Week 8, Offense is Back

 

Ask and ye shall receive. I put the call out for blog photos and not only did you all deliver, but Max and Josh actually went and hung out this weekend. There is plenty of truth to the rumor that this occurred after 7PM so Brian was already asleep.

2022 Year to Date Power Ranks
TOTAL			HITTING			PITCHING				Manager	Team
1	Dean	3.93	1	Cory	3.00	1	Michael	3.17		Michael	G and RE
2	Arthur	4.00	2	Arthur	3.50	2	Dean	3.50		Dave	I Hate Fantasy
3	Carl	4.29	3	Carl	4.13	3	Dave	4.17		Keith	Bourbon Street Blues
4	Cory	5.00	4	Dean	4.25	4	Brian/Josh	4.33		Dean	Benchwarmers
5	Michael	5.14	5	Brian/Josh	5.75	5	Carl	4.50		Arthur	[ALL CAPS TEAM]
6	Brian/Josh	5.14	6	Dave	6.00	6	Arthur	4.67		Carl	Boston Running Sox
7	Dave	5.21	7	Michael	6.63	7	Paul	5.17		Cory	Hebrew Nationals
8	Paul	6.57	8	Keith	6.88	8	Keith	6.33		Max	Pancake Nips
9	Keith	6.64	9	Max	7.00	9	Cory	7.67		Paul	2nd Act
10	Max	8.21	10	Paul	7.63	10	Max	9.83		BJ	Smoak That Ish

Dean is taking his turn at the top of the power ranks this week, 'elite' by the slimmest of margins: one ranking spot in one category. We'll hold off popping the champagne bottles for now. Carl took a step back this week but Max took a step forward and so did Brian and Josh to put them back in good shape, in a year to date perspective. Arthur remains the steady force at or near the top fo the power ranks since week 3, though. He's the team to beat at the moment. There are four clumps of teams right now, two months in the season. Still plenty of time to make or break your season.

No topic for this week, and I'm super slammed at work, but with all the blog photos that came in I wanted to show the appreciation of a post. So, for old time's sake, here are some matchup recaps.

The headline matchup of the week saw Arthur take down Dave. Dave has been holding a team full of injuries 'because [he's] been winning.' Dave, of course, never one to let numbers hold him down, sits with a meandering 5.21 power rank but has had a rough injury track record to start the year. He hasn't necessarily had it the worst, he's just held them all. Paul and Michael and others who got very injured chose to cut bait and move on. Now that Dave took a loss, we'll see what changes he makes...right as all his big names like Kershaw and Stanton and Baz are all getting healthy. Arthur, Mr. Steady Eddy this year, just kept the train rolling: 16 HRs, 6 SB with 7 QS and 3 NW over 85 innings will win a lot of weeks. 

Michael just snuck past Carl in a very back and forth week. Carl was up early, then Michael was up big late, then Carl had a huge Sunday while Michael faceplanted to reach a near draw of a conclusion. Brandon Donovan's extra inning double late on Sunday night just pushed Michael to the win column here. Michael's pitching is outstanding right now. He has a 2.19 ERA over the last 4 weeks and a 2.72 since week 1. Michael's hitting leaves much to be desired though. Carl didn't quite have it this week but stormed through with 3 Home Runs on Sunday to save about 3 full standings points in this one.

Brian and Josh beat Dean even though Dean had 15 home runs on the week. In case you haven't noticed, offense is back. The sample sizes are getting big enough now to show there was a pivot around May 15th in the baseball. It's just soooooo great that these things are so reliable...but I digress. Both of these teams had really good weeks with sub-3.00 ERAs over 130 innings combined. BJ put together enough stats to get the win.

Cory beat Keith with one of the bigger offensive weeks of the year: 14 home runs with a .293 AVG. He also had a sub-4 ERA and a sub-1 WHIP. Not to be ignored, in the week that the calendar hits June and the Cory summer has begun, he puts up 66 innings. He's locked in. Keith didn't have a bad week with 13 home runs of his own and a very good hitting K rate, Cory was just a bit too strong in this one.

Paul just snuck past Max...but he did get Max to make a Free Agent move! (h/t to Carl). Max put up 12 HRs with a .287 AVG, but the pitching output and volume just wasn't there. Paul has been up and down this year, he'll be looking to gain some footing moving forward. Hey, at least Jacob Degrom is throwing off a mound...I guess?