Last one out, turn off the hot stove

...hee. (The MLB app is already alerting me to trades! Soler to the Angels!)

Our top four finishers have just gotten paid; congrats again to them, and thank you all for playing again this year. It's so much fun to do, and I hope I'll see you (and anyone you'd like to tag in!) in 11 months' time -- same Bunt time, same Bunt channel. 

xo, SDB

Your BPP 2024 final standings -- and winners!

The points distribution last night -- Judge's bat waking up, too late (or at the same time the defense went back to sleep) -- caused an 11th-hour shake-up in the standings. I always enjoy that kind of thing in years (...most of them) when I'm mathematically out of it by October 20th. But it's kind of a shame that, after dominating the money for weeks, neither Bauer slate could hang on for a payday -- and that Johnson's glorious comeback was halted a mere 2 points from the podium.

A big night at the plate for Judge and Freeman's return to something resembling earth made it exciting at the end. Your final BPP standings, with all slates noted:

115 MArbour 2
111 JArbour and Winklepleck
104 Shotwell 1

Congratulations to all! That's a $196 win for returning champ MArbour; JArbour Winklepleck LLC divide $56; and Shotwell gets to buy some Dodger-fan champers with $28. (Payouts will go out later today.)

102 Johnson
100 Quinn

95 Bauer Snooze

86 Bauer OMG

78 Wonsetler 1
73 Stempel
72 Cameron 2

The rest of us, and some awards, after the jump.

LAD 7, NYY 6; Dodgers are World Champs

Congrats to the Dodgers and their fans! To the Yankees and their fans, meanwhile...that was quite an inning y'all had! Maybe it's time to think about making some changes at the management level?

I will be making the final updates tomorrow morning because I'm dead on my feet; watch this space.

104 days until spring training...

NYY 11, LAD 4

Thanks to the pride of Watchung, I was wrong; hooray! More baseball = good. (Hope those fans who tried to mug Betts on that foul catch enjoy watching at home forever...)

How much more we get remains to be seen -- I don't think Cole is a guarantee of anything, but I don't hate the Yankees' chances against Flaherty -- but let's look at what last night's Hail Mary offensive barrage netted us.

Betts 2
Freeman 4
Hernandez T 1
Ohtani 1
Smith W 4

Judge 1
Soto 2
Stanton 0

No real change to the money, but it's getting pret-ty interesting right outside the bolded type...

110 MArbour 2
106 JArbour Winklepleck Ltd.
97 Bauer Snooze

94 Shotwell 1 and Johnson
90 Quinn

Everyone else after the jump!

LAD 4, NYY 2

...again. One takeaway from last night's game, for me -- following what seemed like unified "what's really wrong with Judge"/"IS there really something wrong with Judge"/"Judge need hit ball more times" coverage from the writers I follow -- was the shots of the fans in Yankee Stadium. Leaving aside that it's FOX coverage, with all the blunt-force melodrama that implies, every shot of the faithful was a portrait in baffled outrage. How can this be? We're the Aaron Judge YANK-ees!!

I know not all Yankee fans are like this. I used to be one; I tried my best not to be That Guy. (I actually wrote years ago about early-aughts Yankees teams, which were more like a B/B-, being more fun to watch because the shit-talk was better.) I know other teams' fans have their issues, and I know a Met fan's "fine, we'll just sit here in the dark" self-loathing isn't cute, etc. etc. 

But Met fans can comprehend things like "getting beat by better teams" -- reeeeeally well, like PhD-level comprehension -- in a way Yankee fans often seem incapable of. Like, can't compute information such as "the Dodgers have home-field for a reason that is not a coin flip" or "this line-up is more consistently dangerous than ours." 

(Or "Juan Soto does not care to play an attentive RF," which is not a point of interest when he's tearing the cover off the ball, but a terrible look when he's not.)

This isn't Judge's "fault"; it isn't anyone's. The Dodgers are better -- maybe not this much better, but more accustomed to having to adapt and patch holes. But it's the Yankees, so Judge is going to get blamed, instead of the front office not trying harder to bolster the pitching at the deadline, or instead of giving credit to the way October activates dudes like Edman and Kiké. 

"You know it's only Game 4 tonight, right?" I do. But I think L.A. has the brooms out, and I may not have as much time to do analysis tomorrow, so: here it is now. Hope I'm wrong.

Speaking of wrong (sigh), here's the smattering of points from last night...

Betts 1
Freeman 4
Hernandez T 1
Ohtani 0
Smith W 0

Judge 0
Soto 0
Stanton 3

And with that, Stanton moves into a tie with Vientos for pool/points MVP. This is not a bad team! Freeman is just having a postseason straight out of Joseph Campbell.

No real change to the money, with Ohtani (IMO) playing hurt mostly to reassure Dodger Nation and none of the other popular picks doing much:

104 MArbour 2
98 JArbour Winklepleck LLC
92 Bauer Snooze

89 Shotwell 1
86 Johnson
85 Quinn

high 60s Stempel and Wonsetler
low to mid 60s Cameron 2, Dunn, and the SDBs

50s Fell, Tormey, Shotwell 2, Cameron 1, and Drake

40s Reid 1 and Bingham

30s Reid 2 and Brady

26 MArbour 1

Now that I've said the Dodgers are set to sweep, the Yankees are going to come out behind Gil and hammer...whoever Los Angeles sends to the mound, which is still TBD as of this writing. But it's on FOX at 8 ET; good luck, everyone!

LAD 4, NYY 2

Not as dramatic a win by the Dodgers last night...but pretty close, what with the heel-nipping in the ninth.

Of course, that happened in the shadow of Ohtani going fetal at second base while some Yankee infielder* just...ran past him all "none of my business Kermit dot gif"? Like, you don't have to cradle his head in your lap, but maybe just wait nearby until the trainer comes out, or get between him and the dugout cams? Or ask yourself what A-Rod would have done, and do the opposite?

*my dislike of Volpe is 1) irrational and 2) already public record so I don't care to pile on; someone can tell me in the comments who it actually was

Anyway, all of that was...not awesome to experience at home (ditto the FOX booth trying to find British-diplomat ways to slam Soto's cazh defense), but a lights-out Yamamoto + Freeman and T. Hernandez dingers were pretty rad.

Points!

Betts 2
Freeman 4
Hernandez T 5
Ohtani 0
Smith W 2

Judge 0
Soto 5
Stanton 1

Say hello to the new money!

102 MArbour 2
92 JArbour Winklepleck 
91 Bauer Snooze

87 Shotwell 1
86 Bauer OMG
84 Quinn
82 Johnson

...and goodbye to the Zombie Bauer slate; everyone else after the jump.

LAD 6, NYY 3 (10)

That game was wild enough before the finale, which: dang. Good for Freeman, whom I've always liked even though he tends to hit the Mets like they're the side of a barn. And how is it possible that this is the first walk-off grand salami in Series history?

Interesting point distribution:

Betts 0
Freeman 7
Hernandez T 1
Ohtani 2
Smith 0

Judge 1
Soto 1
Stanton 4

Not a huge realignment here, but the zombie Bauer is beginning his descent:

90 MArbour 2
86 Bauer OMG
84 Bauer Snooze

81 JArbour Winklepleck LLC
80 Shotwell 1

74 Quinn
73 Johnson

65 Cameron 2
64 Stempel
62 Wonsetler

high 50s: the SDBs and Dunn
low 50s: Tormey, Shotwell 2, Fell, Cameron 1, and Drake

40s: Bingham and Reid 1
30s: Reid 2
20s: Brady and MArbour 1

I hope it's a little less dramatical in Game 2, which is the same Bat time, same Bat channel tomorrow night, Rodón vs. Yamamoto. Check my math (I figured out that Excel hiccup, but that doesn't mean I didn't foam-finger the data entry), and good luck to all, but especially the furniture in Nestor Cortes's hotel room.