It's been awhile

Hello loyal readers. I'm sorry it has been so long since I last posted. As usual, real life got in the way. I'll try to get a new post out with the power ranks soon.

Week 12 PowerRanks

First, let me preface this week by saying I found a small error in my spreadsheet which led to errors in figuring the Weekly PR+. I have fixed this and changed the last week ranks to be correct as well. The difference is probably minor. In most cases, I've noticed that it increased the total.

The LA Dodgers had another excellent week beating Team LA 8-2 and posting a PR+ of 133.0, good enough for second place in the weekly ranks. Things look bleak for last season's champion Team LA as they managed to barely win Net Stolen Bases and pitching strikeouts by 1 and 7 respectively. Tyler, meanwhile, punched up the most RBI's, 2^nd fewest batting Ks, 3^rd best OBP, was pretty much average in NSB, W, SV, pitching Ks, the best ERA and WHIP. So, yeah, he's doing pretty well.

Lyin' Co. Reformers rebounded nicely this past week, but still lost 8-2 managing to take only batting Ks and NSB. Overall, his scores were average or above average contributing to an above average 112.1. It will be interesting to see how he fares against the suddenly good tropical bakers in Week 13.

Match-ups in Week 13

Iger's Tigers vs. Seal Beach Dreamers

These two teams are first and second in the yearly PowerRankings and were first and third in the weeklies. Who will pull out the victory this week?

Lyin' Co. Reformers vs. tropical bakers

Lyin' Co. Reformers went from 2^nd worst to 5^th and look to continue the upward trend this week. Jordan and the tropical bakers have been surging lately, though and so far this week are winning 8-1.

Soi Disant vs. Mitchell Mudhens

Both teams are within 6 points of each other in the Yearly PowerRanks. In fact, until this past week, Soi Disant was above 100 and just below Mitchell Mudhens in the ranks.

LA Dodgers vs. Lucky 13's

The LA Dodgers are riding a hot streak where they've won 8-2 the past 2 weeks. The Lucky 13's are trying to end a four game skid, with the last three losses by 2 points or less. Can they slow down the Dodgers?

Charisma vs. Team LA

Charisma has been just about average the entire season. Finally, he has come out and won 2 in a row after being win-less since the beginning of the season. Team LA has alternated wins and losses, but is our former champion on the ropes after losing 8-2 to the LA Dodgers?

SD ThunderCrack vs. sorbet d'arc-enciel

The ThunderCrack go head to head against the delicious frozen treat. Both have losing streaks coming into the game but the ThunderCrack have had the better PR+ rank and on paper it looks like a straight forward match.

See you next week!

Weekly Rankings
Rank	Last Week	PR+	Team
1	1	158.8	Iger's Tigers
2	3	133.0	LA Dodgers
3	4	111.1	Seal Beach Dreamers
4	2	117.8	tropical bakers
5	11	112.1	Lyin' Co. Reformers
6	8	100.1	Mitchell Mudhens
7	7	96.5	Charisma
8	9	89.6	Soi Disant
9	6	89.2	SD ThunderCrack
10	5	80.4	Lucky 13's
11	12	62.5	sorbet d'arc-enciel
12	10	39.6	Team LA
Yearly Rankings
Rank	Last Week	PR+	Team
1	1	149.4	Iger's Tigers
2	2	118.8	Seal Beach Dreamers
3	3	116.1	Lyin' Co. Reformers
4	4	107.4	SD ThunderCrack
5	6	105.0	Mitchell Mudhens
6	8	102.1	tropical bakers
7	5	101.0	Team LA
8	7	99.7	Soi Disant
9	9	96.3	LA Dodgers
10	10	79.4	Lucky 13's
11	11	70.4	Charisma
12	12	54.5	sorbet d'arc-enciel

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?

Manny plays tonight @ 6pm

Manny plays tonight @ 6pm pst. Go Dodgers!

PowerRanks: Week 11

Week 11 was an interesting week as a few teams made big moves in the weekly rankings. tropical bakers has languished in the bottom half of the PowerRankings all season until jumping up to 2nd this past week. Unfortunately, he played Iger's Tigers, the team with the highest PR+ this week. Any other team and tropical would have beaten them, for sure getting more than the one point he managed this week. The LA Dodgers also moved up from dead last to 3rd with their 8-2 win over sorbet. Tyler got above average contributions in every category except RBI, ERA and WHIP. Could this be the beginning of an upward swing?

Elsewhere, Lyin' Co. Reformers plummeted from 2nd to 11th posting a 64.8 PR+, by far his lowest weekly total this year. In fact, not once this season has he had a regular PowerRank below 20 until posting a 15.8. Having 4 pitchers with ERAs over 6.00 and 4 batters with OBPs .286 and below didn't help anyting. His full DL probably has contributed to this week's bad stretch.

As a result of Lyin' Co. Reformers forgettable week, he has moved from 2nd to 3rd on the year as the Seal Beach Dreamers took advantage of his down week and posted a nearly average 97.3. However, to put that in context, only three teams were north of 100 this week due in part to the huge week put up by Iger's Tigers. Lyin Co. Reformers slipped to 3rd in the overall standings as well leaving 2nd to SD ThunderCrack who is only 5.5 games behind the leader. Week 12 is shaping up to be a momentous week as we charge into the 2nd half of the fantasy season.

What do you think about week 11 and on into week 12? What did I leave out? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Weekly Rankings
Rank	Last Week	PR+	Team
1	1	159.9	Iger's Tigers
2	8	112.4	tropical bakers
3	12	103.1	LA Dodgers
4	4	98.4	SD ThunderCrack
5	3	97.3	Seal Beach Dreamers
6	9	93.2	Lucky 13's
7	7	93.1	Charisma
8	5	84.0	Soi Disant
9	10	82.5	Mitchell Mudhens
10	6	75.5	Team LA
11	2	64.8	Lyin' Co. Reformers
12	11	57.5	sorbet d'arc-enciel
Yearly Rankings
Rank	Last Week	PR+	Team
1	1	146.4	Iger's Tigers
2	3	120.3	Seal Beach Dreamers
3	2	117.1	Lyin' Co. Reformers
4	5	110.21	SD ThunderCrack
5	4	110.18	Team LA
6	6	105.1	Mitchell Mudhens
7	7	100.5	Soi Disant
8	8	100.1	tropical bakers
9	9	90.1	LA Dodgers
10	10	79.5	Lucky 13's
11	11	67.1	Charisma
12	12	53.3	sorbet d'arc-enciel

Baseball Images: Rosenblatt

One thing I'd like to do here is share baseball related images. Today's picture comes from Jordan (tropical bakers) taken during sunset at a recent game at Rosenblatt stadium.

Welcome to the Happier Family Blog

Welcome to the Happier Family fantasy baseball blog. Here, we will continue the conversation begun online and offline, post rankings and discussion, discuss the past, present and future of the league, talk about baseball in general and build our familial relationships. I welcome your thoughts suggestions and questions, just email me or leave a comment here.