In-N-Out The 64/60 Week 4

The month of April has come and gone. It is now safe to asses teams strengths, weakness and general trends around the league. So since I handed Christopher a beatdown this week and had little to stress over yesterday, I looked around the league and came up with some assessments of the league thus far. So here is my State of The 64/60 for April. The Rubber Duckies will finish last in the league. The Duckies are the lone team to not have a W. The lone superstar player is Lincecum the offense is near the bottom in every stat and ownership hasn't devoted the necessary time to compete in a league such as the 64/60. The LeMaestro's will break all roster change records even with the 7 transaction per week limit. Perhaps the 41129ers won't actually break the roster change record of Chris from several seasons ago but the 41129ers can be counted on for 7 transactions per week. The LeMaestro's have used seemingly 20 different Catchers thus far. If the 41129ers fail to succeed this season it will not be for a lack of effort. Currently the 41129ers efforts are have awarded him a 23-23-2 record and 7th in the standings. The playoff fight will last until the final week. Thus far two teams have looked really good and the Duckies have been really bad. Everyone else is falling in between so as of today 7 games separate 3 from 11. We currently have 8 teams at .500 or better. In years past the final playoff spots have been up in the air in the final week and this season will be no different. No team will run away with this league. Unlike the balance of years past the tradition of one team running away from the pack will not happen this season. The two teams who have shown early separation both have questions. The Dingers were just slapped around by yours truly and you must wonder about the character of a team who fails to show up against their biggest rival. The 9irons offense is really strong but the pitching has about 4 slots that could be a real concern and could lead to few of the 9-3, 10-2 scores needed to run away. Finally I have noticed over this past week that patience is running very thin with owners in the 64/60. Garret Jones, Juan Pierre, Brad Lidge, Yunel Escobar and Mark DeRosa all were considered by many as Top 200 players. All have started slow or have been injured and all have worn there welcome out with there drafted teams. Were these players let go at the right time or is the expected production on the horizon? What we do know is that the owners who drafted them aren't going to wait and see. As the calender turns to May the win now mentality is in full force.

RECAP

Bear Creek FP Factory 8 vs. BC DIngers 3. I would be kidding myself if I told you that this weeks production can be expected every week but I also feel that I am better than the first 3 weeks of the season. The Pitching was solid and the hitting performance may have been the seasons best. The Dingers may still reside at the top of the standings but make no mistake the Factory put a chink in the armor and Chris's pride has been wounded.

MVP- BCFP Offense. With a performance this good everyone was a winner.

Weekly Highs- HR-20 BCFP, AVG .328 BCFP, OPS .990 BCFP, K 91 Dingers(80 starts)


Tude Smackers 7 vs. Ohio River Carp 5. The game of the week came down to the Sunday Night Contest. At one point in the 6th inning Jayson Werth came up with a runner on base for the Carp and had Werth went deep the Carp would have won this contest 8-4. The Smackers managed to escape with slim victories on the offensive side but controlled the pitching winning 4 of the 6.

MVP- Paul Konerko .316 AVG, 4 HR, 5 Runs, 10 RBI, 0 SB, 1.462

Weekly Highs- Saves-6


Maccabi Hebrewers 7 vs. Hendo Colonels 5. The Hebrewers no how to win. After criticizing this unit in this very column last week the Hebrewrs manned up and handed the Commish a big FUCK YOU Sandwich. To beat it all they performed well on both sides of the game with good hitting and some of the leagues best pitching. The "smoke and mirrors" term that I used to define the Hebrewers last week certainly doesn't apply to the Week 4 performance.

MVP- Josh Johnson 2QS, 20K, 1.80 ERA, .73 WHIP, 12.00 K/9

Weekly Highs- SB-13 Hebrewers, 9.25 K/9 Hebrewers, 2.82 ERA Colonels


LeMaestro's 41129ers 7 vs. Hell and Damnation 5. The two teams with dual ownership squared off this week and the franchises couldn't be more different. Butch Lemaster handles the Day to Day operations of the 41129ers and lives for the big shakeup and is always in search of the next move. Ashley Coleman is loyal to her players and wants as little change as possible. Hell and Damnation is falling apart at the seems. The Damnation part of ownership has been MIA leaving Hell to handle it all. While H&D may be falling apart the 41129ers ownership is growing. Beside the big W on the field, James Hardly is the proud new father of a baby girl. Congrats James your team is in good hands with big EV.

MVP- Zach Greinke 2QS, 11K, .60 ERA, .67 WHIP, 6.60 K/9

Weekly Highs- 1.14 WHIP LeMaestro's 41129ers


B'Ville Stars 8 vs. Rubber Duckies 4. The Stars revenged there first loss of the season last week and got back to the .500 mark on the season. As for the Duckies the struggles continue. Back to the Stars, Mike McClung, who is a loyal follower of the Blog and all things 64/60 has a really nice stable of pitchers this season. You may wonder why I am bringing this up after the poor performance from this past week but during my team overview on Sunday it jumped out at me.

MVP- Derek Jeter .385 AVG, 1 HR, 6 Runs, 8 RBI, 0 SB, 1.029 OPS

Weekly Highs- 8 Quality Starts B'Ville Stars


Prestige Worldwide 8 vs. Argumentative 9irons 3. In this battle of heavyweights it was Prestige Worldwide who reigned supreme. Worldwide had a offensive week for the ages and easily would have been the weeks best had the Factory not exploded. Worldwide pitched well enough to earn 3-2 edge against the pitching deprived 9irons who could really use a good option such as a Matt Cain to bolster their staff. Prestige Worldwide is the lone team who have yet to taste defeat this season.

MVP- Andre Ethier .385 AVG, 4 HR, 7 Runs, 10 RBI, 0 SB, 1.410 OPS

Weekly Highs- Runs 57 Prestige, RBI 68 Worldwide, SB 13 9irons


Season Highs Set This Week

AVG .328 BCFP, HR 20 BCFP, .990 OPS BCFP, RBI 68 Prestige, K 91 Dingers


Season Lows Set This Week

SB 1 Rubber Duckies, Saves 0 Rubber Duckies, K/9 5.40 9irons


Pickup of the Week

Juan Pierre Hell and Damnation- Pierre hasn't played well thus far but Pierre should be better than the low .200 hitter he has been thus far. If Pierre can get on base at a clip of .300 or better he has a legitimate shot at leading the AL in SB and Hell and Damnation is starved for SB. The goal of adding a player is to make your team better. No team accomplished this more during the week than Hell and Damnation.


Head Scrathcer of the Week

Argumentative 9irons drop Brad Lidge- Yes Lidge was horrible last season yes he was horrible on Friday but to release Lidge on the same day that Madson goes on the DL when you are starved for Pitching Help it really makes you wonder. Lost in the struggles of last season is the loyalty of Manuel to Lidge. Lidge was terrible all season yet kept his job and managed 20 + Saves. I find it hard to imagine a Power pitcher such as Lidge repeating the same ineptness from last season. Bottom Line Lidge is the Closer for the best team in the NL.


Trade Breakdown: BCFP trade Joakim Soria to Tude Smackers for Justin Verlander. Only two trades have been completed thus far and both have come from the Tude Smackers. The Smackers appear to be loading up on closers to lock in the SV stat and to obtain a low ERA and WHIP. With the addition of Soria and most recently Simon of Baltimore the Smackers have 5 Closers on a 10 man staff. Soria is a elite Closer option with the only real question being how many chances will he get playing for the Royals. Much like the W stat playing for a good or bad team isn't the deciding factor in the opportunities one is given. Verlander is an elite starter who has had a rough go of it early. His last two starts have been typical Verlander though and his underlying indicators suggest his skills are still there. I would rather have 200+ innings of good pitching then 50 but it is hard to say that I had a distinct advantage in the deal when Jesse accomplished his goal.


The 64/60 at the NFBC

It was a very solid week for the 64/60 last week. Though we are still 10 of 12 in the league we did manage to move up 14 spots in the overall to 226 of 288. Now this may not sound like great strides but we had a good offensive week for the most part and moved up about 3 to 4 spots in Runs and RBI totals. The problem we are having is that are offense has been so poor thus far that are points are coming solely from pitching so we cannot be any better than 10th. Once are offense catches up we can be like the other teams and move drastically up and down in the standings on a daily basis. For example the team who is currently in 2nd was in 11th place on Wednesday. To quote the great leader of the Clevland Indians in Major League, "Were starting to come together boys, were starting to come together."


Power Rankings will appear on Wednesday at 8AM.