Pitchers and catchers have reported and the Razzball Commenter Leagues are open, it’s beginning to feel a lot like baseball!  I can’t wait to be half as productive at work and start losing countless hours of sleep staying up to watch the end of the Marlins@Padres game, just in case there is a closer injury.  Football was a fine diversion, but I always feel a little empty without baseball.  I’m happy to be back for another season as your RCL tour guide.  Last season just never felt quite right.  I don’t know about you, but I found myself just going through the motions in leagues.  That’s no fun and I’m crossing my fingers for a normal season this year.  I mean, this isn’t a surprise anymore, MLB has had an entire year to plan for this very moment, so I’m sure they have the most well thought out plan possible and are ready to give it their all.  Everyone must be on the same page, right?  Right?  Hello?  Well, we’ll carry on through March and hope for the best.  What more can we do?  The RCLs are a different beast than most of your 12 team mixed leagues, so let’s go over a little of what you can expect and also why you should join.  If you’re on the fence about joining an RCL, you really shouldn’t be sitting on fences, that sounds terribly uncomfortable, but we’re here to help guide you in your decision making.  So, grab an energy drink of your choosing and let’s get into things.

All nine wild and crazy weeks are in the books and they sure did feel like a year.  I’ve said it many times, but I never expected us to get to this point.  Call me a cynic, but I obviously underestimated the power of the almighty dollar.  Things looked pretty rocky when we didn’t even make it two weeks before the Marlins were on hiatus, and look at us now, the Marlins are a playoff team!  *Eyeroll*  As wonky as this season was, we still have a Razzball Commenter League champion to crown.  It’s not who you might think either…without further ado, I present to you, our 2020 Razzball Commenter Leagues Champion…Team DFresh!  I may have jinxed Team Tokyo last week, but I really thought they had this thing wrapped up.  I should have known, with this only being week nine, that huge swings could still happen and they did.  DFresh got hot at the right time, jumping from 21st to 2nd last week and taking the top spot this final week thanks to another five league points gained, bringing their total to 116.  That’s a hard total to top, especially combined with a LCI of 114.  With that, Team Tokyo ends up with a hard-luck second overall.  DFresh really rakes it in, winning themselves a $250 Best Buy gift card!  More importantly though, DFresh gets a Razzball T-Shirt and RCL glory.  Who can put a price on that?  Oh, it’s $25, well then, moving on.  DFresh comments around the site from time to time, so the next time you see a comment (likely in this post) be sure to heap on the praise and congratulations.  They fended off some very tough competitors this year to claim the RCL crown including last year’s top finishers, Backdoor Cutters and Fat Fuckin Babies.  This is DFresh’s moment though, so hopefully they pop in, take a bow and soak it up, they earned it.  

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

We have just one week remaining in our Razzball Commenter League season now.  This funny little sprint of a season is winding down and this is the week when shizz gets whacky.  Every hot schmotato is in play and any big name missing any amount of time is hitting the waiver wire.  Top starters with no remaining starts, they’re out too.  Use those moves, max out those ABs this week and do what you can to max out your innings while holding onto those ratios.  The top ten overall had some shake-ups this week, but the top team remains the same.  We’ll dive into those shake-ups and we’ll also get historical this week.  Someone in the comments last week asked me about historical weekly records, which I didn’t have.  This question sent me down the rabbit hole of historical data and now I have the best RCL weekly records since I started collecting the data way back in 2016.  All that, plus the rest of the week that was, week eight is waiting for you below.

It’s pretty jarring to me that in two weeks from today our Razzball Commenter Leagues season will be over.  I expect to see a lot of movement in the overall standings during that time frame, despite the fact that the top spot has remained unchanged for three straight weeks.  Considering this is week seven, a time where, in a normal season, the league standings are just starting to level out, plenty of gains can still be made.  We’ve only had two teams hit the 525 IP limit so far, that alone will really shake up some league standings.  If you are not yet above 400 IP, what are you waiting for?  Make some noise on the waiver wire and get streaming!  We’ve also had two teams hit the max moves limit of 185 already.  Several more teams are into the single digits with two weeks to go.  I know we said to max out your moves, but yikes.  I feel like I’ve been extra active with late scratches and streaming like a mad man, and I’m pretty comfortable with moves in every league with around 50-60 remaining.  Next week will be a total bleep show with star players getting dropped left and right if they aren’t in the lineup.  These aren’t keeper leagues and you don’t get extra points for hanging onto Nolan Arenado if he’s out of the lineup for a rest day with three days left in the season.  Go ahead and make it a wacky finish to a wacky season!

The Razzball Commenter League trade deadline went out with a bang, we have nine trades to go over today and another few to cover next week that just squeaked in at the deadline Sunday.  With the Labor Day holiday, Rudy’s robots took the day off as well, so we have one extra day of data included in the weekly stats.  It’s crazy that we only have three weeks to go in this strange season.  Hopefully you made some trades that will make a difference down the stretch.  I don’t know about you, but it seemed weird to trade for a starter knowing they’d only have 4-5 more starts to come.  Everything about this season feels weird honestly, but we’re making due.  Things are still in so much flux in the league standings that big swings are still happening all over.  I kicked my teams in the rear this week and pounded the innings pitched, which had me gaining points in strikeouts and wins across my many leagues.  I don’t want to be caught that final week of the season needing to stream 100+ innings, because who knows what in the world that week will look like.  Keep an eye on your own IP and stream accordingly.

There you have it, we’ve passed the halfway point of our Razzball Commenter League season.  The next milestone is the trading deadline, which takes place this coming Sunday night at midnight EST.  The MLB trade deadline has been pretty awesome so far with major names all going to the Padres.  Between that and teams changing closers like underwear, there should be plenty to get you in the trading mood for the RCLs.  Normally, this is the time of season where you can understand some overpaying for players, but with the shortened season and so much still up in the air, I’m not sure things will be quite as crazy as previous seasons.  Still, take a look at the overall standings in your league and see where teams are bunched together.  If there’s an opportunity to leap over multiple teams by taking a category by storm, make your move now.  If you’re in second place right now, make that move for first, play to win, go out and make it happen.  Release your inner AJ Preller!  We managed seven trades this past week, which we’ll break down below, let’s see if we can top that this week.