Week 10 Real Rankings

That’s the (approximately) halfway point to the season, folks. How you feeling? There are only five teams above .500 at the moment and only 5.5 games separating sixth place from 13^th place. We are nowhere close to any team’s status being decided.

 

Just a reminder that the league voted this year to have the first six picks of the 2017 draft order decided by best record of non-playoff teams, so the team that comes in 9^th gets the #1 overall pick. This should provide even more incentive to finish with the best record possible.

 

I urge anyone thinking of dismissing their chances in the playoffs and attempting to maneuver their way to the top overall pick instead of the playoffs to take a look at previous seasons. You will note the high rate of success among low seeds in the playoffs. You will also note the low rate of success of first round picks. This year has been no different (see below), as the average rank of the players taken in the first round is 350^th. Even more telling is that more than half the picks were SPs and if you remove the stellar season from Lester, they average a ranking of 566^th! When you consider Dagan finished the 2015 season as the 7^th seed and came a Stephen Piscotty HR away from a championship, I’d say the choice should be clear.

 

#	Name	Rank
1	Lester	13
2	Odor	135
3	Cain	109
4	Gray	783
5	Richards	255
6	T. Ross	646
7	Dozier	238
8	Wainright	706
9	CMart	182
10	H. Ramirez	139
11	Beltre	129
12	Kipnis	171
13	Rodon	609
14	Liriano	784

 

The first place Revenge are on pace for 130 wins, which would be only the 10^th time a team has reached that number in league history. Though the team only managed a tie in Week 9, it still hasn’t lost a matchup in 2016.

 

While things remain wide open, there is a bit of tiering effect happening among the top teams. The four teams at the top of the actual standings – Dave, Gibby, Jason, and myself – are also tops in the real rankings, and are actually in an almost reverse order depending on which rank you look at. They are separated by only 5.5 games and the rosters look pretty evenly matched.

 

BUT that’s not to say it’s a four-horse race. Looking at the last four weeks, you’ll see Jason has recovered nicely while Gibby remains steady and the Revenge aren’t far behind. However, you’ll also see Dan’s Urban Achievers achieving quite a bit, despite being 12^th in the actual standings. Moose has recovered a bit as well.

	Last 4 Weeks
1	One Nut Wonders	4.8
2	Urban Achievers	5.1
3	Sexual Napalm	5.2
4	Montezuma's Revenge	6.3
5	Thor's Hammered	7.0
6	Moose is Loose!	7.1
7	Cowhide Joyride	7.2
8	Ring of Fire	7.2
9	Brokeback Moundmen	7.5
10	Stroman my Cobb Odor	7.6
11	Keepin it REAL...	8.0
12	Anal Hershiser	8.1
13	Donkey Punchers	8.6
14	The Angry Pirates	10.0

 

And just for good measure, let’s take a look at the top 20 overall so far this year. Lots of keepers here -

 

1. SP Clayton Kershaw, S. Napalm

2. 2B Jose Altuve, Cowhide

3. OF Mike Trout, Brokeback

4. OF Mookie Betts, S. Napalm

5. OF Bryce Harper, Thors

6. 3B Nolan Arenado, One Nut

7. 1B Paul Goldschmidt, Ring

8. SS Xander Boegarts, Angry

9. 2B Ian Kinsler, Moose

10. 2B Robinson Cano, Brokeback

11. 1B David Ortiz, Keepin

12. 3B Josh Donaldson, Anal

13. SP Jon Lester, S. Napalm

14. 3B Kris Bryant, Ring

15. 1B Anthony Rizzo, Montezumas

16. SP Jake Arrieta, One Nut

17. SS Ian Desmond, One Nut

18. OF Gregory Polanco, Urban

19. SS Jonathan Villar, Montezumas

20. 2B Ben Zobrist, S. Napalm.

 

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