We’ve got a three-way pennant race going as we head into the last 1/4 of the season! Our own Grey has seen his 9 point lead evaporate over the past two weeks down to only 1 point against his most bitter rival - his blogger in crime Rudy Gamble. That’s right, me. And Fantasy Baseball Generals (led by Mike Podhorzer) have met my pace and cut a 13 point deficit down to 5.5 points out.

It’s hard to fault Grey as his team has increased by 1.5 points over the fortnight - it’s just my team and the Generals team have harvested a bumper crop of points after spreading fertilizer all over our respective rosters. It’s tough to know if the momentum will continue or they’ll be a correction. The Generals gained an amazing 5 points in runs over the two weeks, going from 5 points to 10. But look at the top 5 adjusted totals for Runs: 517 (Generals), 519 (DFA), 520 (Rotoprofessor), 522 (Grey), 525 (Rudy). And Grey leads the Generals by only 1 HR (89-88) and 1 K (685-684) + me by only 1 Loss (69-68). Crazy.

While it’s too early to count out Roto Professor, DFA, one-time leader Aardvark Trading Co and Herb Urban, the 17 point gap b/w the 3rd place FB Generals and the 4th place Roto Professor hints that they may be limited to competing for 4th and spoiler roles.

Mop Up Duty can move up from his 8th position but his blog name seems appropos for his team’s performance. Greener on the Other Side (aka FantasyPhenoms) is being spared the ignominy of solid anchor Defunct Baseball Lab which is run by our favorite guest blogger Lou Poulas who clearly is too enamored by his Fantasy Baseball Hall of Famers and All-Stars to concentrate on Razz*Stars.

I’m off to Europe for two weeks so next update will be the week of September 8th. I’ll do weekly updates from then on..

It’s been a long time since we showed the Razzball Standings - over 6 weeks to be exact (see here for the June 14th standings).

Grey has made it all the way to 1st place and has a 9 point lead on the pack - despite being 200 AB below the prorated AB minimum of 3530 (pro-rated 5200) and having to accept the penalty. With 90 out of 120 points, he’s sucked both on offense and in pitching - 2nd across 4 of the 6 offensive categories and 3rd or better across 4 of the 6 pitching categories. Top underperformers on his team include 3B-eligible Cezar Izturis (246 AB of 30/1/15/.236), 1B -eligible Jose Vidro (299 AB of 27/7/45/.236), and a cavalcade of pitchers including Greg Reynolds (46 IP of 7.63/1.70), Josh Fogg (48 IP of 8.32/1.66), and Tom Gorzelnanny (70.1 IP of 5.89/1.75). The only solace for the league is most of his best pitchers - as is always the case in Razzball - have been demoted, dropped, or sent to the Disgraceful List.

It’s Razzball 1-2 right now as my team (Rudy’s) is current in 2nd place. My offense is in the lead with 47 points thanks to having a number of high-AB/low HR players such as Michael Bourn, Willy Taveras, Fred Lewis, and Cristian Guzman. My pitching has overperformed for much of the past 6 weeks led by shockingly good performances by Paul Maholm (133 IP of 3.79/1.23), Kyle Lohse (102 IP of 3.79/1.26), and Doug Davis (67 IP of 3.63/1.30). Really, how many teams have to be in your regular mixed league before you start these guys - 15? I’m optimistic that I’ll enjoy a nice ride down the slope of regression with these guys though (see Doug Davis’s Sunday outing of 5 ER in 1 2/3 IP).

Razzball aficionados Fantasy Baseball Generals have jumped all the way from 8th to 3rd, led by a 44 point pitching staff headed by Brandon Backe (10 Losses, 4.72/1.56 in 130 IP) and the sabermetric-loving Brian Bannister (9 Losses, 5.40/1.41).

The biggest faller is one-time leader AardvarkTradingCo.com who now resides in 6th. While his .275 batting average is better than many normal FLB teams, it has been great pitching performances that have been his downfall. I thought I had it bad but how could 65 IP of Colorado’s Ubaldo Jiminez net out to 2.07 ERA / 1.16 WHIP? Gil Meche with 107 IP at 3.28 ERA/1.18 WHIP? Crazy…

Click on the below image for the standings. Click here for our Razzball Point Shares player rater to see the best of the worst.

Since the last time we reported the Razzball standings, there’s been a shakeup at the top.

The big mover - Razzball’s own Grey. He’s shot up from 8th to 2nd and is now threatening to take the lead from Cards In The Attic who has been in the top 3 since the beginning of the year.

Our non-blogger entry DFA has slipped from 2nd to 3rd. I’ve fell back from 1st to 4th as my pitching has upgraded to ordinary. How could Kyle Lohse, Kyle Kendrick, and Jon Garland keep pitching so well?

We’ve got a logjam between 5th and 8th. After seeing Grey jump from 8th to 2nd, no doubt that any of these teams could quickly shoot into contention. My eye is on Fantasy Baseball Generals if they can ever get close to the minimum AB total and avoid the penalty stats.

Click on the below image for the standings. Click here for our Razzball Point Shares player rater to see the best of the worst.

We’re at the 1/4 mark for the first season of Razzball - a fantasy baseball game where you try to manage the worst team possible - and we’re on our way to probably the worst collective stat totals ever seen in a Yahoo! public league. With team batting averages as low as .238 and ERAs and ERAs as high as 5.36, it’s no wonder that Alan Trammell keeps bugging us for a chance to manage one of these teams (See 2003 Tigers team totals).

The top 4 are closely bunched but the leader at this point is….me. That’s right. My team sucks more than the rest. Look at me, ma. I’m king of the third world!

No doubt my 48 point offense (out of 60) has prospered at the expense of the real-life lineups that employ my top two picks (Willy Taveras, Michael Bourn). The two of them have combined for 277 ABs and managed 40 Runs, 3 HR (all Bourn), 12 RBI, 60 Ks, and a .206 AVG. Multiply that by two and you’ve got one AWFUL season. Message to Cecil Cooper and Clint Hurdle: Keep those guys at the top of your lineups. Don’t ruin a good thing…for me!

In 2nd place is our amateur entry from Josh the Non-Blogger - Team DFA (Designated For Assignment? Destined For Awfulness?). He’s overcome surprising starts by Scott Olsen, Edwin Jackson, and Ryan Ludwick with draftees like Franklin Morales (6.39 ERA over 25 IP yet only 2 HR?), Jose Castillo, and Brendan Harris (.248/33 Ks/2 HR/9 RBI) and smart pickups like the one-time apple of my eye Eugenio Velez and Tom “I’m Punto’s Backup” Tolbert.

In 3rd place is April league leader Cards In The Attic. Coincidence that his drop from 88 to 78 points started around the time that Pittsburgh dropped the anchor of his staff (and an anchor on their staff) Matt Morris? I blog to differ.

The 4th team of the top quartet is Roto Professor - who is so dedicated that he scouts Razztastic performances in the minor leagues. He’s smartly banking on the Giant offense (Ortmeier, Durham, Winn) but needs to find more AB machines like Kurt Suzuki and Jason Bartlett to avoid the minimum AB penalties (He’s currently about 320 AB off the pace of 5200 AB - the pro-rated stats definitely have an impact…e.g., goes from 20 to 25 HRs after applying 80 ABs of pro-rated 35 HRs.)

Other notes:

5th place Mop Up Duty’s team is looking good (bad?) relying on high AB/low performance middle infielders like Julio Lugo, Felipe Lopez, and David Eckstein. Also liked their recent preview on interleague play.

Biggest gainer in the last 20 days or so has to be the Fantasy Baseball Generals moving from 10th to 6th. Their ridiculous 3.17 ERA / 1.17 WHIP finally regressed (progressed?) to the mean with a move to 3.78 / 1.27. Keep up the bad pitching.

Blogmate Grey has fallen to 8th place. Ha ha…you don’t suck!

The team fielded by the blog formally known as GOTOS - now FantasyPhenoms - is suffering from a roster full of benchwarmers. Stop spending so much time on your fancy new blog and pick up some every day players. Their team’s 14 HR boosts to 31 HR because of the minimum-AB penalties. (BTW, here’s an interesting rank of pitchers they did - a little stat wonky but good.)

And in last place, our occasional contributor Lou and his Defunct Baseball Lab. Defunct indeed. I think you have to spend less time writing about great fantasy baseball players and start reading my Razzball Spotlights!

The first season of Razzball - a fantasy baseball game where you try to manage the worst team possible - has been quite the trip. Never have players such as Brian Bixler (backup Pittsburgh SS - 41 AB, 0 HR, 0 RBI, .195 AVG) and Kyle Kendrick (he of the 1.81 WHIP) been so celebrated. Never has unforeseen success like Cliff Lee and Chad Gaudin been so derided.

At about the 4 week point, our Razzball leader is baseball card blogger Cards in the Attic with 88 of a potential 120 points (standings here and at bottom, click thumbnail on right for rosters). The Aardvark Trading Company hasn’t been playing scared - he’s leading the league in At-Bats (one of 3 above the 752 pro-rated minimum) and 4th in innings pitched. It’s just that his team is playing like a whole bunch of Billy “Fuck Face” Ripkens. Led by staff aces Matt Morris (3 Losses, 9.15 ERA, 1.98 WHIP) and Matt Chico (4 Losses, 6.04 ERA, 1.55WHIP), the AardvarkTradingCo.Com is setting the pace (or is it trailing the pack?) with 50 out of a possible 60 pitching points.

Yours truly is in 2nd place as my team has cooled off (warmed up?) after a torrid (horrid?) start. Damn you John Denks and Pat Maholm! Rotoprofessor is in 3rd place and our teams are performing quite similarly. We’ve done a bit better in offense with 42.5 and 44 points, respectively, managing some rather low HR/RBI (8/63 and 7/71) and awful (awesome?) batting averages (.237 and .235). Hitting MVP’s include Mike Lamb (1B/3B, .182, 0 HR), Brian Bocock (SS, .172, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 22 Ks), Travis Buck (OF, .154, 0 HR, 6 RBI, 20 Ks), and Cody Ross (OF, .146, 41 AB, 1 R, 0 HR, 2 RBI).

Underdog entry Josh the Non-Blogger has been the overachiever (underachiever?) managing 4th place with a well-balanced squad. Greener On The Other Side and Sweet Lou’s Defunct Baseball Lab have struggled out of the gate with ABs - falling 100+ below the necessary pace (pro-rated 5200 team AB) and seeing their HR nearly double after the adjustments were made. Fantasy Baseball Generals has struggled with a pitching staff that doesn’t realize it is supposed to suck - don’t take my word for it, here is their commentary on it.

Should be interesting to see how the season progresses. It’s a lot tougher to maintain a lead when your best players are the most likely to be benched, demoted or released (see Matt Morris).

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