Newsletter for games through 8/21/22

COMMENTARY

Bad news from the Met fantasy dugout…fantasy Met Yordan Alvarez got a virus and had to leave a game last week, and due to poor trainer behavior he infected fantasy Met Shohei Ohtani who had to leave his start with a virus the next day…gotta add that as a setting to our lineups page…four of six divisions have a race where fewer than 2 games separate first from second…it doesn’t get tighter than the NL central where the Brewers are up by a half game over the Cardinals, and after a 5-1 week the Cubs are only 3.5 back…three teams within 3.5 games of each other…Mets and Braves marched in lockstep with 4-3 records…Reds were also 5-1 in the central…Dodgers cooled down to a 4-3 week, which would be great by just about anybody else’s standards, but the Padres showed some fight at 5-2…the divisional lead is an ungodly 30 games, but the Padres are battling with the Phils, Cubs, and Rockies out for the final wildcard spot…those 4 teams have between 63 to 66 wins each…so if you looked at the AL East you’d see the Jays, Yanks, and Bosox in a tight race at the top, and you’d see the upstart Orioles lurking only 4.5 back and ready to make a run…and if you did, you’d miss the fact that the DRays actually had the best record on the week at 6-1…Cleveland had the only perfect record in the division and moved to within a game of the Twins…both teams are now in positive WOR territory…doesn’t it seem like Oakland does something like this about every other year? John’s team had the best record at a perfect 7-0 and is now +8 WOR…as the actual club gets worse Oakland has a real shot at overtaking the top-3 WOR clubs…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Kyle Tucker (Philadelphia)  had 5 hits (on 8/15/2022 against Cincinnati) 
Justin Verlander (Cleveland) struck out 11 batters (on 8/15/2022 against Detroit) 
Max Stassi (Anaheim) hit 6 RBI (on 8/15/2022 against Seattle) 
Jonathan India (Cincinnati) struck out 4 times (on 8/16/2022 against Philadelphia) 
Matt Olson (Atlanta)  had 5 hits (on 8/16/2022 against New York (NYM)) 
Max Muncy (Los Angeles) hit 8 RBI (on 8/16/2022 against Milwaukee) 
Max Muncy (Los Angeles)  had 5 hits (on 8/16/2022 against Milwaukee) 
Ty France (Seattle) struck out 4 times (on 8/16/2022 against Anaheim) 
Terrin Vavra (Anaheim) struck out 4 times (on 8/16/2022 against Seattle) 
Zack Wheeler (Philadelphia) struck out 11 batters (on 8/17/2022 against Cincinnati) 
David Peralta (Oakland) struck out 4 times (on 8/17/2022 against Texas) 
Sean Murphy (Oakland) hit 6 RBI (on 8/17/2022 against Texas) 
Corbin Burnes (Milwaukee) struck out 12 batters (on 8/17/2022 against Los Angeles) 
Jake Lamb (Los Angeles) struck out 4 times (on 8/17/2022 against Milwaukee) 
Trea Turner (Los Angeles) struck out 4 times (on 8/18/2022 against Milwaukee) 
Tyrone Taylor (Milwaukee) struck out 4 times (on 8/19/2022 against Chicago (CC)) 
Cristian Javier (Chicago (CC)) struck out 11 batters (on 8/19/2022 against Milwaukee) 
Jacob deGrom (New York (NYM)) struck out 15 batters (on 8/19/2022 against Philadelphia) 
Merrill Kelly (Arizona) struck out 12 batters (on 8/19/2022 against St. Louis) 
Nolan Gorman (St. Louis) struck out 4 times (on 8/19/2022 against Arizona) 
Cavan Biggio (Toronto) struck out 4 times (on 8/20/2022 against New York (NYY)) 
Salvador Perez (Kansas City) struck out 4 times (on 8/20/2022 against Tampa Bay) 

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Newsletter for games through 8/14/22

COMMENTARY

Sorry for the late posting, and things should settle back to normal next week…Appreciate the kind words some of you sent via email…Kudso to Rick Wynne, who has built a powerhouse, and had a 5-0 week…he’s 25-5 over the last 30, which is only 1 game better than the actual club…that’s one tough WOR road…Jays, Bosox, and Yankees are separated by 1 game in the best divisional race in the ASFBL…but Mark Chen’s Orioles just finished off a 7-0 week, best in the ASFBL, and moved to within 4 games of first place…smart money is on Ben’s Rangers, but there’s a chance all 3 wildcard teams could come from the same division…Cleveland and the Chisox are creeping closer in the AL central and could make a big move with one strong week…Aaron Judge leads both ASFBL and MLB in homers, and actually has more in real-life, so he could heat up down the stretch as he adjusts upward…Juan Soto has 103 walks to lead MLB and 96 to lead the ASFBL…Arraez is hitting .337 for the fantasy club and .336 for the actual Twins…it takes 15 wins to lead either MLB or ASFBL, and Verlander has done it for the actual Astros but Fried and Gonsolin have done it in the ASFBL…Alcantera leads both leagues in innings, with 2 more in MLB (173 vs 171)…Garrett Cole has 184 strikeouts for the actual Yankees, and Rodon and McClanahan have him beat in ASFBL…McClanahan has topped the 2-century mark at 211…Isan Diaz of the Giants hit .480 in the ASFBL last week with 4 doubles…no homers but he knocked in 9…Kyle Tucker had 4 homers and 10 RBIs for the Phillies last week…and hit all 4 homers in one game…Texas has a solid WOR lead at +16…Cubbies are the only other team in double-digits with 13.5….Colorado, the Dodgers, and Angels are all dark horses but are +8 or better….having a lot of fun simulating the NL East race with Danny Wildes….the Brewers vaulted 2.5 games up in the NL central and now lead the division by 2 games…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Gleyber Torres (New York (NYM)) struck out 4 times (on 8/8/2022 against Cincinnati) 
Max Scherzer (Anaheim) struck out 11 batters (on 8/8/2022 against Oakland) 
Jose Abreu (Chicago (CWS))  had 5 hits (on 8/9/2022 against Kansas City) 
Randy Arozarena (Tampa Bay) struck out 4 times (on 8/9/2022 against Milwaukee) 
DJ LeMahieu (New York (NYY)) hit 7 RBI (on 8/9/2022 against Seattle) 
Aaron Ashby (Milwaukee) struck out 11 batters (on 8/10/2022 against Tampa Bay) 
Nolan Arenado (New York (NYY)) hit 7 RBI (on 8/10/2022 against Seattle) 
Kyle Tucker (Philadelphia) hit 4 homers (on 8/11/2022 against Miami) 
Kyle Tucker (Philadelphia) hit 9 RBI (on 8/11/2022 against Miami) 
Kyle Tucker (Philadelphia)  had 5 hits (on 8/11/2022 against Miami) 
Framber Valdez (Houston) struck out 11 batters (on 8/11/2022 against Texas) 
Trayce Thompson (San Diego) hit 6 RBI (on 8/12/2022 against Washington) 
Eric Haase (Detroit) struck out 4 times (on 8/12/2022 against Chicago (CWS)) 
Vaughn Grissom (Atlanta)  had 5 hits (on 8/13/2022 against Miami) 
Matt Chapman (Philadelphia) struck out 4 times (on 8/14/2022 against New York (NYM)) 
Jacob deGrom (New York (NYM)) struck out 12 batters (on 8/14/2022 against Philadelphia) 
Gio Urshela (Minnesota) struck out 4 times (on 8/14/2022 against Anaheim) 

Newsletter for games through 8-7-22

ROSTER NOTE

The code is struggling with the situation where a AAA player is traded and subsequently promoted…I’ll look into making program fixes but in the meantime alert me if any of the players you traded for suddenly disappear…like, not actually on the roster, not like “we signed Jason Heyward for $184m and he’s hitting .211” disappeared…

COMMENTARY

Obviously running behind this week, so these are passing observations and not deep analysis…I’ve been thinking about it all week, but I can’t think of anything funnier than the MLB Angels hitting 7 home runs and losing…tipping my hat to Danny and Adam, who each gained ground in the NL east and are tied for the best record over the last 30 games…the entire NL central was 1 game under .500, and four of the teams went 3-3…all the Dodgers do is win, with another 6-1 week and a 25-5 mark over the last 30…Rockies and Padres each played 8 games last week…not as bad as the 9 the Oakland played earlier this year, but that’ll drain your bullpen…Johnny Mac‘s Jays got a length out ahead of the pack in the AL East…seems like his name comes up every year when the pennant races heat up…Yanks and Baltimore were each 4-2, and Mark Chen’s Orioles are playing the same spoiler role as the actual club…Mark Yee’s New Yorkers are behind the actual club but +11 and they’re a good team…Mike Mendoza’s Royals are a long way back but have the best AL Central record over the last 30 games…Twins continue to hold the top spot, and much like Everyone Loves Raymond reruns the Guardians seem to be there eternally…top four teams in the AL West are all 6-4 over the last 10…Anaheim had the best week…Houston is now +4 over the actual club, while Texas continues to lead the ASFBL in that category…kudos to those who found the easter egg tucked into the box score…this one was a player ejected for concealing a potato…

FEATS AND FAILURES

Cooper Hummel (Arizona) struck out 4 times (on 8/1/2022 against Cleveland) 
Michael Chavis (Pittsburgh) struck out 4 times (on 8/2/2022 against Milwaukee) 
Gleyber Torres (New York (NYM)) struck out 4 times (on 8/2/2022 against Washington) 
Nelson Cruz (Washington) struck out 4 times (on 8/2/2022 against New York (NYM)) 
Austin Riley (Atlanta) struck out 4 times (on 8/2/2022 against Philadelphia) 
Eugenio Suarez (Seattle) struck out 4 times (on 8/3/2022 against New York (NYY)) 
Tyler Nevin (Baltimore) struck out 4 times (on 8/3/2022 against Texas) 
C.J. Cron (Colorado) struck out 4 times (on 8/3/2022 against San Diego) 
Jorge Alfaro (San Diego) struck out 4 times (on 8/3/2022 against Colorado) 
Matt Olson (Atlanta) struck out 4 times (on 8/4/2022 against New York (NYM)) 
J.T. Realmuto (Toronto)  hit for the cycle! (on 8/4/2022 against Minnesota) 
Aaron Judge (St. Louis) hit 7 RBI (on 8/5/2022 against New York (NYY)) 
Aaron Judge (St. Louis)  had 5 hits (on 8/5/2022 against New York (NYY)) 
Tommy Edman (St. Louis)  had 5 hits (on 8/5/2022 against New York (NYY)) 
Luis Rengifo (Anaheim)  had 5 hits (on 8/5/2022 against Seattle) 
Brandon Marsh (Anaheim) struck out 5 times (on 8/6/2022 against Seattle) 
Pete Alonso (Anaheim) hit 6 RBI (on 8/6/2022 against Seattle) 
Luis Rengifo (Anaheim)  had 5 hits (on 8/6/2022 against Seattle) 
Nathaniel Lowe (Atlanta) hit 3 homers (on 8/6/2022 against New York (NYM)) 
Nathaniel Lowe (Atlanta)  had 5 hits (on 8/6/2022 against New York (NYM)) 
Brandon Marsh (Anaheim) struck out 5 times (on 8/6/2022 against Seattle) 
Matt Chapman (Philadelphia) struck out 4 times (on 8/7/2022 against Washington) 
Nathaniel Lowe (Atlanta) struck out 4 times (on 8/7/2022 against New York (NYM)) 
Jacob deGrom (New York (NYM)) struck out 12 batters (on 8/7/2022 against Atlanta) 
Salvador Perez (Kansas City) struck out 4 times (on 8/7/2022 against Boston) 
Carlos Correa (Minnesota) struck out 4 times (on 8/7/2022 against Toronto) 
Tyler O'Neill (New York (NYY)) struck out 4 times (on 8/7/2022 against St. Louis)

Newsletter for games through 7-31-22

TRADE TALES

I honestly don’t remember a week this active ever before…Leo has done an excellent job of chronicling the seasonal totals, so I won’t repeat that here, but on the week…there were FIFTY ONE trades, starting last Wednesday. when Texas, Colorado, the ChiSox, Baltimore, Detroit, and Houston started on day 1. three trades have involved free waives, which is the first time all year that free waivers have been traded…a total of 139 players were involved…twenty-six different teams made trades…the biggest trade involved 8 players (Washington offer Josh Bell, Patrick Corbin, Carl Edwards Jr., Keibert Ruiz, and to Houston for Bailey Falter, Rhys Hoskins, Phil Maton, Ryan Pressly, and Kyle Schwarber) and came in at 11:25pm California time….1:25am Central and 2:25am Eastern…plenty of big names flying around and plenty of roster tweaks…thanks to all for making this a really fun trading deadline!

THE DARK CLOUD

I’m not one to openly mourn the loss of public personas, but if you’ll indulge me I just want to say that Vin Scully was a national treasure. I don’t like the Dodgers at all (lingering resentment about the 1988 NLCS), but when my kids were first born and I would endlessly circle our block with a stroller the big treat in my day was being able to put a game on my portable AM radio just to hear Scully talk about baseball…I can’t think of any other time in my life I’ve listened to something I didn’t care about just to hear the way it was being described…thanks to those of you who shared on email…

I’LL TAKE TWO, PLEASE

Jon Gray (Texas) threw a no-hitter! (on 7/26/2022 against Seattle)

Marcus Stroman (Chicago (CC)) threw a no-hitter! (on 7/29/2022 against San Francisco)

..the most amazing thing is that both pitchers are with their original clubs…

COMMENTARY

So watching MLB I saw that the Angels and Nationals basically tanked their rosters while the Mets bolstered theirs, and so naturally the Mets immediately lost to the Nationals and the Angels won at home…anyway, winning the trades is no guarantee of immediately winning more games…one of the truer aphorisms of baseball is that on any given day anything can happen…big mover in the AL East was early-trading partner Baltimore, who went 5-2…it’s a longshot, dark-horse route but Mark’s team is single-digits from first place…with the actual Bosox sellers at the trade deadline it will be fun to see whether Hugh Brown — doing one of the absolute best jobs in the ASFBL this year by taking a bad team, holding first, and posting a +8 WOR — can hang on to first in a tough division…Bosox made two 1-for-1 deals on the week…Tim Walsh has the Twinkies at the top of the AL central but all other teams had winning records this week, with the Royals taking the prize at 6-1 and Skrovan’s Guardians checking in at 5-2…the cumulative divisional WOR is +7 and no team is more than a half-game behind the actual team…you gotta love Texas and Ben Brockreide is riding a +14 WOR…still got a ways to catch the Astros but went 5-2…after Trader Jim Casey — I’m not putting quote marks around the Trader because if that isn’t his full legal name by now it should be — pulled off the last 3 trades, including the Soto/Bell blockbuster, he has a 6-1 record and 10-game lead to show for it…Toronto, Texas, and the Yankees are the NL wildcard frontrunners but Baltimore, the ChiSox, Cleveland, and Anaheim still have a shot…Atlanta and the Mets continue to trade punches at the top of the NL East, where Danny Wildes held to the top spot, but Adam Symonds’ Phillies had the best record in the division and he front-loaded his trades…they are 17-13 over the last 30…the Braves made three trades on the week but also did some roster maneuvering the week prior to set their rotation for the year…Zewiske’s Brewers took advantage of a Cardinal stumble to move to within a half game…Gordon’s Cubbies were the most active team at the trade deadline and posted a 5-1 record out of the gate…and that 3-team race is a thing to behold, where the 3 teams are a collective 21 games ahead of the MLB teams…the NL West, and maybe the entire NL, is all about the Dodgers, who cruised to a 6-1 week, but it says something that the Rockies went 1-6 and are still +6 WOR…mad respect to Al Benedek for pulling the trigger on multiple trades in August while sitting 28 games back…moved some named players…and, in what was the single most awesome moment of the week and the finale to any trading deadline flurry, the Padres and Tigers traded Luis Garcia for…Luis Garcia…brilliant!

FEATS AND FAILURES

Joe Dunand (Miami) struck out 4 times (on 7/25/2022 against Cincinnati) 
Matt Chapman (Philadelphia) hit 3 homers (on 7/25/2022 against Atlanta) 
AJ Pollock (Houston) struck out 4 times (on 7/25/2022 against Oakland) 
Martin Maldonado (Los Angeles) struck out 4 times (on 7/25/2022 against Washington) 
Bobby Witt (Los Angeles) struck out 4 times (on 7/25/2022 against Washington) 
Eric Thames (Los Angeles) struck out 4 times (on 7/25/2022 against Washington) 
Jeremy Pena (Boston) struck out 4 times (on 7/26/2022 against Cleveland) 
Marcus Semien (Texas) hit 6 RBI (on 7/26/2022 against Seattle) 
Adolis García (Texas)  had 5 hits (on 7/26/2022 against Seattle) 
Adolis García (Texas)  hit for the cycle! (on 7/26/2022 against Seattle) 
Corbin Burnes (Milwaukee) struck out 12 batters (on 7/27/2022 against Minnesota) 
Dylan Carlson (St. Louis) struck out 4 times (on 7/27/2022 against Toronto) 
Shohei Ohtani (New York (NYM)) struck out 11 batters (on 7/27/2022 against New York (NYY)) 
Joe Musgrove (Houston) struck out 11 batters (on 7/28/2022 against Seattle) 
Rhys Hoskins (Washington) struck out 4 times (on 7/29/2022 against St. Louis) 
Teoscar Hernandez (Toronto)  had 5 hits (on 7/29/2022 against Detroit) 
Nick Pratto (Kansas City) struck out 4 times (on 7/30/2022 against New York (NYY)) 
Justin Verlander (Cleveland) struck out 11 batters (on 7/31/2022 against Tampa Bay) 
Logan Webb (San Francisco) struck out 11 batters (on 7/31/2022 against Chicago (CC)) 
Andrew Velazquez (Anaheim) stole 3 bases (on 7/31/2022 against Texas)