Pitcher List Staff League Review: Week 6

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: ManBearPuig (Rick Graham)

While Jay Dunbar’s team, Miggy Stardust, did win 10-0, Rick Graham outperformed him in nearly every category en route to his 7-3 victory over Nick Pollack. Rick’s team, ManBearPuig, swept the offensive categories, totaling 14 homers, 39 runs, 43 RBI, 8 stolen bases and a .296 batting average. This impressive showing was due in large part to standout performances from Josh Bell and Jose Martinez. On the pitching end, ManBearPuig was similarly dominant, easily taking wins (6) and strikeouts (85). More impressive may be Rick’s losses in ERA and WHIP. Over 73.1 innings pitched, ManBearPuig performed to a 2.95 ERA and 1.16 WHIP, topped by Pollack’s 1.96 and 0.86 marks. At the end of the week, Rick improved to a 3-2-1 mark. He’ll face off against Kyle Bishop’s (5-1) first-place team in Week 7.

Closest Matchup: Wig Wam Pham (Ben Palmer) vs. Ian’s Pornogriffey (Ian Post)

Half of the matchups in Week 6 could have qualified for this spot, but the battle between Ben Palmer and Ian Post takes the cake. Looking at offense first, runs was the only easily-won category, going to Ian. Ben was able to narrowly edge out wins in home runs (12 to 11), RBI (35 to 30), and steals (2 to 1) while Ian took average (.269 to .262). The pitching was where things really got interesting. Over 59.2 innings, Ben’s team totaled 5 wins, 3 saves, and 71 strikeouts. In 57 innings, Ian’s squad had 6 wins, an identical 3 saves, and just 62 strikeouts, putting the pitching categories at 1-1-1. To settle the week, Ben had a very impressive 1.81 ERA and 0.82 WHIP, although not quite as impressive as Ian’s 1.11 ERA and 0.75 WHIP, giving Ian the 5-4 victory. Quoting Ian, “Hell of a matchup all week. Nobody with those ratios after 60 innings should be losing.” In Week 7, Ian (4-1-1) will face off against Jay Dunbar (4-1-1) while Ben (4-2) will play Nick Pollack (2-3-1).

— Austin Bristow

Prodigy League

Biggest Victory: Acuna Moncada (Austin) over Astudillo Ghibli (Ben)

Austin moved to .500 on the year with a commanding 8-2 victory over Ben’s last place squad. Led by George Springer’s five home runs and masterful pitching from Blake Snell and Chris Paddack, Austin’s team cruised to victory.

Closest Matchup: Oh Say Can Yusei (Andy) vs. Troy Klauder (5-5)

Our only tie this week wen to yours truly, as masterful pitching on both sides led to a fairly even matchup throughout. Three home runs from Eugenio Suarez and J.D. Martinez helped me take most of the hitting categories, but outrageously good pitching from Troy made this one another tie in the Prodigy league.

Weirdest stat:

I need to get more into Troy’s pitching this week. His team threw 55.1 innings last week, and he had an unbelievably good 0.98 ERA, 0.81 WHIP, 60 strikeouts and five wins. I mean how do you defeat that? My team had the best pitching Saturday I could have possibly had: Trevor Bauer, Zach Eflin, Felipe Vazquez, and Ty Buttrey combined to toss 18.1 shutout innings with 20 strikeouts and a 0.50 WHIP, yet I still didn’t even make a dent in Troy’s pitching lead. He was carried by Robbie Ray, Hyun-Jin Ryu, Luis Castillo, and Eduardo Rodriguez, none of whom allowed a run last week. Tough to beat that.

– Andy Patton

Futures League

Best Performance: Dave Fishman (Not Dan) vs. Dan Wist (Juanderkinds)

What earned Dave the award was his brutish offense. Led by Kris Bryant and Charlie Blackmon with 4 HRs apiece, Dave’s squad hit a monstrous 20 bombs this week, almost doubling the next best total. He also hit .284 with 53 runs and 41 RBI – all categories that he won soundly in the 6-3 victory.

– Travis Sherer

PL-League-1

Now that’s how you make your move to the top of the league. Stephen Dudas’s Team (Stephen Dudas), Led Z.Eflin (Max Freeze), and Hedenson’s Team (Hunter Denson) all had huge weeks going 8-2, 9-1, and 8-2, respectively, against non-playoff position teams. It was enough to position them at first, second, and third in the league as Mostly Nats (Charlie Wright) scuffled badly against admittedly better competition, the newly renamed Prognosis Negative (Ryan Amore, formerly Muffin Stumps) 3-7.

Dudas was a lucky to have been facing the last place Mikey’s Team (Michael Ajeto) as the team’s .459 xW% and .460 zW% meant posting identical 3.4 xLuck and zLuck ratings for the week. Dudas has been struggling the last two weeks, putting up zTotals of -2.31 and -3.65 (compared to the team’s mean performance), but is facing a very weak part of the schedule right now having the currently 11th place Nicholas’s Team (Nick Gerli) in Week 7 and 10th place J.D.J.T.J.A.J.P. (Justin Paradis) in Week 8.

Of note is that one team is really pulling away from the pack in performance this year, with Led Z.Eflin now showing a pW% of .820, xW% of .827, and a zW% of .815. The team only sits in second place 1.5 GB of Dudas thanks to league-worst luck rankings of -8.0 pLuck, -8.4 xLuck, and -7.8 zLuck, all at least twice as bad as the next worst. They’re a juggernaut based on performance and the standings are going to reflect that soon.

One-third of the league, all four of whom currently sit in playoff position, put up 0 SV this week. Despite 3 of the top 4 teams in SV currently sitting outside the playoffs, SV does not have the weakest correlation with aW% to date, an honor that belongs to WHIP at -0.777 (Pearson correlation coefficient) and ERA at -0.656. On the flip side, HR lead the way with 0.644, followed fairly closely by RBI at 0.599, K at 0.581, R at 0.547, and W at 0.515. Sluggers and starting pitchers appear to be the key to success.

– Ryan Fickes

PL-League-2

Best Performance: Otto Von Bettsmarck (Rob D.)

There were a number of strong performers in PL2 this week, perhaps evidenced by the fact that one manager won at least six categories in every single matchup. This could really go to as many as three teams this week, but we’ll tap Otto Von Bettsmarck (Rob D.) for maybe the most well-rounded performance if not the standout best in every category. Rob’s hitters batted .295 with 35 runs, 36 RBI and 14 home runs, none of which led the league, but all very strong numbers. Rob’s pitchers also had a very nice week, posting a 2.88 ERA, 1.17 WHIP, two wins and two saves, along with 61 Ks.

Closest Matchup: Otto Von Bettsmarck (Rob D.) vs. The Luzardo King (Kevin Dalby)

Oddly, Bettsmarck’s matchup with The Luzardo King (Kevin Dalby) may have been the closest of the week as Rob pulled out a 6-4 victory, but a couple of categories were close to flipping. Rob won AVG .295 to .294 and saves two to one, while Kevin took Ks 62 to 61 and wins 3-2.

Weirdest Stat:

MonStarz (Kevin Monson) and DeJong and DeRestless (Nathan Mills) seemed to be competing for who could have the worse offensive week as Kevin won AVG with just a .196 mark. Twenty-six runs and 28 RBI were enough for Nathan to take those categories and a 7-3 win.

– Jordan Larimore

The Bottom of the Barrel

Best Performance: Tinseltown Monarchs (Jessica)

In a league where two other teams had a sub-1 WHIP, Jessica dominated the field with a staff that put up the line 7 W, 3 SV, 77 K (in 67.1 IP), 1.20 ERA, and a 0.67 WHIP. The worst starter on her staff was Gerrit Cole, who only had 2 W, 21 K, and a 0.89 WHIP (to go along with a 3.65 ERA). Aside from Cole, Jessica saw contributions from Walker Buehler, Chris Paddack, Hyun-Jin Ryu, and Yusei Kikuchi. Jessica only eked out a 5-4 win, largely because her offense couldn’t keep pace with her pitching, having been hamstrung by Kike Hernandez, Corey Seager, Mitch Haniger, and Travis Shaw all putting up duds in Week 6.

As I have been doing, Jessica put up 86 roto points for the week (out of 120), buoyed by 42 in pitching alone.

Closest Matchup: Donny’s Dandy Team (Donny Moskovits) vs. Ewing Oil (Matt McLaughliin)

As far as league scoring is concerned, Matt handily beat Donny by a 6-3 margin. However, when compared to the field, both teams would have ended up with a 59-point tie for the week. Neither team was outstanding, though Matt’s .298 AVG was the second best in the league this week. The standout on Matt’s team was the triumphant return of Austin Meadows, who contributed 3 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI, and a .417 AVG only over 3 games in the week. On Donny’s side of the matchup, his 2.29 ERA was also good for second best in the league, behind Jessica’s dominant pitching week. Justin Verlander, Robbie Ray, and Jon Lester contributed a 0.00 ERA, helping Donny’s ratios quite a bit.

– David Fenko