BGB Fantasy League 2015: Week Nine

Which teams gained the most in the BGB Fantasy League as the calendar switched over into June?

We start with a dominant 10-2 win by the Becknam Lollygaggers. Cheshunt were able to amass an impressive seven saves between Greg Holland, Santiago Casilla and A.J. Ramos, but that was the only pitching category they could take against Becknam’s boys. Clayton Kershaw (unsurprisingly) and Jason Hammel (a bit more surprising) contributed 2 wins and 18 K’s apiece.

It was the same story on offence. Mark Teixeira led the Lollyaggers with 3 HR and 10 RBI as they swept all but the stolen base category. Freddie Freeman did have a nice week for the Malsters though, with 3 HR, 7 R and 8 RBI.

The Riverkings move up from third to second in the standing after a 9-2 match-up success against the RBI’s. Joc Pederson has proved to be an inspired pick-up so far for the Riverkings and he added 4 home runs to his collection during Week Nine, whilst Rizzo, Dozier, and Franco all had multi-homer weeks too.

The Riverkings’ eight saves would normally have been enough to take that category, but RBI’s were able to salvage that one thanks to a five-save week by Mark Melancon, ably assisted with another three from Brad Ziegler and another from Shawn Tolleson.

Iron Men also enjoyed a 9-2 win, this time coming at the expense of my Chasers. The batting just hasn’t been there for my team so far this season and Iron Men swept me away on the offence side of things with solid contributions across the lineup and impressive weeks from Troy Tulowitzki and Chris Carter.

Iron Men were able to keep the category wins coming by taking three of the pitching classes. Strikeouts and saves did fall my way but even that was bittersweet, with Boston’s Koji Uehara collecting two of his three saves at the expense of my Oakland A’s.

Weston Super Sox won their match-up against Newcastle Knights 7-5 yet still saw themselves dropping one place in the competitive BGB League standings, moving from fourth to fifth.

It was a fairly even-sided match-up. The pitching categories were shared 3 apiece, with Danny Salazar’s 10K’s for the Knights being matched by 10 for Lance Lynn on the Sox. The difference came in the batting categories. Blackmon, Donaldon, Gonzalez and Upton combined for 5 Knight stolen bases to take that category, but the Super Sox came out on top overall with solid if unspectacular contributions across the lineup.

The Mighty Slugs held on to top spot in the league thanks to yet another match-up victory, although it was a much closer affair than may have been expected against the previously 11-th placed Isotopes (now up to 10th).

Jose Bautista led the Slugs’ charge with four home runs across a week of punishment dished out to opposing pitchers, with Hamley Ramirez and Evan Gatis getting in on the act too. Adam Jones continued his good season by adding three homers and eight runs to the Isotopes’ cause.

Orpington’s pitching staff won their side of the match-up as Chris Sale (13 K’s), Alfredo Simon (13) and Ryan Vogelsong racked up the strikeouts, whilst Kevin Jepsen and Tyler Clippard added five saves between them.

Norwich No II couldn’t lift themselves off from the bottom of the standings, but a match-up win against Bits and Bytes gives them something positive to build on.

Bryce Harper had another good week for Norwich, although against his stunning recent form a .333 AVG and 1.012 OPS seems slightly pedestrian. Noah Syndergaard added 10 K’s to the team’s pitching total in what was otherwise a challenging week for the talented young Mets pitcher.

The Bytes benefited from a touch of fortune in grabbing two pitching categories as they passed the minimum innings pitched threshold with contributions from just four healthy and active pitchers.

Finally, Jesmond squeaked past Batteries in a 5-4 match-up. Four of Jesmond’s category wins came on the batting side as they received good showings from Andrew McCutchen, Brandon Phillips and A.J. Pollock.

Chris Archer was the undoubted star of the match-up for Jesmond as he gave the team two wins and 26 strikeouts, yet Batteries were able to grab a couple of consolation categories in ERA and WHIP. C.J. Wilson and Madison Bumgarner both got into double digits in the K column on the week.

Week 10 match-ups

Slugs (1st) v Lollygaggers (4th)

Riverkings (2nd) v Maltsters (11th)

Dennings (3rd) v Bytes (12th)

Super-Sox (5th) v Iron Men (7th)

Knights (6th) v Isotopes (10th)

Batteries (8th) v Chasers (13th)

RBI’s (9th) v Norwich No II (14th)