Author's Note: It is 12:37 AM on Monday night/Tuesday Morning. I've been without power for 40 hours. We've lost everything in the fridge. I'm waking up to fly to South Carolina in 6 hours. I will upload this ASAP, sorry for the delay.

UPDATE: 10:07, at the airport, free WiFi FTW.

Week 22's installment of the DDWPIPOTCFFBE (Diamond Dynasty Weekly Preview In Pursuit Of The Chalice For Fantasy Baseball Excellence)

Week 21 – Colin suffers an untimely slump to pave the way for a fan-fucking-tastic finish

The Match-Up: Adrian (3^rd) vs James (10^th) *5*

The once-mighty Adrian hasn't won in a month, and he has no shot at a bye week. He's win-less in his last month, 2-6-1 in his last 7 weeks, and stumbling into the playoffs. He closes the season with James, who has been a cellar-dweller all season. Jimmy's 7-3 victory over Richie (9^th) broke a streak of 7 weeks without a win. It was also his largest margin of victory of the year, trumping victories over Ben (6-3 week 2 and 6-4 week 11) and Adrian (6-4 week 13.) Adrian might drop to 4^th with a bad week, but it's hard to imagine he'd fall further than that. James is 6.5 games behind Richie for 9^th, so he's all but locked in to the lead-off position in the 2012 DD Draft. Adrian beat James 7-2 in week 4, but James was the first one to beat Adrian this year when he posted that 6-4 victory in week 13 (season: Adrian 11-8).

The Match-Up: Jarrett (8^th) vs Kurt (4^th) *4*

Jarrett has actually been playing some pretty decent fantasy baseball over the past 2 months, posting a 4-4-1 record (48-39 category record). He battled Drew (1^st) last week, losing just 4-6. At 6.5 games out of the playoffs, its hard to imagine that both Ben (T-6^th) and Colin (T-6^th) would get blown out but hey, anything could happen. Conversely, he's 2.5 games up on 9^th place, so a bad week here could slot him into the second spot in next year's draft. Kurt has quieted the skeptics after a late season win-less slump. He hasn't lost in a month (2-0-2) and he'll most likely be in the 4 vs 5 first round playoff match up. Last week, he fought TJ (2^nd) to a 5-5 tie. Ultimately, neither of these teams are going to drastically change their immediate futures: Kurt is playing for 2011, Jarrett is playing for 2012. Kurt has yet to register a win against Jarrett this year, tying 5-5 in week 4, and falling 3-7 in week 13 (season: Jarrett 12-8).

The Match-Up: Alex (5^th) vs TJ (2^nd) *3*

Alex proved he was ready for pressure match ups as he dismantled Colin (T-6^th) in what was one of last week's most intriguing match ups. The win gave Alex a huge (read: important) playoff cushion for this week; a 3-7 loss (or something like that) doesn't spell the end for Mr. G. With TJ on the docket a win might be a tall task, but if Alex can put up 4 category victories, he should glide into the playoffs with no worries at all. TJ has slipped slightly at 0-1-1 in the last two weeks but Adrian shit the bed much worse, so he's pretty much got that second bye spot. Nice goin' TJ. Pay your dues (you too Jarrett). Personally, I'm rooting for a big TJ win so the playoff picture gets nice and fucked up, total chaos. Speaking of blowout losses, I happened to glance at Alex's weekly scores for the season, and the last time his opponent put up a 7 spot or better was way back in week 10, when Kurt (then 4^th, still 4^th) beat him 3-7. The kid just doesn't get blown out. In fact, there's only been one other time Alex gave up at least 7; week 4....when he lost 0-8.....TO TJ! God I love it when that happens. Aside from the 0-8 shutout, these teams tied 5-5 in week 13 (season: TJ 13-5).

The Match-Up: Ben (T-6^th) vs Drew (1^st) *T-1*

And hereeeeee we go! Yippee-kie-yay mother fuckers! Ben and Colin are dead, and I mean dead even. 99-104-7. Who the hell could have predicted that. Unfortunately for Ben, he really gets fucked with his match up. Colin gets Richie (9^th) who sold aggressively at the deadline (and his record since has reflected it), and Ben gets Drew, who has lost once in the last like 3 months. Sucks, Ben. Just sucks. I'll do the best I can with Colin, but Joe Mauer is a dyke. My apologies. Ben hasn't lost in a month and has played well in the past 6 weeks (3-1-2), against admittedly lesser competition. The last time Ben beat someone who was above him in the standings, Osama Bin Laden was still alive. That's not true, I just thought it was funny. He beat Colin 6-3 in week 16, but that's as far back as my stats go (guesstimating, Alex might have been ahead of him in week 6 when Ben won 6-4, but I really don't know). Drew beat Jarrett 6-4 last week, making it 10 of his last 11. Yowzers. He's officially clinched a first round bye, so hat's off to the leader of the DD, DD. Drew has taken care of Ben in both of their meetings, winning 5-4 in week 4 and 7-3 in week 13 (season: Drew 12-7). I'll have one eye on this match up; the other will be focused on...

The Match-Up: Colin (T-6^th) vs Richie (9^th) *T-1*

The other half of the playoff pandemonium. Colin is reeling. 3-16 the past 2 weeks. Dropped 9 games in the standings. And now, he's fighting for his playoff life. Colin has been the most unpredictable team over the past 7 weeks, going 0-2-1 against the bottom 3 teams of the league, then beating the top two teams 8-2 in back to back weeks, and most recently getting his doors blown off by the middle of the league by the aforementioned 3-16 tally. Which Colin will show up? Richie on the other hand has been Mr. Consistency over the past 3 weeks, losing each week worse than the next. He hasn't won a match in a month and is watching his team limp to the finish line. With his playoff dreams dashed, he can only play the spoiler role. Richie beat Colin 6-3 in week 4, and Colin beat Richie 6-2 in week 13 (season: Colin 9-8).

This concludes the Regular Season Weekly Previews. I've had tons of fun writing them up, I hope you've enjoyed reading them. If you have any feedback, positive or negative, I'd really like to hear it – I was a journalism major and I'm curious to see if you guys think any of the skills have stuck with me. I still plan to do non-consolation playoff weekly match ups, which will allow me to really research the squads a lot more in-depth seeing as there will only be two match ups a week that I'm focusing on. Good luck to Ben and Colin this week, still can't believe they're absolutely square in the standings. Totally awesome.