With $P@C3Pu$$y! defeating Asteroid Head (in the greatest intergalactic game since Ender’s Game), only one 8-seed from last year is winless going into week 4.
In week 2, Jazzhaus had a comeback win against Balls Deep. The Rats – replacement team for Weaver’s Beavers – only needed two tries to get their first win in the league, beating Less Awesome champs, the Growlers.
That leaves Harper Valley PTA, the team that ran the table on the eights last year. I wouldn’t sleep on them either. They have already played the three undefeated teams in the Langston Hughes division, which means they will have some good opportunities to get in the win column before division play ends.
For $P@C3Pu$$y! and Jazzhaus, getting wins this early in the season is a big step forward. They had to wait until week 8 and week 10 of the 2012 season. Every 8-seed was winless going into pool play last year.
At the moment, the lower half of the league looks a lot stronger than last year, and not just the former 8-seeds.
Teams in the middle and lower half of the polls are challenging teams in the upper half.
Tellerdactyls against Reign of Terror, Bullet Proof Tigers against Slowride, Brew Ballers against Los Matadores, Free State against Goats, and Balls Deep against Screamers were close games decided by 3 runs or less. Except for Screamers, the winners of those games are 3-0 currently.
After posting the runs table last week, Wild Bill Kickcock asked if offenses are getting worse or defenses are getting better. In week 3, the league scored 274 runs – 10 more runs than in week 2, but still the second lowest total in the last two seasons. (Abraxas scored 38 of those runs.)
We’ll see how the rest of the season plays out, but the answer will probably be a bit of both. Since defenses are getting better across the board, it is more difficult to kick and get on base. (If you exclude Love Garden, Abraxas, Wildman, and Pita Pit from this assessment it makes more sense.) Out of the nine undefeated teams: Love Garden, Abraxas, Wildman, and Hurtz are the only teams that haven’t had a game decided by 3 runs or less.
The gap between the top and bottom teams might finally be shrinking a bit.
I forgot to post the line scores last week. After the Chalmersiz’s loss, I was in a forget-me-now spiral that messed with my entire week. Here is week 3:
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | Total | |
| Growlers | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Goats | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total | |
| Ghosts | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Hurtz | 4 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 18 | |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total | |
| West Coast | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 |
| Corksuckers | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 7 | |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total | |
| Chalmersiz | 4 | 3 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 5 | 24 |
| Balls Deep | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total | |
| Liberty Hall | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| Screamers | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total | |
| Das Boot | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Toe Pokes | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total | |
| Slowride | 2 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 10 |
| Harper Valley | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total | |
| After Party!! | 3 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 18 |
| Rats | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 9 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total | |
| R. of Terror | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| Tellerdactyls | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total | |
| Love Garden | 3 | 11 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 24 |
| BP Tigers | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total | |
| Abraxas | 9 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 39 |
| Jazzhaus | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total | |
| Wildman | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
| Rockets | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total | |
| $P@C3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7 |
| A. Head | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total | |
| Murda | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| Los Mats | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 8 | |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total | |
| Dirty Mike | 6 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 12 |
| Brew Ballers | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Total | |
| Red Lyon | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 9 |
| Happy Shirt | 3 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 10 | |
Compliments to the KVKL board for the division arrangements and scheduling. The parity among the divisions and teams within the divisions is pretty awesome. There have already been some classic games. I thought the schedule was backloaded before the season, turns out I was wrong.
Lines for week 4:
| Favorite | Line | Underdog | O/U total runs | |
| Happy Shirt | 20 | $P@C3Pu$$y! | 30 | |
| Abraxas | 18 | Balls Deep | 30 | |
| Chalmersiz | 15 | Jazzhaus | 20 | |
| Toe Pokes | 15 | Harper Valley | 18 | |
| Wildman | 12 | Free State | 20 | |
| Red Lyon | 10 | Asteroid Head | 18 | |
| Afterparty!! | 9 | West Coast | 15 | |
| Hurtz Donut | 9 | Liberty Hall | 17 | |
| Love Garden | 7 | Das Boot | 20 | |
| Murda | 6 | Brew Ballers | 17 | |
| Screamers | 5 | Ghosts | 21 | |
| Los Matadores | 5 | Dirty Mike | 17 | |
| Corksuckers | 4 | Rats | 15 | |
| Goats | 3 | Rockets | 15 | |
| Reign of Terror | 2 | Slowride | 16 | |
| BP Tigers | 2 | Tellerdactyls | 14 | |