Week 12: The Check Swing

Raise your hand if you're excited to watch the Mets waste Pete Alonso's career.

Some movement in the standings this week, as Ray jumped up 2 spots and closed within about 40 points of Adam's lead. The top 5 teams are still separated by less than 100 points, so we're looking at a great battle down the stretch.

1. Yari's Autonomics (2403.3, 7-5, last week 1): Adam's team had a strong week but couldn't overcome Rick's pitching in the loss. Let's blame Zack Greinke (1), just because we can. Cole Hamels (23 in 2 starts) and Max Scherzer (22) certainly did their part, even if Hamels couldn't secure a win. On offense, Yasiel Puig (29.5) came out of nowhere for a monster week, and everyone else was mostly solid-ish. Josh Bell (11.5) and Jean Segura (12) picked bad times to cool off, and no one but Puig could hit the ball out of the park, but YA kept its grip on the top spot nonetheless.

2. Clemente's Bucs (2362.7, 6-6, last week 4): Ray's team crushed the ball to vault two spots into second place with a big win against Bill. Josh Donaldson (21) and Jeff McNeil (20.5) led a balanced attack as the offense put up 138.5 points. Newfound ace Brandon Woodruff (26 in 2 starts) led the way on the mound, even with Stephen Strasburg (13), Zach Eflin (8) and Trevor Williams (5) failing to blow people away. The important thing to note is that Starling Marte put up 15.5 points without hitting a single, and in fact with only 3 hits total, and that's damned impressive.

Heads up in the front row!

3. The Rookies (2361.3 points, 5-7, last week 2): Cody Bellinger (23.5) continued to scorch the ball, but Eduardo Escobar (8), Tony Wolters (9) and Hunter Renfroe (10.5) all cooled off in a loss to Hassey's Girl. Scott Kingery (3) hit well but made 4 errors, which is Amed Rosario territory. On the mound, closer Greg Holland put up a minus-2 in 2 appearances, but all four starters scored 12 or more points. The offense just couldn't produce enough for a win.

4. When the Ledee Breaks (2345.7, 7-5, last week 3): Matt's squad took down the Misfits on the backs of - guess what - his offense. Juan Soto (31.5) kept slugging, and Michael Conforto (20) and Christian Walker (20.5) chipped in strongly as well. The bad news was the loss of Trevor Story, which looks like it could last for a while. With a big piece of the offense down, how will the Zeppelins respond? Pitchers Joey Lucchesi (22 in 2 starts) and Dakota Hudson (17) look like they can handle the weight, but can Jose Quintana (-4.7) and Chase Anderson (2)? Anderson has already been cut, so that answers that.

5. Hassey's Girl (2304.3, 9-3, last week 5): On a week when the pitching staff really only had three starts - with Rich Hill leaving with an injury after an inning - the commish offense stepped up in a win against the Rookies. As you'd expect, it was Pete Alonso (33.5) and Christian Yelich (30.5) leading the way, as a mostly dormant offense put up 12 homers and 11 doubles... and 26 walks. Patience is just the best virtue. German Marquez (15), Aaron Nola (14) and Hyun-Jin Ryu (10) each had quality starts but couldn't earn wins.

6. Project Mayhem (2262.2, 7-5, last week 6): Bill's offense couldn't keep up with Ray in a loss to the Bucs. Ketel Marte (19) kept hitting annoyingly well, but no one else did much of note, unless you'd like to note JT Realmuto going hitless and scoring just 1 point on a pair of walks. Maikel Franco (2) is stuck in a deep, dark hole and Franmil Reyes (1) cooled off. As a team: just 2 homers (both by Joc Pederson), 5 doubles, a triple and 9 RBIs. That's not great. Imagine how bad it could have been if not for Walker Buehler's 28-point outing! Miles Mikolas (20 in 2 starts) also contributed and Will Smith (13.7) just keeps rolling as a closer for a terrible team.

7. Lumber Co Lumber (2170.8, 5-7, last week 8): John's squad got a win against the Losers on the back of some strong offense, led by Freddie Freeman (31.5). Every other hitter - except poor, sad Colin Moran - put up at least 14 points in a balanced attack. The pitching was less impressive, though Jon Lester (13.7) did earn a win. Stevens Brault (6) and Matz (-1) weren't great, and Kenta Maeda got only 15 out of 2 starts. Good thing Lumber Co brought the lumber.

How is Brian McCann not in this picture?

8. Fresh Fish (2170.3, 6-6, last week 9): Rick's pitchers put on a clinic to top Adam in a high-scoring matchup. Jacob deGrom (34.3 in 2 starts) looks like the deGrom of last year, Joe Musgrove (19), Clayton Kershaw (18) and Luis Castillo (18.7 in 2 starts) all pitched well, and Felipe "Vazquez" locked up 3 saves. 106.3 points total for the staff. The offense was.... also present, doing some things in an ok fashion. Amed Rosario (22.5) was the leader, though, which is not great in general. At least he didn't make an error! Marcell Ozuna (15.5) made 2 of them, though, to offset a strong offensive week. The rest of the hitting was pretty much meh, but it didn't matter with the pitching.

9. Arbitration Losers (2147, 7-5, last week 7): Tim's pitching staff was brutally bad in the loss to LCL. Just horribly bad. Closer Kirby Yates put up 10 despite the blown save Sunday, but no starter had more than 8 and two (Julio Teheran and Madison Bumgarner) put up negatives. A good way to slip from 7th to 9th in the point totals, I'd say. On offense, Manny Machado (27.5) kept slugging, and Bryan Reynolds (21), Javy Baez (21) and Joey Votto (20.5) did their share of damage. Fun note: Tim had Kike Hernandez in the lineup for one game... in which he hit a pinch-hit grand slam. He was cut the next day. Baseball is cruel.

10. The Misfits (1901, 1-11, last week 10): Reid's old dudes just aren't hitting like you'd hope. Paul Goldschmidt (13), Ryan Braun (15), Justin Turner (14.5) and Yadi Molina (11.5) all hit fine, but none are dominating the way Reid needs to win some ballgames. I've said it once; I've said it a thousand times: if Cesar Hernandez (16.5) is your leading hitter, you're pretty much cooked. On the mound, Michael Wacha (14) and Jon Gray (14) had strong starts and Merrill Kelly (16 in 2 starts) put up some points. But there's no ace here to pick up the slack.

Batting leaders after Week 12

1. Christian Yelich (HG) 301
2. Cody Bellinger (R) 287
3. Freddie Freeman (LCL) 275.5

4. Josh Bell (YA) 274

5. Nolan Arenado (R) 262

Pitching leaders after Week 12

1. Max Scherzer (YA) 236.3
2. Hyun-Jin Ryu (HG) 217
3. Stephen Strasburg (CB) 207
4. Brandon Woodruff (CB) 205.3
5. Luis Castillo (FF) 202.3

Seriously, this guy is picking fights with reporters? My grandma could whoop his ass.