Week 4 Real Rankings

NOTES
- As I've repeated here before, it takes some time for the Real Rankings and Actual Standings to normalize, which is why you see teams like Brokeback ranked third in RR and 12th in the actual standings. Eventually these numbers get a lot closer. The rankings should provide teams like Watsons an element of frustration (about the lack of luck) as well as a feeling of peace that the team is still performing well on a relative basis.

-One thing that is consistent in both the RR and Actuals is the first and last place teams. The upstart Living on Correas are showing why we added Chad to the league, with the best hitting so far this year. However, the pitching is a weak spot with a 6.40/1.60 last week, with an average of 10.4 in the pitching categories vs. 2.8 for hitting.

- Jason, meanwhile, hasn't had much to be happy about thus far, sitting in last overall, last in hitting and 11th in pitching. Acquiring Dahl for Bellinger backfired a bit when Bellinger surprisingly made an appearance before Dahl. Unfortunately, much of this was self-inflicted with the drafting of injured or minor league players. Perhaps things will turnaround once they move up and get healthy. So far, the Brantley gamble looks like it is paying off.

- Glad we added the third DL spot this year. We may need a fourth considering how frequently teams are using the designation now. It may behoove us to look at adding to the transaction limit as well, but we can revisit that in the offseason. For now, several teams are already one-third of the way through their allotted 60 transactions for the regular season. (Trades do not count against this number btw).

- So far the most balanced team has been Thor, with fourth ranked hitting and fifth ranked pitching. However, Chris just took a hit with the injury to the team's namesake.

- Looking at all the pitcher injuries and the top SPs so far this season highlights how difficult it is to draft it effectively and why it is so often left for the later rounds by experts. Outside of Sale, Kershaw, and Carrasco, I'm pretty sure no one could claim to have confidence in the rest of the top 10 including Keuchel, Erv Santan, Paxton, Nova, Leake, Bundy, and Jason friggin Vargas.

- After a rough few weeks to start, Chris Shannon and the Punchers bounced back in a big way with a sub-3.0 RR for the week and a clean 10-0 sweep of Watson.

- Big matchup of the week will be LOC head to head with Dagan's ROF.

Top 20 overall players so far according to Yahoo:
1.  OF Bryce Harper WAS (Thor)
2.  1B Ryan Zimmerman WAS (LOC)
3.  1B Eric Thames MIL (Donkey)
4.  1B Paul Goldshmidt ARI (Ring)
5.  1B Freddie Freeman ATL (Napalm)
6.  SP Chris Sale BOS (Angry)
7.  OF Aaron Judge NYY (Moose)
8.  OF Mike Trout LAA (Montezumas)
9.  SP Dallas Keuchel HOU (Donkey)
10. SP Ervin Santana MIN (Thor)
11. 3B Miguel Sano MIN (Montezumas)
12. OF Khris Davis OAK (Moose)
13. OF Nelson Cruz SEA (One Nut)
14. OF Ryan Braun MIL (Anal)
15. SP James Paxton SEA (Angry)
16. SS Francisco Lindor CLE (Stroman)
17. OF Mitch Haniger SEA (LOC)
18. SP Ivan Nova PIT (KOG)
19. 1B Anthony Rizzo CHC (Brokeback)
20. 1B Joey Votto CIN (Ring)