Last night 11 Razzball writers and Cram It gathered to show their RCL prowess in a season-long battle akin to playing a game of speed chess every day for around 180 days straight. The Razzball Commenter Leagues are a different beast, one of the longest grinds of the fantasy baseball season and not for the faint of heart. This year’s ‘Perts League saw the loss of several members, some of who just can’t hang with the daily grind and others where some new blood was needed to make sure the league stayed competitive. Some new writers have joined the fold and the hope is this new blood sparks a league full of intense competition.
With only two days of draft data remaining, I am skipping the normal RCL Update this week and will return next week with an article filled with all the data collected from our 44 leagues. In the meantime, I will be slowly updating the RCL ADP SPREADSHEET, so keep an eye on that in the coming days if you are so inclined. For today, let’s take a look at our resident experts, who they drafted, and make some predictions on who will win this league.
First, the draft results can be found HERE.
I am the returning champ in this league in what was a real storybook season for me. I had the benefit of Shohei Ohtani last year and was very much hoping he’d fall to me at four. Laura is one of the best players in the game though and I should have known better than to think she’d let him fall to me. He’s my number 1 ranked player in this format for a reason. Laura snipes were not as common as I had guessed though as we seemed to have different team builds, the only other snipe was in the 19th round when I was looking to grab Willson Contreras and Laura inexplicably took a second catcher. Alas, I wallowed in my Ohtani loss for a second and I took my first and only share of Julio Rodriguez so far and paired that with “no speed” Rafael Devers. I am slightly concerned that Julio isn’t going to run as much as people think this season, so backing up that potential loss of speed with MHII was my choice. My first pitcher was Alek Manoah and I followed that with Dansby Swanson. I considered Oneil Cruz for a moment but planned on targeting Jake McCarthy later (see: my infatuation) and didn’t want to overdo it on speed. Josh Hader was next up as the top RPs all flew off the board. Hader is the least trustworthy of the elites, but the drop-off from him to Helsley and the next group is pretty drastic. The rest of the draft was targeting power (Lowe brothers, Santander, Rowdy, Casas) and grabbing some decent starting pitching (Lodolo, Wright, Brown). I chose to grab Jose Altuve for a mid-season middle infield boost. A dart throw in the 14th that I can handle getting nothing from. CJ Abrams will hold down the fort in the meantime. Targeting all the saves I can handle from round 15 on is living that RCL life. Hader/Bard is both a terrifying combo, but one that could pay huge dividends with a bucket load of saves. Minter will keep my saves category warm for a month or so while the rest of my bullpen sorts itself out with early-season injuries, closer changes, and general closerpocalypse chaos.
Enough about my draft, my typical draft strategy has been laid out in these articles plenty over the years. Let’s take a look at how everyone else did too. This is a fun game I like to play every year that takes Rudy and Grey’s projections, tallies everything all up, and with no in-season management at all, we see who has a headstart in the league. First, using Grey’s projections:
Totals:
| GREY: | R | HR | RBI | SB | AVG | W | SV | ERA | WHIP | K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KirkseySports | 962 | 253 | 885 | 88 | 0.2713 | 116 | 42 | 3.496 | 1.116 | 1725 |
| MarmosDad | 977 | 317 | 1010 | 142 | 0.2538 | 87 | 47 | 3.534 | 1.144 | 1388 |
| Laura Holt | 1103 | 321 | 1057 | 152 | 0.2558 | 65 | 28 | 3.11 | 1.068 | 1100 |
| MattTruss | 1085 | 329 | 1090 | 179 | 0.2633 | 71 | 86 | 3.352 | 1.11 | 1141 |
| malamoney | 913 | 248 | 863 | 97 | 0.2573 | 139 | 0 | 3.25 | 1.059 | 2030 |
| Son | 921 | 235 | 889 | 94 | 0.2562 | 81 | 80 | 2.76 | 1.012 | 1241 |
| The Great Knoche | 1031 | 274 | 1005 | 163 | 0.2662 | 64 | 113 | 3.388 | 1.16 | 1058 |
| Grey | 944 | 270 | 977 | 157 | 0.2559 | 90 | 101 | 3.273 | 1.109 | 1383 |
| Coolwhip | 865 | 279 | 881 | 109 | 0.2728 | 96 | 63 | 3.427 | 1.156 | 1556 |
| Cram It | 1004 | 290 | 1024 | 99 | 0.2668 | 77 | 105 | 3.324 | 1.128 | 1179 |
| B_don | 941 | 287 | 979 | 157 | 0.2654 | 94 | 26 | 3.451 | 1.178 | 1605 |
| The Lineup Builder | 985 | 272 | 927 | 101 | 0.2615 | 87 | 43 | 3.2 | 1.088 | 1293 |
Projections:
| GREY: | R | HR | RBI | SB | AVG | W | SV | ERA | WHIP | K | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MattTruss | 11 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 7 | 3 | 9 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 82 |
| Cram It | 9 | 9 | 10 | 4 | 10 | 4 | 11 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 73 |
| Laura Holt | 12 | 11 | 11 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 11 | 10 | 2 | 72 |
| Grey | 5 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 3 | 8 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 7 | 68 |
| The Lineup Builder | 8 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 5 | 10 | 9 | 6 | 66 |
| The Great Knoche | 10 | 6 | 8 | 11 | 9 | 1 | 12 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 65 |
| B_don | 4 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 8 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 62 |
| Coolwhip | 1 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 9 | 61 |
| MarmosDad | 7 | 10 | 9 | 7 | 1 | 6 | 6 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 59 |
| malamoney | 2 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 12 | 1 | 9 | 11 | 12 | 58 |
| KirkseySports | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 11 | 11 | 4 | 2 | 6 | 11 | 58 |
| Son | 3 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 12 | 12 | 5 | 56 |
There you have it, no need to play this one out, I’ll take the back-to-back championships and move along, thank you. I kid. You can definitely see my draft strategy play out in the numbers though. A heavy focus on a blanched offense, plenty of saves, and weak in Wins and Ks because I’m planning to stream my buns off there. I already have Corey Kluber lined up to stream Opening Day, doing EWB proud. Cram It, Laura, and Grey right behind me is pretty typical of how this league usually runs. Although, typically Son gets out to a hot start as well, but Grey’s projections aren’t feeling him this year. Maybe it’s those four starters in the first five rounds.
Now, let’s take a look at Rudy’s point shares and who Rudy’s projections have winning:
Totals:
| RUDY: | R | HR | RBI | SB | AVG | W | SV | ERA | WHIP | K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| KirkseySports | 35.1 | 30.4 | 36.4 | 21.6 | 42.7 | 30.7 | 2.2 | 13.8 | 15.7 | 13.4 |
| MarmosDad | 28.2 | 36.8 | 29.5 | 32.7 | 21.5 | 21.6 | 9 | 18.9 | 18.1 | 17 |
| Laura Holt | 36.3 | 39.6 | 35.8 | 45.3 | 24.3 | 11 | -0.3 | 19.2 | 20.9 | 16.6 |
| MattTruss | 31 | 36 | 32.7 | 36.6 | 29.9 | 10.6 | 18.2 | 9.2 | 6 | 4 |
| malamoney | 27.1 | 26.7 | 23.9 | 21.9 | 18.3 | 35.4 | 0 | 38.9 | 44.3 | 34.2 |
| Son | 19.1 | 25.6 | 26.7 | 18.6 | 24.2 | 23.9 | 4.5 | 23.8 | 32.3 | 29.7 |
| The Great Knoche | 26.2 | 22.4 | 15.9 | 49.1 | 31.1 | 17.1 | 42.8 | 9.6 | 10.5 | 14 |
| Grey | 14.9 | 27.1 | 20.2 | 41.2 | 11.2 | 16.4 | 10.7 | 18.3 | 17.1 | 17.6 |
| Coolwhip | 33.4 | 29.1 | 31.1 | 24.6 | 38.7 | 14.7 | 26 | 15.2 | 9.9 | 8.6 |
| Cram It | 23.7 | 28.2 | 29.9 | 18.9 | 40.1 | 9.8 | 24.2 | 14.4 | 14 | 14.6 |
| B_don | 22.7 | 34.4 | 38.1 | 41.6 | 27.4 | 2.1 | -5.5 | 16.5 | 4.4 | 0.4 |
| The Lineup Builder | 32.5 | 26.1 | 17 | 23.9 | 32.5 | 11.5 | 17.7 | 18.2 | 13.4 | 6.2 |
Projections:
| RUDY: | R | HR | RBI | SB | AVG | W | SV | ERA | WHIP | K | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laura Holt | 12 | 12 | 10 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 84 |
| MarmosDad | 7 | 11 | 6 | 7 | 3 | 9 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 9 | 76 |
| KirkseySports | 11 | 8 | 11 | 3 | 12 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 7 | 5 | 75 |
| malamoney | 6 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 12 | 3 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 71 |
| Coolwhip | 10 | 7 | 8 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 70 |
| Son | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 5 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 62 |
| Grey | 1 | 5 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 7 | 7 | 8 | 8 | 10 | 59 |
| Cram It | 4 | 6 | 7 | 2 | 11 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 7 | 59 |
| The Great Knoche | 5 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 8 | 8 | 12 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 59 |
| MattTruss | 8 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 3 | 9 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 59 |
| The Lineup Builder | 9 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 5 | 3 | 56 |
| B_don | 3 | 9 | 12 | 10 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 1 | 50 |
Well, this is interesting. Rudy’s numbers have five of Grey’s bottom six teams in the top six. The one constant, however, Laura is a top three team no matter what numbers are used. That is the consistency between the projection systems I usually look for. So, my prediction for the 2023 Perts League is that Laura Holt reclaims her crown as queen of fantasy baseball and wipes the floor with us silly boys.
I hope some of the other Perts stop in the comments to talk up their teams. I really like MarmosDad’s team, a very nice blend of fun and excitement there. No team is more dripping with sex than B_Don’s though. Jordan Walker was preceded by a middle finger emoji and that’s the energy B_Don brought to the whole draft. Despite waiting until round seven for a starting pitcher, the rotation is more than manageable for an RCL and I approve. Cram It either has a lot of upside or an overflowing IL by May. Grey is team slow and steady wins the race, nothing too exciting here but a very solid squad that will be right in the thick of things all season.
Be sure to bookmark the standings page and keep tabs on our ‘Perts all season long. I’ll also include a league update every week in the RCL roundup.
