Newsletter for games through 9-22-19

On the second-to-last week of the season, 25 of 30 owners still submitted lineups!  I truly love the enthusiasm of this league…one week to go…

PENNANT RACES!

Atlanta, the Cubs, and the Dodgers are coasting to divisional titles…but Atlanta and the Cubs are only 1 game apart and that might matter since the division winner with the 3rd-best record draws the mighty Dodgers, who I think just clinched the best record in all of the ASFBL…note to self: check on the best record in AL history before next week…but the NL wildcard has Washington with 88 wins, Arizona with 85, and the Padres with 83…which is big news for Arizona, since they finished the week 6-0 to surge in front of the Padres…that surge included a crucial 3-game head-to-head with the Padres…Al has nothing to hang his head about since he’s +13 WOR, behind only to the Cubs and Marlins in the NL…but does it get any crazier than gaining 5.5 games in a single week with that week being the second-to-last of the season?

In the AL, Mark Yee’s Yankees have a scarier surge than a coastal hurricane…6-0 on the week, 16-4 over the last 20, and 22-8 over the last 30…that final number is best in the AL…probably too late to catch Boston, but they moved half a game in front of Oakland and Cleveland for the last AL wildcard spot…the Rangers lurk with 87 wins and were 4-1 this week…the 4 contenders for the last wildcard spot were a combined 17-6 last week…the best friend of the Athletics was that Royals, who surrendered all of a 3-game series, and the key Ranger victory was a 3-game sweep head-to-head with Oakland…don’t know if this is lucky or unlucky, but 13 series last week ended in sweeps…Boston has a solid shot at 100 wins but can no longer match last year’s win total of 108…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Shane Bieber of CLE had 10 strikeouts against DET on 9/17/2019
Matt Szczur of ARI robbed 3 hits against MIA on 9/17/2019
Justin Verlander of BOS had 11 strikeouts against SFG on 9/17/2019
Aaron Civale of LAD had 11 strikeouts against TBR on 9/17/2019
TBR and LAD played 14.5 innings on 9/17/2019
Marcus Stroman of TOR had 10 strikeouts against BAL on 9/17/2019
Gerrit Cole of CLE had 13 strikeouts against DET on 9/18/2019
Eduardo Escobar of ARI hit 3 home runs against MIA on 9/18/2019
Matthew Boyd of HOU had 10 strikeouts against TEX on 9/18/2019
J.D. Martinez of TEX struck out 5 times against HOU on 9/18/2019
LAA and NYY played 15.5 innings on 9/19/2019
Omar Narvaez of BAL struck out 4 times against TOR on 9/19/2019
Alec Mills of DET had 13 strikeouts against CWS on 9/20/2019
Luis Robert of CWS struck out 4 times against DET on 9/20/2019
Andrew Stevenson of PIT struck out 4 times against MIL on 9/20/2019
Homer Bailey of SEA had 12 strikeouts against BAL on 9/20/2019
Yuli Gurriel of HOU hit 3 home runs against LAA on 9/21/2019
Yuli Gurriel of HOU had 7 RBI against LAA on 9/21/2019
Mitch Garver of MIN had 6 RBI against KCR on 9/21/2019
Matt Chapman of OAK struck out 4 times against TEX on 9/21/2019
Danny Duffy of KCR had 10 strikeouts against MIN on 9/22/2019
Austin Nola of SEA struck out 4 times against BAL on 9/22/2019
Sonny Gray of CHC had 11 strikeouts against STL on 9/22/2019
Zack Wheeler of TEX had 10 strikeouts against OAK on 9/22/2019
Nicky Lopez of TEX struck out 4 times against OAK on 9/22/2019
TEX and OAK played 14.5 innings on 9/22/2019

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Newsletter for games through 9-15-19

REMINDER

All waivers are free next week, since no claims can be awarded before the end of the season

LAST WEEK

I made the mistake of mis-prioritizing professional responsibilities ahead of fantasy baseball, and the newsletter was a casualty…but the big news was that the Rays, having finished an 0-7 campaign the week before, went 7-0 to start this week 6 back of the Bosox and 2 up on Minnesota and Oakland in the wildcard…Cleveland started this week closer to first place in the AL central than they did to the AL wildcard spot…Eugenio Suarez had a 3 home run, 6 RBI game against Pittsburgh…Encarnacion had exactly those numbers against Houston…Trey Mancini of Seattle had 6 RBI against Houston without any HR…

THIS WEEK

The Rays continue to be entirely on fire, and are 12-1 in their last 13…the Yankees charged back into relevance by going 7-0, and although they are still about 3 games back from serious contention for the wildcard, one more week like that and they’re in the thick of things…It’s worth reflecting on the fact that Rick Wynne has the best record in the league — by a lot — and is 6 games up on a historically good Dodger team…another great season…and it’s also worth noticing that one of the best overall seasons goes to Al Benedek of the Padres who both has them +14 on the actual club (second in the ASFBL) but also has them in playoff contention, currently holding the second wildcard spot…Minnesota grabbed a game back in the AL central, but Steve Skrovan has his Indians 2 games closer than the actual Tribe…the Twins took 2 out of 3 in the series this week…Sano hit 3 homers for the Twins against their divisional rivals on the 15th after striking out 4 times the game before…most valuable player to the Indian cause this week may have been Paul Goldschmidt (now of the ASFBL Braves), who hit 3 HR and had 7 RBI against the Twins on the 11th…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Mike Clevinger of CLE had 12 strikeouts against LAA on 9/9/2019
Justin Verlander of BOS had 10 strikeouts against TOR on 9/10/2019
Alec Mills of DET had 12 strikeouts against NYY on 9/10/2019
Sean Manaea of OAK had 15 strikeouts against HOU on 9/10/2019
Jack Flaherty of STL had 10 strikeouts against COL on 9/10/2019
Brian Dozier of WAS struck out 4 times against MIN on 9/10/2019
Shane Bieber of CLE had 11 strikeouts against LAA on 9/11/2019
Jacob deGrom of OAK had 10 strikeouts against HOU on 9/11/2019
Dallas Keuchel of ATL had 10 strikeouts against PHI on 9/12/2019
J.T. Realmuto of PHI struck out 4 times against ATL on 9/12/2019
Stephen Strasburg of WAS had 11 strikeouts against ATL on 9/13/2019
Edwin Encarnacion of SEA had 6 RBI against CWS on 9/13/2019
Matthew Boyd of HOU had 11 strikeouts against KCR on 9/13/2019
A.J. Pollock of LAD had 5 hits against NYM on 9/13/2019
Gerrit Cole of CLE had 13 strikeouts against MIN on 9/13/2019
Mike Minor of BOS had 10 strikeouts against PHI on 9/14/2019
Renato Nunez of SEA had 6 RBI against CWS on 9/14/2019
Eduardo Escobar of ARI struck out 5 times against CIN on 9/14/2019
James Paxton of LAD had 11 strikeouts against NYM on 9/14/2019
Alec Mills of DET had 13 strikeouts against BAL on 9/15/2019
Jack Flaherty of STL had 10 strikeouts against MIL on 9/15/2019
Miguel Sano of MIN hit 3 home runs against CLE on 9/15/2019

Newsletter for games through 9-4-19

COMMENTS

The rosters expanded, and now is the time I wish that I had used my free waivers more judiciously earlier in the year…there’s all those low-appearance guys with pretty good numbers you want to use for a week or so, but the only way to do that now is to waive someone else…and then in if their numbers go south to waive them too…teams with the most roster flexibility left are Pittsburgh (18 free waivers), San Francisco (17), and Colorado and St. Louis (14)…Baltimore and Kansas City have none…Chisox and Twins each have one…the top of the AL West — Houston, Oakland, and Texas — are a collective 59-31 over their last 90 games…that’s a cool 65% win rate…Cleveland has picked up 4 games over the last 30 with a 22-8 mark, and is a game closer to the Twins than the actual Indians are…the Yankees are 4th place in the AL wildcard but went 5-1 and are now only 2.5 behind Cleveland for the last spot…and still lost a game to Texas, who was 6-0 and now only 1.5 behind Cleveland…Tampa leads the AL wildcard but was 0-6 last week, losing 6 games in the standings to Texas…Washington and Philadelphia continued their torrid pace, but both are still looking up at the Braves…Cards are grinding out a tough year but put together a 5-1 week to match the surge of the actual team…Nationals have the best interleague record at 12-2, and the Orioles — an actual club chasing historic levels of ineptitude — are even worse when their pitchers have to bat and have gone 3-12 in NL parks…San Diego and Arizona are battling it out for the last NL wildcard spot, and this week went to the DBacks who picked up a game and a half…Padres have been the better team over the last 30…that race is going to be a lot of fun to watch…they play 6 of their last 9 games against each other…Yelich has 55 fewer ASFBL at-bats than MLB…but then again he has 9 more HR…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Brett Gardner of NYY struck out 4 times against SEA on 8/27/2019
Jacob deGrom of OAK had 17 strikeouts against KCR on 8/27/2019
Kolten Wong of STL had 5 hits against MIL on 8/27/2019
J.D. Martinez of TEX had 8 RBI against LAA on 8/27/2019
Stephen Strasburg of WAS had 11 strikeouts against BAL on 8/28/2019
Mike Clevinger of CLE had 11 strikeouts against DET on 8/28/2019
Randy Dobnak of MIN had 14 strikeouts against CWS on 8/28/2019
Danny Duffy of KCR had 10 strikeouts against OAK on 8/28/2019
Mark Canha of OAK struck out 4 times against KCR on 8/28/2019
Aaron Nola of PHI had 10 strikeouts against PIT on 8/28/2019
David Bote of CHC struck out 4 times against NYM on 8/29/2019
Gerrit Cole of CLE had 17 strikeouts against DET on 8/29/2019
Colin Moran of PIT hit 3 home runs against COL on 8/29/2019
Colin Moran of PIT had 8 RBI against COL on 8/29/2019
Adam Frazier of PIT hit for the cycle against COL on 8/29/2019
Matthew Boyd of HOU had 10 strikeouts against TBR on 8/29/2019
Austin Meadows of TBR robbed 3 hits against CLE on 8/30/2019
Mike Zunino of TBR struck out 4 times against CLE on 8/30/2019
Ryan McMahon of COL hit 3 home runs against PIT on 8/30/2019
Ryan McMahon of COL had 6 RBI against PIT on 8/30/2019
Tim Beckham of BAL robbed 3 hits against KCR on 8/31/2019
Lucas Giolito of BOS had 15 strikeouts against LAA on 8/31/2019
BOS and LAA played 13.5 innings on 8/31/2019
Jack Flaherty of STL had 10 strikeouts against CIN on 8/31/2019
Max Scherzer of WAS had 12 strikeouts against MIA on 8/31/2019
Brett Gardner of NYY struck out 4 times against OAK on 8/31/2019
James McCann of CWS had 6 RBI against ATL on 9/1/2019
Zack Wheeler of TEX had 10 strikeouts against SEA on 9/1/2019