Week 14 Power Rankings

1. Grumpy Munchkins – For a team looking to compete this year, glancing at the 2012 stats for Brandon’s offense is frightening. And to his credit, they were all kept, drafted or traded for. Pitching has been a different story, but there’s production up and down the lineup and a pitching staff more than capable of winning at least three categories every week. He took care of business this week with a 7-2 win over Urban as he brings his talents to the Donkey barn in week 14.

2. Montezuma’s Revenge – It came down to Sunday with Kyle and most categories were up for grabs with eight pitchers going between the two teams that day. It ended with a 5-3 win as Kinsler and Cruz couldn’t beat Blackley out of a QS. I barely edged him out in Ks 81-78 to remain the only undefeated category in the league. Last year’s version of Hosmer, JUpton and CLee could return any time now though.

3. One Nut Wonders – Jason and Russ were pretty close across the board in most categories, but Jason got the edge in 5 and tied in 2.  The offense rebounded from a tough week previously and Utley returned and homered (though didn’t do anything else). With Utley back and Howard on the way, he grabbed another injured former allstar in VMart, who could be back just in time for the High & Tight playoffs to be over. The name is pretty anyway.

4. Ring of Fire – The pitching looked better this week with a 68/3.12/1.19/7 line, but he might need more than Whilelmsen to produce some saves. He’s also coming up a bit short in the other specialist category, with DEspinosa his leading base stealer on the season at 11. That said, the offense has been spectacular as of late and it might just be the case that the Powerful Plouffe is in fact for real.

5. Clayton & The King – Tough 3-5 loss to Jason, with pitching failing to produce a win despite King Felix’s resurgence. Offensively, 46 rbis is awesome, but there’s a lot of really good offenses in the league right now. Russ certainly has a playoff caliber team, but pitching needs to be more consistent.

6. Cowhide Joyride – Welcome to the top six, Dave! The acquisition of Price and Hammel, along with an incredible week overall – a rare truly deserved 9-0 win over Donkey – pushes him over Brian (though, Brian’s string of crappy offensive weeks certainly contributes). Pitching has been a problem this year, but not this week: 4/74/1.40/0.88. Folks, we officially have playoff race.

7. Moose is Loose – Thirteen homers in three weeks is not good. A .288 obp for a week may be worse. Not sure what is the cause, but this is starting to become a trend. Everyone seems to be slumping besides the resurgent IDavis and BButler. A better effort by Andrew’s pitching staff would have made this week much more painful than the split that occurred.

8. The Angry Pirates – Kyle’s team deserves better than the 3-5 loss indicates as he had the second most Ks in the league this week at 78, it just happened to be three behind me. The offense is for real and the throw-a-bunch-of-starters-against-a-wall approach has been successful. He could make a push.
9. Donkey Punchers – Chris’ team continues to only produce middling results. He was certainly better than the 0-9 spanking at the hands of Dave, but the pitching just hasn’t been an edge as it was before and the offense is just OK.

10. Keepin It Real – Perhaps its laziness or maybe he just hasn’t gotten the deals he wanted, but Pierce’s team still has many of the same parts it did when he announced he was done. And the team is still getting it done for the most part. There’s plenty of holes and he’s sitting second to last in the standings, but there’s still talent.

11. Urban Achievers – This team definitely has speed down pat, with an incredible 11 steals lead but Dee Gordon, but the 6.29 era isn’t going to cut it most weeks. By the way, in case you’re wondering, Chooch (Carlos Ruiz) has been the best catcher in fantasy this year and its legit – 38/11/43/.420 and was batting cleanup the other night. That’s tremendous.

12. Prestige Worldwide – The axles are broken and the wheels are coming off this former top team. Things just have not worked is Lars’ favor this year and the Price/Hammel trade sort of seals the deal on what will be a lost season. I didn’t even think a 8.80 era was possible. And unfortunately that window to trade LLynn for anything of value seems to be rapidly disappearing.

13. Billy Chapel – The offense came back to Earth a bit this week, with nice power but only 28 runs and 29 rbis to go along with the consistently awful pitching line (45/6.42/1.45/2qs). Troy ended the week with a 2-8 loss to Dagan, but I’m willing to be if he took Kyle’s approach to pitching (quantity over quality, one bench offense spot), he’d pick up some more wins… not that it’d make a lot of difference in the standings, but just a thought. The offense is good.

14. Anal Hershiser – Pedro, Morse, and LaRoche helped thump Moose for a clean sweep in the offensive categories. Pitching is still disappointing here for a staff with Verlander and Strasburg. But that’s probably because there’s only three other starters, most of whom have been hurt.