Greetings fellow Dirt Mountainers!

This week’s recap is being guest written by your 2021 League Champion, otherwise known as the last owner to win a championship prior to Kyle’s reign of terror atop the league.

Before I get on to the results of Week 6, I’d like to do a couple special ‘shout-outs!’

First shout-out goes to Heather and Dyann, two mothers who I hope had a wonderful Mother’s Day. Heather, of course is the owner of the PhoeGnomes, and in addition to having her own offspring, is also married to Chris, who I think might qualify as an adult child a lot of the time.

Dyann of course has shared a household with multiple Dirt Mountainers and I’m sure has been party to a LOT of tedious Dirt Mountain waiver talk/trade talk/draft talk over the years, most of it I’m sure entirely boring to someone not actually in the league. But she is there every year for us on Draft Day helping record the goings on of the day. I salute her for her dedication and support to the league.

Second shout out this week goes to Owner of the Skyline Sluggers, Charlie McBride. I think that most of us can agree that the expansion franchise that came into the league with me in 2015 has seemed mostly to be like a rudderless ship with a comatose captain behind the wheel. Charlie, since taking over the franchise,  has been an excellent steward of his team, and has built up the Skyline Sluggers into arguably the best offensive team in the league. His cumulative numbers this year on the offensive side are eye-popping! So, keep up the good work Charlie, though feel free to go a little easy on me this week

Alright, let’s get to the business of recapping this past week, shall we?

This week’s results are similar to our season long results as a whole, with the Armadillos and Wolf Spiders proving to be the cream of the crop. On the flip side of the coin, the Preston family’s struggles continue, while the Possums look to be warming up.

Armadillos (3-1-1) vs. Kraken (2-3)

Armadillos vs. Kraken is always one of my favorite league rivalries to observe. It seems like no matter what the records are going into the week, Larry and Chris always seem to have tough battles that go down to the wire.

This week was no exception. The only categories that really weren’t in play going into Sunday were ERA and WHIP, as Larry built up strong leads there due to strong starts during the week from Ranger Suarez and Tarik Skubal, two southpaws who’ve both been nothing short of dominant this season. 

Reynaldo Lopez and Zac Eflin pitched in strong starts for the ‘Dillos as well.  Chris’ top pitchers let him down this week with Cole Ragans and Logan Gilbert getting touched up for 17 ER in only 16.1 IP over 3 starts. Despite being uncompetitive in the rate stats, Chris went into Sunday with saves clinched and Larry trailing by not insignificant margins in both k’s and innings. Larry got 13 k’s and 11.2 IP out of Luis Gil and Dean Kremer, which gave him the innings category by 0.2 IP, though he did fall 1 short of Chris in strikeouts. Armadillos take the pitching categories 3-2.

With regard to hitting, Larry held a strong 5 run lead going into Sunday, with Chris having a significant advantage in OPS.  Jose Ramirez and Brent Rooker were the heavy lifters for the Armadillos posting 5 HR 13 RBI and a steal between the two of them. The Kraken got strong weekly performances from O’Neil Cruz and Kyle Tucker who had a total of 6 HR and 10 RBI with a steal.

SB and HR were both tied going into Sunday, with Larry holding a narrow 4 RBI lead. Both teams hit 2 HR and didn’t steal a base Sunday, so those categories remained deadlocked. Chris needed to swing RBI to his column to earn a tie, and despite getting within shouting distance of Larry early in the day, the Kraken weren’t able to make up the margin as the ‘Dillos took RBI to win the hitting categories 2-1-2 and the week 5-3-2. The Armadillos right the ship after a tough loss last week and the Kraken lose their 4^th week in a row.

Wolf Spiders (4-0-1) vs. PhoeGnomes (1-4)

Kyle went into Week 6 as the lone undefeated team and Heather came into the week trying to build some momentum after a sluggish start to the season.

The pitching categories in this matchup were extremely tight this week. Kyle’s bullpen, led by Kirby Yates and Clay Holmes, gave him a two save lead going into Sunday. Strong starts from Zach Gallen, Yu Darvish, Seth Lugo, and Jon Gray gave the Wolf Spiders a significant advantage in ERA heading to the weekend. Despite the strong ERA showing, Kyle found himself clinging to a tight lead in WHIP and chasing Heather in Innings and K’s as the week entered the latter stages.

Heather got strong starts from Yusei Kikuchi, Framber Valdez, Tanner Houck, and Chris Sale. Those 4 combined to average 7 innings a start while notching 21 K’s. Jhoan Duran returned from the IL and gave Heather 4 scoreless IP while notching the team’s only save for the week.  

Luis Castillo and Kyle Harrison gave the Wolf Spiders 11 IP and 13 K on Sunday, but fell short of the PhoeGnomes by 1/3 of an inning and 1 K for the week. The Wolf Spiders did however hold on to their margins in the rate stats and saves, giving them a 3-2 lead on the pitching side.

On the hitting side, it was a case of too little too late for the PhoeGnomes.  Kyle’s Wolf Spiders built up strong margins during the week in R, HR, RBI, and OPS. Teoscar Hernandez, who’s proven to be one of the best picks of Kyle’s draft, posted 4 runs, 3 HR, 8 RBI and a .986 OPS. Corey Seager also chipped in a pair of homers and 5 RBI while 3 other players knocked in at least 5 runs to give the Wolf Spiders a league high 46 RBI for the week.

Heather’s squad posted strong Sunday numbers with 6 runs, 3 HR, 6 RBI, 2 steals and a .940 OPS, but her early week struggles doomed her on the power side, as the first 6 days of the week she tallied only 17 runs, 6 HR, and 21 RBI with a sub .650 OPS.  Her 3 homers Sunday earned her a tie, but the only other offensive category she took was SB behind Bobby Witt Jr’s 4 thefts. Kyle takes the hitting categories 3-1-1 and the week by a margin of 6-3-1

Skyline Sluggers (3-2) vs. Possums (1-4)

The Skyline Sluggers and Possums had an interesting matchup in Week 6. When all was said and done, Rick’s squad leaned on an old vet to grab a needed victory despite being thoroughly dominated on the offensive side for the week.

The Skyline Sluggers absolutely crushed in the power and run scoring department. They scored an AMAZING 47 runs for the week, which is a league high for ANY team this season. Next highest total was 42 runs scored by the Armadillos earlier this year. Six different players had an OPS over 1.000 for Charlie.

Marcus Semien and William Contreras each had 8 runs scored while finishing with OPS’s for the week of 1.181 and 1.076 respectively. Semien also had 2 HR’s and 7 RBI to match Slugger teammate Rhys Hoskins who also tallied two dingers and seven knocked in. 

All told, Charlie’s group finished with 10 HR 39 RBI and a .907 OPS. All were league highs for the week, save RBI, where the Sluggers were 2^nd overall.

The Possums never got it going on the power side, though Josh Naylor did contribute 3 HR for the week. Despite being uncompetitive in the power department, they had a trio of players steal 2 bases, which gave them a victory in SB on the hitting side.

In what seems to be a common theme for the league as a whole this week, the pitching side of things came down to Sunday’s action. Rick’s Possums could not afford to lose a single pitching category if they wanted to win the week.

Andrew Heaney lead the Sluggers rotation with two strong starts contributing to 11 IP and 13 K. Yoshi Yamamoto contributing with a solid 8 IP outing and Charlie Morton went 7 strong. The Sluggers bullpen let Charlie down however, with Ryan Helsley getting an essentially meaningless save on Sunday after the Possums had already clinched the category.

The Possums stayed tight with the Sluggers on the rate stats and in innings during the week, with Tyler Glasnow, Max Fried, Jared Jones, and Joe Ryan all throwing at least 6 innings and allowing fewer than 2 runs. Those strong starts helped offset disappointing ones from veterans Justin Verlander and Sonny Gray.  Despite those uneven performances Rick had clinched a victories in K’s and saves going into Sunday’s action. The Possums had one arrow left to shoot if they wanted to take the week.

It was a bullseye. The apparently ageless Justin Verlander fired 7 scoreless innings while giving up only 2 H and 2 BB. His performance clinched the remaining three pitching categories for the Possums (including a very narrow ERA victory of 3.64 to 3.68) giving them a sweep on that side and a 6-4 victory for the week. Rick denies Charlie his first ever 3 week winning streak while winning his second matchup in a row.

Goofballs (2-1-2) vs. Hares (2-3)

The last matchup of the week featured my Goofballs against Jeff’s Hares.

The Goofballs got off to a blistering offensive start in this matchup, posting 14 runs scored, 7 HR and 19 RBI on Monday and Tuesday. Bryce Harper had 2 HR and 7 RBI over those two days.

Jeff’s team spent the rest of the week chipping away on offense, and by the time Sunday rolled around, he’d made HR’s and Runs competitive while building a big lead in SB thanks to 6 from Elly De La Cruz.  Former Goofball  Ryan Jeffers spent the week taking out his anger on his former team, hitting 3 HR and knocking in 7, while Marcell Ozuna also had 2 round trippers and 7 RBI.  

The Hares used two late homers from Connor Joe and Jake Cronenworth to earn a tie for the week in HR. They came up one short of the Goofballs on runs however, and weren’t able to make enough gains in RBI or OPS to seriously challenge the Goofballs in those categories. Goofballs take the hitting side 3-1-1

Both teams got off to strong starts on the pitching side. The Goofballs got 15 IP and 3 ER over two Monday starts from Jack Flaherty and Mitch Keller, while the Hares’ Zack Wheeler threw 7 shutout innings striking out 11 on that same day.

The Hares also got a few strong performances from Bryce Miller, Dylan Cease, and Pablo Lopez who combined for 31 K over 19.1 IP. This gave the Hares a relatively insurmountable lead in the K category.

In the battle of the bullpens, the Goofballs got the better of it notching 3 saves while the Hares only had one.

The Goofballs needed to flip one category between IP and the rate stats on Sunday if they wanted to win the week. They were done a huge solid by the Marlins. 

The aforementioned Zack Wheeler was knocked around by Miami to the tune of 6 ER over 4 IP while giving up 6 hits and walking 3. This gave the Goofballs the opening they needed to flip ERA and IP to take the pitching categories 3-2 and the week 6-3-1. The Hares drop to 2-4 overall while the Goofballs improve to 3-1-2.

Week 7 Preview

Every team is matched up with their standings neighbor this week! 

1^st place Wolf Spiders vs. 2^nd place Armadillos

3^rd place Goofballs vs. 4^th place Skyline Sluggers

5^th place Kraken vs. 6^th place Possums

7^th place Hares vs. 8^th place PhoeGnomes

I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m at least happy to know for sure that Kyle and Larry can’t both win this week!! 

Good luck to everyone!!