Last week a post was promised by yours truly for this week once I got back from Seattle, so a post shall be written! I apologize for the lack of posts so far this year. I'll try to pick up the pace as the season goes on.
Without further ado, here is this year's inaugural Don Stuarté Power Index, named after the one and only Dan Stuart, who was the only coach I had, in any sport, who encouraged pillaging villages and raping women. Despite the fact he couldn't remember half of his own players' names, his name will live on forever in my, what some may argue, subjective rankings of the league. Despite common perception, there is plenty of thought that goes into my posts, including plenty of statistical analysis. Unlike another author of this blog, the stats I use are at least readily available to everyone, as opposed to creating a system that somehow always overvalues my own and, for some reason, JP's team. I digress, alas, here are the rankings!
Don Stuarté's Power Index
- -away on Halladay-Yes, I know, Riley's team is first in the standings and first in my rankings. Way to go out on a limb Dave! So far Riles' has a fair amount of hot starters with the likes of Jason Kipnis and Derek Jeter, as well as his strong rotation of Doc Halladay, King Felix, and Jered "Ball my eyes out even though I just no-hit the worst team in baseball" Weaver. I'm slightly skeptical the hitting will continue because of the number of injury-prone guys on the team (Zimmerman, A-Roid, Nelson Cruz, and Carlos Beltran), but for now they are performing.
- Bats Hit Crazy-After the auction, I wasn't extremely pleased with my team, but as of right now they have started out the season very strong. Just by using team season totals, my team ranks in the top 3 places in 8 of the 12 categories. Obviously totals this early can be flawed, as there will be plenty of variance, but it's not something I necessarily foresaw for my team. Adam Jones (Matt Kemp Lite for some here) has had the beginnings of a breakout year, but I still see his average sliding down closer to his norms. Anyways, enough about me.
- BilateralLegWeakness-I know I went basically chalk for the top 3, but, after looking at each team, so far there seems to be a clear separation between the top 3 and the rest of the pack. I don't anticipate that continuing necessarily, especially with Joe and Goose's (or is it Geese's?) trade that gives Joe a very formidable hitting lineup. Mooch's debut in the Armchair League has been a solid one, with nice balance with power guys like Uggla and Konerko, as well as some speedsters like Andrus and CarGo. The only bump in the road for BLW's team in the future is pitching. Madison Baumgarner may have started out hot, but I think he will come back to early towards the middle part of the season.
- Jefending Jhampions-Here we go with a little bit of an upset! This ranking is based on Joe's acquisition of Hanley Ramirez, giving him what could be the best hitting lineup this league has seen in a while. Also, as we all know by now, Joe is and will always be the most active league member, as he has already made 53 moves so far this year, almost doubling the next closest. I know from experience this past week that Joe's strategy for the rest of the year will be to stream as many guys as possible each week so he can take the counting categories in pitching (he had 101 K's against me last week; not a typo).
- [sno]KONY Dynasty-Mike's got some notoriously slow starters on his team (i.e. Tex), but has also balanced that out with the Man, the Myth, the Legend Matt Kemp, who has been on a well-documented tear. I think a lot of his hitters will start hitting a little better as the summer comes around. Ben Zobrist, for example, has been stuck with a .206 BABIP, 84 points lower than his career BABIP. Caff's pitching is solid enough, although the relievers look a little shaky with Fatman Broxton due to explode (literally and figuratively) any day now, Javy Guerra getting the hook as the Dodgers's closer, and Grant Balfour more than likely getting traded to be a setup man somewhere else.
- Wooster-I'm not going to take the time to find the characters, so I'm just going to go with what it looks like. Jack's auction strategy of spending a lot on pitching hasn't really helped so far yet this year, as he is about league average when it comes to winning the pitching categories. He's a had a little bad luck in both saves and strikeouts (both of which he is top three in for totals). He has a fair amount of power amongst his hitters, but with guys like Mark Reynolds in the lineup, it'll be tough to compete every week in batting average.
- Tony McDonald- As always, Tmac gets the award for most creative team name. He pulls it off every year almost effortlessly. This is also a little bit of projection as guys like Jersey Shore Stanton are starting to heat up to go with the likes of Josh Hamilton. Tony will need some help with pitching and really should cut ties with Ubaldo Jiminez and Ervin Santana as there are plenty of better options on the waiver wire.
- Comps Ratio- I guess I had to eventually write about Schneider's team, and here's as good a spot as any. Ebenezer Scrooge himself continues to be as stingy as ever with his team, as he refuses to release some of his bench hitters to help out what is a very average pitching staff. Also, as a disclaimer to everyone after I had a conversation with Andy, if you do not understand how the salary system works, please say something so we are all on the same page. Next year you keep the player at his value that you bought him at in this year's auction. You cannot sign a player to a long-term deal until his third year being on your team.
- Yu Only Live Twice- Hard to compete when your highest priced hitter and pitcher are the two most written about strugglers in this young season. I expect JP's team to pick up a little bit once Fat Albert gets going, but an outfield of Hunter Pence, Bryan LaHair, and Jordan Schaefer doesn't exactly instill enough confidence for me picking YOLT, as this team will henceforth be known as, to work its way up the standings. JP may be wise to shop Mr. Pujols once it comes closer to the trade deadline.
- Goose's Flock-Thanks for joining the league Goose, better luck next year!
There we go! That wasn't so painful was it? I hope to hear back from you guys (that means you Mike and Jack) to hear your thoughts on my thoughts. My final point to make in this long-winded diatribe of mine is that it's been most interesting to see everyone react to the new salary and keeper structure we have put into place. As I talk to some members about some of they players, it's become very apparent that perhaps installing keepers has made people more cautious so far, despite the fact we can only keep five guys next year. Hopefully it'll bring on some more action as the summer rolls around.
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