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Remember the previous misdseason update article when I opened by saying that “this past week in fantasyland was as perfect a reminder as any that the 2018 season is still so incredibly young. There simply hasn’t been enough time for anybody to pull away with a meaningful lead in the standings”?
Yeah...the standings have continued to flip-flop in the interim. Once again, the top two teams were unseated as the hunt for the championship reshuffled. For those unacquainted with this series, 12 VEB staffers and readers compete in a 5x5 rotisserie league. The team that hits the most home runs receives 12 fantasy points towards their ranking in the standings, the team with the second most homers garners 11 points, and so on for each of the 10 statistical categories at play.
(VEB username: Fantasy team name)
Bustacard: Da Bustas
cards web: Wacha This Way
cullerz29: Abominable Bowman
ebo: ebo
G.M. Bowles: Howl’s Owls
John J. Fleming: The Nye Mets
Josey Curtis: Josey’s Team
jpb3215: Hakuna Moncada
lil_scooter93: the lil scooters
Salti Cracker: Rolen Dirty
stlcardsfan4: Bob LOB Law
Tyler Kinzy: Big City Bat Flips
VEB Fantasy League Standings Update
| Rank | Team | Total | R | HR | RBI | SB | AVG | W | SV | K | ERA | WHIP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Team | Total | R | HR | RBI | SB | AVG | W | SV | K | ERA | WHIP |
| 1 | Hakuna Moncada | 89.5 | 11 | 7 | 8 | 12 | 11 | 8.5 | 2 | 8 | 11 | 11 |
| 2 | Big City Bat Flips | 79.5 | 8 | 6 | 9 | 8.5 | 10 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 3 | 3 |
| 3 | Da Bustas | 78 | 9 | 12 | 11 | 6 | 2 | 12 | 7 | 12 | 2 | 5 |
| 3 | Rolen Dirty | 78 | 3 | 10 | 10 | 7 | 4 | 6 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 8 |
| 5 | ebo | 71.5 | 10 | 4.5 | 3 | 3.5 | 6 | 8.5 | 8 | 4 | 12 | 12 |
| 6 | Howl's Owls | 63 | 2 | 8.5 | 7 | 8.5 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 9 |
| 7 | Abominable Bowman | 62 | 12 | 11 | 12 | 5 | 5 | 2.5 | 9.5 | 3 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | Bob LOB Law | 58 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 10 | 3 | 11 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 7 |
| 9 | Josey's Team | 53.5 | 6 | 2 | 5 | 11 | 12 | 4.5 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 2 |
| 10 | The Nye Mets | 53 | 7 | 4.5 | 6 | 3.5 | 9 | 2.5 | 5.5 | 2 | 9 | 4 |
| 10 | Wacha This Way | 53 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4.5 | 9.5 | 9 | 10 | 10 |
| 12 | the lil scooters | 41 | 1 | 8.5 | 4 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 5.5 | 1 | 5 | 6 |
- After being stuck in fifth place through the first two installments, jpb3215 made the leap all the way into first by a margin of 10 points. It has been an all-around great two weeks for his “Hakuna Moncada” squad, which either stayed put or or increased its scoring output for all 10 stats. His biggest gains were four points apiece in batting average, runs batted in, and ERA.
- Between strong outbursts from the likes of Nolan Arenado, Carlos Correa, Yoenis Cespedes, Nick Markakis, and Kyle Schwarber, continued bullpen dominance, and improved starting pitcher, it has been a big few weeks for community member Salti Cracker as well, whose ranking dipped from 8 to 10 before cracking the top three.
VEB Fantasy League Standings Trends
| Team | Current Rank | Previous Rank | Change in Rank | Change in Fantasy Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Team | Current Rank | Previous Rank | Change in Rank | Change in Fantasy Points |
| Rolen Dirty | 3 | 10 | 7 | 19 |
| Hakuna Moncada | 1 | 5 | 4 | 21 |
| The Nye Mets | 10 | 12 | 2 | 5 |
| Abominable Bowman | 7 | 9 | 2 | -1.5 |
| Big City Bat Flips | 2 | 3 | 1 | 7.5 |
| Howl's Owls | 6 | 7 | 1 | -3.5 |
| the lil scooters | 12 | 11 | -1 | -9.5 |
| Josey's Team | 9 | 8 | -1 | -11.5 |
| Da Bustas | 3 | 1 | -2 | 3 |
| ebo | 5 | 1 | -4 | -3.5 |
| Bob LOB Law | 8 | 4 | -4 | -11.5 |
| Wacha This Way | 10 | 6 | -4 | -14.5 |
- The fourth largest beneficiary in terms of fantasy points added, John Fleming, climbed out of the cellar this week–but at a steep cost. It was announced that his third round pick, Corey Seager, would miss the remainder of 2018 after sustaining a UCL sprain in his right elbow. The Dodgers shortstop was finally beginning to heat up as well, posting a .340/.424/.540 slashline in the two weeks leading up to the injury. In good news for John, Ronald Acuña made his MLB debut and has answered the bell with a resounding .382 batting average and 211 wRC+, 111% above league average offensive production. In bad news for John, Acuña’s likely unsustainable batted ball data suggests that regression is on the horizon at a time when John isn’t in prime position to absorb performance decline.
- Moving down the list of teams that slipped in the standings, ebo coughed up whatever gains his pitching staff made by dropping six spots in the stolen base rankings. It isn’t helping that ebo has received virtually no stolen base production from Mookie Betts or Billy Hamilton–or quite frankly, any position player–as of late.
- Meanwhile, cards web currently has five players (Adam Eaton, Daniel Murphy, Justin Turner, Robbie Ray, and Madison Bumgarner) on the disabled list and has struggled to get much going offensively after aggressively targeting pitching in the early rounds of the draft.
Have a great Friday, everybody.