Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Weekly Matchups - Week 20

Week 20's installment of the DDWPIPOTCFFBE (Diamond Dynasty Weekly Preview In Pursuit Of The Chalice For Fantasy Baseball Excellence)

Last week – 4 blowouts drastically change the landscape with under a month to play in the regular season, and two teams bolster their roster for the playoff run as the trade deadline passes.  Who the hell called this season boring?

Sleepy's® "Snoozer of the Week" – Drew (9th) vs Adrian (8th)

It's an easy pick for the Snoozer of the week as Drew takes on Adrian in the only contest of non-playoff teams.  Drew is all but mathematically eliminated from post-season play after tying Richie 5-5.  Adrian was dealt a crushing blow to his playoff hopes in the form of a 9-1 thrashing at Colin's hands.  The Marathon Man had a putrid offensive effort at the worst possible time, posting only 5 homers, 24 RBI, and a .256 average - but even an above average week probably wouldn't have been enough against Colin last week.  The loss drops him 10.5 GB of the playoffs and with bye-week hopefuls TJ and Alex to close the season, Adrian's 2013 campaign is in grave danger.  Adrian has kicked ass against Drew this season but he'll need his biggest victory yet to get back into the playoff discussion.

(season series Adrian 14-4).

Dell's® "Dull Duel" – Richie (10th) vs TJ (4th)

Alfonso Soriano tied Drew last week 5-5 behind one of the most impressive fantasy weeks a mortal can have on the diamond.  His insane 9/5/18/2/.484 slash line is one rarely seen.  The output helped Richie take 3 categories on offense, but one of the season's worst pitching performances left Travers with just a 5-5 tie.  Richie had zero wins, just 34 strike outs, and a 6.23 ERA/1.46 WHIP.  On the final day of the non-waiver trade deadline Richie secured two 10th round picks in the 2014 draft, shipping the aforementioned Soriano and Giants closer Sergio Romo to Ben and Doug Fister, Mariano Rivera, and Ben Zobrist to Jarrett.  Those moves, along with Alex's 14th overall pick in the Felix Hernandez deal, gives Richie 3 extra picks next year.  So I got that goin' for me....which is nice.  TJ had a week to forget last week in a highly anticipated matchup against Ben.  After dominating O'Connor in the previous two meetings, Geers lost 9-0.  The loss, coupled with big wins from others, dropped TJ all the way down to fourth place.  This marks the first time in months that TJ does not hold one of the top two spots, and it's obviously coming at a bad time.  It was a bad week all around for TJ as both the offense and defense left much to be desired in what was a very winnable week.  At 7.5 games out of a bye with three struggling teams on the menu (Richie, Adrian, and Kurt), he's down but not out, and definitely not with that season series score!

(season series TJ 17-2)

The Average Match of the Week presented by Not Your Average Joe's – James (2nd) vs Jarrett (7th)

Alright good, we got 8th-10th place out of the way early.  All teams yet to be discussed are viciously fighting for playoff seeding and every game counts from here on out.  We'll start with James, who won 7-3 last week against Kurt and actually got passed in the standings by Ben.  Nevertheless, Maimonis is sitting pretty in second place, 5 games up on the nearest competitor. With the unbeaten streak at 13 games, James has clearly developed a team with no holes and he will be a really tough out in the playoffs.  Jarrett is the caboose in a three-team battle for the final two playoff spots after losing 7-2 to Alex.  The match was much, much closer than the score would suggest, as Staaf lost categories by 1 run, 1 homer, .010 BA, 1 win and .05 WHIP.  If the standings stay as is, Jarrett will have closed the season with 6 straight playoff opponents which is a hell of a way to make a playoff push.  Staaf acquired some help for his playoff push (Doug Fister, Mariano Rivera, and Ben Zobrist) from Richie in exchange for his 10th overall draft pick, something that might help him fight through his devil of a schedule.  He currently sits 4.5 games out of the playoffs but will need to play his best fantasy baseball to make it to the dance.  To his credit, Jarrett has played James tough this year, tying 5-5 in week 2 and losing 6-4 in week 11.

(season series James 11-9)

The Post-It® "Noteworthy Match-up" – Alex (3rd) vs Ben (1st)

This week's Noteworthy Match-up is actually the best match on paper, featuring two of the hottest teams in the league.  Ben's 9-0, Alpha male win over a strong TJ team has him looking down on the rest of the league for another week.  Last week Chris Davis popped another 3 dingers and hit over .400 and the pitching was fantastic, throwing up 8 W, 7 S, 81 K,  2.59 ERA and 1.03 WHIP.  The best got better over the weekend as he added Sergio Romo and  Alfonso Soriano for a 10th round pick. Ben has won three in a row but faces a tough task this week.  Alex has won 4 in a row following a 7-2 victory over Jarrett and has moved all the way up to third in the standings. Alex's schedule sets up nicely for him as he gets Richie and Adrian to end the year, and a win against Ben this week would give him a great shot at second or even first.  Both of these guys are comfortably in the playoff picture for 2013 and are now just jockeying for position.  Alex has yet to avenge the 10-0 loss from week 2 as he's 0-2 against O'Connor on the season.

(season series Ben 16-4)

Diamond Strike Anywhere Matches® "Match-Up of the Week" – Kurt (6th) vs Colin (5th)

These two teams are dead even in the standings, though Colin does have the slight advantage.  A note on how I believe Yahoo! calculates this (my apologies if this is common knowledge):  

Yahoo counts a tie as half a win, so a 6-3 win would result in a .650 winning percentage.  But they also recognize that two ties (two half-wins so to speak) does not equal one actual win (which I agree).  So the percentages are the same, but it's favored to the team that has more wins.  Seems fair to me. 

But while their records are virtually identical, Kurt and Colin are trending in very different directions.  A few weeks ago, Colin was mired in a 4 week losing streak, buried in 8th place and fading in the stands.  But he had a couple cupcakes on the schedule and took full advantage, following an 8-1 beat down on Richie two weeks ago with an even more dominant 9-1 win against Adrian last week.  He's had solid numbers across the board the past two weeks which suggests that it's his performance, and not his opponents, that have helped turn his fates around.  And in the middle of it, as always, are Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout.  Over the past two weeks, they have combined for 22/11/32/5/.400.  Sick and absurd people, sick and absurd.  I always thought this team was too top heavy NOT to make some post-season noise, and I think we're finally seeing it.  Shifting our focus to the other side of the coin, Kurt is in a tail spin.  He's lost two in a row and four of five after his 10 game unbeaten streak and has fallen under .500 for the first time in (I'm guessing) roughly 4 months.  With three horses racing for two spots, the remaining strength of schedule looks like this:

Kurt - .477
Colin - .523
Jarrett - .570

A blowout would place the winner firmly in fifth, and the loser in a dogfight for the six seed with Jarrett.  Huge playoff implications in this week's Match-Up of the Week!
(season series Colin 9-7)


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