Week 2 Power Ranking

1. Grumpy Munchkins -- .650 (previous week: 1)
Despite the 6-3-1, Casten maintains the top position with a smashing week (9 HR, .400 OBP), sweeping the offensive categories from Donkey. He also had an excellent pitching week, tied for the most QS, 2nd most Ks and a 3.83 ERA and 1.28 WHIP, but he couldn’t beat out Chris’s impressive pitching line and the final record doesn’t quite reflect how well his team did. A few stinkers from the pitching staff spoiled his party, but the starts of Dunn, Niese, and Hart should be encouraging.

2. Clayton & The King -- .900 (previous: 2)
When you look at the totals for the week and compare to Grumpy, this is a good example of how records are not exactly representative of quality. Russ didn’t really have a good week; offense was mediocre (18/6/19/0/.319) and pitching was just OK (4.67 ERA won’t get you a win most weeks). But Kyle’s team was just awful, so Russ escapes with a blowout despite Clayton’s sickness and the King’s underperformance.

3. Moose is Loose -- .650 (previous: 3)
Solid week all around for Brian, with some heartening starts from Beltran and Markakis fueling the offense. He also gets credit for cutting losses with VMart and gaining a fifth closer now that it appears Rodney will take it for TB. The news doesn’t sound good on Baker coming off the DL soon and Kuroda and ESantana stunk it up, but good to see Danks and Ubaldo with good outings. After bouncing Dave, he’s got another tough matchup with Brandon this week.

4. Ring of Fire -- .600 (previous: 4)
Without Kemp and Bruce (combined 9/5/13), this would’ve been a much worse start for Dagan, who took out Jason 6-4. Pitching was a strong point with a sparkling 1.41/0.94, lead by Cueto, Masterson, and Wandy. That said, his seven starters only made four starts, so he couldn’t get the cumulative categories. A few potential concerns here with Youk, Latos, Soto and the Moreland/Belt/Doumit spots, but we’ll see where this is in a week.

5. Cowhide Joyride -- .350 (previous: 6)
Like Donkey, Dave could only muster a 3-6-1 week, but this time it was his pitching staff letting him down with a 5.57 ERA and only one QS and SV. Losing ABailey hurts, but the Motte/Kimbrel combo will keep him competitive in saves most weeks. While he awaits outings from the much anticipated Darvish, as well as EJax, the lackluster starts of Lincecum, Liriano, and Bumgarner are a bit worrisome. But I still expect good production from the staff and the offense, which had a good week lead by Yoenis and Prince. There’s not much fluctuation in the ranks here, but Dave’s roster seems to be more balanced than Chris’ at the moment, so he gets a bump.

6. Donkey Punchers -- .350 (previous: 5)
Really bad showing from the offense here (0-5), with only 11 runs and a .305 OBP, as Napoli, Teixera, Ike, Tabata, LoMo, and Gamel all struggled out of the gate and Cliff Pennington is manning a starting position. There’s still some serious fire power here, but I notice now a lot of it is “upside” in much of the offensive roster rather than past success—all guys I like, but something to consider as the season goes on. If they don’t produce as expected, Donkey could struggle. Pitching was quite good with a league-leading 48 Ks and 5 QS to go along with sub 3.50/1.15 ratios. But with 12 starters and no closers, the pitching staff can only do so much.

7. Montezuma’s Revenge -- .900 (previous: 7)
As much as I’d like to overreact and put me up top based on my 9-1 start, there are still a lot of question marks on the pitching staff that must be sorted out. I am encouraged that the outcome was good despite losing Pineda and Hamels not starting a game yet. FFrancisco put his injuries behind him quickly and won me saves, while Pena and Hosmer (big man crush there) paced my offense. Full week versus Donkey will help show where this team should go.

8. Prestige Worldwide -- .700 (previous: 8)
Nice record at 7-3, but there’s some pretty poor production in three categories in particular (10 RBI –- paced by Edwin Encarnacion, yikes -- 5.88 ERA, 1.45 WHIP). I expect more production from AGon, Grandy, and Stubbs, while Longo and Maybin have played well, but there are some question marks. Romero and Buchholz stinkers, assisted by Aceves, Marmol, and Holland flops, shot that ERA up beyond acceptable levels. I think this team is solid at the top, but the middle-of-the-road guys are going to have to produce to keep the team afloat.

9. Keepin it Real -- .650 (previous: 10)
Pierce has to be pretty happy with the 6-3-1 start, with Sandoval, Wright, Peralta, and Joyce leading the way to a .397 OBP and 23 RBIs. The pitching, however, is what made the difference here with a very tidy 40K, 2.47/1.10/, and 5QS start. If he can get this type of production from his starters the rest of the way (particulary JSanchez, Billingsley, and Zambrano), he will shoot up this rankings in short order. That’s a big “if” though. Might’ve just been a lucky week.

10. Billy Chapel -- .350 (previous: 9)
Troy got off to a disappointing 3-6-1 start due largely to some extraordinarily shitty pitching, which produced a remarkable 6.83/1.84, with just 1 QS, no saves, and 23 Ks. Part of the problem is he has just five active starters, one of whom is on the DL (Fister) but hasn’t found his way to the DL slot, thus there is no replacement. I can assure you no team with four starts will ever win QS or Ks. Beckett’s start was troubling, while Jurrjens wasn’t so hot either and the Axford/Salas/Santos threesome was a first week flop. The offense looked pretty good though and will get better.

11. One Nut Wonders -- .400 (previous: 11)
Jason escaped with a 4-6 record in an odd fashion. While his ERA and WHIP were worthy of a W, he lost both categories. But he managed to get wins in OBP with a .286 (above Dagan’s .268) and 29 Ks (vs. 26). I still have a hard time believing a team that is trotting out Jesus Guzman and Kyle Blanks at the critical position of 1B and starting GBeckham will have an offensive force that can make the playoffs. His starters looked good outside of Shields and he’s got HAlvarez and MMoore who have yet to start, but it’s going to take some consistent production for Jason to move up.

12. Urban Achievers -- .100 (previous: 12)
Tough week for Dan, who rosters four guys with an on-base clip below .150. and managed only three home runs. Guys like Reynolds, Choo, Jennings, and CYoung will ultimately pace offensive production and they just haven’t shown up yet. He got some bad luck with Farnsworth and has a number of back rotation types who haven’t started yet, so that 5.24/1.61 (thanks largely to CC’s stinker) could smooth out here soon. Arrietta was a nice pickup after a good first start; this team needs high upside waiver pickups during the year to have a chance.

13. Anal Hershiser -- .300 (previous: 13)
Andy made a couple moves that helped balance the roster a bit (Colon and Tomlin), but it is still considerably out of whack with five offensive bench players. Any team that doesn’t have a closer, really should have a starting staff that can dominate the counting stats. The Haren, Verlander, Strasburg, Wilson foursome should be consistent and give Anal an edge most weeks, but there needs to be more around them. He ended the four-day week only two QS and seven Ks away from a 5-5 week, which is perfectly acceptable during a week when your offense produces an atrocious 10/3/18/0/.234 line. A team lacking offensive pop and pitching depth with a surplus of great top-of-the-line starters sounds like a good candidate for an early season trade.

14. The Angry Pirates -- .100 (previous: 14)
While quite sad overall with an 0 SV, 11K, 5.50 ERA, 1.61 WHIP, and 2 QS, it wasn’t that far off the outputs of Urban, Anal, Billy, and Prestige, so it was a bit of bad luck to have to go against Russ’ firing squad the first week. (It doesn’t get much easier this week with Dagan.) Unfortunately for Kyle, he’s got Josh Johnson and a lot of back-of-the-rotation types, so the short week did not work in his favor. He’s got a bunch of interesting guys (Bard, Feliz, Sale, WChen, Doubront) who would make a big difference if they can start strong. There’s still a lot to like on offense here, so Kyle could move up a few spots in the next week.