Week 8 MLB Power Rankings
Week 8 Power Rankings
Tier 1
1- Wait ‘ Til Next Year (6-1) [-]
Tier 2
2- Sporty Strauss (5-2) [-]
3- Win’s Up Doc (5-2) [-]
4- Ornery Otters (3-4) [+1]
5- Cooper Troopers (5-2) [+1]
6- The Pullies (3-4) [+1]
7- $traight Cash Homie (3-4) [-3]
8- The BamO’s (3-4) [-]
Tier 3
9- Las Cabras (3-4) [+1]
10- Minnesota Moose Knuckles (2-5) [-1]
11- Shepherd Goods Choppers (2-5) [-]
12- DTC Porkchop Express (2-5) [-]
(Tier 1) Wait ‘Til Next Year has a BYE almost complete locked up. After the hot starts from Sporty Strauss (2) and Win’s Up Doc (3), both teams are in massive slumps leaving Wait ‘Til Next Year as the only truly dominant team left in the league. He’s easily the favorite to win it all right now with Strauss, Doc AND the Ornery Otters duking it out for that 2-seed.
It’s to the point now where Kyle could start selling players if he wanted to. The odds that someone from the SG Division would catch him are pretty slim, and the Cooper Troopers are still a bit of a sheep in wolf’s clothing. Big congrats to Wait ‘Til Next Year on the playoff berth.
(Tier 2) What do you do when Sporty Strauss (2) and Win’s Up Doc (3) are the two lowest-scoring teams of the week? You demote them to Tier 2 of course!! Both teams have built up enough points and cred to stay at 2 and 3 in the rankings, but they aren’t close to Wait ‘Til Next Year right now. The starting rotations are falling apart for both of these squads, and its past time they made some moves to address those weaknesses. Sporty Strauss didn’t get more than 27.5 points from any starters this week and Woodruff got banged up. He needs reinforcements ASAP. Win’s Up Doc was even worse. He had 2 pitchers with decent weeks, and then 7 with awful weeks. The injuries have been piling up for both, but that’s no excuse not to be working the waiver wire for plus matchups or to have the depth to withstand the inevitable injuries.
Both Sporty Strauss and Win’s Up Doc are playing like inexperienced MLB fantasy owners right now, and they aren’t going to have a real chance down the stretch if they don’t stay on their game. MLB is a war of attrition, and hot starts don’t count for squat anymore. These teams are firmly towards the middle of the pack.
The Ornery Otters (4), on the other hand, knew that MLB was a long season. Korey didn’t freak out. He didn’t sell off. He just waited until the matchups came his way, and then he’s won 3 straight. The Choppers put up a hell of a fight too, but the Otters still snuck out a narrow victory, which is massive for the team going forward. It’s unlikely, but the Otters are still in play for the #Nolo’s Division. If Sporty Strauss and Win’s Up Doc continue to struggle – which all signs point to – the Otters could be a force to be reckoned with, taking advantage of the sheer cockiness of the top-2 #Nolo’s teams.
Behind them, somehow the Cooper Troopers (5) keep winning! They don’t belong this high on the rankings, but 5-2 with a juicy opportunity this week (explained later) is hard to ignore. At some point, he’ll start going on a skid, and he could really use some help around the edge of his roster, but the Cooper Troopers are in GREAT shape.
Then things get really messy. The Pullies (6), $traight Cash Homie (7) and The BamO’s (8) are all tied for the lead in the Shepherd Goods Division, and this is going to be one of the most notable races to follow the entire season. All teams are remarkable equal, evidenced by being 5th-7th in season-long scoring so far. The Pullies (6) have the most points and have wins over each of the other two teams tied at 3-4, so they get the nod. $traight Cash Homie (7) has just been mired in battles with tough opponents, and his team is looking much stronger right now. The BamO’s (8) are in the most trouble with a tougher schedule, but they are no slouch. These teams should all be contending for the playoffs.
(Tier 3) Las Cabras (9) pull one of the biggest upsets of the season over Win’s Up Doc. That gets them SOME credit, but not enough to sneak up into Tier 2 yet. But they are 3-4, and they are right in the thick of things. All they need is continued luck to stay in the race and maintain pace with a 6-seed. A playoff berth would be huge for their season-long points and could get them 4th place with the potential for higher if their team gets healthy. It’s still a poorly constructed roster, but Las Cabras will put the effort in to winning games.
Just like the SG Choppers (11) who really shouldn’t be this low except for the fact that they are the only team to sell so far. They’ve been scrappy. They’ve had multiple narrow losses this season. They are no pushover, and Dye should be proud of how his team has played so far.
On th flip side, the MN Moose Knuckles (10) need to finally consider throwing in the towel. Everything has broken poorly for them this season from getting stuck with leftover budget in the auction to poor pitcher performances to reaching for vets that aren’t going to be on this team long term. For a rebuilding team, this team is kind of a disaster. The core of this team: Trae Turner, Semien, Chapman, Muncy, Berrios, and others are all around 30 years old. Then instead of taking young players like the other rebuilding teams, Hall took guys like JD Martinez, Justin Turner and Nelson Cruz. Those veterans need to get moved at some point if he’s going to stay at the bottom of the league, but they won’t fetch much. Other than in NBA, the MN Moose Knuckles had one of the worst first years in the League of Leagues.
DTC Porkchop Express was more feisty than the Moose Knuckles this week, but right now, McCall is the toilet of MLB. And he’s okay with that. He’s just waiting until next season.
Current Playoff Seeding
Wait ‘Til Next Year (BYE)
Win’s Up Doc (BYE)
The Pullies
Sporty Strauss
Cooper Troopers
Ornery Otters
$traight Cash Homie (BYE)
The BamO’s (BYE)
Las Cabras
SG Choppers
DTC Porkchop Express
MN Moose Knuckles
Week 7 High Score
The Pullies (Peter/Eric)
520 points
Notes: The Pullies are back!! After getting off to a hot start, they began resting on their laurels a little bit. They got a bit lazy, but now they are back in the game, much to the chagrin of the MN Moose Knuckles, who have just been getting slapped silly by teams all season long. The Pullies this week were led by strong performances from their Mets, Lindor and Jeff McNeil, their Royals hitters, Merrifield and Dozier, and strong starting performances from Gilbert, Burnes, Manoah, Framer and Jordan Montgomery. The Pullies will look to keep the streak alive against sliding Win’s Up Doc next week.
Week 7 Low Score
Sporty Strauss (Strauss)
383 points
Notes: Strauss hasn’t been near the bottom of the league in points since his late rut in NFL. This is a damning turn of events for a contender, and now he needs to start worrying about losing a head-to-head against a team like The BamO’s. Strauss is not guaranteed a playoff spot right now, especially if performances like this keep happening.
Week 7 MVP
Paul Goldschmidt (Ornery Otters)
38.5 points
Notes: Paul Goldschmidt is one of the biggest steals of the draft. He was left out there until the late 3rd round, and only 3 other hitters have scored more points than he has all season. He’s been the #1 reason for the Ornery Otters turnaround, and he’s a good enough player to keep at this pace. But he’s 34, and the Otters would surely part with him for the right price.
Week 7 LVP
Anthony Bass ($traight Cash Homie)
-6.5 points
Notes: Despite making moves (that have paid dividends despite two losses), $traight Cash Homie is still an incomplete team. In fact, there are a litany of players that could have been chosen for this award. Patrick Sandoval blew a nice start on Sunday that could have easily given Jack the win. Camilo Duval and Rowan Wick were two horrible relievers this week. His middle infield options of Andres Gimenez, Michael Chavis and even Brendan Rodgers were awful, blowing big weeks from Gleyber, Christopher Morel, and others. Ramon Laureano hasn’t gotten his bat going, and Spencer Torkelson has been a massive bust so far in a Tigers uniform. Jack has some amazing players, but he has too many bad ones eating up spots in his lineup. He might not need to give up what he traded to Dye or anything close to that, but there are moves this team could make along the edges of his roster, now that his Starting pitching is well in place that could pay dividends. Your weak players hurt you just as much as your stars help.
Week 8 Matchups
Wait ’Til Next Year (1) vs Shepherd Goods Choppers (11)
Sporty Strauss (2) vs Las Cabras (9)
Win’s Up Doc (3) vs The Pullies (6)
Ornery Otters (4) vs Cooper Troopers (5)
$traight Cash Homie (7) vs DTC Porkchop Express (12)
The BamO’s (8) vs MN Moose Knuckles (10)
Week 8 MATCHUP of the WEEK
Ornery Otters (4) vs Cooper Troopers (5)
Notes: This matchup exposes both teams as pretenders. It’s not that these teams are bad, per say, they are just incomplete. VERY incomplete. As you can see by the breakdown, the Ornery Otters have a near monopoly on hitting strength. They have 13 really solid hitters that have been hot for 3+ straight weeks led by Goldschmidt, Acuna and more. The Ke’Bryan trade landed Korey his last true starter in the lineup, and it’s made the squad look really nice
But the pitching is near-disastrous. The Cooper Troopers probably have one of the 4 worst pitching staffs in the League of Leagues, but this week, they still dominate the Ornery Otters at every turn. Cortes has been a revelation, and then the Cooper Troopers have 3 solid-to-great starter with 2 matchups this week. This allows the Cooper Troopers to maybe play one subpar pitcher the whole week, while the Ornery Otters don’t have a single starter with multiple matchups.
This discrepancy in multiple start weeks for the players skews this matchup HEAVILY in favor of the Cooper Troopers, and it will be an interesting test case for the League of Leagues. Can a team with a hitting-heavy build truly compete in a matchup with a significant disadvantage in Starting Pitching? How valuable are SPs really in the short term? And can a team like the Cooper Troopers with a purely average or below-average lineup count on good pitching matchups to win a week.
It’ll be a fascinating test, and an important one. The Ornery Otters have clawed back into the playoff race, but still have a lot of work to do. And the Cooper Troopers have gotten lucky with the schedule. Despite scoring more in recent weeks, Coop is still near the bottom in points scored. He needs all the wins he can get if he wants to sneak into the playoffs.
Lineups (80 Hitter plays, 10 SP Plays)
C - Travis d’Arnaud vs JT Realmuto
1B - Paul Goldschmidt vs Rhys Hoskins
2B - Brandon Drury vs Kolten Wong
3B - Rafael Devers vs Jose Ramirez
SS - Trevor Story vs Corey Seager
CF - Luis Robert (??) vs Julio Rodriguez
CO - Ronald Acuna Jr. vs Adolis Garcia
CO - Manuel Margot vs Randal Grichuk
DH - Anthony Rizzo vs Gavin Lux
UTIL - Ian Happ vs Alek Thomas
UTIL - DJ LeMahieu vs Ryan McMahon
UTIL - Ke’Bryan Hayes vs Alex Verdugo
UTIL - Gary Sanchez vs Bryan Reynolds
SP1 - Max Fried vs Nestor Cortes Jr.
SP2 - Robbie Ray vs Walker Buehler (#1)
SP3 - Sonny Gray vs Walker Buehler (#2)
SP4 - Brady Singer vs Zack Wheeler
SP5 - Marcus Stroman vs Eric Lauer (#1)
SP6 - Kyle Freeland vs Eric Lauer (#2)
SP7 - Zack Greinke vs Tarik Skubal
SP8 - Tyler Mahle vs Drew Rasmussen (#1)
SP9 - Chris Archer vs Drew Rasmussen (#2)
SP10 - ???? vs Cal Quantrill
Ornery Otters: Advantage at 10/21 positions
Cooper Troopers: Advantage at 11/21 positions