First of all, apologies. I guess I didn’t include the projections last week. That is my fault. I took an edible when I got home and I must have been on a different planet.

Second of all, this is the final big-time recap I am going to be doing this season. This is where the stats are counted and marks are made. Understandably those in the consolation bracket will lose interest and lineups will be forgotten to be filled out.

I will do proper recaps of the playoff matchups and give those guys the proper sendoff they earned with a strong regular season. Also later this week I will be dropping a bit of analytics taking what random information I have and consolidating it. It is a sickness that I enjoy doing this.

In terms of my matchup with Michaud. Let’s be honest, nobody cares except for Michaud. All I know is that I went to bed tied with him 5-5-1, and then I woke up losing 8-3-0. Again, the pitching rules that I was blind to benefits my opponent and brings him home with two extra categories that flipped late Sunday night.

This is the end of the regular season. The end of a very long season. We made it. Now the stress amps up for the final four. Good training for fantasy football season.

And here we are, the last week of the regular season. Let’s take a look at it.

Week Eighteen (August 7 – August 13)

Hits

Love me a saving grace free agent signing. Jeff McNeil has basically been a late season call up for me just getting some playing time, but this week he was huge, having 10 hits for me. Yandy Diaz led my team with 11 hits. Having two batters get double-digit hits is huge, but eight hits from Spencer Steer and Christian Yelich also provided some necessary thunder.

Michaud played his guts and didn’t sub much, but he nearly pulled out this category with Matt Olson just nuclear with 12 hits. Randy Arozerena had seven hits, including a walk-off. But no other player on his team had more than six hits.

Runs

A quarter of Michaud’s runs were scored by one man. Matt Olson. Aaron Judge and Sean Murphy had the second most runs scored for Michaud, and that was five each. Michaud ended the week with 40 runs scored, and remarkably eight of them came on the final day to make the margin look far larger than it actually was.

McNeil led the way for me with six runs scored. Triston Cases had five runs scored for the Boston Red Sox, due in large part to a pair of home runs. Yelich also contributed five runs scored.

Home Runs

Just not many home runs hit this week. 11 was the highest total of the week with four people having it, one of them being Michaud. Olson had four round trippers while Judge and Murphy each had two. For good measure, add up the single home runs for Ketel Marte, Wilmer Flores and Giancarlo Stanton.

Cases and Cal Raleigh had two home runs each. My three single home runs were Spencer Steer, Elly De La Cruz and McNeil. Just not a lot of pop in my teams’ bats. Never had it.

Runs Batted In

I finished the season with the worst record in RBIs and the second lowest total of the season. Seems fitting that I have the lowest amount of RBIs for the week. Steer, Diaz, Raleigh, De La Cruz and Casas each had four runs batted in.

For Michaud, the winning team, all the credit needs to go to Olson who had 10 runs batted in HIMSELF. The next highest RBI totallers on his team were Flores and Murphy who had four each.

I am unfortunately a fan of consistency throughout a lineup, but Olson makes it seem like you need one massive bat for everything to orbit around.

Stolen Bases

Both Michaud and I decided to save the majority of our steals for the final day. Each of us had three steals, and that draw on Sunday was enough for Michaud to win the category.

Fucking New York Yankee Gleyber Torres had three steals on Sunday. At least I saw the Yankees blow a massive lead in the ninth to the Marlins. Arozerena had three steals as well for the Tampa Bay Rays.

I had five stolen bases with Yelich having a pair of swipes. Not getting Jarren Duran on the bases really hurt my chances in this category. Also De La Cruz not knowing how to effectively work the count and loving to maintain a low OBP also hinders his potential speed impact.

On Base Percentage

Michaud’s daily roster had an OBP of over .400 in three of the matchup’s first four days. The only day he had on OBP that was below .360 was on Sunday. Michaud’s team got on base plenty with 33 walks. He had more walks than strikeouts. Olson reached base 21 combined times between hits and walks. Not to be outdone in the free passes department, Judge also secured nine. When four players on your team had an OBP of .444 or higher in a single week, and each of them had 15 or more plate appearances, then you are going to be in a good place.

Ian Happ with a .160 OBP in 24 plate appearances. Jared Durran with a .143 OBP in 14 plate appearances. Elly De La Cruz with a .259 OBP in nearly 30 plate appearances. These are not numbers that are going to help you win. Yelich led my team with a .467 clip, and McNeil was steady at a .433 mark. 

Strikeouts

19 Strikeouts for Freddy Peralta! 19! In 13.0 innings. Hell of a week! He was the leading strikeout weapon for Michaud. San Francisco’s Logan Webb threw his hat in the ring with 12 strikeouts over 14.1 innings. Gerrit Cole had nine strikeouts in 13.0 innings, but he couldn’t get the win against the Marlins despite a very solid outing against the Marlins.

I did not have any pitchers with double-digit strikeouts. I guess I tried to go with the Eric method or low ERA and low strikeouts, but I couldn’t score on either front. Jon Gray had seven strikeouts in seven innings for the Rangers. James Paxton and Kevin Guassman had six strikeouts each.

Wins

It is rather huge that Cole didn’t get that win on Sunday. It is even better that one of my closers Camilo Doval came away with a win on Sunday. I will take a category win whenever I can. I could have had even more wins if Cutter Crawford went just one more out for the Boston Red Sox.

It should be noted that Peralta had two wins for the Brewers over the course of his outstanding outings.

Saves

Will Smith blew a save for me on Sunday, and I really didn’t love that. But with that being said, he did have my only two saves of the week, despite having a 6.75 ERA. Those two saves were all I needed to get the category from Michaud. Smith also blowing the save on Sunday meant that Doval could earn a win, which I needed to eke by that category.

Michaud’s one save came from Alexis Diaz of the Cincinnati Reds.

Earned Run Average

This is what Michaud’s pitching staff did on the final day of our matchup. Cole went six innings with a 3.00 ERA. Webb went 8.2 innings with a 1.04 ERA. Peralta went six shutout innings. Michaud’s relievers Alexis Diaz and Yennier Cano combined for 2.2 innings of zero runs allowed. That is an ERA of 1.16 over 23.1 innings. 

I really think that his team ERA was over four at the start of Sunday, but an absolutely absurd final day carries one of the best final day comebacks of the season. Too bad it didn’t really mean much in the long run.

For me, my lonely self, I had James Paxton, Jon Gray and Kevin Gaussman combine for zero earned runs allowed over 19.1 innings. That is pretty damn good! It makes up for Michael Kopech having an 8.31 ERA this week. Or Corbin Burnes having a 7.94 ERA. Or Will Smith bringing home a 6.75 ERA.

Walks/Hits Per Inning

BY THE SKIN OF YOUR FUCKING TWAT. Are you serious? In the last category of my last “meaningful” match of the season I lost the WHIP by one thousandth of a decimal??

Are you telling me that if Cutter Crawford went one more out I would have been fine? So many things make up that one thousandth of a decimal place. It is insane to think about. It hurts to type.

Peralta had an absurdly low 0.62 WHIP…that is even lower than his ERA!  Michaud finished the week with fifth pitchers clocking in with a WHIP of 1.00 or lower.

TEAM MVPs & LVPS

Jesus Christ, Matt Olson. Good lord. 12-for-30 is good, but four home runs, 10 runs scored, 10 RBIs, and nine walks is just outrageous. The front runner for the National League MVP had a .538 OBP, just absurd. All of the Atlanta Braves had great weeks because they played the hapless New York Mets. But what if I told you that he wasn’t the MVP. What if I told you that it was a pitcher from the Milwaukee Brewers? Freddy Peralta went 13.0 innings allowing only one earned run and he had 19 STRIKEOUTS! That is a 0.69 ERA. I almost want to do Co-MVP…but I can’t. I am going to give it to Peralta.

Tough to pick an LVP for the week when Michaud won eight categories. I am looking at his hitters because he only lost the category by four. I could give it to Hunter Renfroe of the Los Angeles Angels because he went 4-for-20, but I can pin the blame on a New York Yankee. That’s right Giancarlo Stanton, you are the LVP. He went 5-for-24 and looked like an old man doing it. He is just a decrepit. Get him off the field.

Let’s keep it short and sweet for my terrible team. My MVP of the week is Christain Yelich. The Brewer outfielder arrived on my team more than halfway through the season but he tied Cedric Mullins for my personal MVP awards. This week he had five runs, a team-high six walks and a team-high .467 OBP. He had three RBIs on eight hits and then pitched in a team-best two stolen bases. Yelich is back to being a good baseball player. We love to see it.

Ian Happ was my MVP last week. This week he is my LVP. He went 3-for-24 with three runs scored and only one walk. He had an OBP of .160, which is pretty terribly dreadful. My team was lifted by some high hitters and a lot of low volume hitters. Happ just had a lot of empty games. Six games with zero hits. An LVP performance. Would have helped to have his OBP potential.

MVP TRACKER: Albies (1), Burnes (1), De La Cruz (2), Mullins (3), Goldschmidt (2), Happ (1), Soto (1), Steer (2), Verdugo (1), Walls (1), Yelich (3)
LVP TRACKER: Albies (1), Burnes (1), Casas (1), De La Cruz (1), Gausman (1), Goldschmidt (2), Gore (1), Gray (2), Happ (1), Paxton (1), Peralta (1), Soto (1), Sale (1), St. Louis Cardinals (1), Walls (1), Wisdom (1)

WEEK EIGHTEEN SCOREBOARD

  • Like I said at the top, I was tied with Michaud when I went to bed, but I woke up the biggest loser of the week. I really do have a vendetta against the pitching rules because ERA and WHIP were as close as one could get.
  • Jack List is back in the win column!! Vaghi stumbles into the playoffs but he plays on. Jack can at least enter the offseason holding his hat held high.
  • It is perfectly fitting that Drakeley and Huntley tied in their final matchup. They have been near each other in the standings all season long and in the end they both laid themselves out there…to fall asleep next to each other on the mat.
  • Kenney sweeps the pitching categories and takes the hitting category to earn a hard fought win over Bove. Runs and OBP were very close categories.
  • DiMaio takes down Eric in what was eventually a playoff preview match. DiMaio’s team took their spinach and teamed up with Popeye bashing baseballs across the field.

WEEK EIGHTEEN STATISTICS DEEP DIVE

PDF/GOOGLE SHEET LINK

fantasy-baseball-week-18-google-sheetsDownload
  • DiMaio led in five categories this week.
    • Hits, Runs, Home Runs (tied with Bove), Stolen Bases and Earned Run Average
      • DiMaio finishes the regular season having had the best mark the most times in hits (6), runs (6), home runs (5) – tied with Michaud, 
  • Bove chose week 18 to be the first week to appear at the top of the home runs category
  • Four people finished the year tied for the most number of weeks with the best total home runs in a week.
    • Drakeley, Eric, Huntley and List
  • DiMaio chose week 18 to be the first time to appear atop the stolen bases category
  • Michaud had the top OBP this week, and Kenney had the lowest. This results in Michaud finishing the regular season with the best OBP of anyone, beating Kenney who was atop the category for the majority of the second half of the season.
  • Kenney gets his first week of “Best Strikeouts” in the final week of the regular season, only to be matched by DiMaio getting the worst output of strikeouts in the finale.
    • DiMaio’s 24 strikeouts is the lowest output for any team during a single week this season.
  • List somehow leads the league in both the bests and worsts weeks in the win category.
  • Is that Michael Kenney’s music in the saves category? Five saves for Kenney puts him at the top this week.
  • Holy shit! Jack List snaps his seven game losing streak! It is a good way to end the season for Jack.
  • I acknowledge that I had a boo-boo in the saves record while tabulating every week. It is now correct.
LATER THIS WEEK I WILL BE DOING A DEEP DIVE ON SOME OF THE ANALYTICS. GOING TO TRY AND GET SOME SORT OF EXPECTED RECORD, ECT.

PLAYOFF MATCHUPS

#4 ERIC vs. #1 DIMAIO
  • Eric won the week nine matchup, 6-5-0.
  • Dimaio won the week eight matchup, 7-4-0.
  • HITS
    • The teams split the hits category
    • DiMaio ranks 1st in hits
    • Eric ranks 3rd in hits
  • RUNS
    • The teams split the hits category
    • Dimaio ranks 1st in runs
    • Eric ranks 3rd in runs
  • HRS
    • DiMaio won home runs in both matchups
    • DiMaio ranks 1st in home runs
    • Eric ranks 5th in home runs
  • RBI
    • DiMaio won RBIs in both matchups
    • DiMaio ranks 1st in RBI
    • Eric ranks 6th in RBI
  • SB
    • DiMaio won stolen bases in both matchups
    • DiMaio ranks 8th in stolen bases
    • Eric ranks 7th in stolen bases
  • OBP
    • DiMaio won OBP both matchups
    • DiMaio ranks 3rd in OBP
    • Eric ranks 8th in OBP
  • STRIKEOUTS
    • Eric won strikeouts in both matchups
    • DiMaio ranks 3rd in strikeouts
    • Eric ranks 5th in strikeouts
  • WINS
    • Eric won the wins category in both matchups
    • DiMaio ranks 7th in wins
    • Eric ranks 1st in wins
  • SAVES
    • The teams split the saves category
    • DiMaio is tied for 3rd in saves
    • Eric ranks 5th in saves
  • ERA
    • Eric had a better ERA in both matchups
    • DiMaio ranks 5th in ERA
    • Eric ranks 1st in ERA
  • WHIP
    • Eric won WHIP in both matchups
    • DiMaio ranks 6th in WHIP
    • Eric ranks 2nd in WHIP
#3 Vaghi vs. #2 Kenney
  • Kenney won the week seven matchup, 7-4-0.
  • Kenney and Vaghi tied in week 16, 5-5-1.
  • HITS
    • Kenney and Vaghi split the hitting category
    • Vaghi ranks 5th in hits
    • Kenney ranks 4th in hits
  • RUNS
    • Kenney and Vaghi split the runs category
    • Vaghi ranks 7th in runs
    • Kenney ranks 2nd in runs
  • HRS
    • Vaghi swept the home runs category in both matchups
    • Vaghi is tied 3rd in home runs
    • Kenney ranks 8th in home runs
  • RBI
    • Vaghi swept the RBI category in both matchups
    • Vaghi is tied for 4th in RBI
    • Kenney ranks 8th in RBI
  • SB
    • Kenney and Vaghi split the stolen bases category
    • Vaghi is tied for 4th in stolen bases
    • Kenney ranks 1st in stolen bases
  • OBP
    • Kenney swept the OBP category in both matchups
    • Vaghi ranks 6th in OBP
    • Kenney ranks 2nd in OBP
  • STRIKEOUTS
    • Kenney and Vaghi split the strikeout category
    • Vaghi ranks 2nd in strikeouts
    • Kenney ranks 10th in strikeouts
  • WINS
    • Kenney and Vaghi split the wins category
    • Vaghi is tied for 8th in wins
    • Kenney ranks 2nd in wins
  • SAVES
    • Kenney won the week 16 saves category and tied in week seven
    • Vaghi ranks 7th in saves
    • Kenney ranks 10th in saves
  • ERA
    • Kenney swept the ERA category in both matchups in both matchups
    • Vaghi ranks 3rd in ERA
    • Kenney ranks 4th in ERA
  • WHIP
    • Kenney swept the WHIP category in both matchups
    • Vaghi ranks 1st in WHIP
    • Kenney ranks 4th in WHIP

FINAL OVERALL STANDINGS

  • DiMaio and Kenney are the only two players to register over 100 category wins.
  • In terms of the only team to lose over 100 categories…yea that would be me.
  • Vaghi and Eric swapped spots in the standings, meaning that the semifinal championships are Kenney vs. Vaghi and then DiMaio vs. Eric.
  • Michaud moved up from seventh place to fifth place to ensure a top-half of the standings finish.
  • List stayed in sixth place while Bove dwindled down to seventh place.
    • Very fitting for Jack to finish at exactly .500 with him having two definitive halves of the season.
      • Bove also finished at exactly .500, but he placed behind List with one less category win.
  • With a tie between Drakeley and Huntley, Drakeley assures himself a final half-category lead over Huntley.
  • I suck.

FINAL CATEGORY LEADERS

CATEGORY LEADERS (Including Ties)
  • DiMaio: Hits, Runs, Home Runs, Runs Batted In 94)
  • Eric: Wins, Earned Run Average (2)
  • List: Strikeouts, Saves (2)
  • Kenney: Stolen Bases (1)
  • Michaud: On Base Percentage (1)
  • Vaghi: Walks/Hits Per Inning (1)

Stanko Excel Lists | Movies, Books, Podcasts. TV Shows
Stanko Letterdbox Account

Four Shorty Reactions: “MaXXXine” (2024), “Monkey Man” (2024), “Raising Arizona” (1987), “Scoop” (2024)

MaXXXine (2024) “In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past.” Director: Ti WestWriter: Ti WestCast: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Halsey, Lily Collins, Kevin Bacon, Bob Cannavale, Michelle…

jstanko99's avatar by jstanko99

Posted on 0 By jstanko99 Baseball Posted in Baseball, Sports Tagged #, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
jstanko99's avatar

jstanko99

Leave a comment