Week 3 of the 2018 MLB season is officially in the books. This week we learned that Bryce Harper can hit a homer with a broken toothpick, Francisco Lindor and Jose Berrios are the ultimate Puerto Rico homers, and Sean Manaea is pretty good at baseball.
As we see another eventful week close, let’s take a look at the Staff league’s top performers and closest matchups!
As always, feel free to take a closer look at our rosters, transactions, and matchups by following these links: Legacy League, Prodigy League, Futures League
Legacy League
Best Performance—M-M-M-Mookie and the Betts (Ben Palmer)
Ben Palmer takes the cake in Week 3, as his team cruised to an 8-2 win over Nic Gardiner. The team’s namesake, Mookie Betts, put up a great week with 4 home runs and a .400 average. Meanwhile, Yasmani Grandal essentially won the RBI stat for Ben, as he knocked in 11 Dodgers. On the pitching side, Ben swept all five categories, led by brilliant starts from Luis Severino, Carlos Carrasco, and Tyson Ross (oh right, Tyson Ross exists…)
Closest Matchup—Choooo that Snell (Rick Graham) vs. Insane Masterminds (Andrew Todd-Smith)
Rick Graham finds himself once again in the closest matchup of the Legacy League, but this week manages to earn the win. The storyline of this meeting was weak hitting on one side and weak pitching on the other. While Andrew’s team was able to sweep nearly all of the hitting categories, hitting .293 with 21 home runs, his pitching failed to earn a single win in any category. After a tie in stolen bases, Rick had earned his second win of the season, handing Andrew his first loss.
Prodigy League
Best Performance—Walker Buehler’s Day Off (Myles Nelson)
Deciding which team to feature in as the best in each league can be a bit difficult. Luckily, Myles Nelson made that decision very easy for me in the Prodigy League with an absolutely dominant performance, earning the first 10-0 victory in any of the three staff leagues up to this point! What’s more, Myles squad topped Jeff Davis, who had been featured as the top team in the Prodigy League the past two weeks. With a stellar 1.64 ERA and 0.81 WHIP, Myles has proven that his pitching is among the best in the league.
Closest Matchup—Max Bauer (Andrew Gould) vs. DothRockies Horde (Austin Bristow II)
Watching this matchup very closely, I can reliably say that this one was back and forth, very close all week. After poor starts from Marcus Stroman and James Paxton on Saturday, I needed Miles Mikolas to get roughed up to secure a win. After his 7 IP, 1 ER performance, I had accepted my fate and resigned myself to my first loss. However, an unexpected save from Archie Bradley and a timely home run from Mike Trout broke the tie in each of those categories, allowing me to tie the week. Neither Andrew nor myself are proud of a week featuring 11 homers combined between the two of us, but tomorrow is a new day!
Futures League
Best Performance—Mike’s Cereal Shack (Dan Wist)
In the Futures League, there was no better performance than that of Dan Wist’s team in Week 3. Winning every category aside from a tie in saves, Dan’s squad earned their first win of the year and handed Mike Wexler his first loss of the year. Leaning on strong performances from Jose Ramirez, Mike Moustakas, and Aaron Nola, Dan’s squad marched handily to their first win.
Closest Matchup—Team Still (Henry Still) vs. Team Martin (Paul Martin)
In a matchup between two teams without names, neither was able to best the other. In a 5-5 tie, Henry and Paul evenly split the hitting and pitching categories. On the final day of the week, Henry stole the wins category after both Patrick Corbin and Junior Guerra won their respective games. This last-minute upset evened out the categories and led each team to a 1-1-1 record.
Final Notes—Undefeated and Winless Watch
The following teams have yet to take a loss in the first three weeks of the season: Smoakin’ Zieg Zags (Max Posner), Choooo that Snell (Rick Graham), OHMYGODITSAFIRE sale (Alex Fast), Syndergaarden Cop (Jon Metzelaar), and DothRockies Horde (Austin Bristow II).
While my squad, along with Alex and Rick’s have tied, we’ve yet to lose. Meanwhile, Jonathan Metzelaar’s team is probably the best squad in the early goings of the Prodigy League. In a quote from Max Posner, “My team is below average, but head to head is fickle and I’ll take first place as given by the scheduling gods.”
Now for those who have yet to taste victory in 2018: Gray Market Price (Stephen Honovich), Ze German (Nic Gardiner), It’s Klubering Time (Michael Grennell), and Valley of the Dahls (Jake Bridges).
You have to feel for the four gentlemen, each of whom have been fighting to make it into the wins column. The frustration is evident in quotes such as “Who’s worse? The actual Baltimore Orioles or my fantasy team right now?” One analyst said this of Steve Honovich’s squad, “Steve’s team is garbage. He’s an early candidate for contraction.” Unfortunately, this analyst was Steve Honovich himself. We are wishing he and his family the best in the 22 remaining weeks of the fantasy baseball season.
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