The 2014 FBLG championship series is set. And it's between teams that went 9-9 and 8-10 during the regular season. So there's that. Congrats to Rick's Fresh Fish and Reid's Misfits for advancing to the three-week championship series. Ryan's Rangers and Tanana in the Tailpipe will do battle for three weeks to determine third place. And the rest of us will continue the consolation slap-fight.
1. Fresh Fish (3,813 points): With the favorites for the NL Cy Young (Kershaw) and MVP (Stanton), Rick's going to be tough to beat. Jarred Cosart put up two good starts last week, because of course he did. And Buster Posey remembered that he used to be a power hitter and decided to try that again. The Fish just keep putting up points, and now Hyun-Jin Ryu is off the DL and pitching well again. Uh-oh.
2. Danger Zaun (3,810 points): A solid week from most of the offense and a big start from Stephen Strasburg was enough to help the Zaunies improve to 2-0 in the consolation round and keep pace with the Fresh Fish. Just as the disabled list shrunk to just four starting pitchers, Kolten Wong went down with a possible concussion. Danger Zaun has already fired its training staff and hired a holistic healer.
3. Ryan's Rangers (3,642 points): Bill's guys fought valiantly but were swept away by the Fish, landing in the third-place matchup. Chase Anderson and Francisco Liriano did their thing on the mound, but team ace Wily Peralta was shelled. And the non-Rendon part of the infield combined for just 17 points. Now the Rangers will have to pick themselves up and get ready for the angry Tailpipers.
4. Arbitration Losers (3,605 points): Tim's guys were the big movers this week, vaulting two spots into fourth place. Matt Holliday woke up Saturday convinced he was back in Coors Field and that it was 2007, and then went out and hit like it. Pablo Sandoval and Josh Harrison had monster weeks too, and Peavy led the Jake-heavy rotation (Arrieta, deGrom) with a near-no-hitter.
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| This guy is ashamed of the performance of his namesake last week. |
5. Tanana in the Tailpipe (3,589 points): Reid's guys were nice enough to let Tanana hang around until the last day of the semifinals, then threw four starts at them to pummel them into submission. Other than Tyson Ross and Bryce Harper, though, Tanana mostly didn't show up this week.
6. E-3 (3,583 points): Adam's old Phillies - Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins and A.J. Burnett - combined for 69 points. And it wasn't enough for a win. That about sums up the second half of E-3's season, actually. Johnny Cueto keeps rolling along, at least. But Dee Gordon and Curtis Granderson have slowed down, Miguel Montero is in a slump, David Wright is hurt, and no one knows where Allen Craig went. Maybe he fell down the Springfield Mystery Spot?
7. Pitch You Blockhead (3,564 points): Scott's blockheads pitched great and dragged his offense to a win. It helped that RMH only put up 83 points against him. In fact, if PYB had started no players on offense, they still would have won easily. Jeff Samardzija remembered that he's supposed to be an ace, and new addition Mike Minor continued his late-season reawakening. Unfortunately, Scott's leading hitter this week was Neil Walker. And he was on the bench.
8. Misfits (3,522 points): What a weird, weird week. Only one of Reid's hitters - Hunter Pence - showed up. The other seven hitters combined for 31 points, with half of those coming for Charlie Blackmon. Daniel Murphy got hurt midweek and couldn't be replaced. And yet... when you throw eight starts out there from your solid rotation, you end up getting over 100 points from them (even with Tanner Roark throwing two duds) and somehow the team nearly 300 points out of the lead is in the championship series.
9. Rocky Mountain High (3,373 points): Oof. The less said about this stinkbomb the better. Mat Latos pitched great in a win. He put up 18. The next-highest scorer this week was three guys tied with eight points apiece. Five of the seven days this week, Jon put up 6, 4, 4, 6 and 5.
10. Rookies (3,371 points): A decent week for Henry's guys, but no chance against Tim's squad this week. Justin Upton continues to be a fringe MVP candidate and Jordan Zimmermann pitched like an ace. But too many of the other Braves hitters are struggling and Doug Fister put up a rare stinker of a start.
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