Happy post-4th of July Razzball Commenter Leaguers! Is it odd that this is the only holiday we refer to by the date? Sure, it’s really “Independence Day”, but no one calls it that. I suppose there is Cinco de Mayo, but that feels different. Just a random thought. This week not only marks the birthday of our fine U.S. of A., but more importantly, marks the halfway point of the fantasy baseball season! We just finished week 13 and there are exactly 13 weeks remaining. While we typically use the All Star Break to mark the unofficial halfway point, this week is the real deal. If you were exactly on pace with your games started, you would have 90 on the button. You can use that as a nice gauge to see if you need to be streaming your buns off the next 13 weeks or if you can chill out a bit and wait for the choice match-ups. This week, in addition to the weekly leaders we will take a look at our halfway point leaders. It will be a quick shoutout to those teams that have started hot in each of the roto categories. Obviously, our team of the halfway point is the leader of our Master Standings. Is it a human or is it a bot? Let’s take a look at that and the rest of the week that was week 13 in the Razzball Commenter Leagues:
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.
Ho hum, another week of domination by Grey. Grey currently sits with 105 roto points and a 17.5 point lead over his closest competition. Running. Away. With. It. Yes, that is worthy of douchey one-word sentences.
While we’re all living in Grey’s shadow we look for small glimpses of light. Rudy caught ahold of some this week as he gained 11.5 points and jumped from 5th to 4th. Rudy had a top 10 team in the “Team of the Week” standings this week as he went slam (20) and legs (15) crazy this week while hitting .329 and getting 7 wins to go with very solid ratios. Great week for the other half of the Razzball dynamic duo.
After remaining stagnant for three straight weeks I fought back into the fray. We’re all fighting for the Grey’s scraps and it’s been a revolving door at second place with no one holding the spot for longer than three weeks. I gained 9.5 points this week to bring myself within 2 of catching Prospector Ralph for that second place position.
The biggest loser this week was team Malamoney who dropped 10.5 points and fell from 7th to 8th in the standings. Malamoney’s squad only hit 7 homers this week (still 2 more than Smokey’s team though!) and scored but 28 runs.
TOP 10
For those too lazy to check the MASTER STANDINGS, I present to you, the current top 10
| RK | TEAM | LEAGUE | RCL PTS | LG PTS | LG INDEX | MASTER PTS |
| 1 | Rakers Nation | Rio Ruiz Super League | 104.5 | 107.5 | 105 | 93.6 |
| 2 | Swamp Donkeys | Straight Cash Homie | 103.2 | 112 | 99 | 96.2 |
| 3 | Rudy is Snooty | Take On M@ 3 | 102.8 | 109.5 | 103 | 92 |
| 4 | Vottoman Empire | DFSers Anonymous | 102.4 | 105 | 104 | 92.9 |
| 5 | South Side Hitmen | Von Hayes and Confused | 101.5 | 110 | 99 | 95 |
| 6 | Cram It | Sponge-worthy Anti-Dentites | 100.7 | 106 | 102 | 93 |
| 7 | Team Albright | Razzball ‘Perty ‘Perts | 100.6 | 102.5 | 106 | 89.2 |
| 8 | Backdoor Sliders | Frequent Commenters League | 98.9 | 100 | 104 | 91.2 |
| 9 | Pancake Riot | BigThreeSports + Razzball = Love | 98.1 | 105 | 101 | 89.7 |
| 10 | Hickory Tree Dead Bats | Super League | 97.8 | 108 | 100 | 88.1 |
It is a human that checks in at #1 at the halfway mark! Congrats to Rakers Nation (aka Mad Beach Bums) on a fine first half. It’s a marathon and the trick now is maintaining that lead. Best of luck MBB!
The Swamp Donkeys maintain their second place spot this week and everyone’s favorite RCL robot, Rudy is Snooty jumps into the bronze medal position, knocking Vottoman Empire to 4th.
South Side Hitmen make a nice jump this week moving from 12th to 5th. Nice week!
Cram It moves up one spot to 6th as Grey Albright falls from 4th last week to 7th this week. I think the standings may have been run a little early though, because Grey now has 105 league points, which I think would keep him in 4th. Cust Kayin.
Myself, Nick the Dick and The Big Yabu are in the midst of an epic battle in the FCL. Only 3 points separates first place (Nick) from 3rd place (Me). If that weren’t enough there’s a different battle in the Master Standings as Backdoor Sliders (The Big Yabu) is actually ahead of Nick there thanks in part to the 106 stolen bases that no doubt lift his team a bit in the Master Roto Standings. Backdoor Sliders checks in at 8th overall this week. It’s quite the battle in a high LCI league (104) and I’m happy to be sticking around as part of it, even if my team sits back in 25th overall, looking up longingly at the top 10. Nice work Yabu!
Pancake Riot was on the brink last week (11th) but jumps into 9th this week for their spot in the halfway point top 10.
Finally, the Hickory Tree Dead Bats make their top 10 debut this week, up from 16th overall last week.
HALFWAY LEADERS
The best of the best from the year that has been.
R – 675 – Malibu Deadbeats (Cougs R Us)
HR –231 – Rakim Allah (Straight Cash Homie)
RBIs – 658 – Rakim Allah (Straight Cash Homie)
SB – 137 – High Level Pokemon (Take on the Jay 4)
AVG – .287 – Team Longfellow (Take on Jay )
K – 1138 – Calgary Cannons (My Nightly Fantasy)
W – 69 – Calgary Cannons (My Nightly Fantasy)
SV – 146 – Grey is Bae (Sons of Beddict)
ERA (Min. 520 IP) – 2.817 – Sin City Sinners (Von Hayes and Confused) (in 706 IP)
WHIP (Min. 520 IP) – 1.06 – Portland Phink (Master Batters) (in 636 IP)
Shoutout to Nick the Dick for his team Rakim Allah that is killing the power department so far. He’s up 26 HRs on the nearest team. Malibu Deadbeats is hot on his heels in RBIs though, only 4 back.
Dee Gordon is pacing the High Level Pokemon who have 14 more steals than their next closest competitor.
Jay Wrong making an appearance on the Halfway Leaderboard! I do think it is important to note that there are two teams with a .283 batting in 8th and 9th that have 577 and 868 more ABs than Jay’s team though. So what if one of them happens to be one of my teams, I’m not biased…
It makes sense that Calgary Cannons is leading the way in Ks and Wins as they were the first team to cross the 180 GS limit way back in week 9. They will soon lose the grip on the Wins lead though as I have a team nipping at their heels with 68 wins in 108 GS. Even more impressive though is Prospector Ralph’s ECFBL team, Drago on the Treadmil who has 64 Wins in just 82 GS!
RCL bot, Grey is Bae has the RCLs in saves 4 of the 13 weeks so it’s little wonder they are leading the pack at the halfway mark.
I used my 40 IP/week limit for the ERA and WHIP categories and I thought I would have to dig a bit to find the top team. Not so. Sin City Sinners has the second lowest ERA in all the RCLs regardless of IP and the Portland Phink have the best WHIP.
TRADES
All the trades that have gone down in the past week. Public ridicule is not only allowed, but encouraged.
| DATE | LEAGUE | DETAILS |
| 7/1/2017 | BATTAMANIA | Sun Dogs traded Nolan Arenado to A Special Odor for Cody Bellinger & Justin Wilson |
| 6/29/2017 | Razzmonsters | StL Browneyes traded Kenta Maeda to Team Arnold for Ivan Nova |
| 6/29/2017 | Man on Third One Out | Team Sardo traded Jose Altuve to $15 Coors Lights for Bryce Harper |
| 6/28/2017 | DFSers Anonymous | Hot Rods traded DJ LeMahieu & Sean Doolittle to Vottoman Empire for Brandon Drury, Cameron Maybin & traded Johnny Cueto |
| 6/28/2017 | Mustaches and Muttonchops | catskill strongbads traded Craig Kimbrel to Power 13 for Aaron Judge |
| 6/26/2017 | Take on Jay | Team Balik traded Brandon Kintzler to kumamoto quakers for Rougned Odor |
| 6/26/2017 | Take on the Jay 4 | New Jersey DOMINICAN traded Trey Mancini & Luis Severino to High Level Pokemon for Elvis Andrus & Gio Gonzalez |
Seven trades unfolded this week. Two weeks ago we saw Aaron Judge flipped for Chris Sale, this week it’s Sale for Kimbrel. Last week Kimbrel was traded for Cody Bellinger. This week Bellinger and Justin Wilson returned one shiny Nolan Arenado. My my.
I know Odor has been putrid, but you’re a bigger man than I if you can hit accept on shipping him out for Brandon Kintzler.
WEEKLY LEADERS
The best of the best from the week that was.
R – 64 – High Five City (That’ll do Puig)
HR –28 – florida illini (High Desert Baseball)
RBIs – 71 – florida illini (High Desert Baseball)
SB – 19 – High Five City (That’ll do Puig)
AVG – .353 – Team Williamson (Insert League Name Here)
K – 98 – We need global warming (Take on the Jay)
W – 10 – Jim Abbott’s Right Hand Man (Keepin it Real), Laser Show (That’ll do Puig) & Guess Who’s Back (Beddict Believers)
SV – 14 – Grey is Bae (Sons of Beddict)
ERA (Min. 40 IP) – 1.07 – Columbus Moundball (Make RCL Grey Again) (in 50.2 IP)
WHIP (Min. 40 IP) – 0.70 – Weird Balls (The Prospect Podcast League) (in 44.1 IP)
There were some very impressive weeks this week as we had two repeat leaders. High Five City led in both runs scored and stolen bases thanks to Trea Turner (RIP), Jose Ramirez and Tommy Pham. The florida illini led in both HRs and RBIs as their squad just rained HRs from every position. Elvis Andrus actually led the way with 4! Those 28 HRs set a new weekly record as well. Nice work!
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Our weekly shout out to the team that killed it the previous week.
Team: florida illini
League: High Desert Baseball
Stats: H/AB: 92/316, AVG: .291, R: 60, HR: 28, RBI: 71, SB: 5
IP: 56.2, ERA: 3.18, WHIP: 0.94, K: 61, W: 3, SV: 4
Summary: Those 28 HRs were enough to boost the illini into TOW honors as well! Like I said, it wasn’t just one player with a big week, the illini got multiple HRs this week from 10 different players. It was an all around great week for the illini as they dominate their league with 103 roto points, 21 more than the second place team. On the pitching side it was Kershaw and deGrom leading the way to some nice ratios and great K/9.
Want to be Matt’s Twitter pal? That’s kinda creepy, but you can follow him here: @MattTruss
