Drug Scandal Rocks Happier Family League *BREAKING NEWS*

DOON, IOWA - Unnamed sources close to the Commissioner have indicated that they are opening an investigation into allegations that Don Baker of the Lyin' Cty Reformers has taken a banned substance. Although previously an overlooked rule, the Commissioner is working to "clean up the game" under significant pressure from the league. "How else do you explain the treasure trove of keeper talent the [Lyin' Cty] Reformers were able to retain at such a low salary this year," exclaimed an irate rival. "He is ruining the game for the rest of us honest owners."

A phone call to Don Baker's lawyer team of Dewey, Cheatem, and Howe was not immediately returned.

PowerRanks: Week 21

The final PowerRankings for our 2010 league are below. The Lyin' Co. Reformers built the best team and although the owner is presently on the DL, his team seems to be rolling, currently beating TeamLA 9-0 for a spot in the championship game. Although my Cocos had the power of Coco Crisp for the last couple of weeks, I still managed to lose the first round of playoffs to Jon's ThunderCRACK after the Seal Beach Dreamers won the tie-breaker to gain a bye in the first week of playoff play. Who will ultimately wear the cufflinks this year?

A post on off-season trading will be up sometime soon. If your season ended like mine, you're probably looking for a bit of redemption and a shot at the cufflinks next season. Hopefully, the next post will clear up any confusion about off-season trading and re-ignite the age-old debate of live draft versus automated draft.

Weekly PowerRank

This Week	Last Week	Team Name	PowerRank
1	9	SD Thunder is BACK	5.0
2	2	deus ex machina	4.9
3	11	Lyin' Cty. Reformers	3.3
4	5	The Cocos	1.9
5	7	CV Mom	1.3
6	4	Seal Beach Dreamers	1.0
7	3	Arlen's Marlins	-0.6
8	6	Lucky 13's	-0.9
9	8	Team LA	-2.0
10	1	Charisma	-2.5
11	12	Corn Poppers	-2.5
12	10	Soi Disant	-9.0

Yearly PowerRank

This Week	Last Week	Team Name	PowerRank
1	1	Lyin' Cty. Reformers	8.2
2	2	The Cocos	5.8
3	3	Seal Beach Dreamers	4.0
4	6	deus ex machina	0.1
5	4	Team LA	-0.3
6	5	Arlen's Marlins	-0.5
7	8	Lucky 13's	-1.5
8	7	Soi Disant	-1.9
9	9	Charisma	-2.7
10	11	SD Thunder is BACK	-3.0
11	10	CV Mom	-3.2
12	12	Corn Poppers	-5.0

PowerRanks: Week 19

With just 2 weeks left to play in the regular season, the race for the last playoff spots are heating up. With the Lyin' Co. Reformers cementing their return to the playoffs. The Arlen's Marlins and SD Thunder is Back are tied for the 6th and final playoff spot with the Soi Disant and CV Mom within 2 games.

Weekly PowerRanks

Rank	Last Week	Team Name	PowerRank
1	3	Lyin' Cty. Reformers	6.0
2	10	The Cocos	5.8
3	2	Seal Beach Dreamers	4.8
4	5	Lucky 13's	3.0
5	11	CV Mom	2.7
6	12	Charisma	2.2
7	8	Team LA	0.1
8	9	Arlen's Marlins	-1.4
9	1	Corn Poppers	-3.1
10	6	SD Thunder is BACK	-6.0
11	4	deus ex machina	-6.9
12	7	Soi Disant	-7.1

Yearly PowerRanks

This Week	Last Week	Team Name	PowerRank
1	1	Lyin' Cty. Reformers	9.3
2	2	The Cocos	5.9
3	3	Seal Beach Dreamers	4.0
4	4	Team LA	0.6
5	6	Arlen's Marlins	-0.6
6	5	Soi Disant	-0.8
7	8	Lucky 13's	-1.6
8	7	deus ex machina	-1.7
9	10	CV Mom	-3.2
10	9	SD Thunder is BACK	-3.3
11	12	Charisma	-4.1
12	11	Corn Poppers	-4.5

PowerRanks: Week 17

The trade deadline

For those who care, I cannot stand the latest Dodgers trades. It may be only one game but seeing Theriot go 0-4 with 2 strikeouts while seeing Blake DeWitt get 3 hits in his Cubs debut is indicative of the type of trade the Dodgers made. Talent with upside given away for veterans who can't hit but have some mystical leadership ability. The Dotel trade was even worse considering Dotel walks around 4 batters per 9 innings. I don't like those odds. James McDonald and Andrew Lambo are top prospects and giving them up for 2 months of Dotel seems like a waste.

Back in our league, the race is tightening for first place. My Cocos are playing first place Lyin' Co. Reformers for a chance to close the 4.5 games between them. While having a down week last week against the Soi Disant, the Cocos still managed to win and remain in the hunt.

As a reminder, our league's trade deadline is not until August 15th, so if you don't quite have all the pieces for your end-game run to the playoffs, now is the time to trade for this year or acquire future talent for next year.

Weekly PowerRanks

Rank	Last Week	Team Name	PowerRank
1	4	SD Thunder is BACK	8.9
2	3	Lyin' Cty. Reformers	7.8
3	10	Arlen's Marlins	3.4
4	6	Seal Beach Dreamers	2.1
5	7	Team LA	1.1
6	2	The Cocos	-0.1
7	8	deus ex machina	-0.8
8	5	Soi Disant	-3.8
9	12	Corn Poppers	-4.0
10	11	CV Mom	-4.0
11	9	Charisma	-4.4
12	1	Lucky 13's	-6.2

Yearly PowerRanks

This Week	Last Week	Team Name	PowerRank
1	1	Lyin' Cty. Reformers	9.1
2	2	The Cocos	6.6
3	3	Seal Beach Dreamers	2.3
4	4	Team LA	1.1
5	5	Soi Disant	-0.1
6	6	Arlen's Marlins	-0.1
7	8	deus ex machina	-1.8
8	7	Lucky 13's	-2.3
9	11	SD Thunder is BACK	-2.7
10	9	CV Mom	-2.7
11	10	Charisma	-3.4
12	12	Corn Poppers	-6.0

PowerRanks: Week 16

Chase gets Lucky?

Chase's Lucky 13s not so quietly knocked off his first-place dad 8-1 to move into a 4th place tie in the standings. This, though you may have missed it, is his 2nd week in a row leading the PowerRanks and 3rd time in the last 5 weeks. As little as 3 weeks ago, his team was in last place in the Yearly PowerRankings and has suddenly jumped to seventh place.

Looking over his past PowerRankings, it shows a steady progression to becoming one of the best in the league. However, can he maintain that and overcome the wins the top 3 already have in the bank? Yes. He is just 9.5 games off the new leader, Lyin' Co. Reformers who had a good week too. A 9.5 game swing in the few remaining weeks isn't that unheard of and if Victor Martinez starts playing again like he might tonight, he'll be in a great position to take the league.

Here is a graph of his PowerRank by week:

Weekly PowerRank

Rank	Last Week	Team Name	PowerRank
1	1	Lucky 13's	10.4
2	2	The Cocos	5.1
3	4	Lyin' Cty. Reformers	4.5
4	5	SD Thunder is BACK	2.4
5	3	Soi Disant	0.8
6	12	Seal Beach Dreamers	0.8
7	11	Team LA	-0.6
8	7	deus ex machina	-1.7
9	8	Charisma	-3.3
10	9	Arlen's Marlins	-4.8
11	10	CV Mom	-5.3
12	6	Corn Poppers	-8.1

Yearly PowerRank

This Week	Last Week	Team Name	PowerRank
1	1	Lyin' Cty. Reformers	8.0
2	2	The Cocos	6.8
3	3	Seal Beach Dreamers	1.7
4	4	Team LA	1.0
5	6	Soi Disant	0.4
6	5	Arlen's Marlins	-0.6
7	10	Lucky 13's	-1.4
8	8	deus ex machina	-1.9
9	7	CV Mom	-2.0
10	9	Charisma	-2.8
11	11	SD Thunder is BACK	-3.6
12	12	Corn Poppers	-5.6

Surprises in Week 12

Who saw this coming, Iger's Tigers defeating the suddenly hapless Lyin' Co. Reformers 8-2? His PR+ has been either 1st or 2nd in 2007 and 2008 and he is third this year. He won the very first championship in 2005, but plummeted to 7th place the next season, but rebounded to 4th, then hasn't finished lower than third place since. If everything holds steady through today, he'll still be in third place, but it would be his 5th losing week in the last six.

So what's going on here? Well, looking at the data, it appears that the Reformers have had above average production from his pitching and average production from his hitters. So his recent string of losing may be just bad luck, unless it indicates a fall-off in the talent level of his players...

So what do you think? Let me know why you think the Reformers have gone from 1st to 3rd. Will they fall further? Or will they rebound?