I want to start today’s writeup with a congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs. Kennedy! Sean and his lovely wife Julia had a wonderful ceremony this weekend and it was a pleasure to be included in the festivities.
With all of their planning over the past several months, and of course the hectic nature of their wedding weekend, Sean can be forgiven for essentially being a punching bag over the past few weeks, but good lord did he come close to pulling one out this week again Evan Ash.
Sean does still control his own destiny. A 13-0 finish would guarantee himself a playoff spot, so it’s not time to throw in the towel just yet. And even if that doesn’t happen, there will still be ample opportunity to be a spoiler.
Congrats to Cory Puffett on his fourth Rickey Henderson Award of the season and third in a row. He’s averaging over 10 more points per game than any other manager in the league this year and while his opponents’ point total is the third lowest in the league, he hasn’t needed that schedule luck and has finished in the top half of scoring every week this season.
Sam Martin took home this week’s Manny Ramirez Award, his first weekly award of the season, by defeating Eric Meyer in the game of the week. Eric has a pair of high score awards but is now 0-3 in game of the week appearances.
This was our lowest-scoring week to date with three of our managers failing to reach the 100-point threshold. It’s the first time since Week 3 that any of our teams fell short and we very nearly had a fourth as Sean just barely snuck over the edge after only recording five pitcher starts in Week 7.
That was still a better effort than Alex had as his team only had four starts. Add in less than 200 plate appearances for the week, and Alex’s squad is just the second to fall below the 80-point threshold for a week this season.
That low-scoring effort assisted Andrew in a big way. For the first time this season, and therefore in league history, a team won with a 1-6 breakdown. Andrew would have lost against every other team in the league, but his good scheduling luck gave him a 13-point victory as the second lowest scorer of the week.
With Eric barely falling below the 100-point threshold for the first time this season and Andrew joining him under that mark, only Cory Puffett, Evan, and Sam have scored at least 100 points in every game in 2021.
Check out our Week 7 recap below, followed by this week’s power rankings:
Game of the Week: Airsick Lowlanders at Eagle Fang Baseball
Eric seemed to still be in contention mid-week, but between a missed pitcher start thanks to a last-minute decision on Sunday and a new season-low for plate appearances in a week, his squad couldn’t overcome a strong pitching and hitting week from Sam.
-Cory Puffett