Squeeze Sunday Scaries

  The Florida Squeeze have had a tough go so far.  Their losing 3-5 record is thanks in large part to repeat cases of the Sunday Scaries – where a lead against their opponent manages to evaporate on the last day of play.  That trend gave way in Week Eight however, when the Squeeze tallied a win against Jackal Attack despite taking a small margin for error into Sunday.

“Another Sunday, another small lead the Squeeze are trying not to blow.” – Florida Squeeze GM

  Jackal was set to make a comeback with Reid Detmers, Yusei Kikuchi, Martin Perez, and Sonny Gray all taking the mound.  And while they did score more points than the Squeeze on Sunday, that two point differential wasn’t enough to overcome the 33 point deficit coming in.  Sonny Gray totaled 23 points in his second start of the week, but the other three Jackal arms combined for just 16 FPts in the last ditch effort.  Perhaps more notable in Jackal’s defeat: Edourard Julien gave just a 1.5 FPts performance over week, alongside a Riley Green five point slump and the single-point performance contributed by Dansby Swanson. 

  Bobby Witt Jr. earned HumKid of the Week honors with 61.5FPts (10.25/G), and while Witt may be the face of the Florida Squeeze franchise, Ranger Suarez is building the momentum that this team needs to start collecting more victories.  Totaling 254.2 FPts to date, averaging 23.1 FPts per start, with a 9-1 win-loss record and a 1.75 ERA, Suarez has been the best pitcher in HumBabe baseball. His two-start week against the Jackal Attack produced 46.5 FPts in thirteen innings pitched and brought Suarez’s strikeout total to 77 on the season (9.27 K/9).

Familiar Rivalry

  Eight weeks into the 2024 HumBabe Dynasty season and familiar foes find themselves atop the Standings.  The Orlando Splitters and the LeBronto Blue James are both 7-1 and rank number one and two in total fantasy points scored.  While both have battled injuries – LeBronto in quantity (9 current injuries rostered) and Orlando in quality (Strider, Cole, Bieber) – these teams have built dynasty depth that can compete even without their best teams on the field.

  To this point it has been tough to tell which of these two is in the driver’s seat for top seed in the Shot Call League, but as a Week 10 head-to-head match-up closes in, we should start to see some separation form.  Orlando is chased by the 5-3 Super Smash Stros in the Charlie Division, while LeBronto continues to fend off the 4-4 Gatekeepers and Lone Star Drillers (despite the fact the 3-5 Brooklyn Robins are the second best Ruth Division team in terms of points scored).

  Even prior to playing one another however, Orlando and LeBronto have still found a way to compete.  They are the only two organizations who correctly picked at least four out of five Weekly Pick-Em Matchups, and similar to the current standings, the only separation is found via tiebreaker.  Orlando muscled seven more points than the LeBronto Blue James over the Week Five to Week Eight stretch, and as a result, claimed the second Pick-Em Payout of 2024. The Lone Star Drillers defeating Wally Mash acted as Orlando’s walk-off pick of sorts, as they were the only vote in favor of Lone Star other than Lone Star themselves.

Head Scratcher

  If you saw a box score where a HumBabe team threw thirteen starting pitchers to their opponent’s four, totaled thirty more innings pitched and threw twenty more strikeouts … you would figure that team with more pitchers would have won, right?  Well… that’d be wrong this week.

  The Brooklyn Robins’ thirteen starting pitchers were led by a 58.25 FPts performance from Chris Sale.  Fourteen innings pitched across two starts, two wins, two quality starts, and seventeen strikeouts made Sale the best pitcher in Week Eight by more than ten fantasy points.  The supporting Robins staff members fumbled their opportunities however and as a team fell thirteen points short of the Eastside Bombers pitching staff.

  The Bombers collected their 155.08 pitching points in a head-scratching kind of way.  Where common knowledge has been, the more starting pitchers you can throw the more points you’ll get – the Bomber’s threw just four starts.  Instead, Mason Miller (26.08), Craig Kimbrel (23.33), Pete Fairbanks (11.25) and the four other relievers totaled 82.24 FPts as a bullpen.

  The Robins bettered the Bombers in hitting points by eight points, yet the bullpen contribution in Eastside led to the eventual five-point victory and makes them the best team by record in the Basket Catch League (5-3).  Perhaps this, and other strengthening bullpens across the HumBabe Dynasty are signs of a change in the tide of HumBabe pitching staff management.