Week 20 Real Rankings

Big week with some big matchups this week, with the two top teams coming in on top again but with different scores. Keepin proved to be a formidable opponent for the single-nutted one, while the Revenge held off 3^rd place Cowhide. With a 4.5 game lead, it would take an extreme scenario for One Nut to lose his grasp of first place and 25% of the pot. Both the Revenge and One Nut play non-playoff teams, but that hasn’t meant much the past few weeks.

 

The race for first would be a lot closer had the schedule shifted a week and the Revenge played Donkey in Week 20 rather than Week 19 as Shannon’s squad went from worst to first in the Real Rankings. When you consider this and some of the misfortune of teams like Thor’s (5^th place Real Ranking vs. 10^th place Actual Standings) and Urban (8^th vs. 13^th), it goes to show you how important and entirely uncontrollable schedule is.

 

There’s a lot riding on this week with Anal and Stroman knotted a .488 and only one game behind Keepin and Moose (.493). One of those teams is not going to make it and someone is going squeak in.

 

Incredibly enough, none of the matchups this week are all that intriguing! Five of the seven matchups pit a contender against a nonplayoff team, and three of the four teams in the remaining two matches are unlikely to move much in the rankings regardless of the outcome. While Moose may be sitting at sixth in the standings now, he’s got by far the most difficult matchup of those on the cusp of the playoffs. Brian faces the third place Cowhide while the three other teams face non-playoff rosters.

 

While Moose has the hardest matchup, he’s also one of the hotter teams going right now.  Last four weeks:

	Last 4 Weeks
1	Montezuma's Revenge	5.00
2	One Nut Wonders	5.58
3	Moose is Loose!	6.53
4	Stroman my Cobb Odor	6.53
5	Sexual Napalm	6.63
6	Cowhide Joyride	6.90
7	Anal Hershiser	6.93
8	Keepin it REAL...	6.95
9	Ring of Fire	7.15
10	Thor's Hammered	7.45
11	Urban Achievers	7.48
12	Donkey Punchers	7.95
13	Brokeback Moundmen	8.78
14	The Angry Pirates	10.30

 

Something a little different here – looking at the last four by hitting and pitching. Two fringe teams in Moose and Stroman are actually the best hitting teams, while Keepin is holding down third in pitching.

 

	Last 4 - Pitching				Last 4 - Hitting
1	Montezuma's Revenge	3.4		1	Moose is Loose!	5.8
2	One Nut Wonders	5.1		2	Stroman my Cobb Odor	5.9
3	Keepin it REAL...	5.8		3	Sexual Napalm	6.0
4	Thor's Hammered	6.9		4	One Nut Wonders	6.1
5	Anal Hershiser	7.0		5	Cowhide Joyride	6.4
6	Stroman my Cobb Odor	7.2		6	Ring of Fire	6.6
7	Sexual Napalm	7.3		7	Montezuma's Revenge	6.6
8	Urban Achievers	7.3		8	Anal Hershiser	6.9
9	Moose is Loose!	7.3		9	Urban Achievers	7.7
10	Cowhide Joyride	7.5		10	Thor's Hammered	8.0
11	Ring of Fire	7.8		11	Donkey Punchers	8.0
12	Donkey Punchers	7.9		12	Keepin it REAL...	8.2
13	Brokeback Moundmen	9.2		13	Brokeback Moundmen	8.4
14	The Angry Pirates	11.7		14	The Angry Pirates	9.0

 

One very interesting data point from above that surprised even me was the range between the last place and first place Real Rankings over the past four. While first and last are separated by only 3.2 for hitting, there is a massive 8.3-point chasm among pitching. That may not be entirely if you look at the rotations of the Revenge and the Pirates, but that is still a substantial difference considering how much playoff teams invested in their offenses during the open trading period.

 

Whoever does lose out of the playoffs has a pretty sweet consolation prize waiting for them in the first pick. So far, I really like how this has provided the incentive for teams to remain competitive til the end. We will revisit in the offseason, but I can’t think of a better outcome than having four teams competing for three spots and the outlier gets the first pick.

 

One more week so please continue to be vigilant with your lineups. We don’t want rankings to be impacted by apathy!

 

Thanks to those who have paid. Please pay up if you have not so we can award the winners promptly when the time comes (Jason, you’ll be winning something, so you can hold off).