1. One Nut Wonders – While it’s counter-intuitive to bump up a team that posted a 30/6/15/4/.320 line on offense, Jason retakes the top spot due primarily to Casten’s pitching. Weaver, Wilson, Shields, Beckett, Moore, and Samardzija represent an excellent 1-6 staff digression going forward, despite some inconsistency. The offensive off week is a red flag, but we’ll consider it an outlier for now. But make no mistake about it, the top tier got a little bigger in the last week with the moves of Moose and Montezuma, and the top five could change dramatically in the coming weeks.
2. Grumpy Munchkins – Casten’s staff has officially become worrisome. Beachy and Morrow have been fantastic, but Neise, Garza, and Hanson have been just pretty good, you never know which Scherzer or Norris will show up, Lilly and Garcia are injured, three rosters spots are dedicated to players either injured or in the minors (though I do like Medlen), and he’s 5-4-1 this season in saves. The offense was great this week as it has been with HR and RBI, but he lost OBP and SB, and won R by just one run against Troy. This team is still a monster, but is considerably more slayable.
3. Clayton & The King – Pitching was the key to victory here, with an excellent 72k/3.36/.99/7qs line, which helped stave off a nice performance from Pierce’s staff and end the week 9-1. The only loss was undeserving with seven QS, which was tied for second most in the league (behind Pierce’s eight). The top three teams are tight as far as I’m concerned and Russ could be on the move up if his pitching continues to produce like this. MHarrison has been on a nice run, Russ just needs Wainright to be his former self. Offensively, the 39/10/35/8/.349 line was as balanced as it comes.
4. Moose is Loose – What I didn’t like about Brian’s team was fixed in the matter of a morning - this morning in fact. He gave up a lot, as he threatened to do, but he acquired the stability the team had been missing in Haren, Vogelsong (much better than I anticipated), and Cahill. He also rids himself of ESantana, who was just too up and down for this team. A first rounder was a lot to give up for Haren, but an upper echelon #2 was the biggest need, so it’s hard to argue with the strategy. Besides, he can either keep Haren or trade him for a pick in the off season that should make up for some of the 17-round downgrade he absorbed. Good week for his current staff as well, with a 3.36/1.23 line, on his way to a tough 5-4 victory over Chris. Nice bump here.
5. Montezuma’s Revenge – The heroics of Homer Bailey on Sunday night was the difference between what could’ve been a 3-6 and 7-3 week. Pitching totals were uncharacteristically off this week (though the 52 ks were enough to remain undefeated in the category), but enough to edge out Dagan in what could be a key outcome considering it was our only regular season matchup. I drop myself below Brian because, while we both made trades to help our teams considerably, I think my offense has more to prove with the new players than his pitching staff does with his additions. Saying that, 43 RBIs for the week was second most in the league and a good sign going forward.
6. Ring of Fire – Dagan was up 6-3 going into Sunday, but ultimately fell to the Revenge in a close matchup. While he was close in the pitching categories this week, there’s cause for concern with Wandy and Anibal both struggling. Without a true ace, he really needs Latos and Cueto to be consistently good and for Masterson and Hughes to have more good days than bad going forward. His sluggers are productive though (Ortiz, Goldshmidt, Votto) and the offense could be on the verge of blowing up, with Zobrist and Bruce both improving as of late. Once Kemp returns, the offense could be the best in the league.
7. Donkey Punchers – Another week with mixed results. Pitching was fantastic again with 75/3.24/1.21/7, but the .275 obp and 26 runs are pretty dreadful, while 2 sbs won’t win you the category very often. But 11 homers is very good and 30 RBIs is middle of the pack. It was probably a good idea to move on from IDavis, who was a massive disappointment, and Revere was a smart pickup, giving Chris instant credibility in steals. LoMo, Dan Murphy, and Viciedo had horrible weeks, combining for a OBP around .150, which makes it difficult to win. Lowrie has been huge and there’s enough offensive talent to move up.
8. Prestige Worldwide – It’s official: something has to change for Lars to turn this thing around. Unlike some past weeks, when he was deserving of more wins than he ended up with, Prestige hardly deserved the one win he got this week. When Cameron Maybin is supplying your power for the week, something is wrong. And Lars’ 5-23-2 record the past three weeks indicates something is clearly wrong. Perhaps the return of Longoria will make a difference – it at very least will allow him to drop PAlvarez (5/0/1/0/.265 the past two weeks), who is really just taking up space at this point.
9. Keepin It Real – Pierce went 1-9 this week despite being within shouting distance in most of the categories. While he announced he was out of it and looking to 2013, he hasn’t acted like it in terms of major transactions. The Darvish trade actually didn’t significantly hurt him for 2012 and there’s still plenty to like about the current team. It’s tough to say whether its good enough to make up 24 games to get into a playoff spot though, but if you believe in karma than Pierce has a lot of good luck coming his way (not to mention Ellsbury eventually). Or, he’s just being paying up for the fortune he gained in last year’s run to a championship. A lot has to go right.
10. Cowhide Joyride – Offensively, things look good, with a nice 38/9/40/.368 line, but no amount of quality relief pitching can make up for a starting rotation that yielded no QS and that all averaged ERA above 6.00. Would’ve never thought that at the beginning of the season with names like Johan, Bumgarner, Lincecum, and Liriano. Perhaps the addition of IKennedy will make a difference, but his numbers have been disappointing as well this season. The trade heard round the world definitely gives Dave hope going forward, but I’ll need to see better pitching numbers and a bit more offense outside ASoriano (7/4/9/.400 this week – also the “feel” pick of the year, with a 17/12/23 line since Dave picked him up on May 15th) to move Dave up further.
11. Urban Achievers – I really like the trade with Moose as I think he got the best player in BUpton along with a six-round upgrade. It kind of eats away at the middle of his surprising rotation, but CC, Gio, Burnett, and Bass are good parts and I think Cashner could be like what Luebke was for the Pads (and his fantasy teams) down the stretch. Dan does seem to have an awful lot of pretty productive OFs though with Upton, Choo, Young, Jennings, LaHair, Francoeur, Scott, and ACraig, so perhaps another deal will be in the works. Either way, with a roster like this, I like any move that improves overall talent and I think the departures of Cahill/Vogelsong will not hurt Dan as much as it will help Brian.
12. The Angry Pirates – Same story here as last week. The offense is good enough to compete this year, even with the trade off Cruz and Prado to Montezuma, as Lawrie and Kubel are no slouches either. The pitching, though, gets quite a bit worse with the drop from JJohnson to GFloyd. Still, at this point, I like strategy of throwing out 12 mid- to low-level starters and hoping to grab the counting stats, knowing your offense is good enough to compete each week, while also building for the future. And I just might’ve been wrong about Trumbo – with his position eligibility, he’s been one of the most valuable players in the first half.
13. Anal Hershiser – With the Haren trade, Andrew is officially is 2013 mode and is making the right moves to prepare for it. Getting a first round pick – a full 17-round upgrade – for him was a great trade. And he actually got what can be a pretty good pitcher in ESantana, who could yield another pick in the future. Picking up Hultzen and WMyers were a nice forward-looking pickups, though they’d have to be pretty productive once he comes up to justify being kept. There’s lots of other parts to potentially deal off as well and build a strong core for next year.
14. Billy Chapel – Troy’s offense would’ve beaten up on a lot of teams this week at 31/10/37/3/.352, but there was nothing in the way of pitching. It will be interesting to see how Reddick and Headley end the year and are valued going into 2013. Troy has some quality guys to keep, but there are certainly areas to upgrade and picks to be had with the talent currently on his roster. It would be advisable to liquidate assets as soon as possible, try to gain further assets before the deadline via the wire, then liquidate again. Enough early picks could mean a turnaround in 2013… unless Dave wins it all, I suppose.
No comments:
Post a Comment