PowerRanks: Week 3

TeamLA Thunders into Lead

With their 7-2 victory over the SD Thunder, TeamLA takes first place in the Happier Family League. The Thunder managed to edge out TeamLA on batting strikeouts and on base percentage and managed to tie in saves at 5 apiece (league average last week was just 2.5). Dean and Jon trade places in the yearly PowerRank as Dean is now ranked 3^rd and Jon is 5^th.

This week, the SD Thunder try to get back on track against the floundering, yet seemingly always undervalued Charisma while TeamLA goes up against the 3^rd place Seal Beach Dreamers.

It is still a young season as only 10 games separate first place from last place, so if your team isn’t doing well right now, a good week could put you right back in the hunt, especially against a higher positioned team.

Weekly PowerRanks

Rank	Team Name	PowerRank
1	Charisma	5.4
2	CV Mom	4.7
3	Team LA	3.6
4	Lyin' Cty. Reformers	2.1
5	The Cocos	1.4
6	Lucky 13's	-0.6
7	Arlen's Marlins	-0.6
8	deus ex machina	-1.0
9	Corn Poppers	-2.3
10	SD Thunder is BACK	-3.2
11	Soi Disant	-4.7
12	Seal Beach Dreamers	-4.7

Yearly PowerRank

This Week	Last Week	Team Name	PowerRank	Team Owner
1	2	Lyin' Cty. Reformers	5.4	Don Baker
2	4	Arlen's Marlins	3.5	Mich
3	5	Team LA	3.3	Dean Baker
4	1	Seal Beach Dreamers	3.1	Cathy Baker
5	3	SD Thunder is BACK	1.5	Jon Manson
6	7	CV Mom	1.1	Corrine Baker
7	6	The Cocos	0.5	Grant Baker
8	11	Charisma	-0.2	Adam Nehring
9	9	Lucky 13's	-1.9	Chase Baker
10	8	Soi Disant	-4.8	Lyndsey Baker
11	10	Corn Poppers	-4.9	Paul Manson
12	12	deus ex machina	-6.7	Jordan Baker

PowerRanks: Week 2

Wow, losing 10-0 to your cousin. That was sad! I’m hoping for a big rebound this week against Seal Beach Dreamers, although I am losing 2-3 at the moment. Don’t forget to send in your predictions for the regular season!

Weekly PowerRank

	Team Name	PowerRank
1	SD Thunder is BACK	7.2
2	Arlen's Marlins	6.2
3	Team LA	5.8
4	Lyin' Cty. Reformers	3.9
5	Seal Beach Dreamers	3.2
6	CV Mom	1.9
7	Soi Disant	-0.8
8	Charisma	-4.3
9	The Cocos	-4.8
10	Corn Poppers	-5.1
11	deus ex machina	-6.1
12	Lucky 13's	-7.0

Year to Date PowerRanks

	Team Name	PowerRank
1	Seal Beach Dreamers	7.2
2	Lyin' Cty. Reformers	4.9
3	SD Thunder is BACK	4.7
4	Arlen's Marlins	4.2
5	Team LA	2.1
6	The Cocos	0.2
7	CV Mom	-1.1
8	Soi Disant	-2.8
9	Lucky 13's	-2.9
10	Corn Poppers	-4.5
11	Charisma	-5.0
12	deus ex machina	-7.0

Who Will Wear the Cufflinks?

Recently, Lyndsey and I took a look at everyone’s team and ranked them according to how they would finish the regular season. Who do you think will win? Send in your ranks by email to grantebaker (at) gmail (dot) com or post in the comments below.

1. Team LA
2. Lyin Cty Reformers
3. CV Mom
4. SD Thunder is BACK
5. Lucky13's
6. The Cocos
7. deus ex machina
8. charisma
9. Seal Beach Dreamers
10. Corn Poppers
11. Soi Disant
12. Arlen's Marlins

First off, I don’t think there will be a repeat of the Cocos in first this year. I didn’t get any of the top pitchers I wanted and Pujols is great, but he alone will not guarantee a win every week. That’s the breaks of head to head—sometimes you draw a team you match up well against and sometimes you don’t.

Secondly, we see these more as tiers rather than a straight listing. This allowed us a little more leeway in deciding the standings. Basically, we see each set of three as a different tier. The top tier of the league is tied up in Team LA, Lyin Cty Reformers, and CV Mom. All have top talent through good keeper picks and the draft.

The second tier is: SD Thunder is BACK, Lucky 13’s, and The Cocos. We believe that these teams caught some breaks in the draft and had decent keepers, enough to get them into the playoffs, but don’t seem to have the number of dominating players that the top tier has.

Deus ex machina, Charisma, and the Seal Beach Dreamers are next and might just miss the playoffs but still have some solid players.

The last tier either has injuries to key personnel (Soi Disant losing number 1 and 2 picks and Arlen’s Marlins losing their closers) or have players that are waiting for their opportunity.

We’re not experts—we wouldn’t be surprised to see this all change. Remember the battle for the last playoff spot between Jordan and Dean last year?

Tell us who YOU think will be atop the standings this year!

PowerRank, what's that?

The PowerRank numbers look a little different this year. What do they mean and how do they apply to our league?

Basically, the numbers are a measure of how well your team is performing regardless of who you played this week. If your number is above 0, your team is above average. If it is negative, your team is performing below average. It is possible to lose a week, but still have a good PowerRank. You probably just played a very good team.

You can use your team's rank to determine if your team is getting lucky or unlucky and to look at how you might do against the rest of your schedule. For example, if you are losing some weeks, you might use this to determine if your players are doing terrible and you need to work out a trade or if everything is fine, you're just playing teams that are either getting lucky or happen to be much better than average.

If you have any more questions, let me know in the comments.

PowerRanks: Week 1

Welcome to the new year! Baseball got underway and even though the Dodgers are off to an abysmal 2-4 start against teams they should be beating, I have found a way to cope.

I still don’t have the trade page opened up yet, but it should be coming soon. In the meantime, here are this weeks’s PowerRanks:

	Team Name	Team Owner	PowerRank
1	The Cocos	Grant Baker	5.7
2	Seal Beach Dreamers	Cathy Baker	5.4
3	Lyin' Cty. Reformers	Don Baker	3.4
4	Lucky 13's	Chase Baker	2.2
5	SD Thunder is BACK	Jon Manson	1.3
6	Arlen's Marlins	Mich Bittiker	-0.1
7	Corn Poppers	Paul Manson	-0.7
8	Team LA	Dean Baker	-1.6
9	Charisma	Adam Nehring	-2.6
10	Soi Disant	Lyndsey Baker	-3.7
11	CV Mom	Corrine Baker	-4.1
12	deus ex machina	Jordan Baker	-5.2

It was quite the back and forth week as several teams had 10-0 leads at various points during the week. If you didn’t do well this week, remember, its only week 1. If you did great this week remember, its only week 1. It helps to get off to a good start, but its not going to make or break your season. Maybe...

What do YOU think of the ranks? Whose team do YOU think should be in first? Let us know in the comments!

Opening Day

Coming Soon!

In addition to Easter, baseball's Opening Day will be here this Sunday. Although only the Red Sox and Yankees will play, its a sign that winter is ending and baseball is here again.

Be sure to set your lineups and take note of those who have gone down with injuries already. I notice that several of you have already made some pickups to bolster your rosters. As I previously mentioned, you will soon be able to submit trading block proposals to me where I will give you the opportunity to pitch your proposals to everyone at once. In preparation, feel free to email me with the following information:

• Introduction to what you want and what you're willing to give up
• Player(s) name
• Benefits each player will bring a trade partner’s team.
• Any closing remarks

All of these will be optional, so if you just want to send me a list of players, that’s fine too.

I hope to have a great season, see you all on the diamond!