5.29.2009

Mid-Week 7 Report

Excellent Performing Teams
Stars is firing on all cylinders through mid-week. His class team is showing why, all 6 stat categories in hitting and pitching rank in the upper 1/3 of the league’s teams. Stars is winning 10-0-2 over Reds at this point in the week.
Zonk appears to be waking up after under-performing for the most part through the first 7 weeks of the season. Zonk is in the top 1/3 of the league in 8 stat categories, 5 hitting and 3 pitching. It’s a numbers game and the teams 129 at bats has produced in comparison to his opponents 91. Zonk is upsetting highly regarded Halfway Hardballers 7-3-2 through Thursday.

Very Good Performance Teams
REDS
is playing on a very good level. However, they are up against the powerful Stars team who has him clobbered at this point 0-10-2. Ouch, I am sure Rick is feeling the pain as his team handily captures the not wanted prize of “Tough Luck Team” of the week.. Reds has a total of 6 stat categories in the upper 1/3 of the league’s teams with 2 in hitting and 4 in pitching.
Morning Wood is another team performing very good, but like REDS, is on the short end of his match thus far, currently losing 5-6-1 against the Ageless One. The team ranks in 6 stat categories within the top 1/3 of the league, 2 in hitting and 4 in pitching.

Good Performing Teams
Halfway Hardballers
has run into upset minded Zonk and is presently losing 3-7-2. Lack of at bats has hurt them this week. However, they are ranked among the upper 1/3 of all teams in 5 stat categories, 3 in hitting and 2 in pitching.
Plasmatics appears to have an edge over arch rival BASEMAN, although the match is currently even score wise, 5-5-2. Plaz ranks in the upper 1/3 of all teams in 5 categories, 1 in hitting and 4 in pitching as his hurlers continue to show their strengths. Plaz has the highest rated staff in Hardball Heaven.

Average Performance Teams
BASEMAN
is keeping their head just above water and is holding up in the match-up against Plasmatics. The match is close with the overall score being 5-5-2 thus far.

Note that the all prior mentioned teams are performing average or above average. That’s the good news. The bad news is that only 2 of the 7 teams are winning their matches.

Below Average Performance Teams
Ageless One
is again showing loss of prior power performances, but has till managed to hold a slim lead over Morning Wood who appears to be using their #1 wood in the mornings. Ageless is up 6-5-1. The team has a total of 3 stat categories ranked in the top 1/3 of the league, 2 in hitting and 1 in pitching.

Terrible Performance Teams
New York Uticans reflects a strong drop off in performance over the past few weeks. However they are leading the team with plenty of walking sticks who still have not learned that those wooden walking sticks need to be baseball bats. Their match is extremely tight and could breakout in large point sways in the next few days. Right now, the Uticans are up 6-5-1, but the score is due to change with just a single at bat. Utica has 2 stats that rank in the upper 1/3 of the league, astonishing – both are in pitching.
Blind Squirrels is in a muscle-tussel contest versus Utica. I haven’t figured out what team is waiting for the other to give away the match. It’s a you can have it, no says the opponent, you can have it – well you get the idea. Squirrels is down 6-5-1 and has 2 stats ranked in the upper 1/3 of the leaqgue and like their opponent, both are in pitching.
Champions is coming off a couple fair weeks performance and may be falling back to reality as they are performing very bad this week. However, they are leqading in their match-up against Tenn Hitters 6-4-2. They rank in just 1 stat category among the upper 1/3 of all teams, that being in pitching.
Tenn Hitters is tied with a ranking that is last in performance in the league thus far this week. Lucky for them, it’s their opponent Champions. Both are playing extremely poor and their score reflects just that, down 4-6-2 – but is much tighter. The Hitters have just 1 stat category in the upper 1/3 of the league – in hitting.

Balance of the Week Outlook
Forget the current scores, Toss up matches (just very minor changes in several stat categories) will alter the outcome in the match-ups between Uticans/Blind Squirrels, Ageless One/Morning Wood, Tenn Hitters/Champions and Plasmatics/BASEMAN are very close and Fri-Sat-Sun is an important performance period for all these teams.

It is better to be bruised rather than broken. REDS can narrow the score from 0-10-2 versus Stars and Halfway Hardballers can do the same against Zonk. Right now, it looks like the variance between the toptwo teams in the league will grow in variance – with the top team increasing and strengthening their standings position.

5.27.2009

League Activity Season to Date

Standings

The following is a review of league team summaries through seven (7) weeks (season to date). I have also included standings of the last three (3) weeks to reflect who are the short term teams on the rise, as well as those losing ground.

Rank

Team

W-L-T

Percentage

GB

Last 3 Weeks

3Wk Rank

1.

Stars

49-26-09

.637

-

18-13-05

3.

2.

Halfway Hardballers

49-30-05

.613

2

16-16-04

7.

3.

Ageless One

45-29-10

.595

3.5

17-13-06

6.

4.

New York Uticans

43-36-05

.542

8

22-13-01

1.

5.

Blind Squirrels

42-36-06

.536

8.5

16-16-04

7.

6.

BASEMAN

40-39-05

.506

11

16-18-02

9.

7.

Plasmatics

38-41-05

.482

13

21-14-01

2.

8.

Champions

35-43-06

.452

15.5

18-15-03

4.

9.

REDS

37-45-02

.452

15.5

18-16-02

5.

10.

Tenn Hitters

33-42-09

.446

16

10-21-05

11.

11.

Zonk

30-47-07

.399

20

14-19-03

10.

12.

Morning Wood

25-52-07

.339

25

10-22-04

12.

Hitting

The following reflects the hitting stats and reflects who the better hitting teams are. Total is a summary of each teams stat categories. Top 6 reflects the stats of each team that rank in the upper half of the league. This stat also serves as a tie breaker of teams with the identical points.

Rank

Team

Runs

Hits

HRs

RBIs

SBs

Ave.

Total

Top6

1.

Stars

1

4

3

1

9

2

20

5

1.

Halfway Hardballers

3

1

2

4

6

4

20

5

3.

Ageless One

4

5

4

2

6

5

26

6

4.

Plasmatics

5

2

8

8

1

3

27

4

5.

Tenn Hitters

2

6

5

3

11

6

33

5

6.

New York Uticans

6

3

7

6

12

1

35

4

7.

Blind Squirrels

9

7

5

4

3

7

35

3

8.

Champions

7

10

1

7

6

8

39

2

9.

BASEMAN

8

9

10

9

2

11

49

1

10.

Zonk

10

8

8

10

10

9

55

0

11.

REDS

12

11

11

11

4

19

59

1

12.

Morning Wood

11

12

12

12

4

12

63

1

Pitching

The following reflects the pitching stats and reflects who the better pitching teams are. Total is a summary of each teams stat categories. Top 6 reflects the stats of each team that rank in the upper half of the league. This stat also serves as a tie breaker of teams with the identical points.

Rank

Team

W

L

SV

BB

K

ERA


Total

Top6

1.

BASEMAN

1

1

7

5

1

1


16

5

2.

Morning Wood

4

2

3

11

2

3


25

5

3.

REDS

5

7

2

6

8

5


33

4

4.

Halfway Hardballers

5

3

11

4

4

11


38

4

5.

Zonk

2

12

1

10

5

8


38

3

6.

Stars

12

9

4

3

9

2


39

3

7.

Champions

3

4

12

9

6

6


40

4

8.

Ageless One

9

6

5

1

12

7


40

3

9.

Blind Squirrels

11

10

5

2

10

4


42

3

10.

Tenn Hitters

9

7

8

8

8

7


47

0

11.

Plasmatics

8

11

9

7

3

10


48

1

12.

New York Uticans

5

4

10

12

11

12


54

2

Overall

The following refects the overall power of the teams in our league which includes both

Standings

Power Rankings

Rank

Team

W-L-T

Rank

Points

Top 6

1.

Stars

49-26-09

2.

59

8

2.

Halfway Hardballers

49-30-05

1.

58

9

3.

Ageless One

45-29-10

4.

66

9

4.

New York Uticans

43-36-05

10.

89

6

5.

Blind Squirrels

42-36-06

6.

77

6

6.

BASEMAN

40-39-05

3.

65

6

7.

Plasmatics

38-41-05

5.

75

5

8.

Champions

35-43-06

7.

79

6

9.

REDS

37-45-02

11.

92

5

10.

Tenn Hitters

33-42-09

8.

80

5

11.

Zonk

30-47-07

12.

93

3

12.

Morning Wood

25-52-07

9.

88

6

Summary

I believe the age old question regarding hitting and pitching – which is the most valuable of the two categories has been answered in our league. Look at the better pitching teams and then relate that review to where those teams are in the standings. Then repeat the review for the hitting. Which category closely resembles the league standings. The conclusion is night and day.

There has been a little shifting over the shorter term past three (3) weeks.

Teams On The Move

New York Uticans due to increased hitting strength. Plasmatics due to pitching strength. Stars based upon average matchups. REDS based upon overall good results coming off a slumping period. Champions has improved and apparently has woke up.

Struggling to be Competitive Teams

Halfway Hardballers may be falling to a lower level Ageless One has head just above water – hanging in. Blind Squirrels has improved stats but still playing only.500 ball. BASEMAN is playing just below .500 and needs to improve.

Teams Needing Changes Tenn Hiters has fallen on hard times and looks likely to continue.

Zonk has under-performed, needs to do something. Morning Wood needs to take out the #1 driver and start hitting the ball in the morning, noon and night.

Teams with Roster Problems

Stars will have weeks to wait for M. Ramirez to return to being active. Currently his roster allows for that. However, his torrid hitting will be leveled to a normal state and his pitching staff will be forced to outperform his opposition. On the other hand, his staff is capable of doing just that. The team would not want to be in the position that Utica was in. Just a note – if he had Dustin Pedroia, Hanley Ramírez and Jake Peavy on DL for weeks, then he would be in trouble as Utica was. Halfway Hardballers pitching might be over-ranked. Ageless One has same problem as Stars has, except a wee bit more severe. He will have to wait some time to get Aramis Ramírez and José Valverde back to being active. New York Uticans must now get his roster in proper structure mode. Needs to trade hitters for pitchers. Zonk’s objectives are a mystery to me. Already loaded in pitching and is looking to improve that with decent hitters to give away. Perhaps he should be focused upon giving up some of his slumping big name hitters to improve his hitting first. I don’t know. Morning Wood needs hitting desperately and will not improve until the team lands a trade totally favorable for a huge improvement in 5 hitting stat categories. Blind Squirrels, BASEMAN, Plasmatics, Champions, REDS and Tenn Hitters rosters are not in trouble, but need to make key free agent pickups when the opportunities permit that.

Future Short Term Outlook

This is a minor review needed by a contributer to our postings. Using the above stats, one should review the strength of schedule over the next four (4) weeks and estimate who will improve position and who won’t.


Report and Stats composed by Kerm