Weekly Matchups - Week 13

Week 13's installment of the DDWPIPOTCFFBE (Diamond Dynasty Weekly Preview In Pursuit Of The Chalice For Fantasy Baseball Excellence)

Last two weeks – The top 4 hold their positions as does the bottom 3; Kurt, Adrian, and Jarrett play musical chairs in the middle.

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

Two weeks ago, Drew lost 8-2 to Adrian due to the weakest offensive week the DD has ever seen (16 runs, 1 home run). Last week he lost 6-4 to Kurt. Am I the only one that is pissed the fuck off about him? His lack of interest in the league went from funny to frustrating about 3 weeks ago. Just as I said in the mid-season review last week, he has started Asdrubal Cabrera right through his month-long DL stint and has left a healthy Jayson Werth on the DL. The fact that he quit in May is fucking frustrating as all hell, I hope everyone else realizes this.

James has cooled off a little bit,, going 1-0-3 over the last two weeks. He has a pretty crazy W-L this year at 5-2-5. Two weeks ago he beat Jarrett 6-4. I would say that James was less shitty than Jarrett that week, rather than James was better than Jarrett. I mean they both sucked. Last week James tied Colin 5-5 behind a stronger offensive performance (the pitching left much to be desired.) Pedro Alvarez hit 4 dingers to lead the way. Drew might steal a couple of pitching categories but James should win this one going away

(season series James 5-3)

Dell's® "Dull Duel" – Richie (9^th) vs Ben (2^nd)

After enjoying a couple weeks without losing, Richie has crashed back to his miserable 2013 reality. Two weeks ago TJ cleaned him out 7-1 behind a less-than-stellar offensive effort. Last week he fell to Alex 6-3 after a valiant comeback (down 10-0 on Wednesday, started Sunday 5-5). Alex survived a revenge week from David Wright (3 homers) and a where-the-fuck-have-you-been-all-year Hanley Ramirez (3 homers). Tough luck to get 8 saves and still lose the category. He'll face off against Ben this week who continues to play great fantasy baseball. He's 14-4 over the last two weeks and 33-15 (.680) over the last 5 weeks. Two weeks ago Ben beat Alex 6-4 in a tightly contested match-up across the board. Last week, he shut out a suddenly spiraling Jarrett 8-0 though it was so much closer than that. He won by 1 run, 1 homer, .004 in average, 10 k's, and close ERA/WHIP. He was one win and one SB from getting the 10-0 shutout. Chris Davis just doin' the damn thang as usual, 5/4/10/0/.348. Edwin Encarnacion hit 3 homers. Max Scherzer netted two wins and 16 strikeouts with solid ratios. This team is really cooking right now.

(season series 4-4)

The Average Match of the Week presented by Not Your Average Joe's – Colin (8^th) vs Jarrett (7^th)

These two teams are colder than a witches tit, with a combined 1-8-3 record over the past 6 weeks. Colin lost to Kurt 6-2 two weeks ago, but got an impressive 5-5 tie against James last week. He got multi-homer weeks from Joe Mauer, Adam Lind, Miguel Cabrera, and Nolan Arenado. Jean Segura and Mike Trout won the SB category by themselves and he got 10 strikeouts each from Paul Maholm, Yu Darvish, and Jarrod Parker.

Jarrett lost 6-4 two weeks ago to James, no thanks to his offense (4 homers, 27 runs and RBI's). Last week he took a tough 8-0 loss, though he deserved better. Paul Goldschmidt smashed 4 homers and Nelson Cruz had 3 homers and 11 RBI's, but it wasn't enough to prevent a 0-4-1 record on offense. Mat Latos had 22 strikeouts, which I think is the second highest total we've seen this year (Yu Darvish had 26 one week for Colin I think). Jarrett started the year 0-2-1 before beating Colin, Richie, and Drew in weeks 4-6. It's still the only teams that he's beat on the year but he might be able to reinsert himself into the playoff picture by Independence Day.

(season series Jarrett 9-0)

The Post-It® "Noteworthy Match-up" – Alex (4^th) vs Adrian (6^th)

Alex has cooled off a little after a 5-1 stretch. He's 2-2 over the last month, playing roughly .500 ball. To be fair, his two losses did come against TJ (1^st) and Ben (2^nd). Two weeks ago it was Ben who ousted Alex 6-4, but he came back with a 6-3 win against Richie last week. He had 5 multi-homer guys (Anthony Rizzo, Nick Franklin, David Ortiz, Yasiel Puig, Giancarlo Stanton) and 4 multi-save closers (Addison Reed, Glen Perkins, Ernesto Frieri, and Edward Mujica). He faces off this week against the ever-steady Adrian, who lost big and won big over the last two weeks. He crushed Drew 8-2 in week 11 but lost by the same margin last week against TJ. Ryan Howard was basically his entire offense, hitting 3 homers and driving in 7. The pitching was pretty awful too even though he got 9 wins (might be a season high for the league). Alex mopped the floor with Adrian last time around, 7-2. Let's see if Adrian has any fight in him this week.

(season series Alex 7-2)

Diamond Strike Anywhere Matches® "Match-Up of the Week" – Kurt (5^th) vs TJ (1^st)

Another week, another Match-Up of the Week for TJ. These two teams are 11-0-3 since week 6. TJ has won 6 in a row and his season record stands at 9-1-2. He's 22-5 in the last 3 weeks (.783). Two weeks ago he beat Richie 7-1 and last week he beat Adrian 8-2. The offense was on display last week, blasting 13 homers and scoring 40 runs. Jay Bruce hit 6 - six! - home runs last week, and Matt Harvey won both his starts, K-ing 19. He'll take on Kurt who continues to win, if only slightly. Strange breakdown for the commissioner; he's 7-2-3, but has yet to win more than 6 categories in a week. All of his wins are of the 6 or 5 category variety. It could be the least-dominant team with a winning record that we've seen. But the good news is it only takes 6 to win, and Kurt seems to have mastered that philosophy. He beat Colin 6-2 two weeks ago, and last week he held off Drew for two in a row. Evan Longoria and Ian Desmond each hit three homers, but the team managed just a 2-3 record on offense. The pitching was good not great, but Drew's an asshole who doesn't check the league so Kurt was able to just manage his staff to victory. These are the two hottest teams in the league right now, and I'm anticipating big numbers and close categories across the board.

(season series TJ 7-3)

Mid-Season Review!!!

Drew Donovan: 32-70-8 (.327), 32.5/21 GB

Offense: 16-34-5 (.336)

Defense: 16-36-3 (.318)

Keeper Delta: -1943 (average: -388.6)

    CC Sabbathia: -128 (51-179)

    Michael Bourne:  -225 (80-305)

    Justin Verlander: -89 (13-102)

    David Price: -895 (25-920)

    Will Middlebrooks (last round): -606 (133-739) (DROPPED)

What's gone right: Nothing.  

What's gone wrong: Everything.  All 5 of his keepers have been enormous disappointments and three of his top 5 draft picks (Billy Butler, Yovani Gallardo, Ian Kennedy) are ranked at least 200 spots lower than their projected rankings.  Drew was definitely unlucky with all of those guys, and most of us would have made the same moves if we had Drew's roster from last year.  What pisses me off is his total lack of competition in the league this year.  Despite being in last place the entire year and not winning a single week along the way he has made the least amount of moves (8).  He is averaging less than one move a week and his last move was May 9, which is probably the last time he bothered to check the league.  Asdrubal Cabrera was placed on the DL on June 5 and expects to miss a month or more - Drew is starting him at shortshop and most likely will continue to because he doesn't give a shit.  He has real-life active players on his DL and real-life DL players in his active line-up.  It's bull shit.

Richie Travers: 38-65-7 (.377), 27/16.5 GB

Offense: 12-40-3 (.245)

Defense: 26-25-4 (.509)

Keeper Delta: -1701 (average: -340.2)

    Prince Fielder: -27 (12-39)

    Hanley Ramirez: -947 (106-1053)

    Stephen Strasburg: -65 (14-79)

    Felix Hernandez: +12 (26-14) (TRADED)

    Aramis Ramirez (12th round): -674 (59-733)

What's gone right: Richie made a good run in the middle/late rounds of the draft, picking Mike Napoli (85th), Sergio Romo (88th), and Carlos Gomez (15th) in consecutive rounds.  The pitching staff that was supposed to hold this team back has actually been the only thing keeping this team somewhat competitive, posting a .509 winning percentage.

What's gone wrong:  Alot more than what's gone right.  The offense is the worst in the league, triggering a Felix Hernandez-David Wright trade with Alex.  Hanley and Aramis Ramirez have only played a combined 50 games.  An argument could be made that maybe keeping Chris Davis as a floating keeper for a last-round pick may have been a good decision.  First-round pick BJ Upton might have been the worst pick in the draft.  Richie has dropped his final five picks of the draft (Tommy Handon, Adam Dunn, James MacDonald, Jackie Bradley Jr, Kenly Jensen).  Stephen Strasburg is 3-6 with a 2.50 ERA thanks to the third-worst run support in Major League Baseball.  

Colin Lancey: 47-57-6 (.455), 18.5/7 GB

Offense: 21-31-3 (.409)

Defense: 26-26-3 (.500)

Keeper Delta: -1495 (average: -299)

    Miguel Cabrera: 0 (2-2)

    Jason Heyward: -758 (30-788)

    Starlin Castro: -284 (39-323)

    Cole Hamels: -450 (35-485)

    Mike Trout (last round): -3 (1-4)

What's gone right: Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout are just about as deadly a duo that you can form, and they're backing up their reputations again this year.  Colin seems to have repeated his free agent mastery this year in picking up shortstop Jean Segura, who is currently ranked 12th and is the early favorite for the "best bang for the floating keeper buck" next year.  Colin made a fantastic decision in picking strikeout leader and Cy Young candidate Yu Darvish in the first round, and got a steal with Hyun-Jin Ryu (90th) in the late rounds.  At the halfway point, Colin owns 4 of the top 12 players in fantasy baseball.

What's gone wrong: Aside from Cabrera and Trout, the keepers have been terrible.  There is no mid-tier players on this team; everyone is either amazing or horrendus, and there are more of the latter.  Not enough firepower on offense.  He's the only person to lose to Richie this year, which is super embarrassing.

Jarrett Staaf:  54-53-3 (.505), 13/1.5 GB

Offense: 23-31-1 (.427)

Defense: 33-20-2 (.618)

Keeper Delta: -454 (average: -90.8)

    Clayton Kershaw: 0 (11-11)

    Ryan Braun: -79 (3-82)

    Josh Hamilton: -320 (24-344)

    Paul Goldschmidt: +36 (42-6)

    Yoenis Cespedes (15th Round): -91 (27-118)   

What's gone right:  De-fense!  De-fense!  Jarrett's pitching staaf is awesome.  He's 19-3 in ERA/WHIP.  He excelled in the mid to late rounds of the draft; starting in the 13th round he picked Everth Cabrera (dropped on April 10, ouch), Manny Machado (ranked 34th), Yoenis Cespedes, Milky Cabrera, Alceides Escobar, Nelson Cruz (ranked 66th), John Lackey (way outperforming his projections), and Shelby Miller (ranked 23rd).  Unfortunately the four preceeding picks were...

What's gone wrong:  John Lester (sucking), Aaron Hill (10 GP), Brett Anderson (5 starts, out until at least August), and Miguel Montero (general suckage).  If he could have hit on a couple more picks in this area he would be killing it.  But with a record over .500, there's more that's gone right than wrong.

Kurt Gottschalk: 54-50-6 (.518), 11.5 GB

Offense: 31-22-2 (.581)

Defense: 23-28-4 (.455)

Keeper Delta: -188 (average: -37.6)

    Joey Votto: -17 (7-26)

    Evan Longoria: -6 (21-27)

    Carlos Gonzalez: +7 (8-1)

    Buster Posey: -51 (29-80)

    Bryce Harper (17th round): -121 (19-140)

What's gone right:  Kurt nailed his keepers again this year, with all core four keepers ranking in the top 80 (and three in the top 27).  He had the best Keeper Delta, which is even more impressive when you consider that his keepers were all pre-ranked in the top 29.  Bryce Harper’s low rank is more reflective of his time on the DL rather than under-producing.  Kurt had a really solid draft, picking some of his better performers later on (Carlos Beltran in the 15th, Alex Cobb in the 20th).  Jordan Zimmerman was one of the better selections in the first round.  The offense leads the league in runs, home runs, and average.

What's gone wrong:  The all-starter strategy hasn’t worked to perfection with Kurt, as he’s only 5-3-3 in wins on the year.  ERA/WHIP is his biggest issue, posting a combined 7-15 record in those categories.  He ran into a bit of bad luck early on, which seems to be correcting itself.

Adrian Macdonald: 55-50-5 (.523), 11 GB

Offense: 36-17-2 (.673)

Defense: 19-33-3 (.373)

Keeper Delta: -851 (average: -170.2)

Matt Kemp: -452 (5-457)

Dustin Pedroia: -11 (20-31)

Adrian Beltre: -20 (17-37)

Johny Cueto: -31 (70-101)

Chase Headley (last round): -329 (177-446)

What’s gone right:  The offense, clearly.  Adrian has 4 of the top 22 offensive players (Dustin Pedroia, Adrian Beltre, Domonic Brown and Everth Cabrera).  He did pretty well early in the draft as 3 of his top 4 picks are meeting or exceeding expectations (Cliff Lee, Brandon Phillips, and Jonathan Papelbon).  It’s been a solid bounce-back year from last year’s chump.

What’s gone wrong:  The pitching almost entirely negates all the good the offense has done.  His team names are too cute.  Adrian might have had the worst draft this year - take a look at his picks after round 4:

Austin Jackson (39 GP)

Fernando Rodney (sucks)

Dan Haren (cut)

Ike Davis (cut - AAA)

JJ Putz (hasn’t pitched since May 7)

Shane Victorino (cut)

Matt Harrison (cut)

Erik Aybar (cut)

Jaime Garcia (cut)

Wandy Rodriguez (only decent pick)

Yasiel Puig (cut)

Chase Headley (floating keeper)

Alex Gentilli:  56-48-6 (.536), 9.5 GB

Offense: 32-21-2 (.600)

Defense:24-27-4 (.473)

Keeper Delta: -742 (average: -148.4)

Andrew McCutchen: -24 (6-30)

Giancarlo Stanton: -657 (10-667)

David Wright: -22 (23-45) (TRADED)

Chris Sale: +26 (57-31)

Anthony Rizzo (last round): -63 (64-127)

What’s gone right:  Alex is getting (or got) decent production from most of his keepers; they are mostly in the minus but it’s difficult to have two top ten guys reproduce so highly.  Nabbing David Ortiz in the 22nd round may have been the steal of the draft.

What’s gone wrong:  Despite having more pitchers rank in the top 100 (6) than hitters (3), he is a sub-.500 defense.  Alex has been bit by the injury bug worse than most, with Curtis Granderson, Giancarlo Stanton and Chase Utley missing significant time.

James Maimonis:  60-46-4 (.564), 6.5 GB

Offense: 35-19-1 (.645)

Defense: 25-27-3 (.482)

Keeper Delta: -1009 (average: -201.8)

Troy Tulowitzki: +2 (16-14)

Gio Gonzalez:-139 (58-197)

Jose Reyes: -892 (18-910)

Matt Holliday: -7 (45-52)

Adam Jones (10th round): +27 (33-6)

What’s gone right:  Adam Jones and Troy Tulowitzki is one of the better 1-2 punches in the DD.  Matt Holliday is as steady as they come.  James had an excellent draft with very few misses.  With the exception of R.A. Dickey, he hit on all his early picks and excelled in the late rounds (Clay Buchholtz in the 15th, Hisashi Iwakuma in the 18th, and Starling Marte in the 22nd).

What’s gone wrong:  Not much.  Tulowitzki has taken his annual trip to the DL, Jose Reyes has been out since April 10, and Pablo Sandoval is a little banged up.  When those guys return, James will just be that much better.

Ben O’Connor: 60-44-6 (.573), 5.5 GB

Offense: 31-23-1 (.573)

Defense: 29-21-5 (.573)

Keeper Delta: -311 (average: -62.2)

Robinson Cano: -42 (4-46)

Adrian Gonzalez: -83 (47-130)

Jacoby Ellsbury: +1 (37-36)

Matt Cain: -200 (34-234)

Edwin Encarnacion (12th round): +13 (32-19)

What’s gone right:  Excellent production from his keepers.  11-0 in the SB category.  Owns one of the best rotations in Adam Wainwright (9th), Max Scherzer (10th), and Hiroki Kuroda (75th).  Triple-crown threat Chris Davis almost wins weeks singlehandedly.  Great run in the middle rounds of the draft, picking Edwin Encarnacion (19th), Joe Nathan (69th), Chris Davis (3rd) and Greg Holland (93rd) in rounds 12-16.

What’s gone wrong:  Pretty much nothing.  He’s been mostly healthy all year and Matt Cain is coming back to life after a slow start.

TJ Geers:  65-38-7 (.623), 0 GB

Offense: 26-25-4 (.509)

Defense: 39-13-3 (.736)

Keeper Delta: -341 (average: -68.2)

Justin Upton: -39 (22-61)

Albert Pujols: -70 (9-79)

Jose Bautista: -33 (15-48)

Ian Kinsler: -187 (28-215)

Homer Bailey (last round): -12 (167-179)

What’s gone right:  I can’t believe I picked TJ to finish last in the pre-season rankings.  Literally cannot believe it.  That’s an offense that should get me kicked out of the league.  I think it’s clear to everyone that my ability to evaluate fantasy baseball players and rosters has never been stronger, which is only confirmed by my championships.

No standout all-stars on offense (highest ranked is Jay Bruce at 43rd) but lots of good players here.  6 ranked in the top 66.  The pitching is the real dominating factor though.  TJ is the only team to achieve a .700 winning percentage or better on one side of the ball, and only one of two teams to have both offense and defense over .500 (Ben is the other).  Matt Harvey is a beast.  Jason Grilli in the 20th round might have been the steal of the draft.  TJ leads the league in saves and WHIP.  I still laugh every time I read “Clay Buttholes”.

What’s gone wrong:  GTFO with that shit.  He’s in first place!

Weekly Matchups - Week 11

Week 11's installment of the DDWPIPOTCFFBE (Diamond Dynasty Weekly Preview In Pursuit Of The Chalice For Fantasy Baseball Excellence)

Last week – TJ beats up on Ben to retake first place but a controversial trade overshadows the week

Sleepy's® "Snoozer of the Week" – Drew (10^th) vs Adrian (7^th)

The beat goes on for Drew, who is still searching for his first win. He may not be aware but he managed to tie Richie 5-5 last week, breaking a 9 week losing streak. He's 10-10 against Richie, but just 20-52-8 (.300%) against everyone else. The offense numbers were pedestrian again except for his fantastic .330 average. He had 8 guys hit .308 or better, and 3 above .407. Drew won three pitching categories this week, dominating wins (which is easy to do if your opponent has 1), winning comfortably in k's and eeking out WHIP. He'll have a tougher go of it this week against Adrian, who has been floating in the playoff bubble range for 2 solid months now. Last week didn't help, dropping a 6-4 decision to Colin who's fighting to get back into the playoff picture. Adrian outlasted Colin by one home run, 4 RBI's, and one stolen base. Domonic Brown put together another great week, rolling 6/3/7/2/.346 and really contributing well in every category. Adrian Beltre went deep three times too. But on defense he could only manage to take saves, a small accomplishment against a closer-less Colin. Adrian, what in the hell is that picture?? I think it's a bullet? I'm guessing it's the 1953 Washington Bullets logo.

(season series Adrian 6-2)

Dell's® "Dull Duel" – Richie (9^th) vs TJ (1^st)

Richie, Richie, Richie. Ah, what could have been. A win last week against Colin, your first chance at a bona fide winning streak in 2013 against lowly Drew...and you play the last place team to a tie. Even more embarrassing, you're the only team to play Drew twice, and the only team to not beat him! You could look at the match-up and say that a .314 average should be enough to win (Drew hit .330) but on the other hand, 3 SB ain't nothin' special (Drew had 2). Richie had WHIP until the final day, slipping and eventually losing the category by .06...whips...Hanley Ramirez came back for a solid 5 minutes before the hamstring started acting up again. But the biggest blow was losing Stephen Strasburgh to strained lat one week after dealing away Felix Hernandez, leaving his rotation paper thin. He'll have to step up his game this week against TJ as another mediocre effort will definitely not be enough to beat the first placemen. TJ beat Ben 7-3 last week to retake first place in the DD, but his week was nothing to write home about. Jay Bruce had the best week on the team, hitting two homers, driving in 7, and batting .381. Despite the lack luster performance, he still won 4 of 5 offensive categories. The pitching was good enough, taking 3 of 5. As this is posting is a little late, we can already see that TJ is out to an early 7-2 lead (Desmond Jennings was a free agent on Friday and now already has 2 home runs, give me a fucking break. This year will never end.) Richie is looking to fight back from an 8-1 loss in week 2.

(season series TJ 8-1).

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

In another edition of the Summit Series, Kurt hopes to avenge his 7-1 loss to Colin way back in week 2. These are two teams heading in opposite directions. Kurt hasn't lost in 6 weeks (4-0-2) and battled James to a 5-5 tie last week in a tightly contested match-up (we'll get back to that), while Colin won for the first time in 5 weeks last week with a 6-4 win over Adrian. Lancey led the league with a .337 average but fell just short in HR, RBI, and SB. He had more guys hit over .400 than under .300, pretty impressive. Colin also managed to put up a non-closer shutout on defense, taking each category with ease. 2 gold stars go to Kris Medlen with 2 wins, 12 K's, z-e-r-o ERA and 0.95 WHIP. Let's shift the focus to Kurt, who had 13 starts by Thursday morning and had K's locked up early on. That prompted James, who was sporting a miniscule ERA and WHIP, to bench his pitchers in an effort to combat the deluge of starts. In response to James's move, Kurt made a controversial trade, which was more of a player loan, with Alex. Kurt acquired closers for the weekend in exchange for a couple starters that were slated to start over the weekend, starts which Alex needed in his match-up against Jarrett. The two reversed the trade once the week was over. The trade was met with much animosity and it will force all of us to re-evaluate the competitive health of this league that we all love so much. Freddy Douglas once said “If these is no struggle, there is no progress.” If fantasy baseball leagues are important enough to have landmark moments, this would be it.

(season series Colin 7-1)

The Post-It® "Noteworthy Match-up" – James (3^rd) vs Jarrett (5^th)

After winning 4 of 5 weeks, James has cooled off a bit. He's thrown up 5-5 ties in the last two weeks to middle-of-the-pack teams (Adrian and Kurt), and he's got another opponent in that same zip code this week. James could only manage to win 2 offensive categories last week, taking homers 10-9 and steals 7-3. Troy Tulowitzki had one of the best individual performances this year at an 8/4/8/0/.429 clip. Matt Holliday was excellent as well, scoring 8 runs and hitting .409. He's facing Jarrett this week, who is still looking for his first win against an opponent outside the bottom 3. He lost last week to Alex 7-3 in a close one. Paul Goldschmidt continues to impress (12 RBI) and Yoenis Cespedes jacked 4 dingers, but it was only enough for a 1-4 record on offense. The pitching was only slightly better, and the lack of closers already handicaps the score. Can Jarrett finally beat a quality opponent? Or will James get back to his winning ways?

(season series 5-5)

Diamond Strike Anywhere Matches® "Match-Up of the Week" – Alex (4^th) vs Ben (2^nd)

And the battle royale this week is between two very different manager strategies. Alex leads the league in moves but finds himself two games behind Ben, who has made the third least. Alex won 7-3 over Jarrett last week, posting big time offensive numbers. He's won 4 of 5 and 6 of 8. He did most of his damage last week on Tuesday and Thursday, combining for 10 runs, 7 homers, 27 RBI, and a .330-ish average. Gentilli had some phenominal offensive performances too, with David Ortiz, Mark Teixeira, and Yasiel Puig combining for 10 bombs and 30 RBI's – but no stolen bases, so not that good. Alex, where in the hell are you going to put Granderson in when he gets back? McCutchen ain't goin' anywhere, Michael Cuddyer is 52^nd overall, Puig is a rookie sensation, and Stanton is Stanton. Even if you wanted to move Cuddyer to 1B/CI, you'd have to bench Rizzo or Ortiz! A true embarrassment of riches. The ratios were a little high on defense, costing him ERA and WHIP but he took home the accruing statistics. He's got Ben this week, who had first place in his hands for a blink of an eye before falling to TJ 7-3. Ben wore the offense dunce cap last week, hitting 4 homers, driving in just 19, and hitting a putrid .227. Jacoby Ellsbury was one of the few bright spots, stealing 3 bases (now leads the AL) and hitting .462 in limited action. Not much of a spot starter, Ben lost wins and K's. He split the ratios and gave TJ his first loss in saves. If Chris Davis Ben can have a bounce back week, this should be one hell of a battle. Oh yeah, and Alex is probably looking for revenge on that whole 10-0 shutout in week 2.

(season series Ben 10-0)

Weekly Matchups - Week 10

Week 10's installment of the DDWPIPOTCFFBE (Diamond Dynasty Weekly Preview In Pursuit Of The Chalice For Fantasy Baseball Excellence)

Last week – Ben wins big to take first place and Richie wins his first week of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sleepy's® "Snoozer of the Week" – Drew (10^th) vs Richie (9^th)

The start of revenge season is upon us, and we start off with a bang. These two squads stunk up the first time through the rotation like no pairing ever has, combining for a record of 1-14-1 (1-14-3 when you count their 5-5 tie in the first week). But lets get to the good news first;

I WON I WON I WON THERE IS A GOD I WON OH MY SWEET BABY JESUS I WON.

Richie finally won his first week of the year, 7-3 against floundering Colin. After winning just 2 offensive categories in the last 6 weeks, he went 4-1 and only lost stolen bases by 1. It took level contribution from everyone across the board including the newly acquired David Wright, who had a sub-par week (4/1/2/0/.231) but still helped to win the HR category 10-9. Mike Napoli had a grand slam, 8 RBI's, and a .417 batting average. The defense was good enough, as Colin struggled to post a quality ERA/WHIP. The win broke a 4 week losing streak and an 8 week win-less streak. Travers's lineup gets a boost this week also as Hanley Ramirez (4 GP) will be activated from the DL (hamstring). Richie gets Drew this week, who's been stuck in last almost all year. He had a decent week last week but couldn't keep up with Ben and lost 8-2. That marks 8 losses in a row for Drew. The only team he hasn't lost to is Richie (tie) in week 1. Everything that could go wrong for Drew has gone wrong. His offense, to the surprise of no one, is too thin to compete. And while he's always been able to hang his hat on the staff, this year is quite different. Drew has 6 guys on his pitching staff with O-Ranks under 100; only one of them (Aroldis Chapman) is ranked in the top 100. Who would have thought that Ricky Nolasco would be a better fantasy option than Yovani Gallardo, CC Sabathia, Ian Kennedy, and David Price. Even mighty Justin Verlander is ranked 156^th. It's a battle of season-long cellar-dwellers in the snoozer of the week.

(season series 5-5)

Dell's® "Dull Duel" – Colin (8^th) vs Adrian (6^th)

Colin looks for revenge this week against Adrian after a 5-4 loss in week 1. Last week Colin dropped an embarrassing one, losing to a win-less Richie 7-3. He had pretty weak numbers across the board offensively, putting up just 25 RBI's and a .258 BA. The loss is his third in a row and he is moving in the wrong direction. The always dependable Crout failed to carry the load this week, combining for just 3 homers (all Cabrera), no steals, and hit .250. He did dominate the wins and strikeouts category, but his lack of closers and high ratios hurt him in the end. He faces off against Adrian this week, who I'm pretty sure has been in 6^th just about every week. Guy just lives for being on the bubble. He tied James last week 5-5 behind a solid staff that won 6 games and struck out 75 nerds. Cliff Lee led the way with 2 wins, 19 strikeouts, and a sparkling ERA/WHIP. Other than Domonic Brown who is lighting the league on fire (4/3/8/1/.545) the offense wasn't able to make a real impact, dropping 4 of the 5 categories. The winner of this one should be able to inject themselves back into the thick of the race.

(season series Adrian 5-4)

The Average Match of the Week presented by Not Your Average Joe's – Kurt (7^th) vs James (3^rd)

In a rematch of league officials (James are you still the treasurer?), both Kurt and James are coming off of 5-5 ties. Kurt couldn't fully take advantage of Jarrett's rough offensive week, missing out on average by just a few hits. He had a pretty awful effort on defense, netting just 2 wins and really high ERA/WHIP digits. This was starting to look like a typical 6-4 win from Kurt – his modus operandi as of late – but it was not to be. James is coming off a tie with Adrian and his offense continues to roll with really solid numbers across the board (minus a tough .245 average). Kendry Morales was a big contributior, hitting two homers and knocking in 7. James's 5 saves were juuuust enough to take saves, but that was all he had on the defensive side. He wasn't awful, but Adrian had a pretty good week. This should be a showdown with some serious offensive firepower.

(season series 5-5)

The Post-It® "Noteworthy Match-up" – Jarrett (4^th) vs Alex (5^th)

It's a battle of bigs as Jarrett plays Alex this week. Jarrett tied Kurt 5-5 last week, but no thanks to his offense. His 3 homer output is the second worst behind Drew's 2 longballs last week. As you can imagine, the RBI's were fairly low too (34) but not as low as expected given the low homerun total. The one thing his team did do was run – to the tune of 11 stolen bases. Jose Altuve led the way with 4 SB, and even Paul Goldschmidt had 2 swipes to go with 8 runs scored and 7 RBI's. That guy is really coming into his own. Alex lost to TJ last week 6-2 to snap a 3 week winning streak. This was by far the closest match up last week, with every single category decided by 6 or less (except ERA/WHIP). This one could have gone either way but unfortunately for Alex he fell a little short. He didn't get much from Mark Teixeira in his first couple games back from the DL. Newly acquired Felix Hernandez was his normal amazing self, striking out 6 with fantastic ratios and winning his only start. Alex will look to get back to the W column and hold Jarrett off from avenging the 6-4 loss in week 1.

(season series Alex 6-4)

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

For the second time in three weeks we have a 1-2 match-up! This time around TJ will try to steal from first place against Ben, who's coming off of two big 8-2 wins. Granted, the wins came against two struggling teams (Colin and Drew) but wins are wins. Last week, his team posted arguably the best performance of 2013, scoring 46 runs, hitting 16 homers (!), driving home 40, stealing 14 (!), and hitting three fucking nineteen. Just let those numbers sink in for a minute....

Good. So who were the MVP's? You could say it was Ryan Zimmerman, going deep three times and hitting .321. Or, you could up the ante and take Edwin Encarnacion's 3 homers, 9 RBI, and .333 average. Both excellent production. But the real MVP was Chris Davis, who has posted some of the most incredible stat lines this year. Last week he went absolutely bonkers – 10 runs scored, 4 homers, 6 ribbies, and a .481 average. Jacoby Ellsbury's 5 steals in one game were enough to beat Drew's total for the week (Ellsbury finished with 6). It was certainly a bit of the stars aligning for Ben and this production isn't going to come every week, but just the fact that he's been to these heights has to be a great confidence boost. The pitching was decent but only managed a 2-3 mark. It'll be interesting to see if the offense can keep it rolling this week as he takes on TJ, who is in the midst of a 3 week winning streak. He held on to a bunch of tight categories last week to win 6-2. Freedie Freeman went 5/2/6/0/.433 to lead the way for the Buttholes. TJ won 7-2 over Ben in week 1, but that was a much different team than now. With TJ only trailing by .5 games and James 3 games behind, the winner of this battle will most likely be our first place team heading into week 11.

(season series TJ 7-2)

One Pointless Observation About Everyone's Team to Make Richie Feel Like He's Not the Only One Doing the Blog

The title pretty much says it all.  So here we go, in the order of standings:

1. Ben-  Have a glance at Ben's roster and nothing really jumps out at you.  His keepers have been somewhat disappointing.  Well, not disappointing. we'll call it pedestrian. 
Matt Cain has been downright bad, Ellsbury has been alright. Cano well below expectations. Gonzalez is lacking keeper-worthy power at 1B. How is he in first? Should we revisit the luck index?
Holy Shit Chris Davis is the 2nd ranked player in baseball.
In case you are wondering, yes, my observation for Ben's team is that he has Chris Davis.

2. TJ-  The league's most absentee manager (in terms of events, Drew is most withdrawn from managing a team) is in second place, as evidenced by the 2 next to his name.  His closer-heavy strategy has seen two closers go on the DL, so now he kind of has a normal amount of closers.  But that's not the observation.   On a team that has Albert Pujols, Jose Bautista, Ryan Howard, Jay Bruce, Ian Kinsler and Freddie Freeman, the second highest rated offensive player behind Justin Upton is Josh Donaldson. 
Don't adjust your computer monitors. or iPhones, iPads, competitor's versions of those products. I feel like no one is actually reading this on a computer monitor.  The second best team in the league's second best hitter is Josh Donaldson.

3. James- Ok, I'm running out of time, so starting with Mams these will be shorter.  Mams has a good outfield, as we've all heard, but oddly enough when I was checking it. He has the 41st, 42nd, and 44th ranked players according to Yahoo!  All in his outfield! Weird.  Hopefully soon I will find out who #43 is...

4. Jarrett- He had 9 players ranked in the preseason top 100.  He has 8 players ranked in the top 100 now.  Not bad, you might think.  However, only 3 of those players ranked right now were preseason ranked in the top 100.  Conclusion: Jarrett is a really good judge of talent, or Jarrett is a really bad judge of talent.

5. Alex- His DL just makes me sad. Granderson, Utley, Stanton, and Josh Johnson.  All former keepers.  Most former keepers of Alex.  What a sad DL. I was going to write for James that he also had 4 players on the DL, but Alex's DL is made up of all former or current keepers.  James' could be if Drew keeps Jim Henderson next year (not ruling it out) and the other two pitchers come back and be good again.

6. Adrian- Holy DLs.  Adrian has 6 DL'ed players, along with an NA.  I would call Adrian out for not paying attention or updating his roster but I got a message from him the other day saying something along the lines of: "Fuck, another player on paternity leave"

7. Kurt- Only one pitcher drafted was in the preseason top 100.  At this juncture, six drafted pitchers are in the top 100.  Not bad.

8. Colin- And we have reached the biggest keeper spread in the league!  Mike Trout = 1 overall.  Cole Hamels = 873 overall.  The two best players in baseball alone do not a team make.

9. Richie- It's been a rough year for the Richman, so I will go easy on him.  Carlos Gomez was a really nice draft pick!

10. Drew- He has no pitchers ranked in the top 50!  What!? his highest ranked pitcher is Chapman at 52.  His next best? AJ Burnet at 111.  Unbelievable.  You can spot start a better pitching staff.  Yes, this is the same team that kept the past two AL Cy Young Award Winners.

Oh yeah, the 43rd ranked player is Adrian Beltre