Baseball
Fantasy Baseball Recap: Finals (August 28 – September 10)
Congratulations to the now longer Last Place Kenney. Michael Kenney is your 2023 Fantasy Baseball Champion, and he made sure to make absolutely no doubt about it.
Congratulations to the now longer Last Place Kenney. Michael Kenney is your 2023 Fantasy Baseball Champion, and he made sure to make absolutely no doubt about it.
For only the second time this year, there has been a full sweep. An 11-0 whomping. Over the course of two weeks, which makes it even crazier, Mike won every single category over Eric. Some of them were close, but many were not. For the record, the other sweep was DiMaio erasing me in Week 13.
Trying to think of what sports analogy to make here, and all I can think of is when the Denver Broncos got absolutely eviscerated by the Seattle Seahawks in 2014. Eric had all the pieces to get there, but in the big moment he had some of his key players give arguably their worst performances of the season. Team Bangarang Rufio (which I finally heard used in a YouTube video series Bob Does Sports, and that was a surprise) used up all of their gusto and musto in their semifinal matchup against the Regular Season Champion DiMaio.
Meanwhile Kenney ramped up his offense after a little bit of a stutter in his semifinal matchup against Vaghi. And you want to know what was the tried and true sign that Kenney was destined to win the championship? Michael Kenney was dreadful in the saves category all year with a league worst 4-13-1 record, but during the postseason he won the saves category in both of his postseason matchups. The same sentiment can be brought up about the home run category. Kenney was a league-worst 5-12-1 in home runs, yet he took down both Vaghi and Eric with the long ball.
Michael Kenney, your 2023 Fantasy Baseball Champion. He earned it. This has to be the best wedding present you got Mike, right?
CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH (AUGUST 28 – SEPTEMBER 10)
QUICK RECAP AND THOUGHTS
Part of me wishes that there was more to write about, but this matchup was decided incredibly early on. By mid-week last week (while I admit I wasn’t paying super close attention, so correct me if I am wrong), the trophy was leaning toward Michael and by the end it was easy to call over the weekend.
Below are my MVP and LVP picks for each team, as well as some bullet points if I find any worthy.
- Kenney beat Eric three times this season, all in rather dominating fashion:
- 7-3-1 in week one, 9-2-0 in week 10, and 11-0-0 in the championship.
- It is a nice bit of continuity that the season started with Mike vs. Eric, and it ended that way.
- Kenney was 18-0 against Eric in the hitting categories this year. 18-0. He did not lose a single hitting category. That is just insane.
- To show that projections really don’t mean anything at all, Eric would have won this matchup 8-3-0 if it was based solely on season totals.
- Kenney had nine players with more than 10 hits and four players with more than 15 hits. For comparison sake, Eric had eight players with double-digit hits but only one player with more than 15 hits.
- Eric was a league-best 11-2-5 in the wins category this year, but here in the championship matchup he had just two wins from Logan GIlbert and Aaron Civale. Kenney’s Justin Steele had that many wins by himself.
- Eric’s team was a league-best 15-3 in the WHIP category this year, yet he fell in the championship to Kenney in that category.
- Eric’s 4.802 ERA was his team’s worst pitching performance since week 13 against Vaghi.
Team LPK
For one Michael Kenney, the MVP of the championship match, is the MVP of the MLB. The one, the only, Ronald Acuna Jr. of the Atlanta Braves. While the Braves recently captured a postseason berth, Acuna secured a fantasy baseball championship for Kenney. Acuna went 22-for-57, which is a .386 batting average. He scored 14 runs while hammering out seven home runs and driving in 19 runs. Acuna stole five bases, walked seven times, and had a .453 OBP. Just an absolutely dominating performance from the sports most player right now.
How does one choose an Least Valuable Player for a championship winning team that swept his opponent to capture the title? I don’t. There is no LVP for Michael Kenney. He is the winner.
Bangarang Rufio
Eric’s Most Valuable Player this week is not allowed to be any of his pitchers. He was supposed to win all the pitching categories, or he at least needed to in order to have a chance…but he won absolutely none of them. One shall be selected for the LVP. Therefore, we look at the hitting categories, and I lean towardAnthony Santander of the Baltimore Orioles. He had a team-leading 16 hits, 11 runs and 13 runs batted in for Eric. His .411 on base percentage also led his team among high usage players.
The Least Valuable Player…well I think I have only one way to go. What the hell happened to Zac Gallen. The potential Cy Young winner for the Arizona Diamondbacks was in Eric’s lineup for two starts against the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Baltimore Orioles where he went a combined 10.1 innings allowing 17 hits and 11 earned runs. YIKES. OUCH. What makes matters worse for Eric is that he did not play Gallen during his own fantastic start. On September 8th Gallen went nine shutout innings against the Chicago Cubs where he also struck one nine and allowed just three hits. While it may not have been enough to win the matchup, it would have propped him up in the strikeouts and WHIP categories for a chance.
QUOTES FROM THE VICTOR
my team buckled down and went to work. At the start of the season they were written off as pretenders, but today they are waking up with champagne showers. Special thanks to the soon to be named MVP Mr. Ronald Acuna, the 204th pick of the draft Cody Bellinger, and a deep starting rotation that went out there and gave it all everyday.
In Bellichekian fashion, next season starts tomorrow.
To be the best, you need to beat the best. I tip my cap to my competitors.
Michael Kenney – 2023 Fantasy Baseball Champion
Gentleman, it has been a pleasure writing these recaps. If you have any suggestions or ideas for possible recaps in the future feel free to let me know.
Now we are officially onto football season.
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