Weekly Matchups - Week 8

Week 8's installment of the DDWPIPOTCFFBE (Diamond Dynasty Weekly Preview In Pursuit Of The Chalice For Fantasy Baseball Excellence)

Last week – Alex wins big over Colin and James takes care of business against Ben, making for one of the most log-jammed standings in recent memory!

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

Drew!! You were so close! You were one Jay Bruce Sunday homer from not losing this week!  A valiant effort against potent TJ, but ultimately a 5-4 loss.  Drew had his best offensive output in weeks, posting 38 runs, 8 dingers, and a .346 batting average.  First round pick Billy Butler finally had a break out week knocking in 10 and hitting .480, and Michael Bourn stole 2 bases in his first full week back after missing the last month with a finger injury.  The pitching, on the other hand, continues to be in shambles.  Despite all the big names, his only pitcher ranked in the top 100 is A.J. Burnett (55).  As far as I can remember, his 6.51 ERA and 1.77 WHIP last week are the worst marks for the DD this year.  He had more guys with an ERA above 4.50 (6) than below it (4).  Drew is last in Wins, ERA, WHIP, and RBI, and he's second to last in HR, Runs, and SB.  I smell fire sale.  He'll try to break the 6 week losing streak against Alex, who is one of 8 teams who are basically all the same.  All 8 of you overachievers are within 6.5 games of each other, and the top 5 are within 2.5 games.  FYI: PLENTY of seats down here with Drew and I.  We have couches, doritos, cable TV - it's really not that bad once you get over the smell.  Alex survived Miguel Cabrera's Sunday night onslaught (3 homers!) to crush Colin 8-2.  Ok, worst case scenario would have been 7-2 but you get the idea.  There were a couple close calls (1 HR, 1 SB) but Alex took everything except for runs and average, where Colin posted a remarkable .358.  David Ortiz, who totally isn't using any performance enhancing substances, continued his stellar season last week with 3 homers, 12 RBI, and a .458 batting average and is now ranked 72nd despite only playing slightly more than half of the Sox's's's's games (25/44).  The defense was excellent as well, highlighted by Matt Moore's 2 wins (8-0 this year) and 11 k's.   He also got 4 saves and 0.00 ERA from Edward Mujica.  Alex has won 4 of the last 5 matches and is a big favorite this week. 

(season series 0-0)

Dell's® "Dull Duel" – Colin (7th) vs Ben (5th)

Colin fell to Alex 8-2 in last week's Match-Up of the Week and is just 1-2-1 after a 2-1 start.  He didn't have a bad week on offense, scoring 48 runs and hitting .358 (both highs for the week) but he fell just short in other categories.  Miguel Cabrera lit up the scoreboard again, scoring and driving in 7 runs, hitting .429, and going deep 4 times.  Jean Segura chipped in with 4 SB.  For the year, Colin boasts 4 players in the top 19 with Cabrera (1st), Segura (5th), Yu Darvish (9th), and Mike Trout (19th) all having great seasons thus far.  His pitching was awful, posting poor numbers in all 5 categories and losing each by a long shot.  Ben had only a slightly better result last week against James, losing 7-3.  He had a pretty shit week across the board, getting high numbers where he needed low numbers and vice versa.  Ryan Zimmerman drove in 9 and Elvis Andrus stole 5 bases in the losing effort.  Ben has now lost 2 weeks in a row but is still only 2.5 games out as we approach the midway point of the year.

(season series 0-0)

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

Every so often I have to consider the story lines over the standings in determining how enticing these match-ups are.  As previously noted, everyone not named Drew or Richie are essentially on the same level at this time so the current standings don't/can't really dictate the match-ups.  I think the amount of abuse and/or general mistreatment that Kurt has shelled out at Adrian over the past 10+ years is enough to bump this up to the Average Match of the Week spot, and it should be a pretty good match-up anyway.  After taking a look at the season totals, they're the top 2 teams in runs scored.  Kurt has a big advantage in homers (80-43) but Adrian can say the same in SB (45-27).  The RBI's and average are close enough to be a toss up.  It might be tougher for Adrian on defense, as he trails the closer-less Kurt by a wide margin in everything but saves.  Taking a quick look at last week, Kurt beat Richie 6-4, expectedly going 4-1 on offense (CarGo: 8/3/8/3/.375) but only 2-3 on defense.  Adrian also went 4-1 on offense last week (7 SB from Everth Cabrera!) but was awful on defense, taking only saves from a closer-less Jarrett en route to a 5-5 tie.  Let's see if Adrian can stick it to Kurt this week.

(season series 0-0)

The Post-It® "Noteworthy Match-up" – Richie (9th) vs James (4th)

Mini-rivalry week continues with the Martha Jones trophy on the line as Richie takes on James.  Maimonis is playing great as of late, rolling a 3-1 record over the last month.  He's scored at least 5 in 5/7 weeks this year.  Last week he took down Ben 7-3 in what was a pretty comfortable win.  He went 3-2 on offensive behind Jason Kipnis (7/3/8/2/.417) and 4-1 on defense.  He boasted a sparkling 1.81 ERA 0.96 WHIP (no one individually had an ERA above 3.00).  All of these numbers make my prediction even more ridiculous, but this match up is exactly the kick in the ass that my team needs.  Richie 6, James 3.  Mark it down.  Richie has been showing some signs of life offensively but is still pretty much the worst offense in the league, and didn't do anything to improve his mark last week against Kurt.  He managed to steal the RBI category behind a Sunday night bases-clearing double by Prince Fielder (after an IBB to Cabrera with guys on first and second, no less...you must respect the big man!) but ended up 1-4 offensively.  He performed better on defense, going 3-2.  Richie will need to continue his good fortune in WHIP, ERA, and saves, and take a leap offensively to take down the Manimal for his first win of the year.   

(season series 0-0)

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

While I did devalue the standings this week, you simply can't ignore a 1-2 matchup!  First  place has been occupied by one of these two every week but 1 (Ben in week 6).  TJ has been all over the place recently, going 1-1-1 in the last 3 weeks but being outscored 18-11 over that time.  TJ failed to win an offense category against Drew's anemic bats, but the pitching was pretty solid.  He escaped with a 5-4 win, but he'll need his bats to wake up against Jarrett because Staaf's staaf (I think I make that joke every week) is 21-6-1 discounting the saves category.  He has two of the top 6 pitchers in Clayton Kershaw (3rd) and Shelby Miller (6th).  Jarrett had a pretty average week himself but tied Adrian 5-5 behind Paul Goldschmidt (3 home runs, ranked 3rd overall on the year) and Justin Masterson (2 wins, 20 K's, 0.00 ERA, 0.75 WHIP). There's no guarantee that either team will be in first after this week with such a log jam at the top, but at least they have a head start against the competish.  

(season series 0-0)

Weekly Matchups - Week 7

Week 7's installment of the DDWPIPOTCFFBE (Diamond Dynasty Weekly Preview In Pursuit Of The Chalice For Fantasy Baseball Excellence)

Last week – Three tiers start to form

Sleepy's® "Snoozer of the Week" – Richie (again) (9^th) vs Kurt (8^th)

Richie is one of the many teams this year who can't seem to get a full week of out his roster. He's led on Friday many times, only to see his team cough it up on the weekend, usually losing by a wide margin. This week was no different, losing 8-2 to Adrian and falling to 0-4-2 on the year. This puts him in the bottom tier with Drew, clearly behind the middle of the pack. He lost all 5 fucking offensive categories AGAIN, and he is a truly anemic 1-18-1 on offense over the last four weeks. No one worth mentioning on this dismal squad this week. The pitching was better and is the only reason why he's not in last place. He's top 4 in saves, ERA, and WHIP and has 3 of the top 5 (and 4 of the top 10) closers based on saves. You know it's going bad when the only thing going well is saves. He squares off against Kurt, who wrote a whole blog bitching about how unlucky he's been. But, at least it allowed me to read SOMETHING else about the DD, so thank you, I guess. Kurt edged out Ben last week, 5-4 thanks to the most predictable performance of the week: Evan Longoria. He started the week with a grand slam on Monday night and finished with an 8/3/11/0/.464 stat line, one of the best we've seen on the young season. All told, his team put up some big numbers across the board with 39 runs, 15 homers, and 45 RBI. The defense wasn't too much worse but it couldn't keep pace with Ben's numbers, and he lost those categories 1-3-1. The 5-4 win puts Kurt on the back end of a log-jammed middle tier. Here's hoping that Kurt's shitty luck continues.

(season series 0-0)

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

Drew is in a total free-fall, having lost 5 weeks in a row and in the bottom tier with Richie. His last two weeks have been especially ugly, losing to Colin and Jarrett (both good teams) by a combined score of 16-3-1. He actually had a decent offensive week, posting 10 homers, 31 RBI, and a .314 team average, but Jarrett was just a little better in most of those areas. Alex Gordon was a stand out performer, jacking 3 bombs and hitting .393. Things are absolutely falling apart on defense for Drew. Despite a seemly jacked pitching staff, he had none – ZERO – wins last week. Verlander, Price, Sabathia, Gallardo, Burnett, even Ryan Dempster and Ricky Nolasco could not get one measly win. He had bloated ERA/WHIP numbers and lost 4 of the 5 defensive categories. He's got another tough match up this week against fourth-ranked TJ, who is still trying to get back on the horse after being knocked out of first place. He played Colin to a 5-5 tie last week in a pretty tightly contested battle. He got level production across the offense and saves from 5 different closers. Despite Matt Harvey striking out 16, he lost by 5 strikeouts but still managed to put up a great ERA/WHIP. TJ is in the top tier, just 1.5 games off the lead, and he's got a good chance at reclaiming first place next Monday morning.

(season series 0-0)

The Average Match of the Week presented by Not Your Average Joe's – James (6^th) vs Ben (2^nd)

James saved some face with a late comeback but still lost to Alex 6-3 last week. He got at best average production from his offense, mustering 28 runs, 8 homers, 29 RBI, 1 stolen base and a .246 average, but it was enough to go 3-2 against Gentilli. The pitching really let him down, failing to win a category. Coco Crisp has been activated from the 15-day DL, so Mams should be getting a boost if Coco can keep the early success rolling. Mams is pretty stacked with high-end talent, boasting 6 guys in the top 38, but he doesn't have too many more guys before the numbers start to get big. If he could find some more suitable fill-in pieces and drop guys like, oh, I don't know, Didi Gergorius (is that a real person???) he might be able to move up to the top tier. Yes, his note right now says “there aren't many shortstops that are playing better than him right now” but that's bullshit, he's 256 overall in the last 30 days and that's the most generous rank he has going for him. Yahoo! is retarded. He's taking on Ben this week, who fought back against Kurt Longoria but eventually fell, 5-4. Very mediocre stats offensively (actually, very similar to James last week) allowed him to take only one category. Chris Davis went deep twice and knocked in 7 runs, pretty solid week. The pitching was a little bit better, netting him 3 victories and a sparkling ERA/WHIP. This should be a very competitive match-up between two closeted homosexuals.

(season series 0-0)

The Post-It® "Noteworthy Match-up" – Adrian (5^th) vs Jarrett (1^st)

And now we move to the best game on paper this week. Adrian beat up on Richie last week, winning comfortably 8-2 and breaking his 3 week win-less streak in the process. The win launched him up 2 places to 5^th, but still in the second tier. Adrian had decent production but really just needed his guys to show up against Richie, who apparently took another week off. He swept the offensive categories, squeezing out a batting average win by .004. Beltre and Pedroia were good, combining for 9 runs, 3 homers, 10 RBI, 1 SB, and an average around .400. He managed to steal the K's category by 2 and the WHIP by .02 to give him the big win. He's squaring off against your new leader of the pack, Mr. Jarrett Staaf. His 7-2-1 win over lowly Drew has him looking down on the rest of us. The win was his third in a row (22-6 record) and he's really turned it around after a 0-2-1 start to the season. A week after stealing 3 bases, Paul Goldschmidt hit 4 bombs, drove in 9, and hit .348 to pace the offense. His pitching was even better, posting 6 wins, 85 K's, and fantastic ERA/WHIP digits. Adrian's hoping that the win last week had more to do with his production than his floundering, pathetic opponent, but he'll be put to the test this week against the new King.

(season series 0-0)

Diamond Strike Anywhere Matches® "Match-Up of the Week" – Colin (3^rd) vs Alex (7^th)

I'm ranking this battle Numero Uno because these teams are my picks to be the last standing in September. Both of these guys have record-skewing losses (Alex 0-10 in week 2, Colin 0-9 in week 4) that have dropped these guys down to their respective positions. But every other week for them is either a win (most of the time), a tie, or a close loss. Colin is coming of a hard fought 5-5 tie against TJ, quite a fine team so no shame there. Trout and Cabrera are starting to turn it on over the past month and are ranked 8^th and 5^th respectively over that time. It doesn't hurt to have the surprise offensive force of the year in Jean Segura either, who's ranked 4^th on the year. Joe Mauer had a great week, turning in 10 runs and hitting .533. The pitching is ugly for Colin, despite taking wins and K's last week. It's Yu Darvish, and then...um...well, no one really. The closest performer to Yu's 9^th place ranking is 136 spots away, with Hyun-Jin Ryu at 145^th. Go past Ryu and it's even uglier – third place is Tommy Milone at 213^th. Cole Hamels and Kris Medlen have really underperformed and none of his long shots have come in. And despite all that, somehow – SOMEHOW – he is 17-11-2 on defense this year. Ah, the glory of H2H. He's got Alex in his sights this week, who is 3-1 in his last 4 weeks since the 10-0 shutout loss (no Alex, I won't stop referencing that). Alex is adding a huge bat this week as Curtis Granderson has been activated from the DL and will be taking his first meaningful swings of 2013. The big man held off a late surge from James to win 6-3 last week, but he lost a lot of close categories (1 run, 3 homers, 2 RBI). The defense was a little bit better, going 4-0-1 but the numbers weren't great – 4 wins, 3.96 ERA, and a 1.23 WHIP. The best part of this match up was definitely the smack talk, worth a quick read if you haven't seen it yet. Quick synopsis: Chris Sale took a shit on James' face as Alex had hoped. This should be a good match up, but with Alex's recent play and the addition of Granderson I see him taking the glory this week.

(season series 0-0)

Week 6 Power Rankings and the debut of the Luck Index

As I was watching my offense pile up an insurmountable lead in the counting stats early in the week against Ben, I thought to myself and those around me; Damn, Ben is pretty unlucky.

Later, after looking at my teams performance compared to its record, my thought process changed to; Fuck Ben, I've been so unlucky.

Shortly after that, I started clicking around the other matchups to see what else was going on. I didn't want to be Complains about Matchups Guy, even if for a short while, but I knew that the two time defending champion needs to hold himself to higher standards than your average fantasy baseballer.

The truth is, it is better to be lucky than good. However, usually when you are good you get lucky. That didn't seem to be the case this year for me, or maybe I just wasn't as good as I thought I was. Maybe spot-starting is a better idea than being patient with your pitchers. But it just didn't seem right to drop Patrick Corbin and his 1.75 ERA, or Jeremy Guthrie and his 2.28 ERA for the likes of Nick Tepesch, Felix Doubront, Ryan Vogelsong and Bud Norris. (these are all players that James has spot-started that posted ERAs above 10. Sorry to pick on you Mams, but I went with the person that made the most moves.)

However you slice it, its not about bulk, its not about quality, it is all about timing. Owning players when they are at their peak, and playing cold teams at the right time. So, rather than complain about it, I decided to delve into the issue in a new segment I call The Luck Index.

Here's how it works. I took the power rankings in each category then took the power rankings based on W-L record for each category, then found the difference. Negative numbers symbolize bad luck. Or negative luck. Here is an example for RBIs:

RBI
Manager	PR	Standing	Diff
Alex	10	8	-2
Adrian	2	10	8
Ben	7	1.5	-5.5
Colin	3	6	3
Drew	1	4	3
James	9	6	-3
Jarrett	8	9	1
Kurt	5	3	-2
TJ	4	6	2
Richie	6	1.5	-4.5

 

I picked this one because this was the most extreme example that didn’t involve me. (League leader in R, HR, AVG and W, yet only 1 game over .500 in those 4 categories.)

As you can see, Adrian is terrible at driving in runs.  He has the second fewest in the league.  Yet, he has the best record in RBI.  That is 8 points on the luck index, because he is 8 spots ahead in the standings of where he should be.

On the other end of the spectrum, Ben is getting screwed.  It didn’t help that Longoria dropped an 11 spot on him, but it sure was hilarious to everyone else.

Either way, I now present to you the Week 6 Luck Index:

1. Colin (+13.5)
Colin gets a boost in WHIP, where he is 4 spots ahead of where he should be. Meanwhile, he is only below his score in two of ten categories, and no more than 1.5 spots below his performance.

2. Adrian (+11.5)
Adrian gets a huge boost in RBI (see example.)  Aside from that Adrian is correctly placed in the standings in three of 10 categories, with a luck score of 0. (not many 0s across the board.)

3. James (+7)
James' pitching staff is terrible.  He has the worst ERA and the worst WHIP in the league, yet is 6-6 in those categories.  Proobably because, as we saw with Alex, he pressures other managers in to spot-starting...  Sorry to blow up your spot

4. Jarrett (+3.5)
Jarrett got some mild luck here, nothing big across the board.  Spoiler Alert:  you will find out that he is power ranked 2nd.  So to see that the first place team has gotten a small amount of good fortune is not too surprising, but does not take away from his performance.

5. Drew (+1.5)
Drew should actually be in 11th place.  Not much more to say about this one.

6. Ben (+.5) 
Ben has had remarkable fortune.  He got a luck score of 0 in 4 categories, meaning that you're getting exactly what you see out of him.  Way to not game the system, Ben. We're happy to have you.

7. TJ (-3.5)
TJ has had some bad beats on R's and K's, but it hasn't hurt him too bad.

8. Alex (-5)
Alex has had some hard luck on SB. But, it looks like I found the first flaw in this system as he had way more SBs to start the season than he has the past few weeks in losses.  Shit.  Either way, he could be a bit higher given his performances.

9. Richie (-8)
Richie has had some bad luck, but his performances haven't been that great either.  On offense, his best record in a category is the second worst record in the league.  However, he only ranks in the top 8 in one category.  The worse get worser.

10. Kurt (-21)
Very, very unlucky.  And rather than write about it, here are the power rankings.  Keep in mind that Kurt is in 8th Place.

1	Kurt	72.5
2	Jarrett	67.5
3	TJ	63
4	Alex	63
5	Ben	60
6	Colin	53.5
7	James	50
8	Adrian	46.5
9	Richie	45.5
10	Drew	28.5

Weekly Matchups - Week 6

Week 6's installment of the DDWPIPOTCFFBE (Diamond Dynasty Weekly Preview In Pursuit Of The Chalice For Fantasy Baseball Excellence)

Last week –Two 9-1 wins cause bottleneck at the top, and the gang gets together on Sunday for the first time!

Sleepy's® "Snoozer of the Week" – Drew (10^th) vs Jarrett (5^th)

Drew was on the wrong end of a 9-1 drubbing, getting buried by Colin in a non-closer shutout. He lost all 5 offensive categories and none of them were all that close. Donovan now falls to 7-11-2 on offense this year despite being in last or second to last in every offensive category (bizarro-Kurt). The pitching was really ugly too, posting only three wins, 47 K's, and way-too-big ERA's and WHIPs. Benching the best pitcher on earth was a bold play that did not pay off. Just kidding it wasn't bold it was stupid as f*ck. Drew has now lost 4 weeks in a row, and is still win-less on the season. He'll probably lose again this week to Jarrett, who beat out Richie in a back and forth battle on Sunday. Both teams were up 6-3 at one point on Sunday but when the dust settled, Jarrett had sealed up a 6-4 victory. The win was his second in a row. He got just enough contributions to win by 2 runs, 1 RBI, 1 SB, and a .012 margin in average. Standout performers were Manny Machado (7/3/5/1/.333) and Nolan Arenado (5/3/8/0/.357). Paul “overachiever” Goldschmidt somehow stole 3 bases. His pitching was so-so, only posting 3 wins but getting decent ratio numbers.

(season series 0-0)

Dell's® "Dull Duel" – Richie (9^th) vs Adrian (7^th)

Richie was a hard luck loser last week, leading for most of the week but coughing up the lead late on Sunday. Despite his best offensive week this year, he still fell 6-4 to Jarrett (but he did manage to get out of the basement!) Richie got his highest home run total of the season (13) thanks to Prince Fielder (5/3/10/0/.333) and Carlos Gomez (8/3/5/5.462), who is ranked as the best player over the last two weeks. Proud of ya kid. The loss extends Richie's win-less week streak to 5 (0-3-2) and he is 3-20-2 on offense (I had a hard time typing that.) He'll continue the search for his first win against Adrian, who has lost his way (0-2-1) after a good start (2-0). Adrian's pitching was all out of whack and it cost him the match up against Ben, losing 6-3. He had 6 guys with an ERA above 5.06, and no double digit strikeout guys. The offense was OK, with average numbers across the board and no real standouts. Adrian doesn't own anyone ranked in the top 37, and his pitching staff does not feature a top-100 player this year (though he does have four pitchers on the DL). Both teams are hoping for better results this week.

(season series 0-0)

The Average Match of the Week presented by Not Your Average Joe's – Alex (6^th) vs Mams (4^th)

Mams has cowardly waited until he has a winning record to start bragging about how great he and his outfield is. Nonetheless, he moved up to 4^th place after a big 9-1 win last week over the previously undefeated TJ. His offense was on display, mashing 19 taters, stealing 8 bases, and hitting .307 with gaudy runs/RBI toals behind huge weeks from Mark Trumbo (5 homers) and Starling Marte (7/4/8/3/.333). Honorable mention goes out to Troy Tulowitzki's .636 average. The pitching was not quite as dominant, with only 3 saves and big ratios, but it was enough to beat out TJ's ugly regression week. He sets his sights on Alex, who fell to Kurt in a close 6-4 decision. Alex almost matched James's output last week, hitting 17 homers of his own despite having arguably his two best home run hitters on the DL (Giancarlo Stanton and Curtis Granderson). David Wright was the only guy to go deep more than twice, which means everybody chipped in (10/13 players hit a home run.) His pitching was pretty terrible, winning only saves against the closer-less Kurt. This should be a good battle against these two smack-talking chums.

(season series 0-0)

The Post-It® "Noteworthy Match-up" – Colin (2^nd) vs TJ (3^rd)

The best on-paper match up of the week pits Colin against TJ. Colin was able to make up for most of the damage he suffered two weeks ago (9-0 loss to Jarrett) by winning 9-1 against Drew last week. His offense was good, but it didn't have to be. He took all 5 offensive categories with ease. The bash brothers (Miguel Cabrera and Mike Trout ) were at it again, combining for 15 runs, 6 homers, 20 RBI's 1 SB, and a batting average in the high .300's. Jean Segura (Jean?!?) also went deep 3 times. Colin managed to strike out 109 behind 5 double-digit performers, highlighted by Yu Darvish's 23. Darvish is probably going to his 300 K's this year which is crazy. Colin's pitching now stands at 15-8-2 on the year including saves, but 15-5-0 without it (no closers). That's good for second in the league behind....TJ! His 17-7-1 record on defense is the class of the DD. He suffered his first loss last week and it was a doozy – 9-1 against James. The loss drops hm out of first place for the first time all season. His stats were definitely below average across the board, but he would have fell short even with a good week – No one was beating Mams this week. Justin Upton looks to be coming back down to earth, hitting only .150 with (finally) no home runs. TJ really didn't have any standouts last week on either side of the ball and with Colin seemly heating up, he'll need to turn that trend around quickly.

(season series 0-0)

Diamond Strike Anywhere Matches® "Match-Up of the Week" – Ben (1^nd) vs Kurt (8^th)

If I had written this on Monday morning, I may not have ranked this to be the most intriguing match up. But the fact that Evan Longoria hit a grand slam tonight was just too good to pass up. If Evan Longoria dies suddenly, Ben's pretty much suspect number one, right? I mean no one rapes Ben like Longoria rapes Ben. Tulo raped me, Yahoo! raped Alex, but this is approaching record setting. I also think that this weirdly makes Ben the backwards underdog of this 1-8 match up. Anyway, Ben's playing great. 3-0-1 in his last 4, taking down Adrian last week despite some ugly numbers. He only amassed 25 runs and 29 RBI to go along with his .262 team average. The pitching was better though, as he was able to win Wins, K's, and ERA/WHIP. Ben is leading a balanced attack this year, going 15-9-1 on offensive and 13-8-4 on defense. In order to stay in first he'll have to beat Kurt, who's had a roller coaster of a season thus far. He was able to hold on and beat Alex last week 6-4 thanks to some good pitching performances from Jeff Samardzija (13 K's) and a lot of low ERA/WHIP guys. It's too late to fact check so I'll just take Kurt's word; despite leading the league in Runs and Average, he's just 5-5 in those categories. Kurt is right in the middle of the second tier in the standings but a win against Ben should put him right back in the thick of things. And if anyone's interested, I think I'll put the over/under on Longoria's home runs this week at 8.5 (take the over).

(season series 0-0)

I just think this would be nice to have

Weekly Matchups - Week 5

Week 5's installment of the DDWPIPOTCFFBE (Diamond Dynasty Weekly Preview In Pursuit Of The Chalice For Fantasy Baseball Excellence)

Last week – TJ remains unbeaten in 2013 and Jarrett's big win catapults him up the standings.

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

Richie was able to steal a tie last week, 4-4 against Ben thanks to Doug Fisters' outing on Sunday night. Despite Mike Napoli staying hot (3/1/7/0/.320), Richie was 0-4-1 on offense and is an abysmal 2-16-2 on offense for the season. Travers was able to squeak out the pitching categories as he's done all year and now owns a respectable 11-7-2 record on “defense,” if you will. Mariano Rivera had 4 saves but Felix Hernandez was the star this week, winning 2 games, striking out 16, and posting a 0.64 ERA and 0.86 WHIP. He'll face off against third place again this week, which is now occupied by Jarrett. Despite only posting a 1-2-1 weekly record, Jarrett is the top dog in a very congested middle of the pack thanks to a 9-0, no-closer shutout over then-second place Colin. Jarrett kicked ass last week, winning pretty much every category going away. Big weeks from Alcides Escobar (4/1/3/2/.381) and Nelson Cruz (4/2/9/0/.360) helped Jarrett take all 5 offensive categories. Jarrett's Staaf, highlighted by 4 guys with 14+ punch outs, struck out 101 batters this week, won 8 games, and had very good ERA and WHIP numbers. This could be another tough week for Richie as he searches for his first win of the year.

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Dell's® "Dull Duel" – Drew (9^th) vs Colin (6^th)

Drew lost 5-3 to James last week, and has now lost 3 in a row. Alex Gordon was his best offensive threat last week with a 5/2/7/1/.317 stat line and he got double digit K's from 4 starters, but he needed a lot more to get past James. He is missing Michael Bourn but his return won't be enough to improve this offense – he has to hope that someone starts to step up. He now ranks in the bottom three in half of the categories this season and he has another tough match-up this week against Colin, who for some reason still has Trout and Cabrera. The panic trade talks are back in full swing following a 9-0, no-closer shutout loss to Jarrett. Colin only mustered 20 runs and a .239 average despite Cabrera's 5/1/8/0/.450 and Howie Kendrick's 4/2/6/0/.375. And it's almost unfair that Colin gets demolished in K's despite putting up 83! I don't think he played poorly enough to be shut out, but Jarrett was hot as a fox in a forest fire last week. I actually expected Colin to go on a little run (see last week) so it's good to know my jinxing powers are at full force. But much like Alex, one bad loss has skewed his record. He's better than a .500 ball club and he'll show it this week (Colin, sorry in advance).

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The Average Match of the Week presented by Not Your Average Joe's – Kurt (8^th) vs Alex (4th)

The frustrations continue for Kurt this year as he was edged out in a number of categories again last week and ultimately fell to TJ, 7-3. He lost by 2 runs, 3 RBI, 1 win, and lost WHIP by percentage points. Kurt had 5 multi-homer guys this week, netting him 13 home runs. He now has 42 on the season which is good for second place. His pitchers were dealing, winning 7 games and striking out 101, but TJ stayed right with him and ended up taking 4 of the 5 pitching categories. He'll look to right the ship this week against Alex, who macked Adrian last week 7-2-1. Last week's win gives Gentilli a 3-1 record on the year, and that 10-0 shutout loss to Ben in week 2 is looking like a complete fluke. Alex mashed this week, scoring 40 runs, hitting 12 homers, and driving in 38. Giancarlo Stanton had hit best week of the season, putting up 6/3/8/0/.364 and it looks like he's finally starting to get his stroke going. David Ortiz was a big contributor too, going 7/2/9/0/.478. Matt Moore killed it on the bump, winning 2 games, striking out 18 and posting 1.29/0.64 ratios. We could see some big numbers in this one.

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The Post-It® "Noteworthy Match-up" – TJ (1^st) vs James (7^th)

TJ continues to string together wins, going 3-0-1 in the month of April. Justin Upton is continuing to hit the cover off the ball, leading the league in home runs and on top of the fantasy ranks. Last week TJ outlasted Kurt 7-3 behind big weeks from Ryan Howard (5/2/10/0/.308), Jose Bautista (6/3/3/1/.148) and the aforementioned Upton (6/3/5/0/.333). But TJ did most of his damage on the pitching side, winning four categories and spot-starting 7 guys (I think) to do so. He's now an incredible 16-3-1 on defense this year with a perfect 4-0 mark in saves, ERA, and WHIP and he's at least .500 in all 10 categories. Great start. He'll put his perfect mark on the line this week against James, who held on to beat Drew 5-3 last week. The offense was pretty mediocre, hitting only 6 homers and driving in 27. No real standouts on the whole squad except for Hisashi Iwakuma's 19 K's (but no wins). It looks like he's been hit with the injury bug as hard as anyone, with Jose Reyes, Mark Teixeira, Jered Weaver, and Brandon Beachy all on the shelf for now. If Mams can tread water as he's doing right now, he should see a jump in the standings when the reinforcements arrive.

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Diamond Strike Anywhere Matches® "Match-Up of the Week" – Ben (2^nd) vs Adrian (5^th)

And we've made it to the match-up of the week! This is Adrian's second time in the spotlight. The first time around he battled then-and-current first place TJ to a tie, the only team that hasn't lost to TJ thus far. He did slip up last week though, and it was a rough one. Alex shellacked him, 7-2-1, and clearly the exaustion of being in the big game the week before got to his guys. There wasn't anyone on either side of the ball to give props to, so let's do the opposite. 6 guys his .214 or worse, highlighted by Everth Cabrera's .080 average. But he's been pretty good offensively on the season with a 12-6-2 mark, so it could have just been a down week. He'll take on Ben this week in Ben's first appearance under the bright lights. O'Connor had a big lead basically all of last week until the weekend, where Richie was able to close the gap and eventually tie the match-up 4-4. He was able to go 4-0-1 on offense thanks to Edwin Encarnacion's HUGE week – 8 runs scored, 5 homers, 8 ribbies, and a .306 average. His pitching, on the other hand, was pretty dismal. He only had one double digit strikeout guy and his team ERA was a heavy 4.09. Ben hasn't lost since week 1 and hopes to keep the train rolling.

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Weekly Matchups - Week 4

Week 4's installment of the DDWPIPOTCFFBE (Diamond Dynasty Weekly Preview In Pursuit Of The Chalice For Fantasy Baseball Excellence)

Last week – The slow starters continue to take their lumps as the early leaders start to stretch their legs

Sleepy's® "Snoozer of the Week" – Drew (9^th) vs James (6^th)

Drew enters week 4 still searching for his first win. It would have been tough to hang with Kurt's offensive last week anyway, but yikes, Drew. In what had to have been an historically bad week offensively, Drew hit just .206 with 4 homers, 13 RBI, and 2 stolen bases. He had 6 players hit .200 or worse, and a handful of others in the low-.200's. On the season, he is last in SB and RBI, and tied for last in runs. Luckily the pitching stepped up, posting 77 K's and a sub-1 WHIP. His season ERA stands at 4.06; we knew the team would again be built on pitching, but he really needs to dominate to have a shot at the playoffs. He goes up against last weeks Biggest Loser, Mr. Maimonis, who is also looking for his first win on the young season. Mams actually suffered his first and only loss thus far last week, 7-3 against Colin who now sits in second place. James was able to take two offensive categories, thanks in part to Troy Tulowitzki's 5/3/6/0/.222 line. His pitching was ugly, showing only 3 wins and a bloated 5.77/1.43 ERA and WHIP. Shout out to Bud Norris and his 81.00 ERA. I'm expecting James to take most if not all of the offensive categories, but Drew to do the same on the pitching end. We could be looking at yet another win-less week for both of these guys.

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Dell's® "Dull Duel” - Richie (10^th) vs Ben (3^rd)

Richie struggled again at the plate, putting up single digit home runs for the fourth consecutive week and falling to Alex 6-3. He lost all 5 offensive categories, and on the season is now last or second to last in 4 of 5 offensive categories. Adam Dunn was especially putrid, hitting .048 (but he did go deep). Mike Napoli was one of the few bright spots, hitting .345 and driving in 10 RBI and his staff was excellent, posting a 1.78 ERA and 0.95 WHIP. It doesn't get any easier this week as he takes on Ben, who disposed of Jarrett 6-3 last week. A resurgent Jacoby Ellsbury delivered 8 runs, 3 SB's, and a .355 BA to help take 3 offensive categories. On the bump, Max Scherzer and the Holland brothers (Derek and Greg) (kind of sounds like a band name...Max and the Hollands? Something like that) combined for 2 wins, 3 saves, 26 K's, and ERA's and WHIP's of under 1. Ben is off to a hot start offensively, second place in HR's and SB's, tied for first in RBI's. Richie remains confident that his bats will wake up, but Ben has to be considered the heavy favorite here.

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The Average Match of the Week presented by Not Your Average Joe's – Colin (2^nd) vs Jarrett (8^th)

Colin is coming off of the most dominant performance last week, beating James 7-3 and jumping up to second in the process. He's now 14-4 over the last fortnight and could be starting a nice little run. Mike Trout is starting to mash again, posting a 4/1/9/2/.391 line last week. His pitching stats were ugly, getting just 4 wins and throwing up 4.25/1.26 ratios but it was enough to beat James who had an even worse week in those areas. Colin's offense has not been good this year - he's last in homers and RBI - but he leads the league in Wins and K's thanks to Yu Darvish and Paul Maholm who are two of the top four pitchers thus far, ranked 8th and 12th respectively. Let's shift the focus to Jarrett, who is yet another team searching for the first win of the year. Jarrett is 0-2-1 but has not given up more than 6 categories in any week. He suffered his worst loss of the year last week, a 6-3 edging at the hands of young Benjamin. Jarrett was able to hang on to homers 9-8, but could only manage 25 runs, 3 stolen bases, and a .242 team average. His Staaf was average to below average, posting a 1-3-1 record in the pitching categories (1-2-1 discounting saves with his no-closer strategy). He'll have his hands full this week.

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The Post-It® "Noteworthy Match-up" – Alex (7^th) vs Adrian (4^th)

Alex was the only one who currently sits in the bottom half of the league that managed a win last week, beating Richie 6-3 behind a solid offensive week from his peeps (he won all 5 categories). It was a nice bounce back week from his 10-0 shutout loss last week to Ben. Anthony Rizzo had a very nice 4/3/5/0/.316 to pace the squad. He was able to hold off the opposition and take tightly contested categories in runs and RBI's. On the mound, he posted 81 K's which I think was the high number for the week. A late save on Sunday game him the tie in saves and expanded his margin of victory. He's looking for his first winning streak of the season but he'll have to beat the current fourth-place man to do so. Adrian has yet to lose a week this year, winning or tying tight match ups each week thus far. Last week he went up against TJ and battled the first place team to a tie, 5-5. The speed was on display as he had 4 guys with 3+ SB's which (I would assume) netted him a few extra runs (he ended up winning that category by 4). He pitched decently well but was no match for TJ's dominant week, dropping 4 of the 5 categories. I expect this to be a tightly contested battle as Adrian is playing well and Alex is better than his record (he can thank Ben for that!)

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

TJ kept his 2013 unbeaten streak alive last week, tying Adrian 5-5. It was the only tie from last week. Pretty crappy overall team output offensively, putting up just 24 RBI, 2 SB, and a .241 team average. On the other side of the ball, it was another good week for his staff, posting a 1.88 ERA and 0.96 WHIP, though he only got 2 wins to show for it. TJ got a nice week from Homer Bailey who went for 0/18/1.29/0.86. He'll try to keep the train rolling this week against the Commish, who got back to his winning ways last week. He rode a 4 HR week from Longoria and a .321 team average to a 6-3 victory over Drew, taking all 5 offensive categories in the process and narrowly missing some pitching categories as well. At this point, Kurt boasts the most productive outfield in the league with Carlos Gonzalez (2nd), Bryce Harper (6th), and Shin-Soo Choo Choo Train (14th) all crushing it. This should be a great match-up as both these teams are playing great.

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