When a batter is truly in a groove, he will often say that his timing is spot-on. Whether he gets an offspeed pitch low and away or a rising fastball, the bat always seems to be in perfect position to make maximum contact. Good timing can help a batter fill up their trophy case and in the case of Matt Suer's 2015 season, his impeccable timing allowed him to take home the biggest trophy our league has to offer. Harry Doyle was a good, but not great team for most of the year but absolutely everything clicked at the perfect time and that good timing left a trail of blood and pine tar splattered on the wall as he bludgeoned his opponents to death. Mike Castillo was the next and final opponent to be thrown into the fighting pits with Matty and even though his head was rolling on the ground when it was over, it wasn't a quick and humiliating defeat.
The Blacksox were not intimidated by the overpowering sticks in the opposing dugout as they came out with a lead and maintained that lead into the second week of the Shocker Series. Dee Gordon continued to build on his tremendous 2015 season, Josh Reddick was scoring a ton of runs, and David Peralta kept hitting right handed pitching with force. Even though his batters were keeping it close, Castillo knew that he would have to overtake Matty with his pitchers and he did get some nice performances from Price, Pineda, and RIchards to get an early lead. Castillo was very active on the waiver wire as he picked up and dropped players pretty much every day and he had to empty the clip and fire off as many bullets as possible in order to pull off this upset. Castillo's strategy was paying off in the QS and K categories but some sloppy outings from CC, Shields, and Romo helped drive up his Losses and WHIP and diminish his chances at a title. Castillo's batters simply were not as hot and not as good as their counterparts and as more time passed with this matchup, the more it looked like Castillo wasn't going to be able to hang with Matt's bats.
To Matt's credit, he resisted the urge to panic when he was down early in this matchup. Like a stoic general, he patiently kept his troops at bay and allowed them to attack when the time was right. That time was about day 9 in this matchup where suddenly Harry Doyle was dropping bombs and blasting bazooka shots over the wall. The lineup that had shattered many of the previous postseason records in the early rounds wasn't as commanding in the finals but they were still the much better batters and won the hitting categories 4-1-1. Cano was finally breaking out, Joey Bats was mashing taters, and A.J. Pollack was doing it all. This team felt the momentum shift and when the relief pitchers took control of the SVHD and WHIP categories, it gave Matt Suer the clear upper hand. Iwakuma was great, Verlander was his old self, and Tony Watson was able to rack up 5 SVHD's with only 1 strikeout, somehow. The calm leadership of Matt allowed his players to do what they've been doing and when Castillo sent a conceding message towards Matt on the final Saturday, everyone knew it was over.
Matt worked hard as always to mold his roster exactly how he wanted and a lot of the guys that Matt stuck with or picked up in a trade caught fire at the perfect time to help Matt take home his second title. It was done mostly with the bats and now Matt Suer can thank his bashing brothers for injecting his ass with bragging rights and some more ego. Much like the Bash Brothers, this team showed no mercy on the opposing pitcher and much like Big Mac and Jose, this fantasy team will stand tall back-to-back with titles in 2014 and 2015.
The Blacksox were not intimidated by the overpowering sticks in the opposing dugout as they came out with a lead and maintained that lead into the second week of the Shocker Series. Dee Gordon continued to build on his tremendous 2015 season, Josh Reddick was scoring a ton of runs, and David Peralta kept hitting right handed pitching with force. Even though his batters were keeping it close, Castillo knew that he would have to overtake Matty with his pitchers and he did get some nice performances from Price, Pineda, and RIchards to get an early lead. Castillo was very active on the waiver wire as he picked up and dropped players pretty much every day and he had to empty the clip and fire off as many bullets as possible in order to pull off this upset. Castillo's strategy was paying off in the QS and K categories but some sloppy outings from CC, Shields, and Romo helped drive up his Losses and WHIP and diminish his chances at a title. Castillo's batters simply were not as hot and not as good as their counterparts and as more time passed with this matchup, the more it looked like Castillo wasn't going to be able to hang with Matt's bats.
To Matt's credit, he resisted the urge to panic when he was down early in this matchup. Like a stoic general, he patiently kept his troops at bay and allowed them to attack when the time was right. That time was about day 9 in this matchup where suddenly Harry Doyle was dropping bombs and blasting bazooka shots over the wall. The lineup that had shattered many of the previous postseason records in the early rounds wasn't as commanding in the finals but they were still the much better batters and won the hitting categories 4-1-1. Cano was finally breaking out, Joey Bats was mashing taters, and A.J. Pollack was doing it all. This team felt the momentum shift and when the relief pitchers took control of the SVHD and WHIP categories, it gave Matt Suer the clear upper hand. Iwakuma was great, Verlander was his old self, and Tony Watson was able to rack up 5 SVHD's with only 1 strikeout, somehow. The calm leadership of Matt allowed his players to do what they've been doing and when Castillo sent a conceding message towards Matt on the final Saturday, everyone knew it was over.
Matt worked hard as always to mold his roster exactly how he wanted and a lot of the guys that Matt stuck with or picked up in a trade caught fire at the perfect time to help Matt take home his second title. It was done mostly with the bats and now Matt Suer can thank his bashing brothers for injecting his ass with bragging rights and some more ego. Much like the Bash Brothers, this team showed no mercy on the opposing pitcher and much like Big Mac and Jose, this fantasy team will stand tall back-to-back with titles in 2014 and 2015.
Matty will turn out the lights on another fine Shocker Fantasy Baseball season. I know I will miss scanning the Probably Pitcher page with a morning coffee much like I will miss swiping my finger to check the score on my phone every night. We saw a little more offense, we saw Arch go wire-to-wire in the regular season, we saw a huge 8 seed upset, and we saw our champion reign supreme. I'll send out an email to collect from those not so fortunate this year and I'll keep my ears open for any suggestions you guys have for 2016. It's been another fun season for me and I am looking forward to seeing you guys pull into the spring training parking lot like Willie Mays Hayes, Roger Dorn, and Ricky Vaughn next year.