Written by Cory Puffett
Published August 4, 2025

Week 19 was an important one for playoff positioning. While Cory Puffett is already locked into the #1 seed, and we already knew Rich Blorstad and Stephen April will play each other in the 2-3 playoff matchup, that last spot was still very much up for grabs and will remain that way heading into Week 20.

Eric Meyer was hanging on to a tiny sliver of hope heading into Week 19, and he did his part.

Eric beat Alex Mayo in an incredibly low-scoring game, despite one of the five worst WHIPs ever recorded in a 7-day matchup in the AOA. The win snapped a seven-game losing streak for Eric.

He also got some help from Stephen, who took care of Sam Martin in a slightly-less low-scoring game. Eric will face Sam in Week 20 with second place in the AOA East on the line.

Unfortunately for Eric, even if he wins and Sean Kennedy loses his Week 20 matchup with Cory, Eric's terrible Week 19 score and Sean's league-leading total from the week means there is no way Eric could catch Sean to win the points tiebreaker, which is what the fourth playoff spot would come down to.

For Sam's part, if he wins, he is in the playoffs. He is 2-0 against Sean this season, so even if Sean also wins his matchup to force a tie, it wouldn't come down to the points tiebreaker, which also heavily favors Sean in that scenario.

It's a pretty fortunate situation for Sam to be in, frankly. He and Sean have both been bitten by the bad luck bug this year, but Sam's team has also been playing rather poorly of late, with just one Top 4 score in the past four weeks. This past week he became just the 12th manager, and the first since Week 11 of last season, to hit two or fewer home runs in a matchup lasting at least seven days.

Players of the Week

Catcher - William Contreras, 13.50 points (Eric Meyer)

1st Baseman - Freddie Freeman, 11.15 points (Rich Blorstad)

2nd Baseman - Jordan Westburg, 9.00 points (Sam Martin)

3rd Baseman - Jose Ramirez, 10.50 points (Cory Frontin)

Shortstop - Gunnar Henderson, 10.25 points (Rich Blorstad)

OF - Christian Yelich, 12.30 points (Rich Blorstad)

UTIL - Kyle Schwarber, 8.30 points (Sean Kennedy)

SP - Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 19.40 points (Stephen April)

RP - Robert Suarez, 10.65 points (Sean Kennedy)

Contreras repeated... oh wait, no. That's William Contreras taking home the Mike Piazza Award, just a week after his brother Willson took home the prize. It's the second time in AOA history the two have earned the Piazza Award in consecutive weeks. The last time it happened, William earned it the first two weeks of 2024 before Willson swiped it away in Week 3.

Kyle Schwarber was the only repeat award winner from Week 18. He's won the Hal McRae Award five times now this season, twice in the first three weeks and now each of the past three weeks.

Yoshinobu Yamamoto earned his first career Bobby Witt Award this week. 

Rich's big win in the Game of the Week moved him up into the second spot in the penultimate power rankings of the season.

Cory Puffett leads the power rankings for an AOA-record 48th time.

Cory Frontin, meanwhile, is at the bottom of the power rankings for the 33rd time in his career.

Note: MLB issues stat corrections up to 7 days after games. These corrections will be applied to games, including those that have been completed, but these articles will not necessarily be updated with those stat corrections.