Week 21 Round-Up

By: Da Commish

I've only been waiting to put this picture up for 2 years now. No big deal.

It’s the end of an era, ladies and gentlemen. Our long national nightmare is over. The dictator has been cast down, and at long last a Liquid Courage League champion will be crowned other than Pat Rogge.  It came down to literally the last game of the week, but the playoffs are set.

TEAM		BATTERS							PITCHERS							TOTAL
NAME		R	HR	RBI	SB	OBP	SLG		IP	QS	SV	ERA	WHIP	K/9		SCORE
Team No Idea		58	11	42	4	.3571	.4241		48.0	4	6	4.313	1.354	9.375		7-5-0
The Evil Empire		41	15	53	1	.3422	.4967		67.1	5	4	5.213	1.426	5.480		5-7-0

When the wild Kimbrel adopts this threatening posture, the best bet is to run away before he strikes out your whole team.

Pat and I had a conversation earlier this week that began “where the hell has No Idea’s offense been all year? Because she’s been on a tear for the last month.” Team No Idea has been knocking the cover off the ball since the All-Star Break, for some reason, and it's a shame they couldn't do this earlier on or they'd have been in playoff contention. Chris Davis led the charge this time around, but Chris Carter, Markakis, Sandoval, and Stanton chipped in to keep pace with the Empire bats, which came roaring back later in the week to take the HR, RBI, and SLG categories. Neither team had a fantastic pitching week, but a disastrous 4 start Sunday for the Empire tipped ERA and WHIP in No Idea’s direction to seal the win.

MVP: Craig Kimbrel 3 SV 0 ERA. I’d give it to Chris Davis, but that seems like an odd choice when the other team took homers, RBI, and SLG. Frankly, Kimbrel deserves some recognition for how dominant of a year he's had. 

LVP:  Kyle Lohse 11.2 IP 6.17 ERA and 6.17 K/9. When those two ratios equal out, you know it’s been a bad week.

TEAM		BATTERS							PITCHERS							TOTAL
NAME		R	HR	RBI	SB	OBP	SLG		IP	QS	SV	ERA	WHIP	K/9		SCORE
Cleveland Wahoos		43	10	32	10	.3086	.4057		60.2	6	6	2.522	0.874	10.533		7-5-0
Royal Rooters		44	7	33	7	.3212	.4137		28.2	4	3	1.570	1.047	7.221		5-7-0

The Wahoos making the playoffs ranks as  the second most exciting sports event in Cleveland this year. But only just. 

The Wahoos needed this one, but the Royal Rooters weren’t about to hand it over quietly. Cleveland managed to put together 10 homers and steals to get some offensive categories along with posting dominant pitching stats, earning them the extra half game required to snatch away the 4^th playoff slot. This literally came down to the final game on Sunday to decide, in what is no doubt one of the most exciting finishes to the regular season in league history.

MVP: Jacoby Ellsbury 4HR 2SB 1.136 SLG. Cleveland’s going to need to see him come back from his ankle injury to keep this thing rolling. It's tough sledding against Bowling Overhand, but a month ago the common consensus was that they were out of the playoffs with no chance, so anything is possible.

TEAM		BATTERS							PITCHERS							TOTAL
NAME		R	HR	RBI	SB	OBP	SLG		IP	QS	SV	ERA	WHIP	K/9		SCORE
Danger Zone		30	5	31	8	.3112	.3323		53.0	7	0	4.075	1.340	8.830		2-10-0
Yakety Sax		42	15	38	3	.3333	.4488		80.0	8	7	3.375	1.163	7.088		10-2-0

 

Possible image of Danger Zone manager Matt Rogers this week.

Admittedly, this one was a meaningless match, but Danger Zone couldn’t have been looking to go into the playoffs like this.  Their offense was frankly anemic, and couldn’t hope to stand up to one of the stronger  outings at the dish this week from Yakety Sax. Obviously, Kenny Loggins’ favorite squad weren’t employing their usual brand of manic pitcher streaming since they only hit 53 IP over the scoring period, perhaps because they were busy focusing on drafts for some other fantasy sport, but an ERA of 4.075 from DZ’s starters isn’t exactly typical either. They’ll look to rebound from this next week, and hope this week’s outing isn’t indicative of their playoff chances when DZ and the Sackers throw down for real.

MVP: Jose Bautista 5 HR 6 RBI .955 SLG Joey Bats is officially back, and the timing couldn’t be better for the Sackers.

LVP:  Scott Kazmir 1.1 IP 40.5 ERA He’s been skidding recently, but this outing was even worse than what was expected of Kaz before the season. Much like the rest of his squad in Oakland, Kazmir seems to be running out of gas.

TEAM		BATTERS							PITCHERS							TOTAL
NAME		R	HR	RBI	SB	OBP	SLG		IP	QS	SV	ERA	WHIP	K/9		SCORE
Bowling Overhand		34	12	37	7	.2952	.4146		83.1	9	2	2.808	1.008	8.316		11-1-0
Fightin' Vizquels		28	10	32	4	.2871	.3601		65.0	8	1	2.215	1.138	7.062		1-11-0

 

Samardzija makes the playoffs in the LCL. Now if only his team could get it done in real life.

Another day, another domination for Bowling Overhand. Their OBP was a little sub-par for them, but it’s nit-picking on a week when they went 11-1 and earned the St. Louis Maroons trophy. After recording 83 IP with a 2.8 ERA, it’s easy to see why the Most Interesting Team in the League™ is the odds on favorite to take home the Golden Ball this year. However, as we all know, nothing is more predictive of trouble in the playoffs than entering with the #1 seed. We’ve already shaken off one legacy this season, and Joe will look to get another monkey off his back next week when he takes on Cleveland.

MVP: Jeff Samardzija 16 IP 3 ER 10.7 K/9 It’s tempting to go with Kershaw, but the A’s pitcher deserves some recognition for two rock-solid outings.

LVP: Jose Reyes .179 OBP 4/27 2R While not the worst offensive performance ever, Reyes really let down the side this week.

TEAM		BATTERS							PITCHERS							TOTAL
NAME		R	HR	RBI	SB	OBP	SLG		IP	QS	SV	ERA	WHIP	K/9		SCORE
Deathvalley Demons		34	8	32	6	.3283	.3959		59.2	6	1	3.469	1.274	8.598		7-4-1
DL All Stars		40	8	38	5	.3134	.3901		48.0	4	6	4.500	1.396	9.563		4-7-1

 

Celebrations are ongoing around the league...ok, maybe we're rubbing it in a bit too much now.

It was all right there. Going into the last game of the night, Pat had himself set to edge out Cleveland by ½ a game. And then, in a contest that was suspended in the 10^th, Alex Gordon hit a 462 ft. bomb that tied up HR and took down the DLA. To be honest, manager Pat Rogge is probably the least surprised of anyone to find himself on the outside looking in at the playoffs, as his team has been brutalized with injuries down the stretch and has been underperforming of late. But still, the streak had to come to an end sometime, and the Golden Ball is going home with a new team this season. Let’s all pour some out for the DL All Stars.

MVP: Alex Gordon…I mean, come on, could it be anybody else? Ok, Buster Posey had an amazing week as well, so we’ll call it a co-MVP between the two of them.

LVP: Chris Archer 4 IP 10H 7 ER. The youngster’s usually in the MVP column rather than getting handed the fantasy goat award, but this was just not his week. Pat will hope to see him bounce back for the consolation Roto.

Final Playoff Seeding.

#1 Bowling Overhand

#2 Yackety Sax

#3 Danger Zone

#4 Cleveland Wahoos

Congratulations to all the playoff teams, and thanks to everyone for making it a great regular season. Let’s hope the playoffs live up to the hype.