This week, I want to bring up a topic before it blows up my comment section as it seems to every season.  This is something veteran RCLers will recall (and likely will be utilizing) and you’ll also be familiar with this concept if you play in Yahoo Pro Leagues or something similar.  The idea is that you can maximize your pitching counting stats by manipulating the day you go over your 1400 IP.  In the ESPN days, this was manipulating the day you went over the 180 GS limit by getting to 179 GS and then loading up 9 starters and hitting 188 GS.  The same thing applies here with the IP limit (and also in Yahoo leagues) in that on the day you go over the 1400 IP limit all of your pitching stats count for that day.  So, let’s say you work it so you get to 1398 IP, then you load up 9 starters the next day.  If all 9 starters last 5 IP, you’d hit 1443 IP and thus gain an extra 43 IP of strikeouts and possibly earn an extra win or two along the way.  The risk is obvious.  I have a hard enough time pulling one streamer out of the free-agent pool that won’t obliterate my ratios, never mind nine!  Unless you are holding a slim lead in the ratios that you don’t want getting ruined, there’s not much to lose in maxing out your stats though.  So far we’ve had one manager take a semi-shot.  We’ll take a look at how they made out and more from the week that was, week 24 below:

Only three weeks remain in this grueling season, twenty-three down three to go.  It is happening up to be a two-horse race as we come down the stretch.  This is a position that FFB is very familiar with, it’s like 2019 all over again.  Instead of Backdoor Splitters, it’s Milo The Cat putting the heat on FFB.  Both teams are putting that top-notch League Competitive Index to use.  I have mentioned both leagues in past updates, but as a refresher, Cougs is a league of past overall top 12 finishers and NOTLZ is a $100 league and always one of our most competitive.  I love when the top leagues are represented at the top of the standings.  I always feel like those that win these leagues should be rewarded because they are grueling.  It’ll be fun watching this two-team battle in the final few weeks.  Most years, this is what we see, two teams separating themselves from the back and battling right to the end.  I shouldn’t root for anyone, but if FFB finishes second overall twice, that would be pretty brutal.  More on who had a great week, the remainder of the top 10, and an update on the ‘Perts League below in the week that was week 23:

I hope everyone has recovered from their Labor Day festivities.  The unofficial end of summer means we’re into the nitty-gritty of Razzball Commenter League action.  My weekend was loaded up with fantasy football drafts (thanks DT, Blair & Son for helping me cram at the last minute) but that doesn’t mean we’ve forgotten about baseball.  We certainly haven’t lost track of our RCLs, in fact, this is the point where we’re pulling out all the stops to scrape up every last point we can manage.  We’ve got a bug in the Master Standings at the moment that is making the top spot look a lot closer to the pack than it is.  If we don’t watch out, it’s going to be a runaway victory for our overall leader.  Who is that leader you ask?  It’s a name you’ll recognize if you read this column at all.  We’ll cover that, the rest of the top 10, and all of the week that was week 22 below:

As the air starts to turn a bit cooler, the calendar flips to September and a large group of fantasy baseballers turn their attention to fantasy football.  Go ahead, wave at Donkey Teeth.  There are only five weeks left in the fantasy baseball season but what an important five weeks they are.  As the rest of your league checks out to go play the fantasy sport that requires only one day per week of roster setting (or as I like to refer to it, chess vs. checkers) the true competitors remain to grind it out for Razzball Commenter League glory.  Right now only a few points separate the top teams in the Master Standings, so we should be in for a heck of a finish.  This week, we’ll take a look at the year-long RCL records and what teams have a shot at setting new ones.  Does your team have a shot at the RCL record books?  Find out this and more in the week that was, week 21:

Week twenty has come and gone, a week that always seems to mark a turning point in the RCLs for me.  We’re out of the teens and into the twenties, with only a handful of weeks remaining.  My eyeballs really turn to those innings pitched limits right about now, as I try to make sure all of my teams are above 1,000 IP so I don’t need to stream anything that walks the final week of the season.  This is also the time of year where I start to loosen up my requirements for holding players a bit.  Fourth outfielders that I would typically keep, may get dumped to waivers in favor of someone with a better match-up or an actual match-up if that fourth outfielder has an off day.  I’m looking at all those Claims Remaining some of my teams have right about now and thinking, “I can’t take those with me”.  The race is on for counting stats and you can bet your Cheetos, the top RCL teams will be using every move available to them.

We are back this week with more stats than you can shake a stick at!  Rudy and the RCL Bots have returned giving us three weeks’ worth of numbers to parse through.  We’ve had quite a few shake-ups in three weeks of the Razzball Commenter Leagues.  The trade deadline has come and gone and it’s really getting to be crunch time now.  We only have about seven weeks remaining, but that’s still enough time to make a move.  Just ask the teams who just had amazing three-week stretches.  We’ll take a look at those outstanding weeks, all the last-minute trades that went down, updates in the ‘Perts League, and more for the week that was week 19.