Murderer’s Row drop ugly week two matchup

Our main rival in One Less Curse is with ItsNotRyanNotRyne, run by our good friend and league manager. We play against each other in three other fantasy leagues, so it’s never just business when we meet; it’s personal.

In 2021 we found a new rival in the league, Colegio Andes, who joined us this spring. Upon signing up, their manager glouted the championship was already theirs, and when you look at his fantasy resume, he had enough hardware to back up his claims.

This week’s matchup was our first-ever meeting, and they did everything to make sure we knew they were for real.

Like in our first-week matchup, the overall numbers favoured us. We had eight more games (123-115) to collect points and had almost 40 extra at-bats (263-226). Murderer’s Row out hit Colegio Andes 75-58, but when it came to category points, they had our number 6-3-1.

Four of the five offensive categories were decided by less than five points, while the batting average was in our favour by 32 percentage points, 0.289-0.257.

In the pitching department, both teams tied saves with two apiece, while Colegio Andes took wins by two and strikeouts by 15. The pair split the ERA and WHIP categories.

The matchup started tied 4-4-2 before Murderer’s Row jumped ahead and grabbed their only lead of the matchup on Tuesday. Our opponents held the lead for four of the last five days, except for Saturday when the teams tied 4-4-2 again.

When we lose a matchup, the bench numbers usually factor into the matchup and alter the final score in some form or another. That is the case in this past week’s box score.

Even though there aren’t many numbers from the seven players who didn’t see any action, their runs scored and run batted in totals would have changed a 6-3-1 loss to a 5-4-1 victory for us.

Now that the league has two matchups under its belt, some patterns are starting to reveal themselves in the team statistics.

Murderer’s Row was supposed to have the league’s worse pitching numbers yet currently employ the second-best WHIP and third-best ERA totals. The wins and saves totals are not there, but they remain in the middle of the pack regarding strikeouts.

In a surprising twist of fate, the boys lead the league in stolen bases, a franchise first. After that, we rank second in RBIs and third in batting average. Our following best totals are runs (5th) and home runs (6th).With a loss in week two, our record dropped below 0.500 for the first time this season, 9-10-1. We opened the season in fourth place, and this past week’s setback sent us down to the 6th spot in the standings.

The defending champions, Screw the ‘Stros dropped a spot while ItsNotRyanItsRyne also fell to the eighth seed. Rounding out the bottom of the standings is Salt Bae, who has a 6-14-0 record despite a talented lineup. Meanwhile, the Bad News Bears remain the team to beat, improving to 15-4-1 to start the season.

In week two, we altered our lineup to try and fix some of the batting issues. Despite employing two catchers on the lineup, neither are producing, so we signed Yadier Molina (St. Louis) to be our primary backstop. This season is not Molina’s first tour of duty with the franchise, for those who don’t know. He’s been on our radar for many years and usually ends up in the lineup through the draft or free agency.

Carlos Rodon (Chicago) was on our watch list after starting the regular season with impressive numbers. He remained in the free agency pool, and on the night he threw a no-hitter, we decided it was time to pounce before anyone else got wise to his act.

Weekly Move Total: 2/4

Season Move Total: 4/40