The updated standings can be found here.
I had to make some changes to my code again after seeing a few discrepancies. Forgive and forget. The good part is that it's better now than it was yesterday. And the day before that. And so on.
We've got a real hodgepodge at the top with the top 7 teams all within 3 games of each other. Here's a W% graph:
So who haven't we covered?
Looks like New Team Name is on the bill. Amazingly, this squad has gone 17-5-2 in the last 2 weeks since changing their name. Let's hope JP changes it soon.
Should we be worried? Yep. They now have a 64% chance of making the playoffs and are likely to be the 3rd best performing team from here on out.
What's their secret? Hitting hitting hitting.
What kind of hitting? All of the hittings. They don't have a weakness.
Runs, HRs, SB, you name it. They got it. It helps that they've got Adrian Gonzalez and McCutchen as solid foundations, and from there it's a lot of one or two category players that ultimately spits out a balanced, evenly distributed machine.
How's their pitching? Well. It's not great. In fact, it's projected to be the 2nd worst pitching team from here on out.
JP is one of them new age thinkers who thinks that the less pitching you have, the better your pitching stats will be as a whole. Yes he's tanking on Ks and Ws, but he's going to win Ls and SVs with the idea that fewer pitchers means better chances of winning ERA and WHIP. It makes sense on paper, but JP hasn't perfected this art just yet.
Wins
JP has the fewest total pitching wins this year to date, yet has a .500 W% in that category. I anticipate that to not be sustainable in the slightest, mostly because he's projected to have the least wins for the rest of the season.
Losses
This is a strong category for him. It's tough to lose this category if you're only sending out 4 SP per week and a few relievers.
SV
JP really doesn't have a lot of closers, however. Nathan, Romo, and Street are good, but there are other teams with a full starting rotation that have 3 true closers, so now SVs aren't really a lock for him anymore.
K
This one is futile. Read what I said about Losses and apply the opposite to this category. Except while he is projected to win 80% of Losses for the rest of the year, he may only win ~8% of Ks. Those two trades don't balance out to a positive.
ERA and WHIP have the most variance from week to week in terms which team wins. All it takes is one bad outing and you may lose that category. I project he with ~55% of his WHIP and ERA categories the rest of the year. Hardly locks.
It essentially boils down to the fact that the categories that JP wants as locks aren't as certain as he may have hoped for, and the categories that he IS tanking in, are more sure to lose than the rest are to win.
That hitting though, can carry this squad to a playoff appearance.