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
Well here we are. Week 21. It’s where boys become playoff bois or they get relegated to the Prodigy League. Suit man whispers in ear Oh, apparently there’s a less dramatic third option involving not making the playoffs but staying in this league. That’s boring. Let’s focus on the others.
As we enter the final week, Rick Graham has locked up the #1 seed and a bye into the second round. The second bye is up for grabs between Jonathan Metzelaar and Kyle Bishop however, who are separated by a game. The three of them, along with Ian Post, have secured their playoff spots. Two spots left. Currently, they’re occupied by Austin Bristow and Jason Dunbar, but Ben Palmer sits a half game back Dunbar, itching to get in. If that weren’t incentive enough to win for Ben, a victory against Dave Cherman could seal his fate in relegation. Alex Fast is locked into relegation, as is Max Posner, but the 3rd spot is up in the air. Currently, first year Legacy League member Myles Nelson holds that spot, but if he wants to avoid getting kicked back downstairs after one year, he’ll need one of Cherman or Nick Pollack to falter in Week 21, while also securing a victory over Jay Dunbar. Nick’s tumble to the Prodigy League would be a scandal for the ages, making his matchup vs Ian Post this week an absolute must-win, if only for his reputation.
Quick highlights from Week 20: Austin Bristow and Jonathan Metzelaar came as close as two teams can get, with Metzelaar beating Bristow 7-3, but edging out the narrowest of victories in both AVG and ERA.
Had I set my lineup Sunday, I’d have beaten Rick Graham and avoided relegation. But here I stand. Kyle Bishop ended a 4-game skid with a victory over Jason Dunbar. Alex doesn’t have a large part to play in Week 21, but we’re hoping he can end on a high note after a 10-0 shellacking from Ian Post. We’re all awaiting Jon’s 200th transaction. Yesterday, he added and dropped Amed Rosario in the SAME DAY.
— Dave Cherman
Prodigy League
Best Performance: Brennen’s Bold Team vs. Troy Klauder, 10-0
Our longtime league leader, Troy Klauder, continued his free fall down into third place with a 10-0 whooping from Brennen’s squad. A lot of the scoring was very close, including strikeouts (55-54) steals (4-2) and WHIP (1.14 – 1.10), but it was no doubt a big-time victory for Brennen, who locked in a spot in the playoffs. Strong weeks from Austin Meadows and Jose Abreu at the dish and outstanding pitching from Gerrit Cole, Lucas Giolito and Julio Teheran were more than enough for Brennen to secure the big time win.
Closest Matchup: Astudillo Ghibli vs. Hurling Archer: 5-4
Ben vs. Stephen was a tight matchup last week, with Stephen’s advanced hitting giving him the narrow victory. Strong hitting from Nolan Arenado, Freddie Freeman and Marcell Ozuna helped earn the narrow victory for Stephen’s team, who now sits in fourth place.
Biggest waiver wire pickup: Kyle Seager, 3B, SEA (Andrew Gould) Although Seager didn’t go yard as a member of Andrew’s squad, he did score one run with five RBI, one stolen base and a .500 batting average. Seager has swung a ridiculously hot bat since July, and Andrew will be more than happy to have him on his roster heading into the playoffs.
– Andy Patton
Futures League
It all comes down to this. Five teams. Three playoff sports. Two and a half games apart. Kudos to Dave Fishman (Not Dan) and Paul Ghiglieri (Paul’s Busty Posers) for running away with the top two spots in the Futures League. Right now Scott Chu (Big League Chu), Dan Wist (Juanderkinds), Rob Z (Inglourious Baezterds), Travis Sherer (Coffee’s for Closers) and Dan Richards (Yu Can’t Judge) are all vying for the playoffs. Stay tuned.
Best Performance: Dave Fishman (Not Dan) def. Michael Augustine (Snell’s Bells), 7-3
Even though Dave’s team didn’t blow your hair back in Week 20, he still gets the nod because of just a general strong performance. Led by Austin Meadows (.345/3 HR/9 RBI) and Bo Bichette (.407/3 HR/6 Runs), Not Dan took Runs (36-32), HR (16-12) and RBI (38-35). Where the league’s top team really stood out, however, is on the mound, thanks to Julio Teheran (yes, that Julio Teheran) and Clayton Kershaw. Not Dan narrowly took ERA (2.52 to 2.54), WHIP (1.01 to 1.01…) and strikeout (48-46) along with an easy seven wins.
Closest Matchup: Dan Wist (Juanderkinds) def. Rob Z (Inglorious Baezterd), 5-4
I’m going to break protocol here and not really talk about the categories. Instead this was a matchup against the 5th and 6th place teams that basically was a draw. The little advantage Dan was able to gain actually pulled his team in a tie with Rob Z. It is possible one or both of these teams don’t make the playoffs, and this matchup could be looked back in retrospect as a missed opportunity.
– Travis Sherer
PL-League-1
– Ryan Fickes
PL-League-2
Best performance: Rhys Lightning (John Wallace) earns the crown this week despite having a few categories that were downright ordinary. He made up for those, though, with very strong showings in all of the seven categories he won in his 7-3 victory over Otto von Bettsmarck (Rob D.). Rob’s pitching rates were strong, as he won ERA and WHIP with 1.92 and .87 marks, respectively, but John took all of the pitching counting stats. On offense, Rob pulled only batting average with a .277 as John’s hitters posted a pretty ordinary .245. Once again, though, John swept the counting stats with 79 R/RBI, 14 HRs and six stolen bases.
Closest matchup: This was kind of a weird week for close matchups. Only one score was more lopsided than 7-3 and yet there really weren’t any matchups with a ton of categories that were super close, or at least not more so than others. I guess we’ll split the honor between the matchups of Austin’s Team (Austin Gretencord) vs. Aaron Raised a Cain (Daniel Port) and MonStarz (Kyle Monson) vs. Madison’s Wild Ride (Jamie Sayer), both of which ended 5-4-1 (Kyle and Austin won).
– Jordan Larimore
The Bottom of the Barrel
Best Performance: North Correa (Kyle Frank), 82 Roto Points tied with Kramerica Industries (Erik Smith), 82 Roto Points
What Erik achieved through blowing out several categories (50 R, 2.45 ERA, 0.76 WHIP), Kyle did through consistency across the board (less SB). Kyle’s strategy of leveraging relievers led to 12 SV on the week and a respectable 3.49 ERA and 1.22 WHIP. Erik, on the other hand, saw great pitching out of Wade Miley and Luis Castillo to lead the league in pitching rate stats. On Erik’s side of the offense, Matt Carpenter is surging and Vladito is earning the high praise.
Closest Matchup: No matchup was particularly close Judging by Roto points, The Bull Doziers (Evan Rockow) and Escaff (Eric Schaff) were within 3 points of each other, but they were also two of the worst teams during the week (44 and 47 points respectively) and their matchup finished 7 – 3 Evan. By record alone, Jim’s Team (Jim Chatterton) and Donny’s Dandy Team (Donny Moskovits) were tied for the week at 5, but had a nearly 20 point difference in their roto scoring.
– David Fenko
(Graphic by Nathan Mills/ @NathanMillsPL)