Newsletter for games through 7-22-18

TRADING DEADLINE! 

July 31, which means that any trades must be completed by the time of your next lineup.  Also a pretty good week to check the email — if you’re on gmail, your “forums” tab might be where all the ASFBL trade offers are.

MINOR LEAGUE PROMOTIONS:

Had a request or two about how this works — the info is under the rules link on the wordpress page, but I’m posting it here too:

“As of 2018:  As soon as a AAA player is called up in real life and accumulates 10 Major League innings pitched or 25 at-bats, those Major League stats replace minor league stats. Upon promotion of any sort any accrued ASFBL fantasy stats to that point will be reset (and the accrued minor league stats would be irrelevant to subsequent performances).

Until 10IP/25AB, a sliding scale will average AAA and MLB stats. For batters, the actual AB is divided by 25 to create an adjustment percentage, and the final stats are a weighted average based on the adjustment percentage for MLB stats. For example, if a guy has 13 real AB, the adjustment percentage is 13/25 = 52%. His stats will be 52% MLB and 48% AAA, so if he’s hitting .200 in MLB and .293 in AAA the average is (.200 * .52) + (.293 * .48) = .244. For pitchers, the calculations are the same but with IP replacing AB and 10 as the divisor rather than 25.”

TOTALLY VALID COMPARISON OF THE WEEK

I compared the first 15 owners to appear alphabetically (Achten through Leckie) to the last 15 alphabetically (Leckie through Zewiskie).  The result: The back end of the alphabet leads 51.3% to 48.7%.  Those higher in the alphabet always had their names called last at school and probably got to the front of most lines least often, and I feel this has created a grittier, more competitive oeuvre for those lower in the alphabet.  Can it be mere coincidence that Weerts, Wildes, Wynne, Yee and Zewiske ALL have winning records?  And that without “Boston” Bernacchi the entire letter B would be wallowing in failure?  And what of the middle of the alphabet?  Why, the entire extended family Leckie is 4 games over .500, or 1.3 Games Per Leckie (GPL).  The middle of the alphabet is thus within a game of the absolute middle…At least in the first half of the 2018 ASFBL season, it appears the last shall be first and the first shall be last…

COMMENTARY:

Holy Tampa Bay, Batman…they followed up their 7-0 first-half finish with a 3-0 second-half start…and are, in fact on a 13-0 run…perhaps they have found momentum through the basic economic principles espoused by Hyman Minsky:  “Success breeds a disregard of the possibility of failure.“…Twins and Mariners also had perfect starts in the AL…Only the Dodgers did it in the NL…although the Cubs went 3-1 and picked up 2.5 games on the Brewers…the actual Orioles continue to tank and Mark Chen continues to impress…Horak has the Chisox +10 WOR…the Nationals gained a game in airtight NL East, which is actually a pretty big deal given how close the division is…no NL team leads its division by more than 3.5…no AL division-leader has a positive WOR; no NL division-leader has a negative one…Cory Spagenburg of the Padres hit .545 in the games leading into the break, tops in the ASFBL…also had 8 walks…that put him on base in 20 of 30 plate appearances…Jason Kipnis had 4 RBI in only 6 AB last week…Josh Bell of Pitt hit .636 in the short week…and if you go 7-11 you should celebrate with a Slurpee…the New York Met who made the players of the week page was AAA superstar Jeff McNeil, who went 2-11…that makes you one of the better Mets…I swear that half the trades made in the past 2 weeks start with the word “Seattle”…

Good luck to everyone in the last week of trading!

 

 

 

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Newsletter for games through 7-15-18

UNSCIENTIFIC COMPARISON OF THE WEEK

I have often wondered how crucial variables like astrological sign or shoe size relate to ASFBL performance, so I marked all the owners I personally know to be fathers and compared them to the unprocreated to see if there was a difference….it didn’t go well for the Dads, who have a collective ASFBL record of 48.5%…it’s therefore 51.5% if you are playing without the benefit of children in your life…the former group, however, undoubtedly has more Happy Father’s Day memorabilia…

INTO THE BREAK…

It is the rare week when the ASFBL and MLB results match up perfectly, thanks to the All-Star hiatus…so I thought I’d look at the hottest and coldest teams and see how they compare…Boston (17-3) and Oakland (15-5) are the hottest actual teams over the last 20 games…both had winning weeks going into the ASFBL break with Oakland having the better week at 5-2…the actual Royals are really scuffling at 4-16 going into the ASG…the ASFBL Royals similarly struggled, but Judd had them +5 WOR….and the actual Rays have been hot but have recently cooled off to 13-7 over the last 20…but Alan’s club roared into the break with the only 7-0 record in the league…nobody in the AL East had a losing week…only the A’s had a winning week in the AL west…the Chisox took advantage of a Cleveland stumble and went 4-1 to pick up 3.5 games this week and pull within 6…they are also the only team other than Baltimore who is in positive WOR territory to the tune of 2 digits…there is no doubt that the hottest divisional race is going to be the AL West, with the top 4 teams all withing 4 games of first place..of that group, only Greg Achten’s Angels have a positive WOR…the closest race, however, is in the NL East where the Andy’s Nationals and Danny’s Braves are within a half game of each other…and the Nats are tied with Al’s Padres for the best WOR in the NL…Mark Chen’s Orioles finish the first half as indisputably the team to be in WOR, a lead that might get larger depending on what the actual Orioles do with their shortstop…hats off to Tony and his Bosox, who finished the first half as the top team in the league and the only team winning more than 60% of the time…Oakland put up 24 runs in their July 10 game…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Mike Fiers of NYM had 11 strikeouts against PHI on 7/9/2018
Adrian Beltre of TEX struck out 4 times against BOS on 7/9/2018
Marcus Semien of OAK had 6 RBI against HOU on 7/10/2018
Marcus Semien of OAK had 5 hits against HOU on 7/10/2018
Stephen Piscotty of OAK hit 3 home runs against HOU on 7/10/2018
Stephen Piscotty of OAK had 5 hits against HOU on 7/10/2018
Chris Archer of SEA had 10 strikeouts against LAA on 7/10/2018
Andrew Suarez of SFG had 10 strikeouts against CHC on 7/10/2018
Jose Berrios of MIN had 10 strikeouts against KCR on 7/11/2018
Lorenzo Cain of MIL had 5 hits against MIA on 7/11/2018
Jacob deGrom of NYM had 11 strikeouts against PHI on 7/11/2018
Vince Velasquez of PHI had 11 strikeouts against NYM on 7/11/2018
Shin-Soo Choo of TEX struck out 4 times against BOS on 7/11/2018
Nolan Arenado of HOU struck out 6 times against OAK on 7/12/2018
OAK and HOU played 16.5 innings on 7/12/2018
Chris Sale of BOS had 14 strikeouts against TOR on 7/12/2018
Curtis Granderson of TOR struck out 4 times against BOS on 7/12/2018
Trevor Bauer of CLE had 13 strikeouts against NYY on 7/13/2018
Mitch Moreland of BOS struck out 4 times against TOR on 7/13/2018
Gerrit Cole of HOU had 10 strikeouts against DET on 7/13/2018
Blake Snell of TBR had 10 strikeouts against MIN on 7/13/2018
Jedd Gyorko of STL robbed 3 hits against CIN on 7/13/2018
Madison Bumgarner of SFG had 11 strikeouts against OAK on 7/13/2018
Jesus Aguilar of MIL had 6 RBI against PIT on 7/14/2018
Phil Ervin of CIN struck out 4 times against STL on 7/14/2018
Carlos Carrasco of CLE had 10 strikeouts against NYY on 7/14/2018
SEA and COL played 13.5 innings on 7/14/2018
Mike Clevinger of CLE had 11 strikeouts against NYY on 7/15/2018
Mike Foltynewicz of ATL had 12 strikeouts against ARI on 7/15/2018
Jameson Taillon of PIT had 10 strikeouts against MIL on 7/15/2018

Newsletter for games through 7-8-2018

COMMENTARY

Arizona, Miami, and the Cubs had the big weeks in the NL….for the Cubs, it brought them closer to the Brewers, for the DBacks, it gave them some distance in the NL West, and it pushed Miami out to +4 WOR….In fact, in the NL East the bottom 3 teams all had winning records and the top 2 had losing records, but in both the NL Central and West only the and DBacks had winning records….Bosox and Yankees continue to set the pace in the AL East, with the Bosox gaining a game…Indians held on to the AL central at dead-even-WOR, but the Twins had the best week in the division….Seattle and Texas were a combined 11-1 in the West…Texas had an especially good run on the week, posting the only perfect 6-0 record and moving Ben Brockreide to a +3 WOR…Houston continues to hold the divisional lead, with the Angels, Mariners, and A’s all within 5 games…Cleveland actually has the largest divisional lead at 9 games…going into the All-Star break, 12 teams are within 5 games of first place…Boston has the best record in the league…Baltimore and the Chisox are really turning it on in the WOR category…the tightest race is the NL East, where Washington leads the Braves by a half game…don’t know if you saw Judd Choate’s post, but he offered this going into the week: “The fantasy Royals have six games this week – against four all-star starters. And, in three of those games, I’m starting a minor league pitcher who has never pitched in the majors (fantasy or real life)”….he finished 2-4, not bad considering….beat Clevinger and Carrasco of the Indians…with Fillmyr and Staumont…Grichuk had 17 RBI this week…the Mets as a team scored 17 runs…10 of them came in one 4-homer game…Starlin Marte of the Pirates was 10 for 10 in stolen bases…Houston has 3 pitchers in the top 10 for wins…Kimbrel, Devenski, and Treinen are tied with 23 saves…in the Anthony Young Memorial Award category, Danny Duffy has 14 losses…Judge and Stanton are tied for 3rd with 115 strikeouts…they also combined for 31 HR…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Chris Sale of BOS had 11 strikeouts against WAS on 7/2/2018
Trevor Bauer of CLE had 10 strikeouts against KCR on 7/2/2018
Randal Grichuk of COL hit 4 home runs against SFG on 7/2/2018
Randal Grichuk of COL had 10 RBI against SFG on 7/2/2018
Randal Grichuk of COL had 5 hits against SFG on 7/2/2018
ATL and NYY played 15.5 innings on 7/3/2018
J.D. Martinez of BOS struck out 4 times against WAS on 7/4/2018
JT Riddle of MIA had 6 RBI against TBR on 7/4/2018
JT Riddle of MIA had 5 hits against TBR on 7/4/2018
Edwin Encarnacion of CLE struck out 4 times against KCR on 7/4/2018
Lucas Duda of KCR had 5 hits against CLE on 7/4/2018
Jacob deGrom of NYM had 11 strikeouts against TBR on 7/6/2018
Andrew Benintendi of BOS hit for the cycle against KCR on 7/6/2018
Madison Bumgarner of SFG had 11 strikeouts against STL on 7/7/2018
Rogelio Armenteros of HOU had 12 strikeouts against CWS on 7/7/2018
Chris Sale of BOS had 17 strikeouts against KCR on 7/7/2018
Dustin Fowler of OAK struck out 4 times against CLE on 7/8/2018
Kevin Plawecki of NYM struck out 4 times against TBR on 7/8/2018
Ryon Healy of TEX had 7 RBI against DET on 7/8/2018
Tim Beckham of BAL struck out 4 times against MIN on 7/8/2018
Chris Davis of BAL struck out 4 times against MIN on 7/8/2018
Evan Gattis of BAL struck out 4 times against MIN on 7/8/2018
Miguel Sano of MIN struck out 4 times against BAL on 7/8/2018
BAL and MIN played 20.5 innings on 7/8/2018

Newsletter for games through 7-1-2018

HAPPY JOSH CLARK’S BIRTHDAY!  An event so monumental that our nation’s founders had the foresight to declare independence from England on the same day…He celebrated with a winning week that pushed his Marlins out of last place, a spot now occupied by my Mets…although I’m tied for the third-best WOR in the NL…the Nationals made the big push of the week in the division, claiming a 5-1 finish and moving to within a half game of the Braves…The Cubs went 6-1 to push the Brewers, who themselves had 4 wins on the week…a big reason was Jose Ramirez, who carried them with 6 HR…the DBacks went 6-1 to assert control in the NL west….big news in the AL is that the Indians had the only perfect record (6-0), the only winning record in their division, the only winning week in their division, and now own the biggest lead of any first-place team…Seattle went 5-2 in the west and although they are 6.5 back are within striking distance as we close in on the break…and although they are in 4th place in the west have a winning record and are closer to first than the second-place team in the AL central…Aaron Hicks hit .519 for them and stole 4 bases…the Nationals would be leading 4 other divisions….Tony Bernacchi is looking serious about holding on to the AL East…Davis and Lowrie each hit better than .400 for the Oakland club last week, which posted a winning record…Eugenio Suarez of the Reds had 15 RBI last week…Jesse Winker of Detroit knocked in 8 runs last week…also drew 8 walks…Eight trades last week, and few of them seemed like roster dumps…nobody threw more fantasy innings last week than Mike Foltynewicz, who struck out 28 in 18 innings…but Freddy Peralta of the Brewers struck out 19, and did it in only 16 innings…

I think this means we have had more cycles than no-hitters this year, while the former is supposed to be the less common occurrence, but Johan Camargo of the Braves still had a pretty special day against the Reds on 6/27/2018….

FEATS AND FAILURES

Jed Lowrie of OAK had 5 hits against DET on 6/25/2018
Shawn Armstrong of SEA had 10 strikeouts against BAL on 6/25/2018
Jacob deGrom of NYM had 13 strikeouts against PIT on 6/25/2018
Mike Foltynewicz of ATL had 12 strikeouts against CIN on 6/25/2018
Mike Zunino of SEA struck out 4 times against BAL on 6/26/2018
Jabari Blash of LAA struck out 4 times against BOS on 6/26/2018
Eugenio Suarez of CIN hit 3 home runs against ATL on 6/26/2018
Eugenio Suarez of CIN had 6 RBI against ATL on 6/26/2018
Freddy Peralta of MIL had 16 strikeouts against KCR on 6/26/2018
Josh Reddick of HOU robbed 3 hits against TOR on 6/26/2018
Jake Marisnick of HOU had 6 RBI against TOR on 6/26/2018
Adam Plutko of CLE had 11 strikeouts against STL on 6/26/2018
Chris Sale of BOS had 15 strikeouts against LAA on 6/27/2018
Jabari Blash of LAA struck out 4 times against BOS on 6/27/2018
Starling Marte of PIT struck out 4 times against NYM on 6/27/2018
Kevin Gausman of BAL had 10 strikeouts against SEA on 6/28/2018
Tom Murphy of COL struck out 4 times against SFG on 6/28/2018
Edwin Jackson of WAS had 14 strikeouts against PHI on 6/28/2018
Blake Snell of TBR had 12 strikeouts against HOU on 6/28/2018
Albert Almora of CHC had 5 hits against MIN on 6/29/2018
Tyler Anderson of NYY had 11 strikeouts against BOS on 6/29/2018
Max Scherzer of WAS had 10 strikeouts against PHI on 6/29/2018
Luis Severino of MIL had 10 strikeouts against CIN on 6/29/2018
Jesus Aguilar of MIL had 6 RBI against CIN on 6/29/2018
Shane Bieber of CLE had 12 strikeouts against OAK on 6/30/2018
Matthew Boyd of CIN struck out 4 times against MIL on 6/30/2018
Mike Foltynewicz of ATL had 16 strikeouts against STL on 6/30/2018
Joe Musgrove of PIT had 10 strikeouts against SDP on 6/30/2018
Cory Spangenberg of SDP struck out 4 times against PIT on 6/30/2018
Tyler Skaggs of LAA had 12 strikeouts against BAL on 7/1/2018
Freddy Peralta of MIL had 13 strikeouts against CIN on 7/1/2018
Corey Kluber of CLE had 11 strikeouts against OAK on 7/1/2018