The first round of playoffs in the Yankees Bloggers Fantasy Baseball League has come to a close.

3. Ben (River Ave. Blues) defeats 6. Aziz (Pride of the Yankees), 5-4

Aziz led the batting categories, taking runs, home runs and runs batted in. Ryan Braun was a big part of this, hitting .304 while scoring 8 runs, hitting 4 homers and driving in 8. Magglio Ordonez hit .400 for the week, to go along with 3 runs and 3 runs batted in. Curtis Granderson (7 R, 2 HR, 2 RBI, 3 SB, .370 AVG) and Albert Pujols (3 R, 5 RBI, .400 AVG) were Ben's biggest contributors.

Ben's pitching performed better, though, winning saves, ERA and WHIP. Wins ended in a tie at 3, despite Aziz using 10 starting pitchers. Ben had wins from C.C. Sabathia (2) (9 Ks) and Brad Hennessey and saves from Chad Cordero (3), Hennessey (2) and Brett Myers (2). Aziz's wins came from Ben Sheets (11 Ks), Oliver Perez and Dustin McGowan (12 Ks). Matt Cain also had 9 strikeouts. Francisco Cordero (2), Takashi Saito and C.J. Wilson had saves.

5. Patrick defeats 4. Dave (Pride of the Yankees), 7-3

My offense had a terrific week, hitting .330 with 37 runs, 15 home runs, 42 runs batted in and 2 stolen bases. This resulted in me winning all of those categories, except for stolen bases. A-Rod had a monster week, hitting .565 with 9 runs, 7 home runs, 11 runs batted in and 1 stolen base. Jorge Posada (7 R, 3 HR, 6 RBI, .500 AVG) and Prince Fielder (6 R, 3 HR, 5 RBI, .381 AVG) also had great weeks. Freddy Sanchez drove in 8 runs. Aaron Rowand hit .417. For Dave, the biggest guy was Hanley Ramirez (3 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 3 SB, .240 AVG).

Live Aziz, Dave threw a lot of starting pitchers out there, in an attempt to capture strikeouts and wins. He accomplished both, utilizing 13 starters to do so. But, I took the other 3 categories with 5 saves, a 2.40 ERA and 1.02 WHIP. I had wins from Manny Corpas and Justin Verlander and saves from Mo (2), Corpas (2) and Joe Borowski. Pedro Martinez, Al Reyes, Carlos Zambrano, Tom Glavine, Mike Pelfrey and David Wells had wins for Aziz while Joaquin Benoit (2) and Al Reyes had saves.

This Week

Here are this week's playoff match ups:

1. Mike (River Ave. Blues) (Regular Season Record: 123-88-9) vs. 5. Patrick (109-103-8)

Previous match ups:
Week 3: Patrick wins, 5-4-1.
Week 12: Tie, 5-5.
Week 21: Patrick wins, 6-4.

Mike's strengths: runs (3rd in the league), stolen bases (1st), wins (T1st), strikeouts (1st) and ERA (2nd).
Patrick's strengths: runs (1st), home runs (1st), RBIs (1st) and strikeouts (3rd).

Mike's weaknesses: RBIs (8th) and batting average (8th).
Patrick's weaknesses: stolen bases (10th), ERA (T8th) and WHIP (10th).

2. James (117-89-14) vs. 3. Ben (112-98-10)

Previous match ups:
Week 6: James wins, 8-2.
Week 15: James wins, 7-2-1.

James' strengths: saves (3rd), ERA (1st) and WHIP (3rd).
Ben's strengths: home runs (2nd) and batting average (3rd).

James' weaknesses: none.
Ben's weaknesses: stolen bases (8th).

The winners of these two games will face each other. Good luck everyone.