BGB Fantasy League Week 20

Four teams have now clinched their spot in the BaseballGB Fantasy League playoffs after the Week 20 match-ups.

Mark George’s Orpington Isotopes had the biggest win of the week, getting the better of Batteries Essential by a score of 9-2. The Isotopes swept the offensive categories despite Jose Bautista landing on the Disabled List. There were stand-out performances from Wilin Rosario (3HR), Carlos Beltran (3HR) and Elvis Andrus (4SB)., whilst Batteries received three stolen bases from Jacoby Ellsbury and two homers from Carlos Santana. Batteries Essential received some good work from their relievers, most notably through four saves by Addison Reed, to take the Saves and Holds categories, but the Isotopes took the rest in large part due to excellent work by Matt Garza, Jon Lester, Jake Peavy and Adam Wainwright.

The league-leading SWAT added eight more category wins to their collection in Week 20. Beck’Nams had a decent offensive week, including multi-homer weeks from Anthony Rizzo, Shane Victorino and Will Venable, but against SWAT that only led to a draw in the Runs category. Robinson Cano, Adrian Beltre and Adam Jones all performed well for SWAT as they took five of the offensive categories and their pitching staff then captured three of the pitching stats. Beck’Nams fought back largely thanks to an impressive tally of 62 strike-outs and a couple of Holds from Tanner Scheppers and Tyler Clippard.

Iron Men became the fourth team to clinch a playoff spot after winning their Week 20 match-up against NE Riverkings 7-4. Iron Men received some superlative work from their pitching staff to sweep all six categories, contributions including yet another win from Max Scherzer and three saves from Jim Henderson. The Riverkings battled back by taking four of the offensive categories with outfielders Austin Jackson and Giancarlo Stanton leading the way.

Richie’s RBI’s also gained a 7-4 victory, although this one came at the expense of my Cheddar Chasers. Houston Astros catcher Jason Castro launched three home runs as the RBI’s took all of the offensive categories, slightly softening the blow of losing Starling Marte to injury for a few weeks. Four saves (three from Fernando Rodney) and contributions across the board in the strike-outs column helped my Chasers take some of the pitching categories, but they were not enough to prevent a slip back down to the foot of the table.

Norwich No II and Cardiff Redsox had a good competitive match-up in which No II, currently second in the table, ultimately prevailed 6-4. Norwich’s victory was once again set up by outstanding pitching. Aroldis Chapman (3SV), Kenley Jansen (3), Craig Kimbrel (2) and Rex Brothers (2) combined for ten saves and Jose Fernandez (16 K’s), Shelby Miller (14) and Alex Cobb (10) set the pace as the pitching staff combined for 77 strike-outs. Cardiff were able to split the offensive categories with Troy Tulowitzki and Martin Prado both going deep twice.

Finally, Weston-Super-Sox and The Wright Stuff could only be separated by one category in their match-up. It went in favour of Weston and, judging by the final scores, it was the wins contributed by Ian Kennedy, Drew Smyly and Doug Fister that proved to be the difference. The Wright Stuff got homers from seven different players on the week and that meant Miguel Cabrera’s customary assault on every pitcher who dares to throw the ball anywhere near him didn’t allow the Super-Sox to dominate the offensive categories.

Week 21 match-ups

SWAT* (1st) Norwich No II (2nd)

Orpington Isotopes (3rd) v Cardiff Redsox (11th)

The Wright Stuff (7th) v Iron Men (4th)

Richie’s RBI’s (10th) v Weston-Super-Sox (5th)

NE Riverkings (8th) v Batteries Essential (6th)

Cheddar Chasers (12th) v Beck ‘Nams (9th)