Unlike the bad idea to make the movie that inspired the lede today, this weeks update is chock full of useful stuff for you. No, not you Magoo, you already know all the bonus content, but I know you are chomping at the bit to talk about bad 80’s movies. Seriously, even if you have no chance to appear on any of these lists, there is good stuff for RCL strategy, or really any game starts and/or “daily moves no limit on games played” leagues. Damn, that’s a mouthful… and finger full? That’s what I said! I don’t want to hear all the blah blah blah about your tough home league or H2H mumbo jumbo. This is RCL snitches! Before I get to the content, I have to humor my colleague the Big Magoo. He has a thing for bad 80’s horror flicks like a have a thing for bad 80’s b-movie comedies and all their gratuitous boob shots and short shorts. Saturday the 14th combines all those elements in the worst possible way. Silver lining moment of the flick was the appearance of Jeffrey Tambor. It was so bad they decided to make a sequel years later that was worse than the original. If these movies wanted to get it right, they would of gone the Transylvania 6-5000 route. Anythehoo, enough of all that, on to the update…
CATEGORY LEADERS, WEEK 13
* ERA and WHIP are based off 40 innings pitched minimum
For the third time this season the HR leader and the RBI leader are one in the same. What a great week from one of the OG RCL leagues playas’. Hey look! A five way tie in saves. Is it me or does it feel like we have a massive tie every week in one category or another? Does any one even really care besides the names that get on the list? Kidding, I know everyone who misses out is green with envy. Everything else is pretty standard for the update until we get to the bottom of the list. Brawlin’ and Carnac have recorded the best ERA and WHIP on the year. I know, pretty exciting stuff, balloons are dropping and baby’s are smiling everywhere. Speaking of babies, congratulations to old school Razzballero Royce! on the birth of his second child.
The RCL Top-10, Week 14
This is the best around!… For the season… so far. Do you want to be Daniel Larusso? Then you got to beat all the Cobra Kai’s and win the All Valleys RCL Championship. Word around the office is that the grand prize is Sky jumping out of a cake in your living room and doing a strip tease to the the tune of Moment of Truth by Survivor. The table below contains the rank, team name, league name, RCL points, League Index and League Points.
| 1 | Unpainted Arizona | HA! | 116.33 | 103 | 110.5 |
| 2 | Wake Up | FCL | 111.65 | 108 | 94.5 |
| 3 | Backdoor Sliders | Razzball Champion’s League | 111.00 | 106 | 98 |
| 4 | RA the Rugged D ickeys | King Ralph’s Emporium | 109.93 | 102 | 107.5 |
| 5 | Big Magoo | Take on Magoo | 107.73 | 101 | 108.5 |
| 6 | Astros to Mouth | Spiders and Snakes | 107.41 | 100 | 109 |
| 7 | Soler Powered | Two Out Rally | 107.33 | 102 | 102.5 |
| 8 | drunc orks | Euro Razzball | 104.83 | 99 | 109 |
| 9 | I’ve got Wood. … Phrasing! | Take on Jay #1 | 104.46 | 102 | 98 |
| 10 | Wood Street Wonders | Blues Odyssey | 104.18 | 102 | 102 |
Razzball Commenter Leagues 2015 MASTER STANDINGS
Well, would you look at that. Wake has finally jumped up to second place sliding past backdoor by the slimmest of margins (0.65 pts). RA the Dick holds tight again to the 4th spot while our bear/bull master the Big Magoo jumps up to 5th. Astros to Mouth jumps two spots to 6th while Soler Powered falls two spots to 7th. The drunc from Euro Razzball holds steady in the top ten for another week while I’ve got Wood makes a return to the top and newcomer Wood Street Warriors rounds out the top 10. Great job everyone, keep up the good work.
RCL Strategy Stats
K/9
Last week I popped in K/9 when I did category leaders…so far. I thought it would be a good idea (I also got a little nudge from Grey) to go in depth about K/9 and AB’s. I’ll talk about AB’s below with the other table. K/9 is how we create an apples-to-apples relationship between the teams in the RCL. I like to take it a step further and try to stay up on my K/GS ratio as I never want to fall below 8. Obviously the more starts we make the lower that ratio gets, but staying as close to 8 as possible is important. I achieve this by only keeping 2-3 high quality starting pitchers on my team, have a shizz ton of bullpen arms (closer + high K/9 MR’s), stream high K/9 middle relievers whenever I can, and stream starting pitchers heavily after June 1st when we have lots of data to make our calls. You can also employ the services of the Stream-o-Nator who from what I hear will be doing our taxes next year too. When you are playing in the RCL’s, the game starts average should be roughly 30 a month, you can stay low early but better ramp it up after the break. For the list below I did filter a few teams out to keep it relevant. Teams on the list needed to have at least 600 K’s and have at least 70 league points. We have one team from the top ten (Soler Powered) one of the all time great RCL players Mauled by Pandas (Odin’s Virulent Man Beard) and myself ( You Got SKUNKED).
| Team | League | Lg Pts | K’s | GS | K/9` | K/GS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suck It | DriHeat | 89.5 | 797 | 72 | 10.6 | 11.069 |
| Soler Powered | Two Out Rally | 102.5 | 803 | 84 | 10.3 | 9.559 |
| Evil Evies | They Call Me Au Shizz | 70.0 | 631 | 59 | 10.1 | 10.694 |
| Yo Mama So Uggla | Pretty Hate Machine | 90.0 | 744 | 87 | 10.0 | 8.55 |
| You Got SKUNKED | JFOH Hearts Tristan | 88.5 | 606 | 49 | 10.0 | 12.367 |
| Richmond Braves | Take on Jay #3 | 72.0 | 771 | 95 | 10.0 | 8.115 |
| Slump Busters | Saskatchewan | 96.5 | 781 | 87 | 9.9 | 8.977 |
| Odin’s Virulent Man Beard | Razzball Champion’s League | 80.5 | 717 | 69 | 9.9 | 10.391 |
| Melvin’s Kids | Skunk Beard | 83.5 | 827 | 103 | 9.9 | 8.029 |
AB’s
The batty call is the key to any successful run at a league title. Unless you play standard yahoo, which sucks, that does a limited game starts per position…BLAH! I went to Rudy on this one and I wanted to quote him, even though he said I didn’t need to: My research has shown that maximizing AB’s is the #1 most effective way to improve your fantasy team’s hitting success that is completely in your control in daily roster change leagues. Comparing team ABs gives some indication which managers are grinding the most. The link I posted is one of the most important reads for RCL players. We always have the hitter-tron at your disposal but there are other ways of making the calls. I hit up Magoo and Sky on a group text to collaborate on this subject. Here is a run down of things to consider when making a batty call: exploitable splits, manager lineup tendencies, ballpark factors, pitchers to stack and attack, speedsters going up against starters who struggle to control the running game (Lester, Burnett, Ross), and of course hot schmotatoness. To be honest, if you are paying attention to Grey every day there are many batty call hints to jump on. If you notice, on the list below, are players from 6 of the highest indexed RCL’s.
| 1 | Backdoor Sliders | Night of the Living Zombinos | 4229 |
| 2 | Kid A | FCL | 4187 |
| 3 | Backdoor Sliders | Razzball Champion’s League | 4181 |
| 4 | Mully Gann Jr. | RCL FIPping the Bird | 4180 |
| 5 | Big Magoo | ECFBL | 4177 |
| 6 | Johnny Utahs | Razzball Champion’s League | 4175 |
| 7 | Crimson Fratellis | Take on Jay #5 | 4172 |
| 8 | NY NLF | JFOH Hearts Tristan | 4165 |
| 8 | The Knudsens | Cougs R Us | 4165 |
| 10 | Razzball Sky | RCL ‘Perts | 4156 |
Top Offensive Performances of the Week
| Team | League | H | AB | Ave | R | HR | RBI | SB |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Schmohawks | Original Recipe 2015 | 97 | 327 | .297 | 53 | 22 | 72 | 7 |
| Simply Fred | The Game of Throws | 107 | 329 | .325 | 51 | 17 | 62 | 7 |
| Truth Hurts | Hunter’s Hitters | 106 | 347 | .306 | 60 | 15 | 48 | 12 |
| PT Bruisers | Hodgepadres ‘R’ Us | 107 | 335 | .319 | 55 | 15 | 51 | 10 |
| Bama Bruisers | Dan Carlin’s Hardcore Fistery | 106 | 304 | .349 | 48 | 13 | 48 | 10 |
| Miami Minotaurs | Freebird | 103 | 305 | .338 | 56 | 16 | 47 | 6 |
| Chooing on Billys Beane | The Lords of Sarcasm | 95 | 314 | .303 | 48 | 20 | 51 | 9 |
| Lubbock Lobster Ghosts | Pretty Hate Machine | 98 | 298 | .329 | 47 | 13 | 54 | 9 |
| Lawrenceville Lookouts | DriHeat | 90 | 285 | .316 | 49 | 16 | 52 | 8 |
| Fevered Vorhees X | Euro Razzball | 105 | 301 | .349 | 46 | 9 | 53 | 10 |
| I. Bulldogs | Jay’s Family and Friends | 82 | 279 | .294 | 44 | 20 | 47 | 10 |
| Indiana Candy Stripes | CharlieHustlers | 92 | 306 | .301 | 53 | 18 | 54 | 5 |
| Fevered Vorhees II | Hoodie Dreams | 94 | 310 | .303 | 42 | 16 | 54 | 10 |
| Team MacDonald | RCL FIPping the Bird | 95 | 301 | .316 | 45 | 13 | 58 | 8 |
| I’ve got Wood. … Phrasing! | Take on Jay #1 | 92 | 330 | .279 | 57 | 20 | 51 | 5 |
| Fevered Vorhees V | Smokey’s Den | 99 | 309 | .320 | 46 | 11 | 44 | 13 |
| Fevered Vorhees VI | Eff fWAR | 88 | 320 | .275 | 46 | 16 | 62 | 9 |
| Rookie Monsters | Beddict’s Brood of Bros | 99 | 304 | .326 | 53 | 11 | 47 | 8 |
| kumamoto expungers | The Captains of Outer Space | 103 | 344 | .299 | 51 | 13 | 47 | 11 |
| Team walker | Johhny’s Bench | 98 | 314 | .312 | 49 | 10 | 48 | 12 |
Top Pitching Performances of the Week
| Team | League | IP | ER | ERA | K | BB | HA | W | WHIP | Saves |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vancouver Rockies | Vancouver | 93 | 11 | 1.06 | 60 | 26 | 55 | 8 | 0.87 | 10 |
| Vin and Pam Revue | Spiders and Snakes | 89 | 10 | 1.01 | 66 | 20 | 53 | 8 | 0.82 | 4 |
| Vancouver Rains | The Underground | 81.2 | 9 | 0.99 | 49 | 19 | 48 | 8 | 0.82 | 4 |
| Steve Garvey Is My Daddy | Jay’s Family and Friends | 68.2 | 8 | 1.05 | 53 | 8 | 35 | 7 | 0.63 | 8 |
| Al Ghul’s Sandman Flute | Dan Carlin’s Hardcore Fistery | 70.2 | 6 | 0.76 | 58 | 15 | 46 | 8 | 0.86 | 1 |
| Uncle Red | Razzball DC | 86 | 13 | 1.36 | 72 | 20 | 67 | 9 | 1.01 | 4 |
| Team Lyon | Original Recipe 2015 | 66.2 | 6 | 0.81 | 57 | 16 | 49 | 6 | 0.98 | 7 |
| You Best Not Miss | SchmidtHeads | 72 | 10 | 1.25 | 57 | 15 | 43 | 8 | 0.81 | 6 |
| Melvin’s Foot | Take on Jay #5 | 61.2 | 7 | 1.02 | 57 | 10 | 29 | 5 | 0.63 | 8 |
| Seattle Rocks | CharlieHustlers | 74 | 12 | 1.46 | 46 | 20 | 43 | 6 | 0.85 | 12 |
| AK FortySevens | Night of the Living Zombinos | 75 | 11 | 1.32 | 61 | 19 | 43 | 6 | 0.83 | 5 |
| Buge Hoobs | Beddict’s butth*le pleasures | 84.1 | 15 | 1.60 | 70 | 11 | 54 | 7 | 0.77 | 3 |
| Team Riner | Hodgepadres ‘R’ Us | 66.1 | 7 | 0.95 | 66 | 11 | 36 | 4 | 0.71 | 1 |
| illinois cardinals | DriHeat | 68.2 | 7 | 0.92 | 62 | 15 | 45 | 5 | 0.87 | 0 |
| The Chosen One | The Filthy Spawn of Beddict | 65.2 | 7 | 0.96 | 52 | 11 | 47 | 5 | 0.88 | 5 |
| Vin Regal | Saskatchewan | 81.2 | 15 | 1.65 | 60 | 16 | 52 | 7 | 0.83 | 7 |
| Victoria Rocks | Take on Jay #2 | 95 | 18 | 1.71 | 60 | 22 | 68 | 7 | 0.95 | 4 |
| Wood Street Wonders | Blues Odyssey | 84 | 16 | 1.71 | 66 | 10 | 60 | 9 | 0.83 | 4 |
| Full Baked | WET TAIL!! | 71.1 | 10 | 1.26 | 76 | 17 | 42 | 7 | 0.83 | 1 |
| It’s A Shartnado!! | Upton my grill | 69.1 | 10 | 1.30 | 56 | 15 | 47 | 7 | 0.89 | 7 |
Great stuff, JFOH! Nice strategy stuff… Very important for all daily leagues, not just RCL
@Grey: Yes it is…unless you pkay stupid yahoo format which I prefaced in the opener. And here I thought you came in to talk up really bad movies
Frank Grimes turned me on to a podcast which only talks about bad movies, How Did That Get Made, pretty hilarious…
@Grey: that’s a good one. Been listening to it for a couple of years now. Has the two guys from the league hosting it. Sorry I didn’t tell you about it before. The one about the movie Toys is great
Ah, nice!
Hey look at me, I made the top pitching performances of the week. Best K/9 on the board! I’m going to print this out and put it on my fridge…
Oh yeah, and good read JFOH.
@Cram It: which one are you? The k/9 is for the season
@J-FOH: Full Baked. Not the season K/9. I had the best strikeout rate of the top performers of the week.
@Cram It: ah gotcha, good to see you do the math
Thanks Mr. J-Foh,
Really helpful strategy for the 2nd half…I’m at about 80 starts and have some decent MR’s…am not sure what happens when the other players hit 180 starts…What usually happens? Big sell off? Pitching dump? It sounds like an RCL apocalypse movie waiting for a script.
Should I add to my three pitchers? Or should I pick up more MR’s? Oooo the drama!
@Joe Shmoe: add MR’s and drop them for streams. its going to be a very roster churning process.
Pretty spot on JFOH. I’d say the one place I diverge is I never “streamed” middle relievers. In the very beginning of the season I would add/drop almost daily as I waited for the pecking order to shake out. By about mid-May I’d usually have a stable of 8 and I’d only add/drop for non-performance, or looking for guys who might get the upgrade to closer. I think with relievers their usage is unpredictable enough the that you have a low hit rate for usage and because you’re fishing in the deeper end of the pool you increase your risk of a whipping. So I lean more to the buy and hold side there.
@GhostTownSteve: good point, I stream MR less later unless I have a hole ( no streamer for the next day or two) and the MR hasnt been used in a few days. Thanks for adding to the conversation
@J-FOH:
Another thing to mention, I used to check my streaming effectiveness in RCL all the time. If you go into the “active stats” tab for your team on the ESPN site you get a list of every player you’ve used in a season. You can actually copy and paste directly from that page into a spreadsheet and run the numbers. If you sort from most games to fewest you can create a line between who your “streamers” are and who your regulars are to get a feel for how well you’re streaming. Another good thing to do is to go to the weekly totals periodically and check your ABs. Looks like 300 ABs per week is the minimum bench mark for success. If your falling below you’re not grinding it hard enough.
@GhostTownSteve:
you’re
@GhostTownSteve: I do that with the pitching, but never looked at the AB’s in that way. Good stuff, you are the master…of your domain
@J-FOH:
Gaming the RCL was essentially the birth of my fantasy number crunching hobby. Forever grateful.
@GhostTownSteve: those classes you mentioned sound pretty cool, what does it cost?
@J-FOH:
The price is right, Bob. Freezies. Designed and led by and MIT prof, who doubles as the SABR instructor for Tufts experimental university. Has mentored a bunch of people who now work for big league clubs.
@GhostTownSteve:
And they set up the SQL sandbox for you so you don’t have to license any software either.
@GhostTownSteve: I streamed middle relievers quite a bit last year. My two RCL teams still blew. I think I did not have enough quality hitting or starting pitching.
I have to smile reading your strategy. I am new to roto play, having been exclusively in suckass head-to-head leagues for years. I would usually be the only guy moving in MRs and streaming everything like crazy, and winning. Every year I would have multiple complaints against my streaming style, how my churning was ruining the game. Churn seems to be a dirty word in head-to-head play.
I love to churn. I love roto. I love Grey, J-Foh, and GhostTownSteve. That is all.
@Great White North:
Thanks GWN. Solid.
@Great White North: thats awesome, I used to be accused of churning and how it wasnt fair.
Playing H2H is the worse
@J-FOH: Nevermore
Great write up on fantasy strategy with total at bats being important. Would you agree that in OPS leagues, total plate appearances would carry the same importance? As far as bad 80’s movies, I offer the classically bad Silent Night, Deadly Night. A movie that is made for the holiday season with killer Santa Claus.
@Buffalo Soldier: good call on the flick, on the strategy i couldnt give you much insight because I dont play those type of leagues. I would assume its the same
SLC Punk
@Great White North: i actually thought that movie wasnt that bad, it reminded me of some of my friends. besides it was way past the 80’s. Now Surf Nazis must die would qualify
I LOVED Saturday the 14th when i was a kid! What a great movie…..until I watched it a few years ago and was like, what the hell is this crap? I don’t know what happened. Another great 80’s movie was House. I’m pretty sure, like they did with most 80’s horror movies, they made at least one sequal too.
I saw the mention of checking your streaming stats in the RCLs up above, and it’s been a while so I figured I’d go have a look. Isn’t this supposed to be the year of the starterpocalypse?
48 GS / 307 IP / 19 W / 241 Ks / 3.14 ERA / 1.09 WHIP
Those ERA/WHIP numbers would each be good enough for 2nd in my RCL!
@A Hill O’ Beans: Ha-ha, just saw Sky mentioned House right above me. Great minds think alike!
@A Hill O’ Beans: there were 3 House films
@Wallpaper Paterson: I thought there might have been. Iremember that I actually saw the first two when I was younger, then when I looked them up I was surprised there was a third. The first is a classic, but they just got stupider as they went along though.
@A Hill O’ Beans: I totally loved Saturday the 14th too as a kid but know now it was hot garbage. Those are great numbers
Dude, your Piers recommendation has been money! Thanks!
@Scott: f**k he’s been
Basically playing in RCLs is DFS without the cash and with relief pitchers. To someone new to this the acquisition numbers of some top teams are a bit staggering. It’s definitely more about the daily effort than how well you drafted.
@Observer: true and a little misleading. I would certainly like to go back and not draft Cishek, Rendon etc.
But yeah, I am not a fan of free agency. I think all leagues should have bi-weekly pickups either FAAB or just by waiver order.
You just gotta work the format though either way!