JLB Week 1 Recap: Let's get Rout-y

The first week of the season. You can't win the JLB World Series in Week 1, but you can certainly spoil your chances of making the JLB postseason.

One lopsided loss typically is the downfall of all teams that miss the playoffs by a few games.

Trust me, I know this all too well.

Look, Jimmy's talking about himself three grafs in!

I had an 18-2 blowout to Choo ruin my 2018 season and last year, the absolutely devastating combo loss to Dude and JV was the end of it all before it started.

This year, like 2020, I only managed six wins in the first matchup, but thankfully, it was only — yes, only — combined with 15 losses. Last year it was 39. 

That was a horrible feeling, the kind of which Parker is feeling right now with that 20-2-2 loss to JV. He's lucky to have even 2 after sporting a big old donut throughout a good portion of the week.

Monkey didn't fair much better with only 4 wins to Big Ol' Country Breakfast's 18.

Part of this was just poor timing and bad luck with scheduling. In the case of all three of these matchups, the three losing teams had really tough first weeks statistically and the three winners had insane weeks.

To put it in perspective, JV would have smoked most teams in the League with the numbers he put up, so there wasn't much Parker could do. JV's pitching — which we expected — roared out to a 2.90 ERA with JLB-best 158 strikeouts in 136.1 innings. He got a complete game, eight quality starts, 8-4 record, 8 saves, 6 holds. Lance Lynn led the way there with his 17 Ks and 0.00 ERA/0.951 WHIP in two starts.

Topton, with the 15-6-3 win over the Slammers, had a heck of a week on both sides with 120 hits (.299 average) and 113 strikeouts (3.00 ERA). A few categories were really close in this one, too. Still, Topton made his statement to start 2021.

Crox (14-8-2), Dude (12-9-3) and Sex Panthers (12-9-3) all picked up wins, too.

Dude was up big in this matchup to start, but Choo came roaring back in a big way with 23 homers and 74 RBIs, and he has to be pretty happy with the start despite being 3 games under .500 after Week 1. His numbers were good enough to beat Parker 20-2-2.

OK, I kid, but I did match it up, and it would have been 16 wins for Choo.

Crox also had a balanced attack, batting .281 for the week (ranked 2nd in the JLB) and pitching to a 3.84 ERA with 10 wins.

The Sex Panthers and Boil'd Nutz battled and it came down to two standout stars in Jose Berrios, who had two great starts to go 2-0 with a 1.54 ERA and 20 strikeouts, and Nate Lowe, who hit 3 homers and drove in 14 runs. Those stats were enough to flip the matchup 12-9-3 in the Panthers favor.

Butter, of course, got the start of the week from Joe Musgrove who threw the no-hitter and combined to post 18 strikeouts and a 0.00 ERA/0.200 WHIP in 15 innings.

Overall, there's no reason for anyone to panic after one week — although the two-win team should a little bit — because there's 20 weeks left to come back. ... So if Parker wins one extra category each week, he'll forget all about the 20 losses!