Week 17's installment of the
DDWPIPOTCFFBE (Diamond Dynasty Weekly Preview In Pursuit Of The
Chalice For Fantasy Baseball Excellence)
Last week – James dominates Ben
and moves up to second, Richie gets his first winning streak of the
season, and the Trade Deadline BBQ helps to heat up trade talks.
Sleepy's® "Snoozer of the
Week" – Colin (8th)
vs Ben (3rd)
Colin
and Ben draw the short straw this week as they're both slumping at a
bad time. Colin is the coldest team in the league, riding his second
three-game losing streak of the year. He made the only deal at the
cookout, shipping Jean Segura and Kyle Lohse for Chris Sale and Glen
Perkins. The trade bolsters his pitching staff (already above .500
not counting the saves category) and gives him a third reliable
closer with Bobby Parnell and Steve Cishek. Colin lost a tough one
last week against Alex. 6 RBI's, 1 win, .07 ERA and .08 WHIP marked
the fine line between a win and a loss. The Wil Myers trade looks
like it's starting to pay off as he went 5/3/8/1/.429 (what an
outfield combo he might have moving forward in Myers and Trout!) Ben
has cooled off recently, dropping two of his last three and playing
two games under .500. James mopped the floor with him last week in a
9-1 drubbing, although it was closer than it looked. Despite 6
saves, a 2.29 ERA, and a 0.93 WHIP Ben lost all three and slipped out
of the top two for the first time in months. Chris Davis finally
went a week without hitting a home run. Max Scherzer had another
good week, posting 2 wins, 12 K's and great ratios. The race for the
bye week is on!
(season series Ben 8-2)
Dell's® "Dull Duel" –
TJ (1st)
vs Jarrett (6th)
TJ held on to beat the suddenly
competitive Drew 5-4 behind a 4-0 pitching shutout. With the win, TJ
re-takes first place by a slim margin over James. Craig Kimbrel
racked up 4 saves and has given up just one run over his last 27
appearances. He'll take on Jarrett this week who beat Adrian 7-3
last week and has won two of three. More importantly, it's Jarrett's
first win against an opponent outside the bottom three (Drew, Richie,
Colin)(but to be fair, Adrian was 7th so its a small
improvement). Jarrett had an Adam Dunn week, knocking 10 homers,
driving in 30, but hitting .197, which might be the low number on the
year for the league. Jose Altuve stole 4 bases and Paul Goldschmidt
drive in 7. On the rubber, Jon Lester was the ace of the staff
netting Jarrett 2 wins, striking out 16, and boasting great ratios.
This week will be a good test for Jarrett to see if he can beat a
quality top 5 opponent, though I bet he would win if he added Prince
Fielder, David Wright, Bartolo Colon, Mike Napoli, and Sergio Romo.
(season series TJ 7-3)
The Average Match of the Week
presented by Not Your Average Joe's – Drew
(10th)
vs Alex (4th)
Drew had his two week winning streak
snapped (barely) last week, dropping a close 5-4 decision to TJ.
Donovan had his best offensive output of the year, hitting 13 homers,
47 RBI's, and a .311 average. He had really solid production from a
number of offensive sources led by Jayson Werth's 7/3/7/1/.385
slashline. Unfortunately the pitching was a big letdown and was
unable to get even one category for the tie. I still don't
completely trust that Drew has come around from his negligence (he's
starting two players on the DL) but to be fair, he has started making
more moves so I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. But
I'll be watching you, Drew. Every move you make, every breath you
take, I'll be watching Yu Darvish. He takes on Alex, who dealt a
promising lefty in Chris Sale for a breakout star this season, Jean
Segura over the weekend. Despite Alex's deep pitching staff, his
offense has actually posted a better record than his defense thus
far. Consistent with that theme, Gentilli beat Colin 6-3 last week
behind a 4-1 effort from his offense. Giancarlo Stanton and Nick
Franklin hit 3 homers each in the victory. Alex was able to snatch
the ERA and WHIP categories despite Ernesto Frieri's 33.75/5.25
efforts to thwart his manager. If Alex loses this week, he might put
himself out of contention for a bye week so this will be one to keep
an eye on.
(season series Alex 6-3-1)
The Post-It® "Noteworthy
Match-up" – Kurt (5th)
vs Adrian (7th)
This match-up could carry with it some
heavy playoff implications. If Kurt wins big, he all but solidifies
himself for the 2013 playoffs. If Adrian wins big, He thrusts
himself back into the playoffs (temporarily) but, more importantly,
drags Kurt back into the clusterfuck of playoff bubble teams. And
Kurt just be ripe for the pickin'. Last week's 5-4 loss to Richie
was his second in a row (and his first official losing streak). The
teams were very evenly matched and were separated by just 4 runs, 2
homers, 2 rbi's, .003 average. The pitching was much the same, as
they tied in wins and split the ERA/WHIP categories. Patrick Corbin
kept the train rolling, winning a start and striking out 14 with
great ratios. The good news for Kurt is Adrian has been playing even
worse, dropping two in a row and four of five. His only win was a
5-4 edging of Ben, but his record over the last 5 weeks is a dismal
14-34-2 (.300%). He had a really poor offensive effort last week
hitting only 5 homers and driving in 16. He somehow won average at
.219. He did get jobbed on the pitching a bit, as his 2.49 ERA was
not enough. Add it all up, and a 7-3 loss to Jarrett put him firmly
in 7th. It's officially playoff push time.
(season series Kurt 6-4)
Diamond Strike Anywhere Matches®
"Match-Up of the Week" – Richie
(9th)
vs James (2nd)
Hey, Winning Streak! I waited a long
time for you! We were good buddies last year, where'd you go?
Look, I kinda need you to stick around
this week...and for the rest of the year. Most people don't think I
have a shot at the playoffs this year – hell, deep down even I have
my doubts. We did good last week to hold off Kurt on the final day.
As you know, he's the 6 Win King and I definitely expected him to
steal some bullshit category for a 6 spot. But look, James is really
good. He's so cocky he's not even starting a catcher! Did you see
last week, when he beat Ben 9-1? Ben! He was in first place! Did
you notice he has 6 pitchers in the top 55 over the last 7 days? He
finally cracked the top two as well. Either way, I'm glad you're
back, Winning Streak. And just in time for the rival! Like I said,
there's only 6 weeks left, why don't you stay a while?
P.S. - Hey, Winning Streak. I'm not
going to question you but I'm not sure a 6.85 ERA after three days is
the right play. Just sayin'.
(season series James 7-2-1)
No comments:
Post a Comment