Playoffs Second Round: The Check Swing

One of the National League's best hitters is in this photo. Not you, Votto. 

The Rookies have advanced to the championship round, which shouldn't be a surprise considering the season Henry's team had. What might be a surprise is that the commissioners posted the high score of the 2-week period and advanced to the finals as well. The team write-ups are more brief than normal thanks to ESPN's website not displaying pitcher point totals at this writing. Thanks, ESPN.

Second-round playoff finals

(2) Hassey's Girl 415.8, (1) Arbitration Losers 392.2
(1) The Rookies 401.5, (2) Clemente's Bucs 379.7
CONSOLATION
(3) When the Ledee Breaks 340.5, (3) Fresh Fish 321.7
(4) Yari's Autonomics 369.8, (4) Project Mayhem 341
Lumber Co Lumber 362.3, The Misfits 291.8

Is Tommy Edman 12 years old? 

Final matchup

(1) The Rookies vs. (2) Hassey's Girl

The week in review

1. Clemente's Bucs (4462.4, last week 1): Despite a valiant effort, Ray fell just short of reaching the finals again. Wasn't it just a couple of years ago that Ray had the highest point total and won the playoff title? That won't happen this year. CB's top producer in this semifinal matchup was ... Tommy Edman? That can't be right. Oh, he had 15 hits and 2 steals? I stand corrected. Josh Donaldson hit 4 homers and Charlie Blackmon had 8 singles and 7 doubles. Led by Stephen Strasburg, Dallas Keuchel and Miles Mikolas, Ray's pitching staff performed well — but not quite as well as The Rookies'. Dinelson Lamet allowed only 3 runs with 14 Ks in 11 innings but went 0-2. Nice work, Padres.

2. The Rookies (4426.9 points, last week 2): Henry's offense had a big playoff series, hitting 19 homers and driving in 56 runs. With hot hitters such as Ozzie Albies, Eduardo Escobar, Cody Bellinger, Nolan Arenado, Aristides Aquino and Scott Kingery, The Rookies look like the team to beat in the championship series. Henry's pitching staff went 5-2 with 71 Ks and only 20 runs allowed in 58 innings. Max Fried fanned 20 batters in 13 innings and went 2-0. Patrick Corbin went 1-2 despite pitching well — he struck out 26 in 18 innings and allowed only 6 runs.

Kevin Newman is our favorite Pittsburgh shortstop
since ... sigh. OK, fine. Since Jordy Mercer. 

3. Hassey's Girl (4312.2, last week 5): The commissioners defeated our former commissioner (Tim) to advance to the finals. The hitters get most of the credit; Hassey bats slugged 23 homers and drove in 59 runs. Despite the presence of 2018 MVP Christian Yelich and Nicholas Castellanos — who's been hitting like an MVP for the Cubs — HG's leading scorer for the week was Kevin Newman. When was the last time a Pirates shortstop was anyone's leading anything? The pitching staff was a patchwork of scrubs, with Hyun-Jin Ryu and Aaron Nola struggling and Craig Kimbrel getting hurt (again). The only wins came from Anthony DeSclafani, Zac Gallen and Sandy Alcantara. How did these clowns make the finals anyway?

4. When the Ledee Breaks (4285.1, last week 3): Juan Soto put up an absurd 55 points and could be in the running to be the No. 1 pick next year. Yasmani Grandal homered 5 times, walked 10 times and committed an error — pretty much the Three True Outcomes for Grandal. Jose Quintana pitched well and picked up a couple of wins, while Caleb Smith pitched poorly and picked up a couple of losses. Hector Neris was classic Neris, blowing a pair of saves and taking a loss. Imagine that.

Close your mouth, Jughead.
We can smell your breath from here.

5. Yari's Autonomics (4270.8, last week 4): Anthony Rendon wasn't quite as good as his teammate Soto, but 53 points is nothing to sniff at. Josh Bell heated back up, but he did make 2 of Yari's 9 errors. In fact, every YA hitter except Kevin Pillar and Ian Desmond committed at least 1 error. Clearly, Desmond wasn't playing shortstop. On the mound, Adam's pitchers went 4-2 despite giving up 29 runs in 61.1 innings. Archie "Jughead" Bradley picked up 6 saves and found a slice of pizza in his beard. Mike Foltynewicz, who allowed 2 runs in 9.2 innings, actually outpitched Max Scherzer, Zack Greinke and Mike Soroka.

6. Arbitration Losers (4156.9, last week 6): Tim's team didn't have quite enough to get past Hassey and reach the finals. Eugenio Suarez almost made it happen singlehandedly; he hit 8 homers and drove in 15 runs. Bryan Reynolds collected 20 hits as he and Suarez combined for 101 points. Losing Javier Baez to injury didn't help, and Buster Posey could have done more than hit a bunch of singles and walk a few times. We hate to be those guys who rip the Giants just because we can — pause for comedic effect — but Tim was partially foiled by his 2 San Francisco pitchers. Sure, Madison Bumgarner and Jeff Samardzija went 2-1, but they combined to allow 17 runs in 28.1 innings.

Clayton Kershaw must have thought
the playoffs started already.

7. Fresh Fish (4056, last week 7): Corey Dickerson led the way for Rick's sluggish offense, putting up 41.5 points. Where was the star power? The Fish got only 14 points from Anthony Rizzo, 16.5 from Kris Bryant and 11 from Keston Hiura. Even the pitching was unusually wobbly for the Fish. Chris Paddack was fantastic, fanning 16 and allowing 1 run in 12 innings. But Clayton Kershaw allowed 8 runs in 9 innings and went 0-2, Jacob deGrom allowed 8 runs in 14 innings and went 0-1, and Luis Castillo allowed 10 runs in 19.2 innings (but he did strike out 29 and went 2-1).

8. Project Mayhem (3974.7, last week 8): Bill's hitters had a great week. J.T. Realmuto, Ketel Marte and Joc Pederson all exceeded 47 points and combined for 15 homers and 36 RBIs. Paul DeJong chipped in with 3 homers and 11 RBIs of his own. Unfortunately for PM, the pitching was ... subpar. The team combined to allow 32 runs in 44 innings. Walker Buehler went 2-0 because the Dodgers' offense was able to overcome his 6 runs allowed in 11 innings. Will Smith earned 2 saves despite allowing 3 runs in 3.1 innings. Reminder: This is a 2-week total. Anibal Sanchez, Kyle Hendricks and Elieser Hernandez were terrible in 6 starts yet somehow went only 0-1 combined.

Would Marcus Stroman even crack the top 5 on a list
of the most disappointing Mets of 2019?

9. Lumber Co Lumber (3910.3, last week 9): Bryce Harper, Freddie Freeman and Rhys Hoskins showed up to lead John's offense. Colin Moran tried to help but was hurt by his 3 errors. Josh Hader is back to being a relief monster — he struck out 15 batters in 8.1 scoreless innings while earning a win and 4 saves. Marcus Stroman went 0-2 as his disappointing stint with the Mets continues. Jon Lester gave up a lot of runs (which he usually does) but went 2-1 anyway (which he usually does).

10. The Misfits (3521.6, last week 10): Reid's team didn't get the job done on either side of the ball. Jack Flaherty continues to amaze down the stretch; he went 2-1 while allowing 2 runs and striking out 25 batters in 22 innings. The rest of the Misfits' pitchers allowed 34 runs in 36.1 innings. We expect that out of Chase Anderson, but not Noah Syndergaard, Trevor Bauer and Edwin Diaz. OK, maybe we do expect that out of the Mets version of Diaz. At the plate, Justin Turner and A.J. Pollock each hit 4 homers, but it didn't amount to much.

Batting leaders after Week 22

1t. Christian Yelich (HG) 497
1t. Freddie Freeman (LCL) 497
3. Cody Bellinger (R) 492
4. Ronald Acuña Jr. (WLB) 488
5. Anthony Rendon (YA) 479

Pitching leaders after Week 22

1. Stephen Strasburg (CB) 397
2. Jacob deGrom (FF) 380
3. Luis Castillo (FF) 370.7
4. Max Scherzer (YA) 362.7
5t. Patrick Corbin (R) 360.7
5t. Aaron Nola (HG) 360.7