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)