Rockem Sockem

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

Vlad Guerrero Jr. - Tangled Upton Blue

While in real baseball there is no debate, Shoei all the way, unfortunately he is split like Solomon in our game. In fake baseball this year there is def room for argument. Mike won the league and Trea Turner was a big part of it, Tatis who won this award last year was a monster again and Vlad’s fake team mate Juan Soto was unreal. Guerrero Jr. gets the nod though, what a break out, he powered Don to Free Eats and 2nd place. Just a quick mention, two players who didn’t even play half the season or more still finished 26th and 60th overall, got any guesses? DeGrom and Acuna respectively. If Jake had stayed healthy he might have made a clean sweep of these awards,,,ahhh Mets fans can dream.

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):

Max Scherzer - Ocean’s Blyleven

Max is a warrior, plain and simple, powering Mike to victory as the highest rated pitcher in Rockem. Congrats to Max and Mike. When the Dodgers lost last year's RSCK winner for 15-30 years, “Two Tone Max'' stepped onto the LA team and was unhittable, after being pretty near that in Washington as well. One of the best pitchers of the Rockem generation, surprisingly this is his first RSCK! There was no contest picking a winner, but it is worth mentioning that the runner up,

Adam Wainwright has won this twice before, 2010 and 2013 and went undrafted this year…some comeback!

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):

Mike Ryniec - Oceans Blyleven

So on the penultimate day of last year's bizarre short season, Mike got upjumped by Winston to fall to second after topping Rockem for most of the truncated 2020 which only included 60 Covid spiked games. Mike buckled down in 2021, doing little else, and over the second half of the season took the league by the stretch limo driving reigns and held on. Winning his fourth Rockem title and the coach of the year award.

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):

Cody Bellinger - They’re Schwindeling Baby

Quick….guess what Bellinger was ranked? Lower. I guarantee lower. Much lower than what you guessed a second time. I am not so sure anyone has ever been this low. In fact this award could be in for a name change; he was that bad this year. Sure, Yellich sucked for a first round pick from Fatty and Lindor played it up (or down as it were) for Tom but Bellinger ended the year ranked 1375th!!! He was hurt a bit but he also got benched and he still got in 315 at bats, I am sure Winston wishes he hadn’t. Woof!

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):

Shohei Ohtani Batter - C-Town Highpockets

A season unlike any other and he caps it with the most prestigious award imaginable, err, a Sockie?!?! Shohei did something none of us have ever seen and while his pitching was great with him ending up ranked 135th overall, his offensive side was up to MVP levels on it’s own, as Ohtani the batter finished 4th overall. This award was incredibly hotly contested, (shockingly) Salvadore Perez and (not so shockingly) Teoscar Hernandez both put up top 20 seasons and were drafted in the 10th and 11th respectively, Gausmen was one of the best pitchers in the game and Semian broke a HR record. All amazing, but none were Ohtani the Batsman, who was drafted after them all in the 19th round by BK.

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

Mike Trout - ChoneLoc

As always, there are lots of options for this award. Mentioned earlier were Acuna and deGrom but they still gave BK and Vig good lines somehow, Bieber got hurt on Fatty, Rendon sank Moon and Birdie drafted a soon to be convicted sexual predator but I digress. Bellinger was hurt a bit, but also sat and sucked so much so he won the Hinske, Strasburg always can win this, and it could be named for him, but we know that by now. Trout only gave Bull 117 at bats as the 5th overall pick and almost worse, there wasn’t much chatter about when he would come back or be shut down for good, stringing Bull along…Yuck.

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

Adam Wainwright - Dogzilla

This one was super tight and came down to the last few games, but the late season renaissance from Wainwright was enough for him to edge out two Crawdaddies in Cedric Mullins and Carlos Redon who both put up amazing seasons from the waiver wire. However, a slow September from both allowed Wainwright to close the gap between them as he finished 17th overall, almost winning the Rockem CK. What a resurgence from a pitcher who now looks like a real baseball Hall of Famer…he is certainly a Rockem Hall of Famer…hmm maybe we should do that at some point….

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!!!!

Two pandemic seasons in a row, no one gets this special award.