Week 13 MLB Power Rankings
Week 13 Power Rankings
Tier 1
1- Win’s Up Doc (9-3) [+1]
2- Wait ‘ Til Next Year (9-3) [-1]
3- Sporty Strauss (8-4) [+1]
4- Ornery Otters (6-6) [+1]
5- $traight Cash Homie (6-6) [+2]
Tier 2
6- Cooper Troopers (8-4) [+2]
7- The BamO’s (6-6) [-4]
8- The Pullies (7-5) [-1]
Tier 3
9- Minnesota Moose Knuckles (3-9) [-]
10- Las Cabras (5-7) [-]
11- Shepherd Goods Choppers (3-9) [-]
12- DTC Porkchop Express (2-10) [-]
(Tier 1) Throughout most of the season, Wait ‘Til Next Year (2) was the strong presumptive favorite, but now, after the Bryce Harper injury, the top of the league is WIDE open. Kyle, himself, is incredibly lucky for the Willson Contreras right now, a hitter who has been better than Anthony Rendon even was this season. Without that deal, Wait ‘Til Next Year could be dropping down to Tier 2. He’s still scoring at a decent clip, but now he’s dropped two games to the new presumptive favorite.
That status belongs to Win’s Up Doc (1), who definitely isn’t significantly better than any other team in the League of Leagues right now either. He’s just beaten Wait ‘Til Next Year twice and has the best record in the league. His schedule down the stretch is rough, and he now needs to feel a little bit more worried about holding Sporty Strauss (3) off for the BYE. He only leads him by a game (and a half with the tiebreaker).
Sporty Strauss secured an absolutely instrumental victory this week against The BamO’s. Now, Strauss has a 2-game lead over the final playoff teams with 5 weeks left. Most importantly, here are the teams that he has a head-to-head tiebreaker over: the Ornery Otters, The Pullies, $traight Cash Homie, the Cooper Troopers and also against The BamO’s as long as he can outscore him the rest of the season for the points tiebreaker. That means that Sporty Strauss currently has tiebreakers over every playoff hopeful team and should make the playoffs even if he just two more wins this season (and he plays the pitiful DTC Porkchop Express one more time). The inevitable win over the hapless, lazy Porkchop Express could be enough to make the playoffs even if he loses every other game. He plays each of the other Tier 1 teams down the stretch, so every week is going to be a dogfight. Again, he’s a game (and a half behind) Win’s Up Doc right now, and Sporty Strauss’ eyes are now shifting from just being a playoff team towards stealing a BYE.
Next, the Ornery Otters (4) are a good team. As is always mentioned, Korey has a poor pitching rotation and a stellar lineup. With Korey it’s just going to be interesting if he tries to go for 3rd place (or 2nd !!) by making a trade towards the trade deadline to try to beat Wait ‘Til Next Year or Win’s Up Doc in the 2nd round of the playoffs after beating his opponent in round 1. The Otters still have an easier schedule, and they should be in the playoffs.
$traight Cash Homie (5) are in the same (love)boat as the Otters – 6-6 while being a good/great team. It’s certainly within a realistic situation that Jack wins MLB and potentially plays himself out of a top-3 Strauss Pick. $traight Cash Homie is 4th in points and keeps climbing. He’s made some shrewd moves, and he has a well-balanced team at this point with some depth. He could use help in the ‘pen, but other than that, there’s no real no-brainer moves he has to make. He could always grab another starter, but he doesn’t have to. This team is good, it just doesn’t have the record to prove it because he’s gotten unlucky.
(Tier 2) The BamO’s (6) are in DEEEEP trouble – like Sam himself when he locks eyes with a pretty girl. He DOESN’T have head-to-heads over the following teams: Cooper Troopers, Sporty Strauss, The Pullies and $traight Cash Homie. These last 5 weeks are more important to The BamO’s than any team besides Sporty Strauss. With a team mortgaged for winning now year, a Miles Bridges situation that puts his next year’s team in jeopardy, and a really difficult schedule… odds are strong that The BamO’s will be on the outside looking in when it comes to playoff time. And if that’s the case, Sam is strongly favored to finish in last place next season and deep into the future. This was his chance, and it’s dwindling.
The Cooper Troopers (5) secured one of their 2 or 3 ‘scheduled’ wins down the stretch. This was the reason Coop could make some of these trades: the schedule is just doing him ALL the favors in the world. He beat the SG Choppers twice in three weeks after helping Dye out with those tanking trades. The schedule certainly tightens up for the next couple weeks, but even one win the rest of the season probably puts him over the top. Then he will get to division play where he will play Las Cabras and the MN Moose Knuckles in weeks 15 and 16. Then all eyes will be on the Cooper Troopers to see if they are good enough to edge out those division squads and sneak into the postseason. The Troopers are so close.
One interesting subplot with the Cooper Troopers is WHO will get to play them if they make the postseason. They’ll be a dream first-round matchup and lots of teams will be trying to play them in Round 1. They’ll likely be a wild-card, so they’ll be the 4, 5 or 6-seed. If they drop down to the 6, which is the most likely, it’ll mean the winner of the #Shepherd Goods Division will play them (Pullies, Homies or BamO’s). If they are the 4 or 5, Sporty Strauss could draw Coop – an easy opponent in Round 1 that could secure secure him a League of League Championship. That’s the current scenario.
Next… despite having a better record than 3 of these higher teams, The Pullies elicit the least amount of faith of any of these playoff hopeful teams. They are too reliant on their top stars, but the top stars are ridiculously good. One injury and they are toast. and now the schedule gets tough after they escaped a threat from the league’s worst team. The Pullies could easily still make the playoffs, even as the 3-seed like they are right now, but do they even want that? If they are the 3-seed and play and beat Coop in Round 1, they just played themselves out of a top Strauss Pick with ZERO shot at placing this season. The Pullies, as always, are in no-man’s land and have shown zero desire to try to improve their long-term status in the League of Leagues, looking like one of the two favorites to undergo the last-place penalty next season.
(Tier 3) The MN Moose Knuckles (9) are the only Tier 3 team with any hope right now, though a loss to the Ornery Otters pretty much puts the nail in the coffin. Still, the MN Moose Knuckles have by far the easiest remaining schedule, and they could win 4 out of 5 to end the year and compete for a Consolation BYE. However, that likely isn’t what Hall wants, and now is probably the time to sell if he really wants a top pick, which he doesn’t seem to care too much about.
Las Cabras (10) put up a solid fight this week against $traight Cash Homie, but are now 5-7 and almost out of hope. It’s definitely time to start thinking about next season, and Las Cabras certainly have more pieces to sell to contending teams. Luis Arraez, Steven Kwan, and Brendan Donovan are hitters that could be moved. Jameson Taillon (NYY), Cristian Javier (HOU), Carlos Carrasco (NYM) and Mike Clevinger (SD) are all pitchers on good teams that contenders could use to bolster the mid to back ends of their playoff rotations. Las Cabras hold no worries of getting last place – it could be a statistical impossibility – so they’ll be more willing to sell than any other team. Please contact them for more information.
The SG Choppers (11) and DTC Porkchop Express (12) don’t really have many more assets to deal and are certainly solidified as the cellar of the League of Leagues. They are just biding their time, hoping to lose big in the Consolation Bracket.
Current Playoff Seeding
Win’s Up Doc (9-3) *BYE
Wait ‘Til Next Year (9-3) *BYE
The Pullies (7-5)
Sporty Strauss (8-4)
Cooper Troopers (8-4)
The BamO’s (6-6)
Consolation Bracket
Ornery Otters (6-6) *BYE
$traight Cash Homie (6-6) *BYE
Las Cabras (5-7)
SG Choppers (3-9)
MN Moose Knuckles (3-9)
DTC Porkchop Express (2-10)
PROJECTED Playoff Seeding
Wait ‘Til Next Year (14-3) *BYE
Win’s Up Doc (13-4) *BYE
$traight Cash Homie (11-6)
Ornery Otters (10-7)
Sporty Strauss (10-7)
Cooper Troopers (9-8)
PROJECTED Consolation Bracket
The BamO’s (9-8) *BYE
The Pullies (8-9) *BYE
MN Moose Knuckles (7-10)
Las Cabras (5-12)
SG Choppers (4-13)
DTC Porkchop Express (2-15)
Notes: Right now, based on schedules, a 3-team race between the Cooper Troopers, BamO’s and Pullies is shaping up for the final playoff spot. One slip by Strauss, the Otters or $traight Cash Homie puts those teams into the equation as well.
Week 12 High Score
Win’s Up Doc (Oat)
523 points
Notes: He picked a good week to outscore anyone else, edging out Wait ‘Til Next Year to take the 1-seed. He had solid contributions by former Choppers, Tyler Anderson and Paul Blackburn, as well as several other starting pitchers. But he won this game on offensive, scoring about 65 more points than Wait ‘Til Next Year did. Oat relied on the prowess of his stellar first basemen (Abreu, Freeman and Josh Bell), Carlos Correa and Kyle Tucker. And he had the MVP of the week.
Week 12 Low Score
DTC Porkchop Express (Craig)
383.5 points
Notes: Pitiful. Disgusting. Lazy. There aren’t enough words to explain the Express right now. In general, the team is a disaster – having lost 8 straight games. They easily could have won last night if GM Craig McCall had put effort into setting his lineup on Sunday or throughout the week. With 4 remaining hitter plays, they shat the bed and didn’t pick up anybody to start. Even one batter with a couple of points would have won him the week against the second lowest-scoring team. It’s a travesty, and it could easily change the playoff race.
Week 12 MVP
Nolan Arenado (Win’s Up Doc)
43.5 points
Notes: What an excellent draft pick. A 3rd-round pick, he was drafted in the 3rd round by Win’s Up Doc. In return, he’s been the 10th-best hitter throughout this entire season, scoring over 3.5 points per game. Only Anthony Rizzo has returned better value in the draft, but Arenado is a much better keeper. At 31 years old, he’s moved into the top-50 keepers on FanTrax’s rankings, and Oat is elated.
Week 12 LVP
Michael Lorenzen (Las Cabras)
-7.5 points
Notes: In a 20-point matchup, a starting pitcher having a -7.5 swings the matchup. Even a decent performance would have given Las Cabras a win and gotten them to .500 against a team they had to beat. Instead, Las Cabras’ season is pretty much over despite an easy schedule. It was a long shot anyways, but now it’s longer than a Cooper’s johnson.
Week 13 Matchups
Win’s Up Doc (1) vs The BamO’s (7)
Wait ’Til Next Year (2) vs The Pullies (8)
Sporty Strauss (3) vs $traight Cash Homie (5)
Ornery Otters (4) vs Cooper Troopers (6)
MN Moose Knuckles (9) vs DTC Porkchop Express (12)
Las Cabras (10) vs Shepherd Goods Choppers (11)
Week 13 MATCHUP of the WEEK
Sporty Strauss (3) vs $traight Cash Homie (5)
Notes: Another Sporty Strauss matchup of the week. We might finally get Strauss after this, but this week is crucial for both of these teams. For Strauss, he needs to hunt that BYE and unseat Win’s Up Doc. Otherwise, Strauss has to play one more playoff game than Oat and will have to play Kyle or Oat to make the championship game – a tall task.
For $traight Cash Homie, he could win the League of Leagues if he wins his division and draws a weaker 6-seed in the playoffs. He’s only .500 right now, and he needs to win some of these 50/50 games in order to secure a playoff spot and NOT end up in last place.
For the matchup itself, this looks to be as evenly matched as teams could get. Sporty Strauss gets a miracle of having two Verlander starts against two bad offenses. That could be enough to get him the win. But the back end of Jack’s rotation is far better than Strauss’. $traight Cash Homie does have some bad pitching matchups across the board, whereas Sporty Strauss is a bit cleaner, but Jack’s lineup is generally better with Mookie Betts and potentially Ty France on the IL.
Look for a tightly-fought matchup between playoff hopefuls in this week’s Matchup of the Week!
Lineups (80 Hitter plays, 10 SP Plays)
C - Austin Nola vs Keibert Ruiz
1B - Carlos Santana vs Vladimir Guerrero Jr.
2B - Nolan Gorman vs Christopher Morel
3B - Manny Machado vs Austin Riley
SS - Tim Anderson vs O’Neil Cruz
CF - Mike Trout vs Aaron Judge
CO - Taylor Ward vs Yordan Alvarez
CO - Charlie Blackmon vs Austin Hays
DH - Giancarlo Stanton vs Christian Walker
UTIL - Alex Bregman vs Gleyber Torres
UTIL - Riley Green vs Brendan Rodgers
UTIL - JP Crawford vs Anthony Santander
UTIL - Nick Castellanos vs Andres Gimenez
SP1 - Justin Verlander (KC) vs Martin Perez (MIN)
SP2 - Justin Verlander (@OAK) vs Nick Pivetta (TB)
SP3 - Tony Gonsolin (COL) vs Nick Pivetta (NYY)
SP4 - Dylan Cease (DET) vs Sean Manaea (SEA)
SP5 - Brandon Woodruff (PIT) vs Sean Manaea (SF)
SP6 - Adam Wainwright (PHI) vs Frankie Montas (HOU)
SP7 - Kyle Gibson (@STL) vs Zach Gallen (SF)
SP8 - Lance Lynn (MIN) vs Zach Gallen (COL)
SP9 - Josiah Gray (@PHI) vs Patrick Sandoval (@BAL)
SP10 - Jeffrey Springs (@CIN) vs Luis Castillo (PIT)
Sporty Strauss: Advantage at 9/21 positions
$traight Cash Homie: Advantage at 12/21 positions