Baseball Games of the Week:
Week 1:
Bobcats vs. Jurges
Ahhh Baseball Season has finally arrived. And what better way to kick it off than to break down Jurges vs. Bobcats. This seems like a potential playoff matchup down the road with two similarly constructed teams. While a week 1 game is never a “must-win” both teams will be looking to get the season started on the right foot. This matchup could play a role in the playoff seeding down the line.
These teams mirror eachother in many ways it seems. Both teams boast strong lineups, have weak closing situations, have one main base-stealer, and limited quality SPs. Jurges just seems to trump Bobcats in every aspect though. While both lineups are very good, Jurges lineup in just insane. It is littered with studs like Vlad, Tejada, Utley, Delgado, and Mauer. Bobcats has a few stud bats of his own with Holliday, Manny and Howard. Bobcats’ weaknesses within his lineup are more glaring than Jurges though. So Jurges should take steals with Podsednik, and probably 3 out of the other 4 hitting categories.
Jurges has a couple stud SPs in Carpenter and Meyers but lacks depth in his whole staff after those two. The same statement could be made for Jurges except he has just one stud SP in Lackey. Jurges also has one mediocre closer, Jenks, which will give him saves since Bobcats has none. Even though Jurges has 2 top SPs, Bobcats should win Ks and Wins because he has more just has more SPs. Jurges higher quality SPs should lock up ERA and WHIP.
In conclusion, Jurges wins 7-3 in his first step towards, what ought to be a run at the title.
Week 2:
Chiefs vs. Thunder
This week’s matchup will be a battle between two young up and coming teams. Thunder’s immense and talented prospect list finally started paying dividends last season as he was the regular season champ and was a title contender. Chiefs is a newbie, atleast in this league, who has inherited a talented young team that underachieved last season. Chiefs helped his cause with an impressive FA draft, stealing every player I was targeting.
The two lineups are pretty comparable when healthy. Both have some top young hitters and a stud 1B. Chiefs is missing Vic Martinez and Quentin right now though. In spite of those notable absences, the two teams seem pretty similar offensively with the exception of SBs. Thunder has a stranglehold on SBs. Splitting the other offensive categories seems like a possibility though so I’ll say 3-2 Thunder on the offensive side.
On the pitching side, Chiefs has some nice SPs but not many teams can match up with Thunder’s overpowering staff. Accordingly, Thunder ought to take wins, Ks, ERA, and WHIP. Chiefs has 2 closers, and yes I’m including Riske, compared to Thunder’s Wheeler. So Chiefs should take saves. On the pitching end, it’ll be 4-1 Thunder.
In conclusion, Thunder wins 7-3 and takes first place with a 15-5 record.
Week 3:
Drummers vs. Rip
It is week 3. Opening day effects are wearing off and guys are starting to get into the flow of the season. So what better time to analyze Drummers vs Rip? I honestly do not see either of these teams making the playoffs this year. But they do seem pretty evenly matched and each team does feature some exciting young players. Rip has some highly rated young bats in Stephen Drew, Francouer, and Zimmerman. Drummers counters with his own young stable of pitchers in Verlander, Papelbon, and Street. Both teams have the foundations to be able to build around through prospects, FA pickups, careful trading and the FA draft.
While Rip does have a nice group of young bats, Drummers has some more established bats, even without Soriano, such as Abreu, Chipper, and Bill Hall not to mention his own youth like Lind, Swisher and Kinsler. Rip has his youth a couple solid older guys like Helton and Patterson but he is overmatched here. Rip should take steals though with Patterson and he’ll manage to steal one other hitting category.
On the pitching side, Drummers will win Saves without a doubt. Also, considering Drummers highest ERA in the first two weeks is 1.81, he should continue his hot streak and take whip and ERA. Rip will take the remaining pitching categories, Ks and Wins, because of his SP depth.
In conclusion, Drummers win 6-4 to improve on his solid record while Rip continues in his long term rebuilding plan.
Week 4:
Pimps vs. Green and
Ugly
Yes, that is right. I am analyzing my own match-up. What, I’m not allowed to be in the game of the week just because I write it? I will try to be as unbiased as possible. Anyways, the almighty Pimps face GU this week in a battle between 4th and 5th place. These are two of the elite teams in the league as GU is the defending Champ and Pimps is a star-studded team as well.
On the offensive side, Pimp’s lineup is arguably the strongest in the league and has been the source of much envy haha. GU’s lineup is solid but unspectacular. GU has a more balanced team that features good pitching, good closers, and a good lineup but no single area is great. Pimps unbalanced team actually seems to give him an advantage here. Pimps has a great lineup, very good closers, and very poor starting pitching. So while Pimps will probably get destroyed in the SP categories, he ought to win the hitting categories and saves. I expect Pimps to win HRs, RBI, and Steals. Runs and Batting average will get split. On the pitching side, GU will win Wins and Ks. Pimps will win saves. ERA and whip will be split.
In conclusion, Pimps wins 6-4 against the reigning champ.
Week 7:
Brooklyn has this idea in his mind that he is guaranteed to make the playoffs. Well, what better test than against last years champ, Green and Ugly? GU has continued his domination this season with a 38-18 record.
While Brooklyn has significantly improved his lineup, at the expense of his prospect list, he still won’t be able to match GU’s lineup. While Brooklyn has some studs like Soriano and Manny he has too many weaknesses in his lineup. Meanwhile, GU may not quite have the absolute fantasy studs but he is solid at just about every position. GU won’t compete with Brooklyn’s speedsters – Soriano, Abreu, Rollins – but he should take the rest of the offensive categories.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn is trying the RP strategy invented by myself. Unfortunately, this strategy is very inconsistent. There are weeks where the ERA and WHIP are record setting and other weeks where all it takes is one or two bad games and the ERA/WHIP has ballooned to 5+/1.5. Since it is difficult to predict, I will just assume that ERA and WHIP are split. GU will obviously win Ks and wins. Brooklyn will likely win saves.
In conclusion, GU wins 7-3. Brooklyn has made strides but still has a ways to go. GU continues to prove why he is an elite team in this league.
Week 9:
GU vs. Bobcats
This week is a clash among Titans as two of the league’s best teams square off. GU sits in first place and has not even lost a category in three weeks. Meanwhile, Bobcats has lost just once this year (and a slight loss at that) and is in third place. In writing what will certainly be my last analysis of a GU matchup for a while (3 analyses in a row, BUT it’s hard not to make a 1st vs. 3rd a GOW), this looks like quite a battle with the question being: Can anyone take down this absurdly hot GU team?
Looking at the lineups, it kind of puzzles me how GU has managed such a dominant and record setting lineup without any huge studs. I think if anyone can take GU’s lineup down though, it is Bobcats. Bobcats has some huge bats that seems to be hitting their stride right about now; Ordonez is on fire, Howard seems to finally be heating up too and of course A-Rod is A-Rod. I’m going out on a bit of a limb and predicting Bobcat’s lineup will take down GU’s lineup 3-2 in a tight matchup.
The pitching is where GU separates himself from Bobcats. Bobcat’s lineup is great but his pitching is somewhat mediocre. Lackey is dominating but the rest of Bobcats staff is underperforming resulting in a team ERA of 4.27 for the season, 13th in the league. GU has a good staff featuring two dominant starters in Chris Young and the Cy Youngesque Jake Peavy as well as a couple nice complementary SPs. GU also has 2 solid closers to Bobcats Dave Weathers. GU should shutout Bobcats in the pitching categories 5-0.
In conclusion, GU wins 7-3 and continues his dominance but loses his insane streak of not losing a category.
Week 10
Gooperstown vs. Polly Urethane
I vowed not to do a GU game for the game of the week this week and it was certainly tough to stick to that with #1 and #2 facing off but it gets boring writing and reading about the same team each week so we’ll look at Goo vs. Polly. Goo is in the hunt to sneak into the playoffs and is coming off an impressive 7-3 victory over Jurges where he even broke the runs record. Polly has been struggling as he is in the midst of a rebuilding effort with the majority of his assets being young prospects or guys with little red “NAs” next to their name.
Both teams have pretty decent lineups. Goo has some has some quality bats, although they’re old as dirt. Polly has a deceptively good lineup too with some good young hitters that are probably under the radar a bit. Goo’s lineup is hot though and should have a slight advantage to win 3 of the 5 hitting categories.
In terms of pitching, Polly is really struggling. He has 3 SPs but none of them are particularly good and no closers. Goo on the other hand has a little more pitching depth led by Oswalt and Goo also has 3 closers. Goo should take 4 out of 5 pitching categories.
In conclusion, Goo takes the win 7-3 and climbs just that much closer to the playoffs while Polly looks to the future.
Week 11
Bobcats vs. Hybrid
We’ve got “the best team going” versus Sweet League’s baseball dynasty. Both teams should be able to make the playoffs regardless of this matchup but this week will likely have a strong influence on playoff seeding, particularly who gets the valuable bye-week.
At this point, it looks like Hybrid has the best lineup in the league. Earlier, I think Pimps (myself) had an argument for best lineup but with some restructuring of my team it seems Hybrid stands alone as the lineup to beat. Bobcat’s lineup is no slouch itself but Hybrids is just on another level. As such, Hybrid should win hitting 4-1 with Bobcats taking batting average (Dunn is a killer lol).
Dave Weathers, of all people, ensures that Bobcats will take saves. Bobcats should also take ERA and Whip because some of Hybrid’s SPs have been shaky lately such as “King” Felix, Dice-K, Perez, and Sonnanstine. However, this same SP group should give Hybrid wins in the Ks and wins categories. So, Bobcats takes pitching 3-2.
Overall, Hybrid wins 6-4 in a tight one that really could go either way.