A few items from today…
Ryan Braun continues to prove that he’s a dick. Mr. Class himself through a little hissy fit, throwing his bat in the air when an umpire had the gall to call a third strike on the douchebag. C’mon MLB– suspend this PED ass clown already.
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The Red Sox lost both games of a double header. While it is appropriate to care about Boston and the victims of the heinous crimes from last week, it is okay to now resume not liking the Red Sox, as is a grand tradition. The Royals lead the AL Central.
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The Diamondbacks cooled off the Rockies, scoring two runs in the top of the 9th, to end the Rockies winning streak at 8.
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The Rays finally are showing some life. They swept the A’s– no small feat- in authoritative fashion, outscoring them 17-4. A non-surprise, Brett Anderson hurt himself again. Josh Reddick tamed his mane and beard, to no positive effect. Matt Snyder of CBS Sports pointed out that six teams swept series this weekend: Twins over White Sox (though due to cold weather, they only played twice), Rangers over Mariners, Giants over Padres, Brewers over Cubs, and Angels over Tigers.
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Barry Zito rebounded from a thumping in Milwaukee earlier in the week to pitch 7 SO innings versus the Padres. It was his third time this season so far that he has done so at home. The Padres haven’t scored a run in 21 innings. More good news for the Giants: Buster Posey finally hit his first HR of the year.
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The Dodgers won. And if that wasn’t news enough, Matt Kemp also went 3 for 5. I’ll take my digs now, because part of me is also saying “uh-oh”.
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I feel like I should write about how the Tigers are in trouble, but like ESPN’s Buster Olney pointed out, the Tigers were under .500 in early July last year and they ended up in the World Series.
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But it is Sunday, and it is a good time to take a look at what the playoff picture would be if the season ended today! I like this part of the week:
AL East: Red Sox [Last Week: Red Sox]
AL Central: Royals [Last Week: Royals and Tigers were tied]
AL West: Rangers [Last Week: A’s]
AL Wild Cards: A’s/Yankees [Last Week: Royals/Tigers]
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NL West: Rockies [Last Week: Giants]
NL Central: Reds [Last Week: Cardinals]
NL East: Braves [Last Week: Braves]
NL Wild Cards: Giants plus 4-way tie of Nats/Pirates/Cards/D-Backs [Last Week: D-Backs/Rockies]
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Now let’s take a look at the league leaders in all 10 statistical categories that our Fantasy League competes in:
Runs
1) 19 (two tied): Austin Jackson, Carlos Gonzalez
3) 18: Coco Crisp
4) 17 (four tied): Shin-Soo Choo, Adam Jones, Daniel Murphy, Josh Rutledge
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Home Runs
1) 9: Justin Upton
2) 7 (six tied): J.P. Arencibia, John Buck, Chris Davis, Dexter Fowler, Bryce Harper, Mark Reynolds
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RBI
1) 22: John Buck
2) 21 (three tied): Chris Davis, Prince Fielder, Brandon Phillips
5) 20: Mike Napoli
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Stolen Bases
1) 8: Jacoby Ellsbury
2) 6 (two tied): Coco Crisp, Andrew McCutchen
4) 5 (eight tied): Everth Cabrera, Rajai Davis, Austin Jackson, Desmond Jennings, Josh Reddick, Ben Revere, Jose Reyes, David Wright
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Batting Average
1) .407: Chris Johnson
2) .403: Chris Davis
3) .392: Torii Hunter
4) .385: Adrian Gonzalez
5) .382 (two tied): Shin-Soo Choo, Jed Lowrie
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Wins
1) 4 (two tied): Clay Bucholz, Matt Harvey
3) 3 (sixteen tied): Madison Bumgarner, Jhoulys Chacin, Yu Darvish, Doug Fister, Jon Lester, Lance Lynn, Paul Maholm, Justin Masterson, Tommy Milone, Matt Moore, Eric O’Flaherty, Andy Pettite, C.C. Sabathia, Adam Wainwright, Jordan Zimmerman, Barry Zito
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Saves
1) 8: Sergio Romo
2) 7 (four tied): Rafael Betancourt, Jason Grilli, Jim Johnson, Craig Kimbrel
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Strikeouts
1) 38: Yu Darvish
2) 35: A.J. Burnett
3) 33 (two tied): Ryan Dempster, Jake Peavy
5) 32: Matt Harvey
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E.R.A.
1) 0.90 (two tied): Clay Bucholz, Ross Detwiler
3) 0.93: Matt Harvey
4) 0.95: Mike Minor
5) 1.00: Matt Moore
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WHIP
1) 0.52: Hisashi Iwakuma
2) 0.66: Matt Harvey
3) 0.68: Garrett Richards
4) 0.77: Derek Holland
5) 0.79: Yu Darvish
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Hopefully you see some of your players in those leader categories. If not, don’t fret, next week could change all that.
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The Baseball Messiah League 