Fear not fellow humans! From the ashes of battle where man matches wits against machine, flesh and bone heros have arisen! These brave few march onward and upward, pencils sharpened, calculators at the ready and social lives put on hold. They fight this battle not just for themselves, but for all human fantasy baseballers everywhere.
The human race has moved into a dead heat atop the Razzball Commenter Leagues Master Standings with the robot army’s very own, Rudy is Snooty. Despite the fact that Rudy is Snooty has made a whopping 1040 moves to date (no doubt at least 10 more by the time you read this), frequent commenter and fellow RazzNasty & Rio Ruiz Super League leaguemate, Mad Beach Bums (Rakers Nation) has pulled into a Master Standings tie with a mere 74 total moves. There is hope that a human brain’s ability to add and hold players such as Corey Dickerson is on par with any robot playing the match-ups everyday. I have had the distinct displeasure of trying to chase down Mad Beach Bums in the Rio Ruiz Super League. This league was set-up by a man, no stranger to battle himself, the El Presidente of the Crab Army, Prospector Ralph. Mad Beach Bums drafted exactly ONE starting pitcher in this league, Dylan Bundy. With that he has now accumulated 58 Games Started, leads the league in ERA and is second in WHIP. Maybe the Bums are actually part machine themselves. Do we have a double agent in our midst? If the Bums do flip we have a trio of human soldiers waiting to do battle with the machines, lurking in the overall top 20. More on them and the other goings ons in the RCLs in the week that was, Week 7:
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 an overall pretty boring week in the ‘Perts League. There was yet another bit of Sunday trade drama that we’ll get into next week, but Grey already alluded to it in his Monday recap. Outside of that, the only change in the standings was JB and Cram it swapping positions. JB moved into 5th place and Cram It fell to 6th. Everyone else held serve with Ralph gaining the most points this week (5.5) and Mike Maher losing the most (-5.5).
Grey can’t move any higher in the league standings, but with another nice week (28th in the TOW standings after a 10th last week and 3rd the week before) he can, and did, move up in the Master Standings. More on that below.
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 | Rudy is Snooty | Take On M@ 3 Standings | 103.8 | 108 | 103 | 95.2 |
| 2 | Rakers Nation | Rio Ruiz Super League Standings | 103.8 | 109.5 | 103 | 92.7 |
| 3 | Grey is Bae | Sons of Beddict Standings | 101.3 | 106.5 | 101 | 95.3 |
| 4 | Pancake Riot | BigThreeSports + Razzball = Love Standings | 99.1 | 105.5 | 101 | 90.4 |
| 5 | Returning Champ | The Giant and the Jew Standings | 98.7 | 104 | 102 | 90 |
| 6 | Swamp Donkeys | Straight Cash Homie Standings | 98.5 | 108 | 99 | 91 |
| 7 | Team Albright | Razzball ‘Perty ‘Perts Standings | 96.3 | 100 | 104 | 87 |
| 8 | Cram It | Sponge-worthy Anti-Dentites Standings | 96 | 104 | 101 | 86.9 |
| 9 | Grey is Fey | Take on Jay Standings | 95.9 | 104 | 100 | 88.1 |
| 10 | South Side Hitmen | Von Hayes and Confused Standings | 94 | 101 | 101 | 86.1 |
As stated above, we have a tie atop the standings this week. Mad Beach Bums is the filling in a robo-sandwich with Grey is Bae right on his heels. Pancake Riot and Returning Champ each fall a spot to make room for Beach Bums above them.
Swamp Donkeys make their top 10 debut, up from 14th last week to 6th this week.
The real talk of the top 10 though is our two RCL warriors, Grey Albright and Cram It making moves into the top 10 overall. The human race turn their lonely eyes to you gentlemen. Grey sat in 16th overall last week and Cram It in 11th, now they are lurking in 7th and 8th with yet another robot, Grey is Fae, sneaking up behind them in 9th. There are robots all around you men, be strong. I may be mistaken, but I believe this is the highest our FML has ever been in the overall standings. Grey finished 8th overall in 2015, so it’s possible he was higher at one point or another. Regardless, this is a pretty good run for the Lothario.
The South Side Hitmen round out the top 10 this week as they jump up from 17th last week.
Your faithful RCL updater finished the week in 13th overall, stalking yet another robot, Rudy is Booty who finished out the week in 12th place.
TRADES
All the trades that have gone down in the past week. Public ridicule is not only allowed, but encouraged.
| DATE | LEAGUE | DETAILS |
| 5/21/2017 | South Side Titans | B Bums traded Carlos Gonzalez to Team Lion for Seung-Hwan Oh |
| 5/21/2017 | DFSers Anonymous | The People’s Champ (Teddy Heater) traded Matt Bush to Vottoman Empire for Joc Pederson & Alex Colome |
| 5/20/2017 | Viz Versus The Commenters | The Craptaculars traded Chris Devenski, Hou RP to LA Royals for Logan Morrison & Darren O’Day |
| 5/20/2017 | DFSers Anonymous | Cleveland Spiders traded Jose Ramirez to MattTruss223 for Dallas Keuchel & Cam Bedrosian |
| 5/18/2017 | Viz Versus The Commenters | LA Royals traded Nolan Arenado & Jeff Samardzija to Dice K Matsastugatz for Clayton Kershaw & Adrian Gonzalez |
| 5/17/2017 | Razzball Writers League | The Grand Dudapest Hotel (Lance) traded Keon Broxton to M@ for Carlos Gonzalez |
| 5/16/2017 | Show Me The malamoney | Yuma Papagiorgio’s traded Ervin Santana to Raiders Stay Rowdy for Mark Trumbo |
| 5/16/2017 | Take on the Jay 2 | Poison Control traded Eduardo Nunez to Sansabelt Slacks for Alex Bregman |
| 5/15/2017 | Frequent Commenters League | Rube Waddell’s Shiny Objects traded James Paxton to The Great Knoche for Aroldis Chapman |
| 5/15/2017 | My Nightly Fantasy | All Is Number traded Andrew Benintendi to Key West Tinker for Stephen Strasburg & Ian Kinsler |
There were 10 trades this week and Carlos Gonzalez was moved in two of those. Two more trades were accepted on Sunday that involved CarGo, but won’t process in time for this update. Still, being moved 4 times this week might give CarGo a complex. Good on Lance for spinning Keon Broxton, who he picked up on waivers May 4th into CarGo. I like that deal a lot.
Yuma Papagiorgio’s got a heck of a steal swapping a pitcher who should be on waivers in most competitive RCLs for Mark Trumbo, who could easily go for another 30 bombs this year. If you’re trading your Trumbos, I’ll gladly take them!
I have now, for better or worse, rid myself of all my Dallas Keuchel shares in the RCLs. This time around I swapped him (22nd round pick) and Cam Bedrosian for Jose Ramirez in a spot where I’m hurting for batting average and battling the manager right behind me for steals. I hate owning more than 3 starters in an RCL and this trade got me down to 4.
I also swapped James Paxton for Aroldis Chapman this week. I was busy. That trade seemed like decent value to me, especially in an RCL where saves and K/9 can play a pivotal role in the final standings. We’ll see how smart that looks in another month I guess.
WEEKLY LEADERS
The best of the best from the week that was.
R – 65 – A Man Named Brady (Gasoline Suits)
HR –26 – Hot Rats with Lumpy Gravy (Sponge-worthy Anti-Dentites)
RBIs – 70 – Tupac Lives (The Giant and the Jew)
SB – 13 – The Hippos (ECFBL)
AVG – .360 – Montlake Outlaws (Prospector Ralph’s Cavern)
K – 140 – Calgary Cannons (My Nightly Fantasy)
W – 12 – Calgary Cannons (My Nightly Fantasy)
SV – 11 – We need global warming (Take on the Jay)
ERA (Min. 40 IP) – 0.81 – J and G (Take On M@ 3) (in 44.2 IP)
WHIP (Min. 40 IP) – 0.67 – J and G (Take On M@ 3)
The weekly records are meant to be broken and RCLers really outdid themselves this week. The Hot Rats took over the weekly HR records and the Montlake Outlaws tied the .360 mark for the weekly average record.
Calgary Cannons is doing Calgary Cannons things, leading the RCLs in Ks and Wins while breaking his own weekly record. Calgary Cannons held the wins record last year with 13 in one week. The Cannons already have a week with 12 this year, which will be tough to top.
J and G (Juice and Gin?) had quite the pitching week, going sub 1 in both ERA and WHIP in 44.2 IP. That sets a new weekly record in both categories.
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Our weekly shout out to the team that killed it the previous week.
Team: Neon Keon
League: Sons of Beddict Standings
Stats: H/AB: 61/281, AVG: .217, R: 47, HR: 21, RBI: 54, SB: 2
IP: 91.1, ERA: 2.86, WHIP: 1.18, K: 92, W: 9, SV: 6
Summary: Neon Keon had an offensive week that would make Adam Dunn proud. 61 Hits and 21 of them went over the fence. That’s a pretty crazy ratio. The real story was in the pitching department for Neon Keon. A very nice 9 K/9 over 91.1 IP with an insane 2.86 ERA and 1.18 WHIP. Go ahead and give a try to post that many IP and get those kinds of ratios. Add on 9 Wins and you’ve got yourself one heck of a week. Streams of Samardzija, Tyler Anderson and Joe Musgrove helped add onto regular starts from Yu Darvish and Johnny Cueto. Neon even posted these fine numbers while owning Danny Salazar! Nice work Neon, way to overcome.
Want to be Matt’s Twitter pal? That’s kinda creepy, but you can follow him here: @MattTruss
