Steamrolled.
Can’t do too much when you go up against the weekly point leader. And Papa appears to be on the a path to capture that distinction. To put it this way, we would have beaten 6 other teams this week, but there is a reason Papa is leading the West division.
We’re currently in second place in our East division.
Unfortunately, our division leader, Basher, third place, Murphy10, and fourth place, MadBumss, are all on pace to easily win this week. That means that we’ll now be 2 games behind Basher, tied with Murphy10 again, and MadBumss will be one game behind us.
So what happened? Pitching happened.
None of our pitchers put up many points. And Bashers pitchers crushed it – Jake Arrieta had two great games, Corey Kluber was ridiculous today, David Price really likes his new home in Toronto…twice, and Carlos Carrasco.
I’m up this week. I’ll take a look to see what, if any changes we can make. If any nice free agents are out there. But can’t be too upset the loss. However, we need wins to separate us from MadBumss and Murphy10 so we can finish in the top 2 of our division. And catching Basher would be even better.
Now what do we do about Week 19?
Dee Gordon was hot last week, but Miami only plays 5 games this week. How does that happen?? So Lemehieu, who’s no bum, will be in our lineup this week, because Colorado’s got 7 games.
Arenado is still a better choice for 3rd than Seager. Plus Arenado has 7 games and Seager only has 6 games this week.
Should we be torn about our relief pitchers? Shawn Tolleson has been pretty good, but being on the Rangers doesn’t give him as many save opportunities. Same for Francisco Rodriguez, who is hot when he gets the ball, but the Brewers don’t give him many save opportunities. Unfortunately, Santiago Casilla is questionably the best option we have right now. Casilla has been a disappointment after the first half of the season. His arm is wearing down and he doesn’t have quite as much zip on his pitches as he did the first few months. If we want to swap him for another closer, maybe we look at Hector Rondon of the Cubs. Doesn’t have a lot of saves on the year, but has been lights out since being put into the roll. 8 for 8 in save situations in the last two weeks with only 1 ER allowed. The Cubs are playing good baseball and he should get more opportunities. OR, we could do what some other teams have been doing and getting a starting pitcher who technically qualifies as a relief pitcher. Chris Heston of the Giants fits this bill and has been pretty good all year, other than the last two starts. He can put up some good numbers and SP seem to get more points than closers…when they are pitching well. However, Casilla is still the Giants closer and will be given the opportunity to close games out, so he is not worthless.
Jose Fernandez, and his one good shoulder are on the bench, until we have more clarity about his DL situation. Luckily it is his shoulder instead of his surgically repaired elbow, but with the Marlins out of the playoff race, I would be shocked if they rushed their prized pitcher back to pitch in meaningless games. Another guy who is benched is Verlander. As much as everyone wants him to do well, he’s not consistent. And when he pitches well, he don’t log many points.
Unfortunately, this week, we have only 2 2-start pitchers. Fortunately, MadBumss has no 2-start pitchers. And they’re right behind us in our division, so we need this win. And Murphy10, who we’re tied with, is playing PGH Best 1, who has apparently given up on the league, so Murphy10 is pretty much guaranteed the win. And Basher, who is in first place, is playing Matrix, who has an illegal lineup as of this writing. So if Matrix doesn’t get their lineup situation fixed in the next few hours, Basher will notch a guaranteed win this week too.
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