Week Two has come and gone in the “The Greatest League,” so it’s time for another check-in. For those unfamiliar, the idea with this league is to take some the best individual fantasy seasons of the rotisserie era (1980-present) to come up with the ultimate fantasy baseball simulation. The league consists of 20 teams with 25-man rosters and the universal designated hitter. The 162-game season is being simmed out on WhatIfSports.com and a winner will be determined by the 5x5 fantasy stats produced in those games.
For reference, here are the results from Week One. Three games are simmed per day for each team, so we are currently 42 games into the season, putting us at just about the quarter-pole.
Week 2 Leaderboard:
| Team | Hitting | Pitching | Total |
| Dave Shovein | 78.5 | 88 | 166.5 |
| D.J. Short | 80.5 | 78 | 158.5 |
| Andy Behrens | 96.5 | 62 | 158.5 |
| Brent Hershey | 81.5 | 63 | 144.5 |
| Rudy Gamble | 57 | 85.5 | 142.5 |
| Alan Harrison | 62.5 | 68 | 130.5 |
| Jesse Roche | 76.5 | 49.5 | 126 |
| Brad Johnson | 51.5 | 66 | 117.5 |
| Christopher Crawford | 40.5 | 68.5 | 109 |
| Seth Trachtman | 40 | 64 | 104 |
| Nate Grimm | 57.5 | 37 | 94.5 |
| Matthew Pouliot | 56 | 38.5 | 94.5 |
| Mike Gianella | 29 | 59 | 88 |
| Drew Silva | 51.5 | 34.5 | 86 |
| Nick Doran | 34.5 | 48 | 82.5 |
| Chris Towers | 52 | 25.5 | 77.5 |
| Ryan Boyer | 39 | 33 | 72 |
| Tim McCullough | 17 | 41 | 58 |
| Scott Pianowski | 18.5 | 32 | 50.5 |
| Patrick Daugherty | 30 | 9 | 39 |
Risers:
Dave Shovein, who was in second place last week, has jumped to the top overall spot while myself and Andy Behrens are making moves. Meanwhile, Jesse Roche, Brad Johnson, and Christopher Crawford are doing their best to break away from the middle of the pack. Matthew Pouliot was in 19th place last week, but he’s gained an impressive 45.5 points since then. If his pitching staff can get it together, look out. They are certainly capable of doing exactly that.
Fallers:
Brent Hershey and Rudy Gamble were unable to maintain their torrid Week One paces, but they are both still in fine shape for the long haul. It’s unclear if we can say the same for Seth Trachtman, Ryan Boyer, and Chris Towers. All three of them fell by at least five spots in the standings. Trachtman is now in 10th place after being fifth last week. Boyer fell from ninth place all the way to 17th place. Finally, Towers saw himself tumble from 10th place to 16th place.
League Pitching Stats:
| Team | W | SV | SO | WHIP | ERA |
| Dave Shovein | 29 | 13 | 379 | 1.33 | 3.96 |
| Rudy Gamble | 24 | 11 | 408 | 1.30 | 4.24 |
| D.J. Short | 25 | 14 | 361 | 1.39 | 4.76 |
| Brad Johnson | 22 | 9 | 388 | 1.44 | 4.79 |
| Christopher Crawford | 23 | 12 | 363 | 1.41 | 4.82 |
| Seth Trachtman | 23 | 10 | 377 | 1.46 | 4.87 |
| Nick Doran | 21 | 9 | 285 | 1.45 | 4.94 |
| Mike Gianella | 24 | 10 | 367 | 1.48 | 5.15 |
| Brad Johnson | 27 | 12 | 347 | 1.47 | 5.20 |
| Alan Harrison | 22 | 12 | 416 | 1.51 | 5.24 |
| Brent Hershey | 25 | 10 | 384 | 1.48 | 5.60 |
| Jesse Roche | 20 | 8 | 415 | 1.54 | 5.98 |
| Tim McCullough | 16 | 9 | 391 | 1.62 | 6.23 |
| Nate Grimm | 21 | 7 | 371 | 1.51 | 6.24 |
| Drew Silva | 15 | 8 | 412 | 1.66 | 6.30 |
| Mattew Pouliot | 19 | 14 | 353 | 1.65 | 6.36 |
| Chris Towers | 15 | 7 | 377 | 1.60 | 6.38 |
| Scott Pianowski | 18 | 7 | 394 | 1.64 | 6.51 |
| Ryan Boyer | 16 | 9 | 398 | 1.70 | 6.58 |
| Patrick Daugherty | 15 | 3 | 358 | 1.76 | 6.98 |
I said after Week One that the league average ERA was 5.71. Seriously. We knew it was going to be tough to have our pitchers face lineups full of super teams, but this illustrates how challenging this environment is to navigate. The good news is that the league average ERA now sits at 5.55 overall, so pitchers had somewhat of an easier time this past week. Led by 2000 Pedro Martinez, Rudy Gamble’s team had the big edge in ERA in Week One, but he fell to second place this week. Dave Shovein now holds that distinction. 2009 Tim Lincecum has been Shovein’s best starter, but 2019 Justin Verlander has had a couple of starts recently showcasing why he was a first-round pick. 1990 Dennis Eckersley and 2019 Brandon Workman have been lights-out in Shovein’s bullpen. That’s no small thing in a simulation where nobody can figure out the right formula with relievers. It’s just a tad bit frustrating.
Myself and Chris Crawford made some nice moves on the pitching side this week. I’m tied with Matthew Pouliot for the league lead with 14 saves. Eight of those have come from Kirby Yates despite him holding an 8.79 ERA and 1.81 WHIP in 15 appearances. Crawford doesn’t really have a true standout in his rotation, but he’s managed to avoid disaster with most of his staff and that’s half the battle in this league. It’s worth noting that 1985 John Tudor, 1998 Kevin Brown, and 1995 Hideo Nomo have combined to make 30 out of the 42 starts for Crawford’s team.
Nick Doran and Nate Grimm lost some ground in the pitching categories compared to Week One, but the big faller was Ryan Boyer. His staff ERA fell from ninth in the league all the way to 19th. Nobody in his rotation has an ERA lower than 5.33. 2017 Chris Sale has been an enigma, serving up 15 homers with a 6.89 ERA over nine starts. Alan Harrison and Tim McCullough showed signs of progress this past week and Drew Silva’s team continued to strike out dudes in bunches even if it’s not helping him in terms of ERA.
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League Hitting Stats:
| Team | R | HR | RBI | SB | AVG |
| Andy Behrens | 299 | 64 | 292 | 82 | 0.301 |
| Dave Shovein | 261 | 58 | 257 | 55 | 0.295 |
| Brent Hershey | 279 | 62 | 272 | 34 | 0.294 |
| Patrick Daugherty | 219 | 50 | 216 | 16 | 0.289 |
| Alan Harrison | 259 | 50 | 256 | 36 | 0.288 |
| Matthew Pouliot | 251 | 62 | 248 | 16 | 0.279 |
| D.J. Short | 269 | 73 | 260 | 34 | 0.277 |
| Drew Silva | 223 | 56 | 222 | 47 | 0.275 |
| Ryan Boyer | 219 | 54 | 209 | 41 | 0.273 |
| Rudy Gamble | 253 | 58 | 244 | 35 | 0.272 |
| Nick Doran | 230 | 56 | 227 | 15 | 0.270 |
| Chris Towers | 237 | 68 | 233 | 23 | 0.268 |
| Seth Trachtman | 239 | 59 | 237 | 13 | 0.266 |
| Jesse Roche | 268 | 76 | 258 | 39 | 0.265 |
| Scott Pianowski | 219 | 44 | 214 | 19 | 0.265 |
| Nate Grimm | 253 | 62 | 248 | 35 | 0.264 |
| Christopher Crawford | 222 | 64 | 220 | 30 | 0.262 |
| Brad Johnson | 261 | 58 | 252 | 33 | 0.259 |
| Tim McCullough | 203 | 52 | 197 | 32 | 0.247 |
| Mike Gianella | 221 | 61 | 218 | 21 | 0.245 |
Alan Harrison’s team terrorized pitching in Week 1, but Andy Behrens took over the top spot over the past week. His team leads the league in batting average, stolen bases, runs, and RBI and also sits tied for fourth place in homers. Behrens’ team has stolen 27 bases more than any other team so far. Five of his players (2004 Ichiro Suzuki, 1997 Craig Biggio, 1983 Dale Murphy, 1987 Eric Davis, and 2011 Jose Reyes) are already over double-digits in the category.
Jesse Roche and Matthew Pouliot both made some strong moves in the overall standings due to productive offensive weeks. Roche’s team now leads the league in homers, highlighted by a league-best 20 bombs from 1994 Fred McGriff. Pouliot’s squad lacks in speed so far and doesn’t feature one player with double-digit homers, but that hasn’t stopped them from putting runs on the board. His lineup features a .341 hitter in 1991 Cal Ripken, Jr. and a .340 hitter in 1993 John Olerud. Brad Johnson mostly thrived on the pitcher side this week, but he also took a step forward offensively. 2001 Barry Bonds certainly helped matters with four homers and a .500 on-base percentage.
Rudy Gamble mostly keeps humming along on the pitcher side of things, but his hitters haven’t kept up. He now finds himself in the middle of the pack in hitter categories. Does his lineup have a second gear? My team had a big offensive week, especially in the power department. Mike Napoli leads my team with 12 homers even though he’s had the fewest plate appearances among my regulars. 2018 Mookie Betts has finally begun to justify his lofty draft position of late with four homers and a .958 OPS over his last 10 games. Paul Molitor hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down, posting a .387 batting average and .444 on-base percentage through 151 plate appearances.
Hitting Line of the Week:
(Brent Hershey) Melvin Mora - 4-for-5, two homers, a double, eight RBI, two runs scored vs. Chris Towers on 5/25
Pitching Line of the Week:
(Drew Silva) Trevor Bauer: 7 IP, 4 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 12 Ks vs. Nate Grimm on 5/31
And while the primary objective is to win the league in 5x5 fantasy stats, here’s the current standings of the 162-game season simulation:
