Week seven of the BaseballGB Fantasy League saw the first trade of the season. And which manager would suffer from Robinson Cano’s suspension?

 

Team	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OPS	W	SV	K	HLD	ERA	WHIP	Score
Orpington Isotopes	26	13	34	4	.268	.878	3	6	55	3	1.91	0.88	8
Norwich No II	24	7	21	4	.276	.760	3	2	62	2	4.70	1.21	2

Norwich suffered a rare defeat as the Isotopes picked up an 8-2 win. Aguilar, a waiver wire pick-up, scored six runs, had six RBIs and hit four homers while Puig found his power stroke at long last with three dingers. Yelich scored five and knocked in five.

Colome had four saves, Devenski notched a pair of holds and Maeda, Morton and Greinke helped to take ERA and WHIP. Davis, Castillo and Castellanos gave Norwich the edge in average, while Corbin struck out 14, one ahead of Flaherty.

 

Team	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OPS	W	SV	K	HLD	ERA	WHIP	Score
Richie’s RBI’s	21	4	23	1	.209	.635	5	4	64	0	1.91	1.06	8
The Cheddar Chasers	27	3	13	5	.166	.504	1	7	50	2	3.12	1.12	4

The RBIs continued their strong start to the season by defeating the Chasers 8-4. There wasn’t much offense, but Villar hit .391 with a homer and Gallo knocked in five. Odorizzi led the staff with 17 strikeouts while Darvish picked up his first win and teamed with Price, Freeland and Newcomb to take ERA and WHIP in a strong week for the pitchers.

Posey scored five runs for the Chasers and Cain swiped two bases. In a monster week for the bullpen, Treinen collected four saves and Stammen notched two holds.

 

Team	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OPS	W	SV	K	HLD	ERA	WHIP	Score
Beckenham A&E Dept	30	9	36	1	.284	.873	3	3	55	0	4.82	1.42	7
Mighty Slugs	25	4	24	4	.214	.616	3	0	45	0	2.42	1.12	3

The A&E Dept keep on rolling with a 7-3 win against the Slugs. The Beckenham offense had three batters hit above .400 in Carpenter, Arenado and Belt, who also hit five homers, scored eight times and drove in 11. Porcello led the staff with 14 strikeouts and Diaz added two more saves. Jankowski stole two bases for the Slugs and the Angels trio of Richards, Heaney and Skaggs teamed with Lester to take ERA and WHIP.

 

Team	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OPS	W	SV	K	HLD	ERA	WHIP	Score
Batteries Essential	19	8	22	2	.297	.912	2	3	28	0	2.89	1.29	6
Newcastle Knights	16	9	25	0	.221	.743	2	5	37	0	6.51	1.71	4

The injury-riddled Batteries Essential (now also missing the suspended Cano) managed to cause an upset, defeating the Knights 6-4. Benintendi hit .444 and joined Blackmon in scoring five runs and stealing a base. Abreu also touched home plate five times. Verlander and Godley helped take ERA and WHIP. Olson and Grandal each hit two homers and drove in four for the Knights, while Quintana struck out 13 and Hand had three saves.

 

Team	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OPS	W	SV	K	HLD	ERA	WHIP	Score
The Bath Bombers	24	8	23	3	.214	.750	4	0	53	2	1.71	1.02	6
Weston-Super-Sox	17	5	17	5	.224	.753	4	2	49	0	3.03	0.98	5

The Bombers edged past the Sox 6-5 in a tight matchup. Bogaerts led the team with six RBIs and joined Sanchez and Trout in hitting two homers. Trout and Albies scored five runs each. McCullers and Syndergaard had 14 strikeouts each while Green and Red picked up a hold each. For the Sox, Bryant batted .393 and joined Bour in posting an OPS north of 1.000 and Kinsler swiped two bases. Happ made the difference in WHIP and Vizcaino and the now traded Familia (more on that later) had a save each.

 

Team	R	HR	RBI	SB	AVG	OPS	W	SV	K	HLD	ERA	WHIP	Score
Cheshunt Maltsters	40	12	25	4	.253	.881	1	5	47	1	3.27	1.20	6
Durham Riverkings	24	7	27	6	.298	.819	5	2	42	0	2.95	0.98	6

Finally, the Maltsters and Riverkings finished in a 6-6 tie. Pham scored seven runs, as did J.D. Martinez, who also launched five homers. Happ led the team with a 1.707 OPS. Bauer struck out 10, Jansen and Kimbrel had two saves and Gsellman had a save and a hold. The Riverkings had a trio of .400 hitters – Jose Martinez (who drove in eight), Merrifield and Markakis. Betts swiped four bases. On the mound, Archer picked up a win without allowing an earned run and teamed with Paxton and Kluber to take WHIP.

The standings now look like this:

Rank	Team	W-L-T	Pct	GB	Last Week	Waiver	Moves
1	 Durham Riverkings	53-27-4	.655	–	6-6-0	2	9
2	 Norwich No II	48-31-5	.601	4.5	2-8-2	6	12
3	 Richie’s RBI’s	45-31-8	.583	6	8-4-0	12	13
4	 Beckenham A&E Dept	41-33-10	.548	9	7-3-2	9	9
5	  Orpington Isotopes	42-35-7	.542	9.5	8-2-2	10	12
6	 Cheshunt Maltsters	39-37-8	.512	12	6-6-0	3	7
7	 Newcastle Knights	39-37-8	.512	12	4-6-2	8	21
8	 Mighty Slugs	34-43-7	.446	17.5	3-7-2	7	19
9	 The Bath Bombers	34-45-5	.435	18.5	6-5-1	11	9
10	 The Cheddar Chasers	33-47-4	.417	20	4-8-0	1	3
11	 Weston-Super-Sox	29-45-10	.405	21	5-6-1	5	3
12	 Batteries Essential	25-51-8	.345	26	6-4-2	4	–

 

Trade

We have had our first trade of the season as Norwich sent Jed Lowrie to the Sox in exchange for Familia. The return of Schoop from injury as the suspension of Osuna meant Norwich had depth at 2B and a need at RP so a deal was struck. The Sox are gambling that Vizcaino and Soria will provide enough saves and Lowrie provides an upgrade on the struggling Kinsler, although they still lack a SS with Andrus hurt.

The week 8 matchups are as follows:

Riverkings (1st) v Sox (11th)

Norwich (2nd) v Batteries Essential (12th)

RBIs (3rd) v Isotopes (5th)

A&E Dept (4th) v Knights (7th)

Maltsters (6th) v Slugs (8th)

Bombers (9th) v Chasers (10th)