Week 4 has come and gone and we didn’t have a top 25 player get suspended for PED use, hurrah! Also, the fantasy prospects deities of choice graced us with Cody Bellinger! If you play in any RCLs that Ralph doesn’t, I hope you were able to scoop the kid. If Ralph is in your league, my condolences. The man loves him some rookie nookie. I realized last Tuesday that Ralph and I are in way too many leagues together as I arrived 5 minutes late to the free agent adding party. Three out of eight leagues isn’t too bad though and those that stuck with Bellinger got treated to a double dong Saturday. Just like that Cody Bellinger has done more for my fantasy teams than Joc Pederson. Take your time coming off the DL Joc, Cody’s got this. At 92% ownership in RCLs, I don’t think I’m the only one echoing those sentiments to keep Belinger in the lineup. The rookie call-up is pretty funny in redrafts, you never know when the next Mike Trout will be called up to help win you your league. Lewis Brinson? Austin Meadows? Yoan Moncada? You just never know. Well, maybe Ralph knows. Let’s check in on Ralph’s team(s) and the rest of the week that was week 4 in the RCLs:
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.
Speaking of our faithful prospector, Ralph takes over the top spot in the ‘Perts League this week thanks to a 14 point outburst that moved him from 7th to 1st. Not too shabby. Call it Bellinger magic perhaps. The 14 points and six spot jump in the standings were both the highest marks of the week. Ralph led the ‘Perts League in batting average and strikeouts, was tied for first in saves and wins and was second, only to Mr. Albright (16), in HRs this week with 15. Nice work Ralph.
Cram It also made another big gain this week. After finishing week 1 tied D.F.L. with 43 total points, Cram It has gained 39.5 points and now sits in 2nd place. There’s a reason he’s a near 2 time overall champ folks, watch and learn.
On the negative side of the league it was Smokey and Jay bringing up the rear this week. Smokey lost 14.5 points and fell from 8th to 11th. Jay lost 13 points and fell from 6th to 10th.
For those interested in the battle of Grey vs. Rudy. Rudy holds only a slim 1.5 point lead over Grey as the pair sits in 6th and 7th place to finish out the week.
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 | Pancake Riot | BigThreeSports + Razzball = Love Standings | 101.7 | 106.5 | 102 | 94.1 |
| 2 | Grey is Bae | Sons of Beddict Standings | 99.6 | 106 | 101 | 91.8 |
| 3 | Rudy is Snooty | Take On M@ 3 Standings | 99.3 | 104.5 | 102 | 91 |
| 4 | South Side Hitmen | Von Hayes and Confused Standings | 97.3 | 104.5 | 100 | 90.5 |
| 5 | Rakers Nation | Rio Ruiz Super League Standings | 96.6 | 98 | 103 | 90.5 |
| 6 | Returning Champ | The Giant and the Jew Standings | 96 | 101.5 | 102 | 87 |
| 7 | Team Craig | Take on the Jay Standings | 95.9 | 104 | 99 | 89.1 |
| 8 | Sauceman Sluggers | Smokey Joe’s Chamber of Death Standings | 94.8 | 103.5 | 99 | 87.3 |
| 9 | Rudy is Booty | We’re All Winners Standings | 93.5 | 98.5 | 101 | 87.2 |
| 10 | Team Sullivan | Beddict Believers Standings | 92.9 | 100 | 101 | 83.6 |
The Pancake Riots remain atop the Master Standings for another week. The Flapjack Furors are holding off a trio of Sullivan robots in addition to six other worthy competitors including frequent commenter and fellow Razznasty manager, Mad Beach Bums. The Riots added 2 points to their league total from last week but their lead in the Master Points is down to about 2 points.
The real story here, however, is the trio of bots storming the top 10. Grey is Bae, Rudy is Snooty and Rudy is Booty are all owned by the same manager. His fourth team, Grey is Fae, currently sits in 12th overall. Last year there was only one robot team, Rudy is Booty. The results were so good last year that apparently Mr. Sullivan is back in force this year. If his robot army keeps up at this pace us human RCLers won’t stand a chance. These teams fascinate me. They leverage the Hitter-Tron and Stream-O-Nator to make automated daily roster moves while holding onto a set base of players including a shizz ton of closers. I’ve said it before, but I’m insanely jealous of the programming ability that allows this automated team management to happen. This is basically the same strategy that, myself, and other top RCLers use to maximize ABs and stream to supplement holding only 2-3 starting pitchers all year only fully automated. Very cool but, things happen with technology, like glitches that cause an entire fleet of closers to be dropped in one afternoon. Still, I’m very curious to watch these teams throughout the year.
TRADES
All the trades that have gone down in the past week. Public ridicule is not only allowed, but encouraged.
| DATE | LEAGUE | DETAILS |
| 4/30/2017 | Master Batters | Operation Shutdown traded Yasmany Tomas & Ervin Santana to Gold Dust Twins for Jonathan Villar & Danny Salazar |
| 4/27/2017 | It’s Time For Dodger Baseball!! | Still T.R.E.A. traded Jackie Bradley Jr. to Team Studer for Lorenzo Cain |
| 4/26/2017 | South Side Titans | Enter Xandman traded Starling Marte, Joey Gallo & Aaron Altherr to Team Paynter for Mark Trumbo & Matt Holliday |
| 4/26/2017 | Take on Jay | Maximus Decimus Meridius traded Greg Holland & Chris Archer to Lasershow 2.0 forTodd Frazier & Jose Quintana |
| 4/25/2017 | Razzmonsters | Team Langland traded Dylan Bundy to PNW Ballistics for Wade Davis |
| 4/25/2017 | It’s Time For Dodger Baseball!! | The Dude traded Lorenzo Cain to Team Studer for Aaron Judge |
| 4/25/2017 | Straight Cash Homie | Mega Powers traded Edwin Encarnacion to Like a hotdog down a hallway for Adrian Gonzalez & Johnny Cueto |
| 4/24/2017 | Tater Time | Fonzi Scheme traded John Lackey to Liberal Snowflake for Jose Bautista |
Considering I saw Jose Bautista dropped in two leagues this week, I’m impressed anyone was actually able to trade him for something. What a rough start for Joey Bats. did he really get old that quick?
Dylan Bundy has been great, but trading him for Wade Davis seems like highway robbery.
Speaking of being able to get something for someone, look at Xandman ditching Starling Marte! Nice work.
WEEKLY LEADERS
The best of the best from the week that was.
R – 70 – The Hippos (ECFBL)
HR –24 – Hollywood Knights (My Nightly Fantasy)
RBIs – 74 – Team malamoney (Von Hayes and Confused)
SB – 17 – naples Cardinals (Great Knocks) & Globo Gym Purple Cobras (That’ll Do Puig)
AVG – .359 – The Cheap Seats (Insert League Name Here)
K – 117 – Calgary Cannons (My Nightly Fantasy )
W – 9 – Bishop Hill Webstros (Mustaches and Muttonchops )
SV – 12 – Rudy Is Booty (We’re All Winners ), Rudy Is Snooty (Take On M@ 3 ) & Backdoor Sliders (FCL)
ERA (Min. 40 IP) – 1.09 – Hotcorner Al (High Desert Baseball ) (in 57.2 IP)
WHIP (Min. 40 IP) – 0.77 – Every Day is Friday the 13th (Gasoline Suits) (in 41.1 IP)
My Nightly Fantasy puts two teams on the leaderboard this week. Nice work to the league started by Razzball’s own, Big Pappy Chicago. Calgary Cannons are up to their old tricks again, leading the world in Ks. Hey, I know those Hippos!
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Our weekly shout out to the team that killed it the previous week.
Team: Grey is Bae
League: Sons of Beddict
Stats: H/AB: 108/333, AVG: .324, R: 60, HR: 16, RBI: 55, SB: 10
IP: 76.2, ERA: 2.58, WHIP: 1.03, K: 81, W: 7, SV: 11
Summary: The robot had himself a week and shot from 28th overall last week to second overall this week. Grey is Bae added 13.5 league points thanks to the stellar week of offense and pitching. Keep in mind there are exactly zero starting pitchers owned by Grey is Bae. The bot streamed 9 starters this week and still maintained those incredible ratios. Mind=Blown.
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