Weekly 9 Real Rankings

NOTES:
- After weeks of picking on Pierce, he comes back with an impressive effort across the board. And of course he was playing me, demolishing my team to the tune of 9-1. With Sale and Scherzer leading the staff and some underperformers, he could be on the rise.


- Meanwhile, Dave put together his second consecutive dominating week thanks to Pick of the Year (so far) Nelson Cruz and fine pitching across the board.

- Guess who came in first in steals?

- In the process of getting beaten by Pierce, I also suffered my first loss in the K category. Sale came back and pitched Sunday instead of Monday. I also paid on the other side of that move, as Quinatana was moved to Monday for Brian and had a QS with 0 ER.

- After an excellent Week 8, Moose plummeted back to Earth fast, posting a 11.8 -- the worst real ranking of any team in a single week this season.

- Next week will be Week 10 in a 21-week season, so, incredibly, we'll be at the half way point. I'll try to put something together for then.

- Here's the latest top 20. As the season goes on, there are less and less surprises showing up here. Blackmon, Brantley, Alexei, and Hudson all qualify as significant surprises though given production in recent years. Tanaka sort of. He had plenty of hype and was a first rounder, but I don't think anyone expected him to be the second best starter. The most top 20s at this point are Chris Shomphe (Stanton, Alexei, Felix, Miguel) and Kyle (Cueto, Bautista, Puig), who has Upton just on the outside. Both benefit from trades with Jason for Felix and Cueto. Meanwhile, the top three teams in the standings have two combined (Mike 1, Jason 1, me 0).

Yahoo Ranks
1. OF Nelson Cruz BAL - Dave
2. SP Johnny Cueto CIN - Kyle
3. OF Giancarlo Stanton MIA - Shomphe
4. SS Troy Tulowitski COL - Brian
5. 3B Josh Donaldson OAK - Andrew
6. 3B Edwin Encarnacion TOR - Lars
7. OF Jose Bautista TOR - Kyle
8. SP Masahiro Tanaka NYY - Russ
9. SP Adam Wainright STL - Shannon
10. OF Yasiel Puig LAD - Kyle
11. OF Charlie Blackmon COL - Jason
12. OF Carlos Gomez MIL - Mike
13. OF Michael Brantley CLE - Dave
14. SS Alexei Ramirez CHW - Shomphe
15. 1B Paul Goldschmidt ARI - Dagan
16. SP Felix Hernandez SEA - Shomphe
17. SP Tim Hudson SF - Dagan
18. 1B Miguel Cabrera DET - Shomphe
19. SP Julio Teheran ATL - Brian
20. SP Chris Sale CHW - Pierce