Leaders Upset; PhoeGnomes, Thunderwolves Dominate

CP Legion (7-2-2) vs.  RK Possums (5-5-1)

The Possums were able to continue their turnaround against the Legion.  Chris P. entered the week with a chance to move into first place with a win.  Unfortunately, Rick had other ideas, and relied on his offense to once again carry the week.  Leading the Possums was Charlie Blackmon.  He had five home runs, nine RBI, and a SLG of 0.909 over 33 at-bats for the week.  Justin Upton and Khris Davis added a pair of home runs for the week.  Rick led the league with 12 total home runs.  Blackmon, Upton, and Davis’s power also translated to a 0.504 SLG for the Possums.  This was more than enough to top the Legion, who had down weeks in most offensive categories.  Only two Legion players with more than ten at-bats for the week had SLG over 0.500.  The Legion were also not stealing bases, and Rick completed the five-category sweep.

Chris was much better on pitching.  Drew Pomeranz had an excellent start, and Trevor Bauer added nine phenomenal innings of his own.  Chris had the second-best ERA and WHIP in the league.  However, the Legion failed to produce enough saves to overcome strong weeks from the Possums’ AJ Ramos and Zach Britton.  The Possums took saves, and also had a higher strikeout total over a few more innings pitched.  The Possums finished the week with a solid 7-3 victory.  Rick is now back above 0.500 for the season and only two games out of first place.  The Legion likely consider the week a missed opportunity, but the superb pitching is a good sign for future weeks.

JK Lannisters (8-2-1) vs.  LK Armadillos (7-3-1)

The week’s most important match saw the Armadillos take on the Lannsiters.  Neither team produced phenomenal stats, but Larry did enough to win and take over first place via tie-breaker.  Eight different Armadillos’ players hit home runs and set the offensive tone for the week.  Leading the way was Marcell Ozuna with three, and Ian Desmond with two.  Role players like J.R. Realmuto added steals, giving the Armadillos a balanced attack for the week.  Desmond was particularly strong, and had an OBP over 0.500.  The Lannisters had good weeks from Mike Trout and Derek Norris, but few other players contributed.  Bryce Harper added a pair of steals, giving Jeff just one category out of four.

Neither team had solid pitching.  The Armadillos endured atrocious games from Drew Smyly, Steven Matz, and Kenta Maeda.  The Lannisters fared badly as well.  John Lackey embarrassed himself in two starts, though Jacob deGrom did well against the lowly Braves.  The Lannisters took ERA and WHIP, but the Armadillos’ surplus of starters gave them easy wins in strikeouts, wins, and saves.  Ultimately, the Armadillos claimed victory, but both teams face injury problems and issues on the pitching side.  For now the Armadillos are in first place and have a two game tie breaker advantage on the Lannisters.  However, neither team can feel much confidence with the Legion, PhoeGnomes, and Possums putting up much better numbers.

HP PhoeGnomes (7-4) vs.  CM Happy Hollidays (2-9)

The week’s best performing team was the PhoeGnomes.  Heather combined good offense with elite pitching, and earned an 8-0-2 victory.  Chris Sale, Madison Bumgarner, and Steven Wright led the way.  The trio threw 43 innings, allowed just 10 earned runs, and totaled two wins.  Heather had the best ERA and WHIP in the league by a wide margin.  She also amassed 82 strikeouts over 77 innings pitched, also tops in the league.  The Hollidays were able to tie in wins and saves.  This was more impressive considering Sean Doolittle and Brad Ziegler picked up two of those wins and had three saves between them.  Unfortunately for Chris M., the pair’s efforts weren’t enough to swing any full categories. 

On offense, the Hollidays weren’t able to mount a comeback.  The team posted decent power numbers but couldn’t record a steal.  They also struggled to produce RBI’s and had the second lowest OBP in the league behind the Legion.  Heather countered with a great week from Jose Altuve, who hit three home runs.  Odubel Herrera contributed a pair of steals, and Chris Davis added nine RBI and two homers.  This was more than enough to secure all five categories, and give Heather a comfortable win.  She is not within a half game of the league lead.  The upsets to the Legion and Lannisters bolstered her position in the standings, but she will need to continue to put together good performances to climb higher.

KK Thunderwolves (1-9-1) vs.  KG Capital City Goofballs (4-7)

The week’s final match paired the Goofballs with the Thunderwolves.  Both teams had impressive offenses, but Kevin was ultimately undone by a disastrous performance on the mound.  On offense, the two teams combined for 21 home runs, the most in the league.  Kevin had one more than Kyle thanks to great weeks from Trevor Story, Mark Reynolds, and Todd Frazier.  Each of these three hit two home runs each.  However, Kyle was able to counter with lots of RBI’s from Gregory Polanco and Prince Fielder.  The Thunderwolves also had more steals.  This gave Kyle two categories to Kevin’s three.

Although the Goofballs had a good offensive base, these results were nullified thanks to dreadful starts from Nathan Karns, David Price, Jeff Samardzjia, and Jake Odorizzi.  Incredibly, these players had an aggregate ERA of 11.07.  Johnny Cueto brought down the team ERA despite giving up seven earned runs in 12.2 innings pitched.  The Goofballs finished with the worst ERA and WHIP in the league by a wide margin.  Kyle easily won the two rate categories and added victories in strikeouts, wins, and saves.  Kevin started many players but didn’t accumulate enough innings to be competitive in the counting stats.  Kyle earned a win, while once again the Goofballs are left wondering what they need to do to compete.

Next Week

Week 13 is the halfway point of the season.  The best match of the week features the PhoeGnomes and Armadillos.  Larry can hold on to first place with a win.  Heather could possibly take over first with a win and help.  The Legion and Lannisters look to rebound against lower-ranked teams.  The Legion face the Goofballs and the Lannisters meet the Thunderwolves.  Finally, Rick hopes to continue his winning ways against the Hollidays.