I had a feeling the Dodgers would take this one. Not a big intangibles guy ordinarily, but had an inkling that the Giants were going to clench up. My condolences to San Fans, and especially to having to watch the team go out on a check-swing call. Very Metsy, in more ways than one.
But congrats to Dodger fans, too. Hell of a closer you got there.
...All right, well, I concurred with all the tweets last night calling for this series to go best of 33, but we live in THIS timeline and there's an ALCS game in like 12 hours, so let's sweep up this confetti and see where we're at. Starting, of course, with points:
Bellinger 1
Betts 4
Seager 2
Smith Turner Turner Ltd. 0
Belt 0
Bryant 2
Crawford 1
Duggar 0
Flores 1
Longoria 0
Posey 2
Yastrzemski 0
All eight (woof) of those picks are now out. Belt, Duggar, and Li'l Yaz never got on the board at all, and it's been a while since we had any picks with the BPP sombrero, never mind this many. I will check my facts on that, but this round's LVP goes to...heightened expectations? Smith, meanwhile, rocking the highest point total of the division serieseses with 14. And nominations for the Victorino Award are now open!
In the meantime, here's the money as we head into the LCSes:
35 Cayenne 2
31 Shotwell 1
30 Fell 1 and Bingham 1
Sitting not far back with complete slates:
27 Yuhan 2 and Crase
Complete standings, plus BPP history, after the jump.
The Giants' elimination also eliminated a bunch of slates; those, along with previously zombied entries, are in italics.
25 Richardson
24 Arbour 1, Bauer 1, Wonsetler 2*, and Johnson 2; Arbour 2
23 Grove, Shotwell 2, and Winklepleck
22 Tormey
21 Cayenne 1 and Stempel
20 Wonsetler 1 and Bauer 2
19 Cameron 2 and Quinn
18 Cameron 1
16 SDB 2 and Yuhan 1
15 Johnson 1 and SDB 1
11 Bingham 2
7 Fell 2
2 Brady
0 Dunn
^ That? Positive THAT'S never happened before...and as the serieseseses wore on, I started to think about how hard it would be ACTIVELY to pick a slate that saw no action. It seemed impossible that Yastrzemski would not get my man Dunn on the board (keep in mind too, Brady was also zedding it up until like two days ago, and got half of his points last night). Maybe I should do a side pool along those lines next year -- the LVPP? -- but again, it feels like the 2021 pool is unique for a bunch of reasons: a huge spread of picks (usually there's at least one team with no takers), not only across teams but within them (all Sox picks are/were loners except Anderson); not just one, but several perfectly reasonable/proven picks getting their mail at the rue du Schneid...okay, you could gig the Belt pick, but there was every reason to believe he'd be back for the next series and that the Giants would be playing in it. There was every reason to believe Lowe and Yaz would do...anything. There was every reason to believe "boutique" picks like Duggar would find a way to pay off.
But that's why I love this pool, friends, even when I'm on the shit end of the stick, which is usually. It's fascinating.
Not so much for the slates leaving us, which are: Richardson; Arbour 1; the Bauer slates; Wonsetler 2; the Johnson slates; Winklepleck; Fell 2; and Dunn. Thanks so much for playing and I hope you'll stick around and kibbitz in the comments. (Alas, these slates will not appear in updates going forward.)
As for the rest of us, I think further plot twists await, because we still have a pretty good spread of picks and no duplicate slates remaining -- granted, a bunch of slates "flying solo" have the same lone pick left as slates ahead of them, but for the upcoming round, anyone with picks in play will show up in the standings.
And we're back to it tonight at 8 ET on FOX (ugh), Sale vs. Valdez in Houston. I predict that Houston jumps on Sale, then keeps jumping on Boston pitching for most of the week and wins this series without much of a fight.
Until then, check my math, rend your garments in the comments, and as always, good luck!
3 comments:
Either: Robot umps now, or bust Morales back to Rookie A where his garbage calls won't matter. That was the shittiest way for any team to go out of a playoff tournament.
I think Carl Yastrzemski would've had a better series than his grandson. Thanks Mike. I broke a BPP record partly because of you.
So what was weirder about this ALDS?
A. My chosen players accounting for a batting donut of points thus eliminating all of us from contention, or...
B. Finding out that the Red Sox theme song is "Dancing On My Own?"
Even knowing that my Red Sox aren't using the Robyn version, but rather a Tiesto remixed version of some Britain's Got Talent singer/songwriter, the fact that it even made its way into their stratosphere fills me with a bit of joy and hope for all of us. Good on ya, Sox. Also, I've become acquainted/friends with Josh Kantor, the Red Sox organ player, and he Robyn-Rolled his online "7th Inning Stretch" show with the song on Tuesday night. It was also a joy.
Such a puzzlement that the NY Times is writing about it:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/15/sports/baseball/red-sox-dancing-on-my-own.html?smid=tw-share
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