Week 20 Real Rankings

NOTES

Should be a pretty suspenseful last week as teams start jockeying for position in the playoffs. No positions are truly settled and even the top ranking and 25% of the pot is up for grabs, with the cooled down Donkey Punchers going against a revitalized One Nut wonders.   Chris Shannon has a two game lead over The Angry Pirates and a six game lead over Livin On Correa, who just happen to play eachother.

If Donkey gets a big win and maintains first, AP and LOC will be fighting for second place and $100.

While they haven't clinched, Cowhide and Anal are locks for two of the positions - leaving four teams fighting for three spots. Thor has a 1.5 game lead over the Ring, Montezumas, One Nut clusterfuck in the 7-9 spots. One of those teams will not be going to the playoffs. One Nut and Ring both match up against playoff teams, but Montezumas plays a Stroman team that has played very well down the stretch. Small decisions will make or break teams.

In case you're wondering who the three hottest teams over the past four weeks were, well, they're none other than the three teams currently jockeying for the 7-9 spots. This has been quite the back and forth over the past few weeks.

One of the teams has been quite a bit better than the rest of the field, having placed 1st, 5th, 3rd, and 2nd the past four weeks yet only garnering a record of 22-18 over that time frame. NOT THAT THE TEAM IS FREAKING BITTER OR ANYTHING

1	Montezuma's Revenge	5.53
2	Ring of Fire	6.00
3	One Nut Wonders	6.03
4	Stroman my Cobb Odor	6.05
5	Donkey Punchers	6.58
6	Cowhide Joyride	6.80
7	The Angry Pirates	7.03
8	Livin' on a Correa	7.18
9	Thor's Hammered	7.25
10	Sexual Napalm	7.30
11	Anal Hershiser	7.43
12	Keep Off Groin	8.05
13	Brokeback Moundmen	9.40
14	Moose is Loose!	9.45

The loser of Montezumas/Ring/One Nut gets the first pick in the draft -- unless it's Montezumas, in which case Gibby could potentially have the first and second pick in next year's draft. In which case, we all lose because I'm going to whine all offseason.

Haven't done a top 25 over the past 30 for a while. A few very interesting names, including two players swapped one for one in a seemingly meaningless deadline deal (Hoskins for Castillo)

1	Giancarlo Stanton Mia - OF	Cowhide Joyride
2	Charlie Blackmon Col - OF	Stroman my Cobb Odor
3	Josh Donaldson Tor - 3B	One Nut Wonders
4	Eugenio Suárez Cin - 3B	The Angry Pirates
5	Joey Votto Cin - 1B	Ring of Fire
6	Mike Trout LAA - OF	Montezuma's Revenge
7	Byron Buxton Min - OF	Sexual Napalm
8	Corey Kluber Cle - P	Donkey Punchers
9	Brian Dozier Min - 2B	Montezuma's Revenge
10	Nelson Cruz Sea - OF	One Nut Wonders
11	Justin Upton Det - OF	Thor's Hammered
12	Justin Verlander Det - P	The Angry Pirates
13	Gary Sánchez NYY - C	Keep Off Groin
14	Manny Machado Bal - 3B,SS	Sexual Napalm
15	Gio González Was - P	Thor's Hammered
16	Paul Goldschmidt Ari - 1B	Ring of Fire
17	Anthony Rizzo ChC - 1B,2B	Brokeback Moundmen
18	Alex Bregman Hou - 3B,SS	Stroman my Cobb Odor
19	Rhys Hoskins Phi - 1B,OF	Brokeback Moundmen
20	Marcell Ozuna Mia - OF	Livin' on a Correa
21	Luis Castillo Cin - P	Montezuma's Revenge
22	Madison Bumgarner SF - P	The Angry Pirates
23	Curtis Granderson LAD - OF	Sexual Napalm
24	Andrew Benintendi Bos - OF	Thor's Hammered
25	Kris Bryant ChC - 1B,3B,OF	Ring of Fire

We have three teams that have used all of their transactions and two that are within a couple moves. Remarkably, the first place team has used practically as many as LOC and Montezumas did before the season started (14). Donkey is as deserving team to finish first as there may ever be.

I'll be interested to see how the league wants to handle the transaction limit in the offseason. There doesn't appear to be a correlation between success and active management. We've had successful teams employ both methods.  The limit is really designed to remove the ability to stream pitchers and even hitters. Maybe we want to allow it and give teams the option to pickup six pitchers on a Sunday with the goal of swinging Ks and QSs at the (potential) expense of rates? Maybe we want to do a simple expansion to 75, or maybe we want to keep it where it is. Right now, unfortunately, several teams are locked up, so if a player gets hurt and there is no backup - that team loses the position for the week. While the harm is worthwhile punishment for the team that exceeded the limit, the big injustice is lessening that team's ability to compete and potentially swaying matchups that could impact the playoffs.

Only Dagan, Shomphe, and Brian left to pay dues. Jeff has the $10 fine. Please pay by the end of the week so I can have everything ready for payouts at the end of the season.

Sorry for the trade review delays. There has been quite the confluence of events in the last few weeks, not least of which was the busiest week of the year at work, my wife's 50th birthday celebration, a long-scheduled vacation, and my sister's wedding, which I officiated. I'll have them done in the next couple days.