On this edition of This Week in “Banished,” we take rules to the extreme:

Baseball

Tyler Baber took a closer look at one of the early season’s best teams, and one of the worst: the New York Mets and Milwauke Brewers, respectively.

Stats

We’re fans of relievers here at Banished to the Pen, and Andrew Patrick showcased some of the more legendary performances in major league mop-up history.

Three individual players got some focus this week: AD looked into BABIP master Chris Johnson, Stephen Shaw examined Luis Valbuena’s approach at the plate, and Ben Suissa highlighted potential supersub Brock Holt.

Fandom

Nate Strangis provided a week 2 update on our ottoneu fantasy league, in which the first place team is different, yet the same. How is this possible? Click to find out!

Tyler Baber gave us a great, emotional story about one particular fantasy draft, and how picks can sometimes be used for more personal reasons.

Podcast

On the past week’s episode, Andrew Patrick and Matt Trueblood make return appearances to talk about the start of the 2015 season. Matt also talks a bit about what it’s actually like to be an honest-to-gosh Baseball Prospectus writer.

Flashback

Scott Kushner grew up playing baseball, and now coaches a Division III team. In December, he shared a story on what he considers the worst play he’s ever seen.

George Kimmet recently talked on the podcast about working as an official scorer in the minor leagues, and you can check out his article where he gave us a closer look at how he works.