2017 Season

Edition No. 13

May 9, 2017

 
 

 

WAHOOS ON THE WISE;

SKIPJACKS SOARING;

TRIBE TUMBLING;

SENATORS SKIDDING

 

Week 5 of the Hot Stove League saw PAwesome’s Reversion-to-the-Mean theorem riding tall in the saddle, as the previously woeful Wahoos posted a whopping 585.1 points for the week, more than 60 points better than the similarly sizzling Skipjacks.  This burst of energy allowed the Wahoos to climb several rungs up the ladder to 8th place, while the Skipjacks remain in 12th place, but closer to 11th than before.  So at least Itchie has that going for him. 

 

On the other hand, the Senators could only muster up a measley 352.4 points for the week, least in the league, and are now in 3rd place, 149.2 points out of the lead and hanging on by their fingernails for a top 3 spot.  The league-leading Tribe had the second lowest total for the week with 384 points, but remain in 1st place with 2499.2 points, just 65 points ahead of the Cubs

 

Here are the standings from top to bottom: 

 

WEEK 5 STANDINGS

 

1

Tribe

   2499.20   

-

2

Cubs

2434.20

65.00

3

Senators

2350.00

   149.20   

4

Bums

2332.90

166.30

5

Tigers

2310.10

189.10

6

Redbirds

2289.60

209.60

7

Bears

2264.20

235.00

8

Wahoos

2251.50

247.70

9

Chiefs

2246.30

252.90

10

Bombers

2230.50

268.70

11

Blues

2227.20

272.00

12

Skipjacks

2194.10

305.10

13

Monarchs      

2059.40

439.80

 

WEEK 5 POINT TOTALS

 

1

Wahoos

   585.1   

2

Skipjacks

522.9

3

Redbirds

502.9

4

Bums

493.2

5

Bears

475.0

6

Tigers

471.8

7

Chiefs

461.0

8

Bombers

454.5

9

Monarchs      

449.0

10

Cubs

401.1

11

Blues

391.0

12

Tribe

384.0

13

Senators

352.4

 

SAME TIME, LAST YEAR

 

Through five weeks of play in 2016, the standings and point totals looked like this: 

 

1

Wahoos

   2803.1  

2

Cubs

2575.0

3

Skipjacks   

2371.0

4

Bums

2362.8

5

Monarchs

2341.2

6

Blues

2318.3

7

Chiefs

2283.7

8

Senators

2210.4

9

Bears

2206.3

10

Bombers

2141.0

11

Tigers

2124.3

12

Redbirds

2081.9

13

Tribe

1947.0

 

The top hitter at this time last year was Jose Altuve of the Redbirds with 183.9, followed by Nolan Arenado of the Skipjacks at 179.3, followed by Manny Machado of the Bears at 165.1.  The top pitcher at this time last year was Chris Sale of the Tigers with 224.0, followed by Clayton Kershaw of the Blues at 221.0 and Jake Arrieta of the Senators at 208.0. 

 

TOP 25 PITCHERS THRU 5 WEEKS

1   

Chris Sale

Redbirds

   218.00   

2

Dallas Keuchel

Senators

206.00

3

Ervin Santana

Tigers

193.00

4

Clayton Kershaw

Blues

192.00

5

Dylan Bundy

Tribe

170.00

6

Max Scherzer

Wahoos

163.00

7

James Paxton

Tribe

158.00

8

Jason Vargas

Blues

157.00

9

Carlos Carrasco

Tribe

156.00

9

Mike Leake

Tribe

156.00

11

Yu Darvish

Bums

153.00

12

Zack Greinke

Tigers

146.00

13

Michael Fulmer

Bums

142.00

14

Lance McCullers Jr.     

Chiefs

141.00

14

Stephen Strasburg

Cubs

141.00

16

Gio González

Senators

140.00

17

Ivan Nova

Bums

137.00

18

Chris Archer

Bombers

135.00

19

Luis Severino

Bears

133.00

19

Lance Lynn

Redbirds

133.00

21

Gerrit Cole

Bears

132.00

22

Marco Estrada

Cubs

131.00

23

Craig Kimbrel

Chiefs

129.50

24

Michael Pineda

Bums

128.00

25

Johnny Cueto

Skipjacks      

125.00

 

 

 

TOP 25 HITTERS THRU 5 WEEKS

1   

Ryan Zimmerman

Blues

   200.90   

2

Bryce Harper

Chiefs

186.20

3

Freddie Freeman

Senators

177.40

4

Eric Thames

Monarchs     

174.10

5

Aaron Judge

Skipjacks

169.70

6

Paul Goldschmidt

Monarchs

167.50

7

Mike Trout

Cubs

164.10

8

Joey Votto

Tigers

154.10

9

Miguel Sanó

Bears

153.30

10

Charlie Blackmon

Wahoos

150.70

11

Eugenio Suárez

Tribe

146.10

12

Kris Bryant

Wahoos

145.50

13

Mark Reynolds

Tribe

145.40

14

Daniel Murphy

Redbirds

145.00

15

Nelson Cruz

Blues

140.50

16

Nolan Arenado

Tigers

135.90

17

Starlin Castro

Bombers

134.50

18

Marcell Ozuna

Tribe

133.60

19

Jay Bruce

Tigers

132.50

20

Francisco Lindor

Cubs

132.20

21

César Hernández

Bombers

128.40

22

Wil Myers SD

Bums

128.20

23

Adam Duvall

Skipjacks

127.00

24

Andrew Benintendi

Bums

125.70

25

Zack Cozart

Bombers

125.50

 

 

WHO’S HOT - HITTERS

1   

Billy Hamilton

Bombers

   59.50   

2

Yonder Alonso

Wahoos

50.60

2

Marwin González     

Redbirds

50.60

4

Matt Carpenter

CHIEFS

50.30

5

Cody Bellinger

Wahoos

49.50

6

Joey Votto

Tigers

49.00

7

Javier Báez

Monarchs     

48.10

8

Brett Gardner

Bears

47.00

9

Aaron Hicks

Bombers

46.50

10

Aaron Altherr

Bears

46.00

 

 

WHO’S NOT - HITTERS

1

Greg Bird

Bears

-2.00

2

Jorge Soler

Tribe

-1.50

2

Jackie Bradley Jr.   

Tigers

-1.50

4

Jett Bandy

Skipjacks      

-0.30

5

Orlando Arcia

Tigers

-0.10

 

WHO’S HOT - PITCHERS

1

Chris Sale

Redbirds

60.00

2   

Jake Odorizzi

Redbirds

52.00

3

Gerrit Cole

Bears

51.00

3

Lance McCullers Jr.

Chiefs

51.00

5

Rick Porcello

Senators

50.00

6

Johnny Cueto

Skipjacks

48.00

7

Jason Vargas

Blues

47.00

7

Alex Cobb

Monarchs

47.00

9

Dylan Bundy

Tribe

44.00

9

Clayton Kershaw

Blues

44.00

 

 

WHO’S NOT - PITCHERS

1

Patrick Corbin

Wahoos

-13.00

1   

Trevor Bauer

Bums

-13.00

3

Nick Martinez

Tigers

-11.00

3

Mike Foltynewicz

Blues

-11.00

5

Kendall Graveman

Tribe

-10.00

5

Francisco Rodriguez

Skipjacks

-10.00

7

Bartolo Colon

Senators

-9.00

8

Marcus Stroman

Redbirds

-6.00

9

Jeremy Hellickson

Cubs

-4.00

10

Julio Teheran

Bears

-3.00

 

COMEBACK PLAYER OF THE CENTURY:

RYAN ZIMMERMAN

 

I’m sure none of you has a story like this one, but the surprise sensation of this season is Ryan Zimmerman, who is currently batting a cool .420 with 13 home runs and 34 RBIs, and is the Blues’ top player with 200.9 points, more even than Clayton Kershaw.  Of course, he was on the Senators’ roster last year, when he positively sucked.  I remember drafting him in the 14th hole last season, convinced that I had snapped up a real bargain, and then proceeded to watch him stink all year long, ending the season with a .218 batting average, 15 home runs and 46 RBIs, and a total of 260.4 HSL points. 

 

So of course, I should have drafted Zim this year, because he was virtually guaranteed to have a great year on someone else’s roster. 

 

And by the way, Starlin Castro was also a Senator last year.  Same book, different chapter.  He is the 17th best HSL hitter while playing for the Bronx Bombers this season.  He scored a blasé total of 420 for the Senators last year. 

 

Next year’s Ryan Zimmerman is sure to be this year’s Matt Harvey.  Again, I felt pretty smart picking up the Black Knight in the 17th round of the Draft this year, all but certain that he would return to his 2015 form.  Instead, he is killing me, positively killing me. 

 

First of all, I had Harv in my minors a couple of weeks ago when he had a 20+ outing, because Mets management decided to sneak him in to pitch a game early and forgot to tell me about it.  The following week, I was planning on demoting him to the bench to preserve some innings for later and Mets management again snuck him into the starting lineup for the ailing Noah Syndergaard on short notice, and again failed to notify me.  This time I suffered through a moonwalk on the order of the high teens. 

 

The third in a series of weekly insults was this past Sunday, when Harvey was supposed to be in my starting lineup but was suspended by the Mets, as far as I can discern, for being a jerk.  So zero pitching points for the Senators’ starting rotation that day. 

 

So I am prepared to take my lumps with Harvey and let him languish on my roster all year long as he underperforms during his initial year in Senatorial purgatory.  But next March, keep your hands off my man Harvey because he’s going to be a Senator for his bright, shining comeback year. 

 

1992 REVISITED

 

 

Next week: 

(1) A revisit to Coors Field and 1994. 

(2) Joyful Johnny takes on the Stir Up The Storm Dude.

 

 

Skipper