In case you missed it, the highlight of the baseball season occurred on August 22, 2020, in Oakland. Since fans are not allowed in stadiums across America, and teams are not allowed in Canada, some franchises have employed stuffed animals to serve as fans. As you can see, T. Bear took a foul ball to the head and managed to stay in the game.
I brought all that up because no one on the New York Yankees can stay healthy and in the lineup, which continued to cost us dearly. Most of you will say, “well, you should have known better to draft a whole fantasy team based on one team.” Well, I am here to say that you are right, and after this season, we over that strategy.
In the short history of our fantasy baseball franchise, ItsNotRyanItsRyne is probably our biggest rival. The owner of that team is the general manager of the league, and a close friend, so these matchups are more personal than any other one.
If you follow MLB daily like the rest of us, you’ll see that the Yankees were hobbling into the MASH unit on an hourly basis. Their injuries, missed games and terrible production at the plate cost us dearly in the box score.
The final score may have been 10-0, but in an alternate timeline, the final could have been 8-0-2 or 8-2-0. We lost the wins and saves category by one point apiece. After that, it was not close to any category except home runs (6), stolen bases (8), and strikeouts (8), our only other single-digit defeats.
Our shutout loss is probably one of the biggest blowouts of the season. Here’s how the mess unfolded. We lost runs by 23, RBI by 12, batting average by 0.92 points, ERA by 4.19, and WHIP by 0.61.
As you can see, we were in the matchup after Monday, trailing only by a single run. By the time the lights went out on Tuesday night, we were all but dead in the water.
Since we have a full squad and various injures, not much was left on the bench as these two guys did nothing to contribute to the matchup.
We were predicted to be in the last place team, and despite being competitive out of the gate, we have done nothing but drown in the standings. BD4 remains only one game out of the basement, a place the franchise is too familiar with.
Despite being one of the worse teams in our league, we do not have the worse numbers. Our best team statistic would be batting average, where we rank fourth. After that, our pitching has held steady in the middle of the pack regarding wins and saves.
We rank seventh overall in five of the ten categories, which are runs, home runs, RBIs, stolen bases, and ERA. Our strikeouts (8th) and WHIP (9th) are our worse categories.
No matter what happens to the 2020 Yankees, Luke Voit has been their saviour night in and night out. He took top honours as our best player of the week with 19 points. That was the most by any player since Aaron Judge put up 30 in two weeks. James Paxton snagged his second-best pitcher award with the lowest point total so far, just eight points.
On the flip side, Clint Frazier had a lousy week collecting zero points and batting only 0.083. He was joined by relief pitcher Adam Ottavino who was just coughing up leads and games to a tone of 40.50 ERA.
Addition/Subtraction – August 18, 2020, 2:31 pm – Signed Robison Cano (NYM) / Released Tyler Wade (NYY).
We were determined to keep the “Yankees” team mentality, even though it cost us every day. To remain competitive and keep the dream alive, we started to scout former Yankees across MLB who were productive.
Addition/Subtraction – August 22, 2020, 12:32 pm – Signed Justus Sheffield (SEA) / Released James Paxton (NYY).
James Paxton didn’t make it through his last regular-season game and went straight to the IL. We needed to replace him, and Sheffield was a former Yankee who stepped in.
Addition/Subtraction – August 22, 2020, 12:44 pm – Signed Mark Canha (OAK) / Released Mike Ford (NYY).
Unfortunately, there was no magic for Mike Ford in his second season. Despite all the playing time, he just wasn’t producing. Canha was riding a bit of a hot streak, and his recent numbers made him one of the best available free agents at the time.
Addition/Subtraction – August 22, 2020, 12:47 pm – Signed Josh Lindbolm (MIL) / Released JA Happ (NYY).
Many people wondered if JA Happ was worth keeping in the Yankees five-man rotation. His numbers have been pretty subpar this year, and we were only one win away from a tie in the category. We grabbed Lindbolm because he has a favourable matchup on the final day of the matchup. Sadly he lost.
Weekly Move Total: 4/4
Season Move Total: 10/40
Stay tuned for next’s week recap of the BD4 2020 Fantasy Baseball season.
Keeping the Stats 