AZ SnakePit Fantasy Baseball, Final Week

1st - warlords
2nd - Adriano Rosario's
3rd - The Fighting Amish

Championship Game: Adriano Rosario's 6, warlords 4
In defiance of baseball law, good hitting, in the shape of warlords, beat Adriano's good pitching, though it was far from one-sided. The MVP of the final was war's Jose Reyes: he scored 12 runs and stole six bases, giving both categories to his team, by three and two respectively. Two wins each for Halladay, Johnson and Baker also proved crucial, LaRoche's six HR and 12 RBI certainly did no harm.

Rosario's got 11 runs and nine RBI from Braun, while relief pitchers Wood and Ziegler vultured up three wins and six saves. That helped them take most of the pitching categories, but their struggles at the plate - only ten home-runs in two weeks - doomed them, as war swept all five offensive  points and batted .321 for the round. The victory marks a stunning turnaround for the team, who finished 15th in last year's league.

Third-place Game: The Fighting Amish 6, 7-2 Offsuiters 2
Amish rode Santana's arm all the way to third, getting three victories and 27 K's from the Mets ace. Six saves from Qualls were also notable in their tally. Their pitchers piled up 94 strikeouts, with Lincecum notching 28, though Offsuiters managed a credible 85 all told, and WHIP ended tied at 1.38. Home-runs ended level too: Cabrera (7-2) had four and 11 RBI, while Pena (Amish) homered three times and drove in 14.

Seventh-place Game: Douchebaggery 7, Crazy VIII's 3
Youkilis and Fielder combined for eight HR and 28 RBI in Douche's cause, though Gonzalez (12 R, 4 HR, 14 RBI) countered for VIII. Despite that, Douche dominated at the plate, batting .333 and scoring 66 runs, Ellsbury being responsible for 13. Neither side impressed on the mound, the teams' starters combining for only four wins in two weeks. Cruz (Douche) got two in relief.

Ninth-place Game: Ignatius J. Rallies 5, Desert Dingleberries 4
In the closest contest of the final week, Rallies swept hitting, and Desert almost swept pitching, but Rallies held on for a tie in wins, that proved enough to give them overall victory. Buerhle's two wins were therefore their savior, countering two for Desert from Greinke - Lewis got the losers five saves. At the plate, Rallies were led by Young (9 R, 3 HR, 10 RBI) and Teixieira also homered three times.

Final Standings

1. warlords
2. Adriano Rosario's
3. The Fighting Amish
4. 7-2 Offsuiters
5. dbacktom
6. GregShulteOverdrive
7. Douchebaggery
8. Crazy VIII's
9. Ignatius J. Rallies
10. Desert Dingleberries
11. Shenanigans 2.0
12. AZ SnakePit
13. Wimboes Barmy Army
14. Arizona Muugens
15. Desert Storm BC
16. Blonde Streaks
17. Kapsaicin Kids
18. Tucson Myth
19. SHUperMen
20. last place

Congratulations to kalum, Otacon and johngordonma. I am pleased to announce that we actually have some prizes this year - basically stuff that we acquired here at the Pit over the year. First place gets a $50 gift card for MLB.com; the runner up gets a copy of the book Baseball 365 Days, and the third-place person gets an Eric Byrnes bobble-head. If the winners can send me an email with their addresses through the league, I'll send the prizes out ASAP eventually.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the third year of the league: we'll be doing it again next year, with signups beginning around the start of spring training, and the draft the weekend before Opening Day. Start planning now!