It’s Week 14 of the 21-week fantasy baseball season and
we’re finally getting another Jargon. It's been so long, the last time the Jargon was published, Trevor Story was a good baseball player. (So was Tyler White, to be fair when joking about players.)
I was a few paragraphs into a Jargon piece a couple weeks
ago, but then I got a text about playing club hockey and then I was off scoring
goals.
Needless to say, I’ve had some trouble with time management
over the last 13 weeks, and for the most part, the times in which I could write
a Jargon, I chose to do something else.
So, on the Fourth of July, let me try to make it up with
this midseason JLB recap.
NO WAY OUTS
It took 12 weeks for someone to finally beat the Outs in a
weekly matchup, and Big League Choo was the man to do it with a 14-6-2 win.
Before that, Outs had run off an impressive stretch of victories, averaging 12.9 wins per week
during that time.
Outs added another 11 wins last week to push his season
record to 159-92-35. He’s on pace to win another 103 games over the final eight
weeks and he should easily take the division as he holds a 23-game lead over
the Philly Cheese Steaks.
The pitching is as solid as we thought it would be with Jake
Arrieta, Madison Bumgarner, Corey Kluber and Michael Wacha at the top, but his
key addition in the draft, Jose Quintana, added with free agent pickup Josh
Tomlin and smart keeper selection in Kyle Hendricks have made his team nearly
impossible to beat on the pitching side.
In April, the Outs finished with a team ERA of 2.68. It was
3.20 in May and 3.38 in June. Overall, his pitching staff is 88-62 with 1,157
strikeouts, 90 quality starts, JLB-best 7 complete games, 3.19 ERA with a 1.15
WHIP.
Offensively, he’s only just started to heat up after a bit
of a slower start. After just 43 and 49 homers in the first two months, with
sub-.262 batting averages, Outs exploded for 73 bombs and a .296 average in
June.
It’s really scary to see this team come together as we all
feared it would in the preseason.
A RETURN TO GLORY
He took his lumps. He listened to the jeers of the rest of
the JLB. He did it all while prepping his team for a return to glory.
Parker sat in the basement all last year only to find
himself atop the American League this year with the second-best record in the JLB at
144-106-36. Choo is just one game behind him in the divisional race, and
pitching has really been the name of the game for both of them.
The Gamblers’ return to glory has been fueled by Stephen
Strasburg (11-0, 2.71 ERA), Chris Tillman (10-2, 3.71 ERA), Steven Matz (7-3,
3.40 ERA) and Julio Teheran (3-7, 2.72 ERA). He also has guys like David Price,
Justin Verlander and Scott Kazmir who have contributed despite their high ERAs.
The solid starting corps coupled with four strong closers have helped Parker
post a 77-45 record with a 3.71 ERA.
His division rival is a tad better at 3.27 ERA — ranked
second in the JLB behind the Outs — and much thanks for that goes to big trades
that brought in Clayton Kershaw and Noah Syndergaard, as well as a smart draft
pick of Michael Fulmer, who is 8-2 with a 2.17 ERA for the Tigers. I’d list the
fourth best pitcher for the Choo, as listed in his active stats rankings, but
that pitcher, of course, has already been traded.
FORE!
Only four JLB teams have winning records right now. The top
four teams have been so dominant, they’ve prevented the middle-of-the-pack wild card
hunters from posting winning records.
Even in the National League where we typically see four,
sometimes five teams with winning records, there are just two. Part of this is
because the top-tier teams have been dominant, but the other part is that the
American League has been stronger from top to bottom, preventing the National
League dominance that once was in the past.
JUNE DRAFT CONCLUDES
Round 1, Pick 1: Gamblers
selects Nick Senzel, Cin, $44
Round 1, Pick 2: Crox
selects Yulieski Gourriel, Cuban FA $50
Round 1, Pick 3: Ol
Country selects A.J. Puk, OAK, $47
Round 1, Pick 4: Otto Parts
selects Mickey Moniak, PHI, $46
Round 1, Pick 5: Slammers
selects Dakota Hudson, STL, $36
Round 1, Pick 6: Steroid
selects Corey Ray, MIL, $45
Round 1, Pick 7: NJ
Bombers selects Delvin Perez, STL, $42
Round 1, Pick 8: Vandelay
selects Zach Burdi, $20
Round 1, Pick 9: Sex
Panthers selects Josh Lowe, $34
Round 1, Pick 10: Outs
selects Kyle Lewis, $48
Round 1, Pick 11: Choo
selects Shohei Otani, Asian prospect, $50
Round 1, Pick 12:
Cheesesteaks selects Cal Quantrill, SD, $29
Round 2, Picks 1-4:
waived picks.
Round 2, Pick 5: Slammers
selects Zack Collins, CWS, $37
Round 2, Pick 6: Steroid
selects T.J. Zeuch, TOR $23
Round 2, Picks 7-9:
waived picks.
Round 2, Pick 10: Outs
select Matt Thaiss, LAA, $20
Round 2, Picks 11-12:
waived picks.
Overall, I thought the draft worked exactly the way we wanted it to.
We learned a few things that will help us moving forward, including the “what
happens if a high school pick doesn’t sign?” That question came up a few times
and it wasn’t addressed in the rulebook. No one drafted an un-signed player so
we don’t have to worry about it this year, but the rule will be, if you draft
them and they chose to go to college or stay in college another year, then you
lose your money and the pick. Risk/reward. The player has to go into the draft
pool again when they’re eligible and you can’t get your money back, so that’s
why there’s a risk/reward factor there.
The other questions that came up a few times were on offseason
rosters, so let me clarify here how this works.
I drafted Zack Collins and Dakota Hudson. In late September/October,
when our season is complete and I’m telling everyone you have to trim down to
35 players on your roster (a.k.a., clear the DL spots), you’ll have to decide
whether or not you want your draftees to take up one of the 35. So I would have
to cut my roster down to 33 players to keep Collins and Hudson, and since
Hudson is an SP, I’d have to cut my SPs down to 11 since 12 is the max. Collins
is a catcher, so I’d just have to make sure he doesn’t push my catcher total to
more than 4.
Then, after I do that, in March, when selecting keepers:
(1) If Collins
and/or Hudson are not in the ESPN player pool yet, I have to decide whether I
want to keep the naming rights. If I do, I pay the fees (see rulebook) to do
so. I still will have two picks in the then-upcoming June draft, but I may not
have the money to make the picks.
(2) If Collins
and/or Hudson are added to player pool, LM will add them to my team ASAP, and
then I’ll can do what I want with them, keep them, drop them, trade them. Once
in pool and placed on team, they’re yours to do what you want.
Also remember, at any point in time, I can just decide to release the naming rights to the drafted players.
Hopefully that clears it up for anyone, however, if there’s still something you’re not sure about, feel free to reach out to me.
CHOOPOCALYPSE
On May 15, things weren’t looking all that bad for yours truly. I had
won three out of six matchups and tied 9-9-4 in one of the others. The woes of
2014 and 2015 seemed to have gone away.
But oh was I ever wrong.
The Choonado came churning into town and it was an F-5. The 18-2-2
loss, one of, if not the worst losses in Slammers history, sent my team
spiraling into a coma. I proceeded to lose 11-9, 10-9, 14-5, 10-7, 12-8 before
finally picking up a meager 10-8 win over Big Ol’ Country Breakfast.
The win leaves me 49.5 games back of the Outs and about 15 games out
of a playoff spot. The wild card is still in reach but it will take a miracle,
and of course, who stands in my way after a much-needed win?
Yes, it’s Choo.
KEVIN
DURANT HASN’T SIGNED YET
As of 11:23 a.m., Kevin Durant isn’t a Celtic yet, although sources
say he just got off a plane in Boston.
Why do we JLBers care?
Well, Choo texted Crox earlier asking what would happen first, The
Jargon release or the Kevin Durant signing.
Well, looks like I win. Jargon out.
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