I spent the past week vacationing in the armpit of the United States, New Jersey!  I kid, there are actually a few nice spots in New Jersey.  You’ll just have to trust me.  It’s Grey’s old stomping ground, so you could say, I spent the week in the birthplace of Razzball.  As I’m sure everyone who is hyper-competitive in the Razzball Commenter Leagues knows, vacation can really put a damper on your ability to grab players right before and after lineup lock.  It’s the cross we bear.  If there’s anything we’ve talked about ad nauseum, it’s the amount of time required in these daily move leagues.  This is magnified for those of us in multiple RCLs.  So, before setting out on vacation, make sure the wifi is suitable and maybe keep your options open around 7:05 PM EST.  Can we all vent for a moment on the travesty that is the ESPN mobile app as well?  3 or 4G is great and all, but when you can’t even sort pitchers between SP or RP on the app, that’s a problem.  Everything, it seems, takes at least 4 times as long on the app as well.  Oh well, we can hope they get the hint someday and improve that shizzshow.  Until then, keep that laptop handy and those vacations flexible.

Earned run averages are taking a beating in the Razzball Commenter Leagues this year.  It seems like every week when I run through the weekly data there is a large number of teams with 6+ ERAs for the week.  It makes sense, with MLBers on pace to set another league wide home run record that (mostly) no pitchers are safe.  Where a 3.50 ERA used to mean you were middle of the league, now you could be leading your league with that mark.  The average ERA for the RCLs is a 3.96 right now.  That seems high, in fact, all of these numbers seem high.  So, I compared them to last season’s end of year stats.  The average ERA for the RCLs last season was 3.71.  We haven’t even hit the hot summer months yet when the bats really come alive and we’re already looking at a 0.25 ERA hike.  I can’t be certain, but I wouldn’t expect the end of season ERA to be lower than it is right now.  There are only 117 of our 876 teams (13.35%) with an ERA of 3.50 or lower.  Last season we had nearly double that number to finish the season, 226 of 1020 (22.15%).  The leader in the ERA clubhouse currently is Team Visbisky of league Viz Versus The Commenters with a 2.642 ERA in only 265 IP.  If we were to use my arbitrary weekly cutoff limit of 40 IP for 11 weeks and find a team with 440+ IP, that number jumps to a 2.761 ERA by Guys and Dahls (great team name by the way) of Super League fame.  Interestingly, the current worst team ERA is also from the Super League.  Long Dongs is sporting a 5.576 ERA in 500 IP, good for DFL in the RCLs.  I should also note that 3 of the 4 robot managed teams are currently in the top 100 for ERA, with one checking in at 17th.  So, should we all run out and trade for Clayton Kershaw to offset this high ERA nonsense?  I don’t think so, personally (although, maybe Long Dongs should).  With guys like Jason Vargas and Ervin Santana out there doing their thing and Lance McCullers and Robbie Ray that could likely be had for cheaper, I don’t think Kershaw is necessary.  It might cause you to think about the value of Alex Wood or Jose Berrios a little differently though.  Something to keep in mind, but for the most part, everyone is in the same ERA boat.  Just remember, that 3.70 ERA might not be so bad after all.  More ERA talk and more stats from the week that was, week 11 below:

I need to rant for a bit.  Can we, as a group, talk about how ridiculous it is that Anthony Rizzo is about to gain 2B eligibility in both ESPN and Y!?  He’s already gained the eligibility in CBS, but who plays there anyway?  If you’re not privy to this info, go check the “ELIGIBILITY” tab on your RCL team page if you’re a Rizzo owner.  I’ve got Rizzo on a couple RCL teams and I even think this is beyond silly, so don’t confuse this with being #notbitter.  This is more about how Joe Maddon is ruining fantasy baseball.  First it was batting Schwarber leadoff and Ben Zobrist at clean-up, now it’s making Javier Baez cover first while Anthony Rizzo perches on the infield grass awaiting a bunt attempt.  This isn’t playing second base, this is fielding a bunt while the second baseman covers first.  I hate every second of this.  Giving Rizzo second base eligibility is the equivalent of instant replay to me.  The game is simple, it’s not meant to be scrutinized down to the last iota.  This seems like a classic case of, “use some common sense”, but that’s just me.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be putting Rizzo in my 2B slot here shortly, moving Odor to MI and throwing Whit Merrifield/Tim Anderson/Tim Beckham back into the FA waters, but I’m not going to be happy about it…OK, maybe a little.  I’m still allowed to think it’s silly though.  It’s going to be very strange looking through the RCL teams and seeing Rizzo sitting at 2B, but what an advantage that is for the lucky ones that drafted him.  Thanks for hearing me out, I look forward to chatting with everyone in the comments about this atrocity.  Now, here’s what happened in the Razzball Commenter Leagues in the week that was, week 10:

No doubt you’ve heard the old expression, “It’s better to be lucky than good”.  Today we’re going to take a look at one of the biggest areas of luck in the RCLs, “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.  Mike Trout owners can relate right now I’m sure.  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 (most of my teams this year it seems).  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 (Mychal Givens this year is a prime example).  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:

The humans are making their move now!  Mad Beach Bums (Rakers Nation) continues to put the heat on Rudy Is Snooty and our human hero, Cram It has vaulted up the standings into third overall.  It might be slightly unfair for the robots as Cram It seems to be half human, half Razzball Commenter League machine.  We’re all pulling for you Cram, make us humans proud!  Only two of the four bots remain in the top 10 overall, however, all four remain in the top 20.  Of course, two of those four bots are in the top four overall.  They are the bread to the human sandwich of MBB and Cram.  It was yet another excellent week for our Fantasy Master Lothario, Mr. Grey Albright.  Despite this, he slipped back a spot from 7th overall to 8th overall.  It was a very busy week of trading in the RCLs with a whopping 19 being completed.  Some of the most competitive leagues were very active with three trades being completed in each of the ‘Perts League, ECFBL and DFSers Anonymous.  All this, plus a familiar name makes an appearance as the team of the week.  Come check out this and more in the week that was, week 8:

It was quite the week for trading in the Razzball Commenter Leagues this week as we saw 16 trades completed, several of which caused some commotion and consternation.  Those 16 trades don’t include the several vetoed trades (looking at you Cougs R Us) nor the few trades that were accepted Sunday but won’t be processed until Monday.   Those will be included in next week’s data.

Mike Maher and myself got the party kicked off last Tuesday morning, a couple hours before last week’s update hit.  You may have seen last week’s comments filled with talk of Bryce Harper.  In the deal I sent Mike Ryan Braun ($19.0), Miguel Sano ($18.7), Dallas Keuchel ($16.0) and Travis Shaw (-$10.2).  In return I received Bryce Harper ($38.0) and Carlos Santana ($20.0).  Those values in parentheses are the Rudy/Steamer Rest Of Season values as of Monday afternoon.  That comes out to (ignoring Travis Shaw, who was a throw in) $53.7 for Mike and $58.0 for myself.  At the time of the trade Ryan Braun wasn’t on the DL yet so his value was a bit higher.  This also doesn’t take into account the lineup flexibility I gain from the deal.  For example, I was able to add Alex Wood, who could end up being this year’s Dallas Keuchel circa 2015 if the Dodgers don’t yank his chain too much as well as a streaming spot for hitter/RP/streaming starter.  Grey was chirping and the consensus was that I had ripped off poor Mr. Maher.  In fact, Tehol posted two days AFTER the trade processed that the league should “do the right thing” and veto the deal.  This led Mike (who you should totally follow on Twitter – @mikeMaher) to break out the following Twitter Poll.  Only 4 out of 20 of Mike’s Twitter followers seemed to think I won that deal, with one Twitterer going on to say it wasn’t even close (which Mike agreed).  So, what does the rest of Razzball nation have to say about this deal?  I hate to make the entire lede about a deal that involved my team, so let’s bring this back to trades in general.  I’m entirely anti-veto.  Unless there’s money on the line and something can be proven that two parties are conspiring with one another to win a league and split the prize, I say let the deal stand.  In general, these RCLs are filled with people who don’t really know each other, just like a public league on any other site.  The only thing most of us have in common is reading Razzball.  Bryce Harper could snap any number of tendons tomorrow and then I’m left standing in the rain, cold and sad.  Managers evaluate talent differently, what you view as a good deal, I might not.  It’s your team though, so you do you, I’ll do me and we’ll ridicule your trade in the court of public opinion in the comments below.