Welcome folks to the Pitcher List staff leagues! This year Pitcher List added a huge amount of new staff members which allowed us to expand from three to a whopping six leagues! As a reminder, these leagues are standard 5×5 and are set up relegation style, which means if you finish in the top three, you move up; if you finish bottom three, you move down.
Legacy League
Best performance: How Manny More Times (Nick Pollack)
The prodigal son returns, as Nick climbed out of relegation territory with a big win over the newly christened Super Rosario Bro. (Jon Metzelaar dropped Amed Rosario so now he just has Eddie. Seriously, Jon changed his name to reflect the change and it’s just hilarious.)
Nick’s offense absolutely exploded with a .323 AVG accompanied by 10 R, 7 HR, and 13 RBI from Nelson Cruz. Cruz almost outslugged the entirety of Jon’s offense. He also ran away with the steals category (Ran away with it? Get it?) thanks to five from Jonathan Villar, who also hit .303 with 9 R, 2 HRs, and 5 RBI. His pitching staff really struggled (ironic, right?) but the rest was good enough to control the matchup. In Week 17, Nick puts his skills to the test against Pitcher List’s resident bullpen expert, Rick Graham, who sits in first place.
Closest Matchup: Bogaey On Your Tail (Alex Fast) vs. Miggy Stardust (Jason Dunbar)
ALEX WON! His second win in 16 weeks! Fast edged Jason in Runs (43 to 40), HRs (16 to 14), Wins (3 to 2), and WHIP (1.22 to 1.37). HRs in particular went back and forth as both teams hit 4 HRs on Sunday and combined for a whopping 22 runs between them. Alex will follow up his win against a team reeling from back-to-back losses: Who’s Your Vladdy? Oh wait … that’s me. Awesome. Jason also gets a lighter matchup against 11th-place Max Posner in Week 17.
Jon Metzelaar Transaction Watch: HE MADE TEN MORE MOVES! IN ONE WEEK!
– Dave Cherman
Prodigy League
Best Performance: Hurling Archer vs. Adam’s Okay Team (10-0)
We had another clean 10-0 sweep in the Prodigy league this week, just the second of the season. While Adam’s team missing the 30 IP threshold was a factor, Stephen’s squad still would have picked up a 9-0-1 victory regardless, as the two teams tied in saves but Stephen crushed it in every other category. Strong weeks from Xander Bogaerts and Didi Gregorius at the plate and Jose Berrios, Madison Bumgarner and Stephen Strasburg on the bump made it an easy win for Stephen, who now sits in fourth place.
Closest Matchup: Andrew Gould vs. Astudillo Ghibli (5-5)
There were three 5-4-1 matchups this week and one straight up 5-5 tie, so it was quite a battle the week. Andrew and Ben earned the closest title with their tie, which featured really close categories including home runs (15-14) steals (3-1) wins (4-3) and saves (4-2). A trio of Twins in Jorge Polanco, Max Kepler and Michael Pineda kept Andrew in the thick of things, while Ben’s team was led by J.T. Realmuto and Anthony Rendon.
Workin’ the Wire: Trey Mancini, Astudillo Ghibli
Sticking with the same teams, Ben was only able to force a tie last week thanks to Mancini. Picked up on July 20, he blasted three home runs with six RBI and five runs, helping Ben earn the tie. Considering his other 1B-eligible players include Carlos Santana (.250 with 1 R) and Renato Nunez (1 HR) it seems like Mancini was the right call last week.
– Andy Patton
Futures League
Best Performance: Dan (Juanderkinds) def. Travis Sherer (Coffee’s for Closers), 8-1
The best overall performance didn’t quite get the biggest blowout win, but it was close. Dan would have swept the week with two more runs and one more save. Not that you’ll hear him complaining, with an offense led by Jose Ramirez (4 HR, 9 RBI), Jonathan Villar (2 HR, 5 SB), and Didi Gregorious (13 RBI). Dan won four offensive categories in commanding fashion: 15 dingers, 49 RBI, 8 SB, and a .261 AVG.
Closest Matchup: Dave Fisher (Not Dan) ties Dan (AMC’s Breaking Bats), 4-4
Our first-place team (Not Dan) and our last-place team battled it out to an ironic draw that could have gone either way. Both teams finished with 34 runs and a pair of stolen bases.
– Travis Sherer
PL-League-1
Best Performance: Stephen Dudas’s Team (Stephen Dudas)
Stephen’s squad came roaring back to life after yours truly has been somewhat savage in reviewing their earlier performances, posting a .645 xW% and .624 zW% in Week 16, their best performance since Week 4. It was well-timed, too, against Hedenson’s Team (Hunter Denson), a fellow wild card contender, and based on yearly numbers what should have been a 3-6-1 defeat was actually a 6-4 win. Combined with the thrashing the Maryland Wolfdogs (Ryan Fickes) took at the hands of Led Z.Eflin and Dudas was back into playoff position.
Strongest Category: Mostly Nats (Charlie Wright) with a 2.62 zW from 9 W.
Weakest Category: Prognosis Negative (Ryan Amore) with a -2.15 zERA from a 7.60 ERA.
Closest Matchup: Mostly Nats vs Air Yordans (Alex Isherwood)
Air Yordans stumbled in their effort to move into the last playoff position, falling 4-6 to the Nats. It was a fantastic matchup though with the Nats posting a .536 / .528 (xW% / zW%) and the Yordans putting up a .555 and .565. The Yordans dominated on offense to the tune of 40 R, 51 RBI, 16 HR, and a .336 AVG, but with 0 SB couldn’t pull out the tie. The Nats were equally dominant on the pitching side with 9 W, 3 SV, 73 K, a 2.75 ERA, and a 1.18 WHIP.
Statistical Oddity:
Massive Deverstation (Ben Ruppert) is one of the fastest teams in the league, tied for second overall with 71 SB. However, in Week 16, the team turned to honest work and stole zero bags. It would’ve been hard to beat their opponents, Prognosis Negative, who put up 7 SB, but we can probably chalk this up as even considering they took pitching wins with a 5.88 ERA and 1.37 WHIP.
– Ryan Fickes
PL-League-2
Best Performance:
The rich got richer this week in PL2. Austin’s Team (Austin Gretencord) extended its season-long grip on first place with a 9-1 victory over The Luzardo King (Kevin Dalby) that put 13.5 games between Austin and second-place Holland Otts (Clay Cotton), who picked a bad week to lose 8-2. Austin’s team was great overall, as you’d expect with a near sweep, but his pitching was particularly brilliant: Seven wins, two saves, 79 (!!) Ks, a 1.90 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP took all pitchers’ categories. He also put up 103 R/RBI, 16 homers and batted .281. Kevin won only stolen bases, 3-0.
Closest Matchup:
Ol’ Dirty Bastardo (Adam Lawler) won its matchup against Yu Snell My Bum (John Hale) 5-4-1, and it has to be the pick for closest matchup this week, though largely because of the rest of the league: This contest was the only one in the entire league that finished closer than 8-2. Every other matchup was that lopsided. We just can’t pick an 8-2, 9-1 or 9-0-1 matchup as the closest. Says me. One homer and one save decided those categories in this matchup and each team totaled two pitcher wins.
Statistical Oddity:
As mentioned before, only one matchup out of six was any closer than 8-2. Three saw a 9-1 win, one finished 8-2 and another 9-0-1. Winners of those matchups were Austin’s Team, MonStarz (Jamie Monson), Otto von Bettsmarck (Rob D.), Rhys Lightning (John Wallace) and The Story Profar (Jordan Larimore).
– Jordan Larimore
The Bottom of the Barrel
Best Performance: Donny’s Dandy Team (Donny Moskovits)
For the first time all season, I had to play tie breaker to choose the best performance for the week. If we were playing rotisserie, both Donny and Kyle Frank (North Correa) accrued 83 points (out of 120) for the week. The edge goes to Donny thanks to having a poor finish in only one category (SB) versus Kyle having a poor week in two (AVG and W). Nelson Cruz threw Donny’s team on his back for the weeks thanks to the ridiculous line of .476 AVG, 9 R, 11 RBI, 7 HR. In a week where 10-of-12 teams had an ERA above 4, Donny checked in with a cool 3.31, in spite of Greg Holland losing his job mid-week on Donny’s roster. Owning Justin Verlander paid off this week (who am I kidding, just about every week), but German Marquez and Robbie Ray pitched in on this victory.
Closest Matchup: Frankie Goes to IL (David Fenko) vs. Rich’s Team (Rich Holman)
Going into the afternoon games on Sunday, I was sporting a cool 6-3-1 advantage, only to have Aroldis Chapman and Edwin Diaz give up 5 baserunners and 2 ER in 1.2 IP to give me a 6.21 ERA and 1.64 WHIP on the week. Those two performances on Sunday allowed Rich, with his 5.97 ERA and 1.54 WHIP to take two pivotal categories, moving the matchup in his favor. Despite those awful pitching lines, Rich and I were actually in the top half of performers for the week, with 68 and 70 roto points respectively.
– David Fenko