El Paso Turns It On

The Nashville Stars and their new Team Brand entered the limelight even further during Week 16, taking on the El Paso Border Patrol for the Match-Up of the Week. Nashville entered with a 4 – 11 record and a 6th Place Standing in the Basket Catch League while their opponent, the Border Patrol, stood at a 2 – 13 record on the year. El Paso, as of late, has most notably been an active trade participant, now fielding the likes of Jonathan India and Josh Winckowski along with a healthy Nathan Eovaldi. Those three contributed a combined total of 64.67 points to El Paso’s week, working alongside the 61 points of Pete Alonso and 55 points of Nolan Arenado. By the end of the week, El Paso owned the Match-Up’s top five individual player performances (Alonso, Arenado, Amed Rosario, Bryan Reynolds and Eovaldi), all with more points than the top Nashville Star contributor – Eugenio Suarez (37 pts). Nothing wrong with an off-week for Nashville however, as they have now been mathematically eliminated from the 2022 Playoffs and work towards building a successful 2023 Roster. El Paso is in a similar boat, mathematically eliminated from 2022 contention, but this week’s performance is certainly something to be proud of. A Team Total of 423.67 pts scored during the week ranked El Paso 6th overall across the League in Week 16, and it’s worth noting… they left 55.75 Pitching Points on their bench; add those to their total and only Orlando, Jackal and Brooklyn would have been able to take down this up-and-coming Border Patrol team.

With just four starting pitchers slated to throw in the Week for El Paso, not many GM’s were willing to take a chance on the Border Patrol – none in fact, other than the Brooklyn General Manager. Brooklyn now stands alone at 1-for-1 in our fifth Month of 2022 Pick-Em and is in the driver’s seat to claim their first Payout this year. And at least one of the three remaining Match-Up’s will feature the Robins as a contender, which adds yet another reason as to why this should be a fun couple weeks leading into the Postseason.

Upset, Upset, Upset

Pablo and the Secret Weapons got a cold shower in Week Sixteen, courtesy of the Brooklyn Robins. Coming off a few weeks in a row of having by far the League’s hottest collection of Hitters, Pablo’s biggest brutes – Aaron Judge and Yordan Alvarez – put up just 37 pts and 17 pts respectively during Week 16. Brooklyn collected 52.5 points from their leader, Mookie Betts, a steady 39 points from Will Smith (C, LAD) and a surprising 38.5 pts from Jesse Winker who seems to be figuring things out in Seattle finally. That comparison of the top hitting performances from each side of the aisle doesn’t fully communicate what happened in this Match-Up however. Somehow the Brooklyn Robins found 328 Hitting Points, surpassing Pablo’s Hitting Total by a whopping 114.5 points. Pablo closed the gap with 223.33 Pitching Points and a 27.83 point advantage in that spectrum, but no one could have predicted these Pablo bats getting out thumped by more than 100 points in a single week. Look no further than the last Match-Up Period, Week 15, for evidence of that – where Pablo total 469.5 Hitting Points over the extended week and claimed a 146.5 point advantage in Hitting Points of their own. It’s down weeks like this for Pablo, that every HumBabe General Manager is trying to avoid come the start of Postseason Match-Up’s on August 29th.

Don’t look now but the San Francisco Studs are on a three game Winning Streak and after this impressive Week 16 victory over the Say Hey Kids, find themselves just one game away from possessing a Postseason Wild Card Seed. The hairy Tubmen, standing in their way of that Postseason birth, was handed yet another heart-breaking defeat in the waning moments of their Match-Up with LeBronto. The Tubmen now hold a 7 – 9 recors despite a 6th Best Season Point Total. The Studs, now 6 – 10, rank just 11th in Season Point Totals but after these recent consecutive victories over Say Hey, the Moose Mounties, and the Florida Squeeze, appear to be collecting dividends from their strategic rebuild earlier than expected.

One Week Left

The 2022 HumBabe Dynasty Trade Deadline stands at the stroke of midnight after games on Sunday August 14th – that’s this weekend! So far, HumBabe has processed ten successful trades just since the start of July, and perhaps more memorably, has seen two trades get Vetoed – one for Manny Machado, and the other, the first attempt at landing Aaron Nola. This year’s Trade Market has certainly not disappointed or left much to be desired, but I think it’s only fitting to expect another Blockbuster Trade or two to get accepted sometime this week prior to the Deadline. The Florida Squeeze made the first splash of this Final Week, landing arguably the most valuable rebuild piece that’s been acquired via trade this season, in the form of left-handed hurler Aaron Ashby. Along with Ashby, the Squeeze also add Triston Casas and his projectable bat to the fold at the expense of sending Jordan Montgomery to the Orlando Splitters. Orlando will have a tough time fitting Montgomery into their group of 15 Keepers for 2023 (whereas Ashby and Casas had locked positions within that group), but it’s been made abundantly clear that the Splitters expect to win in 2022 and will leave nothing on the table in those efforts. Who else will make an improvement to either their 2022 Contending Roster, or their 2023 Roster of the Future? Just one week left to find out…