With so much talk of sticky stuff, the state of the game of baseball, and how many runs are or aren’t being scored these days, I thought I’d take a look at our very own data sample and see what our average ERA in the Razzball Commenter Leagues looks like this year versus years past. One of my favorite things about keeping all the RCL data over the years is being able to look back at it for things likes this. Let’s start with 2016 where our average ERA was 3.72. Not too shabby. 2017 saw a bump to 3.88 but 2018 fell back down to 3.79. 2019 got ugly and we had an average team ERA of 4.07. A shortened 2020 season was even worse with an average of 4.18. We’ve been slowly creeping up over time. So, how are we looking this year? As of right now, we’re looking at an average team ERA of 3.51. I’d say they sure deadened the ball alright. What will the hot, humid summer months and umpires patting pitchers down do to these numbers? I’m going to guess we end up somewhere right in the 3.85 ERA range, in other words, get ready for some offense.
Each week we’ll peek in at our resident ‘perts to see who is laying claim to best “expert” RCLer in the land. We’ll take notes, check the standings and generally stalk them. The heading is also hyperlink, so feel free to follow along as we go.
The ‘Perts league continues to be the “everyone looking up at Son” league as Son lost two points this week but Coolwhip lost four and just can’t seem to time up an opportunity to get by Son. Son did lead the league in Runs and Saves this week, so he wasn’t out there slacking, but when you’re going as good as he has been, you’ve almost got nowhere to go but down.
Laura and I continued our back and forth jostling for third place with me landing on the podium this week, next week, it will probably be her here.
Grey had the best week of the bunch, picking up nine points this week and moving up two places to fifth. Fifth place and 67.5 points are both season highs for Grey as he battles his way into the mix. Meanwhile, four was the magic number this week as Coolwhip, Laura, B_Don, and Blair all lost four points.
Each week we’ll also take a look at the top ten overall standings in our other Razzball sponsored league, the RazzSlam. This is our NFBC Best Ball league with managers from all across the industry, from content providers to fans and readers just like you.
The top three remained unchanged this week with Nicholas Mariano, Yatta, and Brian Seymour claiming the podium. Joseph Asher and Ryan Owen each moved up one spot this week as Sammy Reid fell from fourth to sixth. Zachary Meyer also moved up one place to seventh this week.
JKJ got into the Team Razzball repping in the top ten this week, moving into eighth. Unfortunately, Coolwhip hasn’t moved back in or we’d have three teams from Razzball in there. He’s hanging around though, so don’t rule it out just yet. Yancy got back into the top ten this week, landing in ninth, and our second member of the Razzball squad, Donkey Teeth rounded us out in tenth.
I found a way to represent Team Razzball this week too, as my squad was the biggest point gainer on the week with 756 points. My squad has been pretty mediocre this year, so it’s a nice boost to have a good week. I gained 36 spots in the overall standings, but Andrew Spiteri edged me out for the biggest gainer there as they gained 37 places this week.
TOP 10
For those too lazy to check the MASTER STANDINGS, I present to you, the current top 10
Rudy’s RCLBot5000 is in the shop for maintenance this week, so we won’t have any updated standings, weekly leaders, or a Team of the Week. We’ll be back next week with a double dose of updates. Those numbers won’t count towards our weekly records but it will be fun to see what kind of numbers we get in a two-week span. Can we get 50 HRs? 150 RBIs? A sub 1.00 ERA?
TRADES
All the trades that have gone down in the past week. Public ridicule is not only allowed, but encouraged.
| DATE | LEAGUE | DETAILS |
|---|---|---|
| 6/16/2021 | RCL #18 |
Team TheFantasyGOAT traded German Marquez & Bryan Reynolds to Auto-21 for Sean Manaea & James Kaprielian
|
| 6/17/2021 | COUGS R US |
Fat Fuckin’ Babies traded Gavin Lux & Zack Wheeler to Backdoor Knucklers for Tim Anderson
|
| 6/17/2021 | ECFBL |
Creative Chaos traded Eddie Rosario to Capital Offense for Kenta Maeda
|
| 6/18/2021 | RCL #19 |
Tears for Fiers traded AJ Pollock, Shane Bieber & Ryan McMahon to Gap Slappin’ Pimps for Starling Marte
|
| 6/19/2021 | RCL #18 |
Auto-21 traded Randal Grichuk to The Great CornHolio for Dylan Moore
|
| 6/19/2021 | RCL #18 |
No Ma’am traded Trey Mancini & Michael Brantley to Auto-21 for Ozzie Albies
|
| 6/19/2021 | RCL #19 |
Tears for Fiers traded Hyun Jin Ryu to Mo Mohicans for Ramon Laureano
|
The trading market slowed down a hair this week, although Auto-21 and Tears for Fiers team some team rebuilding. Tears seemed to be looking for some speed, aren’t we all, and I’m not entirely sure what Auto-21 was up to other than just shaking things up. Shaking things up seems to be their MO as Auto-21 has now made 11 trades involving 40 players. Whoa. Tears must be really be thinking this Bieber injury is serious, I like the move myself, if you can eek out some value and gain a need before news breaks that Bieber is done for the year, go for it.
PLAYER RATER TOP 20
A look at the top 20 players on the player rater and where they were drafted in the RCLs.
In lieu of our typical numbers, I’m going to borrow some work that the wonderful VinWins did this weekend. As I’ve said before, we RCL updaters, we stick together.
First off, did you know that there is a Razzball Forum? It’s true! It’s where all the cool kids hang out. OK, not really, but it is there and there are some gems sprinkled throughout. Scroll to the bottom and you’ll find the “Razzball Commenter Leagues” section. This is where Vin does his work. If my weekly posts aren’t enough number crunching for you, dive on in. Yesterday, Vin posted this little beauty showing the current Player Rater Top 20 and their corresponding RCL ADPs.
It’s fascinating stuff and really makes me want to scream about falling into the ADP trap. I loved Ohtani coming into this season and got him exactly nowhere. Reasons for this: also loving Yordan Alvarez. Petition to have two UTIL spots, anyone? Reason 2: playing the ADP game and getting burned by someone always drafting him above ADP. I collect all the RCL data, I saw Ohtani’s ADP creeping up as the draft season went on and I still whiffed on him. For shame.
Marcus Semien out here just proving what being on top of a great lineup can do for you.
Jesse Winker…I have exactly no shares and I had no idea how well he was doing. I feel like I streamed him in several leagues early in the season, good for those that held on and reaped those rewards.
Speaking of holding reaping. Retro Vertigo from ECBFL is the only team to draft and hold Cedric Mullins for his amazing season so far. Nice work RV!
I can’t believe Jose Altuve made this list, do we think he keeps this up all season? Nick Castellanos is pretty surprising too, what‘s up with the Reds? Are they mixing grease into their rosin bags for opposing pitchers or have Winker and Castellanos turned into Ted Williams? In a year where the league batting average is .239 these guys are just showing everyone up.
Anything else surprise you on this list? Is your mind changed about drafting first-round starters?
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