Week 9 MLB Power Rankings
Week 9 Power Rankings
Tier 1
1- Wait ‘ Til Next Year (7-1) [-]
Tier 2
2- $traight Cash Homie (4-4) [+5]
3- The Pullies (4-4) [+3]
4- Cooper Troopers (6-2) [+1]
5- The BamO’s (4-4) [+2]
6- Sporty Strauss (5-3) [-4]
7- Win’s Up Doc (5-3) [-4]
8- Ornery Otters (3-5) [-4]
Tier 3
9- Las Cabras (4-4) [-]
10- Minnesota Moose Knuckles (2-6) [-]
11- Shepherd Goods Choppers (2-6) [-]
12- DTC Porkchop Express (2-6) [-]
(Tier 1) Now, even more than ever, Wait ‘Til Next Year (1) is in a league of his own. It’s not that he’s the most dominant team of all time – after all, even the Choppers gave him a run this week – but he now has a 1.5 game lead over any other team in the league, including the upstart Cooper Troopers, against whom he has a head-to-head over.
(Tier 2) After previously being top-3 teams, the big story this week is the continual decline of Sporty Strauss (6) and Win’s Up Doc (7). As the two lowest-scoring teams this week, they don’t deserve wins at all. They are closer to bottom-tier right now than reclaiming their spots in the top-3. Trades from these teams are required to even make the playoffs, which Sporty Strauss has a higher chance of making than Win’s Up Doc based primarily on their schedules over the next couple of weeks.
Sporty Strauss plays the Cooper Troopers, MN Moose Knuckles, and SG Choppers the next three weeks before some more difficult teams down the stretch while Win’s Up Doc only has one game against at bottom-4 team the next 7 weeks. He also draws Wait ‘Til Next Year this week, which should drop him to his 4th straight loss. In general, if Wait ‘Til Next Year can keep pace with Sporty Strauss over the next month, he has a good chance of winning that division.
But don’t forget about the Ornery Otters (8), who pretty much had a schedule loss this week. All of his good pitchers (literally) pitched twice last week, so he was stuck with scraps this week to try to get enough pitching plays. His offense still produced, but it was too little/too late. He’s dropping spots in the Power Rankings, but all of these teams are razor close.
That somehow includes the Cooper Troopers (4) who, absurdly, are 6-2. They are ranked 4th-to-last in points, but are 4 games over .500. It’s discussed every week, but Coop’s ascension has officially become too powerful to turn away from. If 9 wins is the bar to make the playoffs, the Cooper Troopers could go 3-6 the rest of the season and still make the playoffs. His team isn’t as terrible as the 9th-ranked points he’s scored, and it got better last week, and luck is on his side… so who knows what happens. He could even get a BYE if everything breaks right.
This continues to leave $traight Cash Homie (2) as the best candidate for last place in the League of Leagues, despite a good-to-great baseball team. After making the Luis Castillo trade, the Homies look really solid. All it took was the DTC to come to town for Jack to explode. Right now, he’s in a dogfight for #Shepherd Goods Division, and he needs to stay focused to fend off the next couple of teams.
The Pullies (3) beat Win’s Up Doc – a big mid-season matchup. They currently hold the 3-seed, but are tied for a division lead at 4-4 with Jack and Sam. When clicking, The Pullies are quite scary. But they lack depth to withstand bad weeks or injuries. So do the Homies, so any injuries or unfortunate situations could flip this division race in a hurry.
The BamO’s (5) aren’t far behind. They are 3rd in points between those teams, but the team is rounding into form too. The trick with Sam is the schedule. He plays DTC Porkchop Express in a matchup he absolutely needs to win this week, and then he goes on a gauntlet for 7 straight matchups with no Tier 3 teams on the schedule. It’s going to be tough for him, but the apparent weakness of some of these top dogs leaves The BamO’s with a window to pounce.
In general, these 7 teams are all firmly ‘Tier 2'. All have a good chance of making the playoffs, and matchups between any of these 7 will be must-see TV every single matchup. It’s going to be an exciting race for 5 playoff spots.
(Tier 3) Las Cabras (9) are getting gifts from the schedule, including Sporty Strauss’ 370-point week last week. As a result, they are 4-4 with a legitimate chance to sneak into the playoffs or AT LEAST get a consolation BYE, which would be huge. They still have a great chance to place 4th in the league of leagues and take home a bit of the pot. They’d have made money this season with that, getting the 2nd place NFL prize as well as $500 4th-place.
Elsewhere in Tier 3, SG Choppers (10) probably could have found a way to win this week, but it was Kyle, so it was a tall task. He’s still content with a loss, tanking to get a better NBA draft pick while the Cooper Troopers and $traight Cash Homies try to win games. But that could result in last place, and #DyeWatch is on.
The MN Moose Knuckles (11) are the forgotten team – a bad team who still has a lot of talent. It will be curious to see if he starts offloading any to go for broke and try to procure a coveted 3rd or 4th overall Strauss selection. DTC Porkchop Express (12) will be watching that race to the bottom very closely.
Current Playoff Seeding
Wait ‘Til Next Year (7-1) *BYE
Win’s Up Doc (5-3) *BYE
The Pullies (4-4)
Cooper Troopers (6-2)
Sporty Strauss (5-3)
$traight Cash Homie (4-4)
Consolation Bracket
The BamO’s (4-4) *BYE
Ornery Otters (3-5) *BYE
Las Cabras (4-4)
SG Choppers (2-6)
DTC Porkchop Express (2-6)
MN Moose Knuckles (2-6)
Week 8 High Score
$traight Cash Homie (Jack)
602.5 points
Notes: A new league record! $traight Cash Homies just SMACKED the 12th-ranked into team to oblivion in one of the most lopsided contests since Jack was on the other side of blowouts towards the end of NBA. It’s going to be truly fascinating to see how $traight Cash Homies (and the Cooper Troopers) fare down the stretch to avoid last place. This week, Jack was led by absurd weeks by some unlikely sources like Brendan Rodgers, Christopher Morel and Martin Perez as well as the likely sources of Vlad, Austin Riley, Judge and an outsdanding week from Jordan Alvarez, who hit 4 homers. The back-end of his lineup is playing better, and his pitchers have been more than serviceable.
Week 9 Low Score
Win’s Up Doc (Oat)
368 points
Notes: 3 straight weeks. 3 straight disappointments for the previously ranked #1 overall team. Win’s Up Doc wanted to be removed from the #1 spot in these power rankings, but he’s been even worse ever since – an absolute #ShotShow. Now, he draws Win’s Up Doc: a matchup sure to send his middling team down to 5-4 and his 4th consecutive loss.
When will the bleeding end? Why, that’s a good question… his schedule down the stretch is very tough. The only team remaining on his schedule that is in Tier 3 is Las Cabras. Win’s Up Doc, right now is in dire straights, and making the playoffs is far from a guarantee. Oat looks more and more like a 3rd place finish in League of Leagues as a whole unless his team improves in short order. And right now, odds are that he misses the playoffs entirely in MLB.
Week 8 MVP
Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber (Wait ‘Til Next Year)
35 points
Notes: Each player had exactly 35 points this week, so it’s impossible to separate them and award one over the other. This is the backbone of Wait ‘Til Next Year’s team – unbelievable dominant hitters who can get hot at the right times. After Harper, Schwarber and Soto, the rest of his team struggled this week to varying degrees, allowing the SG Choppers to mount a near-upset. But the big guns got it done at the end.
Week 8 LVP
Ryan Yarbrough (Ornery Otters)
-13 points
Notes: As mentioned before, the Otters’ pitching situation this week was a DISASTER. He was forced to start guys like Ryan Yarbrough in multiple situations, and he tanked him, pitching 1.2 innings while giving up 6 runs, almost singlehandedly flipping this matchup. It won’t always be this bad for Korey, but this is the flaw with his team – lack of pitching depth. Without an improvement there, the Otters will also be on the outside looking in towards the playoffs.
Week 9 Matchups
Wait ’Til Next Year (1) vs Win’s Up Doc (7)
$traight Cash Homie (2) vs Ornery Otters (8)
The Pullies (3) vs Las Cabras (9)
Cooper Troopers (4) vs Sporty Strauss (5)
The BamO’s (5) vs DTC Porkchop Express (12)
MN Moose Knuckles (10) vs Shepherd Goods Choppers (11)
Week 9 MATCHUP of the WEEK
Sporty Strauss (5) vs Cooper Troopers (4)
Notes: This matchup shows why Sporty Strauss (5) is currently on the ‘pretenders’ list instead of the contenders. This team has a LOT of holes, shown in depth in the player breakdown. The top of the roster is GREAT – it’s hard to get better than Trout, Betts, Stanton and France and one’s 4 best hitters. Verlander has been outstanding as well.
But things fall apart the further you get away from the top of the lineup. Sporty Strauss has the worst catcher situation in the league so far, though it could turn around. The other last 3 hitters in the lineup are also relatively pitiful. It’s not the strength of the Cooper Troopers’ team either, but Coop has more depth than Strauss does right now.
Injuries are certainly a factor for Sporty Strauss right now as well – particularly in the rotation. And this is where Sporty Strauss is truly awful. His top-two pitchers are great, but it falls apart quickly after Verlander and Cease. It’s a disaster, actually. This has to be the worst rotation in the league right now.
Lineups (80 Hitter plays, 10 SP Plays)
C - Yasmani Grandal vs JT Realmuto
1B - Ty France vs Josh Naylor
2B - Nolan Gorman vs Kolten Wong
3B - Manny Machado vs Jose Ramirez
SS - JP Crawford vs Corey Seager
CF - Mike Trout vs Julio Rodriguez
CO - Mookie Betts vs Adolis Garcia
CO - Giancarlo Stanton vs Josh Rojas
DH - Alex Bregman vs Rhys Hoskins
UTIL - Nick Castellanos vs Randal Grichuk
UTIL - Enrique Hernandez vs Alex Verdugo
UTIL - Adam Frazier vs Bryan Reynolds
UTIL - Joey Votto vs Ryan McMahon
SP1 - Justin Verlander vs Nestor Cortes Jr.
SP2 - Dylan Cease vs Zack Wheeler
SP3 - Edward Cabrera (x1) vs Walker Buehler
SP4 - Edward Cabrera (x2) vs Tarik Skubal
SP5 - Josiah Gray vs Eric Lauer
SP6 - Kyle Gibson vs Cal Quantrill (x1)
SP7 - Jose Quintana (x1) vs Cal Quantrill (x2)
SP8 - Jose Quintana (x2) vs Drew Rasmussen
SP9 - Roansy Contreras vs Keegan Thompson (x1)
SP10 - Jeffrey Springs vs Keegan Thompson (x2)
Sporty Strauss: Advantage at 7/19 positions
Cooper Troopers: Advantage at 12/21 positions