URK 2011: Week 4 Power Rankings

A quarter of the way through the season, so it’s time to break out the charts to see how everyone’s doing. Here are two: pure rankings, and mean ballot position. I’m particularly partial to the latter because it brings out interesting details; just look at the spread increasing as we become more confident about the top and bottom of the league, at the Stars meteoric rise (and SayHi’s disastrous fall), and at the interesting clustering into tiers (with teams like Rostrum bouncing from third to second and back again in Wks. 2-4). Oh, numbers!

12. Minions (Chris)
W-L: 0-4
Last Week: 12
Average Ballot Position: 11.7

This past week, the Minions played the best team in the league having their best game of the season. What do you think happened? And now half their team goes on bye. Splendid!

11. SayHi2YourMother4Me (Kenan)
W-L: 1-3
Last Week: 11
Average Ballot Position: 10.9

A second straight solid showing, and one that could have been significantly better if not for leaving some underperforming stars on the bench. No win this week, but things are starting to look a bit better and maybe they’ll be able to save their season yet.

10. A Sheep at the Wheel (Jaron)
W-L: 1-3
Last Week: 8
Average Ballot Position: 9.2

The Sheep have been consistently solid though unspectacular, and they’ve had the misfortune to have more points scored against them than any other team thus far. Still, there should be a bit of concern over the lack of tangible results thus far.

9. Cupcakes of DOOM! (Adam)
W-L: 1-3
Last Week: 6
Average Ballot Position: 8.3

The Cupcakes finally had a letdown week, and got burned. The question is, of course, whether this is an aberration or an indicator for things to come. It’s crucial that the Cupcakes grab some wins soon, because their schedule gets quite a bit harder as the season progresses.

8. The Schmuckernators (Jason)
W-L: 2-2
Last Week: 9
Average Ballot Position: 7.4

Looks like the Schmucks were able to pull things together this week. Tough to get much of a read on this team, since they’ve been up and down, but placing somewhere in the middle feels about right.

7. Obese Geese (Steve)
W-L: 2-2
Last Week: 7
Average Ballot Position: 7.3

Let’s face the facts; the Geese have been terrible thus far and are extraordinarily lucky to be sitting here with two wins. They are the second lowest scoring team in the league (barely a point above the lowest and nearly 40 pts/game behind the hightest)…and yet, if the playoffs started today, they’d be in. When is the regression to the mean coming?

6. Jehovah's Jockstrap (Brett)
W-L: 2-2
Last Week: 10
Average Ballot Position: 6.3

Woah, what’s happening? Jehovah’s in the top half of the league? A couple of really strong weeks will do that. It may be short lived, though; in the next two weeks they face the top two scoring teams. Still, it’s a great opportunity to stake their claim to legitimacy.

5. Rostrum Records (Luke)
W-L: 2-2
Last Week: 3
Average Ballot Position: 5.9

Rodgers’ ridiculous and near-record-setting performance was wasted as the rest of the team couldn’t match him even cumulatively. That’s worrisome; on the other hand, in those weeks when he gets even a bit of help they’ll be pretty hard to top.

4. The Dyin' SharkLions (Danny)
W-L: 2-2
Last Week: 4
Average Ballot Position: 4.0

Up and down, a well-rounded performance from a team that hasn’t had much of that lately. They should continue to look good next week, assuming they can take care of business against a certain short-handed winless team.

3. Bacon Cheeseburgers (Andy K.)
W-L: 3-1
Last Week: 5
Average Ballot Position: 3.7

Tasty win after last week’s disaster. They get hit pretty hard by the bye this week (no available QBs), so their next matchup will be plenty challenging, but probably not indicative of long-term health.

2. Stars (Dan)
W-L: 4-0
Last Week: 2
Average Ballot Position: 2.1 (1)

Yep, yep, the Stars keep on rolling. Although not without cost; they may have just lost their other great receiver to a serious injury. And despite their unblemished record, they can’t even sit in first, because…

1. Z Power (Andy G.)
W-L: 4-0
Last Week: 1
Average Ballot Position: 1.1 (8)

The Z’s are not only still winning, they’re picking up speed. Another sensational effort for the team that has been thriving despite the pressure that comes with being the consensus number one all along. Bravo!