Pinstripes Empire began the 2024 fantasy baseball season with a solid 6-4 victory over the Gold Glovers. Since the MLB season started on March 20 in South Korea, there was a significant gap between baseball games, with the remaining 28 teams beginning their campaigns on March 28.
Last season, Brooklyn Bron didn’t secure a win until week 8, so it was refreshing for the organization to get the first one out of the way. As the last-place team, they won only two matchups all season, with their second coming in week 20.
In week one, the club stepped towards their second-place projection by dominating the hitting categories, claiming four out of five, and losing stolen bases by a single-swiped bag. As expected, Pinstripes Empire ran into pitching trouble, losing three out of the five categories but escaping with the best ERA and WHIP figures.
Although the matchup was stretched over three weeks, Pinstripes Empire had more opportunities to pile up the offense, with 409 at-bats, yet didn’t even come close to matching Gold Glovers regarding innings pitched.
With almost an extra 100 opportunities, it was unsurprisingly to see Pinstripes Empire win three categories by double digits, runs (13) and RBIs (12), and AVG (30), while picking up a slim win in home runs by three.
Regarding pitching, Gold Glovers earned three wins, securing the wins and save categories while dominating strikeouts. However, with 24 extra innings thrown, those extra moments on the mound led to a higher ERA and WHIP statistics.
As the daily totals indicate, Pinstripes Empire dominated the matchup once the regular season started back on North American soil, never trailing after all 30 teams hosted their opening days.
Regarding scoring, the most significant separation between the two clubs came on Monday, April 1, as Gold Glovers were down by four categories, 7-3. However, they rallied and cut into the deficit to finish the week with a 6-4 loss, with no ties.
According to league rankings after week one, Pinstripes Empire will have some work to do to collect respectable pitching statistics, but with a high-octane offense, those lower to middle-of-the-pack numbers should bump up in no time.
Considering it was the first week of fantasy baseball, there wasn’t enough data to determine which free agents were worth picking up. However, with injuries to some drafted players, Pinstripes Empire made two roster adjustments in the opening week.
First, Trevor Story (Boston Red Sox) was cut after going down with a shoulder injury. Since the fantasy league only allows one injured reserve spot, management opted to cut ties with Story in favor of keeping Tommy Edman (St. Louis Cardinals).
However, with a subpar week from the collection of pitchers, Edman was soon dropped in favor of Detroit Tigers reliever Jason Foley. With an empty spot in the rotation, Pinstripes Empire acquired Red Sox hurler Garrett Whitlock for two moves in the opening week.
After a 6-4-0 series win, the often last-place Pinstripes Empire sit in fourth place, while last season’s defending champions, HOMERsexuals, begin their title defense in seventh place. Only Screw the ‘Stros won seven games, finishing the week with a 7-3-0 win.
Next up for Pinstripes Empire is Vlady’s Buddies, who lost 4-6-0 to Springfield Isotopes in week one.
Keeping the Stats 