Newsletter for games through 7-25-21

Trade deadline!!!!

All trades must be completed by the lineup deadline next week, August 3. Your last chance to catch Gordie and Ben in the Leo’s “top traders” lists…or dump your least favorite player…or curse the players you trade for by having them all land on the disabled list after you acquire them (Trout and Rendon for deGrom)….or find that magical player combination that makes both teams slightly worse…or turn over your entire roster, as Adam is on the brink of doing…Eight trades since last week, involving 13 owners…if you’re feeling gun-shy, just focus on the fact that no matter what you do you won’t do as poorly as Jerry DiPoto…I think the rest of the AL West was checking to see if the Astro sanctions prevented them from invoking the “no take backsies” rule…

Comments

No matter what you think about the Cleveland name change, it’s worth remembering that in the past the Cleveland professional baseball effort has been called both the “Cleveland Forest Citys” and the “Cleveland Infants,” who one imagines had a bitter rivalry with the Chicago Orphans…I’m sticking with the ASFBL monicker “Cleveland Unreasonable Men” until Skrovan tells me otherwise…it’s more poignant than the Raymonds…the Giants are having trouble keeping pace with the actual team, but they have the best real-WHIP of any ASFBL team…Milwaukee is just behind them, 1.07 to 1.08…Yankee batters have the best walk percentage, getting the free pass 11% of the time…best real OPS goes to, in order, the Jays, Chisox, and Angels…those are the Angels without Mike Trout…surprisingly, the Padres have the most actual stolen bases…the NL week went to the Braves, Cardinals, and Giants, who all finished 5-2…Braves used it to move into first, Giants used it to move into the second wildcard spot….I swear to God I should be able to get my fantasy Mets to .500 just by batting Alonso third…Cards proved they are a dangerous team you don’t want to take for granted in a late-season series you need to win…Baltimore and Houston ran the table in the AL, the Astros pulling it off without anyone giving them a closer for free…the Astro mark broke a tie and moved them into first, and the always-active John Weerts navigated Oakland to a 4-2 week and has them lurking 3.5 back…as of now the Oakland-Anaheim-Houston race is the most competitive in the AL, although the second wild-card spot is still wide open with about a third of the season left….although Baltimore had the big week, the Jays just keep turning in winning weeks and are high atop the AL East….They’re 23-7 over their last 30…and a shout out to Arizona and Minnesota, who hold the top 2 spots in the WOR standings….Tampa Bay is only 3 games out of a wildcard spot and a few good weeks could push them into the playoffs…actual Phillies are struggling but the ASFBL club is 10-5 in inter-league games…tied with the Dodgers for the best in the NL…here’s hoping none of your vaccinated players end up on the covid-DL…or, if they’re pitching like Jerod Eickhoff, that they’re asymptomatic and you at least get a free waiver…

Feats and Failures

Steven Duggar (San Francisco) struck out 4 times (on 7/19/2021 against Los Angeles) 
Bradley Zimmer (Cleveland) struck out 4 times (on 7/20/2021 against Houston) 
Bobby Bradley (Cleveland) struck out 4 times (on 7/20/2021 against Houston) 
Nicky Lopez (Kansas City) stole 3 bases (on 7/20/2021 against Milwaukee) 
Tim Anderson (Chicago (CWS))  had 5 hits (on 7/20/2021 against Minnesota) 
Austin Riley (Atlanta) hit 6 RBI (on 7/21/2021 against San Diego) 
Kevin Pillar (New York (NYM)) struck out 4 times (on 7/21/2021 against Cincinnati) 
Greg Allen (New York (NYY)) struck out 4 times (on 7/21/2021 against Philadelphia) 
Robbie Ray (Toronto) struck out 11 batters (on 7/21/2021 against Boston) 
Lance McCullers Jr. (Houston) struck out 11 batters (on 7/21/2021 against Cleveland) 
Walker Buehler (Los Angeles) struck out 15 batters (on 7/21/2021 against San Francisco) 
Taylor Trammell (Seattle) struck out 4 times (on 7/22/2021 against Oakland) 
Austin Slater (San Francisco) struck out 4 times (on 7/22/2021 against Los Angeles) 
Travis Demeritte (Atlanta) struck out 4 times (on 7/23/2021 against Philadelphia) 
Carlos Rodon (Chicago (CWS)) struck out 11 batters (on 7/23/2021 against Milwaukee) 
Harrison Bader (St. Louis)  had 5 hits (on 7/24/2021 against Cincinnati) 
Mike Zunino (Tampa Bay) hit 3 homers (on 7/24/2021 against Cleveland) 
Teoscar Hernandez (Toronto) struck out 4 times (on 7/24/2021 against New York (NYM)) 
Kyle Wright (Atlanta) struck out 11 batters (on 7/25/2021 against Philadelphia) 
Cristian Javier (Baltimore) struck out 11 batters (on 7/25/2021 against Washington) 
Teoscar Hernandez (Toronto) struck out 4 times (on 7/25/2021 against New York (NYM)) 
Shohei Ohtani (Anaheim) struck out 11 batters (on 7/25/2021 against Minnesota) 
Mitch Garver (Minnesota) struck out 4 times (on 7/25/2021 against Anaheim) 

Newsletter for games through 7-18-21

Trade Notes

Two more weeks to make trades…from the email chatter it sounds like there’s plenty of interest….five more trades last week, including fashion icon Joe Kelly, slugger (and presumably descendant of winemakers) Joey Gallo, and closer (and probable descendant of an undertaker) Kendall Graveman….deadline is August 3.

Shoulda kept me

Elvis Andrus (Oakland) hit for the cycle on 7/9/2021 against Texas…don’t pin this on Ben Brockreide, but I’m sure the fantasy karma was building up in Elvis’ favor…his D&D “revenge” setting was at 20…and now that I’ve got a script that will check no-hitters for me, I’m going to have to write one to track cycles…

Comments

I try to contain myself from commenting on actual games, but if you’ll indulge me this observation about the Nationals: They allowed 47 runs in the 4 games around the all-star break, and then scored 26 runs in the next 2 games including an 18-run outburst…right in the middle they lost 3-1 to the Giants, and every other game had 10 runs or more by at least one team…ASFBL Nats went 3-0…so did both the Dodgers and Giants...those teams square off head to head to start next week…Jays and Rays both went 3-0, and were the only AL teams to do it…they also rank 1 and 2 in the AL East…Angels nudged a game up on the Astros in the airtight AL West…Miami gained a game on the Atlanta team and is now within a half game of first…five AL teams are within 2.5 games of a wildcard spot…best ASFBL offense this year so far is the Dodgers, at 484 runs, with the Astros right behind at 480…Oakland is 7th, which is a little encouraging since the actual team is 13th…don’t know if this is boring or a victory for simulation accuracy, but the top 3 scoring teams in MLB and the Dodgers, Astros, and Chisox, and the top 3 scoring teams in ASFBL are exactly the same…Jays lead the ASFBL with 146 homers…Texas is 3rd with 134….Indians have the best team defense, and have robbed 32 hits over the first half…Reds are second…the big statistical issue in MLB is that strikeouts are way up, and the Brewers and Chisox lead the ASFBL, with an identical 993 Ks so far…Dodgers have the best team WHIP (1.06) and the bullpen has allowed a measly 6 of 94 inherited runners to score…but the Cubs have the best bullpen ERA at 2.61…the Brewers have the most shutouts in the league with 10….although Shohei Ohtani leads the MLB in homers, Tatis Jr. has him in the ASFBL…but if you count the homers Ohtani has allowed as a pitcher they’re tied…

Big things in short weeks

Tucker Barnhart (Cincinnati) struck out 4 times (on 7/5/2021 against Kansas City) 
Adam Engel (Chicago (CWS)) hit 6 RBI (on 7/7/2021 against Minnesota) 
Elias Diaz (Colorado) hit 6 RBI (on 7/7/2021 against Arizona) 
Taylor Trammell (Seattle) struck out 4 times (on 7/8/2021 against New York (NYY)) 
Hunter Dozier (Kansas City) struck out 4 times (on 7/8/2021 against Cleveland) 
Zack Short (Detroit) struck out 4 times (on 7/8/2021 against Minnesota) 
Austin Meadows (Tampa Bay) hit 3 homers (on 7/9/2021 against Toronto) 
Elvis Andrus (Oakland)  hit for the cycle! (on 7/9/2021 against Texas) 
Carlos Rodon (Chicago (CWS)) struck out 16 batters (on 7/10/2021 against Baltimore) 
Jazz Chisholm (Miami) struck out 4 times (on 7/10/2021 against Atlanta) 
Lance Lynn (Chicago (CWS)) struck out 11 batters (on 7/16/2021 against Houston) 
Joey Gallo (St. Louis) struck out 4 times (on 7/16/2021 against San Francisco) 
Patrick Wisdom (Chicago (CC)) struck out 4 times (on 7/16/2021 against Arizona) 
Cody Bohanek (New York (NYM)) struck out 4 times (on 7/17/2021 against Pittsburgh) 
Ryan McMahon (Colorado) struck out 4 times (on 7/17/2021 against Los Angeles) 
Patrick Sandoval (Anaheim) struck out 11 batters (on 7/17/2021 against Seattle) 
Jordan Montgomery (New York (NYY)) struck out 11 batters (on 7/18/2021 against Boston)

Newsletter for games through 7-11-21

Celebrating the first half

Hoping your all-star break is a great one! Time to take stock of the first half:

BEST OVERALL: Most wins (64) and best record (.703) go to Rick Wynne and his Dodgers…AL best goes to Leo at 59 and .648…bonus to Al Benedek and the Friars for the second-highest win total (62) and second-best overall record (.667), which gets you second place in your division if you share it with Rick…kudos to division leaders Danny Wildes, Gordon Leckie, Johnny Mac, Jim Casey and Greg Achten. A tiebreaker is going to Greg and Jim for the closest divisional title race , since they are tied in the AL West.

BEST RACE: Ignoring what I’ve already said about Jim and Greg being tied in the AL West and Rick and Al battling it out in the NL West, Steve’s Miami team is making a run in the NL East and Chris Zewiske’s Brewers are within 5 in the NL central. Given the wide leads the Jays and Chisox have, the wildcard battle in the AL is intense, with Tim Walsh and the AL West runner-up in the lead with 49 wins, but Alan’s Rays (45), Mike Mendoza’s Royals (47), John Weerts‘ As’ (47) are all margins-of-error away, and the Yankees, Indians, and Rangers are all within striking distance with a good second half. The NL West is where it’s at in the senior circuit, and Jeremy’s Giants and Hugh’s Rockies are both above .500 and ready to challenge for the second wildcard spot.

BEST IMPROVEMENT: The WOR race is tight, and with the Royals and Cubs contending for playoff spots, the WOR standings are most relevant to Ben Leckie’s Diamondbacks (+14) and Mark Chen’s Orioles (+9). Ben Brockreide’s Texas club deserves note (+7) and Rob Perkins has improved the Pirates (+3).

MASH UNIT AWARDS: You only get free waivers by moving an injured player off the active roster; I don’t really track how they get used, but the totals this year are staggering: Giants (21), Yankees (19), Mariners-Nationals-Rays (15), and the Phillies, Reds, Dodgers, Twins, Brewers, and Rockies all have double-digit totals. Jeremy could literally swap out 80% of his roster and not have to waive a single player. Some of this is covid related, but that’s a lot of roster flexibility…

Truncated comments this week due to my first return to the office in 18 months…there’s more dusting to do here than Hank Aaron’s trophy case…hope you can all make it to Friday without withdrawal symptoms…I’ve had to resort to watching CONCACAF matches to avoid tremors…

Feats and failures

Tucker Barnhart (Cincinnati) struck out 4 times (on 7/5/2021 against Kansas City) 
Adam Engel (Chicago (CWS)) hit 6 RBI (on 7/7/2021 against Minnesota) 
Elias Diaz (Colorado) hit 6 RBI (on 7/7/2021 against Arizona) 
Taylor Trammell (Seattle) struck out 4 times (on 7/8/2021 against New York (NYY)) 
Hunter Dozier (Kansas City) struck out 4 times (on 7/8/2021 against Cleveland) 
Zack Short (Detroit) struck out 4 times (on 7/8/2021 against Minnesota) 
Austin Meadows (Tampa Bay) hit 3 homers (on 7/9/2021 against Toronto) 
Elvis Andrus (Oakland)  hit for the cycle! (on 7/9/2021 against Texas) 
Carlos Rodon (Chicago (CWS)) struck out 16 batters (on 7/10/2021 against Baltimore) 
Jazz Chisholm (Miami) struck out 4 times (on 7/10/2021 against Atlanta) 

Newsletter for games through 7-4-21

Making the Most of the Worst

So you do the best in ASFBL when the actual team tanks but your fantasy club does well, which can mean just going .500. Below is a list of the 6 teams struggling the most in real life and how the ASFBL clubs have responded.

Team	Real Last 10	ASFBL Last 10	Comments
CUBS	0-10	6-4	Gordie is +6 WOR, so his rise in the WOR standings are almost entirely the product of making progress while the actual team collapses.
CLEVELAND	1-9	4-6	4-6 is nothing to write home about, but it did get Steven 3 games against the actual club. His last trade was June 9 where he traded Jake Bauers, presumably not because Jake was facing his namesake’s issues with the domestic violence policy.
ARIZONA	3-7	4-6	Only one game better over the last 10 but 17 better overall, which is a doggone impressive WOR number. Doing anything with this club is remarkable, as they are clearly in rebuilding mode.
KANSAS CITY	3-7	5-5	If not for the overall WOR prowess of the Chisox and Twins this team could be in playoff contention…they’d be challenging for first in 3 other divisions.
YANKEES	3-7	2-8	The fantasy team is matching the real team’s slide, but Mark Yee is not his father and will steady the course.
OAKLAND	3-7	5-5	John has endured a real team win streak that didn’t come with good overall stats and is now creeping back to even as the actual club slides…eyeballing it I think he’s made at least one trade a week every week since at least the start of June, so it won’t surprise me if he passes the actual club.

Alien invasion

What’s the right word for a player you have on your ASFBL team that isn’t on that team in MLB? I struggled…foreigner? Acquiree? Aquisition? Player-From-Elsewhere? Inspired by the Las Vegas 51s, I went with “alien.” Looking at the active ASFBL rosters last week, you can tell which teams have both been the most active in acquiring players AND using them: Adam’s Phillies lead the way with 11 players on the active roster who are not Phillies in real life. Right behind are Mike’s Royals at 9, Jim’s Astros tie with Ben’s Rangers at 8, and then it drops to the Chisox, Dodgers, and Rockies who are tied at 5. That means 23 teams have 4 or fewer aliens on the roster, which means the overwhelming number of players in the ASFBL are on the MLB roster as well, although roles and management differ quite a bit. On the other hand, only two ASFBL teams are rolling with a full roster of active players from the real team, so everyone seems to tweak. My takeaway? It’s not just who you’ve got, owners seem to enjoy getting involved in how you set the roster and set the lineups.

Actual Oddity

I don’t know if you saw this, but in the Atlanta/Miami game last week Miami starter Pablo Lopez hit the first batter on the first pitch, got ejected, the batter came around to score, and the game ended 1-0. That has to be the first time in MLB history a starting pitcher has taken the loss after throwing exactly one pitch. Filing that under the “things you can’t code for” category…

Noteworthy

Kudos to Hugh’s Rockies, who had the best NL record last week, are +6 WOR, and 18-12 over the last 30…Ben had the Rangers at 5-1 in a wide-open division for the best record in AL…Johnny Mac gained more distance in the AL East although Boston is starting to rumble and Mark Chen is way over-performing the actual club…Jays, Bosox and Orioles all had winning weeks…my hat goes off to Leo, who is always on-point, had a 5-2 week and is 19-11 over the last 30…Greg Acthen has kept his team above water and with the actual club finally clawing its way back to .500 he’s hanging to a first-place tie with Jim Casey….Chris Zewiske has a powerful Brewers club and turned in the best record in the NL central, challenging the Cubs…Al Benedek is 2 games behind in the loss column behind Rick Wynne’s powerful Dodger club in a race that’s just as fun in ASFBL as it is in real life…Jeremy Moore’s fantasy Giants are stating to play like the real club, and 4 teams have a viable shot at the playoffs in the NL west…a .500 record and +6 WOR gets you 4th place in that dogfight…

Feats and Failures

Bobby Dalbec (Boston) struck out 4 times (on 6/28/2021 against Kansas City) 
Franchy Cordero (Boston) struck out 4 times (on 6/28/2021 against Kansas City) 
Kris Bryant (Chicago (CC)) struck out 5 times (on 6/28/2021 against Milwaukee) 
German Marquez (Colorado) struck out 11 batters (on 6/28/2021 against Pittsburgh) 
Brandon Crawford (San Francisco) hit 3 homers (on 6/28/2021 against Los Angeles) 
Max Stassi (Anaheim) struck out 4 times (on 6/29/2021 against New York (NYY)) 
Gary Sanchez (Philadelphia) struck out 4 times (on 6/29/2021 against Miami) 
Kevin Pillar (New York (NYM)) struck out 4 times (on 6/29/2021 against Atlanta) 
Trey Amburgey (New York (NYY)) struck out 4 times (on 7/1/2021 against Anaheim) 
Luis Campusano (San Diego) struck out 4 times (on 7/2/2021 against Philadelphia) 
Dominic Smith (New York (NYM))  had 5 hits (on 7/2/2021 against New York (NYY)) 
Collin McHugh (Tampa Bay) struck out 11 batters (on 7/2/2021 against Toronto) 
Trey Amburgey (New York (NYY)) struck out 4 times (on 7/3/2021 against New York (NYM)) 
Teoscar Hernandez (Toronto) struck out 4 times (on 7/3/2021 against Tampa Bay) 
Tommy Pham (San Diego) struck out 4 times (on 7/3/2021 against Philadelphia) 
Robel Garcia (Houston) struck out 4 times (on 7/3/2021 against Cleveland) 
Jose Quintana (Anaheim) struck out 11 batters (on 7/3/2021 against Baltimore) 
Kevin Gausman (San Francisco) struck out 11 batters (on 7/3/2021 against Arizona) 
Zack Wheeler (Philadelphia) struck out 11 batters (on 7/4/2021 against San Diego) 
Sonny Gray (Cincinnati) struck out 13 batters (on 7/4/2021 against Chicago (CC)) 
Ozzie Albies (Atlanta) hit 3 homers (on 7/4/2021 against Miami) 
Ozzie Albies (Atlanta) hit 7 RBI (on 7/4/2021 against Miami)

Newsletter for games through 6-27-21

No hitter trend continues!

Jose Urquidy of Houston threw a no-hitter against Baltimore on the 21st…although his team-mates helped out with 6 runs (Brantley had a homer and 2 RBI), they blew the perfect game with two errors. Urquidy struck out 11 along the way in a 111-pitch gem.  Note to self — find a way to count up all the ASFBL no-hitters and see how close we are to the actual MLB totals this year…

Comments

Brewers and Pdares are the hottest actual teams with 9-1 records over the last 10 games…only the Cubs can say that in the ASFBL…they gained 3 games in the standings this week…the Pirates also crept up on Milwaukee with 4 wins…best MLB records is still with the Giants at .633, and in the ASFBL the Dodgers (.705) and Padres (.675) are both better…talk about a pennant race; crazy that those teams are in the same division….in fact, the division is a collective +27 WOR…so the NL west has the WOR leader (Arizona) and the 2 teams with the best records…wow…and this is totally crazy, but the Giants are the only team in the division with a negative WOR count, and they are also the ONLY team in the division with a better in-division record (.580) than outside of it…hats off to Danny Wildes who’s got the Braves on the top of the NL East…he should be getting a push from the Mets but I’ve managed to brilliantly skipper the club into last place…in fairness, I did have to invest all that time keeping JoLo and ARod from buying out my ASFBL franchise…Johnny Mac is the story in the AL East where he’s got the Jays +4.5 WOR and in first place….Yankees and Rays are easily within striking distance, however, and the Orioles at +9 WOR might not have the gas to challenge for the division but could easily be in the spoiler seat and challenge for the top WOR spot…they’re 3rd right now, and Minnesota is a tougher actual club to run against…Mike Mendoza continues to do great things with the Royals…he’s got a winning record while the real club is 10 games under .500…Leo still has a grip on the top spot and the best record in the AL despite a tough week…”Trader” Jim Casey pulled off 3 more trades this week and rode them to a 6-1 record and the top spot in the AL West….Angels and Rangers are still beating the real clubs and Oakland is starting to head up…5-2 this week…Adam Symonds really shook it up this week trading 7 players…that’s after moving 7 last week…no immediate returns (2-3 this week) but he’s only 2.5 behind the actual club and has a revamped roster going into the All-Star break…strange ASFBL oddity was that no home team swept a series this week, but the Braves, Astros, Angels, Mariners, Reds, and Jays all got a sweep on the road…Tatis Jr. leads the ASFBL with 26 homers…Acuna of the Braves has scored the most runs with 64…Reds and Cleveland each are in the top-3 in defense, saving almost as many hits as they allow with bad plays and errors…two more weeks before the All-Star break…26 lineups in this week! Thanks everyone!

Feats and failures

Max Scherzer (Washington) struck out 11 batters (on 6/22/2021 against Philadelphia) 
Jacob deGrom (Anaheim) struck out 17 batters (on 6/22/2021 against San Francisco) 
Zack Wheeler (Philadelphia) struck out 13 batters (on 6/23/2021 against Washington) 
Kevin Gausman (San Francisco) struck out 12 batters (on 6/23/2021 against Anaheim) 
Jose Altuve (Houston)  had 5 hits (on 6/23/2021 against Baltimore) 
Austin Riley (Atlanta) struck out 4 times (on 6/23/2021 against New York (NYM)) 
Fernando Tatis Jr. (San Diego) hit 6 RBI (on 6/23/2021 against Los Angeles) 
Randal Grichuk (Toronto) struck out 4 times (on 6/24/2021 against Baltimore) 
Ryan Jeffers (Minnesota) struck out 4 times (on 6/24/2021 against Cleveland) 
Bryan Reynolds (Pittsburgh)  had 5 hits (on 6/24/2021 against St. Louis) 
Freddy Peralta (Milwaukee) struck out 11 batters (on 6/25/2021 against Colorado) 
Carlos Rodon (Chicago (CWS)) struck out 11 batters (on 6/25/2021 against Seattle) 
Patrick Wisdom (Chicago (CC)) struck out 4 times (on 6/25/2021 against Los Angeles) 
Teoscar Hernandez (Toronto) struck out 4 times (on 6/27/2021 against Baltimore) 
Collin McHugh (Tampa Bay) struck out 16 batters (on 6/27/2021 against Anaheim) 
Jacob deGrom (Anaheim) struck out 11 batters (on 6/27/2021 against Tampa Bay) 
Randy Arozarena (Tampa Bay) struck out 4 times (on 6/27/2021 against Anaheim) 
Matt Chapman (Oakland) struck out 4 times (on 6/27/2021 against San Francisco) 
Julio Urias (Los Angeles) struck out 11 batters (on 6/27/2021 against Chicago (CC))

Newsletter for games through 6-20

COMMENTS

No undefeated teams this week…but the Padres went 6-1 for the best record in the NL and the Yankees and Twins were each 5-1 to pace the American League…six teams are within 3 games of first in the AL East and West…the Oakland 3-3 mark gave them the best recrd in the west, although Anaheim is clutching to first…every division leader is doing better than the real club except for the Cubs, who are dead on the actual club performance…the collapse of the actual Diamonbacks has helped Ben Leckie vault into first-place WOR…the NL West is where the toughest fight is, with the Padres and Dodgers both 8 or more games ahead of the actual clubs…six more trades this week led by Texas, who is a division-leading +6 WOR…amazingly, of the 4 trades that Texas pulled out this week three were within the division…the best actual club is the Giants, who have exactly two guys hitting better than .270…team ERA of 3.27 explains the success…ASFBL club is hitting .245 compared the the .242 for the real-life guys, although they’ve scored 20 fewer runs (343 vs 363)….in MLB only the Padres and Mets have a better team ERA, and in ASFBL 8 teams have a better ERA, led by the Dodgers (3.00)…for real teams have ERAs under 4.00, but there are only 2 in the ASFBL, Dodgers and the Chisox….Ryan Thompson of the Rays inherited and stranded 6 runners this week…Dinelson Lamet of the Padres pitched the most innings last week (13.33) without allowing a run…Gerritt Cole of the Yankees struck out 18 but walked 11 in 11.67 innings…the digital umpires must have taken away his LED sunscreen…Matt Olson of Oakland had 5 homers last week and turned them into 12 RBI, both of which led the ASFBL…across the bay, Steve Duggar hit 3 homers but only knocked in 4…Bryan Reynolds of the Pirates had 2 doubles and 4 homers but only 6 RBI…the Reds are scuffling but are much better within the division (14-17) than outside of it, which is keeping them relevant…as a real-life digression, I don’t know who else saw that on Monday deGrom retired 8 straight before walking the pitcher…boy, did that pitcher have some trash to talk against team-mates….he’s only walked 10 guys all year and the pitcher was Kyle Muller, a rookie in his first MLB at-bat….wonder if he saved the ball….he has a legitimate shot of being able to say that reached base on deGrom for his only basepath appearance of his career.

Newsletter for games through 6-13-21

COMMENTS:

The actual DBacks are in a huge skid and have lost 21 straight road games…Ben Leckie’s team avoided that trap by not playing any road games this week, but he’s also won 5 of the last 10 road games, which will boost your WOR pretty fast…Ben is +13…on the other end of the spectrum, it was going to be hard for Alan to keep the Rays on pace with the 11-game win streak they’re on…and nothing seems to slow down the Orioles, who were 4-1 last week and are now +6 WOR…Seattle has been 5-5 over their last 10 in reality but the ASFBL version went 4-2 this week, best in the AL West…Miami swept Atlanta this week, in what’s a bigger ASFBL series than real-life…and the Rockies helped the rest of the NL East by taking 2 of 3 from the Braves…Cubs and Brewers are in a dead tie in the NL central and both had winning weeks this time around…Giants are the real-life surprise and went 5-1 in the ASFBL this week, all on the road…Pirates couldn’t play the spoiler against the Brewers this week, and Milwaukee swept the home series…Jays swept Boston in Boston…Daniel Bard of Colorado walked 8 runners in 7.33 innings but didn’t allow anyone to score…Tarik Skubal of the Tigers had 20 strikeouts in 9.67 innings last week…Leutge of the Yankees stranded all 5 runners he inherited this week…Salvador Perez of the Royals hit .364 and had 10 RBI last week…Ryan Jeffers of the Twins lead the ASFBL with 14 RBI…he only had 7 hits and only 2 HR….but also had 2 doubles and a triple…Justin Upton of the Angels led all of ASFBL with a .526 average on the week…Merrifield stole 6 bases…29 owners submitted lineups last week! Five more trades, including a PTBNL completion….in the quintessential trade that made both teams better, the Royals and Mariners swapped some big names and were a combined 8-5…

FEATS AND FAILURES:

Salvador Perez (Kansas City)  had 5 hits (on 6/7/2021 against Anaheim) 
Whit Merrifield (Kansas City) stole 3 bases (on 6/7/2021 against Anaheim) 
Tucker Davidson (Atlanta) struck out 4 times (on 6/8/2021 against Philadelphia) 
Gregory Polanco (Pittsburgh) struck out 4 times (on 6/8/2021 against Los Angeles) 
Dominic Smith (New York (NYM)) struck out 4 times (on 6/8/2021 against Baltimore) 
Jose Devers (Miami) struck out 4 times (on 6/8/2021 against Colorado) 
Chas McCormick (Houston) hit 3 homers (on 6/8/2021 against Boston) 
Chas McCormick (Houston) hit 6 RBI (on 6/8/2021 against Boston) 
Chas McCormick (Houston)  had 5 hits (on 6/8/2021 against Boston) 
Teoscar Hernandez (Toronto) struck out 4 times (on 6/8/2021 against Chicago (CWS)) 
Jared Walsh (Anaheim) hit 6 RBI (on 6/8/2021 against Kansas City) 
Steven Duggar (San Francisco) struck out 4 times (on 6/9/2021 against Texas) 
William Contreras (Atlanta) struck out 4 times (on 6/9/2021 against Philadelphia) 
Yadiel Hernández (Washington) struck out 4 times (on 6/9/2021 against Tampa Bay) 
Jon Lester (Washington) struck out 12 batters (on 6/10/2021 against San Francisco) 
Lance Lynn (Chicago (CWS)) struck out 13 batters (on 6/11/2021 against Detroit) 
Jacob deGrom (Anaheim) struck out 11 batters (on 6/11/2021 against Arizona) 
Jonathan Villar (New York (NYM)) stole 3 bases (on 6/12/2021 against San Diego) 
Bobby Dalbec (Boston) struck out 4 times (on 6/12/2021 against Toronto) 
Ryan Jeffers (Minnesota) hit 7 RBI (on 6/12/2021 against Houston) 
Andrew Vaughn (Chicago (CWS)) struck out 4 times (on 6/13/2021 against Detroit) 
Tarik Skubal (Detroit) struck out 11 batters (on 6/13/2021 against Chicago (CWS)) 
Brandon Woodruff (Milwaukee) struck out 12 batters (on 6/13/2021 against Pittsburgh) 
Ben Gamel (Kansas City) struck out 4 times (on 6/13/2021 against Oakland) 
Joey Gallo (Texas) struck out 4 times (on 6/13/2021 against Los Angeles) 

NEWSLETTER FOR GAMES THROUGH 6-6-21

NO-HITTER! Sonny Gray (Cincinnati) threw a no-hitter on 5/31/2021 against Philadelphia…great news for the Reds this week…had 1 walk and struck out 11…no hit-saving plays behind him…by my count, that’s 6 ASFBL no-hitters this year, and the second by Sonny Gray…he also had a 1-hitter…and I don’t know how I missed this, but Corbin Burnes of the Brewers threw an 11-inning no hitter back on April 18…would have been a perfect game but for Kolten Wong’s error…

COMMENTS

The Rays moved into first in the AL East, with the Yankees and Jays lurking just behind and at or above the real-club performance…Orioles are heating up in real-life and Mark has them +3 WOR, so watch out…Alan shared a Theo Epstein piece on how modern stats/training are massively helping pitchers and I quipped to Steve Skrovan that the Orioles must not have gotten that memo when they put up 18 runs on his beloved Clevelanders…they put up 10 on the Mets the very next game…instant karma…fantasy Orioles and real Orioles have each scored double-digit runs four times this year…ASFBL club did it against the Mets on May 12…life imitating art, or at least fantasy simulations…Nationals have the best NL East record over the last 10 games…Braves holding to first despite a soft week…they’re 17-12 in the division…NL Central is a dogfight with the Cubs, Brewers, and Cards all within 1.5 games of each other…Cubs are 16-4 over their last 20…Chisox have the best record in the AL over the last 30 games, the last 20 games, and the last 10 games…they got 6 homers and 17 RBI out of Devers last week, which was an adjustment…he only hit .211 in real life…his ASFBL average is now within 6 points of his real average…he’s got 18 ASFBL homers and 15 in real life…Royals went 5-1 and pushed into positive-WOR territory…Houston righted itself and latched on to first with a 6-1 week…combined AL west record was 20-12 last week, and 19-6 if you count the top 4 teams…best inter-league record goes to the Dodgers, who are 9-3, followed by the Jays at 9-4….the two teams don’t play this year…top two WOR teams are Dodgers and DBacks, who share the same division…3 of the top 5 are in the west when you add in Anaheim…don’t count out Oakland, who’s been quietly moving up the standings and is shaving away at the WOR after that absurd real-life run…if they hit even WOR they’ll be in first…Matt Olson hit .478 for them last week…Texas is also a strong +4 WOR (top-6 in the ASFBL), and might have something to say about that division before it’s all over…Adam Frazier hit .478 for Pittsburgh last week..Houston had 4 players hit better than .400 last week (Gurriel, Tucker, Bregman, and Papierski)…makes Altuve’s .364 seem kinda small…there were 5 ASFBL trades since last week, which is pretty normal, but 4 were completed before the stats were updated on Monday, which is really unusual…25 lineups submitted last week…thanks for staying so on top of things!

FEATS AND FAILURES

Jacob deGrom (Anaheim) struck out 12 batters (on 5/31/2021 against San Francisco) 
Marcus Stroman (New York (NYM)) struck out 4 times (on 5/31/2021 against Arizona) 
Max Scherzer (Washington) struck out 12 batters (on 6/1/2021 against Atlanta) 
Andrew Stevenson (Washington) struck out 4 times (on 6/1/2021 against Atlanta) 
Buster Posey (San Francisco) struck out 4 times (on 6/1/2021 against Anaheim) 
Ryan Mountcastle (Baltimore) struck out 4 times (on 6/2/2021 against Minnesota) 
Brett Phillips (Tampa Bay) struck out 4 times (on 6/3/2021 against New York (NYY)) 
Kevin Kiermaier (Tampa Bay) struck out 4 times (on 6/3/2021 against New York (NYY)) 
Kevin Gausman (San Francisco) struck out 13 batters (on 6/3/2021 against Chicago (CC)) 
Franchy Cordero (Boston) struck out 4 times (on 6/4/2021 against New York (NYY)) 
Mike Wright (Chicago (CWS)) struck out 11 batters (on 6/4/2021 against Detroit) 
Jose Siri (Houston) hit 6 RBI (on 6/5/2021 against Toronto) 
Jorge Mateo (San Diego) struck out 4 times (on 6/6/2021 against New York (NYM))

Newsletter for games through 5-30-21

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

Bypassing the normal division-by-division review for random observations…on May 13 Raph’s Reds scored 13 runs in the 8th inning, erasing an 11-run deficit…only to give up 2 in the bottom of the 9th and go to extra-innings…where they scored in the top of the 10th and won 14-13…Two days earlier the Padres also scored 13 runs, this time in the 6th, and cruised to a 15-3 victory…those the the top-2 innings all year…there have been 167 shutouts so far in the ASFBL this year…the Yankees have thrown 7 shutouts on the road, tops in the ASFBL…most recently a 1-0 gem by Gerrit Cole against the Tigers on the last game of this week…Atlanta is the only team not to be shut out at home this year…the Chisox, Twins, Braves, and Astros haven’t been shut out on the road…which means Atlanta is the only team not to be shut out all year…the Braves did, however, shut out the Mets for 3 consecutive games between 5/17 and 5/19…there were seven games last week were more than 10 runs were scored, and twice by the Padres…two of those games involved shutting out the other team…on the other end of the spectrum, there were 11 games that ended 1-0…Dodgers have the best actual walk percentage at 11.6%…only the Yankees and Oakland are also over 10%…Atlanta and the Chisox have the best actual team OPS and are the only two over .800…If you look at the most ASFBL homers for the entire roster, the league leader is Torotno, but if you look at players on the active roster then it’s Toronto, however, if you pull from the actual games, then it’s Toronto…this leads me to believe that Toronto might be the team to call if you’re looking for power…pulling from the actual games so far the Padres have scored the most runs (286) and have the most hits (506), but if you look at the actual roster they drop down to the middle of the pack…Twins, Angels, and Texas have the best net defense, and the Nationals have straight up robbed the most hits with 27…Cardinals went 6-1 but lost ground to the Cubs who were 6-0…Oakland moved into second in the AL west with a strong 5-2 performance…Tigers produced a winning week, and are an easy team to cheer for…the actual Atlanta team is in shambles but Danny has this fantasy group firing on all cylinders and 8 games over .500…if you’ll permit two real-life digressions, you might have been able to estimate how interested I am in my day job by last week’s supplemental newsletter asking the question “What if the Angels never tried to make any trades?”…wonder how Tony LaRussa feels about Matt Joyce hitting a grand slam off of an infielder-turned-pitcher en route to a 17-3 win over the Reds last night…

SUPPLEMENT: The Angels would be much better if they never tried to think

In the time before covid, in one especially long and terminally boring faculty meeting, I started musing about all the good players the Angels once had and have let go. I started to wonder what the team would be like if the front office never tried to do anything fancier than draft players and develop them. Here are the rules: Keep all the players you draft. If they’re good, match their free agent offers and keep them around. Don’t trade to get anyone and never sign a free agent. From what I can tell, had the Angels done this the pitching would have been much better, the hitting would have been notably better, and the payroll would have been considerably lower.

PITCHING

Here’s the pitching staff with year drafted, name, and 2019 stats. The rotation is Chatwood, Hendricks, Clevinger, Corbin, and Canning. Not quite sure what to do about Skaggs and Richards, but this group had a 3.70 ERA over 902 innings; the actual club was 5.12 and ranked 12th in the AL.

2008	Tyler Chatwood	5-3 3.76
2009	Kyle Hendricks	11-10 3.46
2009	Tyler Skaggs
2009	Garrent Richards
2009	Patrick Corbin	14-7 3.25
2010	Cam Bedrosian	3-3 3.23
2011	Mike Clevinger	13-4 2.71
2012	Austin Adams	2-2 3.79
2012	Mike Morin	1-3 4.62
2012	Yency Almonte	0-1 5.56
2013	Keynan Middleton	0-0 1.17
2014	Justin Anderson	3-0 5.55
2017	Griffin Canning	5-6 4.58

HITTING

For grins I’m adding 2019 OPS+ and Career OPS+. 2019 OPS+ average for these guys was 108 (109 for career, so these were pretty typical years). The actual team was 94.

Position	Yr drafted	Name	2019 OPS+	Career OPS+
OF	2009	Randall Grichuk	93	105
OF	2009	Mike Trout	185	176
OF	2010	Cole Calhoun	108	105
1B	2012	CJ Cron	103	110
SS	2015	David Fletcher	97	94
2B	2002	Howie Kendrick	142	109
3B	2002	Sean Rodriguez	88	87
C	2005	Buster Posey	84	128
C	2004	Martin Maldonado	75	73

SALARY

And, of course, the punch line is that these 20 guys would have a payroll of $103m, using their actual 2019 salaries (which thus assumes that they could have been re-signed at their 2019 salary by the Angels, although they did that with Trout so Posey is the only real question mark). The actual Angel payroll was $177m.

By not signing free agents they would have missed out on Simmons and Ohtani, but they also wouldn’t have been saddled with this list of players all of whom had negative Wins-Abover-Average: Pujlos ($28m, -1.7 WAA), Upton ($18m, -1.9), Cozart ($12.6m, -1.6), Harvey ($11m, ugh), LuCroy ($3.5m, -1.7), Justin Bour ($2.5m, -1.2), and Trevor Cahill ($9m, -1.2). That’s about $85m in salary that’s making you worse than if you just used a AAA guy.

CAVEAT

OK, I know I’m only looking at the top 20 guys and there would be another 10-15 who shuffled in and out at various points (I’ve got 900 innings on this page and the actual Angels threw 1,440, so those additional 500 innings would have to come from somewhere). But those guys would also lower the average salary, and if you add to the mix mid-range free agents to plug holes that could be dumped if they don’t pan out, those AB/IP are pretty easily filled. But, no matter how you slice it, the 2019 team of drafted Angels would be much better than the 2019 team of actual Angels. Once we are all off of zoom for half our lives the next boring faculty meeting will bring an even more detailed analysis….