2017 BS Finals (as of March 21, 2018)

It's been great to follow these 12 fantastic managers so far.

It appears that three teams have acheived some separation, and then there are eight teams in the main pack.

Hallerose is at 43-26, tied for best record in the league. Also has a large divisional lead in the East. I find his success to be doubly impressive given that he is also a dominant force in the 60s/70s/80s/90s formats, and sports an absurd .572 winning percentage overall. Reminds me of Marc's double Finals run last year (BS & 2016 year). Hallerose chose to go small ball with a nice set of matchup-oriented starters. Sutter has been killing it out of his pen.

Cristiano is also tied for best record in the league, with 43 wins so far. Although he also chose a small ball format, he went with 4 dominant starters. Cristiano somehow has three starters with 11 wins each, and Delahanty has been a dominant force in LF.

Cristiano and the Last Druid are tied 3-3 in their head-to-head matchups so far. Obviously I don't count Last Druid out of anything--keep in mind his team is leading the West currently!

Labratory sports 40 wins and is just a few back of Central division leader Cristiano. He has a lefty power team in the friendly confines of my favorite (former) park, Shea. Hecker has 11 wins, and Bonds has an OPS of...over 1300 !!

The middle pack: Eight teams have between 30 and 35 wins right now (and the Daedrics are just one win streak from joining this middle group). Four of these eight middlers are in the Western division, which is a major toss-up right now.

On a personal note, I am rooting for Matt and his Chumps. If his injury prone platoon (Smith/Brown) gets and stays healthy, that might jump-start a run....

Overall, very impressive group of managers! It is mucho fun "watching." Good luck and lots of fun too all. For any that care to share, I would love to know what your thoughts or comments are so far!!!!

Chompsky

That's a cool rundown. Wow impressive finals group.

Since I love smallball, it is definitely interesting to see the two somewhat different successful approaches by hallerose and Cristano.

One team using >45% of salary on pitching with starter focus. Other team >32% using situational starters and quality reliever focus.

I was surprised that the 46% pitching salary team still had overall traditional strong D (C/2B/SS/CF 1 ranges, OF arms etc). Dominating shutdown D further enhancing those dominant pitcher cards. But the offense is optimized and sufficient so far.

Based on the pitching investment, equally surprised to see the 33% pitching salary team having a lesser defense but getting enough pitching/defense to win games. I would have expected reverse situation regarding the fielder ratings approaches. Thought I read it wrong.

Both similar offenses producing 2B/3B power as expected and above average speed, though one favors stolen bases more than the other.

All 12 teams are well constructed of course. Good luck to all as it is still pretty early.