RCL Update: The Week That Was, Week 6, 2023

Before we take a dive into our weekly Razzball Commenter Leagues numbers and standings (we are still working through issues with FanTrax to get Master Standings updated), I want to take a little aside.  I want to chat about K/9 and its importance in the long game of the season.  Since we’re all capped at 1,400 IP, the strikeout category basically turns into a race for the highest K/9.  Once your innings are up, you are stuck with the number of strikeouts you have.  This makes those high K/9 relievers such as Alexis Diaz, Felix Bautista, and Bryan Abreu (who should be rostered in every RCL, even without the save opportunities) very valuable pieces.  Something I like to do is sort players by K/9.  You can do this by hitting “Extra” on the player page when viewing pitchers.  Then just sort by K/9 and make sure you’re looking for players with a substantial amount of IP.  If only Matt Brash could not give up an earned run every other outing, that K/9 (17.00) would be delightful.  If you find yourself without a save vulture target for the day and your offense is full, consider grabbing a high K/9 reliever to help boost those stats.  It only takes a few 7 IP, 2 K performances to put you behind the pace.  It’s important to monitor and keep a balance.  Typically we track K/9 in the Master Standings, but until that’s up and ready, VinWins has been collecting data and you can check out the “Season” tab HERE for K/9 tracking goodness.  There, you can see that among teams with at least 40 IP/week we have Butters with a very impressive 12.0 K/9.  Butters is tearing it up with 275 IP, he’s not just squeaking in there.  Bringing up the rear is Ctownrebel of RCL 26  with a 7.62 K/9 in 278.2 IP.  Ideally, you’ll be looking at a K/9 north of 10.  You can see that’s about where our supposed top team (Merry Band of Schmohawks) is sitting at 10.02, which should keep him afloat as everyone catches up in IP.  Laura’s teams are also right around the mark with RCL 18 at 10.39 K/9 and NOTLZ at 9.99 K/9…that’s a lot of nines!  There’s still time for you to correct if needed, so fear not!  It’s also going to be important to monitor your innings usage.  You can click “MIN/MAX” on your team page to see your innings used and your pace.  I like to keep my pace pretty close to right on the money, but your mileage may vary.  Just don’t leave innings on the table if you can help it.  Let’s take a look at the rest of the week that was, week 6 in the RCLs:

‘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 held on to the top spot for another week, but the team he’s holding on against has once again switched.  The Great Knoche had a not-so-great week, dropping 8.5 points, the most in the league, and fell to fourth.  Meanwhile, Coolwhip had a great week with a league-leading 5.5 points gained to move from fourth to second.  He’s just two points behind Grey if he can keep the hot streak going.  Coolwhip led the league in batting average, IP, and Wins.  Son is biding his time as well, just a half point behind Coolwhip after leading the league in Saves, ERA, and WHIP.  It’s tight at the top!

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.

Beck, Yatta, and Matthew Davis maintain their top three standing this week.  Things are starting to even out up there.  I’m just excited to have Christopher Morel up and hitting the cover off the ball.  My team is finally out of the bottom ten thanks to him!  Michael Waldo had the most points scored this week with 714 and Bob Cyphers made the biggest standings gain, moving up 81 places thanks to his 696 points scored.

TOP TEAMS

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:

Congrats to all our top tens so far!

TRADES

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

It was a very busy week of trades with 12 total, four by Vin and one by me, your RCL hosts were getting in on the action this week!  Vin and I both were involved in a trade involving Esteury Ruiz for a closer.  I wish Liam Hendriks the best in his return, I have him stashed several places but I’m in DFL in steals in RCL 36…something needed to be done.  Acuna got shipped out for an absolute HAUL…phew…I almost think I want the Mookie side of that deal.  Lindor was traded twice this week, once for Zac Gallen and once for MHII.  I would trade my MHII shares for Lindor about now.  I only have Gunnar in one league and I’m flush with CIs…but I’m not sure I’m ready to ship him for Duran just yet, gimme Henderson there.

WEEKLY LEADERS

The best of the best from the week that was.

R – 54 – Benchbat (RCL 32)

HR –20 – Benchbat (RCL 32)

RBIs – 62 – Vin 25 (RCL 25)

SB – 18 – Benchbat (RCL 32)

AVG – .336 – Benchbat (RCL 32)

K – 89 – Young Guns II (RCL 18) & BIG_ROD (RCL 1)

W – 10 – Cheddar Goblins (RCL 36)

SV –  10 – 5d Stars (RCL 28)

ERA (Min. 40 IP) – 0.86 – mmdan112 (RCL 28) (in 42 IP)

WHIP (Min. 40 IP) – 0.677 – KailuaBoy (RCL 16) (in 72.1 IP)

ABs – 335 – Finkelstein Ballers (RCL 4)

Hits – 98 – Benchbat (RCL 32)

I can’t recall a more dominant hitting week in my time as RCL host.  Benchbat nearly ran the table, he was one RBI shy of tying Vin and going full sweep of the offensive categories.  Normally, there’s a good power week but the average is in the tank…Benchbat went near 20/20 in HR/SB for the week and led the RCLs in batting average.  This is beyond impressive.  RCL 28 was well-represented in the pitching department and KailuaBoy dominated WHIP in a huge amount of IP.  Cheddar Goblins tied the Win mark, the only record for the week.  Well done to our leaders.

Vin had a few more fun tidbits from the weekly data to share:

9 teams hit over .300, down from 27 last week; 11 teams were under .200.

48 teams had an ERA under 2.00; 25 teams had a 5+ ERA (152 last week!)

6 teams had 0 Wins; 81 teams had 0 Saves.

3 teams stole 0 bases. 93 had 10+. The average was 7.

TEAM OF THE WEEK

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

Team: Benchbat

League: RCL 32

Stats:   AVG: .336, R: 54, HR: 20, RBI: 61, SB: 18

IP: 48, ERA: 3.56, WHIP: 1.313, K: 45, W: 3, SV: 0

Summary: Alright, normally I don’t love giving a one-sided team TOW, but when that one side is so dominant, I feel like I don’t have a choice.  The more well-rounded team this week was At My Witts End!! (RCL 22)  They had a decent offensive week but the pitching was grand, with 80+ IP and a 2.09 ERA, and sub-1 WHIP.  Still, the sheer dominance on the offensive side by Benchbat is enough to tip the scales for me.  It’s not like the pitching is bad, I would have liked to see a save, but hey, you nearly have 20 slams and legs in a week, you get the nod.  Nolan Arenado (3 HRs/1 SB/.409) broke out, Christian Yelich (3 HR/3 SB/.400) went ham and Whit Merrifield chipped in 5 steals to lead the team on the impressive run.  Benchbat gained 19.5 points this week and moved from ninth to second in RCL 32.  It’s never too late, hope you held Arenado and/or bought low.  Nice work, Benchbat!

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