Week 6: The Pack Tightens

 

Cory and Jill got engaged! Another mazel tov is in order for the happy couple. Yes this probably explains the life distraction Cory’s been going through. OK now that’s over, shape up, General Meyer.

 

2021 Year to Date Power Ranks
TOTAL			HITTING			PITCHING				Manager	Team
1	Michael	3.14	1	Michael	3.13	1	BJ	2.83		Michael	G and RE
2	BJ	4.29	2	Dean	3.75	2	Michael	3.17		Dave	Small Legs Big Balls
3	Paul	4.36	3	Paul	4.38	3	Paul	4.33		Keith	Bourbon Street Blues
4	Dean	4.93	4	Carl	5.00	4	Keith	4.50		Dean	Who's your daddy?
5	Carl	5.43	5	BJ	5.38	5	Cory	5.17		Arthur	[ALL CAPS TEAM]
6	Keith	5.71	6	Dave	5.50	6	Carl	6.00		Carl	Boston Running Sox
7	Dave	5.86	7	Max	5.50	7	Dave	6.33		Cory	Hebrew Nationals
8	Max	6.21	8	Arthur	6.25	8	Dean	6.50		Max	Small Legs Big Stomach
9	Arthur	6.79	9	Keith	6.63	9	Max	7.17		Paul	2nd Act
10	Cory	6.86	10	Cory	8.13	10	Arthur	7.50		BJ	Smoak That Ish

 

The big Power Ranks story on the week is that BJ took a tumble back to the pack this week. They are still holding their top two standing where they’ve been all year, but now they are closer to 5^th than they are to 1^st. Michael had a bit of a rebound week, despite how the matchup looked on the scoreboard (more on that to come). Max’s historic run fell by the way of past historical runs…it ended after two weeks. After publishing last week’s blog, I did some digging on how good his week 3 to week 5 run was: Max’s two power point increase from 8.07 to 6.14 is among the best two week stretches in Floored history. Normally teams take 4 to 6 weeks to fire up that fast. Only once has a team gone up more in a steady climb: Dean gained **three** points from weeks 3 to 8 in 2017.

The other big story is how the bottom teams keep gaining ground back on the field. This week all three bottom teams gained power ranks ground: Arthur, Cory, and Dave all improved their power rank from last week to this week. This furthers the point that the league is very paired up right now. Anyone can beat anyone and that was no more evident than:

Michael and Cory tied last week. Michael came in 2^nd in the power ranks and standings, but had to hold his breath all week as Cory…who didn’t make a move all week…had his team ball out for him. Cory was still very life distracted this week, which has been fine because he’s continuing to get his lineup set (most of the time) and hit the IP minimum, but midweek roster changes didn’t get done in time to get Chris Paddack into a weekend start or two of his players off the IL for the weekend that really could have helped. Cory also didn’t stream anyone over the weekend when the counting categories (W, K, QS) were within reach. Michael had a big week hitting .300 with 12 HRs. His pitching totals look worse than they were most of the week after Luis Castillo blew up in Coors and then late week streaming took Michael’s ratios down a peg. Michael got jumped in the standings in the week because he’s basically just been tying people for 3 weeks straight since nearly skunking Dean.

Speaking of Dean: he keeps beating or not losing to good teams even when he’s having a bad week somehow. Dean is down to 4^th in the power ranks but is basically tied for first in the Yahoo standings. This week it was BJ who stumbled while playing Dean. BJ had their second worst ERA and AVG of the year (3.31 and .210 respectively), and they just weren’t able to get much going. Dean forced their hand into streaming much of the back half of the week and it help bring BJ’s ratios up…even if Dean’s ratios were quite terrible Dean still won W, K, QS.

As Max was going through his somewhat inevitable pullback, Paul was there to reap the rewards, winning a blowout effort. Paul is quietly off to a great start this year, meandering for the first month of the season but has put together two good weeks in a row to vault him to 3^rd place in the power ranks. This week he hit .300 with a 2.7 ERA to lead the way. A well-rounded effort was enough to top Max who didn’t have a terrible week: he still hit 12 HRs and had a 2.92 ERA with 6 SVH. Max’s early season pitching is still dragging down his power rank, but his team has really found its footing overall. As it is with the rest of the league, Max has a very competitive team right now.

I’m out of time now but wanted to be sure to get something out. Last two recaps will be quick.

Dave beat Carl as Dave’s resurgence continued. Carl had the big HR total and a good ERA, but Dave made the headline of the week by BEATING CARL IN WALKS…it can happen.

Arthur bounced back and hit .300 on the week to beat a Keith team that took a step back this week. Arthur only needed 211 ABs (to Keith’s 246 ABs) to get the big win. Both teams pitched horrendously as neither team had an ERA better than 4.50.