Trade Talk
After a week where we saw Trout, Paddack, Bell, Springer, and Verlander all get moved, the hot stove has remained steaming hot. Last week big names who got moved include Luis Castillo, Charlie Morton, and Jorge Polanco (I will NEVER consider Ketel Marte a big name).
Only one trade did not include money, Mike Soroka for Khris Davis. Soroka started hot for Sean pitching 8 innings of 1-run ball, and if he keeps this up could definitely be a top 15 pitcher rest of year. I’m hoping Khris Davis can return to 2018 form and inject some life into my anemic offense.
BREAKING NEWS:
The hot stove is STILL burning, Evan just received Harper from Jake for $22 this year. This trade will open the floodgates to Jake’s team, and puts him soundly into Seller’s column along with Sam and Emmett.
The 2019 Fantasy Baseball season will be one to forget for The Bounceback Braves. After a seemingly solid draft which had him in my preseason playoffs, Jake fumbled the Jorge Polanco trade, swung for the fences with Harper…….. and whiffed.
To recap, Jake gave up Rosario (6th ranked outfielder with 19 HR), Grienke (3rd ranked pitcher), and $16 this year for Harper (4th ranked outfielder with 11 HR).
Quickly after trading for Harper, Jake pulled the trigger on Chris Archer for $5 with Emmett. Essentially, Jake traded Rosario and Grienke for Chris Archer, Jesse Winker, and $1. Trades can make or break a fantasy season, and even with adding two breakout players in Swanson and Fried, there was no way Jake could Bounceback.
Matchup Recap
I squeaked out a 5-4-3 win against the scrappy Bounceback Braves mourning the loss of the best Philly Free Agent signing in Andrew McCutchen.
Mondessez Nuts upset the newly rebranded Christian Mingle 7-3-2. After trading Trout, Ronak definitely wanted to come out strong.
Threat Level Midnight topped Vlad the Impaler 7-4-1 in a potential playoff matchup. Sean’s strategy of punting a category could come back to bite him in the playoffs.
The 2019-20 Gauntlet Champion lived up to the name this week beating Xan Pham 7-4-1. With the hitting clicking, and Kluber as his ace in the hole, Adam seems poised to make a deep playoff run, and is my favorite to win baseball.
In the battle of original team names, Team Chippy and Team Clark tied 5-5-2. A disappointing result for both players who will need a big surge in the second half to be in contention.
As much as it sickens me to say, Ronalds Lobos won 10-2 against Mr. Conway Twitter. After taking the most shit of any fantasy player, Evan desperately needed a win this week after dropping his last three. Evan’s now only half a game back of Ronak for the 4 seed. Whoever misses playoffs will have never live it down in their Gauntlet career.
Looking Forward
The end of this week marks the official halfway point of the regular season. Matchups to watch include the potential playoff preview of Adam and Ronak, and two hopeful second half climbers: myself and Jacob.
These first 10 weeks have been incredibly eventful, and here’s to 10 more.
The Fantasy Gauntlet 