Week 7 Real Rankings

So big whoopsy with the Real Rankings. Apparently they haven’t been so real, or at least accurate. Turns out my spreadsheets weren’t including SV+HLD all along. This was likely due to the conversion from SV to SV+HLD, which I thought I had covered for, but apparently not. So, there are some adjustments, albeit minor. The orange column shows what you were ranked without the category and the blue column next to it is the actual rank. The real change is Jason moves up a couple spots and Dave moves down a few. I apologize for the rookie error.

NOTES:

• We have hit the end of the first trimester! One-third of the season is gone and, as you’ll see by the transaction log, there is more than enough sample size to reach conclusions on your players. I imagine trading will pick up even more in the coming weeks.
• Just a sidenote since my last notes installment, Ryu went down too. That leaves, well, not many left of the SPs supposedly expected to join their respective rotations early in the season. Now, the wait is on for last year’s TJS survivors – Moore, Corbin, Perez, Nova, Fernandez, to name a few.
• From the Real Rankings and Actual Standings, one can conclude that there’s currently one dominant team (Me). There’s another tier just below that is led by Shannon, Kyle, and Lars (a welcome return back to relevancy). Shomphe and Jason are close by, except their on the opposite ends of the luck spectrum as Jason has been decidedly unlucky, ranking outside the last playoff spot currently, while Chris is sitting pretty in second place.
• Even though he was hurt by my calculation error, Dave should not be in the basement in the Actual Standings this year as he’s 9^th in the Real Rankings and just a great week away from being in the top 5. We have two seasons of data that show these things ultimately even out as the season moves along, so they should not be ignored.
• One thing Dave has going for him is consistency. The VAR column (gray) shows the volatility of the Real Rankings throughout the year. And as you can see by looking at the week to week RR scores, Dave is clearly in the mix each week and has a league leading VAR of 0.6.
• On the other side of the volatility spectrum, Gibby has had a bit of a schizophrenic start, ranging from 4.8 last week to 11.6 two weeks prior
• Week 7 saw a reversal of some recent trends, with both Shannon and myself losing matches to lower-ranking teams. For Shannon, it was simply a rare bad week, while I got a bit unlucky, losing 4-5-1 but ranking in the top four in the Real Ranks. Still, the week showed some flaws in my team that weren’t there the first few weeks, so we’ll see if it becomes a pattern.
• Updated top 25 below. Unlike the beginning of the season, you’re starting to see the cream rise to the top and stay there with these ranks. That said, there are a few noteworthy ascensions. Harper has become the beast everyone dreamed he’d be years before he was even drafted, Gordon has proved he is a legit top of the line speedster, Shelby is achieving the promise he showed as a young prospect, likewise Archer has emerged as the ace K artist the Rays envisioned when they dealt Garza to the Cubs years ago, Keuchel has proven his GB ways can be most effective, Cole’s numbers have ascended to match his name and pedigree, Gray’s sophomore season has solidified his place among the aces, and Starling has grown into a balanced stud with 30/30 potential.

TOP 25

1.       OF Bryce Harper, Munchkins

2.       1B Paul Goldshmidt, Ring

3.       OF Nelson Cruz, Anal

4.       OF Justin Upton, One Nut

5.       SP Max Scherzer, Keepin

6.       3B Josh Donaldson, Anal

7.       SP Felix Hernandez, Urban

8.       OF Mike Trout, MET

9.       SP Zach Grienke, Moose

10.   2B Dee Gordon, Anal

11.   1B Prince Fielder, Donkey

12.   1B Adrian Gonzalez, Donkey

13.   SP Shelby Miller, Montezumas

14.   1B Anthony Rizzo, Montezumas

15.   SP Chris Archer, One Nut

16.   2B Jason Kipnis, Ring

17.   1B Miguel Cabrera, Munchkins

18.   OF Ryan Braun, One Nut

19.   SP Dallas Keuchel, Donkey

20.   SP Gerrit Cole, MET

21.   3B Todd Frazier, Angry

22.   SP Sonny Gray, Donkey

23.   2B Jose Altuve, Cowhide

24.   OF Starline Marte, Montezumas

25.   OF Giancarlo Stanton, Angry