Papelbon of the Week 5/31

This week's Papelbon of the week is brought to you by The Boowahs, courtesy of Noah Syndergaard. Remember, this award goes to a player who gives a performance that indirectly replicates the gritty career of Jonathan Papelbon. This award is not for everyone, it is an honor only some managers may hold throughout the remainder of the baseball season. This week, I am proud to present the award to owner of The Boowahs, Pat.

6 foot 6, weighing in at 242 pounds, 23 years old.

 

Noah Syndergaard was ejected after throwing at Chase Utley on Saturday, and manager Terry Collins is worried he'll face a suspension. There are a lot of moving parts to this story that make this much more deserving that the Papelbon Award. Lets begin.

-The tension between the Mets and Utley dates back to last postseason, when Utley broke shortstop Ruben Tejada’s leg on a late slide into second base in Game 2 of the National League Division Series.

-Last week: Syndergaard threw a fastball at 99 mph to start the inning that missed Utley’s back by about a foot and led to his immediate ejection. Manager Terry Collins then came out to argue, and was thrown out as well.

-This happened the same night the team was honoring the '86 Championship Mets.

-This is the sixth game the Mets and Dodgers have played this season; they played a four-game set in Los Angeles, and one game in New York on Friday. The Mets didn’t seek retaliation for the slide in the three games to follow the slide, either. (so Noah waited for this night where he knew champions were in the building)

-Utley went onto hit a solo shot in the 6th, followed up by a GRAND SLAM in the 7th. This alone is so crushing to the Syndergaard ejection that I would not be surprised if he does the exact same thing next time he pitches to Utley (this time making sure he actually hits him so he has to leave the game and perhaps go on the DL).

-The Mets went on to lose the game 9-1. We know in the back of his mind Syndergaard will be thinking about hitting Utley in the wars to come.

This turned out to actually be a tough night for him if you think about the #'s, but that is not what the POW Award is all about. It's about making plays like this that get you the belt. It's about doing it for your team. It's about throwing at guys like Utley to prove a point. This 23 year old monster is scary and I for one would not want to see a 99 MPH Fastball coming at my backside. Props to The Boowahs for this week's Papelbon of the Week.


POW Award Count

•  Springfield Isotopes (Roughned Odor) - 1
• The Boowahs (Noah Syndergaard) - 1 

Week 8 Roundup

As a former football coach once said, "It's time to take off the skirts, let's dive right in."

This week of memorial day weekend consisted of pretty straight forward Wins regarding each matchup. I personally am happy of the beat down The Boowahs received from Cano Can Go this week. Tom consistently putting up W's, Timmreck remaining perfect, Team Marty Weeds getting on the right track, The kekambas bitch with a nice win on Sunday, and Mark's team putting up 500+ points. Those on the losing side are not too happy, especially with the fact there are now quite a few 3-4 teams on the market.

Week 8 Matchup Results

• Cano Can Go 525.00 def. The Boowahs 344.17
• Brian's Team 474.82 def. Shane Falcos 342.50
• Marty Weeds 445.33 def. Nolan's Team 322.67
• Mark's Team 516.33 def. Let Drake Stay!!!! 386.67
• Tom's Team 414.33 def. #CSATT 378.00
• The Kekambas bitch 441.00 def. Springfield Isotopes 413.17 

Week 9 Yahoo Rankings

1. Brian's Team (7-0)
2. Can Can Go (6-1)
3. The Kekambas Bitch (5-2)
4. Tom's Team (4-3)
5. Mark's Team (3-4)
6. Marty Weeds (3-4)
7. Nolan's Team (3-4)
8. The Boowahs (3-4)
9. Springfield Isotopes (3-4)
10. #CSATT (2-5)
11. Let Drake Stay!!!! (2-5)
12. Shane Falcos (1-6)

19 Year Old Julio Urias to Make MLB Debut for Dodgers Tonight

First 19 year old pitcher to make MLB Debut w/ 1 eye

From Yahoo - Advice: "Urias is a future top-of-the-rotation starter but the Dodgers understandably want to limit his workload in year one. "Julio is an extremely talented pitching prospect whose talent is a little bit ahead of his development," said Friedman. The Dodgers haven't decided if Urias will stick around after Friday's start against the Mets."

From Yahoo - Advice: "Here we go. Urias has been regarded as one of the top young pitching talents in baseball since age 16 and he will debut Friday night at Citi Field at the age of 19. The left-hander was sporting a dominant 1.10 ERA, 0.78 WHIP, and 44/8 K/BB ratio through 41 innings this season at Triple-A Oklahoma City. He'll be filling in Friday for Alex Wood, who has been scratched due to left triceps tightness. It's not clear what the plan is beyond Friday's game."

These are direct quotes from Julio's Bio Page on Yahoo Fantasy Baseball. This stud lefty is set to make his debut tonight for the LA Dodgers. One of the youngest players to make a start in history.

Quite an accomplishment.

However, I would say the larger accomplishment at hand is the fact the owner of the Boowahs, Pat, picked this kid up off the waiver wire like he was the first one to wake up on Christmas morning. I've never seen quite anything like it. Does he have an insider working in the industry? How is he getting these scoops so quickly? Will there be an investigation into the commissioner's office?

I have actually heard one manager from The Nation complain, "he's like the Adam Schefter of fantasy baseball."

You want to look and despise him and his face

 but in the end, - you respect the work ethic.

It is still too early to tell if this kid will make an impact throughout a fantasy baseball season. As mentioned in the Yahoo quotes above, they do not know how Urias' story line will pan out this season. Leave it up to The Boowahs to roll the dice on cyclops.

Here's to everyone enjoying their Memorial Day Weekend... Now Bruce to kick us off!

Letter From The Commissioner's Office

Each week we will have a Letter from the Commissioner's Office. This weekly letter will be committed to creating an assessment system that you owners can look to as a foundation on all key aspects of the league. We are looking to generate some questions from owners around the league that can be featured on future letters. This will help integrate the crowd vs. the commissioner and put the commissioner's office on the spotlight when facing these tough questions. The best way for this to work will be through questions from the owners, so please ask away. With that in mind, there will also be a bunch of information in these posts regarding: playoff race, trade deadlines, waiver wire, vetoed trades, entry fees, in-season prizes, punishments, fines, & any updates the commissioner sees fit.

 

Now that I've formally introduced myself, be sure to check out my first interview as commissioner below. In this interview I answer tough questions from .225 Lifetime Hitter, and what I mean by tough is that it takes my brain a second or two to think and respond; So bare with me & please be patient. I answer in depth questions about the disastrous draft outcome, the daily format hiccup, my co-commissioner Brian not helping, when Sean is expecting, & what to expect regarding future letters from the commissioner's office....

Bonus outtake:

Pearl Jam of the Week 5/25

Hey guys! 

Our Pearl Jam of the Week gets a little somber today. This song is really not hard to understand. It's about death and loss. We have all had to deal with someone dying in different ways. Part of the reason why I love this song, Eddie's lyrics in this song. The lyrics speak to me in a lot of ways, but mainly share my thoughts on loss and the gravity of losing someone close. The idea that they're there one day and so far away the next minute. Something that I often think when someone I know passes away. The thing we have to take away from this is live it up with the people we care about and celebrate how amazing life is.

 Here is Light Year by Pearl Jam

P.S.- The answer to last weeks "trivia" question was Dennis Rodman. One of my favorite Pearl Jam concert moments was when Rodman put Eddie on his shoulder while they sang "Rockin' in the Free World". You gotta love the Chicago connections!!

Sunday Night Baseball Proves To Be Killer For Team Marty Weeds

-        Madison Bumgarner went 7.2 scoreless innings. Sure, that sounds like an awesome stat, right? This is not the case for owner Marty Weeds, however. With 2 outs, Bumgarner faced Anthony Rizzo, in which the count went to full. Bumgarner went on to walk Rizzo, thus being taken out of the game for doing so. It was most likely to be the last pitch of his night, but this walk costed Marty Weeds another win on Sunday night. Barn burner. Not only does Jack lose points for the let up walk, but he also would have received another 2 points for going a full 8 innings and a potential strikeout. This is where it gets tough for Jack... Bumgarner also had the Go-ahead game winning RBI. The thing is, thanks to Pat, Bumgarner did not receive any points for this because pitcher's at-bats do not count towards fantasy points. Rough. 

"I don't want my pitcher getting RBI's anyway, he needs to worry about pitching." - Jack W.

      This turns out to be a week after he suffered a similar loss on the last day. This is why this season is going to be a grind. One second you got it all locked up, the next you’re ace walks his second guy of the night and you lose your fantasy week. Absolutely dreadful, I’ve seen it a 1000 times. This is a river Jack wants to be crossing now though, as some of us may face a similar defeat in the coming weeks. Can’t wait to see who suffers the next deafening loss on Sunday night baseball. 

 Week 7 Matchup Results

• Cano Can Go 479.00 def. Tom's Team 343.17
• The Boowahs 444.33 def. Mark's Team 407.67
• Brian's Team 436.00 def. The Kekambas Bitch 394.00
• #CSATT 446.17 def. Marty Weeds 440.17
• Springfield Isotopes 397.50 def. Let Drake Stay!!! 367.17
• Nolan's Team 399.17 def. Shane Falcos 298.67 

  We also see Team Marty Weeds post the 4th largest score for the week, yet can't come up with the W.

Week 8 Yahoo Rankings

1. Brian's Team (6-0)
2. Cano Can Go (5-1)
3. The Kekambas Bitch (4-2)
4. Nolan's Team (3-3)
5. The Boowahs (3-3)
6. Springfield Isotopes (3-3)
7. Tom's Team (3-3)
8. #CSATT (2-4)
9. Mark's Team (2-4)
10. Let Drake Stay!!! (2-4)
11. Marty Weeds (2-4)
12. Shane Falcos (1-5)

Papelbon of the Week

As mentioned in an earlier post, we will be hosting a weekly POW award. I am going to incorporate a poll at the end of each week of players you decide are deserving of this prestigious award. Back when I first came up with the idea, I was going to put Bryce Harper as interim POW Belt champ, until we got things squared away and the site active. That is until the fiasco down under happened. Brought to you courtesy of Texas, sorry Canada.

This week's winner who will hold the belt until next week is Rougned Odor.  He delivered an absolute hay maker to the unsuspecting face of Bautista, while also sending the message "we do not forget pimped home runs."

Plus, if Bautista had just taken notes from his teammate Donaldson on how to slide, this could all have been avoided.

Congratulations to Springfield Isotopes on the first POW award winner & establishing your team as one you DO NOT want to mess with. I am not looking forward to our match-up, that's for sure. 

Remember to send me your candidates for next week's vote. This should be of players from this week ( so we have a chance to look back and see who is deserved of this righteous award ).

Pearl Jam of the Week

Editor's note: As mentioned, Harry will be bringing you one pearl jam song a week leading up to their live performance at Wrigley Field. Baseball season and Pearl Jam are two things that just make sense together. I asked Harry if he wanted to help out and do this and he was more than enthusiastic to hop on board. With that being said, I know this is going to be a great excerpt each week. Let's get groovy. 

As you all know, I really love Pearl Jam. I have a calendar at my desk, in which I have been counting down the days till they play at my building of worship (Wrigley Field) in August. With this countdown in mind, I'm going to be giving you guys some deep tracks that I love, from the band that I love.

As you know, Eddie Vedder grew up in Evanston. Not only is he homegrown, but he's also a huge Chicago sports fan. This song was written about what transcribed to be all the rage in the 90's for Chicago sports. I'm referring to of course, the dominance of the Chicago Bulls. This song is a great head rocker. See if you can guess who the voice is around 2:15. This was a drunken message left on Eddie's answering machine. Happy Rockin'!

Power Rankings - The Bottom Half

Editor's note: I decided in order to make these power rankings more interesting, rather than being so optimistic for the top 6, you, being in the bottom half of the league will be under much more scrutiny. I want to keep this interesting so prepare to have your team bashed. This may also help motivate guys in the bottom half to exceed into the top 6 rankings. Guys who are relegated from the top 6 are open season. Should be a fun way to go about these rankings and best of luck the rest of the way.

The Nation - Power Rankings

With the week 6 Power Rankings coming out, let's take a look at The Nation's Power Rankings through 5 weeks of fantasy. -Thanks Pat

You may be wondering to yourself why I am thanking Pat again. 'Man, what gives?'  

 Let me start by saying how wonderful of a commissioner he is. I know it's not easy setting up a draft correctly, so that you can manage your lineup day-to-day, or draft before the beginning of week 1. I strictly remember watching games during the first week of the season as my players dominate the playing field. I saw news articles 3 games into this season titled "Robinson Cano is on pace for 216 home runs in 2016." Can you imagine watching that first week and see 'your boy Cano' go for 4 home runs and 7 RBI's?!  Now that we're here, let's keep going. I want to also thank Pat for postponing the draft because I did not want to see my Japanese hidden gem sleeper pick go for 6 scoreless innings and also be the first Dodger to hit a Home Run this season! Nah, didn't want any of that to be included this season. So here we are, 6th week of the season, 5th week in fantasy.

I imagine most of you share some of these same frustrations. However, that does not take away the fact we are all handicapped with these hiccups, so all is fair in love and baseball........or something like that.

ONE NATION, UNDER TODD

Did anyone else think Frazier running into the wall and breaking his face was a metaphor for Pat’s season so far? Just totally lost in the sun, it’s hot out; it’s in the middle of nowhere Texas, it’s literally what has construed to be the team we now know as ‘The Boowahs.’ Not to mention the distinct similarity frazier running into a wall has with PQ's peripherals.

Pat’s team is terrible, simple as that. You would think the guy that watches over 4,000 innings of baseball a year would know how to draft a fantasy team. It probably doesn’t help that he has only one minute to pick, God knows he needs more time than that on a standardized state test question. Listen, the draft is tough; it’s not for the weak of heart, or the slow indecisiveness mind. One minute you got pizza rolls in the oven, the next minute you’ve auto-drafted yourself into the 4^th round (I’m looking at you ‘The Kekambas Bitch’). To be honest, I am glad Pat drafted the worst team this year; it serves him right for screwing up the daily format and having your team locked in on Monday. Especially in instances when your star player gets suspended 1 game in the middle of the week for telling an umpire to go fuck himself.

This leads me into our next topic that will be a weekly award ran throughout the year: The ‘Papelbon of the Week’ Award. Otherwise known as: The ‘POW’ Award. 

At the start of each week (Monday), I will ask that each fantasy manager send in one player from their team to act as a candidate for the POW award. They will need to give a brief description/article/video/statement/action of the player acting out his best performance of Papelbon. 

Put it this way, if John Rocker was still in the Bigs he would hold the award for an entire season long. Thus, then would have people referring to him as the single longest living POW.

We will have an interactive poll to determine the winner of the previous week’s POW award. The winner retains the metaphorical belt until the next week and so on and so forth.  This will give us a great chance to see some spottier highlights and mischievous activity of the prior week from the players we love to hate the most. 

I would hope that this also helps people set their lineup being that these would have similar deadlines – Thanks Pat.