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| The new odds-on favorites in the FBLG playoffs are named in honor of this man. |
The first round of the playoffs is over, and 3 of the 4 lower seeds have advanced. Just like the real thing, fantasy baseball is wacky. Soler Eclipse, the No. 8 seed, shocked top-seeded Already Zaun as the Zaunies picked an awful time to have their worst week of the season. Arbitration Losers and Misfits both lost the battle but won the war, taking big leads in the first week and holding off their opponents to advance.
This means our two newest owners will do battle in the semifinals, as will two of our longest-tenured owners. Ray's Retire 21 squad, the lone top seed to advance, will face Adam's upstart Soler Eclipse. And Tim's Arbitration Losers will do battle with Reid's Misfits. These will be two-week matchups, with most cumulative points advancing to the three-week finals.
The rest of the teams fall into the consolation round robin for the next five weeks. The top two squads at the end of the round robin will face off in the season's final week for the consolation championship.
1. Already Zaun (3,640 points, last week 1): What a stinker. The pitching was good but the offense went absolutely in the tank, with Matt Carpenter (2), Kike Hernandez (3), Adrian Gonzalez (4), Ben Paulsen (5) and Neil Walker (9) shooting blanks at the plate. The Zaunies' overall points lead is less than 40 as they try to hold off fast-charging Retire 21.
2. Retire 21 (3,604 points, last week 2): Meanwhile, all that went wrong for Already Zaun went right for Ray's bunch. Newcomer Raisel Iglesias pitched great (though, since he's a Red, didn't earn any wins). Kershaw and deGrom did their thing, Charlie Morton pitched like an ace and, oh yeah, the offense. Starlng Marte put up 30, Dee Gordon added 29, Jung-Ho Kang had 22... everyone but Cesar Hernandez was in double digits.
3. Arbitration Losers (3,398 points, last week 3): A good-enough week for Tim's bunch, with Stephen Piscotty (25) and Jayson Werth (20) pacing the offense. Madison Bumgarner led the staff - and also homered - and contributions were solid across the board to make up for rare down weeks from Brandon Belt and Buster Posey. How worried are the Losers about Jon Lester's recent struggles?
4. Pitch You Blockhead (3,373 points, last week 4): Three 20-point performances from Scott's infield, and none from Kolten Wong? The young second baseman posted a minus-1 for the week, and the outfield and pitching weren't enough to bolster the strong weeks from Nolan Arenado, Wilmer Flores and Yangervis Solarte. Zach Greinke had a rare poor start at the worst time for Scott, who really needs Carlos Gomez to get on track in Houston.
5. Chateau Marmol (3293 points, last week 5): Matt's bunch did their darnedest to get back into it against the Arbitration Losers, but the comeback fell short. The Cubs' huge week led to 85 points from Matt's infield, with Kris Bryant posting a 30. And A.J. Pollock continued his torrid stretch with a 36. But the pitching was weak, with Max Scherzer taking a loss, and catcher Yasmani Grandal (1) fell victim to the Dodger Flu.
6. Soler Eclipse (3,242 points, last week 6): The offense did all the damage for Adam in the upset win, with Jose Reyes (21), Paul Goldschmidt (20), Nick Markakis (20) and Gerardo Parra (19) leading the way. The pitchers scored only 31 points, 25 of which came from Francisco Liriano. Not usually a recipe for success, but it was enough to get to the semifinals.
7. Rookies (3,189 points, last week 7): Henry was playing for nothing this week, and his team responded like they knew it. A pair of decent starts for Jordan Zimmermann were the only pitching highlights of the week, and no hitter got to 20 points, though Cameron Maybin, Martin Prado and Freddy Galvis had nice weeks.
8. Misfits (3,187 points, last week 8): Eighth in the points race, and now on to the semifinals for Reid's bunch. The Mets' huge offensive weekend led to 55 combined points from Curtis Granderson and Yoenis Cespedes, and old fart Matt Kemp pitched in with 22. That plus a couple decent starts from Cole Hamels were enough to make up for an off-week for the infield and young pitching.
9. The Bryce is Right (3,186 points, last week 9): We're sure Bill was really pleased that his team put up a 211 when it didn't really matter. Lucas Duda continues to battle injury and Matt Garza was awful in two starts. Everyone else on the team scored 13 or more points, led (again) by Dexter Fowler's 26. Khris Davis put up 25 and Aaron Nola (26), Mark Melancon (21) and Gerrit Cole (20) led the pitching staff.
10. Fresh Fish (2,912 points, last week 10): Rick has sequestered himself in Fresh Fish HQ to start planning the first pick in the 2016 FBLG Draft. We'll go out on a limb and guess it's a Marlin. Carlos Gonzalez and Stephen Strasburg had nice weeks as the Fish limped into the consolation round. But, hey, David Wright could be back this week!
