The latest round-up from Fantasy Baseball UK is here! It was time to celebrate for the manager of The Rescue Party, the best performing fantasy team in June, and the full round-up from the game is below. As we hit the mid-point of the baseball season, there’s news of a big opportunity to give feedback about the game…
Fantasy Baseball UK User Survey
This year we’re celebrating 15 years of the fantasy league and we’d like to get feedback about the game from players past and present. By completing the survey you will help us understand more about the people playing Fantasy Baseball UK, what they like about the game and where we might improve. As a thank you, there’s also the option at the end to enter a prize draw to win some MLB goodies including something from the 2019 London Series!
CLICK TO FIND OUT MORE AND TAKE THE SURVEY
London Series update
Major League Baseball hit our shores over a sweltering weekend in the capital on 29-30 June when the Mitel & MLB London Series saw the New York Yankees face the Boston Red Sox at the London Stadium, the first MLB regular season series to be held in Europe. The opening game, a 4 hour 42 minutes 17-13 victory for the Yankees, on Saturday was the second highest-scoring game in the history of the rivalry. Played in front of just under 60,000 people, it was the highest attendance at an MLB game since 2003 when the San Diego Padres hosted the Colorado Rockies at Qualcomm Stadium. In the second game on Sunday, the Yankees prevailed over the Red Sox 12-8.
MLB has formally announced the teams that will take part in the second London Series in 2020. The Chicago Cubs and St Louis Cardinals will play a two-game series at the London Stadium on 13-14 June 2020.
Click to pre-register for tickets and updates via the London Series website
Celebrate baseball’s homecoming with a unique T-shirt
Our friends at BaseballSoftballUK (BSUK), the national development agency for the sports, are supporting MLB to leave a legacy after the London Series. BSUK helped MLB run various participation events around the London Series, part of BSUK’s overall mission to increase participation in baseball and softball in this country.
Coinciding with the visit of MLB, BSUK also supported a festival on 7 July in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, commemorating the world’s first documented game of baseball, which took place in Walton in 1749. To celebrate the fact that ‘Baseball’s Coming Home’, BSUK has produced a limited edition T-shirt, on sale now!
Click to order a T-shirt via the BaseballSoftballUKwebsite
FBUK All-Star Team of the Month: June
Based on fantasy points accumulated, here’s the month’s top performers at each position:
It’s fitting that in the month of the Mitel & MLB London Series the FBUK All-Star Team features four players from the two competing teams in that series: three from the New York Yankees and one from the Boston Red Sox (although Boston’s Xander Bogaerts pipped the San Diego Padres’ rookie Fernando Tatis Jr. by only one point at the shortstop position). American League Player of the Month, the Yankees’ D.J. Lemahieu, batted .395 with 29 RBI and an on-base percentage of .434 in June.
National League Player of the Month, Charlie Blackmon of the Colorado Rockies, batted .412 with 10 homeruns and 25 RBI. NL Pitcher of the Month, Max Scherzer of the Washington Nationals, took the starting pitcher spot in our All-Star Team. Scherzer earned six wins out of six through June – five of those with double-digit strikeouts – including pitching one game with a black eye following a broken nose sustained in a bunting drill.
The FBUK team featured eight players who appeared on the rosters at the MLB All-Star Game in Cleveland on 9 July.
Fantasy Manager of the Month: June
Gareth Jones was the one celebrating as his team, The Rescue Party, scored the most fantasy points between 1-30 June, making him Manager of the Month. At the time of writing, Gareth currently sits 14th overall in the Main Game. The present for The Rescue Party is an Oyo MLB minifigure for his efforts. Thanks to BaseballSoftballUK for supporting our prizes.
Fantasy League Standings (top): Up to 20 July
In the Main Game, the top three fantasy teams remain close at the time of writing. Good performances in June have seen The Umpire Strikes Out (Dave Perrin – second in the Manager of the Month standings) and Davy Dodgers (Mike Davy – third in Manager of the Month standings) establish themselves in the Top 10. However, something of a gap has opened up between third place and the chasing pack.
In the $5m Game, the top five teams are positioned the same as the last update in June. However, there was an unfortunate technical mishap with Brian Matthews‘ Scioscialessly Unhappy (in second place) accidentally losing some points. The repair process is underway but it remains to be seen exactly what that means for the standings.
Things have turned on their head a bit in the Limited Trade Game as Blackheath Spaniels (Tim Found) and Bluemooners Too (James Davis) have risen from the fringes of the Top 10 into first and second place respectively, while A Frican Elephant – the leader at the last update in June – has currently slipped out of the Top 10. The 2017 champion, John Borthwick‘s No Trade Clause makes an appearance in the Top 10. However, it remains very close in this league between teams at each position.
Finally…
Don’t forget you can follow FBUK @FBUKgame on Twitter and @fantasybaseballuk on Facebook and our newly-launched Instagram (apparently it’s where the cool kids reside).
If you enjoy what we do and feel like making a donation to help support the running of our independent fantasy league, you can use the green link below!
Thanks for playing, and good luck for the rest of the season!
The FBUK team
