As the air starts to turn a bit cooler, the calendar flips to September and a large group of fantasy baseballers turn their attention to fantasy football. There are only five weeks left in the fantasy baseball season but what an important five weeks they are. As the rest of your league checks out to go play the fantasy sport that requires only one day per week of roster setting (or as I like to refer to it, chess vs. checkers) the true competitors remain to grind it out for Razzball Commenter League glory. Right now only 1 RCL Point separates the top teams in the Master Standings, so we should be in for a heck of a finish. This week, we’ll take a look at the year long RCL records and what teams have a shot at setting new ones. Does your team have a shot at the RCL record books? Find out this and more in the week that was, week 21:
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.
Instead of just Grey and me swapping spots this week, Cram It and Donkey Teeth decided to jump in the fun as well. Grey took back first place thanks to a four point jump and now has a four point lead of myself and Cram It, who are locked up at 81 points apiece. Cram led the league in every category but HRs, Wins, Saves and strikeouts this week and gained 5.5 points. Donkey Teeth is hot on our heels with 79.5 points. With five weeks to go, this is a four team race to the finish. Should be fun!
Hot Rod was the biggest points earner this week, adding another 6.5 points this week, bringing his two week total to 13 points gained and he’s finally out of the basement! Kerry hasn’t checked in since about early May, so it’s good Hot Rod was finally able to pass him. Next up is Tehol, who has been absent since late May. Go get ‘em Hot Rod!
The biggest points dropper this week was Ralp, who lost four points. B_Don and I were right there though, each losing 3.5 points.
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 | Fat Fuckin’ Babies | RCL 2019 (#57) | 118.9 | 118 | 103 | 114.2 |
| 2 | Backdoor Splitters | ECFBL | 117.9 | 113 | 107 | 111 |
| 3 | UpNorth | RCL 2019 (#65) | 113.4 | 109 | 105 | 109.1 |
| 4 | Prague Defenestrators | RCL 2019 (#15) | 110.3 | 108 | 103 | 107.8 |
| 5 | The Great Knoche | RCL 2019 (#5) | 107.8 | 105.5 | 104 | 104.2 |
| 6 | Squat Cobblers 2 | RCL 2019 (#14) | 107.7 | 109 | 100 | 105.9 |
| 7 | kumamoto expungers | RCL 2019 (#45) | 107 | 103.5 | 106 | 101.8 |
| 8 | Team mcafeeeee | RCL 2019 (#17) | 105.8 | 107 | 100 | 104.1 |
| 9 | Acuna Moncada | RCL 2019 (#46) | 105.4 | 103 | 103 | 103.1 |
| 10 | MattTruss223 | DFSers Anonymous | 104.9 | 96 | 108 | 102.7 |
FFB gained yet another league point and now sits just two points from a perfect score. Incredible. There was some talk in the comments last week about this didn’t take any talent since FFB replaces players in his lineup daily, yada^3. Listen, that’s the format. You get 500 moves…use them. I outline this all pretty well at the beginning of the season. It does take talent, just because it isn’t your talent, doesn’t mean it doesn’t take any. All the top teams in this format utilize this strategy and you’re only hurting yourself if you don’t. /endrant
Backdoor Splitters continues their onslaught of the ECFBL, hitting 113 points. That high LCI is really paying off as they are only 1 RCL point behind FFB.
UpNorth jumps into third this week, up from fifth and Prague Defenestrators remains in fourth.
After a few weeks just outside the top ten, The Great Knoche returns in fifth place while Squat Cobblers 2 falls from third to sixth this week.
The kumamoto expungers fall one spot to seventh this week and Team mcafeeeee holds onto eighth.
Acuna Moncada moves up one spot to ninth and I hold onto the top ten by the skin of my teeth.
WEEKLY LEADERS
The best of the best from the week that was.
R – 67 – UpNorth (RCL 2019 (#65))
HR –23 – 4 Teams Tied
RBIs – 65 – BEZOBRAZIE 1 (Cougs R Us)
SB – 16 – Honey Bunches of Sadness (RCL 2019 (#66))
AVG – .354 – Brunswick Bulldogs (RCL 2019 (#51))
K – 101 – Clown Prince (RCL 2019 (#43))
W – 11 – Fightin Phillies (RCL 2019 (#51)) & Army of Lovers (RCL 2019 (#40))
SV – 11 – Team Adams (RCL 2019 (#54)) & Honey Bunches of Sadness (RCL 2019 (#66))
ERA (Min. 40 IP) – 0.96 – Jay (RCL 2019 (#25)) (in 47 IP)
WHIP (Min. 40 IP) – 0.619 – LA ConXion (RCL 2019 (#28)) (in 51.2 IP)
Honey Bunches of Sadness broke their own weekly steals record of 15 this week, just one upping it in case you were thinking of taking it from them. Props to Honey Bunches for getting on the board twice this week. They are truly SAGNOF connoisseurs.
I’ve been pleading for someone to break the six way tie for the weekly wins record and two teams went out and did it this week with 11 wins. So, now we have a two team tie.
YEARLY LEADERS
The best of the best from the year that has been.
Here is a list of the Yearly RCL Records, so we all know who we’re chasing:
| CATEGORY | STATS | TEAM | LEAGUE | YEAR |
| RUNS | 1283 | Backdoor Sliders 1 | FCL | 2016 |
| HOME RUNS | 414 | New York Dahls | Keepin It Real | 2017 |
| RBI | 1239 | The Sneetches | Razzers Not Brazzers | 2017 |
| STEALS | 270 | MaxPlanck 1 | RCL European Division | 2014 |
| AVERAGE | 0.297 | Team Thompson | Razzball Roto League | 2012 |
| STRIKEOUTS | 1801 | Rudy is Booty | Baba Booey | 2016 |
| WINS | 122 | Samuel Colt Debate Team | DFSers Anonymous | 2016 |
| SAVES | 258 | Rudy is Booty | We’re All Winners | 2017 |
| ERA | 2.57 | John Boccabellas | The Downward Spiral | 2015 |
| WHIP | 1.001 | Anabolic Agents | Dr. Bosch’s Anti-Agers | 2015 |
And here are how each category currently stands for 2019 along with the pace:
| CATEGORY | STATS | TEAM | LEAGUE | PACE |
| RUNS | 1172 | Fat Fuckin’ Babies | RCL 2019 (#57) | 1451 |
| HOME RUNS | 359 | Backdoor Splitters | ECFBL | 444 |
| RBI | 1067 | Cram It | PERTS LEAGUE | 1321 |
| STEALS | 168 | Casterly Rock Fighting Imps (edg5) | RCL 2019 (#42) | 208 |
| AVERAGE | 0.291 | Team Jbmwlgraphs46 | RCL 2019 (#20) | 0.291 |
| STRIKEOUTS | 1543 | Boondock Saints | RCL 2019 (#7) | 1769 |
| WINS | 108 | Rocket City Trash Pandas | RCL 2019 (#54) | 108 |
| SAVES | 145 | Team Stop Short | RCL 2019 (#20) | 180 |
| ERA (MIN 840 IP) | 3.02 | Brookhaven Modern Blue | RCL 2019 (#18) | 3.02 |
| WHIP (MIN 840 IP) | 1.058 | Bad as Can | RCL 2019 (#13) | 1.058 |
In the year of the juiced ball, 2019 I fully expected to see some offensive numbers fall. I didn’t expect to see the “pace” numbers quite this high though. We’re not only on pace to beat the old records, we’re looking to demolish them, move limit be damned!
The steals record is safe at least, thank goodness and with strikeouts up, I think our days of seeing a .297+ batting average season are behind us.
Speaking of strikeouts…if we can topple the mark set back in the year of the RCL-Bot 9000, with a 1400 IP limit in place, I will be incredibly impressed. I’m shocked the “pace” number is that high to be honest.
Along with batting average, we’re nowhere near the ERA and WHIP marks of season’s past. We’ll have to raise the mound to get back to those numbers.
There you have it, chase those records RCLers!
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Our weekly shout out to the team that killed it the previous week.
Team: In a Ditch
League: RCL 2019 (#64)
Stats: AVG: .280, R: 49, HR: 22, RBI: 56, SB: 5
IP: 78.1, ERA: 2.64, WHIP: 0.996, K: 90, W: 5, SV: 5
Summary: The teams of the week have really been on point the last few weeks. I did my best with the scoring to try and make sure the best, well-rounded teams hit the top of the charts each week but sometimes a team gets by with just a high innings total or some other anomaly that skews the numbers. Not recently though. In a Ditch is another prime example of a team right near the top in all the hitting categories this week along with ratios to die for and no category left out. Five wins, five saves, five steals, it does my OCD heart proud. Jonathan Villar and Bo Bichette were studs on offense while Lucas Giolito, Jack Flaherty and Steven Matz led the pitching staff. Nice work Ditch!
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