Week 8 Recap
On the back of a 41.86-pt effort by RB Brian Westbrook, Karate Xplosion took down CheektoWojo in the Week 8 Game of the Week. CheektoWojo has quietly lost two in a row and 4 or the last 5, after a dominant start to the early season. With high-scoring Anquan Bolding on the bench, Fireseed lost a tight, 3-point matchup to the L.A. Ninjas. Elsewhere, the rest of the Sandridge division successfully made up ground, as the BountyHunters, Andy's Red Hots and Los Petates Mexicanos all won their matchups.
Week 9 Power Rankings
Team (Pvs Week) - Voting Pts
1. L.A. Ninjas (3) - 28
2. CheektoWojo (1) - 23
3. Andy's Red Hots (7) - 21
4. C-Men (6) - 18
5. Syn City (2) - 15
6. The Skyns (4) - 14
7. Los Petates Mexicanos (8) - 14
8. Boys of Summer (5) - 8
Meet the Power Rankings Voters
Justin Hartman, Andy Morrish and Todd Wojnowski are the three weekly voters for the AldenLeague Power Rankings - a representative from each division. But how exactly do they do it? What do they look for? A quick note of explanation from each of the three.
Justin Hartman: Attending FSU for undergrad I became very conscious and "into" the college AP rankings (FSU used to be consistently in the top 10). This is what inspired my idea for ranking our league. Thus, I try to follow similar method in determining the rankings each week as the pollsters do. I view each team as an entity giving very little weight to individual players on the team (you win as a team you lose as a team) . Most of my weight is based W/L record and how teams did on a week-by-week basis. For example if #1 lost to an unranked team, and #4 won against a ranked team, then #1 would most likely fall in the polls while #4 will ascend. Obviously strength of schedule thus comes into play. This is primarily how it works in college (very rarely will you have a ranked team drop in rankings after they won just because they "played" poorly). Week-by-week point totals is given consideration since it attests to the momentum of a team. However, total points is afforded very little weight.
Andy Morrish: My philosophy when I create the rankings each week is to try to predict where people will end up at the end of the season. I look at the points that each team has and how consistent they have been and how that has affected their record. I tend to give more credit to higher records because those wins give those teams a clear advantage as the season goes on but I also look at what the team will probably do in the future and how strong their team is.
Todd Wojnowski: I approach my rankings based on two factors: total points and the amount that I would want to face this team this week. Win/Loss records, as we all know, are one of the blind elements of luck in fantasy football, and are frequently completely misleading as to the actual strength of a team. While it's an unavoidable downside, I feel that the AldenLeague rankings page justifies a team's Win/Loss record enough on its own, and the Power Rankings does not need to reinforce it further. Therefore, my rankings are a combination of my personal subjectivity along with the one concrete fact that we have to work with - points scored. I was voting C-Men high when they still hadn't won a game, based on the fact that they still would have beaten 10 of 11 other teams in the league. I was also voting low on the Boys of Summer when they were two wins ahead of the rest of the league, but were hovering around 7th or 8th in points scored - at that point, the team was one I had no fear facing, since the Win/Loss record had nothing to do with whether they would win on the upcoming week. I put a lot of focus on the reasons for a team's success (or lack thereof). Therefore, when Tony Romo and Reggie Bush were struck with long-term injuries, the stock of both their respective teams dropped in my rankings, as the value of those players to those teams were large and irreplaceable.
Transaction Watch
The trade front had been quiet in the league so far this season, but this week broke out several. Ice Cold Bruschi's and the BountyHunters exchanged disappointing players Jeremy Shockey and Chad Johnson, along with kickers and defenses. And then, the Felix Jones Caper began - a series of trades between the Boys of Summer and C-Men. The BoS initially sent Felix to the C-Men for Selvin Young and Matt Prater at the end of last week. This week, the C-Men returned Felix back to the Boys of Summer in exchange for Vincent Jackson and an ACQ, which turned into QB Shaun Hill. The summary of these two trades? C-Men gets Vincent Jackson in exchange for Selving Young, Matt Prater, and Shaun Hill. Interesting, to say the least. The Skyns and Fireseed made a mid-week trade, exchanging defenses at the price of WR Isaac Bruce.
Week 9 Game of the Week - #4 C-Men (4-4) vs. #7 Los Petates Mexicanos (5-3) The C-Men Saga has been well documented during the course of this season - a high scoring team who couldn't catch a break in the first month of the season, fell to a miserable record despite consistently being among the top 3 scorers each week. Then things turned around, with the exception of losing RB Reggie Bush to injury. Which leaves the team at .500, smack dab in the middle of the clusterfuck hoving between one game over and one game under an even 4-4 record. They come up against Los Petates Mexicanos, who find themselves tied recordwise for the division lead, and one game ahead of the other two divisional competitors. It's too early to count on anything, but some of these equally-matched teams in the pack of the standings are going to be home watching the playoffs - each pivotal matchup counts. The 7th-ranked Mexicanos, playing without RB Frank Gore due to a bye, have more than serviceable fill-in options, with the early indications going towards LenDale White and Earnest Graham, the latter of which gets to play against the much-criticized Kansas City Chiefs defense. The big question for this team is QB Peyton Manning, who is having a very un-Manninglike year in terms of inconsistency. Peyton faces off against his old nemesis - the Patriots - in a game that could perhaps re-spark the fire. With QB Drew Brees and newly-acquired (albeit under some rather questionable decision-making trade efforts) WR Vincent Jackson on byes, and RB Reggie Bush still on the shelf, the C-Men go into this matchup a little understaffed. Taking Brees's place is maligned QB Brad Johnson, whose appearance has coincided with the recent fall of the powerful Cowboys' offense. Beside him is QB Matt Shaub, whose fortunes have been much better of late, as he has strung together several strong games in a row, and he takes on a Vikings defense susceptible to the pass. Marshawn Lynch and Willis McGahee - the same RB due that led CheektoWojo to their 2007 AldenLeague Championship - take the field in an effort to support WR Greg Jennings, who has very quietly put together a top-notch season thusfar.
