Mauledbypandas’ team gained 3 points the final week in our league, Cracking The WHIP, to finish 4.6 ahead of three teams – Waco Night Terrors (Imposing Sea Creatures), the remains of the bay (Beef SAGNOF!), and Retro Vertigo (ECFBL). Josh Hamilton’s Fake Stache led the overall standings early, but stumbled in the middle of the season, dropping as low as 15th on July 22nd. They then started the climb back to the top, gaining 12 spots in 3 weeks to reach third place on August 12th. They moved up to second the next week, and were either first or 2nd the rest of the way. Congratulations on an outstanding season!
Let’s take a look at how the team was built.
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 champions. The complete draft shows how I drafted a much better team than mauledbypandas, but was unlucky.
(1) Miguel Cabrera [1] 103/44/137/.347/3 – As usual, Miggy was a great start in building a championship team.
(24) Ian Kinsler [83] 85/13/71/.274/15 – Obviously a disappointment, but still the 7th ranked 2b.
(25) Clayton Kershaw [4] 15/1.88/0.92/224 – Snags the top pitcher in round 3.
(48) Ben Zobrist [104] 69/10/65/.267/10 – A second disappointment. Between them, Kinsler and Zobrist were projected for 43 HR and 38 SB.
(49) Yu Darvish [10] 13/2.82/1.07/269 – A nice 1-2 starting combo.
(72) Jered Weaver [167] 10/3.46/1.17/109 – A third pitcher seemed unnecessary.
Three top 10 players in the first 5 rounds! 2 of the top 4 starting pitchers! Hitting looks weak. That will be tough to overcome. I’m worried.
(73) Elvis Andrus [40] 90/4/67/.271/41 – 90 runs and 41 steals from your SS isn’t too shabby.
(96) Nelson Cruz [153] 48/26/75/.271/5 – Looks like a bad pick on the ranking, but he was very valuable until his suspension, at which time he could just be dropped, opening up a spot for replacement stats.
(97) Hunter Pence [12] 88/27/99/.288/22 – A great pick as Pence outperformed all expectations.
(120) David Ortiz [21] 83/29/99/.309/4 – Slipped in drafts due to injury concerns and bad position eligibility, but turned into another steal.
(121) Mark Teixeira [1157] 4/3/12/.160/0 – First bad pick.
(144) Mike Napoli [61] 58/15/69/.244/1 – Dropped on August 19, missing out on 19/8/22/.313/0
(145) Jon Lester [126] 6/4.12/1.29/72 – Dropped on June 16, after which Lester was 9/3.26/1.27/97.
(168) Sergio Romo [97] 5/2.58/1.08/58/38 Saves – 13th RP selected.
(169) Casey Janssen [123] 4/2.66/0.99/46/32 Saves
(192) Jayson Werth [38] 0/0/0/.000/0 – Dropped April 4. Oops.
(193) Michael Cuddyer [49] 74/20/84/.334/10 – One of the great steals of the season.
(216) Jason Grilli [177] 0/2.98/1.04/71/30 Saves – Drafted 3 closers from rounds 14 – 18, and had no misses. 100 saves, 175 Ks, 9 wins, 2.71 ERA, 1.03 WHIP.
(217) Mark Reynolds [288] 33/14/43/.237/3 – Dropped June 26
(240) Alex Cobb [124] 9/3.13/1.19/117 – Another great pick.
(241) Ryan Dempster [424] – Dropped without appearing in starting lineup.
(264) AJ Pierzynski [183] 3/2/4/.286/0 – Dropped April 19
(265) Wade Miley [235] 2/2.91/1.40/40 – Got 831 strikeouts and 55 wins from drafted starters, with ratios of 2.86 and 1.11.
(288) Lucas Duda [618] – Dropped April 1.
(289) Michael Brantley [145] Dropped shortly after the draft.
Another great draft by the overall champion. Last year the Rank Railheads drafted 6 top 30 players. This year the champs had four top 12, and 8 that ranked in the top 50, though mauledbypandas did drop one after a week.
Key Pickups
Eric Hosmer (June 21, Waivers) 54/15/53/.321/4 in 371 ABs – Come on. In 214 at-bats for me he hit .252 with 2 home runs. I finally drop him and he starts hitting for the first place team. Must have been the more positive environment. Ended up the 52nd ranked player.
Gerardo Parra (April 4, FA; dropped and added a couple of times) 46/7/25/.269/5 in 346 ABs – Nice runs, but not much else.
Eric Young Jr (June 22, FA) 41/1/18/.238/28 in 307 ABs – Runs and steals.
Daniel Nava (April 20, FA) 39/6/30/.267/0 in 221 ABs – Some decent counting stats for the time he was owned.
Chris Johnson (July 3, FA) 18/4/30/.316/0 in 187 ABs
Brian Dozier (August 12, FA) 22/7/19/.242/5 in 186 ABs
Will Venable (August 5, FA) 25/9/18/.295/11 in 183 ABs – Not just SAGNOF with a HR every 20 ABs.
Francisco Rodriguez (June 13, FA) 6 Saves
Matt Moore (June 17, Waivers) 6/2.44/1.30/63 – Another bad drop by me (4.12/1.40 in 74.1 IP for The Vincibles).
Other Free Agent starters include Andy Pettitte (34.1 IP), Jerome Williams (30.1), Julio Teheran (23), Eric Stults (21.1), Jarrod Parker (19), Bartolo Colon (14), Kyle Lohse (12.2), Michael Wacha (8.2) Mark Buehrle (8), Jeremy Bonderman (8), Tyler Thornburg (7), Tommy Milone (7), and Jose Fernandez (7), who combined for 16 wins and 161 Ks in 200.1 innings, with an ERA of 2.29 and 1.10 WHIP.
Final Numbers
Runs: 1100 (20th in RCL)
HR: 278 (43rd)
RBI: 1123 (4th)
SB: 180 (74th)
Ave: .2753 (126th)
K: 1422 (51st)
Wins: 97 (64th)
Saves: 109 (274th)
ERA: 3.02 (19th)
WHIP: 1.16 (123rd)
A great season, starting with an excellent draft and only making 7 questionable decisions all year (I led the league in that category with 141). Nicely done.
Also, congratulations to our hero, Grey, who got serious this season to win the RCL Experts League and finish 70th overall, and Rudy, who made it a 1-2 Razzball sweep. Kudos to Tehol for running away with the Writers’ League, and also Mel, who showed Tehol was not unbeatable, finishing 24.5 points ahead in Night of the Living Zombinos. Sky was 2nd to Tehol, 80th overall. And Big Magoo, for taking the very tough Champions League. Mr. Magoo also finished second in 2 other leagues, with all 3 ending up in the top 100.
A Hill O’ Beans challenged for the overall title, and ended up winning 2 leagues with the 14th and 21st best teams. The 2012 champions, Rank Railheads, were once again impressive, finishing just outside the top 20. Wake Up had 2 top 100 teams, and another that finished in the top third of the field. Jack Full Of Hate reached the top 10 with 1 team, and had 2 others in the top half of the RCL. Other known commenters include MasterofGrond (2nd), Noon Time (17th), Schmohawk Bob (24th), Tony (26th), Elijah (29th), MStark (30th and 179th), Random ItalicizedVoice (34th and 129th), Ben (35th), Oaktown Steve (36th), Ichirosan (45th), thefaketom (54th), SteveNZ (60th), Al Koholic (62nd), Buffalo Runner (62nd), Bombo Rivera (75th), Kid A (80th and 181st), Brett (80th), and Atomic (89th). You can find all the league champions and runners up in the Fantasy Baseball Forums.
Thanks to everyone who read my posts and especially those who commented. Hope you all enjoyed the season! And now, I’ll wrap it up with what I’m most famous for, some more numbers.
Razzball Commenter League Leaders
Hits: 2263 – Retro Vertigo (ECFBL)
At Bats: 8286 – Retro Vertigo (ECFBL)
Ave: .2883 – Dusty Two Sacks (Modesto Nuts)
HR: 340 – All Hail Beddict (Razzball Elites)
RBI: 1135 – That’s a Shame (Bold Predictions)
SB: 242 – Smart Alex Gordon (Razzball League)
Ks: 1589* – Pink Highlighter (Razzball4Life)
Wins: 117* – TP for my Buchholz (You down with PEDs?)
Saves: 192 – That’s a Shame (Bold Predictions)
ERA: 2.67* – Pazzball Rodcast (No Guts, No Glory)
WHIP: 1.04* – The Good The Vlad The Utley (Myrtle’s Acres)
*New Record
You can check out the TOP 10 in each category.
