Five weeks are now in the books. With twenty to go, quick math tells us we are ? (actually, it’s 21.3%) of the way through our season. To those ahead in your Razzball Commenter Leagues, that might be exciting, but to those at the bottom of the barrel, that could be unwelcome news. Is it possible you’ve already accumulated ? of your final stats for the season? I don’t know…something just doesn’t sound right about that. This is the time of year when I like to take a peek at what players are killing your Razzball Commenter League teams and what players are boosting your team up the standings. I went ahead and grabbed the top 25 drafted players by RCL ADP and looked at where they rank currently on the Razzball Player Rater. Let’s take a look at which first-rounders are tanking your teams, a few trades, and all kinds of numbers for the week that was, week 5:
| Player | Preseason Player Rater $ | Preseason Player Rater Rank | 5/8 Player Rater $ |
5/8 Player Rater Rank
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shohei Ohtani | 54.5 | 1 | 45.7 | 2 |
| Ronald Acuna Jr. | 36.6 | 4 | 51.3 | 1 |
| Aaron Judge | 39.7 | 2 | 10.5 | 118 |
| Jose Ramirez | 29.7 | 11 | 14.4 | 83 |
| Trea Turner | 29.1 | 12 | 8 | 148 |
| Julio Rodriguez | 32 | 7 | 12.8 | 94 |
| Kyle Tucker | 35.9 | 5 | 20.9 | 51 |
| Juan Soto | 32.4 | 6 | 5.5 | 180 |
| Yordan Alvarez | 30.5 | 9 | 23.3 | 46 |
| Mookie Betts | 30.5 | 8 | 15.2 | 79 |
| Vladimir Guerrero Jr. | 38.1 | 3 | 28.6 | 26 |
| Bo Bichette | 29.1 | 13 | 31.8 | 13 |
| Manny Machado | 24.4 | 29 | 4.1 | 192 |
| Corbin Burnes | 28.1 | 15 | 7.3 | 160 |
| Freddie Freeman | 28.6 | 14 | 22.4 | 48 |
| Bobby Witt Jr. | 26.9 | 16 | 18.2 | 62 |
| Pete Alonso | 25.6 | 24 | 29 | 24 |
| Mike Trout | 25.7 | 22 | 26.1 | 30 |
| Austin Riley | 26.6 | 19 | 11.3 | 110 |
| Fernando Tatis Jr. | 25.9 | 21 | -2.7 | 320 |
| Rafael Devers | 25.1 | 27 | 34.6 | 7 |
| Gerrit Cole | 30.3 | 10 | 32.3 | 12 |
| Paul Goldschmidt | 22.8 | 34 | 30 | 19 |
| Marcus Semien | 21.1 | 39 | 32.5 | 10 |
| Matt Olson | 22.8 | 32 | 32.4 | 11 |
Shohei Ohtani and Ronald Acuna are the only two first rounders who are returning first round value so far and B_Don’s favorite player, Bo Bichette is close behind, basically matching his ADP so far. Kyle Tucker, Yordan Alvarez, Vladimir Guerrero, Freddie Freeman, Pete Alonso, Mike Trout, and even Bobby Witt Jr. aren’t killing you. Jose Ramirez, Julio Rodriguez, and Mookie Betts are doing their part. Judge’s injury is taking a toll on his value, but at least you can replace him while he’s hurt. Turner, Soto, Machado, and Burnes on the other hand…they have been dreadful. Rafael Devers, Gerrit Cole, Paul Goldschmidt, Marcus Semien, Matt Olson have been a second round gold mine, each returning first round value except for Goldy who just misses at 19. An Acuna/Olson start would have been pretty devastating. A Soto/Machado start and you’re probably sitting in the bottom half the standings wondering what went wrong. We once again see why Ohtani should be the number one pick in these leagues though. Acuna is going totally bonkers and is still just barely edging out Ohtani for total value. Sure, I cheated a little and just straight added Ohtani’s hitting and pitching values, so feel free to deduct whatever 6 games worth of hitting stats would work out to, call it a couple bucks, but you can replace his bat when you move him to pitcher…so call it…a dollar…maybe. Either way, Ohtani is the number one pick until further notice.
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.
Grey lost three points this week and things are getting a little more bunched up at the top. Son slipped as well, but The Great Knoche has risen, gaining 4.5 points and now sits the same amount behind Grey. Can Grey feel the heat? Cram It had the best week in the league this week, gaining 12 points and jumping from 11th to 5th. That’s an impressive swing! Crammy led the league in Runs, batting average, and Wins this week. Meanwhile, Laura Holt lost 11.5 points this week and fell two places to sixth. Don’t feel bad for Laura though…she’s currently leading both $100 RCLs and is a whopping 30.5 points ahead in Night of the Living Zombinos, one of the toughest leagues in the RCL universe. She’ll be just fine.
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.
Ryan Beck and Yatta just keep going back and forth for the overall lead in the Razzslam while Matthew Davis and Derek Rhoads chill in third and fourth and wait for these two to wear each other out. Pianowski makes and appearance in the top ten this week along with former Razzball writer, Mike Maher. Nice work, fellas! Kevin Strutz was the big gainer this week, earning 759 and moving into fifth overall. The only reason he didn’t gain more places was because he had nowhere to go. Todd Clark did though, his 727 points were good for a 93 spot gain in the standings, up to 41st overall.
TOP 10
We are still having technical difficulties with the Master Standings. Turns out, FanTrax has changed their standings pages and eliminated the old HTML versions, which leaves us struggling to pull the data for our standings. Your patience is appreciated as we work on this. In the meantime, our top scoring teams so far:
| TEAM | LEAGUE | RCL PTS |
|---|---|---|
| Merry Band of Schmohawks | COUGS R US | 108.5 |
| Laura Holt | NOTLZ | 105.5 |
| mdubs | RCL 8 | 104 |
| Wake-N-Rake | RCL 12 | 104 |
| Swing Away | RCL 3 | 101 |
| chronosaurus | RCL 31 | 101 |
| Beefstu | RCL 34 | 99 |
| Writer | RCL 8 | 99 |
| PlatanoPowers | RCL 5 | 99 |
| Rmuzz | RCL 11 | 98.5 |
It’s a coin flip as to who would have the top overall spot in the Master Standings between Schmohawks and Laura, each are simply dominating VERY tough leagues right now.
TRADES
All the trades that have gone down in the past week. Public ridicule is not only allowed, but encouraged.
| DATE | LEAGUE | DETAILS |
|---|---|---|
| 5/2/2023 | RCL 37 |
Diamond Archers traded Ty France & Tyler Stephenson to Green Monster Mashers for Brent Rooker
|
| 5/3/2023 | FCL |
Little Lebowski Urban Achievers traded Raisel Iglesias to Vin Frequent for Christian Walker
|
| 5/4/2023 | RCL 33 |
Boilermaker traded George Kirby to olaxsoxo for Carlos Correa
|
| 5/5/2023 | RCL 8 |
Don’t Panic traded Juan Soto to qball001 for Austin Riley
|
| 5/5/2023 | RCL 29 |
Tuck It In traded Dansby Swanson & Freddy Peralta to Girl Number Four for Trea Turner
|
| 5/7/2023 | RCL 9 |
wanderlust traded Alex Cobb to LatchKeyKid for Ryan Pressly
|
I have made a couple plays at trying to trade for Rooker (Volpe for Rooker was declined). I could see this deal being quite nice with all the prime catching options out there right now. Heim is on waivers in one of my RCLs and I just dropped Stephenson for him. That one dinger isn’t enough to keep me interested.
Carlos Correa is looking like the most traded player in the RCLs so far this season.
I like this buy-low on Trea Turner…he’ll get hot someday.
Give me Pressly all day in that trade.
WEEKLY LEADERS
The best of the best from the week that was.
R – 67 – Coconut Bangers Ball (Crab Army)
HR –23 – DRKSHP (Writers League)
RBIs – 63 – dwightford (RCL 27) & saltman (RCL 28)
SB – 18 – MarmosDad (DFSers Anonymous)
AVG – .335 – rloyod (RCL 37)
K – 91 – Sho me Ohtani’s (RCL 30)
W – 8 – LOF (RCL 36) & Cantaloupe Supremacy (Crab Army)
SV – 12 – Swing Away (RCL 3)
ERA (Min. 40 IP) – 1.25 – The Great Knoche (Perts League) (in 50.1 IP)
WHIP (Min. 40 IP) – 0.805 – 5d Stars (RCL 28) (in 41 IP)
ABs – 356 Vin 32 (RCL 32)
HITs – 106 – Bluefield Baby Birds (RCL 18)
We set a new Runs record this week and tied the HR and Save record. Fitting that our SAGNOF writer led the RCLs in steals…maybe you all should read his articles! Yes, every team in Crab Army is named for a fruit…what’s it to ya?
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Our weekly shout out to the team that killed it the previous week.
Team: Coconut Bangers Ball
League: Crab Army
Stats: AVG: .286, R: 67, HR: 19, RBI: 51, SB: 11
IP: 62.1, ERA: 3.47, WHIP: 1.171, K: 72, W: 2, SV: 6
Summary: This is one crazy week, with a double slam and legs+ every day of the week! That’s so many slams and so many legs! The pitching clearly got unlucky because with those numbers we should have much more than two wins. The Coconuts and I (Kiwi King) have been going back and forth atop the Crab standings, but the Coconuts pulled away with this performance. Lourdes Gurriel was the pacer on offense this week with four dingers and Eduardo Rodriguez continued his torrid start for the Coconut’s pitching staff. Well done, my friend. Remember that Acuna/Olson start I mentioned in the opening paragraph? The Coconuts started Acuna/Semien/Olson…how you like them coconuts? (I started Ohtani, Bo Bichette…Michael Harris II).
Want to be Matt’s Twitter pal? That’s kinda creepy, but you can follow him here: @MattTruss
