Well would you look at that? Back-to-back champion! It is good because I did not want to change my team name. Adam2 had a fantastic season and he just ran into a hotter team at the moment. So many of my players got healthy or went on hot streaks at the right time this year. Some of the pitching stats were actually decently close. We kept flipping on strikeouts during the week. It is not hard to imagine a scenario where things are much closer and this goes in his direction.
How did the other matchups go? Well Gideon defeated Lindsey, 6-4. She had a good run and a regular season crown is an amazing achievement. Ryan defeated Pat by the score of 9-2 to finish in seventh. And finally Sean took down Matt 7-4. The final standings and next years draft position look like this:
Josh
Adam2
Gideon
Lindsey
Offord
Jason
Ryan
Pat
Sean
Matt
Dustin
James
I enjoyed doing some of the silly awards last year, so I might as well try it again.
Best Final Round Draft Pick: Patrick Corbin (Sean). The guy picked up 11 wins for Sean while racking up 239 strikeouts. For almost any other fantasy team, that would have been the leader in Ks, but Sean also has Scherzer. Corbin was a much better pick than my dumb pick of Dominic Leone.
Worst Keeper: Gary Sanchez (Adam2). This was a tough one. It was between Yoan Moncada, Cody Bellinger, and Sanchez. Bellinger started off pretty bad, but he did rebound and his numbers came in similarly to the year before (minus the home runs). Moncada was probably not keeper worthy and since strikeouts do not hurt us much in this league, meh. Sanchez though? He hurt Adam2. That average was awful. And to make it worse? Adam2 did not keep Aaron Nola, who I drafted…who had a win this week and gave up zero runs. Yikes.
Best Trade: Blackmon/Cole for Altuve/Arrieta/Jeffress (Josh/Matt). I really struggled with offering this trade. Gerrit Cole was having such a tremendous start and I really needed a pitcher who could pick up Ks. And wins. I felt that that Blackmon and Altuve were basically a wash. I mean, Altuve is the superior player, but I figured this was a fair deal. The trade probably worked out a little better for me (Altuve got hurt), but it was pretty good for both of us. Cole had 11 wins for me and 183 Ks, whereas Arrieta and Jeffress combined for 10 wins and 167 Ks, but Matt also got 12 saves and 10 holds out of it. Sometimes a trade needs to be good for both sides.
Dumbest Move: Dropping Matt Carpenter (Lindsey). There was this great trade between Lindsey and Ryan. She gets Aaron Judge and Matt Carpenter by giving up Nolan Arenado and Chris Archer. At the end of the season, we should be saying how she owned that trade, right? Well…you have to look at timeline. On May 10th, Carpenter was batting .147 with 3 HRs. Lindsey immediately dropped him because she did not need him. In fact, Ryan tossed him in because he wanted to make the trade more balanced.
Smartest Move: Picking up Matt Carpenter (Offord). On May 29th Offord picked up Carpenter. Here is what Carpenter did for him: 90 runs scored, 29 HRs, 60 RBIs, 4 SBs, .271, and a .389 OBP. Damn, I think Lindsey would have loved to have that production.
It was another fun season. Thank you to everyone for playing. Here is quick update of the historical
As you can see, Ryan still maintains the lead (I apologize if it is hard to read). Basic scoring system: 5 for 1st place, 4-2nd, 3-3rd, 2-4th, 1-5th…P=playoffs, R=regular season. Gideon and I are closing the gap on him.
