There’s a new sheriff in town atop the Razzball Commenter Leagues Master Standings.  The STL Squat Cobblers are riding their 103 league points in ECFBL with it’s 105 LCI to Master Standings glory.  You can really see the importance of LCI on the Master Standings when you look below the Cobblers at my RCL #23 team with 108.5 league points but just a 100 LCI.  This led me down a rabbit hole of top LCIs and how the LCI correlates with total league moves. It would make sense that a league making the most moves would be a league full of attentive managers, racking up counting stats and thus have a high LCI.  There are four leagues with a LCI of 105 or greater. Cougs R Us has the highest with a 106. ECFBL, Night of the Living Zombinos and RCL #62 all have an LCI of 105. There are two teams (RCL #51 and #61) with an LCI of 91, the lowest of any league. RCL #51 has a team with an illegal roster since day 1 and has collected no stats on the year.  RCL #61 has a team that was trying to make terrible trades, got them denied and has since benched their entire team and seemingly quit the league. So, it takes some extreme examples to get an LCI that low. Click below and you’ll be magically transported to the rest of the week that was, week 12 in the RCLs as well as a table showing which leagues have made the most moves so far this season:

Last year in the Razzball Commenter Leagues, ERAs were up across the board.  A 3.50 may have led your league. I’m not sure if the change in format has had an effect on the way managers are attacking their pitching or if this is a baseball result, but the ERAs seem better this season.  Last year we had the juiced balls, maybe this year they toned it down a bit, who knows, but let’s compare the past few seasons of RCLs with this year. Last year the average ERA for the RCLs was 3.87. The year before that the average ERA was 3.71.  That’s a pretty significant bump. This year, we’re heading in the other direction with a 3.60 average ERA thus far. Now, we still have the hot, humid summer months left to go, but early trends show a decrease in offense. It tickles me a little that everyone is hot and heavy for launch angle and exit velocity only to see offense decrease.  I’ll be curious to see if this trend continues and if it leads to hitters returning to the old notion of hitting line drives and manufacturing runs. Maybe this is just pitchers combatting launch angle with elevated fastballs and other strategies. It’s interesting nonetheless, and facts you should know for RCL success. Let’s check out more RCL facts from the week that was, week 11:

I hope you all had a wonderful tenth week of the Razzball Commenter League season.  The injuries seem to really be piling up for my squads. I’ve got Acunas, Buxtons, Pollocks, Hills, Rays, a lot of Andrew Millers and now an Ohtani on various teams.  Ohtani stings since FanTrax was the one place you could utilize his dual-eligibility. I know Grey was touting the “I told you to avoid/sell him” game the other day, but with Ohtani’s horrid spring training, he actually came at a discount later in the draft season.  He went from being drafted between pick 55 and 80 early on to being drafted after pick 100 and even as late as 213 in one league (ECFBL – Nice grab Ralph!). After pick 100, or about the 9th round, I don’t consider this a make or break point in an RCL draft. Losing Ohtani won’t kill your season unless you traded away your entire pitching staff or something.  It sure stings to lose a dynamic player though, especially one you grabbed at a decent price who was out-performing that draft day price tag. As I said, I liked Ohtani in this format with the new moves limit for the flexibility he gave on short schedule days, etc. Maybe Ohtani can rest this off like Tanaka has managed to do, but either way, it’s to the DL and look on the bright side, now you have a streaming spot available!  Hello Jack Flaherty. Now that we’ve lamented our week 10 loses, let’s take a look at the rest of the week that was in the RCLs:

The calendar has flipped to June and the Razzball Commenter Leagues are in full swing.  This is also the time of year where I like to take a look at which RCL teams are killing us in win-rate and which teams have just had some crap luck in the win column.  Now, Rudy will tell you that Wins are actually predictable as shown by his Ombotsman.  While the data and the bots may tell you this, as a human, it still seems like they are luck-based, do they not?  Today we’re going to take a look at “win luck”. There’s no doubt it takes some luck to win a fantasy baseball league.  Injury luck is probably the biggest factor in winning a league. As good a manager as we think we are, if your number one pick goes down for the year, you’re going to be at a disadvantage.  That’s just common sense. “Win luck” is another area that is seemingly out of our control. Let’s face it, wins are brutal. I’m a big proponent of the mantra, “Make your own luck” and I certainly think that can be applied to “win luck”.  “Win luck” is a term often tossed around to describe a team that is raking in the wins and/or a team that can’t seem to buy a win. Can you make your own luck in regards to wins? Of course you can. You can stream those valuable middle relievers, especially the ones that frequently work multiple innings in the middle of games (Jeremy Jeffress perhaps).  When a lead change occurs, these relievers are typically the benefactors. It’s no guarantee of course, but it can’t hurt your luck any. There are other ways to increase your win luck too. Let’s take a look at another big one as well as who is getting lucky and who got luck this week in the week that was, week 9:

I hope everyone had a fabulous Memorial Day weekend.  I was lucky enough to take in a game this weekend and see the Sawx take on my beloved Braves in Fenway Park.  The Braves lost, but I got to see Acuna live and in the tilde, Ozzie Albeast and my man-crush, Freddie Freeman.  Massachusetts native, Sean Newcomb started the game, so there were a lot of Braves support there for him. The camo unis underwhelmed this year, black on black camo just looks solid black from the stands but the olive drab green high socks were pretty sweet.  Anyway, we’re all recovered here at Razzball Commenter League HQ and ready to fill you in on all the goings on this week. We had a change at the number one spot for a second straight week, a certain prospector continued their dominance of the ‘Perts League and a couple of weekly records were broken.  More details and the rest of the week that was week 8 in the RCLs below:

The rookies are coming, the rookies are coming!  That’s Ralph Lifshitz aka Prospect Jesus on his way to the waiver wire to hog all the Juan Soto goodness for himself.  Also making an appearance this past week was Austin Meadows. Nick the Dick seemed to grab him in just about every league I’m in with him.  I think I might play with the same managers in too many leagues. Hopefully, you don’t have the same problem and you were able to grab some sweet rookie nookie in an Razzball Commenter League or two.  It’s pretty exciting when a fresh rookie makes the jump. Meadows has gotten out to a hot start, it will be fun to see what Soto can do at 19. Now, if only Vladito would get the call. Vlad Jr. is being stashed in most leagues, but if he hasn’t been scooped up yet, now would be the time.  Grey already told you to hit the add button and he’s a man of his word, currently stashing him in the ‘Perts League.  Could Vladito be the key to Grey overtaking Ralph for the top spot in the league? Wouldn’t that be ironic?  Prospector Ralph done in by his own true love. Let’s see how far Grey has to go to catch Ralph and all the other goodness from week 7 in the RCLs:

We’re six weeks into the Razzball Commenter Leagues now and I think we can finally stop saying “It’s still early”.  What do you think? I’ve about had it with Yu Darvish, Chris Archer, and Josh Bell. Jeff Samardzija and David Price have already worn out their welcomes as well.  I’m cutting some slack for Carlos Santana and he’s showing signs of life. Aaron Hicks is getting a little extra leash as well. Ian Desmond’s batting average is pretty miserable, but 6 HRs and 3 SBs are hard to quibble with.  I’m also holding my shares of Scott Kingery. For now, I’m still looking forward to a second half worth rostering. Who are some struggling players you’re cutting bait with? Anyone that you are holding onto for dear life hoping and forming a prayer octagon that they return some value?  I was curious about who has struggled the most so far and what players have been carrying teams with their draft day value. Click below and you can curse your under-performers with everyone and praise your draft day steals!