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; bottom three, you move down.
Legacy League
Best Performance: ManBearPuig (Rick Graham)
It’s not fun to write this section as the team that got dominated, but I have to be honest here. Rick’s offense helped him earn a 9-1 victory thanks to strong showings in HRs (13), RBI (45), and SBs (6). Taking charge was Austin Meadows and his .407 AVG, 9 RBI, 2 SBs and a homer. Max Scherzer paced the pitching staff with 21 Ks, a 1.29 ERA and 0.86 WHIP. How am I expected to compete with that when my top 2 starters this year were Luis Severino and Miles Mikolas? Scherzer’s performance led the staff to a 3.21 ERA with a 1.07 WHIP and 82 Ks over 72 IP. Rick takes on eighth place Troy & Amed in the AM (Austin Bristow II) in Week 10.
Closest Matchup: Gallo’s Cole (Kyle Bishop) vs Miggy Stardust (Jason Dunbar)
At this point, I truly feel bad for Jason. Two straight weeks as an honorable mention in the Best Matchup section and now he ends up as the loser in the Closest Matchup. This was a hard-luck loss, as he was very close to stealing a win. Kyle edged Jason in a few categories, including steals (2-1), saves (5-4), and ERA (3.42 to 3.66). To Kyle’s credit, Jason also took WHIP and AVG by very narrow margin so this also could’ve easily been a blowout. Kyle’s win was secured thanks to a strong performance from Antonio Senzatela, who Kyle picked up the week before. Jason has to be frustrated, as Lucas Giolito and Stephen Strasburg combined for a 2.02 ERA and a 0.94 WHIP over 22.1 dominant innings. Kyle is in second place after the win, while Jason falls to sixth. In Week 10, Kyle takes on 10th-place Max Posner while Jason Dunbar faces off with seventh-place Chapman & The Hosk (Myles Nelson).
Trade alert!!
Last week, Austin Bristow dealt Michael Brantley and Luke Weaver to Max Posner for Freddie Freeman! Just days later, in Weaver’s first start on Max’s roster, he injures his elbow and his status is still unknown. So far Freeman is hitting .193 for Austin with a homer and a stolen base. Meanwhile, Brantley has continued his high-average ways, batting .346 with Max, but with only 3 RBI to show for it.
-Dave Cherman
Prodigy League
Biggest Victory: Boyds-N-The-Hood (Brandon) vs. Acuna Moncada (Austin)
There were a lot of close matchups in Week 9 in the Prodigy league, but Brandon’s team was able to take down Austin’s team by a nice 8-2 margin. Brandon tallied 15 home runs, four saves, 66 strikeouts and a very nice 3.08 ERA and 1.09 WHIP, thanks to some strong performances from Gary Sanchez, Austin Riley and of course, Matthew Boyd.
Closest Matchup: Oh Say Can Yusei (Andy) vs. Adam’s Okay Team (Adam)
It was a battle of the two last-place teams, as Adam edged my squad 5-3. We tied in both wins (3) and saves (2) and were only one apart in home runs (10-9) and had batting averages of .271 and .270. Unfortunately, Adam’s pitching (3.93 ERA, 1.05 WHIP) was considerably better than mine (5.36, 1.48) which lead him to victory.
Weirdest Stat: Ben (Astudillo Ghibli) and Stephen (Hurling Archer’s) had what appeared to be a tightly contested battle, ending in a 6-4 win for Stephen’s squad. However, outside of wins and saves, which were determined by one each, many of the categories were very far apart. Stephen dominated the pitching categories, winning ERA and WHIP by huge margins, while also boasting six more home runs, 11 more RBI and nearly 50 points higher in the batting average department. However, Ben had nearly 20 more strikeouts and two more steals, helping keep the overall matchup rather close despite some lopsided individual categories.
Biggest waiver wire add: Nick Pivetta (Jeff’s majestic team)
Jeff nabbed the Phillies right-hander off waivers on May 28. Although his start that evening was only okay (5 IP, 3 ER, 6 K) he dominated in his follow-up start, tossing six shutout innings against the Dodgers and striking out nine. Although it didn’t help Jeff much in the standings (he lost 6-2) it should help him down the road if those pesky walk problems are under control.
– Andy Patton
Futures League
Best Performance: Not Dan (Dave Fisher) over Snell’s Bells (Michael Augustine), 6-4
This one was actually pretty easy. Only one team all week had a truly all-around performance, and that was Not Dan. Riding Austin Meadows (10 RBI), Corey Seager and Eduardo Escobar, Not Dan swept the hitting categories with a cushion on each (42 R, 12 HR, 41 RBI, 5 SB, .293 AVG). With top performances from Clayton Kershaw and Andrew Heaney, Not Dan’s 67 Ks easily won one pitching stat while remaining competitive in the rest (3.05 ERA, 1.20 WHIP).
Closest Matchup: Coffee’s for Closers (Travis Sherer) vs. Valley of the Dahls (Jake Bridges), 5-5
Coffee’s for Closers led by a large margin for five days of this matchup before Valley of the Dahls staged a weekend comeback. In a matchup that really could have ended with a win for either team, the margin of victory in both runs (26-24) and home runs (9-7) was two. Francisco Lindor’s lone stolen base was the only theft of the week for either team, giving Valley that category. RBIs where only three apart (28-25) and on the pitching side, Ks were close as well (54-50)
Weirdest Team Stat: Knuckle Curve (Colin Charles) and AMC’s Breaking Bats (Dan McNamara), pitching
I think these two forgot that we weren’t in one of the bizarro leagues where down is up, white is black, and the highest ERA wins. How else can you explain a matchup where ERA (5.54-5.56) and WHIP (1.53-1.38) are so tremendously high?
Biggest Performance-Enhancing Wire Add: Joey Lucchesi
Valley of the Dahls (Jake Bridges) picked up the Padres starter May 31, the day of his only start. He spun 6.1 innings of one-run ball, striking out five and earning the win, which helped Valley to victory in both Ks (54-50) and ERA (3.18-3.43).
– Travis Sherer
PL-League-1
Two teams made serious moves this week while the rest of the league wallowed in mediocrity … um, I mean, fought closely contested matchups down to the wire! Led Z.Eflin (Max Freeze) continued their pummeling of the league, turning in an 8-1-1 record against the Beliebers (Ben Hizer), which was bad news for the latter as it dropped them out of a playoff spot. Also laying a beatdown this week were Mostly Nats (Charlie Wright), who jumped into third place with an 8-1-1 showing against Mikey’s Team (Michael Ajeto). It’s been a rough year for the M’s, as they now sit 20.5 games out of the playoffs. Every other matchup for the week finished 5-5 or 5-4-1.
Best Performance
I could go on and on about how dominant Led Z.Eflin has become, as their xWin% has now reached .900 for the season, as they rank no lower than fourth in any category (the somewhat random SB being that lowest ranking) and first in four categories. Instead, let’s toss some love to the less-heralded teams, such as Mostly Nats and Hedenson’s Team (Hunter Denson) who posted zTotals (compared to the average performance across the league for the week) of 5.21 and 5.03, respectively. Additionally, the Maryland Wolfdogs (Ryan Fickes) had a very strong showing, posting a 3.60 zTotal (compared to their average weekly performance for the year) which is part of why despite a strong week, Hedenson’s Team could only post a 5-4-1 record against the Wolfdogs.
Strongest Category: Led Z.Eflin with a 2.02 zW from 5 W.
Weakest Category: Roop Dog (Ben Ruppert) with a -2.15 zERA from a 7.04 ERA.
Best and Closest Matchups
While the league had plenty of close matchups to highlight this week, the best of them was Hedenson’s 5-4-1 victory over the Wolfdogs, as they two teams combined for an average .654 zWin% for the week, the only match of the week to post a zWin% over .500. Despite Hedenson sitting in reasonably strong playoff position and the Wolfdogs having scuffled for most of the season, the Pups were somewhat favored with an expected pRec of 5-4-1. Hedenson pulled off the win via very solid offensive totals (outside of the punted category of SB) of 41 R (2nd in the league for the week), 35 RBI (5th), 13 HR (3rd), and a .329 AVG (1st). 6 SV on the week contributed to the narrow victory. The Wolfdogs lost two categories where they ranked in the top three (AVG and SV), but posted an impressive 90 K, 2.39 ERA, and 1.14 WHIP across 79 IP.
Statistical Oddities
Stephen Dudas’s Team continues clinging to second place, despite an xWin% of .455 and a zWin% of .492. While their pRec of 34-30-16 is somewhat better, their 47-27-6 record still gives them the highest pLuck on the season so far, 8.0 games ahead of where they would be expected based on their overall performance.
– Ryan Fickes
PL-League-2
Best performance
There truly was not a single team that had a great week across the board. The teams with the best offensive showings struggled on the mound and the bats went quiet for the teams that pitched the best. Because of that, we’ll separate offense and defense, just for this week.
Offense: Yu Snell My Bum (John Hale) had a terrific week at the plate, sweeping all five categories over The Story Profar (Jordan Larimore). John put up 45 runs, 55 RBI (!!), swatted 16 home runs, batted .299 and even swiped six bags. He took only one pitching category (Ks), though, in his 6-4 win.
Pitching: This was a tough call as two teams, Aaron Raised a Cain (Daniel Port) and The Luzardo King (Kevin Dalby) had outstanding pitching weeks. Kevin’s team posted a “worse” ERA, but even that was a 2.41. He more than made up for it in the other categories, though, edging Daniel in wins 6-5, saves 3-0, Ks 84-65. Daniel triumphed in WHIP, but just barely, .91 to 1.00.
Closest matchup
There were a number of matchups this week that were close in terms of categories won, but not a ton that went down to the wire within the numbers in those categories themselves. The league saw a 4-4-2 tie between DeJong and DeRestless (Nathan Mills) and Ol Dirty Bastardo (Adam Lawler), a 5-4-1 win for Daniel over Austin (Gretencord)’s Team and two 6-4 matchups, won by Hale over Larimore and Dalby over Holland Otts (Clay Cotton).
– Jordan Larimore
The Bottom of the Barrel
Best Performance: Ewing Oil (Matt McLaughlin) beat Colin by a score of 8-2
While compared against the rest of the league, he put up 82 weekly roto points, which gave him a three-point advantage over Jessica, who is also coming on strong lately. Chicago has been good to Matt, as he rode Kyle Hendricks and Lucas Giolito’s good weeks to an easy win in pitching. On the offensive side, the AL Beast carried Matt, with Austin Meadows, Xander Bogaerts, and Tommy Pham batting over .400 for the week.
Closest Matchup: Frankie Goes to IL (David Fenko) vs. North Correa (Kyle Frank)
This is an interesting matchup because both teams did really well on one side of the ball this week – David put up a top-four performance in all offensive stats not named stolen bases and Kyle put up a top-four performance in all of the pitching categories. Had it not been for David’s one measly SB, this matchup would likely have ended in a tie. Of note, Kyle’s team had 13 saves this week. The next closest team (David’s) had 4.
– David Fenko