The Check Swing: Week 4

1. Manwaring a Muumuu (709 points, 3-1): The Muumuu crew rides a strong offensive week into first place despite a mediocre pitching performance, and the offense could be even better moving forward with the return of Jason Kubel and Aramis Ramirez. Buster Posey, Joey Votto and Huston Street are performing better, as well.

2. Misfits (704 points, 3-1): Roy Halladay, Adam Wainwright and Jaime Garcia look like they'll anchor this rotation, and the return of Freddie Freeman and Carlos Ruiz will strengthen a good offense. But how serious is Troy Tulowitzki's shoulder injury?

3. Testosteraun Braun (669 points, 2-2): Daniel Murphy certainly cooled off, which contributed to a blowout loss for the Syringe Squad. There's still no answer to the Goldschmidt-Rizzo situation at first base, and we wonder what will happen to Evan Gattis when Brian McCann returns to the Braves.

Manwaring a Muumuu moves into first place
and takes a break to wash his fat-guy hat.

4. Arbitration Losers (668 points, 2-2): Tony Cingrani looks like a gem in the rotation, and Matt Kemp seems to have found his stroke. Chase Headley and Brandon Crawford form a great left side of the infield. But where did Allen Craig's home run power go?

5. Silver State Sagebrushers (662 points, 1-3): The Sagebrushers picked up their first win thanks to big point totals from Clayton Kershaw, Justin Upton and Dexter Fowler. On the other hand, Rickie Weeks is struggling again, and there are cracks in the rotation.

6. Going Going Gonzo (630 points, 1-3): It's a bad sign for the Gonzos when Ruben Tejada has outscored Dan Uggla and B.J. Upton this season. The rotation looks like a strength, though, with A.J. Burnett continuing last season's success and Trevor Cahill pitching well.

7. Pitch You Blockhead (617 points, 2-2): The outfield of Carlos Gonzlez, Shin-Soo Choo and Starling Marte has combined for 214 of PYB's 617 points this season. This team will need to get more from the struggling middle infield of Cliff Pennington, Josh Rutledge and Matt Carpenter to close the gap with the leaders.

8. Lawyers, Guns & Money (613 points, 3-1): LGM came awfully close to being our league's only 4-0 team. But great performances by Lance Lynn, Patrick Corbin and Ian Desmond weren't enough to make up for a bad week from Yadier Molina (6 points) and Andrew McCutchen (3 points). Also, the infield right side of Ike Davis and Danny Espinosa hasn't done much.

9. Fresh Fish (606 points, 2-2): Giancarlo Stanton has 3 homers in the past 2 days, which bodes well for a move up the standings. The return of Cody Ross from the DL has helped, but the Fish could really use Ryan Ludwick and Zack Greinke back, too. Jean Segura has been good in place of Hanley Ramirez, who is scheduled to return this week. Is there a shortstop controversy in Fishtown?

10. Rookies (512 points, 1-3): With Jason Heyward out after having an appendectomy, things don't look good for the Rookies. Alfonso Soriano posted 6 games with zero points this week. In fact, the Rookies got a total of 17 points from Marco Scutaro, Everth Cabrera, John Buck, David Freese, Paul Maholm, Soriano and Heyward.