"But David," you're probably saying, "you were never below .500! In fact, at the time of your last update the Mancies were a respectable 44-37!"
Yeah. About that. We lost Week 8 pretty badly (1-9) and the Mancies refused to get out of bed for the weekly post. But let's not dwell on the past, so get off my back why don't ya?
THE GOOD
- Matt Holliday and his 4 HR, 10 RBI, and 27 TB over the past two weeks.
- Matt Adams is shockingly similar, with 4 HR, 10 RBI, and 32 TB. Thanks to /u/HateMcLouth (nice name) for suggesting I drop Margot for him two weeks ago.
- It's not related to fantasy baseball, but I've run out of good things to say about the Mancies and it's neat news: my wife and I are buying a minority share in a local craft brewery that's opening up. It's two blocks from my apartment. I can literally walk to a source of free beer whenever I please. Experts disagree on whether or not this will be good for my long-term health.
THE BAD
- The entire pitching staff. Over the past two weeks, only Matt Shoemaker has an ERA under 4.00. I'm, like, 99% certain they're pitching poorly to balance out my surge of just-bought-a-brewery positive karma.
- Masahiro Tanaka specifically. I benched him for his Oakland start (where he gave up 1 run in 7+ innings) and promptly started him for his Baltimore 7-run shit show. At this point I have more faith in Zoo Pandas breeding than I do in Tanaka pitching consistently.
- Matt Carpenter is 7-for-46 in the last two weeks, and hitting .213 on the season. And he's the only M-named 2nd baseman available to me.
- Having only pitched 5 innings in the past month, finding Mark Melancon on a pitching mound is like searching for pre-2011 Bin Laden.
THE UGLY
- I finally dropped Manuel Margot. He promptly went on the DL. No regrets.
- The Nationals went to a closer-by-committee for two weeks, so I grabbed Matt Albers and let him waste a pitching slot. He got zero saves in that time, and then Dusty Baker inexplicably named Koda Glover (he of the 4.58 ERA) the permanent closer, even though Albers is literally the only reliever on the Nats with an ERA+ above 100, and has the best K/BB ratio.
- Rival fantasy baseball owner Pitch Slap tried to trade me Carlos Gonzalez for Matt Shoemaker. When I countered with an offer for Matt Bush (the only non-Melancon closer) Pitch Slap said he didn't want to trade Bush for anything. I'm here to publicly shame him for disrespecting the Mancies.
Here's how the Mancies look today. Mitch Haniger is set to come off the DL in the next week or so, and I'll have to decide who to drop for him.
