I heard you loud and clear: "Oh, wise and benevolent Commish; where are the posts"? My apologies if you were expecting a week 1 post. With only a few games in the first week and the chaos surrounding our late start to the season, I figured I'd just wait until week 2 to begin leveling penetrating insight and visionary wisdom upon you all.
Another reason I chose to wait until week 2 was completed before posting is because no other sport offers the level of parity that baseball does. The standard deviation between quality teams and the Chicago Cubs is usually somewhere near 1.0, at best. And the same applies to our league.
For example, just look at some of the week 1 performances in our league.
The Los Perros Locos and Myrtle Beach Mermen led the league with 238 and 210 runs, respectively. If were to extrapolate that out over a 7 inning week - week 1 was only 6 innings - they would've scored 278 and 245 putting them in the top half of the league in week 2.
Instead, the Perros scored just 188 runs in week 2 and the Mermen were only slightly better with 193 runs. They finished near the bottom of the league in scoring.
Conversely, look at some of the teams that struggled out of the gate: the Clueless Closers and Springfield Isotopes. The Closers finished week 1 with just 106 runs while the 'Topes scored 6 more to finish with 112. Pathetic doesn't begin to describe their week 1 outings.
Fast-forward to last week where the Closers were the best-of-class with 297 runs and the Isotopes scored 257 and you begin to see where baseball is anything but predictable. I've said it before; baseball is a game of attrition. You can't determine too much from one week to the next, teams are measured on a much wider scale.
But if two weeks of play is all we have to work with, it's difficult not to assume the Tallahassee Tator Tots and You're Killing Me Smalls will do well this season.
The Tots haven't missed a beat since their playoff appearance last year, winning both of their matchups so far and earning two bonus victories too. From what I can tell, if you don't score more than 250 runs against them, you're not coming away with the victory.
It would be easy to assume the Tots success has been largely due to their pitching success - every SP they have has a WHIP under 1.0 - but a deeper dive reveals it's actually their hitters that are leading the charge. But even that is a little misleading. They're not loaded with top 10 hitters.
Lourdes Gurriel Jr and Matt Olson are both off to hot starts this season, but the real success is their mid-range hitters - they're loaded with them. Most teams have a few top quality hitters and see a significant drop off to their lower-level talent. Not the Tots. The median score among their starting hitters is 29. For comparison, the median hitter on most teams has scored around 23-25 runs. It may not seem like much, but it makes a difference.
The same is true for Smalls except their median hitter score is even better, 30. Apart from a tough contest against the Clueless Closers last week, Smalls would surely be undefeated. However, I do have one major concern regarding Smalls: their pitching. To date, their pitching has been good - not great, but good. And now it's looking like they'll be without their ace, Spencer Strider, for a bit if not the season.
"That's all well and good, Commish. But what about my team?"
If you're asking, I'll assume you're either Poke Bananas, Raghorn, or Team Whitmer. In which case, you're struggling and you have work to do. None of these 3 teams have scored more than 200 runs this season.
Raghorn pulled out a nice come-from-behind victory against the Perros last week, but it wasn't necessarily because they played outstanding ball so much as it was the Perros collapse in the final 3 innings.
If you're Team Whitmer, you've got some pitching problems. Whitmer's SPs were the reason they recorded the lowest score in week 2, just 180 runs. Among the 4 SPs on Team Whitmer, Carlos Rodon is the only that has scored over 10 yet. Though the bullpen approach to a pitching staff worked well for the Diamondbacks last season, I'm not sure it translates well to fantasy baseball.
There isn't another team feeling early season pains worse than the Poke Bananas. And if they're not careful, they'll begin to brown.
Neither their hitters or pitchers have scored more than 100 points in a contest this season. And that's a problem.
The Bananas roster is an All-Star lineup of under-performing players this season: Acuna, Pasquantino, Muncy, Keller, and Nola. If the coaching staff is able to help these players find their rhythm, I think they have a quality team that could compete for a playoff spot. If not, well....
Good luck this week!
-- Commish
POWER RANKINGS
It's not surprising to find the only undefeated team in the league sitting atop the first edition of the Power Rankings. The Tallahassee Tator Tots have been impressive through the first two weeks and appear to be picking up where they left off last season.
Speaking of playoff teams from last season, all four - the Tots, You're Killing Me Smalls, Akes & Pain, and Los Perros Locos - are currently ranked in the top 5.
ALL-STAR LINEUP CHALLENGE
Last year, we had two owners who opted not to participate in the All-Star Challenge and forego the opportunity to win some extra cash. This year we had four. I don't understand it but hey, you do you.
Of the eight teams participating this season, the Tallahassee Tator Tots jumped out to the early lead with an NL lineup that tallied 467 runs over the first two weeks. Sitting just 8 runs behind the Tots, the Poke Bananas scored an impressive 459 led by Mookie Betts.
Among the teams that chose to play an AL lineup, the Los Perros Locos lead the pack with 436 runs and currently find themselves in 3rd place overall.
BATTING CHAMPION & CY YOUNG CHALLENGES
We're going to wait a few weeks before we begin tracking these contests. The season is still young and players are all over the place, so it doesn't make sense to take measure until some of the dust settles. Look for the first updates somewhere around week 4 or 5.
SEASON SCORING PRIZE LEADERS
These are the current leaders for the following scoring prizes:
Highest Score: Clueless Closers (Wk 2, 297)
Highest Score (Loss): You're Killing Me Smalls (Wk 2, 285)
Lowest Score (Win): Raghorn (Wk 2, 192)
Comentarios