CHC 1, SF 0

Anyone else watch the FS1 crew watching Bill Murray's face on the replay as Javi Baez's homer sailed? I should just clip that as a GIF the next time someone's like, "But baseball's so dull and fiddly." I can't really argue with that.

But who can argue with this:

Your points!

Javi "Girl" Baez 5
Bryant 2
Rizzo -1
Russell 0
Zobrist -1

Lester 13

***

Belt 0
Pagan 1
Pence -1
Posey 3

Cueto 18

Compare these numbers, in a one-run pitchers' duel, to those of the Dark Hose. Pretty creditable job staying in the positive column! Full standings, after the jump.

LAD 4, WSH 3

Thaaaat's more like it. Almost everyone out of negative territory! ...Except Maniel Durphy, and this Mets fan is looooving that.

Seager 6
Turner, J 8

Kershaw 11

***

Harper 2
Durph -2
Turner, T 1

Ol' Husky Eyes 11

Now we've got a horse race; standings after the jump.

CLE 6, BOS 0

Man, these Boston hitters are KILLING US. Not to mention that they too are now down 0-2 going into the AL off day. Boston has the highest number of picks in play; this could get ugly fast.

..."Uglier." FTFM.

Betts -2
Bogaerts 1
Bradley -1
Ortiz -3
Pedroia -2

Price 4.33

***

Napoli 1
Santana 1

Kluber 11


The money:

Bunting 2 23.67
Williams and Simone 20
Ekard 18.33

Reid Love, Bingham 2, Stempel, and Yuhan 2 just off the pace.

A few folks banging around in the negative numbers, and Arbour Prime is not yet on the board. Still too early to freak out about anything until we've gotten through a couple NL games.

Back shortly with the LAD/WSH scores. As always, feel free to check my work.

TOR 5, TEX 3

It's getting late early for Texas, y'all -- and now they have to enter the maw of the Skydome on the brink of getting swept. Which is a fitting punishment for what they're inflicting on their pickers. Fuck's sake, Beltran, people are trying to make money over here!

Nice day at the office for off-the-beaten-path picks, though.

Andrus -1
Beltran -4
Beltre 0
Odor -2

Darvish 8

***

Bautista 1
Josh Ramone -1
Encarnacion 5

Happ 9
Osuna 4.67

The money:
Bunting 2 26.67
Reid Love 16
Stempel and Yuhan 2 15

Quinn and Ekard just off the pace.

Other AL game's in progress as we speak, and my shiny second-day lead won't last long with Price and Kluber pitching.

CLE 5, BOS 4

Ah, the vagaries of the pool. This looked like a game that would let everyone "eat" points-wise, but the Boston picks LOB-bed us big-time.

Beaneaters:
Betts -2
Bogaerts -2
Bradley -1
Ortiz -2
Pedroia 2
HanRam 4

Porcello 10.33
Uehara 1

Wahoos:
Santana -1

Bauer 10.67

...Hmm. I seem to be occupying the top two spots so I must have made an arithmetic error (now as in the past, please bring any math cock-ups to my attention). Broad standings after the jump...

TOR 10, TEX 1

I did get to watch this curb-stomping on the plane, in fact. My attempt to shorthand why I was excited about it for pool reasons to my seatmates didn't go well.

Plenty of points, but not all of them in the positive column....

Andrus 5
Beltran 1
Odor -1
Hamels 1.33 (oof)

Bats 9
Duck Donaldson 10
Encarnacion 1

So after the cocktail-hour contest we have Yuhan Deuce in the lead with 11, a huggermugger of Donaldson pickers at 10, some other people, and everyone else waiting to get on the board. Stand by for the nightcap.

Here we go!

Welcome, new poolies! Welcome back, old hands. BPP 2016 is now underway!

A few notes before I huck the laptop into my bag:

- we don't appear to have any dupe slates, somehow, despite some very popular picks like...

- Kris Bryant (our most popular) and Max "Ol' Husky-Eye" Scherzer (most popular pitcher pick, trailing KB by just one)

- y'all seem equally dubious about Washington (only four players represented) and Cleveland

BPP veterans well know that betting with your heart (i.e., on the Cubs) frequently sees a decimated pool population by Week 2, but almost nobody DOESN'T have a Cubbeenie on his/her roster, so let's hope things go differently this year, for a bunch of reasons.

Any early nominations for the Shane Victorino Memorial "THAT Guy?!" pick nobody made? Somebody wised up and picked Justin Turner this year so he's out (hi Lauren!). It's going to be some goddamn backup catcher, I bet.

Snap of the picks after the jump. Good luck, everyone!