The first matchup is in the books!
The Dude picked up the biggest win at 16-5-1 over Breakfast, while Philly Cheese and Gamblers both picked up 14 wins over Crox and Quad.
The other three matchups were all decided by 2 or less wins as Bombers, Monkey and Sex Panthers edged Slammers, Choo and Steroid.
It’s so early in the season that it’s not worth really talking about the matchups by themselves.
Rather, let’s take a look at some of the biggest notes of the week.
MONKEY SEE, CHOO DO
Choo did it! He rallied back with five homers on the final day, three from Gary Sanchez to tie Monkey up in that category.
Well, momentarily at least.
Mike Trout completed his monster first fantasy week with a fifth home run in four days.
For the matchup, he batted .393 with five homers, 12 RBIs and 14 walks/HBPs.
That was among several fantastic offensive performances for Monkey, who batted .285 with 24 homers and 70 RBIs for the matchup.
Tim Anderson is the most noteworthy here having been drafted in the third round. He batted .571 for the matchup with 12 hits in 21 at-bats. He had seven runs, two homers and five RBIs.
I know what you’re thinking: .571 for the matchup? Monkey must have just started him on the good days.
If that’s your thought, then yes, you’re right because in actuality, Anderson was batting .560 after Sunday.
FIVE-SIXTY.
That’s La Tortuga-like.
Now, there’s no chance on Earth he finishes the season with this beer-league softball all-star average, but if this is a sign of the kind of hitter he truly is now, we could see the steal of the draft.
Other crazy performances for Monkey include: Max Muncy (.259, 3 homers, 10 RBIs), Yoan Moncada (.353, 2 homers 11 RBIs), Adam Jones (.375, 4 homers, 6 RBIs).
IN-N-OUT BELLINGER
He steps in to hit; he sends the ball out of the park.
In-N-Out.
That’s what the Dude likes.
Cody Bellinger had quite the first matchup. He batted .455 with seven homers, 18 RBIs, 17 runs scored. He had 10 singles, two doubles and a triple. He walked three more times and even stole a base.
He was unstoppable.
Sounds like the kind of guy you should bench in Games 1 and 2 of a World Series, am I right?
His performance was the difference maker if a few offensive categories, while 13 quality starts and 10 wins with a 3.18 ERA.
The Dude took seven pitching categories in the win against a team that was deemed to have Top 3 pitching in the JLB during the preseason.
PAUL GOLD-SIT
A week ago, Paul Goldschmidt had a three-homer day and was a star of the Bombers.
Five days later, he was being benched once again for Pete Alonso.
If you heard that a month ago, you may start petitioning to have Firestine booted from the JLB.
Even on Saturday when I first saw it, I thought, What the hell is he doing?
But it makes sense. Alonso batted .394 with three homers and 11 RBIs in the matchup. He had six doubles and six runs scored.
Over the weekend, Alonso had a pair of homers. He was 4-for-8 with three runs.
Goldschmidt went 0-for-8 with a run scored.
Flip those two and the Slammers win 12-9.
SQUEAKER, EH?
Can you call a 14-3-5 loss a squeaker?
Yes, I guess you can. Quad Eh was just a tough-luck loser to the Gamblers.
If Quad Eh gets four more runs, two more singles, four more RBIs, three more pitching strikeouts, and one more triple, save, hold and one fewer loss, he wins the matchup 12-9-1.
Yes, that’s a lot to ask for, but just think what getting half of that would do?
The fact is, in EVERY category that was decided by 4 or fewer — except stolen bases — Quad Eh lost.
That’s staggering.
CATEGORY SAVIOR
Man, oh man.
Steroid punched out a 2.92 ERA behind 16 saves and strong wavier-wire starting grabs like Macro Estrada and Jordan Zimmermann.
His RPs drafted and SPs grabbed after the draft were what saved him — ironically — from taking a huge loss to start the season.
He carried six of the 11 pitching categories to keep the Sex Panthers to an 11-9-2 win.
The offense did it for the Panthers, and by offense, I mean Christian Yelich.
He batted .361 for the matchup with five homers, 13 RBIs, a stolen base, 10 walks, a sacrifice and 11 runs scored.
Gina won runs by four, walks by one and tied in sacrifices.
He’s definitely her MVP after one matchup.
OH, WHY NOT
Fair warning: I do not plan on breaking down every matchup weekly like this.
It just turns out I had four good notes on four of the matchups, and then I realized that I didn’t do the Steroid-Panthers matchup, and lord knows if I skip that one, both of those owners would be snarky on Facebook about the Jargon so I went ahead and wrote something on their matchup.
Then, left with one matchup on the docket, I figured why the hell not.
So, the World Series rematch was a bit of a snoozer.
The three-time champion Cheese smothered the Crox winning 14-6-2 overall, taking seven categories in both pitching and batting.
In pitching, the blowups by his pitchers hurt the most as he logged just four quality starts despite have 137.2 innings pitched.
Let’s put it this way, he had pitchers combine to make 24 starts and only four warranted the designation of a quality start.
That may be the most staggering stat of this blog post.
With 24 starts and a poor ERA, you would think, Oh, well, at least he accumulated the wins and strikeouts.
Nope. Only five wins there and his 156 strikeouts were second-best in the JLB. Sadly, he was facing the team that posted the League-best 169 strikeouts.
At least he doesn’t have to face JV again until at least late September.
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