Congratulations to the 2012 champions, RCL 40’s Rank Railheads. Co-managers Charley and JungleMike guided the Railheads to an incredible 119-point finish, missing out on perfection by a mere 3 stolen bases. While they had pretty much clinched their league title long ago, the overall title was up for grabs, and they continued to carefully make the moves necessary to stay ahead of the pack.
The Draft
I have included each player’s Razzball Player Rater rank [after the name]. The stats represent a player’s contributions while in the starting lineup for the Railheads.
(2) Miguel Cabrera [3] 109/44/139/.330/4 Always a smart pick.
(23) Curtis Granderson [23] 102/43/106/.232/10 Started with the top 2 HR hitters!
(26)Andrew McCutchen [6] 107/31 HR/96 RBI/.327/20 Fortunate to get Cutch, as he was often taken in the 2nd round.
Couldn’t have a much better start to a draft. These 3 totaled 318 runs, 118 home runs, 341 RBI, and 34 stolen bases while hitting .297 for the Railheads.
(47) David Price [8] 16/2.33/1.08/174 Excellent start to pitching staff. Passed on CC Sabathia and Madison Bumgarner and ended up with the third ranked pitcher for the season.
(50) Starlin Castro [67] 78/14/78/.283/25 Disappointing runs, but not a terrible 5th rounder.
(71) Yovani Gallardo [77] 13/3.90/1.33/167 Too good to pass up at the end of the 6th round.
(74) B.J. Upton [63] 79/28/78/.249/30 Close to Grey’s projections with more HRs and fewer steals.
(95) Mat Latos [68] 1/5.97/1.57/18 Dropped May 5 after 28 IP. Latos did get turned around, finishing with 14 wins and a 3.48 ERA.
(98) Buster Posey [26] 78/24/103/.336/1 One of the great bargains in 2012.
(119) Joel Hanrahan [104] 5/2.72/1.27/67/36 Good first closer. A bit early, but was the 7th closer taken.
(122) Tommy Hanson [242] 10/4.02/1.35/98 Dropped July 17.
(143) Neil Walker [197] 10/2/14/.253/1 Dropped May 25.
(146) Jason Motte [46] 4/2.75/0.92/86/42 A great bargain.
(167) Nick Swisher [118] 57/20/73/.248/1
(170) Mike Moustakas [270] 55/18/54/.253/3
(191) Chris Sale [30] 15/2.62/1.04/142 Another brilliant pick.
(194) Lucas Duda [495] 11/4/13/.236/0 Dropped May 9
(215) Zack Cozart [346] 11/1/3/.260/0 Dropped April 18
(218) Brennen Boesch [464] 3/1/6/.222/0 Dropped April 20
(239) Tyler Clippard [133] 2/4.02/1.16/61/31 Dropped April 18, but picked up again May 23 after Clip recorded his first save.
(242) Jonny Venters [359] 2/1.74/1.55/20 Dropped May 7
(230) Gavin Floyd [279] Dropped March 30
(266) Mat Gamel [–] 10/1/6/.246/3 Dropped March 30
(287) Jose Altuve [137] 0 for 3/1 run; Dropped April 8. Would have been a nice bargain.
(290) Omar Infante [190] Dropped March 28
An excellent draft, as you would expect from a team with 119 points. You can overcome a mediocre draft, but for the truly exceptional season, having your top picks perform like top picks to go along with a few late round surprises is essential. In this draft, 3 of the top 4 picks ended up as top 10 players. The other ranked 23rd. Then Posey (9th round) and Sale (16th round) were also top 30 players. 6 players in the top 30. Very impressive.
Key pickups
Martin Prado (April 20, waivers) 72/9/64/.306/16
Josh Reddick (April 30, FA) 55/22/61/.233/8
Carlos Ruiz (May 7, FA) 31/8/36/.335/3 Dropped August 4.
Huston Street (May 19, FA) 17 saves/0.68/0.53 Dropped August 11.
Aaron Hill (May 25, FA) 76/21/68/.319/10
Yoenis Cespedes (June 1, FA) 48/13/48/.299/10
Kris Medlen (August 2, FA) 7/0.96/0.79/64
Erick Aybar (August 9, free agent) 32/3/14/.333/13
Grant Balfour (August 11, FA) 16 saves
Streaming
Mark Buehrle, Ervin Santana, Scott Diamond, Tommy Milone, Bud Norris, Wei-Yin Chen, J.A. Happ, Clay Buchholz, Jake Westbrook, and Ubaldo Jimenez combined for 16 wins and 109 strikeouts with an ERA of 2.40 and 1.13 WHIP.
Final Numbers
Runs: 1118 (26th in RCL)
HR: 314 (11th)
RBI: 1126 (5th)
SB: 193 (73rd)
Ave: .286 (8th)
K: 1439(16th)
Wins: 115 (1st)
Saves: 165 (20th)
ERA: 3.35 (57th)
WHIP: 1.192 (75th)
A truly amazing season, starting with a great draft and continuing with smart adds throughout the year. Nicely done.
Also, congratulations to Ryan Carey (Mastersball Carey), who held off Rudy to win the RCL Experts League, and all the league champions. Hope you’ll play again next year.
Thanks everyone for reading my posts this season, and all the kind comments. I’ll be continuing to post numbers in the Fantasy Baseball Forums, so check them out once in a while.
