As baseball shifts into September things change. Much like the leaves on the trees, the temperature of the wind, and the flavor of my iced coffee, there is a shift. Pitchers are throwing fewer innings as they come up on IP limits or seek rest before a playoff run, gone are the hot, humid summer nights where baseballs fly like golf balls being hit by aluminum bats. All the while, our Razzball Commenter Leagues enter crunch time. This is the time where you look at your roster and say…I should just cut Connor Wong on his off day and add Austin Wells. Everyone is expendable. Worst case, Wong gets semi-hot and someone else grabs him, but with three weeks remaining, that chance is dwindling. This is also a time to look at your standings and see how you should structure your pitching staff as you approach (hopefully) a 1400 IP limit. Are your ratios or strikeouts/wins more important to gaining standings points? If you lose a point in WHIP, does it help the team in front of you causing a two point swing? Many of us will try to cram 200 IP into these last three weeks making for a frenzy on the wire and causing some managers who shall remain nameless to stream Patrick Corbin and Caden Dana. Fun times, we love this game. Here’s what happened in the week that was, week 24:
Each week we’ll peek in at our resident ‘perts to see who is laying claim to best “expert” RCLer in the land. We’ll take notes, check the standings and generally stalk them. The heading is also hyperlink, so feel free to follow along as we go.
Son holds on with three weeks to go and Grey slipped this week, dropping three points and leaving a four point gap between him and Son. I continued my yo-yoiest season ever, gaining back the five points I lost last week and moving into third place. I have alternated between 74 and 79 points for four weeks. I fully expect to be back at 74 next update as I can’t seem to gain any ground here. In an effort to avoid missing the IP limit and get relegated to the Writer’s League, Laura pumped in 121.1 IP and led the league in strikeouts (120).
Each week we’ll also take a look at the top ten overall standings in our other Razzball sponsored league, the RazzSlam. This is our NFBC Best Ball league with managers from all across the industry, from content providers to fans and readers just like you.
Well, it’s been nice working for you guys, excited to see the direction Moe Deportes takes Razzball next year. He is absolutely crushing everyone in this final scoring period.
WEEKLY LEADERS
The best of the best from the week that was.
R – 58 – gkramer (RCL 16) & Bear Sox (RCL 3)
HR –21 – Juan5021 (RCL 2)
RBIs – 56 – Great Stott! (RCL 4)
SB – 17 – gkramer (RCL 16)
AVG – .324 – smryan88 (RCL 16)
K – 146 – Balls. Just Balls. (RCL 30) in 119.1
W – 8 – 5 Teams Tied
SV – 12 – TRUSS (Writer’s League)
ERA (Min. 40 IP) – 0.75 – New Jersey Ninjas (RCL 2) (in 60 IP)
WHIP (Min. 40 IP) – 0.622 – DFresh (RCL 20) (in 54.2 IP)
Here come the innings pitched! Balls. Just Balls. went bonkers with strikeouts this week and set a new high mark that will be hard to break. Vin provided a breakdown of every strikeout this week:
16 Andrew Heaney 11 IP
11 David Peterson 6 IP
10 Cade Povich 7.1 IP
9 Jared Jones 7 IP
9 Kyle Gibson 6.2 IP
8 Patrick Corbin 5.2 IP
8 Merrill Kelly 7 IP
8 Bobby Miller 5 IP
7 David Festa 5 IP
7 Tanner Houck 5 IP
6 Jack Leiter 5 IP
6 Brady Basso 6 IP
6 Bryan Woo 5 IP
5 J.P. Sears 6 IP
4 Alexis Diaz 3 IP
4 Osvaldo Bido 5.1 IP
4 Griffin Jax 2.1 IP
4 Colin Rea 4 IP
3 Spencer Schwellenbach 5 IP
3 Garrett Crochet 2 IP
3 Joey Estes 4 IP
3 Tylor Megill 4 IP
2 Jose Butto 2 IP
8 Patrick Corbin 5.2 IP
8 Merrill Kelly 7 IP
8 Bobby Miller 5 IP
7 David Festa 5 IP
7 Tanner Houck 5 IP
6 Jack Leiter 5 IP
6 Brady Basso 6 IP
6 Bryan Woo 5 IP
5 J.P. Sears 6 IP
4 Alexis Diaz 3 IP
4 Osvaldo Bido 5.1 IP
4 Griffin Jax 2.1 IP
4 Colin Rea 4 IP
3 Spencer Schwellenbach 5 IP
3 Garrett Crochet 2 IP
3 Joey Estes 4 IP
3 Tylor Megill 4 IP
2 Jose Butto 2 IP
RCL 16 balled out as well with gkramer taking runs and steals and smryan taking batting average.
For the week, offense was generally down, so a good week to have been streaming. Some more stats from VinWins:
42 teams had an ERA under 2. (Last Week there were 21)
16 teams had an ERA over 6. (Last Week there were 31)
25 teams hit under .200 (Last Week there were 5)
9 teams hit over .300. (Last Week there were 42)
On the year, 88.6% of the schedule has been completed. 886 IP would be on pace for the 1000 IP minimum. 1240 IP is on pace for the maximum 1400 IP. Fifteen teams have now hit the 1400 IP limit.
Finally, a quick shout out for the FCL which has one of the closest races going between five different teams. This one is really coming down to the final game I think. Here is last week vs this week in the standings and everyone moved! It’s musical chairs over there!
1 – Vincom 84.5 <> 1 – Veganville Tofu Munchers 87.5
2 – Veganville Tofu Munchers 84.0 <> 2 – DFresh 87
3 – Frequently Schmohawky 82.5 <> 3 – Vincom 85
4 – Organic Pringles 81.0 <> 4 – Frequently Schmohawky 81.5
5 – DFresh 80.5 <> 5 – Organic Pringles 75
TEAM OF THE WEEK
Our weekly shout out to the team that killed it the previous week.
Team: FANTASY ICON 5.0
League: COUGS R US
Stats: AVG: .279, R: 45, HR: 15, RBI: 48, SB: 4
IP: 87.1, ERA: 2.78, WHIP: 0.996, K: 102, W: 7, SV: 4
Summary: COUGS R US, our Champion’s league is also incredibly close, as one would expect from the top overall finishers from the season before. FANTASY ICON 5.0 was tied for third last week, nine points back of the leader. But, after gaining nine points to 84.5 they are 1/2 point out of first (85.0 Todd, the Future of Dance – 84.5 FANTASY ICON 5.0 – 84.0 Dunphy’s Joint Venture). Mookie Betts led the offense, hitting .409 with seven runs, two home runs, eight RBI, and a steal. Dansby Swanson, Cedric Mullins, and Jackson Merrill each homered twice as well. Gerrit Cole had a couple of quality starts and finished with a win, 16 strikeouts, and ratios of 0.75/0.75. David Peterson, Jose Quintana, Jose Berrios, and Dean Kremer all contributed wins with good ratios. Taj Bradley and Frankie Montas each had a 10-strikeout game. Alexis Diaz and Ryan Walker added two saves apiece, with Walker also earning a victory. Looks like a photo finish in COUGS!
Want to be my internet pal? That’s kinda creepy, but you can follow me here: @MattTruss or here: @matttruss.bsky.social
