Week 5's installment of the
DDWPIPOTCFFBE (Diamond Dynasty Weekly Preview In Pursuit Of The
Chalice For Fantasy Baseball Excellence)
Last week – TJ remains unbeaten in
2013 and Jarrett's big win catapults him up the standings.
Sleepy's® "Snoozer of the
Week" – Jarrett (3rd)
vs Richie (10th)
Richie was able to steal a tie last
week, 4-4 against Ben thanks to Doug Fisters' outing on Sunday night.
Despite Mike Napoli staying hot (3/1/7/0/.320), Richie was 0-4-1 on
offense and is an abysmal 2-16-2 on offense for the season. Travers
was able to squeak out the pitching categories as he's done all year
and now owns a respectable 11-7-2 record on “defense,” if you
will. Mariano Rivera had 4 saves but Felix Hernandez was the star
this week, winning 2 games, striking out 16, and posting a 0.64 ERA
and 0.86 WHIP. He'll face off against third place again this week,
which is now occupied by Jarrett. Despite only posting a 1-2-1
weekly record, Jarrett is the top dog in a very congested middle of
the pack thanks to a 9-0, no-closer shutout over then-second place
Colin. Jarrett kicked ass last week, winning pretty much every
category going away. Big weeks from Alcides Escobar (4/1/3/2/.381)
and Nelson Cruz (4/2/9/0/.360) helped Jarrett take all 5 offensive
categories. Jarrett's Staaf, highlighted by 4 guys with 14+ punch
outs, struck out 101 batters this week, won 8 games, and had very
good ERA and WHIP numbers. This could be another tough week for
Richie as he searches for his first win of the year.
(season series 0-0)
Dell's® "Dull Duel" –
Drew (9th) vs Colin (6th)
Drew lost 5-3 to
James last week, and has now lost 3 in a row. Alex Gordon was his
best offensive threat last week with a 5/2/7/1/.317 stat line and he
got double digit K's from 4 starters, but he needed a lot more to get
past James. He is missing Michael Bourn but his return won't be
enough to improve this offense – he has to hope that someone starts
to step up. He now ranks in the bottom three in half of the
categories this season and he has another tough match-up this week
against Colin, who for some reason still has Trout and Cabrera. The
panic trade talks are back in full swing following a 9-0, no-closer
shutout loss to Jarrett. Colin only mustered 20 runs and a .239
average despite Cabrera's 5/1/8/0/.450 and Howie Kendrick's
4/2/6/0/.375. And it's almost unfair that Colin gets demolished in
K's despite putting up 83! I don't think he played poorly enough to
be shut out, but Jarrett was hot as a fox in a forest fire last week.
I actually expected Colin to go on a little run (see last week) so
it's good to know my jinxing powers are at full force. But much like
Alex, one bad loss has skewed his record. He's better than a .500
ball club and he'll show it this week (Colin, sorry in advance).
(season series
0-0)
The Average Match of the Week
presented by Not Your Average Joe's – Kurt
(8th)
vs Alex (4th)
The frustrations
continue for Kurt this year as he was edged out in a number of
categories again last week and ultimately fell to TJ, 7-3. He lost
by 2 runs, 3 RBI, 1 win, and lost WHIP by percentage points. Kurt
had 5 multi-homer guys this week, netting him 13 home runs. He now
has 42 on the season which is good for second place. His pitchers
were dealing, winning 7 games and striking out 101, but TJ stayed
right with him and ended up taking 4 of the 5 pitching categories.
He'll look to right the ship this week against Alex, who macked
Adrian last week 7-2-1. Last week's win gives Gentilli a 3-1 record
on the year, and that 10-0 shutout loss to Ben in week 2 is looking
like a complete fluke. Alex mashed this week, scoring 40 runs,
hitting 12 homers, and driving in 38. Giancarlo Stanton had hit best
week of the season, putting up 6/3/8/0/.364 and it looks like he's
finally starting to get his stroke going. David Ortiz was a big
contributor too, going 7/2/9/0/.478. Matt Moore killed it on the
bump, winning 2 games, striking out 18 and posting 1.29/0.64 ratios.
We could see some big numbers in this one.
(season series 0-0)
The Post-It® "Noteworthy
Match-up" – TJ (1st) vs James (7th)
TJ
continues to string together wins, going 3-0-1 in the month of April.
Justin Upton is continuing to hit the cover off the ball, leading
the league in home runs and on top of the fantasy ranks. Last week
TJ outlasted Kurt 7-3 behind big weeks from Ryan Howard
(5/2/10/0/.308), Jose Bautista (6/3/3/1/.148) and the aforementioned
Upton (6/3/5/0/.333). But TJ did most of his damage on the pitching
side, winning four categories and spot-starting 7 guys (I think) to
do so. He's now an incredible 16-3-1 on defense this year with a
perfect 4-0 mark in saves, ERA, and WHIP and he's at least .500 in
all 10 categories. Great start. He'll put his perfect mark on the
line this week against James, who held on to beat Drew 5-3 last week.
The offense was pretty mediocre, hitting only 6 homers and driving
in 27. No real standouts on the whole squad except for Hisashi
Iwakuma's 19 K's (but no wins). It looks like he's been hit with the
injury bug as hard as anyone, with Jose Reyes, Mark Teixeira, Jered
Weaver, and Brandon Beachy all on the shelf for now. If Mams can
tread water as he's doing right now, he should see a jump in the
standings when the reinforcements arrive.
(season series 0-0)
Diamond Strike Anywhere Matches®
"Match-Up of the Week" – Ben (2nd)
vs Adrian (5th)
And we've made it to the match-up of
the week! This is Adrian's second time in the spotlight. The first
time around he battled then-and-current first place TJ to a tie, the
only team that hasn't lost to TJ thus far. He did slip up last week
though, and it was a rough one. Alex shellacked him, 7-2-1, and
clearly the exaustion of being in the big game the week before got to
his guys. There wasn't anyone on either side of the ball to give
props to, so let's do the opposite. 6 guys his .214 or worse,
highlighted by Everth Cabrera's .080 average. But he's been pretty
good offensively on the season with a 12-6-2 mark, so it could have
just been a down week. He'll take on Ben this week in Ben's first
appearance under the bright lights. O'Connor had a big lead
basically all of last week until the weekend, where Richie was able
to close the gap and eventually tie the match-up 4-4. He was able to
go 4-0-1 on offense thanks to Edwin Encarnacion's HUGE week – 8
runs scored, 5 homers, 8 ribbies, and a .306 average. His pitching,
on the other hand, was pretty dismal. He only had one double digit
strikeout guy and his team ERA was a heavy 4.09. Ben hasn't lost
since week 1 and hopes to keep the train rolling.
(season series 0-0)
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