Week 7 Remembrance

Thanks again to this week's guest blogger, Joe Chasek, for filling in during my move to take care of the week 7 news. 

Week 7’s action ran the gamut from blowouts to nip-and-tuck battles. Plus, a devastating injury, a trophy was awarded for the first time ever and liked it so much it decided to stick around for the weekend, and more changes were voted on in the latest poll.  On to the results!

TEAM		BATTERS							PITCHERS							TOTAL
NAME		R	HR	RBI	SB	OBP	SLG		IP	QS	SV	ERA	WHIP	K/9		SCORE
Team No Idea		29	10	33	6	.3065	.3762		53.2	4	5	2.180	1.174	6.876		3-8-1
The Feeble Empire		48	13	46	6	.3623	.4915		65.1	7	2	3.995	1.179	7.852		8-3-1

The Empire’s new clean-up hitter?

The Empire picked up where they left off last week, sparking rumors they might consider reclaiming the “Evil” moniker they shed earlier this season.  A dominating offensive performance, marred only by the speed of No Idea, as well as a healthy stock of quality starts and innings pitched, led to an easy victory despite an outstanding performance by Nicole’s pitching staff.

MVP:  Multiple candidates here, but Brandon Moss (8 R, 3 HR, 11 RBI, .556 OBP, 1.182 SLG) seems to epitomize the Empire’s week.

LVP: Nick Markakis (.200 OBP, .143 SLG, 2 RBI) edges out other competitors, getting the nod over Ben Zobrist’s DL stint-fueled 1-10 week.

TEAM		BATTERS							PITCHERS							TOTAL
NAME		R	HR	RBI	SB	OBP	SLG		IP	QS	SV	ERA	WHIP	K/9		SCORE
Cleveland Wahoos		36	11	51	2	.3578	.4932		68.0	5	0	4.368	1.441	9.397		7-5-0
Royal Rooters		30	5	28	5	.3230	.3580		57.0	7	2	3.000	1.211	7.105		5-7-0

Artist’s depiction of Carlos Gomez’s week off

How do you know your outfield is stacked?  You let Carlos Gomez take the week off for a suspension, back issues, and the flu and don’t miss a beat.  In a performance remarkably similar to the Empire’s, the two-time defending regular season champion Cleveland Wahoos continued their recent upward trend.  They certainly seem to be rounding into the type of form they had during their first two years of existence.  The Rooters’ struggles continued, though for the second consecutive week (and the third time in four), they narrowly missed finding a way to at least pull out a draw.  If the Rooters can solve the puzzle of how to reconstruct their roster after a highly confusing auto-draft experience, they could be a team to watch down the backstretch.

MVP: Yasiel Puig (5 R, 3 HR, 10 RBI, .464 OBP, .870 SLG)

LVP: Tough to pick this one, as there were no real stinkers, but Jordan Zimmerman (2 games, 11.2 IP, 1 QS, 6.17 ERA, 1.71 WHIP, 3.86 K/9) had mixed results at best.

TEAM		BATTERS							PITCHERS							TOTAL
NAME		R	HR	RBI	SB	OBP	SLG		IP	QS	SV	ERA	WHIP	K/9		SCORE
Deathvalley Demons		40	4	35	6	.3457	.3849		73.1	5	7	3.927	1.268	7.855		5-5-2
DL All Stars		49	12	35	8	.3061	.4129		38.0	3	7	3.079	1.316	5.447		5-5-2

When the irresistible force and immovable object collide, sometimes they just both fail.

It looked like the matchup of the week on Friday, with categories seemingly changing hands with every at bat.  Unfortunately, when the smoke cleared on Sunday, the Demons and All Stars ended up pretty much right where they started.  As the other results came in, both teams ultimately squandered an opportunity to move up in the standings with a 5-5-2 tie.  Impressive relief outings by both teams were for naught, while the Tigers’ Sunday night performance robbed both teams of an opportunity to break their RBI deadlock, with Nick Castellanos somehow being left off the lineup card against the struggling Jake Peavy and the general incompetence of Detroit’s 7-8-9 hitters and the Green Monster keeping Ian Kinsler from having any real opportunity to bring home a steak.  The real silver lining for both teams is the way the teams in front of them managed to fall back to the pack this week.

MVP: Troy Tulowitzki (6 R, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 1 SB, .474 OBP, .750) managed to have somewhat mortal numbers this week due to being pitched around and not having guys on base in front of him, but still filled up the stat sheet

LVP: Homer Bailey (3.2 IP, 14.73 ERA, 2.45 WHIP, 4.91 K/9) edges out Buster Posey, Nate Eovaldi and Julio Teheran.

TEAM		BATTERS							PITCHERS							TOTAL
NAME		R	HR	RBI	SB	OBP	SLG		IP	QS	SV	ERA	WHIP	K/9		SCORE
Bowling Overhand		51	13	44	3	.3051	.4290		63.0	7	4	3.857	1.222	8.714		9-1-2
Fightin' Vizquels		32	5	37	3	.3133	.4036		55.0	2	4	5.564	1.564	7.527		1-9-2

Biggest downer of the season? Your guest recapper certainly thinks so.

The week’s biggest blowout might be more notable for the news off the field that accompanied it, that of the season’s biggest blowout (so far), that being one right elbow belonging to Jose Fernandez.  Bowling Overhand managed to overcome the loss of arguably its best player, maybe even using the news as motivation in their victory.  Meanwhile, the Vizquels continued their trend of either winning or losing one-sided matchups.  For most of the week, despite the category count being lopsided, most of the categories were actually close, but Overhand pulled away in most of the counting stats over the weekend.

MVP: Josh Donaldson (9 R, 3 HR, 10 RBI, .571 OBP, 1.118 SLG)

LVP: Going to go against the grain here and give it to the winning team, because wow:  Clayton Kershaw (1.2 IP, 37.80 ERA, 4.80 WHIP, 16.20 K/9 and 3 triples in a single inning) – Special bonus LVP for those of you who want the traditional losing team entry:  Jake Peavy (2 GP, 10.1 IP, 9.58 ERA, 2.13 WHIP, 2.61 K/9)

TEAM		BATTERS							PITCHERS							TOTAL
NAME		R	HR	RBI	SB	OBP	SLG		IP	QS	SV	ERA	WHIP	K/9		SCORE
Danger Zone		37	9	31	9	.3242	.4477		63.0	5	0	4.143	1.270	8.857		4-7-1
Yakety Sax		40	17	43	4	.3498	.5222		81.0	5	8	4.778	1.407	7.778		7-4-1

“It’s just a flesh wound!”

The other big injury news of the week waited until Sunday, as white-hot rookie slugger Jose Abreu’s balky ankle finally landed him on the DL.  Fortunately for Yakety Sax, the injury came late enough in the week that all the non-stealing offensive categories were already in hand.  On the other hand, one has to wonder if the Sax hired away part of the DL All Stars’ training staff during the offseason, with the number of red letters next to their players’ names.  Danger Zone managed to keep things from being a total loss thanks to their pitching winning the slapfight of the week, with both teams posting ERAs over 4 and being in the bottom half of WHIP.

MVP: A number of strong candidates in this matchup, highlighted by a lot of strong 1B/DH play.  I’m going to go with Miguel Cabrera (4 R, 2 HR, 10 RBI, .481 OBP, .792 SLG) edging out David Ortiz (1.000 SLG), due mostly to being on the winning team.

LVP: Also a strong field here, but Eric Hosmer’s line (2 R, .120 OBP, .083 SLG) stands out.

League Manager's Poll

Poll of the Week #6: The Steals Trophy
The current steals trophy stands at 5 steals in a game. This may be too high, as it rarely if ever gets handed out compared to others. Should we make one with a lower number of steals, and if so what?

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0%
Leave the trophy as it is (0 votes)

 57%
Make 1 for 3 steals in a game. (4 votes)

 43%
Make 1 for 4 steals in a game.  (3 votes)

Results:  I’ll leave it to Adam to make it official, but it looks like people want easier trophies, as the sentiment is to bump the steals trophy down to a 3/game minimum.  Will this mean extra work for the commish to retroactively award Dee Gordon a pile of hardware?  To be continued…

Standings

Standings

American League
1.	Yakety Sax		48-32-4
2.	DL All Stars		40-40-4
3.	Fightin' Vizquels		36-45-3
4.	The Feeble Empire		35-44-5
5.	Royal Rooters		28-52-4
National League
1.	Bowling Overhand		53-26-5
2.	Cleveland Wahoos		42-39-3
3.	Danger Zone		41-40-3
4.	Team No Idea		40-40-4
5.	Deathvalley Demons		37-42-5
Updated Monday, May 19, 2014

Trophies

Tiger Blood: Bowling Overhand*

Chicago Colts: Bowling Overhand

Louisville Colonels: Fighting Vizquels

Walter Johnson: Cleveland Wahoos, No Idea

El Sombrero de Oro: Cleveland Wahoos

Guy Hecker: Deathvalley Demons, Bowling Overhand (first two EVER!)

Gehrig Award: Feeble Empire

(* = trophy not yet awarded)

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