Week 18's installment of the
DDWPIPOTCFFBE (Diamond Dynasty Weekly Preview In Pursuit Of The
Chalice For Fantasy Baseball Excellence)
Last week – Little movement in the
standings as the top 5 all win and the bottom 5 all lose
Sleepy's® "Snoozer of the
Week" – Drew (10th) vs Ben (3rd)
Drew lost 6-4 last
week to Alex. He hit one home run. Last week I pointed out that
he's starting two guys on the DL – they're still starting. That's all I'll say about that. Ben
outlasted Colin 6-4 last week behind some stellar pitching. 6 wins,
80 K's, a 2.00 ERA and 1.06 WHIP will win you a lot of weeks. His
worst pitcher was Adam Wainwright, go figure. Chris Davis was back
to his mashing ways (3 homers) and Brian McCann had his best week of
the season (3/3/9/.300). It was an important bounce back win for Ben
to keep pace with the top 2 after his 9-1 loss to James last week.
He is solidly in 3rd place and projects to be there for at
least another week before moving up or down the standings.
Interesting to note that Ben has made significantly less moves than
the others teams in the top four (TJ, James, and Alex happen to be
the top three in moves). Ben's looking for his first back to back
wins since weeks 12-13 and is the heavy favorite, but the standings
should remain virtually unaffected regardless of this outcome.
(season series Ben 8-2)
Dell's® "Dull Duel" –
TJ (1st) vs Alex (4th)
TJ has followed up
a mid-season mini-slump with three straight victories. His latest
was a tightly contested 6-3 win against Jarrett. Geers posted a 4-1
record on defense by really slim margins – 1 win, 2 K's, and
.01 WHIP. He split offense 2-2-1 thanks in large part to his
hometown Atlanta Braves (minus Dan Uggla). Justin Upton and Freedie
Freeman combined for 18 runs, 5 homers (I saw one of Upton's in
Philly on Saturday!), 17 RBI and an average right around .380. TJ
would have taken the RBI category too if
it wasn't for B.J. Shuck. The win allowed TJ to retain first
place for another week but the competition is a little stiffer this
week against Alex. Gentilli has taken care of business lately, going
4-1-1 in his last 6 weeks against mostly the bottom half of the
league. He's unbeaten in his last 3 and is coming off a 6-4 win
against Drew. Anthony Rizzo (3 homers, .310 average) and Andrew
McCutchen (8/1/7/2/.379) were the standouts on offense, and a
resurgent Francisco Liriano (2 win's, 14 K's, sub-1 ratios, ranked
40th on the season) lead the way on defense. Alex owns
three of the top 11 players over the last two weeks in McCutchen,
Liriano, and Yasiel Puig, and just added Curtis Granderson from the
DL. Alex has a tough three game stretch in TJ, Jarrett, and Ben
before closing with Richie and Adrian. He won't miss the playoffs
but a bye is starting to feel out of reach.
(season series TJ 6-2)
The Average Match of the Week
presented by Not Your Average Joe's – Richie (9th)
vs Colin (8th)
Richie saw his modest 2-week winning
streak come to a frustrating end last week.. He fell short by three
runs, one homer, and one stolen base en route to another 7-2-1 loss
to James, the same score as in their previous meeting. Richie fell
to 0-10 offensively against Maimonis on the season and is glad to be
done with him in 2013. The defeat dropped him 16 games back of the
playoffs, and with several key players either on or nearing the DL,
Travers'
2013 season may finally be over. Colin has dropped 4 in a row to
difficult competition (TJ, Alex, and Ben) although he's been able to
avoid a death knell-type loss that would take him out of the hunt.
Lancey lost 6-4 last week to Ben despite Jason Heyward's 12 runs
scored (which I believe is a season-best for any player). As it
currently stands, this week will be the last week Colin comes in as
the favorite though he only has one elite team remaining on the
schedule (James in week 21). It will be an uphill battle but he's
certainly not out of it yet. (And for the record, Colin squares off
against Jarrett in week 22 which could be a win-or-go-home
situation.)
(season series Richie 7-3)
The Post-It® "Noteworthy
Match-up" – Kurt (5th) vs Jarrett
(6th)
Kurt
found his way back to the win column last week after a 5-4 victory
over Adrian. The offense was not good – 4 homers and a .252
average – but he did get one of the better pitching performances of
the year from his staff. Pretty impressive to post 101 K's with only
one spot start! Gottschalk had 5 guys hurl double digit strikeouts
in the win. But the bigger news was his addition of rookie sensation
Shelby Miller. The potential NL Rookie of the Year joins a staff
that's already leading the league in Wins and K's, and should make
Kurt virtually unbeatable in those categories moving forward. He
should also help to lower The Commissioner's ERA and WHIP, which is
currently in the middle of the pack. But you have to give something
to get something and that something was Buster Posey, the best
catcher in fantasy. This looks to be a truly mutually beneficial
deal - Kurt had a servicable back up in Jonathan Lucroy and a lack
of flexibility to keep Posey, and Jarrett had more arms than the
Chinese Army. Just as Richie and Alex faced off the week after their
deal, Kurt and Jarrett draw each other this week. Jarrett's lead
over Adrian for the final playoff spot shrunk from 4 games to 3
following a 6-3 loss to TJ last week. He could have easily won by
the same margin but lost some really close categories. There's one
team that gets burned every week, and last week it was him. This
should be a great, close battle. It'll be interesting to see how the
new additions contribute for both sides. Also, it's another edition
of the battle of whatever street you guys live on.
(season series 5-5)
Diamond Strike Anywhere Matches®
"Match-Up of the Week" – James
(2nd)
vs Adrian (7th)
Another week, another Diamond
Strike Anywhere Matches® "Match-Up of the Week" for
James. The 7-2 win last week against Richie broke Kurt's record 10
week unbeaten streak. While Kurt had a better weekly record (8-0-2,
.590), it's clear that James's streak is much more dominant (7-0-4,
.655). Maimonis didn't play great last week but he got enough
production to sweep offense. Mark Trumbo went deep 3 times and drove
in 8 (but still only managed to hit .138) and Matt Holiday was great,
scoring 9 times and hitting over .400. He gets Adrian this week,
loser of three in a row. He seemed to be one of the few teams with a
good offensive output last week, launching 11 homers, driving in 41,
and hitting over .300. He was up against a monster in the form of
Kurt's pitching staff, so he couldn't get much done on the mound
(just a 1-4 record). I love this match-up because it's so important
to both races we have right now; come Sunday night we could have a
new team in first and Adrian desperately struggling for playoff life,
or Adrian grabbing hold of 6th
and James falling behind Ben again in a race for the byes.
Or
more than likely, a modest win from James and everything stays the
same.
(season series 5-5)
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