CFBL 2016, Year #27

Rookie Fishermen Strut Their Stuff, Emerge as Champs

No new rules; the Fishermen (of Illinois & New York) join the league..  

DRAFT (first round pick)

     FISHERMEN:   Trout

     Dogs:  Goldschmidt

     dRays:  Harper

     Rats:  Kershaw

     Casuals:   Scherzer

     Crushers:   Stanton

     Clubbers:   Altuve

     Oakies:   Donaldson

Regular season:    The Oakies & Fishermen emerged tied for the regular season title, moving on to the Final Five.  The Crushers, near or in the lead most of the year, fell to 3rd by two games.  The Rats came from behind in the last week to climb to 4th, while the dRays held on the 5th.  Teams were relatively quiet during the season bid-wise, with the league finishing with far more money than usual going into the playoffs (only the dRays went negative during the playoffs, but only by $15).

Standings:

      Oakies:  65-47 (#1 seed via tie-breaker)

      Fishermen:   65-47

      Crushers:  63-49

      Rats:   55-57

      dRays:  54-58

      Casuals:  51-61

      Clubbers:  48-64

      Dogs:   47-65

2016 playoffs:  With the Oakies & Fishermen already in the Final Five, the Crushers & Rats cruised into the elite final group in a relatively down week, leaving the #5 dRays to oust the #7 Clubbers in the second playoff week.  The #6 Casuals & #8 Dogs already had dropped out of the playoffs after the first week  

The Fishermen got off to a hot start (4-0) with an impressive 211.50 week; the Crushers had to settle for 3-1 with their 205.25 point week.  In the second week, however, the slumbering Oakies (2-2 start) bolted to the lead with their 193.50 point week, putting them at 6-2.  The Fishermen stumbled to 1-3 & 5-3; the Rats 3-1 week kept them in the hunt at 4-4.  In fact, in an oddity, all five teams still had a mathematical chance at the title after two weeks, with the bottom 2-6 dRays needing an exact reverse finish so all teams would end up at 6-6.  

It was not to be.

The Fishermen jumped on it on Day 1, with their 5 SP leading them to a big cushion, a lead they never relenquished all week.  The little drama of the final day was the Rats finishing ahead of the dRays to create a 3-way tie with the Crushers & Oakies for 2nd place.

Final playoff standings:

       9-3  Fishermen

       6-6  Oakies, Crushers & Rats

       3-9  dRays

Talking Stick Park, Scottsdale, AZ, home of the Rockies & Diamondbacks