RCL Update: The Week That Was, Week 5, 2025

I hope everyone is finding their way through the injury minefield this week.  Around every corner, there seems to be a sore shoulder, forearm, neck, or oblique waiting to lay waste to your best-laid fantasy baseball plans.  The Razzball Commenter Leagues are both the easiest and one of the hardest leagues to recover from an injured player.  The easiest, because the waiver wire is filled with promising players and streaming options.  Batty calls and speed dials abound!  It’s the hardest because with three bench spots and three IL spots, you end up having to make some decisions on who to keep and who to cut.  I have one RCL team with four IL’d players, and I keep staring at Tyler O’Neill and wondering if it’s worth the dead roster spot for ten days.  I’m also stashing Roman Anthony in a couple leagues, but that somehow feels different.  Untapped potential, I suppose.  Here’s to speedy recoveries of Strider’s hammy and Tovar’s hip.  

I’m hopeful that next week will bring our first RCL standings update!  I will be nowhere near the top of that list, but a few of you definitely will be.  For this week, we have Perts League updates, weekly leaders, and more for the week that was, week 5.

‘PERTY ‘PERTS

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 takes the lead!  Grey is in his revenge era after losing to Son last season and having to refer to him as Dad for an entire season.  Grey had the second most points this week (9.5), leading the league in Runs (53) and batting average (.288).  The Lineup builder made the biggest gains this week, though, picking up 11 points and moving up three spots to eighth.  Going the other way was Blair, who dropped 11.5 points and fell three spots to last place.

RAZZSLAM STANDINGS UPDATE

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 spots held this week, but friend of the show, VottomanEmpire took over the third spot this week.  Vottoman had 669 points and moved up 12 places to take the bronze medal position.  Michael Cannizzo took over seventh place this week thanks to a RazzSlam best, 728 points scored.  Michael moved up 37 spots to bust into the top ten.  Razzball’s own, Will Harris, made the biggest standings jump this week, moving up 102 places thanks to 666 points.  Nice work!

TRADES

All the trades that have gone down in the past week.  Public ridicule is not only allowed, but encouraged.

After last week’s trade extravaganza, I thought things would chill a little, but we have another eight swaps this week with Heliot Ramos moving twice.  I’m still wishing I had a Tyler Soderstrom share to trade, Butler and Gausman is a steal.  I’m usually a fan of getting the better player in a deal, but this is a very fair deal for J-Ram, I think.  I might be blinded by my PCA goggles and Miller’s negative FIP, but I like it for both sides.

WEEKLY LEADERS

The best of the best from the week that was.

R – 62 – HoosierBoss (RCL 9)

HR –20 – HoosierBoss (RCL 9)

RBIs – 57 – Smooth (RCL 11)

SB – 21 – tberkman (RCL 18)

AVG – .329 – If It Makes You Happy (Caught Looking)

K – 91 – Licketty Splits (RCL 25)

W – 9 – DiamondDesperado (RCL 32) & cpierce77 (RCL 31)

SV –  13 – Texas Leaguer (RCL 25)

ERA (Min. 40 IP) – 0.90 – Fresh Happ Pale Ale (RCL 1) (in 50 IP)

WHIP (Min. 40 IP) – 0.755 – esdrhgberhj (RCL 26) (in 49 IP)

Tberkman set a new SB record this week with an amazing 21 swipes!  Last year our weekly best was 25, so still some room to improve.  Texas Leaguer took over the top spot in Saves this week, and two teams tied the Wins record, bringing us to a five-way tie.  Someone get ten wins, please.

Some more stats from the week from VinWins:

35 had an ERA below 2.00. 

5 teams were above 6.00.

13 teams hit under .200  (4 last week)

28 teams hit over .300.  (14 last week)

TEAM OF THE WEEK

Our weekly shout out to the team that killed it the previous week.

Team: cpierce77

League: RCL 31

Stats:   AVG: .246, R: 38, HR: 12, RBI: 49, SB: 9

IP: 81.1, ERA: 2.32, WHIP: 1.180, K: 84, W: 9, SV: 3

Summary:  Sometimes the best hitting teams have awful pitching, and sometimes the best pitching teams have mediocre hitting.  I say “mediocre” knowing full well that I’d take a 12 HR/9 SB week every week, but that’s just to say the hitting numbers aren’t jumping off the page this week, but those ratios in 81.1 IP sure are pretty.  Cpierce77 added five points to reach 85 total and moved into first place in a very tight RCL 31. Only six points currently separate the top five.  My man-crush, Pete Crow-Armstrong paced the offense, hitting .421 with two home runs, nine runs batted in, and four steals. Triston Casas, Rafael Devers, and Corbin Carroll each added two homers, while Noelvi Marte had a home run, two steals, and hit .389.  As mentioned, pitching was the driving force behind this great week, with seven starting pitchers earning wins: Nick Lodolo, Carlos Rodon, Logan Webb, Jesus Luzardo, Ryan Pepiot, Walker Buehler, and Michael Lorenzen. Rodon, Webb, and Luzardo combined for 19 and a third scoreless innings. Lodolo added 13 strikeouts in his two starts. Jose Alvarado and Kirby Yates also recorded victories, while Carlos Estevez contributed two saves.  Quite a week!

Want to be my internet pal?  That’s kinda creepy, but you can follow me on the bluest of skies: @matttruss.bsky.social