Week 3 Real Rankings

Three weeks in and things are starting to clear up in terms of emerging stars and stumbling duds, which is establishing early leaders in the H&T clubhouse. However, it is still early and one must be careful with early assessments. There is always someone dropped this time of year who ends up turning it on and becoming a top contributor. (Could be the guy you just dropped!) Meanwhile, rookies are starting to come up and contribute. Think about where we were a year ago -- Kris Bryant, Carlos Correa, Kyle Schwarber, Corey Seager, Miguel Sano, Makiel Franco, Gregory Polanco, Francisco Lindor, and Noah Syndergaard hadn’t even played their first big league inning.  They were just prospects.  It is a bit mind-blowing when you consider they’re all top 50 keepers now. Only Bryant was a keeper from the previous season. The others were drafted late as an NA or just scooped up off the wire. Makes you wonder who will be the next crop of new stars and which ones are out there right now, just waiting for you to identify them. Of course, what if, to do so, you drop a seemingly lucky fringe guy – you know, like 2015’s AJ Pollock or 2014’s JD Martinez or Jake Arrieta. Decisions decisions…

• The big news this week is we officially have a clear front runner. For the second week in a row, Jason of the lone nut fame is at the top of the Real Ranking after coming out tops in hitting and second in pitching. For the season, he now has the top hitting and pitching squads according to the Real Rankings. Arenado, Bautista, Trumbo, and Braun are fueling a powerful offense that is still waiting for EE to join the fun. Meanwhile, his pitching staff is an excellent mixture of vets (MadBum, Tanaka, Lackey, Gio, Arrieta) and some up and coming young guns (Sanchez, Moore, JRoss) and he has Yu on the way. There’s some holes here and there, but all in all this team looks like one that could run away with the regular season early
• The only thing standing in his way at the moment, is, well, me. Napalm and Revenge fought to the death this week in a matchup that started Sunday 3-6 in Gibby’s favor and ended with a 7-3 win by yours truly thanks to Rizzo & friends. It was another one of those instances when a team deserved more wins than they got thanks to the opponent as Gibby finished 4^th for the week in the Real but I was 2^nd. Still, Napalm are sitting in second in the Real Ranking and clearly are here to contend. Meanwhile, my team’s performance is starting to justify the actual standings, as I’m sitting in fourth.
• And wouldn’t you know it, Jason and I will be duking it out for the regular season lead this week. Should be a good one.
• Meanwhile, in statistical aberration news, Thor’s Hammered continued to perform solidly while yielding mediocre returns as Shomphe sits in third in the Real Rankings and dead last in the Actual. He did manage his first win of the year though, outlasting Kyle’s disgruntled Pirates.
• Likewise, Dan may be urban and he may be achieving, but despite another win this week, he’s sitting opposite Shomphe in the luck category as he’s third in the Actual but ninth in the Real. Similarly, the Anal buddies Justin & Andrew are fifth in the Actual but 12^th in the Real.
• Our new owners are seeing similar outcomes in terms of the Actual Standings as Jeff and Matt are in 11^th and 13^th, respectively, but they’re Real Rankings are quite different at 5^th and 14^th.
• Cowhide came back to Earth this week in a tough matchup with Ring. This could’ve easily gone either way, with Dagan edging out Dave in HR (11 vs. 10), RBI (35 vs. 32), and WHIP (1.21 vs. 1.29). Dave still finished with his best week according to the Real Rankings, so not reason to be discouraged there.
• Always fun to take a look at the top players early in the season:

1. OF Bryce Harper, Thor

2. 2B Jose Altuve, Cowhide

3. 3B Josh Donaldson, Anal

4. SP Jake Arrieta, One Nut

5. SP Chris Sale, Keepin

6. OF Dexter Fowler, Montezuma

7. 3B Manny Machado, Napalm

8. OF Mark Trumbo, One Nut

9. 3B Nolan Arenado, One Nut

10.  OF Mookie Betts, Napalm

11. 3B Eugenio Suarez, Keepin

12. 1B Anthony Rizzo, Montezuma

13. OF Ryan Braun, One Nut

14. SP Kenta Maeda, Napalm

15. OF Colby Rasmus, Moose

16. SS Almedys Diaz, Ring

17. SP Clayton Kershaw, Napalm

18. SS Trevor Story, Montezuma

19. SP Mat Latos, Ring

20. SP Vince Velasquez, Anal