A big “Thank You” to VinWins for stepping in last week, what a guy!  Vin’s post are what I strive for each and every week, so I hope you enjoyed him last week, because it’s back to mediocre drivel this week!  The trading deadline has now come and gone in the RCLs and it went out with a bit of a whimper.  A couple of our top teams made some moves, but it wasn’t the 30 trade onslaught I was anticipating.  If you weren’t able to find a dance partner, fear not.  We are about to enter the silly season of fantasy baseball, where everything is needs based.  Travis Jankowski won’t help you any if you’re already leading your leagues in steals and Aaron Judge is on the wire.  Ditto for those teams that have used all or most of their Games Started limit.  Starting pitchers should start dropping like flies in the next few weeks, making for a streamers paradise.  Kudos to you if you’ve paced yourself well, now good luck avoiding the Cleveland Streamer.  A new overall leader emerged from the fray this week, it took having the highest league score to do it, but it shows someone from a, “not so competitive RCL”, has shot at the title if they put up huge league numbers.  With seven weeks left, expect some big changes to the overall standings as teams use up those GS or teams that have used all their GS get caught.  There’s still plenty of time to make some noise, so get rowdy.  But first, check out the rest of the week that was, Week 19:

Frequent commenter, The Big Yabu backdoored his way into the top spot in the Master Standings this week after threatening to do so for the past several updates.  This wasn’t a case of Cram It slacking off either, has he put up a very strong week himself.  In fact, when looking for this week’s Team of the Week, Cram It checked in at 18th overall and Backdoor Sliders 1 came in at 29th.  The TOW leaderboard was a who’s who of big names and top RCL performers this week, but more on that in a bit.  The biggest difference I can see in this battle at the top of the Master Standings is the slightly higher LCI in the FCL compared to DFSers Anonymous.  That LCI can really have a big impact down the stretch, but at the same time, the competition in FCL should be stronger and odds are someone will start cutting into the Slider’s lead.  Interestingly, Cram It is also in the FCL and is one of the teams trying to chase down Backdoor Sliders.  He could really help his own cause two-fold if he was able to even take a nibble out of the Slider’s FCL tally.  It will be fun to watch these two duke it out as we head towards the finish line.  Here’s what else went down in the RCLs in the week that was, Week 17.

The prospects are coming, the prospects are coming!  What fun the end of week 16 brought.  I, for one, was so excited that I happened to catch the news on Twitter of Manuel Margot being pulled in the 4th inning of his game that I totally whiffed on the David Dahl news.  Turns out Manny Margot just had a bum foot…awesome.  Now these Hippos are almost entirely Dahl-less in the RCLs.  That makes me sad.  As of this writing Dahl is owned in 75% of leagues and if he stays with the club through this week and makes it back to Coors still on the roster, I could see that number growing pretty quickly.  Alex Bregman also got the call, but he was already stashed in most leagues.  In fact, he’s only available in three leagues as of now.  Those three leagues are clearly asleep at the wheel.  Trea Turner is doing his thing and all his owners are happy to see he’s not getting Dusty’d…yet.  With Nomar Mazara, Wilson Contreras, Tim Anderson and Max Kepler also out there making an impact, it’s been quite the season for the rookies so far.  Let’s see who out there is putting these rooks to good use and what else transpired in the week that was, Week 16:

Despite it only being a three day work week for us fantasy baseballers, there’s no rest for the weary here at RCL HQ.  We’re still here, crunching the numbers and cranking out standings for you all.  Many of you took advantage of the time with no games to do some self-reflecting.  Looking inward you identified your team’s weaknesses and set about addressing them.  Like any good rehabilitation process, you’ve come to terms with your team’s issues and now it’s time to fix them.  After only eight trades last week there were eighteen this week.  Looks like you all are gearing up for that second half run.  Let’s take a look at those trades and what else happened in RCLs in the shortened week that was, week 15.

Have you seen your family today?  They’ve missed you.  Spend the next couple days convincing them you’re in good health and that it’s fantasy baseball that has kept you away all this time, not a crazy, religious cult that demanded you move into a hut in the woods and live off wild mushrooms.  We’re at the unofficial halfway point and it’s time to take a breather, reflect, regroup and get back to the grind on Friday.  Maybe you can visit the Fantasy Golf section of the site and dabble in some PGA DFS for The Open.  Say “hi” to Joe, he gets lonely over there from time to time.  Speaking of lonely, it’s lonely at the top and that’s where Cram It remains for another week.  This guy is a machine.  He has now dispatched of fellow frequent commenter, MauledByPandas, who had been his closest league competition and is now fending off one of our five female readers, frequent commenter, MuneForNothing.  By “fending off” I mean, keeping a healthy twelve point cushion as he steamrolls us.  At this point, we’re all just his little helpers, keeping that LCI high so Crammy can stay at the top of the Master Standings…I feel so used.  Kick back with that knitting project you left collecting dust in March and let’s check out the other RCL goings on in the week that was, Week 14.

Here we are, it’s the halfway point of the season, lucky week 13.  There are 26 weeks in this fantasy season, so while the All Star Break marks the unofficial halfway point, this week is the true halfway mark.  The halfway point this year looks a lot like the end of the season last year with familiar friend Cram It leading the RCL Master Standings, albeit, in a different league.  A virtual tip of the cap goes out to Cram It, it’s no easy feat topping all these nut jobs and here he is doing it twice.  At the official halfway point we also had our first team eclipse the 180 Games Started mark.  With 182 Games Started, Calgary Cannons, take a bow.  The Cannons can now go about stacking relief pitchers in search of saves (53), ratio help (4.11 ERA, 1.31 WHIP), and improving that K/9 (7.9).  Their 89 wins might move up to around 100 or so, but with teams like the Yapping Chihuahuas out there with 62 wins and 86 GS left, it’s not very likely to hold up.  As everyone is slowly recovering from their Independence Day long weekends, let’s take a look at what else happened in the week that was, week 13: