Weekly Matchups - Week 8

Week 8's installment of the DDWPIPOTCFFBE (Diamond Dynasty Weekly Preview In Pursuit Of The Chalice For Fantasy Baseball Excellence)

Last week – Alex wins big over Colin and James takes care of business against Ben, making for one of the most log-jammed standings in recent memory!

Sleepy's® "Snoozer of the Week" – Drew (10th) vs Alex (3rd)

Drew!! You were so close! You were one Jay Bruce Sunday homer from not losing this week!  A valiant effort against potent TJ, but ultimately a 5-4 loss.  Drew had his best offensive output in weeks, posting 38 runs, 8 dingers, and a .346 batting average.  First round pick Billy Butler finally had a break out week knocking in 10 and hitting .480, and Michael Bourn stole 2 bases in his first full week back after missing the last month with a finger injury.  The pitching, on the other hand, continues to be in shambles.  Despite all the big names, his only pitcher ranked in the top 100 is A.J. Burnett (55).  As far as I can remember, his 6.51 ERA and 1.77 WHIP last week are the worst marks for the DD this year.  He had more guys with an ERA above 4.50 (6) than below it (4).  Drew is last in Wins, ERA, WHIP, and RBI, and he's second to last in HR, Runs, and SB.  I smell fire sale.  He'll try to break the 6 week losing streak against Alex, who is one of 8 teams who are basically all the same.  All 8 of you overachievers are within 6.5 games of each other, and the top 5 are within 2.5 games.  FYI: PLENTY of seats down here with Drew and I.  We have couches, doritos, cable TV - it's really not that bad once you get over the smell.  Alex survived Miguel Cabrera's Sunday night onslaught (3 homers!) to crush Colin 8-2.  Ok, worst case scenario would have been 7-2 but you get the idea.  There were a couple close calls (1 HR, 1 SB) but Alex took everything except for runs and average, where Colin posted a remarkable .358.  David Ortiz, who totally isn't using any performance enhancing substances, continued his stellar season last week with 3 homers, 12 RBI, and a .458 batting average and is now ranked 72nd despite only playing slightly more than half of the Sox's's's's games (25/44).  The defense was excellent as well, highlighted by Matt Moore's 2 wins (8-0 this year) and 11 k's.   He also got 4 saves and 0.00 ERA from Edward Mujica.  Alex has won 4 of the last 5 matches and is a big favorite this week. 

(season series 0-0)

Dell's® "Dull Duel" – Colin (7th) vs Ben (5th)

Colin fell to Alex 8-2 in last week's Match-Up of the Week and is just 1-2-1 after a 2-1 start.  He didn't have a bad week on offense, scoring 48 runs and hitting .358 (both highs for the week) but he fell just short in other categories.  Miguel Cabrera lit up the scoreboard again, scoring and driving in 7 runs, hitting .429, and going deep 4 times.  Jean Segura chipped in with 4 SB.  For the year, Colin boasts 4 players in the top 19 with Cabrera (1st), Segura (5th), Yu Darvish (9th), and Mike Trout (19th) all having great seasons thus far.  His pitching was awful, posting poor numbers in all 5 categories and losing each by a long shot.  Ben had only a slightly better result last week against James, losing 7-3.  He had a pretty shit week across the board, getting high numbers where he needed low numbers and vice versa.  Ryan Zimmerman drove in 9 and Elvis Andrus stole 5 bases in the losing effort.  Ben has now lost 2 weeks in a row but is still only 2.5 games out as we approach the midway point of the year.

(season series 0-0)

The Average Match of the Week presented by Not Your Average Joe's – Kurt (8th) vs Adrian (6th)

Every so often I have to consider the story lines over the standings in determining how enticing these match-ups are.  As previously noted, everyone not named Drew or Richie are essentially on the same level at this time so the current standings don't/can't really dictate the match-ups.  I think the amount of abuse and/or general mistreatment that Kurt has shelled out at Adrian over the past 10+ years is enough to bump this up to the Average Match of the Week spot, and it should be a pretty good match-up anyway.  After taking a look at the season totals, they're the top 2 teams in runs scored.  Kurt has a big advantage in homers (80-43) but Adrian can say the same in SB (45-27).  The RBI's and average are close enough to be a toss up.  It might be tougher for Adrian on defense, as he trails the closer-less Kurt by a wide margin in everything but saves.  Taking a quick look at last week, Kurt beat Richie 6-4, expectedly going 4-1 on offense (CarGo: 8/3/8/3/.375) but only 2-3 on defense.  Adrian also went 4-1 on offense last week (7 SB from Everth Cabrera!) but was awful on defense, taking only saves from a closer-less Jarrett en route to a 5-5 tie.  Let's see if Adrian can stick it to Kurt this week.

(season series 0-0)

The Post-It® "Noteworthy Match-up" – Richie (9th) vs James (4th)

Mini-rivalry week continues with the Martha Jones trophy on the line as Richie takes on James.  Maimonis is playing great as of late, rolling a 3-1 record over the last month.  He's scored at least 5 in 5/7 weeks this year.  Last week he took down Ben 7-3 in what was a pretty comfortable win.  He went 3-2 on offensive behind Jason Kipnis (7/3/8/2/.417) and 4-1 on defense.  He boasted a sparkling 1.81 ERA 0.96 WHIP (no one individually had an ERA above 3.00).  All of these numbers make my prediction even more ridiculous, but this match up is exactly the kick in the ass that my team needs.  Richie 6, James 3.  Mark it down.  Richie has been showing some signs of life offensively but is still pretty much the worst offense in the league, and didn't do anything to improve his mark last week against Kurt.  He managed to steal the RBI category behind a Sunday night bases-clearing double by Prince Fielder (after an IBB to Cabrera with guys on first and second, no less...you must respect the big man!) but ended up 1-4 offensively.  He performed better on defense, going 3-2.  Richie will need to continue his good fortune in WHIP, ERA, and saves, and take a leap offensively to take down the Manimal for his first win of the year.   

(season series 0-0)

Diamond Strike Anywhere Matches® "Match-Up of the Week" – TJ (2nd) vs Jarrett (1st)

While I did devalue the standings this week, you simply can't ignore a 1-2 matchup!  First  place has been occupied by one of these two every week but 1 (Ben in week 6).  TJ has been all over the place recently, going 1-1-1 in the last 3 weeks but being outscored 18-11 over that time.  TJ failed to win an offense category against Drew's anemic bats, but the pitching was pretty solid.  He escaped with a 5-4 win, but he'll need his bats to wake up against Jarrett because Staaf's staaf (I think I make that joke every week) is 21-6-1 discounting the saves category.  He has two of the top 6 pitchers in Clayton Kershaw (3rd) and Shelby Miller (6th).  Jarrett had a pretty average week himself but tied Adrian 5-5 behind Paul Goldschmidt (3 home runs, ranked 3rd overall on the year) and Justin Masterson (2 wins, 20 K's, 0.00 ERA, 0.75 WHIP). There's no guarantee that either team will be in first after this week with such a log jam at the top, but at least they have a head start against the competish.  

(season series 0-0)