May 15, 2011

A lot has definitely changed in the last week. Most importantly, the average point total per pool participant has increased significantly, from 3.39 to 4.96, as a result of the following changes:

• Adrian Gonzalez taking over the AL RBI lead.
• Jose Bautista re-taking the AL home runs lead
• Miguel Cabrera moving into a tie for the AL runs lead.
• Jacoby Ellsbury and Elvis Andrus tying the legendary Sam Fuld for the AL steals lead (not surprisingly, no one has Fuld for this category).
• Dan Haren sliding past Justin Verlander for the AL innings lead.
• Ryan Braun moving into a tie for the NL home runs lead.
• Tim Lincecum tying Roy Halladay for the NL strikeouts lead (somewhat surprisingly, no one picked Halladay in this category).

I'm sure there are others, but one pivotal category this year looks to be AL strikeouts. Rob LaColla dropped out of first place over the course of this week as a result of Verlander taking over this category, but he only has a one strikeout lead over Jered Weaver (Rob's pick) and Dan Haren. While Rob is the only person to take Weaver, eight folks picked Verlander in this category. Looming in the background, only 7 K's behind the leader, is the pool's most popular pick, Felix Hernandez.

Karen McCloskey added five correct picks to her total since last weekend, to take first place from LaColla by a slim margin. Amy Gill, who briefly captured first place yesterday, sits strongly in third place, just a few HBP behind LaColla.