’20 Fantasy Baseball Week 3

See you in four to six weeks DJ LeMahieu (sprained thumb).

It may sound like a broken record, but the unofficial theme song for the New York Yankees has to be Queen’s smash hit, “Another Bites the Dust.” For the second week in a row, the team lost a superstar, but to make matters worse, this time around, they lost the two best players in Pinstripes, Aaron Judge (MLB leader with nine home runs) and DJ LeMahieu (AL-best batting average 0.411). How did those injuries affect us in fantasy? Well, let’s just say we didn’t knock Screw the ‘Stros out of the first place.

When a handful of teams didn’t return to the league from 2019, we suggested that Screw the ‘Stros join in their place. Since the manager of that team is a personal friend, the smack talk went back and forth all week. The whole matchup came down the final game of the week, Sunday Night Baseball, New York Yankees against the Boston Red Sox. It was the only game so far of the four-game set that the Yankees decided not to score more than four runs. The Bombers 4-1 victory cost us the chance to tie the ‘Stros 5-5. Instead, we came two RBIs short. (Funny how you can be happy and upset at the same time when your favourite team wins against their greatest rival.)

The ‘Stros dominated the hitting categories, taking four out of five, with our only win coming in batting average (0.309 – 0.287). We flipped the script on them in the pitching categories by taking three of five.

They collected six extra runs (48-42), hit four more home runs (13-9), stole three extra bases (6-3), and beat us by one RBI (44-43). The numbers were not as close when it came to the hurlers. We secured three more victories (6-3) while notching 14 more strikeouts (47-33). We won the ERA title for the week to the tune of 3.26, almost two whole points were better than their 5.14. They managed a lower WHIP (1.05-1.15) and closed out two more saves (5-3).

We are supposed to be the worse team in the league all season, but we just took the first place team down to the wire in one of the most competitive matchups they may have with a bottom dweller.

For the second straight matchup, we never lead during the series. The Yankees had Monday off, so we started out deep in the hole, 7-0, but salvaged a 4-4 tie after Tuesday. The score stayed in ‘Stros favour with their most significant lead coming after Friday’s games 8-1. A productive weekend against the Red Sox helped BD4 claw back to respectability.

BD4 may have lost their week three matchup by two points but could have secured a 5-5 tie if they had only played Gleyber Torres and Tyler Wade on days they collected an RBI. As you may remember, we lost that category 44-43, so if you factor in the two points we left on the bench, we could have flipped that score in favour 45-44, thus altering the final score.

Screw the ‘Stros managed to stay in first place after week three. Hot on their heels is Bad News Bears (defending league champions) and ItsNotRyanItsRyne (2018 winners) just 1.5 games behind.

Meanwhile, down in the bottom half of the league, we jumped up a spot and now sit in eighth place. Not a stabby place to be after three matchups, considering we were supposed to be 10th place all season. We are only 4.5 games from the basement, but also remain only 7.5 games out of first.

Since there are only seven matchups during this short fantasy season, instead of writing out the numbers of our studs and duds, we decided to just share the numbers from our spreadsheet.

It only took a few days into the season for us to panic our roster, so we started to scout former Yankees to keep the Pinstripe Pride alive. That’s where Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Didi Gregorius stepped in. He had the best week out of all our hitters with 13 points. He was joined by Washington Nationals star pitcher Max Scherzer, who won his second-best pitcher award in three weeks.

In case you live under a rock, you will know that Yankees superstar Aaron Judge found himself back on the IL. His limited time on the field hurt his production at the plate, thus making him the first player to appear on both the best and worse hitter list. Meanwhile, on the pitching rubber, J.A. Happ’s reign as our worse pitcher came to an end when Luis Cessa took the award in week three.

Waivers – August 10, 2020, 7:47 pm – dropped relief pitcher Tommy Kahnle.

It was with a heavy heart that we dropped fan favourite Tommy Kahnle. The reliever underwent Tommy John Surgery and will miss the rest of the season.

Addition – August 11, 2020, 1:09 am – signed free agent Todd Fraizer.

If you were to browse our player “watch list,” you would notice it is filled with former Yankees who now play on other teams. Fraizer was a Yankee third baseman just a few years ago and now trolls the infield in Texas.

Additions – August 11, 2020, 1:11 am – signed free agent Luis Cessa.

When Aaron Judge joined Giancarlo Stanton on the IL, we had another chance to add an arm to our bullpen.

Additions / Waivers – August 12, 2020, 7:11 pm – signed free agent Clint Fraizer, dropped Todd Fraizer.

After the Yankees announced all their IL transactions, they called up Clint Fraizer. We needed room in the lineup, so we cut Todd Fraizer, who never took a swing with BD4. So far, the move has worked wonders as Clint Frazier has been a hitting machine since his call up.

Weekly Move Total: 3/4

Season Move Total: 6/40