RCL Update: The Year That Was 2026

Start the drum roll!  Twenty-seven weeks down, and now we have twenty-five more until the start of next year’s fantasy baseball season (hopefully!).  It’s (almost) perfect symmetry because fantasy baseball is the perfect fantasy sport.  But before we turn our eyes to next season, we first have to recap this past season, and with that, our overall Razzball Commenter Leagues Champion…Retro Vertigo!  Retro Vertigo is an original member of one of the longest-running Razzball Commenter Leagues, ECFBL (East Coast Fantasy Baseball League), started by the late, great Paulie Allnuts back in 2011.  A history lesson for the young’ns: The very first year of the RCLs was 2009, we had six leagues.  The only legacy league to participate every season is Original Recipe.  My first season playing in the RCLs was 2012, and I joined ECFBL in 2013, the year Retro Vertigo finished second overall.  We were up to a whopping 64 leagues by this time.  All this to say, RV has been around this block a time or two, and I love seeing one of the OGs win this thing, especially from a legacy league, especially if that league is one I am now commissioner of.  ECFBL is a perennial top ten league, and Retro Vertigo was dominant from start to finish, ending up with 110.5 points in a league with a 104 LCI.  Only two other teams had more league points than RV, and their LCIs were 91 and 93.   It’s key to find a tough league, but not too brutal where you can get out to a big lead.  It’s a fine line, and ECFBL nailed it for RV this season.  Retro Vertigo was a contender for the title from the jump too.  In our first standings run, RV debuted at fourth overall, and he never looked back.  The RCLs remain one of the best competitions in the fantasy baseball land, and winning this is harder than just about any industry league and probably harder than anything but an NFBC Main Event.  A HUGE congrats to Retro Vertigo on the accomplishment. RV really rakes it in, winning themselves a $250 Best Buy gift card!  More importantly, though, they get a Razzball T-Shirt and RCL glory.  Who can put a price on that?  Oh, it’s $25, well then, moving on.  If you catch Retro Vertigo popping into this post, be sure to heap on the praise and congratulations.  They fended off some very tough competitors to claim the RCL crown.  This is RV’s moment, though, so hopefully they pop in, take a bow, and soak it up; they earned it.  

Here’s what else happened this year and this final week of the RCLs:

 

‘PERTY ‘PERTS

Each week we’ll peek in at our resident ‘perts to see who is laying claim to best “expert” RCLer in the land.  We’ll take notes, check the standings and generally stalk them.  The heading is also hyperlink, so feel free to follow along as we go.

It was truly a nailbiter heading into the final day of the season.  At one point Saturday, Mike had a half-point lead, but in the end, I was able to hold on with a one-point lead and win my second Perts League title.  Cram It finished a valiant third, with Son and Grey both making respectable finishes in the top five.  I have to thank Cram It for dropping Devers when he did so I could add him and ride that sweet hot streak up the standings.  His 24 homers from June 19th on were integral to my run.  Vlad Jr. can bite me.  MarmosDad tried to Woo pill me, but his 3.63 ERA/1.019 WHIP and 56 Ks didn’t hurt either.  I’m always excited to win against this group, thanks for a fun season!

 

TOP 20

For those too lazy to check the MASTER STANDINGS, I present to you, the current top 20

Stand up and give a hearty pat on the rear end to your end-of-season top 20.  Most of these teams made an appearance in the top 20 at some point this year, and it takes some serious effort to make the top 20 at the season’s end.  The end-of-season IP penalties shook up the LCIs a bit, causing a stir, so be sure to check out where everyone finished:

RK	TEAM	LEAGUE	RCL PTS	LG PTS	LG INDEX	MASTER PTS	MOVEMENT
1	Retro Vertigo	RCL ECFBL	114.6	110.5	104	112.2	0
2	Starfish & Coffee	RCL #19	112.1	106.5	106	108.1	0
3	Mr Big & Bud Goode	RCL #34	107.6	103	104	106.5	1
4	Drop Zone Players	RCL #8	107	117	91	113.1	1
5	Diamond Archers	RCL #33	105.7	107.5	101	102.3	2
6	Clyde	RCL #30	105.3	105	102	102.2	0
7	Nocler	DFSers ANONYMOUS	104.8	103.5	104	100.3	6
8	There`s a drive into deep left field	RCL #29	104.5	103	101	104.2	-5
9	Backdoor Sliders	The Laura Holt Challenge	104	97	107	100.6	3
10	1DraftDodgers	RCL #14	103.8	108	97	104.4	-2
11	TripleBs	COUGS R US	103.8	97	108	99.3	46
12	BroadwayG	RCL #6	103.2	108.5	99	99.3	13
13	jzli	RCL #27	103	104	101	101.2	-4
14	Crystallizing	RCL #31	102.6	106.5	99	99.9	2
15	Low-End Seamster	RCL #19	101.9	96	106	99.2	-4
16	The Sneetches	RCL #12	101.8	104	99	101.1	-1
17	DFresh	RCL #19	101.7	94.5	106	100.3	-3
18	bellow	RCL #4	101.5	113.5	93	101.2	-8
19	cjsullivan3	RCL #9	101.4	103.5	99	101.2	-2
20	Mudville Nine	RCL #1	101	107	96	101.1	-1

Again, Retro Vertigo claimed the top spot. Let’s take a quick peek at their team here, shall we?  Here’s how RV started their draft this year: 

Doesn’t exactly look like a team you’d expect to win it all, does it?  For every hit (Abrams/Stewart/Harris), there’s a miss (Riley/Keaschall).  But their hits were very good hits, and Ohtani was still a cheat code.  The Abrams pick is one I regretted so bad.  It was the fifth round, and I had taken Elly in the first.  For some reason I had in my head that corner infield was going to be a premium this year, and I drafted Eugenio Suarez thinking I needed power instead of taking CJ Abrams, one of my bigger targets this year.  RV got incredible value on that pick, and I commented on it at the draft.  What a swing.  Retro Vertigo also nailed Riley O’Brien, which is huge in ECFBL where every save option is often rostered, including set-up guys.  RV didn’t make a trade all year, and the final roster looks pretty similar:

Ah, yes, Jordan Walker.  Added on March 29th, dropped on April 3rd, and reclaimed on April 5th.  A league-winning pickup.  Also, I know RV is a White Sox fan (we actually caught a game together with some other Razzball writers a couple seasons ago!), and he had eyes on Sam Antonacci (picked up May 2nd), who definitely helped in Runs and average.  Health is a big key here, with most of these draft picks staying healthy all year. RV used 284 moves to win it all, right around the sweet spot, I think.  No need to murder yourself streaming bats every day, but enough to keep those counting stats rolling.  A nice combination of draft and timely pickups gets it done for Retro Vertigo.  By the way, here are the final standings for ECFBL.  Vin also collected all of RV’s season stats HERE.

I did everything I could to try and win my second overall title, but RV was too good.  I’m glad I made it uncomfortable at least.  A second place in this format is still pretty great.  I try to make it to the Champion’s league every season, and this will work.

I’ve played with Mr Big & Bud Goode a few times over the years, always a pleasure, and he whooped me in RCL 34 this season.  Nice work!

Drop Zone Players & Diamond Archers each moved up a couple spots to secure top five finishes, impressive work!

Clyde held steady at sixth overall and Nocler ran away with DFSers Anonymous to claim seventh overall.

There`s a drive into deep left field had a slip and fell five spots but held onto a top ten finish, nothing to shake a stick at, while Backdoor Sliders got back into the top ten after a couple year hiatus.  1DraftDodgers rounds out the top ten.

TripleBs had an incredible month to move up 46 spots, win the Champion’s league, and secure a spot in next year’s league by hitting the top 12.  Amazing.

Low-End Seamster & DFresh were huge reasons RCL 19 was so intense, which helped push me up to second overall.  RCL 19 was tied with NOTLZ (a $100 league) for the third toughest league according to LCI, and these two never quit.  What a battle.  They sandwich my RCL 12 team, making three teams from one league in the top 20.

The remainder of the top twenty includes some familiar names from previous updates, including, bellow, cjsullivan3, and Mudville Nine, an impressive list.

 

WEEKLY LEADERS

The best of the best from the week that was.

R – 60 – Team Tokyo2 (COUGS R US)

HR –19 – MattTruss223 (DFSers Anonymous) & BIG_ROD (RCL 11)

RBIs – 61 – Backdoor Sliders (The LHC)

SB – 14 – TF 24 (RCL 24) & dont give a shift (RCL 22)

AVG – .344 – Captain Longballs 2 (RCL 9)

K – 151 – Chevy Caminero, Cruz Control (RCL 29)

W – 8 – Chevy Caminero, Cruz Control (RCL 29) & Orlando Calrissians (Original Recipe)

SV –  6 – 8 Teams Tied

ERA (Min. 40 IP) – 0.99 – Bucks in Six (RCL 20) (in 54.1 IP)

WHIP (Min. 40 IP) – 0.571 – Bucks in Six (RCL 20)

No new records in the final week, nor did we end up topping any of the best weekly records of all time.  Here are the weekly highs for this season:

 

2026 WEEKLY RECORDS

The best of the best from the weeks that were.

R – 76 – Vin Com (FCL)

HR –27 – BillyAngel (RCL 8) & There’s a drive into deep left field (RCL 29)

RBIs – 81 – TripleBs (COUGS R US)

SB – 20 – murderbydeath (RCL 7) & bellow (RCL 31)

AVG – .354 – olaxsoxo (RCL 35)

K – 188 – Vin Sixteen (RCL 16)

W – 12 – PlatanoPowers  (RCL 22)

SV –  12 – Orlando Calrissians  (Original Recipe), Halcyon (RCL 1), & Gunk Squad (The LHC)

ERA (Min. 40 IP) – 0.23 – Halcyon (RCL 1) (in 40 IP)

WHIP (Min. 40 IP) – 0.600 –  Halcyon (RCL 1)

These are the best weekly outputs in each category from the year that was.  If you would all stand up to receive a round of applause, that would be lovely.

All stats were pretty darn close to last year’s, which is neat.

 

TEAM OF THE WEEK

Our weekly shout out to the team that killed it the previous week.

Team: Razzkai – 1st Judge

League: RCL 11

Stats:   AVG: .249, R: 40, HR: 14, RBI: 47, SB: 8

IP: 93, ERA: 2.61, WHIP: 1.215, K: 88, W: 7, SV: 4

Summary:  It’s always nice to finish strong, and Razzkai did just that.  They added eight points to come from 5.5 down in 3rd place to drop the hammer and land in a tie for first, winning the tiebreaker – leading Team Tokyo in six of ten categories.  Nolan Arenado was the hitting star with a .435 avearge, seven runs, three home runs, and eight runs batted in. Gabriel Moreno also had eight ribbies and hit .400. Manny Machado and CJ Abrams each had two homers and seven driven in. Abrams also stole a base. Andy Pages added two long balls and a steal as well. Six starting pitchers earned wins, allowing six runs in 35 innings. Matthew Boyd, Hayden Wesneski, Taj Bradley, Anthony Kay, Joey Cantillo, and Logan Henderson didn’t contribute many strikeouts, but were all solid.  Tanner Scott saved two games with scoreless innings and struck out four. Aroldis Chapman and Jhoan Duran added a save each.  What a finish!

 

YEARLY LEADERS

The best of the best from the year that was.

R – 1245 – olaxsoxo (RCL 35)

HR –381 – Isotopes II (RCL #34)

RBIs – 1182 – Isotopes II (RCL #34)

SB – 285 – Vin 27 Outs (RCL #27) – Beating last year’s total!

AVG – .269 – Won’t You Be My Naylor? (RCL  #25)

K – 1717 –  There’s a drive into deep left field (RCL 29) – Crushing last year’s total

W – 115 – The The (RCL #22) – Beat last year’s total by five

SV –  152 – Gunk Squad (The Laura Holt Challenge)

ERA (Min. 1040 IP) – 2.99 – Man or Stroman? (RCL #22) (in 1411 IP) & murderbydeath (RCL #7) (in 1092.67 IP)

WHIP (Min. 1040 IP) – 1.060 – Diamond Archers (RCL #33) (in 1301 IP)

IP – Trussell Shuffle (RCL 35) – 1449 IP (finally dethroned Vin’s reign), 193 teams hit the 1400 mark (Average: 1296)

34 teams failed to reach the 1000 IP minimum

ABs – 8679 – Born Ready (RCL 21) (average: 7285)

K/9 (Min. 1000 IP) – 10.85 – There’s a drive into deep left field (RCL 29) in 1395.1 IP

MOVES – 500 – Dunphys Joint Venture (The LHC), TrixMcGee (RCL 26), & HoosierBoss (RCL 26)

Worst Place – TheFantasyGOAT (RCL 12) – 13.4 RCL Points, 14.0 League Points with a League Index of 93. More like TheFantasyWOAT.

 

Vin broke down the moves made, along with how many titles each range brought.  Thanks, Vin!

The fewest moves made by a winner: mrogovin99 (RCL 20), who made just 25 moves and finished 37th overall.

Titles won broken down by moves:

500: 3 teams  – 1 title

400 – 499: 27 teams –  4 titles

300 – 399: 38 teams –  5 titles

200 – 299: 60 teams –  12 titles

100 – 199: 112 teams –  15 titles

51 – 99: 100 teams –  7 titles

1 – 50: 167 teams –  1 title

0: 21 teams –  0 titles

 

Vin also provided some notes on other league winners.

The biggest deficit at the break by an eventual champion was Scrantonicity (RCL 10), who were in 4th place, a massive 32 points off the lead. This makes my 21.5 point comeback from tenth in Perts look like chump change.

 

And some data on draft slot:

Titles by Draft Slot:

#1: 7 titles

#2: 4 titles

#3: 8 titles

#4: 2 titles

#5: 2 titles

#6: 1 title

#7: 4 titles

#8: 2 titles

#9: 2 titles

#10: 7 times

#11: 2 titles

#12: 4 titles

 

Titles by 1st Pick:

Aaron Judge – 3

Bobby Witt Jr. – 5

Corbin Carroll -2

Elly De La Cruz -4

Fernando Tatis Jr. – 6

Jose Ramirez – 1

Juan Soto -5

Julio Rodriguez -1 

Junior Caminero -3 

Kyle Tucker – 1

Nick Kurtz- 1

Paul Skenes- 1

Ronald Acuna Jr. – 3

Shohei Ohtani – 8

Tarik Skubal – 1

Just some fun data you can do with what you like.  I always think this stuff is fun to peruse and appreciate Vin taking the time to collect it all.

 

Speaking of Vin, he is set to retire this offseason, show him some love in the comments.  If you notice that the RCL Updates take a significant hit next year, it’s because he works around the clock collecting data for me each week and puts together a large chunk of this update.  I’ll do my best next year, but it won’t be the same.  Vin is the RCL unsung hero, so please, do some singing of his praises on his way out the door to the depths of the Canadian wilderness.  You will be missed, sir.

 

TOP LEAGUES

I’ve mentioned in the past that I have a bias for high LCI Leagues.  I’ve played in several and commish one of the best, so naturally, I want to give them their due.  Here are the top 10 leagues in order of LCI:

Cougs R Us – 108

The Laura Holt Challenge – 107

Night of the Living Zombinos – 106

RCL 19 – 106

Original Recipe – 105

RCL 28 – 105

Perts – 104

ECFBL – 104

DFSers Anonymous – 104

Caught Looking – 104

RCL 34 – 104

RCL 11 – 104

There you have it, the top ten most competitive leagues.  Well done, leagues!  I’m not very surprised that the Champions League was the most competitive for the third straight year.  That league and our two $100 invite leagues are always at or near the top.  What is surprising is these $20 and $10 buy-in leagues that are right there with the best of the best legacy leagues.  If you want a competitive RCL next year, look at these buy-in leagues.  RCL 28 makes the list along with RCL 11 as free leagues!  These both include Razzball writers, Latch-Key Kid (points league writer), and MarmosDad (top 100 SP).  Fill those writer leagues if you’re looking for a challenge!  It’s the usual suspects otherwise. ECFBL and DFSers are perennial top LCI leagues, and this year is no different.  Nice to see the Perts League near the top as well.  Congrats to Caught Looking for making the list as well!  Caught Looking is a newer legacy league started up by a group of Razzball friends.

Oh, and speaking of money leagues – all payouts should be done and in your FanTrax accounts.  Let me know if they aren’t or I missed any.  Thanks!

COUGS was definitely the most dominant hitting league this year; they led in Runs, HRs, RBIs, and SBs, and made the most moves of any league. COUGS also led on strikeouts for good measure.

The Laura Holt Challenge had some stellar pitching, leading the way in Wins and innings pitched.

NOTLZ led in saves and tied ECFBL in lowest ERA.  ECFBL also had the lowest WHIP.

The highest league batting average goes to RCL 24.

The winners of all these leagues deserve major kudos.  It’s not easy winning an RCL and certainly not one with an LCI north of 104.  Take note of the league names and maybe reach out next year when the time comes if you want to play in one of the top leagues.  I’m almost always looking to fill a few spots in these leagues each year.  I was practically begging to fill the last spot in DFSers Anonymous this year.  You have no one to blame but yourself for not being in a competitive league.  I played in five of the top ten leagues listed above, and each one was a total blast.  

It has been an absolute pleasure to bring you these updates every week.  Thanks to everyone who read, lurked, commented, and/or gave a kind word.  A million thanks again to Vin for collecting data and stats for the Master Standings and my weekly updates.  Enjoy your retirement, friend.  A big thanks to Rudy for running those standings.   I love these crazy, time-consuming leagues.  I love the daily moves and the competition it creates, and I hope that was evident in my weekly reports.  Is it perfect?  Nah, but darn it, it’s fun as hell.  I also love the community it brings together, pitting commenter against commenter, Pert against random lurker.  Is there another place on the interweb where you can play against 500+ other people, all with weekly Master Standings updated as well as a weekly report on the goings-on?  I think not.  Thank you to Grey and Rudy for creating this beautiful monster known as the RCLs.  Let’s dedicate this season to John Sterling, Tommy John, Bill Mazeroski, and Garrett Anderson, RIP.  Enjoy your winter of hibernation, and I’ll see all you crazies next year, much love.

 

Want to be my internet pal?  That’s kinda creepy, but you can follow me on the bluest of skies: @matttruss.bsky.social