Week 12 of the BaseballGB fantasy league saw a heavyweight clash at the top of the standings.

Would Cheshunt hang on to top spot or would Norwich reclaim the place they have held for much of the season?

In the battle at the top it was the Maltsters who came out ahead, winning 9-3. McCutchen hit two homers, scored six runs and knocked in seven, while Jose Ramirez and Bradley Jr joined him in helping to take average and OPS. Kluber picked up a win, did not allow an earned run and struck out 24 while Osuna had two saves.

Gardner stole two bases for Norwich, who saw Bellinger hit five homers and knock in 12 in vain. Six different pitchers struck out eight, including Devenski out of the pen. Hand and Edwards Jr had two holds each.

The Slugs defeated the Sox 9-3 in a matchup which was closer than the final score suggests. Dickerson scored seven runs while Zimmerman hit .368 for the Slugs, with Cano homering twice and driving in 11. Berrios had a win, eight strikeouts and helped take ERA and WHIP. Gordon stole four bases for the Sox while Maurer had two saves and Dayton collected a pair of holds.

Batteries Essential had reason to celebrate after defeating the Bombers 8-3. In a close matchup, Batteries Essential had the better of the offense as Grandal scored six runs and joined Kinsler, who stole three bases, in belting a trio of homers.

Morrison drove in seven. Gray struck out 12, Fiers helped take ERA and WHIP while Bedrosian and Neshek had a pair of holds each. Turner and Broxton each hit well over .400 and helped take OPS for the Bombers while Shaw had the lone save.

The Riverkings are getting closer to .500 after defeating Iron Men. Travis Shaw had a three-homer week while Murphy drove in eight and Inciarte hit .414. Santana led the staff with two wins and 13 strikeouts. Harris had four holds for Iron Men while Kershaw helped take ERA and WHIP.

The Knights picked up a 7-3 win against Jesmond as Corey Seager had a big week. He hit .538, hit three homers – as did Stanton – and knocked in seven. Montgomery had a win, struck out 10 and did not allow an earned run. Forsythe and Correa each scored seven runs for Jesmond while Bregman stole two bases. De Grom helped take WHIP by a hair.

The RBIs go second after edging past the A&E Dept 7-5. Judge led the team with six runs, three homers and six RBIs while Perez and Maybin swiped two bases each. Joe Ross had a win and helped take ERA while Barnes had two holds.

Schoop helped the A&E Dept take average and OPS while Davis had two saves and Scherzer and Lester each struck out 11 and helped take WHIP.

Finally, the Isotopes did just enough to get past the Chasers 6-5. Khris Davis hit .345 and stole a base while Estrada struck out 10. Herrera had three saves while Watson had the lone hold. Straily made the difference in WHIP.

Goldschmidt scored eight runs, homered twice and helped take OPS for the Chasers, while Cole won twice and Quintana helped take ERA on a tiebreak.

The week 13 matchups are as follows – and include another top-two battle:

Maltsters (1st) v RBIs (2nd)

Norwich (3rd) v Iron Men (9th)

Bombers (4th) v A&E Dept (8th)

Isotopes (5th) v Sox (14th)

Chasers (6th) v Batteries Essential (10th)

Riverkings (7th) v Jesmond (13th)

Knights (11th) v Slugs (12th)

Week 11 of the BaseballGB fantasy league is complete – and we have a new leader. Read on to find out who has taken over at the top.

We have a new leader as the Maltsters go top with a 9-1 win against the Riverkings. Cheshunt fell a steal shy of an offensive sweep as four players had three-homer weeks, including Jose Ramirez (nine runs, .516) while Abreu knocked in nine. Vargas won twice while Kluber and Sale struck out 10 each and helped take ERA and WHIP.

The Riverkings had a nice week offensively and would have won more categories in practically any other week, but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles in H2H sometimes. They salvaged saves thanks to four from Jansen.

The RBIs used an offensive sweep to defeat Batteries Essential 9-3. Carpenter was the pick of the bunch, batting .455 with nine runs, two homers and six RBIs. Tanaka struck out 18, Rivero picked up the lone save and Barnes had two holds. Six Batteries Essential pitchers collected wins, with Gio Gonzalez the pick as he helped take ERA and WHIP too.

The Slugs picked up a much-needed win against Jesmond 8-4. Taylor was the offensive star, leading the team with five runs, seven RBIs and three steals. The addition of Faria really paid off, as he won twice, striking out 17 and helping take ERA and WHIP in the process. Ottavino had two holds.

Jesmond had multi-homer week from four players and took saves thanks to Knebel but came perilously close to forfeiting all the pitching categories after amassing just 21 innings during the week.

The Bombers slugged their way to a 7-4 win against the Isotopes. Thames belted four homers, Turner swiped four bases, Cabrera scored six runs, Perez hit .421 and Brantley .600 in a team effort. Strasburg struck out 15 and Baez had three holds. Arenado’s heroics on Sunday helped the Isotopes nick RBIs while Herrera had two saves. It was hardly a great week for WHIP and ERA but Straily and Alex Wood made the difference.

Beckenham knocked Norwich off the top with a 7-5 win. Rizzo made the difference in average and OPS while Lester and Scherzer helped take WHIP and had a win and 10 strikeouts. Allen had two holds and Rodney four saves. Walker helped Norwich win ERA and Belling led the team with seven runs, four homers and eight RBIs. Gardner stole two bases.

The Knights defeated Iron Men, who failed to met the 20-inning minimum innings limit, 7-5. Rupp, Le Mahieu and Conforto each swiped a base for Newcastle while Bradley had two wins and a hold without allowing an earned run. Peacock had 10 strikeouts and Bush collected a save. Iron Men had monster offensive weeks from Cain (four homers, .458) and Encarnacion (four homers, 10 runs, 10 RBIs).

Finally, the Sox squeezed past the Chasers 6-5 in a matchup packed with good offense for both teams. Betts scored eight runs and joined Puig in belting three homers while Gordon hit .435 and stole four bases. Maurer had two saves and Madson picked up a pair of holds. Fowler hit four homers and knocked in 11 for the Chasers, while Cole and Kennedy each picked up a win and helped take ERA and WHIP. Gausman and Ray struck out seven each.

Minimum innings reminder

Please make sure you set your teams up to meet the 20 inning minimum limit. It would be a shame to see teams lose categories by falling short. If you are suffering with injuries, make the most of your DL slots, scour the free agent or start trade talks with teams with a surplus.

Week 12 matchups

There’s a mouthwatering clash as the new leaders take on second-placed Norwich.

Maltsters (1st) v Norwich (2nd)

RBIs (3rd) v A&E Dept (7th)

Bombers (4th) v Batteries Essential (13th)

Isotopes (5th) v Chasers (6th)

Iron Men (8th) v Riverkings (9th)

Jesmond (10th) v Knights (12th)

Sox (11th) v Slugs (14th)

I’m ‘pinch-blogging’ for Mark this week in the BGB Fantasy League round-up. Let’s see if anyone had a perfect 10 week or if it was a week to forget for others.

Jesmond got the biggest win of the week as the Super-Sox pitchers fell one inning below the required minimum of 20, handing those 6 points away. Dallas Keuchel’s absence clearly hurt the Super-Sox, whilst Jesmond got three saves from Corey Knebel and a couple of holds from Andrew Miller.

Joey Votto had a big week for Jesmond with four home runs and a 1.300 OPS and Ian Desmond added three stolen bases. Six of the Super-Sox’s seven home runs came from Houston Astros (McCann, Gurriel and Springer).

Norwich No II built on their lead at the top of the league with an impressive 9-2 victory over Batteries Essential. Gary Sanchez’s four home runs and 13 RBI led Norwich’s offence, with Mark Reynolds, Aaron Hicks and Kris Bryant chipping in multiple homers each too. For Batteries’ Charlie Blackmon played a huge role in the team drawing the runs category as he crossed the plate 11 teams.

Sonny Gray and Gio Gonzalez amassed 24 strike-outs to help Batteries take that category, but otherwise the pitching glory went to Norwich No II, not least through Craig Kimbrel and Edwin Diaz picking up saves whilst not allowing any runs.

Iron Men picked up a good win against the Slugs. Chris Archer gave the Slugs 19 K’s on the way to a team total of 63, but the Iron Men’s staff got 19 K’s from Carlos Martinez too and were more efficient in keeping runs off the board. The Iron Men offense received handy contributions from a range of players, rather than an individual exceptional week, and that proved enough with the Slugs having to get by during Mike Trout’s absence.

Beckenham picked up a needed win against the Riverkings in a match-up of two parts. The A&E Dept romped their way to all six offensive categories, with Schoop and Bruce each hitting three home runs and Buster Posey adding nine RBI. The Riverkings were able to fight back by taking four of the pitching categories, but Iglesias’s three saves, and in particular Max Scherzer’s 24 strike-outs allowed Beckenham’s to snatch those two categories and the match-up win.

Mark’s Isotopes left me little chance to make fun of him in his absence by earning a 7-4 win over the RBI’s. Starlin Castro led the Isotopes with 3 HR and 10 RBI, whilst Jake Lamb gave Ritchie’s team 11 RBI and some bloke called Aaron Judge got a few half-decent hits along the way too. Saves and K’s were once again a key part of the winning team’s arsenal as the Isotopes took those two (Samardzija adding 16 K’s to the total), with RBI’s being hurt by disappointing performances from Tanaka and Porcello.

Maltsters stay in second place after a narrow victory over the Knights. They had no less than 11 pitchers contributing across the week on their way to five of the pitching categories, Osuna being the pick of the bench in earning three saves. The Knights’ offense hit back with Smoak sticking three balls over the fence LeMahieu and Seager both providing 7 RBI, but Maltsters took the batting average and Andrew McCutchen’s stolen base proved the only piece of bag theft by either team.

Finally, my Chasers had a hard-fought draw with the Bombers. My batting line-up came out on top in five out of six, with Justin Upton’s 10 RBI helping no end, but the Bombers’ pitching staff won five out of six on that side of the match-up to level things up. Strasburg, Robertson and Rosenthal were the key contributors, although Robbie Ray continued to pitch brilliantly for my team (and the D-Backs) with two wins and 23 K’s.

Week 11 match-ups

Norwich No 11 (1st) v Beckenham (9^th)
Maltsters (2^nd) v Riverkings (7^th)
Bombers (3^rd) v Isoptopes (5^th)
RBI’s (4^th) v Batteries (11^th)
Chasers (6^th) v Super-Sox (12^th)
Iron Men (8^th) v Knights (13^th)
Jesmond (10^th) v Slugs (14^th)