Week 20: Perfect No More

 

The Smyth crew took in a Braves game on Sunday...well, they were in the building, not much baseball got watched.

Power Ranks Observations

• Michael held onto his top power rank spot, but he didn't take the opportunity to increase his YTD lead any.
• Carl had a great week and closed the gap. It's a two team race for the Power Ranks crown this year
• Cory, on an Irish golf trip, stumbled on his run away from the middle pack, falling back to it, instead
• Max took another jump up.

Matchup Observations

• Two pretty big upsets in the Dean/Michael matchup. Dean finally ended Michael's undefeated pitching Ks record. Michael's pitchers didn't have a great K rate week (9.6 k/9 YTD but 7.6 k/9 this week) and Dean put it all together to knock him off. Meanwhile, though, Michael handed Dean only his second hitting Ks loss of the year. For the week, Michael edged Dean whose offense is really struggling right now. Dean fell back out of playoff position to 5th place. BUT ROYCE LEWIS IS BACK
• Speaking of the new 4th place team, BJ beat Keith by taking 5 of 6 pitching categories. BJ didn't have their best offensive week but had just enough to move into 4th place. Keith had big power numbers with 14 home runs but with a 4.71 ERA on the way, it just wasn't enough to beat his playoff spot competitor.
• In another matchup of playoff spot competitors, Dave showed no mercy on vacationing Cory. These two teams put up very similar offensive numbers but Dave's pitching was notably better...but then of course he lost Net Wins. Dave continues to hang around playoff contention, now sitting only 8 games out of 4th place despite being in 7th place. Cory is now 8.5 games out in 8th place.
• Carl overcame the week of the year from Arthur's Julio Rodriguez. Julio had 21 hits on the week to help Arthur hit .289. Carl, though, mashed 17 home runs with good enough pitching to put a big number on the matchup scoreboard. This loss took Arthur down to 9th place, 10 games out of 4th. Carl sits comfortably in 2nd place.
• Paul stopped the steamrolling Max to get a reassuring win. Neither team pitched well with ERAs over 4.70, but Paul's pitching volume carried him to the win...well that and hitting .321 for the week with 54 Runs. Paul and Carl are looking destined for the 2-3 matchup in the first round of the playoffs with Carl 18 games behind Michael and Paul 15 games clear of 4th place and only 4 weeks left. Start lining up your pitching now.
• Only ten Yahoo Standings games separate 4th from 9th place, 4 weeks to go. It's a race!