Better Lucky Than Good (Partially Torn RCL) had another outstanding day of pitching to move to within 1.5 points of the Pesky Pole Dancers at the top of the standings (non-indexed). Their pitchers recorded 3 wins and 2 saves while giving up only 1 run and 14 baserunners in 22 innings. That gave them an ERA of 0.41 and WHIP of 0.64 to go along with 23 strikeouts.

Jered Weaver, Bartolo Colon, and Cory Luebke provided the wins, while John Axford and Drew Storen each pitched a scoreless inning for saves.

TOP 10

111.0 (-1.0) Pesky Pole Dancers Trippin' Baseballs
109.5 (2.0) Better Lucky Than Good Partially Torn RCL
107.0 (0.0) Buchz and Dunn RCL: Too Drunk to Call a Cabrera
104.5 (2.0) That's a shame The Dread Pirate Rides Again
102.0 (1.0) Random ItalicizedVoice Razzball League #5
102.0 (0.0) THE VILLE AL KOHOLIC A ECFBL
102.0 (1.0) Buc Lover Sonic Death Monkey
101.0 (2.5) Puppets in Disguise RCL: The Number 23
101.0 (-0.5) The AmishGangster RCL Epic Beardmen Division
100.0 (2.0) Poor Jays RCL #33

Some more great pitching:

Team Z Razzbawl #36`` 22.1 IP`` 20 K`` 3 W`` 1 Sv`` 0.40 / 0.90

Team ryanshea RCL #9`` 25.0 IP`` 20 K`` 3 W`` 1 Sv`` 1.44 / 0.92

Detroit Rust Rats Empire of the Razz`` 14.0 IP`` 15 K`` 2 W`` 0.00 / 0.50

Poor Jays RCL #33`` 15.0 IP`` 14 K`` 2 W`` 1 Sv`` 0.00 / 0.73

Grizzly Manholes Puff Puff Give`` 16.0 IP`` 14 K`` 2 W`` 1 Sv`` 0.56 / 0.94

The Legend of Youppi Come at Me Bro`` 14.0 IP`` 13 K`` 2 W`` 1 Sv`` 0.00 / 1.07

Buc Lover Sonic Death Monkey`` 14.1 IP`` 13 K`` 2 W`` 1 Sv`` 0.00 / 0.70

There was plenty of great hitting, too:

Thanks Vin. Dropped back a coupla points because I'm in a bit of a horse race in a few pitching categories, but hopefully, if I don't get snake-bitten, I should get those points back and then some as I start ramping up my pitching pace.

Anyway, here was my draft:

BETTER LUCKY THAN GOOD
8 Joey Votto, Cin 1B
17 Robinson Cano, NYY 2B
32 Jose Bautista, Tor 3B
41 B.J. Upton, TB OF
56 Jacoby Ellsbury, Bos OF
65 Buster Posey*, SF C
80 Drew Stubbs, Cin OF
89 Shane Victorino, Phi OF
104 Chris Perez, Cle RP
113 Aroldis Chapman, Cin RP
128 Jose Valverde, Det RP
137 John Axford, Mil RP
152 Francisco Cordero, Cin RP
161 Brad Lidge*, Phi RP
176 Mitch Moreland, Tex 1B
185 Brandon Beachy, Atl SP
200 Coco Crisp, Oak OF
209 Alexi Casilla, Min 2B
224 Drew Storen, Was RP
233 Tim Stauffer, SD RP
248 Alexi Ogando, Tex RP
257 Justin Smoak, Sea 1B
272 Jordan Walden, LAA RP
281 Mike Adams, SD RP
296 Marco Scutaro, Bos SS

Since then, I've made two key trades. I picked up Weaver and Corey Hart for Stubbs and Smoak, and I gave Walden and Valverde to get Verlander.

Over the course of the season, somewhere along the way I lost Stauffer, Beachy, Lidge, Adams, Scutaro, Casilla and Chapman.

My only injury of any significance so far has been Buster Posey.

I picked up Posada to replace Posey (good timing there), Hardy when he came back from injury (he's been a gem), and Bumgarner off waivers (he immediately paid dividends, until that .1 IP, 8 ER start not long ago). More recently I grabbed Hosmer, Betancourt, Freese, Colon, and Leubke to round out my current roster.

My draft strategy speaks for itself. I went for offense and closers and figured I'd address SP as the season went along. So far, everything has worked out according to plan, and even better than I expected. If my offense holds up (it's been showing signs of slowing, but I'm hoping for a return to norms from Cano and Votto), I should catch up on pitching now that I can start using my starts.

As far as in-season strategy goes, I haven't done anything extraordinary. I looked for decent arms or hot arms to stream against lousy offenses. I look to start my streamers at Oakland, SD, MetCo, Seattle, etc.

Funny - I think you mentioned that Pesky has made about 8 moves or so? I think I'm getting close to 100. Should be a fun second half. Thanks again, Vin.

You definitely look good to gain points in strikeouts. Of course, that's the only category you can really gain much, with all those 11s and 12s! Good luck the rest of the way!