first 5 weeks while Cory, Keith, BJ, and Paul are still looking to find their footing. Dean has shown the most high end firepower, leading the league in SLG by a heavy margin, while Matt has been trending the wrong direction as long as he has had the DL’ed Chris Archer in his starting lineup.

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There are 6, and arguably 7 teams right now that have both of their DL slots filled with players that would be top 100 picks when healthy. The sickness that started with Luis Severino before draft day has now escalated to an epidemic as we lost top end players Corey Kluber during the week and Juan Soto over the weekend. Paul has been forced into making some aggressive drops as his team has struggled and the injuries have piled up. I applaud the managing because I’m not sure how many in this league would drop their second round pick this early in the year…and it was the right call. Kluber is out for at least 2 months, possibly more, and he also wasn’t doing great when healthy this year. In our relatively shallow league, this is the kid of player it is safe to drop while your team needs to roster room and then you can either add them closer to when they come back. If another, more healthy, team grabs them, then you tip your cap and wish them well. Injuries will even out for all managers in the long run. You have to manage aggressively to set your team up for success. On the other end of the spectrum Matt has been letting a DL’ed Chris Archer sit active in his starting lineup with both of his DL spots empty and avaiable. C’mon Matt, lets go. Your team is too good this year for these shenanigans.

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Dean edged out Dave in the highest powered matchup of the week. Dave and Dean both gained power rankings ground this week, Dean because of his hitting talent and pitching volume, Dave because of his team speed and pitching ratios. If it were not for a mid-week early exit by James Paxton who went on the DL the next day, Dean may have earned some extra pitching Ks and a QS which could have made this matchup look a lot more one-sided. Dave had a big power week, with a SLG that was literally double his AVG (we haven’t seen that yet this year) and hitting 14 HRs along the way.

In a rematch of last year’s Championship, Michael got…well… the win against Cory. It’s hard to count it as revenge when it’s a week 5 matchup against two teams in the bottom half of the power ranks, but a wins a win and Michael will have to take it. Michael was starting think things were looking up for his year by Friday night, he was hitting .322 with a sub-3.00 ERA when all of a sudden he lost his best keeper, Juan Soto, and his 4^th round pick, Jameson Taillon, to the DL. Michael is having to do his own aggressive managing to find the right pieces this year. Cory, well Cory is just trying to keep his head above water until Trea Turner gets back.

Max beat Keith but this week was a slowdown from the paces Max had been running at; he still had a fine week. Max had some tough pitching decisions over the weekend that didn’t swing his way, allowing Keith to hang close. Keith made the right move to stream a pitcher on Sunday, but his stud German Marquez let him down.

Matt held on to beat Paul but this one could have swung the other way very easily. This one could have been 0-14 or 14-0 with how close each of the categories were. Matt’s great start to the year cooled off a bit, that’s allowed. Meanwhile Paul stopped his slide.  It is a mini turning point for these two teams whose seasons could go either direction very easily.

Brian and Josh are earning the valor of their full names this week as they tied top tier team, Arthur. Arthur’s pitching failed him in this one but the volume that he brings to the pitching side of the matchup these days is hard to keep up with. Arthur already has 374 innings pitched on the year, that’s nearly 50 more than the next closest team. Is it too much? Probably. Because he holds all these benched starting pitchers he has no room left for hitters to fill in on off days so he is 8^th in the league in At Bats. To err on the too-many innings this year is the right play, with the updated scoring settings it’s no longer good strategy to challenge the 30 innings pitched minimum, but Arthur is taking this to the nth degree (shocker) at the expense of his offense. Arthur appears to be realizing this as he now has two bench hitters to start the week. Brian and Josh put together just enough of a surge this week to earn the tie, but they need to kick things in gear quickly to really make a run.

Monster of the Week: Dave doubling his AVG to his SLG is pretty cool, but the Monster Move of the week was Paul cutting Kluber. I’ve seen the opportunity for this happen so many times in this league, but Paul actually did it, props.

Max of the Week: it has to be Matt carrying Chris Archer. We’ve already been over this but I had to lock in the Max. Sorry, Matt.