Week 3 Real Rankings

NOTES

As is typically the case, the overall real rankings are a bit in flux at the moment. The 11th place team in the actual standings has the second highest real ranking and the top team in the actual standing is really just sitting in the middle. Plus rosters are in a constant state of flux, so your core is a little less stable.  This is when the real rankings are perhaps the most valuable because you can see early on where your strengths and weaknesses are and adjust accordingly.

The leader in RR so far is a good case study. Kyle and his band of Pirates are looking to make some noise again and have the top hitting and the top pitching so far -- not to mention they're the only team significantly outside of this 6.1-8.4 real ranking cluster. Since he's tied for tops in the standings, it's easy to anoint him the clear frontrunner.  However, teams that start out strong and stay strong generally are fueled by star keepers and a solidly drafted core of emerging talent and upstarts.  The Pirates are being fueled by four offensive players that include the ridiculous Christian Yelich, but the other three - Rendon, Gallo, Rosario - have some warts despite ISOs exceeding .400 at the moment (.506 for Yelich). Yes, Jose Ramirez has yet to get going, but there will need to be serious contributions from the rest of the roster to make up for the downswing.  Meanwhile, his pitching prowess is led by Blake Snell and James Paxton, which is great, and Cole Hamels is a solid #3, but the rest of his SPs have BABIPs ranging from .222 to .254 (outside of Paxton and Matz, who have each underperformed), meaning this squad is getting very very lucky and there isn't enough track record to be optimistic that Trevor Richards, Max Fried, Caleb Smith, and VV are going to be what they have been so far.

That's not to say Kyle's team sucks. To the contrary, but it just goes to show you that there's a lot behind the numbers -- even when you got a lot of numbers.