Tuesday, June 4, 2013

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 (10th) vs Richie (9th)

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 156th. It's a battle of season-long cellar-dwellers in the snoozer of the week.

(season series 5-5)

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

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 6th 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 (7th) vs James (3rd)

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 (4th) vs Alex (5th)

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 (2nd) vs Ben (1st)

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)

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