Happy All Star Break my fellow RCLers. The Razzball Commenter Leagues can take a toll on your time, you social life and your personal hygiene. I hope you’ve used the break to take a shower, get out of your sweat pants and get reacquainted with your roommates, also known as, your family. They’ve missed you. Spend a moment and remind them that you are in fact, alive and well and that you haven’t been held against your will for the past 14 weeks in an old abandoned mine in the local woods. In fact, you’ve just been winning fantasy baseball leagues. You know, just like you idol, Grey Albright. Speaking of Grey, he made a big splash in the top 10 overall this week and there is a new overall leader in the Master Standings. Is it Grey? Is it a robot? The suspense is killing you, I know. Check out this and other RCL drama in the week that was, week 14:
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.
It was a fairly uneventful week in the ‘Perts League standings this week with only Smokey (-2) and Mike Maher (+2) making moves. However, that doesn’t mean there weren’t points changing hands. This week was all about Ralph. Prospector Ralph jumped up and started knocking on Grey’s back door this week, with a gain of 9.5 points. Ralph’s squad walloped 17 HRs and swiped 7 bags all while hitting .350 for the week! The impressive numbers didn’t end there as his pitcher’s put up 76 Ks in 66 IP to go along with dazzling ratios (2.59 ERA/1.08 WHIP). Ralph sits 7.5 points behind the league leader, Mr. Albright now and separated himself by 16.5 points from the 3rd place team, yours truly.
Mike Maher was actually the biggest gainer this week, picking up 10.5 points to leap over Jay and Smokey. Meanwhile, JB’s world came tumbling down. The bigger they are, the harder they fall you know? Well, JB is a part giant, so his 8 point loss this week could give a case of vertigo.
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 | Vottoman Empire | DFSers Anonymous | 103.3 | 106 | 104 | 93.5 |
| 2 | Team Albright | Razzball ‘Perty ‘Perts | 102.1 | 104 | 106 | 90.7 |
| 3 | Cram It | Sponge-worthy Anti-Dentites | 100.6 | 106 | 102 | 92.6 |
| 4 | South Side Hitmen | Von Hayes and Confused | 100.1 | 109 | 99 | 93.5 |
| 5 | Swamp Donkeys | Straight Cash Homie | 99.9 | 108 | 99 | 93.3 |
| 6 | Rakers Nation | Rio Ruiz Super League | 99 | 100.5 | 105 | 90.6 |
| 7 | Backdoor Sliders | Frequent Commenters League | 98.5 | 100 | 105 | 90.1 |
| 8 | Mount Fupa Squat Cobblers | Smokey Joe’s Chamber of Death | 98.1 | 110.5 | 98 | 89.9 |
| 9 | Pancake Riot | BigThreeSports + Razzball = Love | 98 | 106 | 101 | 88.6 |
| 10 | Team Dingerz | Daniel Murphy’s Porn Stash | 97.4 | 108 | 99 | 88.5 |
As mentioned, we have a new overall leader for the first time in a month. Congratulations to Vottoman Empire of DFSers Anonymous for snagging the All Star Break crown. Now, to hold on. I’ve been chasing Vottoman all season long and mainly been eating his dust. Well played sir.
Grey had himself a big week as well and vaulted himself into 2nd overall. This is the highest the Fantasy Master Lothario has ever been in the Master Standings. If Grey wins this thing, does he give himself a SAGNOF T-shirt? Inquiring mind want to know. Grey is pushing all the right buttons in the ‘Perts League this year.
Cram It’s squad jumps up to 3rd place overall completing a pretty sweet trio at the top. The South Side Hitmen move from 5th to 4th at the break and the Swamp Donkeys fall from 2nd to 5th.
Finally, our former leader fell all the way to 6th this week. Rakers Nation (Mad Beach Bums) will look to rebound after the break.
In 7th overall we find the Backdoor Sliders (The Big Yabu) who has now taken over first in the FCL, where still, only 5 points separates first from 3rd.
The Mount Fupa Squat Cobblers have been on a steady climb the past few weeks and find themselves in 8th overall at the unofficial halfway point.
Pancake Riot remains in 9th and Team Dingerz returns to the top 10 in 10th place this week.
It is notable that this is the first week ever that not a single robot team is in the top 10 overall. Go humans! The highest rank bot is just outside, looking in as Rudy is Snooty sits in 11th place overall. More on the bots in the trade section below.
TRADES
All the trades that have gone down in the past week. Public ridicule is not only allowed, but encouraged.
| DATE | LEAGUE | DETAILS |
| 7/9/2017 | Cougs R Us | Rookie Monsters traded Cole Hamels to Malibu Deadbeats for Chris Davis |
| 7/9/2017 | Viz Versus The Commenters | The Craptaculars traded Manny Machado to Forty Acres and a Fool for Yoenis Cespedes, Michael Conforto & Justin Bour |
| 7/8/2017 | The Humidor | Team Modelo Hot Tub traded Ryan Braun to Intentional Schlock for Alex Wood |
| 7/8/2017 | DeadPool | Revenge Of the Lawn traded Eric Thames & Kenley Jansen to Team Catfish for Anthony Rendon & Stephen Strasburg |
| 7/8/2017 | We’re All Winners | Team Pansy traded Yu Darvish, Danny Duffy, David Robertson & Santiago Casilla to Calmer Than You Are for Trevor Bauer, Ivan Nova, Chase Anderson & Jordan Montgomery |
| 7/8/2017 | We’re All Winners | Team Pansy traded George Springer, Andrew Benintendi & Adam Duvall to Calmer Than You Are for Eric Thames, Adam Jones & Byron Buxton |
| 7/8/2017 | Night of the Living Zombinos | Pittsburgh Lumber Company traded Wade Davis to Backdoor Cutters for J.D. Martinez |
| 7/8/2017 | BATTAMANIA | Coqyer Doodle traded Logan Morrison & Alex Wilson to Coach Teacher for Cameron Maybin, Mallex Smith & Kelvin Herrera |
| 7/7/2017 | We’re All Winners | Team Pansy traded Gary Sanchez, Paul Goldschmidt & Jean Segura to Calmer Than You Are for Willson Contreras, Eduardo Escobar & Ryan Zimmerman |
| 7/6/2017 | BATTAMANIA | Sun Dogs traded Jimmy Nelson to Coach Teacher for Bud Norris & David Price |
| 7/6/2017 | ECFBL | No Joy In Mudville traded Brandon Kintzler to Evil Evies for Justin Upton |
| 7/5/2017 | Cougs R Us | Team Sheridan traded Addison Russell & Wade Davis to Brown Member for Manny Machado & Ryan Madson |
| 7/5/2017 | We’re All Winners | I Dont Get Any Of These Jokes traded Eric Young Jr. to Team Corkill for Nolan Arenado |
| 7/4/2017 | Johnson’s Ornithology E.O.D. | Montgomery Biscuits traded AJ Ramos to “Don’t Panik!” for Jon Lester |
| 7/4/2017 | Cougs R Us | Brown Member traded Jake Arrieta to Rookie Monsters for Kelvin Herrera |
| 7/4/2017 | Johnson’s Ornithology E.O.D. | Gomes’ Gnomes traded Robbie Ray to Montgomery Biscuits for Elvis Andrus |
| 7/3/2017 | Chicks dig the deep Razzballing! | Ypsitucky Greennecks traded Brian Dozier & Alex Colome to Cheeky Nandos for Adam Duvall & Lance McCullers Jr. |
| 7/3/2017 | Beddict Believers | The Torch traded Lance McCullers Jr. to I’m A Believer for Josh Donaldson |
| 7/3/2017 | Cougs R Us | Malibu Deadbeats traded Charlie Blackmon to Team Sheridan for Corey Kluber |
| 7/3/2017 | Great Knocks | Texas Aardwolves traded Jimmy Nelson to The Great Knoche for Steven Souza Jr. |
After back to back weeks of a handful of trades, the floodgates were opened this past week. Saturday was an extra busy day with as many trades that day as the entire week 11. I should note though, that four of these trades, in the league “We’re All Winners” are the result of an apparent human uprising against the machine. You’ll note these trades are incredibly lopsided and I’m not sure what to do about that. Apparently, the humans in this league just got wind that they are playing a robot and are none too pleased about this situation. One team has obviously dumped all their players to the 2nd and 3rd place teams in an attempt to bolster them in an attempt to overtake the bot. Another team has straight up dropped everyone and quit. I have to say, I’m incredibly disappointed in the actions of my fellow humans here. Quitting and then basically cheating to stack a team is not cool. I don’t get that mentality and what makes one decide to throw your hands up in the air vs. try harder to take down the robot team. It’s not like there’s money involved in this league at all. I just don’t understand the attitude. I’d personally love to have a bot in one of the ultra-competitive RCLs like ECFBL or FCL and see how they would fare. The robot isn’t doing anything that any other team couldn’t accomplish themselves provided they have access to Rudy’s tools and a decent chunk of time each day. Oh well, take numbers from this league with a grain of salt moving forward I guess.
Lance McCullers was moved twice this week, Grey’s heart breaks a little.
The Montgomery Biscuits better get busy making an offering to the fantasy overlord. They trade for Jon Lester on the 4th only to have him plop a 54.00 ERA on the team 5 days later in his first start for the Biscuits. Bummer.
The struggling Manny Machado was moved twice this week as well, once for Wade Davis and once for a trio of Cespedes, Conforto and Justin Bour. Not bad, I’d still want Manny though and would be buying anywhere I could.
Also moving twice this week was Jimmy Nelson. I love the haul of Bud Norris and David Price for him. Norris seems to have that LAA closer gig on lockdown.
WEEKLY LEADERS
The best of the best from the week that was.
R – 72 – Hater Metrics (The Pete Rose Integrity Society)
HR –24 – Team Studer (It’s Time For Dodger Baseball!!)
RBIs – 68 – Johnny Utahs (ECFBL)
SB – 14 – The Great Knoche (FCL) & The Iron Horse 2 (EuroRazzball2017)
AVG – .369 – Small’s Killer (Take on the Jay 5)
K – 120 – Venezuela Alarm Clocks (High House Beddict)
W – 10 – LA Royals (Viz Versus The Commenters)
SV – 15 – David PriceTweets (We’re All Winners)
ERA (Min. 40 IP) – 1.20 – Team Dingerz (Daniel Murphy’s Porn Stash) (in 52.1 IP)
WHIP (Min. 40 IP) – 0.74 – Smoke Show (Razzball Writers League) (in 43 IP)
Not a single weekly record was broken this week, but some familiar names get a shoutout. Congrats to everyone on the great numbers.
I did find it interesting this week that the HR leader, Team Studer, only managed 48 RBIs. That seems incredibly unlikely and unlucky.
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Our weekly shout out to the team that killed it the previous week.
Team: Victoria’s Siegrist
League: The Camp Fire
Stats: H/AB: 108/324, AVG: .333, R: 57, HR: 21, RBI: 49, SB: 9
IP: 60.2, ERA: 1.93, WHIP: 1.07, K: 67, W: 5, SV: 1
Summary: Congrats to Razzball’s own, VictoriaB on the killer week and TOW honors! Vicky is also rocking one of the best team names in the RCLs this year with a play on both her own name, a player’s name and underwear. I dare you to top that trio. Vicky’s team dominated this week with every player on her team hitting over .300 except for Orlando Arcia (.231), Mark Reynolds (.261) and Whit Merrifield of all people (.231). Everyone but Orlando and Reynolds hit at least one HR as well. It was a total team effort. On the pitching side Vicky managed elite ratios and get this…she BENCHED Marcus Stroman for his 7 IP, 1 ER masterpiece vs. the Astros. Not blaming her, I benched the guy too, but imagine how much better those numbers could have been. If only there were a few more saves, it would have been a truly perfect roto week for Victoria. Still, most of us would take those numbers any week. Nice work Vicky, keep it up!
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