Week 6 Real Rankings

NOTES

We have a new number one, at least in the Real Rankings, with Dagan taking over the top spot from Chad, who’s offensive prowess has been mitigated by some pitching problems.  Dagan was the top team last week but only managed 5 wins in a tough matchup against Montezumas, which nearly split the week before late game heroics on Sunday.  Clearly though, Ring is the top team in the league with the top pitching and second best hitting.

This is the latest we’ve gone into the season without an active seller in three years.  In 2016, Kyle started dealing on May 3^rd. In 2015, Gibby started April 28^th. But keep in mind, in both seasons they were the only dedicated seller for a couple months, so they are both outliers. And, in reality, Jason and Brian are only 10 and 8.5 games out of a playoff spot, respectively, with 15 weeks and 150 “games” to go. A lot can change.

I think with both Gibby and Kyle's teams, it was a mixture of injuries and underperformance from keepers and/or early picks that convinced them it was time to deal. Being the only seller in a starved market has a number of advantages and there’s different approaches to take. With both Kyle and Gibby, they managed to identify keepers they wanted and deal for them, while also picking up hot players and dealing them off as well.

The conclusion of this week will represent the one-third mark for the season – a good opportunity to take a hard look at the roster and seek trade partners or make tough decisions on some of the early picks that haven’t worked out. My leash was gone a long time ago.

Thankfully, the league decided to add a DL spot this year. There are currently 44 injured players on roster, which averages out to 3.1 per team! If you don’t count Brokeback, who remarkably has no DLed players at the moment, the number spikes to 3.4 per team.  While it’s nice the player isn’t gone as long, there doesn’t seem to be any hesitation to put a player on the DL.

The season has actually had two trades so far this season, both including yours truly. I didn’t bother reviewing them because they weren’t particularly interesting. Justin and I swapped Grichuk and Shelby Miller – one got injured and one sucked, so that was a wash. And Shomphe and I swapped Eduardo Nunez for four late rounds, as Chris sought speed and position flexibility and I didn’t need either.

Teams sweeping categories this season:  Angry 6-0 in HRs, LOC 6-0 in RBIs, and Anal is 6-0 is S+H. Conversely, Montezumas is 0-6 in OBP, Moose is 0-6 in Ks, Angry in 0-5-1 in HR, Napalm is 0-4-2 in QS, and One Nut is 0-5-1 in QS.

A look at the new top 20 provides many obvious names and some that provide instant regret to those who ignored Thames productivity in Korea, Judge’s selectivity improvements last year, Zimmerman’s health and actual age (he’s only 32), Keuchel’s shoulder woes last year, Ervin’s propensity for hot streaks, Reynolds’ power potential in COL with adjustments from last year, Gallo’s potential to stick, Vargas’ past periods of outperformance when healthy, and Conforto’s talent vs. opportunity.

1.  OF Bryce Harper WAS, Thor

2.  1B Paul Goldshmidt ARI, Ring

3.  OF Mike Trout LAA, Montezumas

4.  1B Freddie Freeman ATL, Napalm

5.  1B Eric Thames MIL, Donkey

6.  SP Chris Sale BOS, Angry

7.  OF Aaron Judge NYY, Moose

8.  1B Ryan Zimmerman WAS, LOC

9.  1B Joey Votto CIN, Ring

10. 3B Miguel Sano MIN, Montezumas

11. 1B Mark Reynolds COL, Thor

12. SP Dallas Keuchel HOU, Donkey

13. SP Ervin Santana MIN, Thor

14. 3B Joey Gallo TEX, Moose

15. SP Max Scherzer WAS, Montezumas

16. SP Jason Vargas KC, Ring

17. OF Nelson Cruz SEA, One Nut

18. OF Michael Conforto NYM, Anal

19. SP Clayton Kershaw LAD, Brokeback

20. RP Craig Kimbrel BOS, Anal