Newsletter for games through 8/26/2018

RACES

Atlanta and Washington are now in a dead tie in the NL East, thanks to Atlanta picking up a half game by going 6-1 to the Nationals’ 5-1..Brewers gained 2 games to get a 5-game cushion in the NL central…Dodgers made a 1.5 game move in the west, and are sitting 6.5 back…Oakland and Houston broke away from the pack in the AL west; the A’s had a stunning 7-0 week (best in the league) to move a half game in front of Houston, who themselves were 5-1…Yankees crept closer in the AL East, and the Bosox lead is only 3 games…Tampa Bay had *another* winning week, and might just challenge for the wildcard spot…with the actual Nationals tanking, Andy might have a shot at Mark’s Balitmore team for the top WOR spot…

OF NOTE

The Reds continued their winning ways and are scuffling on the year but are 17-13 over the last 30…they could be a factor down the stretch…Rockies righted the ship and put toegether a winning week…The Chisox were a sold 5-1, and combining that with a tough week for Cleveland they are at least within a horizon view of the AL central…they did all their damange in the division…and owe a debt of gratitude to Judd’s Royals, who took 3 from Cleveland…the Padres are a very solid +8 WOR…

FACTOIDS

The Cubs have the best fielding, having saved a net of 122 hits over the course of the season…Tampa Bay has the best bullpen ERA at 2.53, and a starter ERA of 4.08…of course, with Tampa it’s kind of hard to tell the difference….Oakland, Anaheim, and the Yankees are all tied for the lowest percentage of inherited runners to score with 15%….Nations have the best overall WHIP at 1.20…Houston is a not-so distant second at 1.21…Boston is third…Houston also leads the ASFBL in strikeouts, with its collection of fireballers logging 1,353 in 1,345 inning…but they are also 3rd-worst in HR allowed…CSUF alum Khris Dvais leads the ASFBL with 42 HR…Jean Segua of Seatlle has grounded into 19 double plays…that’s truly a stat you can’t attain without the help of your teammates…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Blake Snell of TBR had 12 strikeouts against BOS on 8/19/2018
Mallex Smith of TBR struck out 5 times against BOS on 8/19/2018
Mike Foltynewicz of ATL had 10 strikeouts against COL on 8/19/2018
Steven Souza of ARI struck out 4 times against SDP on 8/19/2018
Walker Buehler of LAD had 10 strikeouts against SEA on 8/19/2018
Chris Taylor of LAD struck out 4 times against STL on 8/20/2018
Max Scherzer of WAS had 11 strikeouts against PHI on 8/21/2018
Fernando Rodriguez Jr. of BOS had 10 strikeouts against CLE on 8/21/2018
Masahiro Tanaka of NYY had 10 strikeouts against MIA on 8/21/2018
Kenta Maeda of NYM had 10 strikeouts against SFG on 8/21/2018
SDP and COL played 13.5 innings on 8/21/2018
David Fletcher of LAA robbed 3 hits against ARI on 8/21/2018
LAA and ARI played 13.5 innings on 8/21/2018
Yadier Molina of STL struck out 4 times against LAD on 8/21/2018
David Freese of PIT had 5 hits against ATL on 8/22/2018
Zack Wheeler of WAS had 10 strikeouts against PHI on 8/22/2018
Kyle Freeland of COL had 11 strikeouts against SDP on 8/22/2018
Aaron Nola of PHI had 12 strikeouts against TOR on 8/24/2018
Justin Smoak of TOR struck out 4 times against PHI on 8/24/2018
Blake Snell of TBR had 10 strikeouts against BOS on 8/24/2018
Tyler Saladino of CWS struck out 4 times against DET on 8/24/2018
Gerrit Cole of HOU had 10 strikeouts against LAA on 8/24/2018
Jacob deGrom of CIN had 10 strikeouts against CHC on 8/25/2018
Shin-Soo Choo of TEX struck out 5 times against SFG on 8/25/2018
TEX and SFG played 13.5 innings on 8/25/2018
Andrew Benintendi of BOS struck out 4 times against TBR on 8/25/2018
Alex Wood of LAD had 11 strikeouts against SDP on 8/25/2018
Tyler White of SDP struck out 4 times against LAD on 8/25/2018
Ronald Acuna of ATL had 6 RBI against MIA on 8/26/2018
Max Scherzer of WAS had 13 strikeouts against NYM on 8/26/2018
Khris Davis of OAK had 6 RBI against MIN on 8/26/2018

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Newsletter for games through 8-19-2018

10 TEAMS, NO HITS

Edwin Jackson, the most-traveled player in MLB history, threw and ASFBL no-hitter last week…the game mattered quite a bit; it was for the Cubs against division rival Milwaukee…he did surrender 2 walks and 1 error (his own)…Chase Andeson only gave up 1 run in the loss…Asdrubal Cabrera of DET hit for the cycle against MIN on 8/16/2018…

RACES

The AL West Dogfight remains air tight; Oakland picked up half a game, Seattle dropped one…four teams still separated by 2 games…All Tampa Bay does is win; another 5-1 week…24-6 over the last 30…best MLB mark during that time is 22-8 (Oakland)…They are still 9.5 back of Boston and 4.5 behind the Yankees, but this should be a really fun end of the season if they can stay hot…LA and Arizona were collectively 11-1 in the sprint in the NL west…that was good news for Arizona, who’s up by 8…still wouldn’t want to play the Dodgers in the NLWCS…Arizona is 17-3 over their last 20…the Brewers nudged forward by a game and a half in the NL central and lead the Cubs by 3…the teams have identical records over the past 30 games…The Braves made a move on the Nationals (who did not dump their best players last week), and the lead is now half a game…

SPOILERS

Pittsburgh is scuffling but are owed a dinner by the Brewers after taking 3 of 4 from the Cubs this week…the Chisox helped their own cause in the WOR standings by getting a sweep of the Tigers…and the Royals in turn helped the Tigers by taking the series against the Chisox…Baltimore gave the rest of the AL central hope by sweeping the Indians…Toronto helped out the Bosox by taking a series against the Yankees….Pirates, Chisox, Orioles, Blue Jays, and Royals are not at the top of the standings but all had winning weeks, which just goes to show that all your games make a difference no matter where you are in the standings…

POWERHOUSES

There are some surprises and good stories when you look at who has accumulated the most talent, based on the real stats of players currently on the active roster…Cards have the best ERA for starters (2.98; Cleveland is second at 3.23)…Yankees have the best bullpen at 2.39 (Arizona is second)….Nobody has more strikeouts per inning than the Astros…Nobody gives out fewer walks that Cleveland (6.1 per 100 PA) or Philadelphia (6.9)…best WHIP also goes to Houston (1.11), but St. Louis is second and has the best ERA overall…Bosox have the best team batting average, OBP, and slugging percentage….Cardinals have the most real HR (227; Yankees lead MLB with 202)…Brewers have the most stolen bases (93, Cleveland leads MLB with an even 100)…Nationals lead the ASFBL in runs scored in fantasy play (658, and that’s lower than the MLB leader Boston with 684)…

HISTORICAL CORRECTIONS

I was clearly trying to make myself feel better when I called Tyler Mahle the Reds “ace” — he’s been demoted to AAA.  I called Kenta Maeda a #3 starter, and he’s been demoted to the bullpen…but the guys I traded away (Wheeler, deGrom) have been lights out…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Jack Flaherty of STL had 11 strikeouts against WAS on 8/13/2018
Jorge Bonifacio of KCR had 5 hits against TOR on 8/13/2018
Derek Dietrich of SEA struck out 4 times against OAK on 8/13/2018
Maikel Franco of PHI struck out 4 times against BOS on 8/14/2018
BOS and PHI played 14.5 innings on 8/14/2018
Blake Snell of TBR had 12 strikeouts against NYY on 8/14/2018
Curt Casali of TBR had 5 hits against NYY on 8/14/2018
Carlos Carrasco of CLE had 10 strikeouts against CIN on 8/14/2018
A.J. Pollock of ARI had 6 RBI against TEX on 8/14/2018
Clay Buchholz of KCR had 13 strikeouts against TOR on 8/14/2018
Josh Phegley of OAK struck out 4 times against SEA on 8/15/2018
Mitch Haniger of SEA struck out 4 times against OAK on 8/15/2018
Jacob deGrom of CIN had 12 strikeouts against CLE on 8/15/2018
Clayton Kershaw of LAD had 12 strikeouts against SFG on 8/15/2018
Ryne Stanek of TBR had 10 strikeouts against NYY on 8/16/2018
Dee Gordon of NYY struck out 4 times against TBR on 8/16/2018
Willy Adames of TBR struck out 4 times against NYY on 8/16/2018
Nick Williams of PHI had 6 RBI against NYM on 8/16/2018
Carlos Rodon of CWS had 11 strikeouts against KCR on 8/17/2018
Patrick Corbin of ARI had 10 strikeouts against SDP on 8/17/2018
Franmil Reyes of SDP struck out 4 times against ARI on 8/17/2018
Corey Kluber of CLE had 10 strikeouts against BAL on 8/18/2018
Jack Flaherty of STL had 10 strikeouts against MIL on 8/18/2018
Blake Snell of TBR had 12 strikeouts against BOS on 8/19/2018
Mallex Smith of TBR struck out 5 times against BOS on 8/19/2018
Mike Foltynewicz of ATL had 10 strikeouts against COL on 8/19/2018
Steven Souza of ARI struck out 4 times against SDP on 8/19/2018
Walker Buehler of LAD had 10 strikeouts against SEA on 8/19/2018

Newsletter for games through 8-12-18

COMMENTARY

Not to speak with unnecessary hyperbole, but the AL West is the best race in any real or fantasy baseball league ever…four teams are within 1 game of first place…and the team in the division with the best record last week was the Rangers…the Rangers are in the ultimate spoiler position…the Angels have more wins in 1-run games than any other AL team…Braves lead the NL with 23…Going into the week the Rays were the hottest ASFBL team over the last 30 games…then they went 5-1…their record over the last 30 is now 25-5 …only other team with more than 20 is the Nationals…Rays, Yankees, and Bosox were a combined 14-5…thank goodness for the rest of us they have to play intra-divisional games…Cardinals were perfect in the NL and were the only NL central team with a winning record…the Cubs and Brewers going to the wire 1.5 games apart, and both were 3-3 last week…Arizona had the only 5-1 NL week and put some distance in the NL west, where 4 of 5 teams had winning weeks…Nationals are 17-3 in interleague games….Two of the top-4 WOR teams are from the NL West…three of the top-7 WOR teams are from the NL East…and any WOR discussion generally starts or ends with Baltimore…Chris Sale struck out 38 batters in two starts last week…there are 5 AL teams within 1 game of the second wildcard spot…The Yankees and Bosox have the exact same record over the last 10 games…and the last 20….and the last 30….

FEATS AND FAILURES

Francisco Lindor of CLE hit 3 home runs against MIN on 8/6/2018
Evan Longoria of SFG struck out 4 times against HOU on 8/6/2018
Chris Sale of BOS had 20 strikeouts against TOR on 8/7/2018
Richard Urena of TOR struck out 4 times against BOS on 8/7/2018
Curtis Granderson of TOR struck out 4 times against BOS on 8/7/2018
Luis Severino of MIL had 10 strikeouts against SDP on 8/7/2018
Jacob Nix of SDP struck out 4 times against MIL on 8/7/2018
Rich Hill of LAD had 10 strikeouts against OAK on 8/7/2018
Joc Pederson of LAD had 6 RBI against OAK on 8/7/2018
Zack Godley of ARI had 11 strikeouts against PHI on 8/8/2018
Jack Flaherty of STL had 11 strikeouts against MIA on 8/8/2018
Mike Zunino of MIA struck out 4 times against STL on 8/8/2018
Masahiro Tanaka of NYY had 10 strikeouts against CWS on 8/8/2018
Cody Bellinger of LAD had 5 hits against OAK on 8/8/2018
Max Scherzer of WAS had 11 strikeouts against CHC on 8/10/2018
James Paxton of SEA had 10 strikeouts against HOU on 8/10/2018
Khris Davis of OAK struck out 4 times against LAA on 8/10/2018
Patrick Corbin of ARI had 13 strikeouts against CIN on 8/11/2018
Mike Clevinger of CLE had 10 strikeouts against CWS on 8/11/2018
LAD and COL played 13.5 innings on 8/11/2018
Chris Sale of BOS had 18 strikeouts against BAL on 8/12/2018
Tyler Anderson of NYY had 10 strikeouts against TEX on 8/12/2018
Kevin Kiermaier of TBR struck out 4 times against TOR on 8/12/2018
Trevor Bauer of CLE had 15 strikeouts against CWS on 8/12/2018
Andrelton Simmons of LAA robbed 3 hits against OAK on 8/12/2018

Newsletter for games through 8-5-18

TECHNICAL TIDBITS

There are some new stats pages this week, but if you visit the old standings or new team fantasy stats hold down shift and refresh the page…style sheets get cached and that’s how you load in the new ones.  The standings page now also shows the wildcards.

Team stats musings: There are 3 different ways to look at your team’s fantasy performance, and I can’t figure out which one is best.  You can look at the current active roster, but that won’t include things like guys currently on the DL, players you’ve traded but logged a bunch of time for you, etc.  You can look at the entire roster, including the inactive guys, which will include guys on the DL and players demoted for bad performance, but wouldn’t capture guys you’ve traded.  Or you can just look the stats in the games, which will include both traded and demoted guys, but is that really what you want to know?  “Geez, we had really good pitching (before I traded deGrom)”…anyway, all 3 options are now there, and I’ll let you decide what is most meaningful to you.  Actual (not fantasy) stats appear on the power ratings pages.

I think I’ve worked out the glitches on the lineups and rotation checkers, but let me know if you see anything weird.

Finally, remember that the 150% use cap has been dialed back to its normal 135%, which combined with all those make-up double-headers going on and the impending roster expansion should give many teams a lot of flexibility.

ANTI-MIDAS TOUCH

With the sage wisdom of Bill James, Billy Beane, and Nuke LaLouche I revamped my team, seeking to trade pitching for hitting and fill holes at third and in the outfield.  I was quite proud of my ability to hold on to Steve Matz, the most reliable Met starter on the season who’s jersey didn’t being with an upside-down letter “p,” and Fiers, who I’d snagged earlier in the year.  I was eager to track the actual stats of my newly acquired core — Mahle (arguably Reds ace), Maeda (arguably Dodger #3) and Tropeano (Angel pitchers aren’t really numbered) plus Matz and Fiers.  Their real-life performance in the week after I’d acquired them was 22 ER in 13.33 IP, with an ERA  north of 14.  Fiers actually pitched well — for 2 innings before he left with a line drive off of his shin.  Maeda started a 14-0 loss and Matz started the 25-4 debacle that was (a) the worst loss in Met history, and (b) finished by converted pitcher Jose Reyes.

But the hitting?  Newly-acquired outfielder Matt Kemp went 1-14 for an adjusted average of .000.  In fairness, he was playing through a horrible Dodger team slump where they couldn’t score at all.  Except for one 14-0 victory…during which Kemp was benched.  My newly-acquired third baseman was Matt Reynolds, who I had falsely assumed to be sitting out due to some mysterious day-to-day injury and not general badness.  He’s had all of 2 (that’s two, deuce, pair of aces) at-bats he’s had since I acquired him,

But there was a huge upside to the Reynolds acquisition!  In his two at-bats Reynolds has ONE home run!  The pitcher?  Jose Reyes.

MLB teams should pay me not to acquire their players for my fantasy team.

KARMA?

The ongoing debate about whether Harper or Trout is better took an ASFBL twist when Andy and Greg traded the players for each other…and each was promptly injured.  Harper took a pitch off the knee and Trout injured his hand sliding — feet first — into third.  There are trades that make both teams better, there are trades that make both teams worse, and there are trades that leave both players injured.

THIS WEEK

The Cubs ran the table at 6-0, but only gained a half game since the Brewers were 6-1…the NL central race is still closer than 2 games….Braves (6-1) and Phillies (5-1) refused to concede the NL East to the Nationals, although Andy’s team went 4-2…Arizona inched forward in the NL West…Minsky’s Rays are convincing me I need to add a page that traces how hot a team has been over 20 or 30 games…but over the last 6 they were 5-1, best record in the AL…The Cleveland-Minnesota fight in the AL central went to the Indians this week…nobody in the AL west can break out, and Oakland and Seattle each gained on Houston as the Angels refused to go away…Nationals lead the ASFBL in runs scored by 65 when you look at the fantasy runs scored on the entire roster, but the Rockies have the highest total in their actual games…Yankees are second in that category and are all of 3 runs ahead of Boston…Houston has played the best defense, with fielders robbing a net of 119 hits….nobody has stolen more bases than the Brewers, who lead Cleveland by 10…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Cesar Hernandez of PHI struck out 4 times against BOS on 7/30/2018
Jorge Alfaro of PHI had 7 RBI against BOS on 7/30/2018
Ronald Guzman of SEA struck out 4 times against HOU on 7/30/2018
HOU and SEA played 15.5 innings on 7/30/2018
Chase Anderson of MIL had 10 strikeouts against LAD on 7/30/2018
Noah Syndergaard of BAL had 11 strikeouts against NYY on 7/31/2018
Kyle Schwarber of CHC had 7 RBI against PIT on 7/31/2018
Max Scherzer of WAS had 10 strikeouts against NYM on 7/31/2018
Sean Newcomb of ATL had 11 strikeouts against MIA on 7/31/2018
Carlos Carrasco of CLE had 13 strikeouts against MIN on 8/1/2018
Nathan Eovaldi of TBR had 14 strikeouts against LAA on 8/2/2018
Justin Upton of LAA struck out 4 times against TBR on 8/2/2018
ATL and NYM played 14.5 innings on 8/2/2018
Trevor Clifton of TEX had 12 strikeouts against BAL on 8/2/2018
Todd Frazier of CIN robbed 3 hits against WAS on 8/3/2018
Masahiro Tanaka of NYY had 10 strikeouts against BOS on 8/3/2018
Zack Godley of ARI had 10 strikeouts against SFG on 8/3/2018
Fernando Rodriguez Jr. of BOS had 12 strikeouts against NYY on 8/4/2018
Cesar Hernandez of PHI robbed 3 hits against MIA on 8/4/2018
Gio Gonzalez of LAA had 10 strikeouts against CLE on 8/4/2018
Jesus Aguilar of MIL struck out 4 times against COL on 8/4/2018
Christian Yelich of MIL had 5 hits against COL on 8/4/2018
COL and MIL played 16.5 innings on 8/4/2018
Zack Greinke of ARI had 10 strikeouts against SFG on 8/4/2018
Gerrit Cole of HOU robbed 3 hits against LAD on 8/4/2018

Newsletter for games through 7-29-18

TRADE FRENZY

The actual MLB had 32 trades in the week leading up to the deadline; we beat them by 3 at 35.  They had 83 players change hands, and we clobberd them with 122.  The only number they beat us on was teams involved in a trade, 28 to 20…then again, we don’t have fan bases we have to make moves to appease…and Andy Somers of the Nats had a whopping 14 trades the last week, which is basically one trade for every 2 roster spots…Houston, Texas, Mets, Tigers, and Rockies all had 5 trades or more…we don’t keep records on this stuff, but as Rick Wynne pointed out that really was a lot of stuff happening really fast…

NOTES

The only Met starter I haven’t traded is Steve Matz, who started Monday’s 25-4 drubbing…I have now had friends from Boston to Anaheim that have gotten in touch to share that joy with me…and at the end of all that trading, Andy apparently knew what he was doing because he had the only 7-0 record on the week…combined record of the other 5 most active trading teams was 16-15…if you get a moment, check out his new starting lineup…also improved clubhouse chemistry by shipping out Harper…Arizona gained ground in the NL west, and the Reds made some noise in the NL central…the Reds traded for Met pitching that didn’t give up 7 runs in less than an inning, and did get a win out of deGrom’s start…in the other league and at the opposite end of the trade activity spectrum from the Nationals, Boston largely stood pat but posted the best AL record at 5-2…the entire AL East was .500 or better…the entire AL central was .500 or worse…Jose Ramirez of Cleveland leads the ASFBL with 38 HR…JD Martinez only has 32 HR but has 20 more RBI…in a very Trout-like way, Mike is second in both categories but has more HR than Martinez and more RBI than Ramirez…hats off to Alan Minsky, who has 5 actual starting pitchers…the actual Tampa Bay Rays were listing zero on their official MLB depth chart page…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Masahiro Tanaka of NYY had 10 strikeouts against TBR on 7/23/2018
Yairo Munoz of STL struck out 4 times against CIN on 7/23/2018
Tim Beckham of BAL struck out 4 times against BOS on 7/24/2018
Manuel Margot of SDP robbed 3 hits against NYM on 7/24/2018
Jacob deGrom of CIN had 10 strikeouts against STL on 7/25/2018
Adam Frazier of PIT had 6 RBI against CLE on 7/25/2018
Max Scherzer of WAS had 10 strikeouts against MIL on 7/25/2018
Brian Goodwin of WAS struck out 4 times against MIL on 7/25/2018
Matt Hall of DET had 13 strikeouts against KCR on 7/25/2018
Chris Sale of BOS had 14 strikeouts against BAL on 7/25/2018
Tyler Skaggs of LAA had 11 strikeouts against CWS on 7/25/2018
Addison Russell of CHC struck out 5 times against ARI on 7/26/2018
Ben Zobrist of CHC had 5 hits against ARI on 7/26/2018
WAS and MIA played 15.5 innings on 7/26/2018
Clayton Kershaw of LAD had 11 strikeouts against ATL on 7/26/2018
Franklin Barreto of OAK struck out 4 times against TEX on 7/26/2018
German Marquez of BAL had 10 strikeouts against TBR on 7/27/2018
Carlos Carrasco of CLE had 15 strikeouts against DET on 7/27/2018
Ross Stripling of LAD had 12 strikeouts against ATL on 7/27/2018
Carlos Rodon of CWS had 11 strikeouts against TOR on 7/27/2018
Gerardo Parra of TOR struck out 4 times against CWS on 7/27/2018
Kyle Freeland of COL had 10 strikeouts against OAK on 7/27/2018
Joe Musgrove of PIT had 10 strikeouts against NYM on 7/28/2018
Nathan Eovaldi of TBR had 14 strikeouts against BAL on 7/28/2018
Brian Dozier of LAD struck out 4 times against ATL on 7/28/2018
Robbie Grossman of MIN struck out 4 times against BOS on 7/28/2018
Charlie Morton of HOU had 12 strikeouts against TEX on 7/28/2018
Robbie Ray of ARI had 10 strikeouts against SDP on 7/28/2018
Chris Davis of BAL struck out 4 times against TBR on 7/29/2018
Matt Carpenter of WAS struck out 4 times against MIA on 7/29/2018
Mike Fiers of NYM had 10 strikeouts against PIT on 7/29/2018
Curtis Granderson of TOR struck out 4 times against CWS on 7/29/2018
Jesus Aguilar of MIL struck out 4 times against SFG on 7/29/2018