Week 12 Real Rankings

 NOTES

- Several lopsided victories among the top teams in the Actual Standings caused quite the stir in the playoff picture. However, one of the teams that probably got screwed out of a lopsided win ended the week on top, with LOC's 5-5 battle with Montezumas.  The teams both deserved better, ending the week #2 and #3 in the Real Rankings.

- The Donkey Punchers are the real story the last few weeks. Chris Shannon has been on a roll after an unceremonious start to the season. Over the last three weeks, he's pretty easily the top team:

1	Donkey Punchers	4.60
2	Livin' on a Correa	4.93
3	Montezuma's	5.13
4	Ring of Fire	5.87
5	Keep Off Groin	6.63
6	Thor's Hammered	7.17
7	Cowhide Joyride	7.20
8	Stroman my Cobb	7.60
9	The Angry Pirates	7.63
10	Sexual Napalm	7.93
11	Moose is Loose!	8.30
12	Anal Hershiser	8.37
13	Brokeback	9.17
14	One Nut Wonders	9.17

- On the other end of the rankings, Anal has started to slide after clinging on to the top seed in the Actuals for a few weeks. The 10.9 this week was fourth worst week for any team this season.

- Though we have two teams sitting nearly 30 games out, it's been pretty slow on the trade front, which is unusual for the league. One reason is the difference between last and a playoff spot is only 15 games, which can easily be made up over the course of a couple months. There are still 90 "games" left in the season.

- In terms of Real Rankings, the spread between first and last place is just over 3.0.  Last year at this time, it was 3.7.  The difference is at the top, where the first place average last year was 5.17 compared to this year's 5.85 by Ring.

- Coincidentally, last year it was One Nut in first place with that sparkling 5.17.  This year, it's One Nut taking up the rear with 8.85 -- and it's not really close. Which brings up another interesting point:  if you remove the last place One Nutters, the spread is a minuscule 2.3!  That's a huge difference from last year.

-  In reality, while it may seem slow on the trade front, there have actually been more trades this year than there was through June of last year (14 vs. 13). The reason it seems so slow? Because 9 of those 14 trades have involved one team (Brokeback).

- Just to shake things up, let's do the top 25 from the last 30 days.  It's chock full of rookies, emerging youngsters, consistent stars, recovery stories and even some flat out-of-nowheres:

- There are still five teams projected to exceed the 60 transaction limit (LOC, Montezumas, Stroman, Brokeback, Thors), but it appears the only teams that are a real threat to come up against it are Chad and Me.

- Side note about transaction limits - the fact that Chris Shannon and his Donkey Punchers might be the top team in the league and has only used 10 pickups is truly remarkable.  But it also lends credence to his rebuilding efforts last year. No one worked the phones to liquidate assets quite like Chris did last year and it paid off in a breathtaking draftboard, which is showing its worth now.

- Jason paid! That makes three of you. Comon guys - paypal: adrok71@yahoo.com