DODGERS OVER BRAVES
The Braves lost the opener and then got their bats going in game 2, scoring 9 runs off of Verlander and 2 relievers…the Dodger pitching then took over, holding the Braves to just 3 runs over the next 3 games…Verlander acquitted himself in the series-sealing game 5 with 8 shutout innings and Kimbrel got the final out…Fried, another post-season return from the injured list, turned in a quality start before the Dodgers got to the bullpen…Danny Wildes supplant Rick Wynne as the guy with the best record in the league, which is no small feat, even if the DCS didn’t go his way…Danny has over 1,500 career ASFBL wins and a lifetime win percentage of 54%, putting him in the top-20 all-time for both figures…he entered the league in 2006 with San Diego, jumped to Philly in 2009, Pittsburgh in 2013, and has been with Atlanta since 2015…He’s had back-to-back 100+ win seasons and been in the playoffs every year sin 2017, finishing 9 games up on the actual club in both 2017 and 2018, made the World Series in 2021 after winning it all in 2020 while finishing second in wins-over-reality…he’s got a long and distinguished ASFBL career and is a steady hand at the helm…his 2015 Braves team had a losing record and only 59 wins in 2016 as he slid to -9.5 WOR, so it says a lot about his resiliency to turn it around starting the very next year and run into the playoffs for seven straight seasons after his worst finish…great season, Danny, and I look forward to our NL East battles next year!
RAYS OVER ORIOLES
The AL East was a battle royale all year and it came down to the final series for the league…Baltimore’s ASFBL club was a little under-performing relative to the MLB group but had been the hotter team going in, while the Rays had been strong all season but were limping a little bit going into the playoffs…after splitting the first two games the Rays’ bats just took off and they scored 24 runs over 27 innings to take the final 3 games of the series…the Orioles wouldn’t go quietly, however, and they put up 8 runs in the final frame of the set…Mark Chen is an all-time good guy with a wonderful spirit and sense of humor and the first to let me know when I’ve managed to sneak a good line into the newsletters…he has over 1,600 career wins over 21 seasons and he’s been with Baltimore every single one of them…he had a run of 5 straight playoff years between 2013 and 2017, made it to the World Series in 2017, and followed that up with an astounding +31 WOR to finish first in the league in that category in 2018…in Baltimore’s dismal 2021 season he finished +16 WOR, and skippered the club into the LCS this year…he finished +16 WOR or better five times…Mark has a great baseball mind and knows how to play the hand he’s dealt to get the most out of it…congrats on another great season, Mr. Chen!
WORLD SERIES
Rays host the Dodgers, two day fantasy break from the last game of the LCS so the games start on November 1…I’ll ask Rick and Ben to submit their lineups by Thursday night so we can run the games on Friday morning, and the season will be a wrap!
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