Rockem Sockem

This was a weird one. I guess that things get weird when you turn sixteen. In some aspects it was tighter than ever and in others it was a huge wide gaping chasm…wow that sentence can be taken out of context…Anyways…

The league was top and bottom heavy (Sexy!). John Ferrari had a simply historic season. He won the league drafting from the 1st spot, he won back to back championships and his third overall title. He has moved into rarefied air, and now has officially become a heavyweight in a league with a lot of fat asses.John dominated, as you can see from the graph above no one came that close. The largest margin of victory since we went to the official scoring system and Bird deserves all the credit.

The 2nd and 3rd spots were held almost all season by Mike (2nd) and Vig (3rd) who had the best season he has ever had in Rockem, but unfortunately he could not hold on as someone named BK The Champ closed on him as BK jumped into the third spot claiming the last eat for free spot. Moon also jumped ahead of Vig on the last day finishing fourth with a flurry and McNally held down the sixth spot to close out the top half.

The middle of this league was so tight this year that the gap from the 4th to the 10th was as small as nine points at a certain date. There was so much movement that it was sound and fury signifying nothing in the end because no one jumped to the top or fell to the bottom. Eben slugged his way to the 7th spot while your humble Commish pitched his way to 8th. Tom had bounced around all year and landed in 9th when the musical chair game of Rockem 16 stopped while Jeff had a horrific start and climbed out of his hole, but only into 10th. Rounding out the bottom of the league was Fatone and Bull who decided not to check his team after August…Way to keep up the integrity of the best league in the world!

On to the awards…

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Continuing a tradition that is Meh at best…unlike this picture which is Boosh at worst.

MVRSFP- The Most Valuable Rockem Sockem Fantasy Player goes to….

Giancarlo Stanton - A wicked tear mid season from Stanton locked up second place for Mike and gave him a fleeting vision of challenging for the EEETS A BOAT, but even without a title challenge Giancarlo gave Mike a huge bat and a silver medal leading him to eat for free…really the only other challenger for this was….

Rockem Sockem CK- Goes to the best fantasy pitcher this year, just like the CY in real baseball but we renamed it CK in 2016 for Kershaw because he keeps winning it:

Corey Kluber - Unreal! A new winner of this reward. Birdie rode the number one rated player in the game to his easy victory and Kluber was THE major reason why. CLear cut winner here.

The Zeddemore Poles Coach of the Year Award: Goes to the best Rockem Manager (named for Winston's Historic 11 point last day jump in 2008):

John Ferrari- To go along with Kluber winning the Rockem CK, this winner was clear cut as well. Birdie dominated all season long and now John joins the ranks of all time champs with…well BK. Well done John. Honorable mention to Jay Vig who had his best season yet, but slumped in September and also Jay Moon who made a huge jump on the last day, also just falling short though.

The Eric Hinske Memorial (he's dead right?!) goes to the Biggest Bust Drafted that Year named for the Commish drafting Hinske in the 4th round of 2003:

Miguel Cabrera- Wow this award had a ton of possibilities (like every year, duh) Xander Bogarts hurt BK, Machado clearly under performed for Don as did Donaldson for the other Don…Braun hurt Vig but he had a few other bats including Judge. Marte getting suspended for juicing which killed Jeffe and Madison Bumgarner thought off-roading Thelma and Louise style was the way to spend an early season off day. None however were a first round pick who disappointed amazingly when he played, then got hurt. While others got hurt, Cabrera still had 40 more at bats than Bryce (who finished ranked 19th) and 60 more than Trout (who finished 13th)…and ended up ranked, take a guess….I'll wait…673rd….THAT wins you this award.

The Edwin Encarnacion Elation goes to the biggest positive surprise of the year who was drafted late (after 10th Round for EE's amazing jump a few years back)

Aaron Judge - I spoke too soon on the Kluber and Ferrari awards above…THIS was an easy pick. Judge wasn't even a lock to start on the Yankees coming out of spring training, but Jay Vig drafted him. What he got was one ofthe most surprising fantasy season since Rockem started, finishing 3rd over all…in fact we may have to rename this award…

The Nomar Broken Everything Award (Player's injuries who sink a team, named for Nomar sinking multiple teams early in Rockem History):

Noah Syndeergard - You can see some of the injuries in the Hinske award wrap up above so I won't spend too much time here on this except to say…the Mets are awful.

The Cliff Lee Award: (FA Pickup that changes the league, named for Bull snatching Lee in Rockem 7)

Tie: Tommy Pham and Ervin Santana - This award always has some surprises and the fact that Tommy Pham finished 23rd and Santana finished 15th overall. Astounding seasons for two guys who none of us even drafted…shows what we know…I can't wait to collectively show our idiocy again next year…stay tuned.