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
Best Performance: Gallo’s Cole (Kyle Bishop)
Kyle Bishop’s team continued its reign of terror over the Legacy League this past week, defeating Austin Bristow by a score of 7-2. While Austin did make some categories close – tied at 9 home runs each, 3-2 stolen bases – the impressive balance of Gallo’s Cole was too much for Troy & Amed in the Morning. Ketel Marte, Joey Gallo, and Jean Segura led the squad on its way to winning runs (40-32), RBI (37-32), SB (3-2), and batting average (.251-.197). Meanwhile, Gerrit Cole, Luis Castillo, and Brad Hand stood out of the pitching side, as Kyle won saves (4-1), strikeouts (75-70), and ERA (2.60-2.98). Kyle, now sitting pretty at 5-0, will take on Jonathan Metzelaar, 2-3, in Week 6.
Closest Matchup: Chapman & the Hosk (Myles Nelson) vs. Who’s Your Vladdy? (Dave Cherman)
The matchup between Myles Nelson and Dave Cherman ended in a 5-4 victory for Myles, but could easily have swung the other way. Myles didn’t dominate a single of the five categories he won, winning runs 39-34, batting average .266-.250, and strikeouts 58-51. The closest was RBI, where Myles squeaked out a 43-41 victory. Throw in a 6-6 tie in saves, and it’s painfully clear that Dave was just a few balls falling differently from his second win of the season. Dave’s team falls to 1-4 and Myles’ squad improves to 2-2-1. In Week 6, the two will face a pair of Week 5 losers in Alex Fast (0-5) and Austin Bristow (2-2-1), respectively.
— Austin Bristow
Prodigy League
Best Performance: Hurling Archer (Stephen Honovich)
Stephen’s team dominated Adam’s squad 8-1-1 last week, only losing in batting average and tying wins. Although the hitting categories were fairly close, The Hurling Archer’s dominated on the bump, posting a 2.57 ERA and 1.14 WHIP with 59 K’s in 49 innings, thanks to strong outings from Stephen Strasburg, Madison Bumgarner, Jose Berrios and Mike Minor. Stephen remains in first place with a tidy 32-15-3 record.
Closest Matchup: Nate’s Nifty Team (Nate Von Benken) vs. Troy Klauder
Nate and Troy were our only tie this week, finishing 5-5 despite multiple categories being blowouts. Nate won average and ERA quite handily, while Troy dominated saves, steals and strikeouts. It ended up even however, and both owners remained mired in the middle of the standings.
Weirdest stat:
Proof that wins are dumb, Astudillo Ghibli (Ben Pernick) won the wins category 4-1 over Andrew Gould, despite having a 5.98 ERA and a 1.28 WHIP on the week. Andrew had solid outings from Max Scherzer and Cole Hamels that did not result in wins, while Ben got a victory from Jon Gray despite an ugly 7.94 ERA.
– Andy Patton
Futures League
Best Performance: Not Dan (Dave Fishman)
Even though Dave’s team beat AMC’s Breaking Bad (Dan McNamara) 9-1, this matchup could also fall under closest result. Dave took home runs by two, runs by one and RBI by four. On the pitching side, Dan edged by one win. Edwin Encarnacion powered Dave’s offense, while Luis Castillo and Tyler Glasnow were lights out on the bump.
Closest Matchup: Paul’s Busty Posers (Paul Ghiglieri) vs. Big League Chu (Scott Chu)
Paul wins the battle of putrid offenses in Week 6. The Posers had the “better” mark in AVG (.206 to .177), but lost in HR (7 to 6), SB (3 to 2) and tied in RBI with 26 apiece. Paul also edged out Scott in wins (5 to 4) and WHIP (1.06 to 1.13). This 7-2 matchup could have been a shutout as easily as it could have been tied.
Weirdest Stat: Dan Richards (Yu Can’t Judge) had a 5.54 ERA and I can’t imagine a higher winning ERA all season. Dan’s ERA was actually a whole point better than Colin’s 6.65.
Biggest Performance-Enhancing Wire Add: Ryan Braun.
Dan Richards (Yu Can’t Judge) picked Braun up April 30. Braun proceeded to go 11-for-21 over the next five games with 2 HR, 6 RBI, two runs scored, and one stolen base. That .534 AVG gave Dan just the boost he needed to win the category. Braun’s two runs scored were also the margin of victory in said category.
– Travis Sherer
PL-League-1
Apparently the teams in playoff position last week missed the memo describing how they need to pound on the non-playoff teams to cement their place in the standings, as only two of the six teams in playoff position posted winning records. For the Maryland Wolfdogs (Ryan Fickes), going 2-6-2 thanks to an uncharacteristically weak pitching performance, meant falling out of playoff position entirely, as Roop Dog (Ben Ruppert) finally takes their rightful place in the upper tier following a dominant 9-0-1 performance against the Muffin Stumps (Ryan Amore). Things tightened a bit at the top, with Mostly Nats (Charlie Wright) scuffling a bit in a 5-5-0 showing against Alex’s Team (Alex Isherwood), hardly ideal considering Alex’s overall 15-25-0 record. Led Z.Eflin (Max Freeze) continues looking like the strongest team in the league so far, despite a third-place .600 aW%, with league leading showings in xW% at .645, zW% at .747, and pW% at .675.
Best Performance: Led Z.Eflin (Max Freeze)
Led Z.Eflin had another strong week, leading the pack with a .712 zW% while also benefitting from a weak showing by the Wolfdogs. If not for a horrendous pitching performance, Hedenson’s Team (Hunter Denson) could’ve easily secured second place on the back of a week-best offensive showing of 39 R, 16 HR, 54 RBI, and a .308 AVG, moving to within a game of the Nats.
Strongest Category: J.D.J.T.J.A.J.P. and Mostly Nats with a 4.30 zSV from 6 SV.
Weakest Category: Mostly Nats with a -4.43 zSB from 0 SB.
Closest and Best Matchups:
The best matchup was the Led Z.Eflin and Maryland Wolfdogs, combining for the highest average zW% at .607. Four categories finished as tossups, with the teams evenly splitting those at one a piece with two ties. In an average week, Z.Eflin would only be expected to go 4-3-3 against the Wolfdogs, but the combination of a strong Z.Eflin week (1.6 zTot compared to team their team average) and a weak Wolfdogs week on the pitching side (-1.3 zPitch compared to their team average) contributed to the lop-sided record. The Wolfdogs were still able to maintain an above .500 zW% for the week because even weak Wolfdogs pitching is still significantly better than league average. Z.Eflin just happened to have their best pitching week of the season.
The closest matchup was the second division matchup between the Beliebers (Ben Hizer) and J.D.J.T.J.A.J.P. (Justin Paradis, also be far the worst team name to have to type), which finished with a 5-4-1 win for the Beliebers. Both teams posted a solid zW% of .636 and .511, respectively, albeit in different ways as the Beliebers were fairly balanced at 3.24 zHit and 2.66 zPitch while J.D.J.T.J.A.J.P. relied on hitting with a 5.16 zHit and 0.00 zPitch. Three categories were tossups, with J.D.J.T.J.A.J.P. taking R 37 to 35 and AVG .263 to .261, while both teams posted 40 RBI. An honorable mention goes to Roop Dog and Muffin Stumps, who despite seeing a 9-0-1 blowout had a slightly closer matchup than that record indicates. Roop Dog managed a 3-0- 1 record in tight categories, taking RBI 31 to 29, W 3 to 2, and K 49 to 46 while tying in SV at 2. HR and SB were also just outside the tossup range, with Roop Dog taking them by 11 to 9 and 5 to 3, respectively.
Statistical Oddities:
There were two absolutely horrendous performances this week. The first was Hedenson’s Team on the pitching side at -14.50 zPitch from 1 W, 0 SV, 38 K, 6.41 ERA, and 1.58 WHIP. The second was Nicholas’s Team on the hitting side at -10.40 zHit from 22 R, 4 HR, 21 RBI, 1 SB, and a .215 AVG.
– Ryan Fickes
PL-League-2
Best Performance: DeJong and DeRestless (Nathan Mills)
Nothing about Nathan’s team’s performance was outstanding this week, but it was solid in every single category. He managed a 7-1-2 win over Otto Van Bettsmarck (Rob D) with a .267 batting average, 44 runs, 42 RBIs and 13 home runs. DeJong and DeRestless won every offensive category except stolen bases. Mills’ pitchers were also good, posting a 3.57 ERA and 1.13 WHIP to go with 69 strikeouts. Wins and saves were the two ties in this matchup.
Closest Matchup: Rhys Lightning (John Wallace) vs. Holland Otts (Clay Cotton)
Rhys Lightning (John Wallace) and Holland Otts (Clay Cotton) were close on nearly every single category in their 6-4 matchup. John won home runs 13 to 12, RBI 34-27, ERA 4.34 to 4.96 and WHIP 1.12 to 1.30. Clay took AVG .269 to .261, W 4 to 2, SV 3 to 2 and K 69 to 52.
– Jordan Larimore
The Bottom of the Barrel
Best Performance: Donny’s Dandy Team (Donny Moskovits)
Compared to recent weeks, Donny put up the best week for the Bottom of the Barrel league despite statistics that are not quite as out-of-line as we’ve seen previously in 2019. Led by Jose Abreu and Justin Verlander, Donny would have put up 92 out of a possible 120 roto points for the week, besting the next closest team by 7.
Closest Matchup: Wacha Flocka Flame (Kyle Frank) vs. Ewing Oil (Matt McLaughliin)
As you may have noticed, I like to look at weekly matchups as a function of rotisserie scoring. For the first time in 2019, we have a tie! Both Kyle and Matt put up 67 roto points for the week, despite Matt actually edging out the victory 5-4. Kyle had the better week getting on base, while Matt’s team excelled (relatively) in slugging. Ultimately, Matt won the matchup on the back of his pitching staff, which took four of the categories.
– David Fenko