The final week of the regular season competition in the 2013 BaseballGB Fantasy League was arguably the most competitive, with four of the six match-ups ending in draws.

The NE Riverkings were the main exception on the week as they were able to secure an 8-3 match-up victory over the Cardiff Redsox. The Riverkings offence swept the board with multi-homer weeks from Matt Wieters, Freddie Freeman and Shin-Soo Choo, whilst the Reds’ speedster Billy Hamilton made an immediate impact with four stolen bases. Luke Gregerson’s two Holds gave Cardiff that category and they also took Saves thanks to two apiece from Jonathan Papelbon and Mark Melancon; however the efforts of Cole Hamels, Clayton Kershaw and Michael Wacha ensured the Riverkings were able to add two of the pitching categories to their total.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough to move the Riverkings up from ninth place and they just missed out on a playoff spot by four games in the standings.

In a potential playoff preview, the third-placed Orpington Isotopes bested the second-placed Norwich No II by a score of 6-4. Eight Isotopes hit a home run as the team put 12 balls over the fence and they in part helped the team overcome Matt Carpenter’s burst of runs (10) to take that category alongside four other offensive marks.  Norwich No II’s club of closers provided plenty of useful work out of the bullpen, but 15 strike-outs from Jon Lester and a return to form from Adam Wainwright helped to keep the Isotopes ahead in the match-up.

Beck’Nams and Weston-Super-Sox both made sure of their playoff places by splitting the twelve categories equally in their match-up. Pablo Sandoval’s three-homer game last Wednesday helped Beck’Nams inch past the Sox in the home run stakes despite Weston benefiting from Mike Napoli’s four homers on the week. On the pitching side, the Super-Sox were very grateful for Homer Bailey’s 17 K’s as they helped secure the strike-out category by a single point, whilst Greg Holland’s four saves worked out well for Beck’Nams.

Batteries Essential and Wright Stuff took five categories each and it was a match-up defined by the Batteries’ offence and the Stuff’s pitchers. Both Jay Bruce and Kendrys Morales went deep three times during the week for Batteries, although Jacoby Ellsbury’s injury could prove to be a real blow over the next couple of weeks.  As for the Wright Stuff hurlers, the main story was the trio of relief pitchers who combined to amass eight saves: Huston Street (4), Grant Balfour (2) and Danny Farquhar (2).

Iron Men moved through to the playoffs with a 5-5 draw with Richie’s RBI’s. It was no surprise that the RBI’s took the home run category after Ryan Zimmerman’s five homer week and the eight runs and eight RBI’s from Brett Gardner were more than useful too. As for the Iron Men, the key to their week was the pitching staff’s ability to wrack up an impressive number of strike-outs, led by the 15 gained by Madison Bumgarner.

Finally, my Cheddar Chasers can perhaps take a 5-5 draw with league winners SWAT as something of a moral victory to soften the blow of finishing dead last. Alex Rios led the Chasers with three home runs and Mike Trout and Jose Reyes once again put together strong contributions to win four of the offensive categories. SWAT were not going to go into the playoffs on the back of a loss though. Adam Jones matched Rios’s trio of taters and the pitching staff did a good job too, with Casey Janssen (3 SV), Mariano Rivera (2) and Jim Johnson coming for six saves.

Final Standings

*1 SWAT*
*2 Norwich No II
*3 Orpington Isotopes
*4 Iron Men
*5  Batteries Essential
*6 Weston-Super-Sox
*7 The Wright Stuff
*8 Beck ‘Nams (GB)
9 NE Riverkings
10  Richie’s RBI’s
11 Cardiff Redsox
12 The Cheddar Chasers

Playoffs – First Round

The top eight teams qualified for the first round of the BGB playoffs. The match-ups are as follows:

SWAT (1st) v Beck’Nams (8th)

Iron Men (4th) v Batteries Essential (5th)

Orpington Isotopes (3rd) v Weston-Super-Sox (6th)

Norwich No II (2nd) v The Wright Stuff (7th)

The race to get into the remaining postseason spots is being keenly contested with the BaseballGB Fantasy League playoffs beginning in Week 23.

Beck’Nams gave my Cheddar Chasers an absolute thumping, dominating the week’s contest in an 11-1 victory. I was able to take the first category – Runs – but it was all down hill from there. Beck’Nams took four of the categories by a single point, so the final score could have looked a bit more respectable with a bit of luck; however there was no doubting who the better team was. The star of the week from this match-up was Shane Victorino. He has proved to be an inspired free agent signing by the Boston Red Sox this season and Beck’Nams benefited to the tune of three home runs, nine runs and ten RBIs in Week 21.

Richie’s RBI’s picked up nine category wins in their match-up against Weston-Super-Sox. Chris Carter hit three home runs and Rafael Soriano picked up three saves in a strong all-round week for the RBIs. Richie took a chance a few weeks ago on a short-term contribution from Alex Rodriguez and it paid off in this week at least as A-Rod provided a couple of homers and a stolen base. As for the Super-Sox, Chris Sale continued to rack up strike-outs with 12 on the week and Hanley Ramirez hit two long balls for the Dodgers.

The first-placed SWAT met the second-placed Norwich No II in what could be a Championship match-up preview and it was the league-leaders who came out on top. Norwich No II received their usual bundle of saves from Messrs Kimbrel, Jansen and Brothers but Aroldis Chapman’s spell on the bench gave SWAT the chance to draw that category and they’ll have to contend with Jose Fernandez due to make only two more starts the rest of the way.  The star SWAT was Alfonso Soriano who has been re-energized by his return to the Bronx. He hit three home runs on the week and stole a couple of bases too.

The Wright Stuff’s offence swept their section to help the team to a 7-4 match-up victory over Iron Men. David Ortiz drove in seven runs, Ian Desmond and Curtis Granderson both stole a pair of bases and Adrian Gonzalez went deep twice as the Wright Stuff took full advantage of a quiet week by the Iron Men’s batting lineup.  Iron Men recovered by claiming four pitching categories thanks in large part to their Japanese duo Hisashi Iwakuma (14K’s) and Koji Uehara (3 SVs).

The Orpington Isotopes edged their way past the Cardiff Redsox as R.A. Dickey showed something closer to his 2012 form than we’ve seen from him for most of 2013. He collected two wins and 12 strike-outs for the Isotopes whilst Oakland’s Sean Doolittle picked up three Holds. Yasiel Puig continues to gain plenty of headlines and the Isotopes benefited from those relating to his on-field displays, but a collective effort from the Cardiff Redsox batting lineup ensure they were able to take four of the offensive categories.

Batteries Essential won six categories to the NE Riverkings’ three in the final match-up of the week. Jacoby Ellsbury could have won the stolen base category single-handedly with his four bags although both Batteries and Boston will be concerned about the speedster’s hand injury.  The Oakland A’s pitcher A.J. Griffin has been homer-prone this season but he was able to grab two wins and 11 strike-outs for the Riverkings this week and Glen Perkins’ two saves also proved to be very useful.

Week 22 match-ups

Cheddar Chasers (12th) v SWAT (1st)

Orpington Isotopes (3rd) v Norwich No II (2nd)

Richie’s RBI’s (10th) Iron Men (4th)

The Wright Stuff (7th) v Batteries Essential (5th)

Beck ‘Nams (8th) v Weston-Super-Sox (6th)

NE Riverkings (9th) v Cardiff Redsox (11th)

Four teams have now clinched their spot in the BaseballGB Fantasy League playoffs after the Week 20 match-ups.

Mark George’s Orpington Isotopes had the biggest win of the week, getting the better of Batteries Essential by a score of 9-2. The Isotopes swept the offensive categories despite Jose Bautista landing on the Disabled List. There were stand-out performances from Wilin Rosario (3HR), Carlos Beltran (3HR) and Elvis Andrus (4SB)., whilst Batteries received three stolen bases from Jacoby Ellsbury and two homers from Carlos Santana. Batteries Essential received some good work from their relievers, most notably through four saves by Addison Reed, to take the Saves and Holds categories, but the Isotopes took the rest in large part due to excellent work by Matt Garza, Jon Lester, Jake Peavy and Adam Wainwright.

The league-leading SWAT added eight more category wins to their collection in Week 20. Beck’Nams had a decent offensive week, including multi-homer weeks from Anthony Rizzo, Shane Victorino and Will Venable, but against SWAT that only led to a draw in the Runs category. Robinson Cano, Adrian Beltre and Adam Jones all performed well for SWAT as they took five of the offensive categories and their pitching staff then captured three of the pitching stats. Beck’Nams fought back largely thanks to an impressive tally of 62 strike-outs and a couple of Holds from Tanner Scheppers and Tyler Clippard.

Iron Men became the fourth team to clinch a playoff spot after winning their Week 20 match-up against NE Riverkings 7-4. Iron Men received some superlative work from their pitching staff to sweep all six categories, contributions including yet another win from Max Scherzer and three saves from Jim Henderson. The Riverkings battled back by taking four of the offensive categories with outfielders Austin Jackson and Giancarlo Stanton leading the way.

Richie’s RBI’s also gained a 7-4 victory, although this one came at the expense of my Cheddar Chasers. Houston Astros catcher Jason Castro launched three home runs as the RBI’s took all of the offensive categories, slightly softening the blow of losing Starling Marte to injury for a few weeks. Four saves (three from Fernando Rodney) and contributions across the board in the strike-outs column helped my Chasers take some of the pitching categories, but they were not enough to prevent a slip back down to the foot of the table.

Norwich No II and Cardiff Redsox had a good competitive match-up in which No II, currently second in the table, ultimately prevailed 6-4. Norwich’s victory was once again set up by outstanding pitching. Aroldis Chapman (3SV), Kenley Jansen (3), Craig Kimbrel (2) and Rex Brothers (2) combined for ten saves and Jose Fernandez (16 K’s), Shelby Miller (14) and Alex Cobb (10) set the pace as the pitching staff combined for 77 strike-outs. Cardiff were able to split the offensive categories with Troy Tulowitzki and Martin Prado both going deep twice.

Finally, Weston-Super-Sox and The Wright Stuff could only be separated by one category in their match-up. It went in favour of Weston and, judging by the final scores, it was the wins contributed by Ian Kennedy, Drew Smyly and Doug Fister that proved to be the difference. The Wright Stuff got homers from seven different players on the week and that meant Miguel Cabrera’s customary assault on every pitcher who dares to throw the ball anywhere near him didn’t allow the Super-Sox to dominate the offensive categories.

Week 21 match-ups

SWAT* (1st) Norwich No II (2nd)

Orpington Isotopes (3rd) v Cardiff Redsox (11th)

The Wright Stuff (7th) v Iron Men (4th)

Richie’s RBI’s (10th) v Weston-Super-Sox (5th)

NE Riverkings (8th) v Batteries Essential (6th)

Cheddar Chasers (12th) v Beck ‘Nams (9th)

Two teams have now clinched a playoff place in the BaseballGB Fantasy League. Who else might be set to join them? Read on to find out.

Norwich No II took a 10-2 victory over Beck’Nams to secure a playoff place and to keep a firm hold on second position in the league. No II swept the offensive categories thanks to quality contributions by Chris Davis (3 HR), Hunter Pence (6 R, 9 RBI) and Jean Segura (3 SB) to name but three, while Jonathan Lucroy was the only Beck’Nams batter to go deep.  Beck’Nams narrowly captured WHIP and took home the Holds category thanks to four from Tyler Clippard (Tanner Scheppers added another for good measure), but the rest went to Norwich No II led by three saves apiece from Craig Kimbrel and Aroldis Chapman.

Despite their impressive match-up win, Norwich No II only gained marginal ground on first place as SWAT continued their relentless pace with a 9-2 victory over Richie’s RBI’s. The man of the match-up was unquestionably Alfonso Soriano who is clearly enjoying being back in pinstripes. The outfielder’s outstanding week included nine runs, five home runs, 18 RBI and two stolen bases. Richie was the manager who took a chance on picking up Alex Rodriguez and he benefitted from A-Rod’s ESPN Sunday Night come back (3-for-4 with a home run) after being hit by Ryan Dempster’s pitch.

The Wright Stuff took a comfortable 9-2 victory over my struggling Cheddar Chasers. The match-up included five players who had multi-homer weeks and although three of them were Chasers (Billy Butler, Kyle Seager and Ben Zobrist), greater consistency across the lineup ensured that even that category eluded me. At least Yadier Molina made a positive return from the Disabled List. On the pitching side, the Wright Stuff received a win and nine strike-outs from three separate pitchers (Mat Latos, Tony Cingrani and Sonny Gray), whilst my pitching staff rescued WHIP thanks to a difference of 0.01. The way my team are going, I’ll take any good luck I can get.

The Orpington Isotopes and Iron Men are separated by just half a game in the standings after the Isotopes edged a close contest 6-5.  Adam Wainwright’s 11 strike-out performance against the Cubs on Sunday was invaluable for Mark George’s Isotopes team, with saves from Steve Cisehk (3) and Sergio Romo (2) helping the team along too.  Evan Longoria had a strong week for Iron men with two homers and a 1.382 OPS, but Mark Trumbo’s eight RBI (he hit three homers on the week) and six stolen bases spread out over five players helped the Isotopes to split the offensive categories and to take the match-up.

Weston-Super-Sox and the NE Riverkings couldn’t be split and shared the twelve categories evenly in their match-up. The Super-Sox largely did their damage with the bat and chief contributor once again was Miguel Cabrera (4 HR, 10 RBI) who has frankly reached a ridiculous level of brilliance that even other excellent hitters must marvel at. The Riverkings received a strong week from Jason Heyward (3 HR, 1.231 OPS) but their key players were pitchers, led by the Phillies’ Cole Hamels who contributed a win and 17 strike-outs. The Riverkings have also snuck in and grabbed Red Sox prospect Xander Bogaerts who has just been promoted to the Majors.

Finally, Batteries Essential and Cardiff Redsox also collected six category wins apiece from their match-up. Batteries gained three saves each from Joaquin Benoit and Addision Reed and were able to win five of the pitching categories despite quiet strike-out weeks from Justin Masterson and Tim Lincecum. For Cardiff, Prince Fielder put off-field distractions (largely caused by Tigers teammate Torii Hunter mentioning them in a radio interview) behind him with a two homer week and Martin Prado collected six runs and seven RBI to help Cardiff take five of the six offensive categories.

Week 20 match-ups

Beck ‘Nams (8th) v SWAT* (1st)

Cardiff Redsox (10th) v Norwich No II (2nd)

Orpington Isotopes (3rd) v Batteries Essential (6th)

NE Riverkings (9th) v Iron Men (4th)

The Wright Stuff (7th) v Weston-Super-Sox (5th)

Cheddar Chasers (11th) v Richie’s RBI’s (12th)

This coming Sunday marks the trade deadline in the BaseballGB Fantasy League. Which teams may be looking for an extra player or two to help down the stretch? Read on to find out.

Iron Men produced the biggest win of Week 18 with a 10-1 triumph over the Cardiff Redsox. J.J. Hardy hit three home runs, Matt Holliday added two more and Eric Hosmer continued his recent good form with eight RBI and five runs scored as Iron Men swept up the offensive categories. The Redsox were able to take WHIP and earned a split in holds thanks to Luke Gregeson matching Trevor Rosenthal’s single hold. However Iron Men took the other four categories thanks to solid work across the board by the pitching staff, including another win courtesy of Max Scherzer.

SWAT extended their lead at the top of the league to ten games following a 10-2 match-up win over the Wright Stuff. The Wright Stuff continued to benefit from Justin Upton’s hot streak as he added three homers to the total, whilst Adrian Gonzalez led the team with eight RBI, but that wasn’t enough to take any of the offensive categories against SWAT’s formidable lineup.  They received home runs from seven different sources, with Adam Jones and Adrian Beltre both going deep twice and adding a combined 15 runs and 15 RBI. SWAT continued their collection policy with six pitchers all adding a win to the team’s tally, whilst David Robertson added three holds. The Wright Stuff will be hoping the forearm tightness that cut shut Chris Archer’s recent start proves to be a minor issue.

Orpington Isotopes continued their good recent form, moving up to fourth in the league on the back of an 8-4 victory over Weston-Super-Sox. Elvis Andrus was the star offensive performer for the Isotopes with five stolen bases, whilst Wilin Rosario, Andrew McCutchen, Jose Bautista and Yasiel Puig all put up an OPS over 1.000. Miguel Cabrera was once again the unstoppable force for the Super-Sox with four homers and 11 RBI, and the team’s pitching staff was able to capture three category wins, but they were not enough to stop the Isotopes from taking the match-up.

The NE Riverkings prevailed over my Cheddar Chasers by 7-4. Alex Gordon, Jose Reyes and Mike Trout all made useful contributions for the Chasers and Alex Rios immediately took to his new surroundings as a Texas Ranger to help take four of the offensive categories. The Riverkings’ pitching staff proved to be the difference though, with only Kevin Gregg’s three saves saving me from a pitching category sweep. Clayton Kershaw led the pitching staff with his dominant display against the Rays on Sunday night, although the Riverkings may need to keep in mind that Matt Harvey is likely to be given an early end to his season by the Mets to keep his innings pitched down.

The teams couldn’t be separated in the final two match-ups of the week. Beck’Nams and Richie’s RBI’s both grabbed six points in a dead heat.  Beck’Nams took most of the pitching categories thanks to Justin Verlander (1W, 16Ks), Felix Hernandez (1W, 12Ks) and Greg Holland (3SV, 6K’s, 0.00 ERA). Richie’s RBI’s responded by taking most of the offensive categories with six players hitting the ball over the fence including two by Arizona’s Aaron Hill who also added seven RBI.

Batteries Essential and Norwich No II both came out of their match-up with five category wins and, again, the contest was split between the two sides of the ball. Norwich No II got the better of the batting side thanks to multi-homer weeks from Jayson Werth and the league-leading Chris Davis, whilst Hunter Pence and Jean Segura both stole two bases on the week. the Batteries’ pitching success was the result of strong starts by Tim Lincecum, Dillon Gee, Ricky Nolasco and Hyun-Jin Ryu, with Joaquin Beniot and Addison Reed adding two saves each.

Week 19 match-ups

Richie’s RBI’s (11th) v SWAT* (1st)

Beck ‘Nams (7th) v Norwich No II (2nd)

Orpington Isotopes (4th) v Iron Men (3rd)

NE Riverkings (9th) v Weston-Super-Sox (5th)

Batteries Essential (6th) v Cardiff Redsox (12th)

Cheddar Chasers (10th) v The Wright Stuff (8th)

Which teams in the BaseballGB Fantasy League were able to squeeze the last few bits of production from players now sitting out the rest of the season in the aftermath of the Biogenesis scandal? Read on to find out.

The second-placed Norwich No II had an impressive Week 17, winning their match-up against Richie’s RBI’s 10-2.  The RBI’s were able to take one offensive category and one pitching category, with Daniel Murphy and Starling Marte combining to win stolen bases and Joel Peralta and Jose Veras securing Holds. Otherwise it was success all the way for No II. Their formidable pitching staff keeps on coming up with the goods, most notably of late in Jose Fernandez, Julio Teheran and Kenley Jansen. On offence, Chris Davis and Nelson Cruz both provided three homers apiece, although Cruz has now been dropped from the roster following his drug suspension.

Norwich were able to close within six games of the league-leading SWAT as they were held to a 5-5 draw by NE Riverkings. Jason Heyward amassed 12 runs and 7 RBI on the week for the Riverkings, whilst Atlanta Braves teammate Freddie Freeman contributed 2 homers, 9 runs and 8 RBI respectively. Jim Johnson, Mariano Rivera and Casey Janssen combined for six saves for SWAT and Paul Goldschmidt launched three longballs, whilst Everth Cabrera swiped his 37th and final stolen base of the season before beginning his 50-day suspension.

In the BGB writers clash of the week, Mark George’s Isotopes got the better of my Chasers 7-5.  Elvis Andrus and Andrew McCutchen provided the speed for the Isotopes, combining for five stole bases, and Mark Trumbo had a boom or bust week, going deep three times but collecting only two other hits all week.  My Chasers were helped out by two impressive showings on Sunday from A.J. Burnett and Derek Holland, with the pair combing for 34 K’s over the week, but there wasn’t much else in the way of good news, particularly with Yadier Molina landing on the Disabled List and the rumours of a move for Alex Rios (and potential increase in runs and RBI) failing to materialize before the non-waiver deadline.

Iron Men captured a 6-3 win over Batteries Essential and the most eye-catching category was stolen bases, which Iron Men won by hitting double figures thanks to a combination of base thievery by Jose Altuve, Michael Bourn, Matt Holliday and Eric Hosmer. The Batteries got a couple of homers from Torii Hunter, but lost Mets David Wright and Bobby Parnell to the DL, joining Albert Pujols on the Batteries’ injured list.  Lance Lynn, Madison Bumgarner and C.J. Wilson added 42 strike-outs and Max Scherzer won yet another game as the Iron Men took the match-up.

Cardiff Red Sox dominated the offensive categories on their way to a 6-4 victory over Weston-Super-Sox. The Super-Sox were able to win a draw on the home run category, but the other five offensive marks all went Cardiff’s way with Home Run Derby winner Yoenis Cespedes having a strong week and Carlos Gomez endorsing the saying that speed never goes into a slump, swiping three stolen bases despite struggling at the plate.  Weston made a game of it by winning four pitching categories, led by Ervin Santana’s two wins and Ian Kennedy getting a win on his debut for the San Diego Padres against his first MLB team, the New York Yankees.

Finally, the Wright Stuff edged a close match-up against Beck’Nams 6-5. Much like the NE Riverkings, the Wright Stuff benefited from impressive weeks by two Atlanta Braves hitters, Brian McCann and Justin Upton in this case, while the team stole 10 bases with Ian Desmond leading the way with 4. Beck’Nams received three homers from Anthony Rizzo and a good week from Shane Victorino, but it was the pitching that rescued most of the points from the match-up. Francisco Liriano has proved to be an inspired pick-up in MLB by the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Beck’Nams can take credit too for snapping him up and receiving a good return.

Week 18 match-ups

The Wright Stuff (8th) v SWAT* (1st)

Batteries Essential (6th) v Norwich No II (2nd)

Orpington Isotopes (3rd) v Weston-Super-Sox (5th)

Iron Men (4th) v Cardiff Redsox (10th)

Richie’s RBI’s (12th) v Beck ‘Nams (7th)

Cheddar Chasers (11th) v NE Riverkings (9th)

Week Sixteen in the BaseballGB Fantasy League brought several close match-ups, but the league-leader took a rare one-sided defeat.

The big result of the week came courtesy of BGB’s Mark George whose Orpington Isoptopes took a surprise 11-1 win over the hitherto seemingly unbeatable SWAT. The Isotopes swept the offensive categories with Edwin Encarnacion, Andrew McCutchen, Jose Bautista and Yasiel Puig all going deep twice during the week, whilst SWAT had to make do without Joe Mauer (paternity leave) and Robinson Cano had an unusually quiet week. SWAT were able to take ERA, but otherwise the categories kept coming for the Isotopes, most notably thanks to four saves from Steve Chisek and two wins and 16 strike-outs from Jon Lester.

There was another offensive category sweep in the next match-up between Batteries Essential and Weston-Super-Sox. It was the Batteries that had the broom out as both Jay Bruce and Torii Hunter went deep three times, with Jimmy Rollins adding a trio of stolen bases helping the team to an impressive total of nine SB’s. The Super-Sox took home the ERA and strike-out categories, the latter aided in no small part by Chris Sale’s 18 k’s, but Batteries Essential took the other four pitching categories on their way to a 10-2 match-up success story.

The offensive sweeps continued into the match-up between Cardiff Redsox and my Cheddar Chasers and unfortunately for me it was the Redsox that were on the right end of it. Carlos Gomez’s two homers and five stolen bases led the way, but the Redsox’s success largely came from good contributions across the board, including a welcome return to form from Victor Martinez. Neither of the two teams put up particularly impressive pitching performances and I gratefully accepted the three category wins that came my way.

It was a close battle between the Iron Men and Norwich No II. Norwich had a bumper strike-out week with 75, with Jose Fernandez contributing 21 (plus two pitching wins) and Shelby Miller, Stephen Strasburg and Julio Teheran each adding in 12 apiece. Meanwhile Craig Kimbrel, Aroldis Chapman, Rex Brothers and Kenley Jansen combined for 10 saves, probably leaving Iron Men relieved to rescue the holds category (two from Trevor Rosenthal did the trick) and gaining a tie in pitching wins. Michael Borne amassed 10 RBI for Iron Men and Jose Altuve picked up four stolen bases although that will only marginally soften the blow of losing Ryan Braun for the rest of the season courtesy of his PED suspension.

The final two match-ups were both decided by a single category win. Beck’Nams edged out the NE Riverkings with strong ERA and WHIP scores and took the strikeouts category by one K with Felix Hernandez and Jered Weaver combing for 20, whilst six players combined for seven stolen bases on the offensive category side. As for the Riverkings, Giancarlo Stanton’s three longballs helped the team to home run success, whilst Joe Nathan and Glen Perkins earned two saves apiece to win that category.

As for the Wright Stuff and Richie’s RBI’s, this was a match-up of contrasting fortunes. Richie’s offence enjoyed plenty of joy, Daniel Murphy leading the team with 8 RBI and adding two homers. Bryce Harper also went deep twice but their combined home run total of 8 was matched by the Wright Stuff and that single tie proved to be decisive in the match-up as the Stuff swept the pitching categories. Four pitchers – Gerrit Cole, Patrick Corbin, Tony Cingrani and Tommy Milone – all got into double figures in the strike-out column, whilst another four pitchers – Grant Balfour, Ryan Cook, Huston Street and Ernesto Frieri – combined for seven saves.

Week 17 match-ups

NE Riverkings (9th) v SWAT* (1st)

Richie’s RBI’s (10th) v Norwich No II (2nd)

Cheddar Chasers (11th) v Orpington Isotopes (3rd)

Iron Men (4th) v Batteries Essential (6th)

Weston-Super-Sox (5th) v Cardiff Redsox (12th)

The Wright Stuff (8th) v Beck ‘Nams (7th)

As the All-Star Break arrives, which teams are well set for a successful second half to the season in the BaseballGB Fantasy League?

SWAT continued their excellent season with a dominant 11-0 victory over Cardiff Red Sox. Stolen bases by Yoenis Cespedes, Desmond Jennings, Carlos Gomez and Chase Headley allowed Cardiff to rescue a draw in one of the categories, but the rest all went SWAT’s way. Adrian Beltre and Adam Jones both hit three home runs on the week, whilst Zack Greinke led the pitching staff with two pitching wins and 16 strike-outs.

The NE Riverkings gained a more-than-useful 8-2 victory over Richie’s RBI’s, although the RBI’s ran them close on several of the categories. Cole Hamels and Clayton Kershaw combined for 21 K’s on the Riverkings’ pitching staff, whilst Richie’s RBI’s picked up 13 K’s from Josh Johnson and Joel Peralta collected three holds. On the batting side, Shin-Soo Choo led the Riverkings with nine runs scored and Giancarlo Stanton continued his strong return from injury with two homers and five RBI on the week.

The third and fourth placed teams met in the next match-up and it was the Iron Men who came out on top. The gained five of the pitching categories, with Hisahi Iwakuma and the AL All-Star starter Max Scherzer combining for 23 strike-outs, Trevor Rosenthal collecting three holds and Koji Uehara adding three saves. The Super-Sox’s efforts were led by their offence. Miguel Cabrera had his typically impressive week and two players based in Chicago, Starlin Castro and Alejandro De Aza, both added a couple of homers apiece.

My Cheddar Chasers edged their way past Batteries Essential 6-4. Kyle Seager and Billy Butler went deep twice over the week, with Alex Rios continuing to be a decent source of some stolen bases for the team. Phil Hughes picked up 12 K’s and Derek Holland added 14 more alongside two pitching wins. However, Batteries Essential benefited from the most dramatic pitching performance on the week courtesy of Tim Lincecum’s no-hitter.  Jay Bruce chipped in seven RBI whilst Torii Hunter added seven runs scored.

The final two match-ups were both decided by a single point. Norwich No II just got the better of the Wright Stuff as Rex Brothers’ four holds, winning that category on his own, proved to be decisive. Chris Davis ended his blistering first half with a flourish, with Norwich No II also enjoying 10 RBI from Brandon Phillips and eight more from Matt Carpenter. The Wright Stuff’s young pitchers continued to impress as Tony Cingrani (15K), Partick Corbin (10K) and Gerrit Cole (9K) added handsomely to the strike-out total with veterans Grant Balfour (three saves) and Rafael Betancourt (two) helping out in the saves column.

The other close match-up went the way of Beck’Nams. Neither team’s offence really sprang into life over the course of the week and that allowed Beck’Nams to take four of the offensive categories despite no real stand-out individual showings. The Isotopes had three pitchers that got into double digits in the strike-out column. One of those was Matt Garza and he also added two pitching wins, something that he may find easier to replicate in future weeks if he does get traded by the Cubs to a contender before the deadline. Chris Perez provided four saves for the Isotopes, whilst Tyler Clippard’s two holds made all the difference in that category for the Beck’Nams.

Week 16 match-ups

Orpington Isotopes (5th) SWAT* (1st)

Iron Men (3rd) Norwich No II (2nd)

Weston-Super-Sox (4th) Batteries Essential (6th)

NE Riverkings (12th) Beck ‘Nams (7th)

The Wright Stuff (8th) Richie’s RBI’s (9th)

The Cheddar Chasers (11th) v Cardiff Redsox (10th)

The league-leaders kept on rolling in Week Fourteen of the BaseballGB Fantasy competition.

We start with the league-leading SWAT who earned another match-up win by a score of 8-4 over Batteries Essential. Jacoby Ellsbury’s four stolen bases and Torii Hunter’s strong week (2HR, 5R, 11RBI) helped Batteries in a couple of categories, but Adrian Beltre (4HR), Robinson Cano (3HR, 10RBI) and Paul Goldschmidt (2HR, 7RBI) powered SWAT’s offence, whilst John Lackey’s 15K’s, David Robertson’s 4 Holds and a combined 5 Saves by Mariano Rivera and Jim Johnson kept the pitching in excellent shape.

The Wright Stuff also completed an 8-4 victory last week, this one coming at the expense of the NE Riverkings. Mat Latos, Patrick Corbin and Grant Balfour led the pitching staff to three of those categories, whilst the offence took all but one category with Adrian Gonzalez’s three homers leading the team. For the Riverkings, a stolen base apiece by Jason Heyward, Shin-Soo Choo and Alcides Escobar was enough to take that category and James Russell and Junichi Tazawa helped them to the Holds category.

My Cheddar Chasers narrowly hauled their way off the foot of the table thanks to a 7-4 match-up win over Iron Men. Alex Gordon, Mike Trout and Kyle Seager got the offence going and Jose Reyes continued his encouraging return from injury, although Jose Altuve’s three stolen bases helped Iron Men to avoid an offensive category sweep. The pitching categories were split equally. Iron Men’s six pitching wins came from six different pitchers, whilst David Price had a great week for the Chasers delivering two wins and fifteen K’s.

Richie’s RBI’s gained a 7-5 win over the Orpington Isoptopes. The outstanding feature of the match-up was the RBI’s stolen base total. Starling Marte’s five stolen bases would have been enough to win this category in other matches all on their own, but Richie’s team added seven more including three from the returning Bryce Harper. Scott Cishek, Chris Perez and Sergio Romo combined to amass five saves for the Isotopes and Yasiel Puig continued his excellent introduction to the Majors.

The Super-Sox took home a 6-5 victory over Norwich No II. It was the familiar characters that led the way for both teams, Miguel Cabrera and Hanley Ramirez got the Super-Sox’s offence moving whilst Chris David continued to stick balls over the fence for No II and Josh Hamilton had the sort of week that his supporters have been waiting for a good year for. The Sox were able to take three of the pitching categories but Norwich No II had their young aces in form with Stephen Strasburg (17K’s) and Jose Fernandez (15K’s) continuing to dominate teams.

The closest match-up of the week was also the most extreme in terms of pitching and offence. Apart from a few homers, the Beck’Nams batting lineup didn’t show up all week and that helped the Cardiff Redsox sweep the offensive categories, although their impressive total of ten stolen bases played a part too. The Beck’Nams’ pitching staff bailed the team out of a desperate position to at least gain five category wins on the week, with Jered Weaver and Greg Holland being the two key contributors.

Week 15 match-ups

SWAT* (1st) v Cardiff Redsox (10th)

The Wright Stuff (8th) v Norwich No II (2nd)

Weston-Super-Sox (4th) v Iron Men (3rd)

Orpington Isotopes (5th) v Beck ‘Nams (7th)

Cheddar Chasers (11th) v Batteries Essential (6th)

NE Riverkings (12th) v Richie’s RBI’s (9th)

Week Thirteen in the BaseballGB Fantasy League proved to be unlucky for some and a good week for others.

Mark George’s Orpington Isotopes captured the biggest win of the week, taking a 10-1 victory of the Wright Stuff. The Isotopes swept the offensive categories, led by Jason Kipnis’s brilliant week that brought 9 runs, 3 homers, 10 RBI, 2 stolen bases and a 1.650 OPS. Jose Bautista and Yasiel Puig were other key contributors for Orpington, whilst the Wright Stuff couldn’t gain any benefit from Ian Desmond’s impressive performances. Ernesto Frieri’s four saves did help the Stuff to their one category win, but Mark’s pitching staff combined to win four of the other pitching categories for a comprehensive match-up win.

The NE Riverkings launched themselves away from the bottom of the league with an impressive 8-2 match-up victory over the second -placed Norwich No II. Matt Harvey added 11 K’s to the total and Chase Utley rolled back the years to lead the batting lineup with four longballs and ten runs scored. As for No II, Kenley Jansen, Craig Kimbrel and Aroldis Chapman combined for six saves whilst Chris Davis had another monstrous week (4 HR, 7 R, 10 RBI) in a losing effort.

Richie’s RBI’s followed the Riverkings’ lead by putting their 11th-placed position in the standings to one side and gaining an 8-3 win over the Cardiff Redsox. The Redosx were able to combine for 5 stolen bases to win that category, but the RBI’s took the rest of the offensive with Pittsburgh’s Starling Marte going deep twice and putting up a 1.360 OPS. Gio Gonzalez gave the RBI’s two wins and 11 K’s, whilst Yu Darvish added another win and 14 strike-outs to the team’s total.

What was good news for the Riverkings and RBI’s proved disastrous for my Chasers as their match-up wins and my 7-4 loss to the Weston-Super-Sox saw my team plummet to the bottom of the league. Fernando Rodney and Kevin Gregg both provided two saves and Mike Trout had another solid week across the board, but that was where the positives came to an end. Michael Cuddyer’s hit-streak helped the Super-Sox along, as did a good week from Hanley Ramirez, but the two stars of the show were Miguel Cabrera (5 HR) and Chris Sale (23 K).

Batteries Essential took a 6-4 win over the Beck’Nams in a week when neither team’s offence really got going. Jacoby Ellsbury scored six runs and David Wright stole a couple of bases as the Batteries picked up four of the offensive categories. Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez gave the Beck’Nams decent contributions and Tyler Clippard collected two holds to help them to four pitching category victories, but the Batteries were able to take the Wins and Saves to win the match-up.

The final match-up saw the first-placed team meeting the third as SWAT and Iron Men battled away and could only be separated by a single category. SWAT took five of the offensive categories, led by Allen Craig’s three home runs and Domonic Brown’s seven RBI and seven runs, whilst Iron Men grabbed five of the pitching set with C.J. Wilson, Madison Bumgarner and Max Scherzer combining for 29 strike-outs and Koji Uehara amassing three saves. The difference in the match-up came through SWAT being able to take the remaining pitching category – courtesy of Darren O’Day’s single hold – whilst the sixth hitting category (stolen bases) was drawn.

Week 14 match-ups

SWAT (1st) v Batteries Essential (6th)

Norwich No II (2nd) v Weston-Super-Sox (4th)

Iron Men (3rd) v Cheddar Chasers (12th)

Orpington Isotopes (5th) v Richie’s RBI’s (9th)

Beck’Nams (7th) v Cardiff Redsox (10th)

Wright Stuff (8th) v NE Riverkings (11th)