It’s kind of a relief when baseball ends, and I can stop scrolling the box scores with hope and dread every morning. You have so many players going, there’s always bad news, and your teams seem to slump all at once sometimes even though they’re composed of players on different real life teams, and there’s not even that much overlap.
Overall it was a solid year — every single team finished in the top half of its league, and one of the four, the Jack Kitchen team, cashed. Unfortunately that Kitchen team was in first place for the better part of August and early September, but crashed a bit down the stretch, so it’s only $700, split two ways.
The Main Event team, managed by Dusty Wagner, was okay, but for the crushing injuries. Our first pick, Kyle Tucker went 22-25 in 136 games, but had 17 homers and 20 steals through June and fell apart in the second half while playing hurt. Our second pick, Chris Sale, was pitching great, but broke his rib in a freak accident on June 18 while diving four a ground ball. Injuries are part of the game, but it’s tough when it’s your first two picks (and plenty of others in the top-10.)
The Ryan Garofalo team had amazing values (Max Fried, Jacob deGrom, Will Smith, Zach Neto, Jesus Luzardo), but he just managed it into the ground, totally destroyed it with reckless streams and ageism (dropped and slagged Justin Verlander all year.) It also had Geritt Cole (sixth round), Jared Jones (12th) and some other no-shows. But it would have won the overall with even a semi-competent manager.
The Alex Puma team was okay. I got him enough bats, just not enough pitching. I remember holding my nose and drafting George Springer in Round 23. But the ace was Sale, Corbin Burnes was out for the year, and his only good healthy pitcher was Kevin Gausman which is not enough in a 12-team league.
All things considered, it wasn’t too bad. My appreciation to the four managers who do this mostly thankless work and keep at it. Jack — as soon as the money hits my account, will DM you for details on where to send your half.