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Week 25 results
Championship bracket
Grand final: Alabama Slammers 4, Mizzoula Osprey 6
Possibly the greatest championship game in the long history of SnakePit Fantasy Baseball, with Mizzoula taking HR, RBI and SB by a single point, while Alabama won BA by .001. In the end, the Osprey's late pickup of Gentry proved crucial, his two SB and two RBI allowing them to snatch both categories. This was a low-powered but high-average game: both sides hit over .300, but nobody had more than one homer. Molina (Osprey) drove in nine, and Martin (Slammers) eight. In pitching, Alabama got a Win and two Saves from Romo, but an ERA north of five was not what they needed, with Iwakuma's eight shutout innings for Mizzoula a huge help.
3rd/4th place: Sofa King Juiced 7, Moved Upton 3
Regular-season champions Juiced bounced back from their shock semi-final exit, to take the bronze medal. They racked up 81 strikeouts, led by Minor's dozen, with Kazmir (W + 11 K) also performing strongly. Gomez led their offense with three home-runs, backed by two apiece from Beltre and Holliday. Upton were hard-pushed to keep up, though Young stole six bases, and Swisher homered twice. On the mound, Scherzer gave them a Win and 10 strikeouts, with Johnson saving three in their losing cause.
Consolation bracket
7th/8th place: MyWieterGetzLongoria 5, Space Wizard 5
Space edged hitting, batting .294, with Middlebrooks two HR and seven driven in powering their offense; Wieter countered with Loney, who both scored and drove in five runs. However, the roles were reversed in the pitching categories, where both teams had sub-two ERAs. Kimbrel notched a Win and a Save for Wieter, but the Wizard struck back, with Burnett's Win and six strikeouts their top performance. As things ended even, the tiebreaker was regular season results: as Space beat Wieter 5-3 in Week 10, that gave them the edge, and 7th-place overall.
9th/10th place: CompleteGameShutout 4, Got Grittiness? 6
Grittiness swept the batting points, behind Hitter of the Week Gyorko, who homered three times and had 10 RBI; Werth and Perez added two homers each for Got, while Hamlton drove in seven for Complete. Shutout fought back strongly in the pitching categories, with a Win and 10 strikeouts for Shields, but Verlander's 22 strikeouts proved enough to give the category to Grittiness, and with it the victory. Quintana added a W + 10 K's for them as well.
Final standings
Rank | Team | W-L-T | Pct | GB | Last | Waiver | Moves |
1 | Mizzoula Osprey | 123-86-11 | .584 | 16 | 6-4-0 | 14 | 42 |
2 | Alabama Slammers | 110-96-14 | .532 | 27.5 | 4-6-0 | 11 | 71 |
3 | Sofa King Juiced | 138-69-13 | .657 | - | 7-3-0 | 2 | 21 |
4 | Moved Upton | 111-100-9 | .525 | 29 | 3-7-0 | 4 | 46 |
5 | Waffles | 125-89-6 | .582 | 16.5 | - | 7 | 37 |
6 | Dirt McGrit | 110-98-12 | .527 | 28.5 | - | 9 | 27 |
7 | Space Wizard | 97-103-20 | .486 | 37.5 | 5-5-0 | 5 | 2 |
8 | MyWieterGetzLongoria | 108-98-14 | .523 | 29.5 | 5-5-0 | 6 | 28 |
9 | Got Grittiness? | 103-106-11 | .493 | 36 | 6-4-0 | 12 | 47 |
10 | CompleteGameShutout | 96-117-7 | .452 | 45 | 4-6-0 | 10 | 45 |
11 | AZ SnakePit | 95-113-12 | .459 | 43.5 | - | 1 | 16 |
12 | Phoenix Platypi | 91-119-10 | .436 | 48.5 | - | 3 | 7 |
13 | The Fighting Amish | 83-129-8 | .395 | 57.5 | - | 13 | 28 |
14 | Blonde Streaks | 71-138-11 | .348 | 68 | - | 8 | 13 |
So the season ends, with the Mizzoula Osprey taking the title they also won in 2011, after a third-place finish last season. Reigning champions Alabama Slammers fall just short this time, but will surely be back in 2014, as will third-placed Sofa King Juiced, who dominated the regular season, but were doomed by one sub-par week in the post-season. Such is the nature of playoff baseball. At the bottom, Blonde Streaks and The Fighting Amish occupy the relegation spots, and are likely to be playing in the feeder leagues next year, being replaced by the top teams from there.
Thanks to all who took part, and we'll be back early in spring training, to open the books on the next SnakePit Fantasy Baseball season.