Rockem Sockem

Well in the (first?!?) year of Corona Virus things seemed to be going fairly normal for Rockem. Well, that is after a super delayed start shortened season to only 60 games and a killer virus on the loose…our start saw an initial shifting of slots, then the league settled into a pattern with lots of movement behind a strong double digit league leader.

Mike took over the top of the heap mid August and seemed to be winning running away…until a 12 point jump from Winston on the penultimate day of baseball lead to a change atop the standings for the first time since August 23rd. The final day had some Stat Tracker shenanigans but the lead was his, Jeff Winston has won his 1st Rockem title demonstrating yet another late season coup (see 2008 and the title of our manager of the year award), during a year that was honestly messy all around.

7 inning CG's, extra Innings runners on 2nd, National League DH, rules/stats/diseases were all over the map and there is no real solutions on the horizon as we enter the playoffs with an amazing 16 teams…but that is real baseball, in fake baseball Mike, after a summer in the lead slipped at the exact wrong time and fell to second place while Tom had strong season especially in September, rounding out the free eats (assuming we get to dinner this year).

BK proved he is/was/always will be a champ as he toiled in the bottom fourth most of the season and then moved up during the last week to claim fourth while Wilson and Birdie slugged it out mid pack finishing 5th and 6th respectively. Commish looked good at the start of Sept in 2nd place but went ice cold to finish in 7th overall while Bull jumped up into 8th after Fatone, who had been up and down all season finished the roulette wheel of final standings in 9th. Truth be told 3-9 (and obviously 1-2) could have probably finished in any order if there had been an extra 5 games more or less, this was a very close year, every day seemed to display huge point gains and losses, case in point Jeff's “Saturday Surprise” of 2020.

On the other side of things, the bottom three of the league, Jay Vig, Moon and McNally are happy to see the Frankenstein-ed Rockem season come to a close as none of the trio really showed anything positive this year, but dreams of Spring 2021 dance in their heads….who am I kidding, we will still be locked down then and MLB will probably make rule changes after we draft adding Moats into the outfield instead of Warning Tracks….

Continuing a tradition that is Meh at best…unlikethispicturewhichisBooshatworst.

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

Fernando Tatis Jr. - MamaRyu

This year on the player rater, slots 1-5 were all every day players…on shitty Rockem teams…Tatis was 6th overall on the winning squad so he gets the short season MVP award. The truncated season meant every day guys were much more valuable than pitchers, or maybe pitchers just sucked?

Rockem Sockem CK Goes to the best fantasy pitcher this year, just like the CY in real baseball (Renamed it CK in 2016 for Clayton Kershaw because he kept winning it):

Trevor Bauer - Ocean’s Blyleven

The twitter instigator (and maybe future Met?!?!) won the real Cy Young for his killer season and grabs the CK after almost leading Mike to the top of Rockem. Finishing 8th overall he edges out Fattys homeboy Justin Bieber and G.Cole who threw mean innings for Jay Vig.

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):

Jeff Winston - MamaRyu

So in 2008 Jeff made a historic last day jump of 11.5 points to propel himself up into second place, but this year's “Saturday Surprise” topped even that. It will probably not be remembered as fondly as the season was only 60 games, but the person who the award is named after wins it easily this year.

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):

Nolan Arenado - ephedraheartstoppers

What a fickle beast Rockem (and baseball) is/are/will always be. Just last year Nolan was the MVRSFP cornerstone of Eben’s championship squad. Now he is traded to the Cardinals as shit falls apart in Colorado. From MVRSFP to Bust: The Nolan Arenado Story. While that is a juicy one, NA was not alone sucking in the corona compromised year… Yelich for Wilson, Bregman for Fatty, Baez for Tom, Altuve for McNally and JD Martinez for Birdie all wrote their own shitty stories, just not as large.

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

Luke Voit - Land of Chapman

Eben wins this award for back to back years with New York First Baseman, meaning he is clearly the best when it comes to drafting….what a sad sorry bunch the rest of us who put in literal days of research, just proves it all means nothing….Anyways…Voit finished 12th overall but there were a lot of late draft surprises this year with Will Myers for Tom, and Maeda for Birdie were surprisingly amazing and Ozuna just missed wrapping this up for Bird, but that big bat was drafted in the 9th round.

The Nomar Broken Everything Award: Goes to player whose injuries who sink a team (named for Nomar Garciapara sinking multiple teams early in Rockem History)

Stephen Strasburg - WrightPlaceWongTime

As always, lots of options for this award. Mike probably would have won the whole league with a few more games from Acuna or Flaherty and Verlander going out early sunk Fatty, likewise for Buehler and Bull, but Tom had zero from his Ace and still finished third…what could have been…

The Cliff Lee Award : Goes to FA Pickup that changes the league (Named for Bull snatching Lee in Rockem 7)

Teoscar Hernandez - Ocean’s Blyleven

This one surprised me, I had no idea Hernandez finished 21st overall. I was just going to write in Tom’s pickup of Dom Smith who ended up ranked 32nd but Teoscar edges him out and Mike even picked him up earlier. Marco Gonzales shockingly finished 30th overall for Fatone so let’s give him some love. Speaking of love…

W.W. Rockem Sockem Spirit Award : A special award for special actions (Named for Winston Walters delivering the highlight of the Baltimore Orioles 2019 season and the true reason baseball/life is so grand)

NO ONE!!!!

There is no love for 2020 and no one is getting the Winston Walters Spirit Award this year.