[sets thermostat to 55] All right, BPPers -- that's it for another year! Payouts just went out; congrats to MArbour and Bauer, and thanks to everyone for being here and making this the one spreadsheet I love.
If you need some TV recs now that baseball's over, head to the comments. Otherwise, I'll see you back here in 2027...whether there's a season or not, and let's hope it's a short lockout and you never have to find out what "Plan BPP" is ;).
May the next 102 fly by...
Congratulations, Brewers and fans! I'm so glad the outcome we all saw coming in May could actually happen, and I hope Bob Uecker is appreciating it somewhere.
The downside is that it's a wrap on the 2026 season...with all that that might imply about 2027, but for now, let's just enjoy a first-time WS winner, and some points/awards of our own.
Last BPP licks brought us...
Bauers 0
Chourio 1
Contreras 2
Mitchell 1
Turang 3
Yelich 0
Caminero 1
Diaz 0
Let's not bury the lede; Turang, something of a disappointment until this week, let MArbour ascend to the lead and another BPP win. The money, for real:
91 MArbour
89 Bauer
84 SDB
JArbour really did have a shot if the series had gone seven games, but had to settle for a four-way tie for fourth. Still, great comeback.
71 LoPorto 2, Wonsetler Head, JArbour, and Fell
Congratulations to our win and place slates (and to me, for breaking even for once?), and thanks to everyone for playing again in 2026. Kind of a weird one this year!
Full standings in a moment, but first let's talk pool M and LVPs. William Contreras was a lock for WS MVP and he's ours too with 30 TB. (For this series, Chourio takes it.) LVP is harder to assess; for the Classic, it's Jake Bauers, but overall the 2026 post was not a dinger-forward affair. So is it a guy everyone picked who did nothing and went out early (PCA)? Or is it a guy who had his chances and did shit-all?
Or maybe it's Junior Caminero, widely picked on the basis of his homering potential, who "only" got 20? ...I don't think it's him; this is Crew pitching we're talking about. Let's let PCA and the Boston picks share it. ("omg Boston was in the postseason, I completely forgot." Yeah, they did too.)
Hat tip to Chandler Simpson, who would not quit until the very last out, but our Shane Victorino Honorary Flyin' Hawaiian Trophy goes to Cooper Pratt. Well done, kid; sorry I kept calling you "Spencer Pratt" at the bar.
Final standings after the jump...
I don't think this series makes it back to Wisconsin, and I don't know what to think about the use of Megill last night...but it's nice that we get at least one more game.
The points are a bit thin, sorry to say; good for the Pratt kid, but these are the Victorini that try men's souls, eh what?
Bauers 0
Chourio 3
Contreras 0
Mitchell 0
Turang 0
Yelich 0
Caminero 1
Diaz 1
Quite cozy at the top now:
86 Bauer
84 MArbour
82 SDB
But that last full slate couldn't get much closer to the money:
69 (nice) LoPorto 2
68 Wonsetler Head
67 JArbour
66 Fell
low 60s: Reid Smart, Green, O'Reilly
50s: Quinn 2, Tormey
high 40s: Reid Dumb, Quinn 1, Stempelson, Izzo, Drake's Cakes, LoPorto 1
other 40s: Wonsetler Heart, Brady, Drake's Dis Track
30s: the AKs, the Binghams, Yuhan, Shotwell
The standings continue to look, well, weird -- picks that have been out for literal weeks now still have more points than Caminero, never mind Bauers or Turang -- but that's what makes it fun to do each year, at least for me.
And we get to do it at least one more day. The Miz heads to the mound tonight at 8* PM ET; the Rays are presumably teaching TBD a knuckleball today, we'll have to see who they send out there. Good luck to all!
*I thought this was a 7 PM scheduled start; they may have moved it thanks to the late finish, and they may move it again, so check local listings or MLB.com
Not quite sure what to say about last night's drubbing (all the points clattering into the jar make it hard to concentrate, y'all) except that 1) I was quite confident this series would come back to Milwaukee, and now am quite confident it will not; and 2) the Brewers are a great team, the best in baseball, but I don't think you can discount the "the 'relentless' 'narrative' gets in other teams' heads" factor. Met fans were feeling it from the Crew all season.
Said season's on the brink of ending; first, the (many, many) points!
Bauers 0
Chourio 5
Contreras 3
Mitchell 1
Turang 4 (!)
Yelich 2
Caminero 0
Diaz 3
That changes the look of the money --
84 Bauer
81 MArbour
77 SDB
-- and brings JArbour a lot closer to it:
68 LoPorto 2
67 Wonsetler Head
64 JArbour
That slate, while complete, would need at least a couple more games to climb over the Contreras pickers ahead of it (and for Yelich to crush in whatever time's remaining), but it's not outside the realm.
Every other slate pretty much is outside the realm, so here's a quick-and-dirty look at the rest of the field (since a full wrap-up is, lbr, not far in the future):
low 60s: Fell, Green, Reid Smart, O'Reilly
50s: Quinn 2
high 40s: Tormey, Reid Dumb, Stempelson, Izzo, Drake's Cakes
mid-to-low 40s: LoPorto 1, Quinn 1, Brady, Drake's Dis Track, Wonsetler Heart
mid-to-high 30s: AK 1, Bingham 1
low 30s: Yuhan, AK 2, Shotwell
20s: Bingham 2
Game 4 is tonight at 8 ET; the Rays are sending something called a Jax to the hill, while the Brewers haven't announced a starter as of this writing -- probably because they could send Vogie to the hill in Groucho glasses and get something done, but we'll see what happens. Good luck, check my math, and fingers crossed tonight's not a wrap on 2026 baseball...
Another close one; another one you couldn't really step away from without missing something; and another outcome that's...about right, for lack of a better term. The Crew isn't drop-kicking the Rays by any means, but they have more means. (And make fewer mistakes. Whole lotta Metsy "I got it I got it I got it oh shit where'd it go" out there with Tampa last night.)
I'd like the Rays to take enough games at home to send it back to Milwaukee next weekend, I'd like a seven-game WS (I always want that), but even if it's a sweep, it's going to have been a lot closer than it looked in the Macmillan, so to say.
"Only if you picked Frelick." Someone did, last year! Totally get the Met-killer pick logic.
Let's see how the points actually looked.
Caminero 1
Diaz 0
Bauers 1
Chourio 2
Contreras 2
Mitchell 1
Turang 2
Yelich 1
The difference-makers continue to be various combinations of Chourio, Diaz, and mid-lineup Brewers. Y'know, except when they're not.
Here's the money:
78 Bauer
69 (nice) SDB
68 MArbour
64 Wonsetler Head
62 LoPorto 2
60 Green
The complete slates in the lead pulling ever so slightly away from the others near the top, plus one more complete slate looking ever so slightly larger in the rearview; that's after the jump!
About what I expected from last night's game in terms of match-up and fun levels (and tiresome Smoltzing in the booth, most of which I avoided by going to the local and watching on mute). What I think is going to make Misiorowski an all-timer -- if he doesn't blow out an elbow -- is that he can keep it frosty if there's traffic on the bases. He seems to get that he can't "just" throw 103, he has to pitch as well.
To the points!
Caminero 2
Diaz 0
Bauers 1
Chourio 2
Contreras 2
Mitchell Turang LLP 0
Capt. Yeli 3
And the money:
74 Bauer
65 SDB
61 MArbour and Wonsetler Head
60 LoPorto 2
58 Green
56 Reid Smart
55 O'Reilly
Everyone else after the jump!
...Yes, "Devil Rays" -- let's embrace it, why not.
A very entertaining series overall, and hat tip to a Guardians team I thought might get swept without much pushback. And to Freddy Peralta; I guess I'm supposed to be bitter about his success in Tampa, but sometimes you know a Met is going to be better off literally anywhere else, and this was one of those times. Now, of course, I'm obliged to root for his old old team in the Classic, but we can get back to that conversation on Friday.
For now, the last points for Cleveland...and the last points for anyone until the weekend:
Mr. DeLauter 3
Kwan 1
Caminero 5
Diaz 4
The italicized picks depart from the updates, as you know; no slates knocked out here, since Cleveland was was lightly picked.
MVP of this series for the pool is close, but has to go to Diaz, who takes the pool's TB lead over from Rice and Contreras as of tonight. Honorable mention to Mr. DeLauter. Aranda in the running as a Victorino candidate.
LVP is Kwan, I guess. I'm always intrigued by the choice to pick him; he'll rack those couple points at a time as long as he's in, but if he doesn't stay in for the duration? ...Then again, fully a third of Caminero's points came tonight. These things can break a lot of ways, many of them bad.
Here's the money as we prepare emotionally for a baseball-free rest of the week:
69 Bauer
60 SDB
58 LoPorto 2
Realistically, it's down to the complete slates now -- and I'm not excluding JArbour here, since that slate has a "solo," Yelich. You really can't tell until it's said and done, but unless Contreras falls down a literal manhole...
Just off the pace,
57 MArbour and Wonsetler Head
55 Green
54 Reid Smart
53 O'Reilly
And everyone else after the jump:
