Power Rankings
Just like that after 4 weeks of softball in a very stop-and-go season, we find ourselves at the half-way point looking at the following standings:
Assassins 7-1
Heavy Hitters 5-1
Savages 4-2
SemiPro 5-3
Young Gunz 4-4
Dynasty 2-4
Scorpion Scorers 2-4
Dadbods 2-6
Troopers 1-7
Its hard to gain momentum when you have bye weeks, off weeks due to holidays, and as a result the rust can easily accumulate. For new teams with new faces like
Scorpion Scorers, its hard to build team chemistry and get a groove going as they find themselves in one of the more disappointing positions thus far. On the
other hand, it does provide ample recovery time for teams like the oft injured Heavy Hitters and their very own Ahmad “Mr. Glass“ Halimi. Maybe it gives the
opportunity for players that often miss regular season games like Dan Diiorio, to schedule trips/vacations/family stuff during the off weeks? Every season seems
to bring a new set of rules, and a new set of challenges that captains face to keep their teams competitive and versatile. We see the following as the power
rankings thus far in the season:
1. Heavy Hitters (5-1)
We’re going to be somewhat contrarian here, and go with the #2 seed over the #1 seed for the sake of power rankings. With a roster as deep as these guys have,
and finally a better mix of more young players after giving John Sans and Harp the axe, Heavy Hitters are sporting a 5-1 record and find themselves at number 2
in the standings. While week 1 was difficult to judge their performance vs Savages, we think this time that they hold the edge over Savages. Why? If you look at
their lineup, you can’t even call the second half or the last few batters the “bottom” of the lineup. Its just a second top. Savages on the other hand, we have an
easier time identifying a bottom of the lineup with Anwar, Irfan, Pablo, Freddy, and David. Newcomers Zack and Josh add some real punch to this lineup. They
are our favorites to take the championship this year provided Mr. Glass and Kunal Sra stay healthy.
2. Assassins (7-1)
Their record speaks for itself. With sweep victories against Scorpion Scorers, the defending champions SemiPro, Dad Bods, and a split vs Savages they are
deservedly frontrunners in the standings. They have the best top-6 in the lineup this year with Brian, Keith, Narish, Shane, Rishi, and Amby. The talent falls off a
bit in the second half of the lineup, but your team better capitalize on those easier outs or you’re in for a long day when these top 6 come up to bat twice in an
inning. This team will very much rely on the consistency of the players in the lower half of their lineup, but so far its been so good. Dan, Sajeel, Akil, et al have
been holding their own on both sides of the game offense and defense. They will need to keep it up. Putting this team head to head with the Heavy Hitters though,
we think they will fold the way they did after having the lead in the 2021 Spring Championship game.
3. Savages (4-2)
Let’s caveat the Savages 3 rank in this list. On any given day, in the game of softball, its never completely about the talent you have on the field. Its
very much a mental game, and these guys have been in enough playoff and championship games to have seen and done it all. Sure we’ve got them as 3 on the list,
but in any matchup against the top 2 teams, we see the betting lines as something like:
Savages -100 Savages -100
Assassins -105 Heavy Hitters -150
While Anwar found back some of the weight he lost last year after showing up to last years fall finals hitting several home runs over the fence, and Irfan found
back some of the batting avg that he lost last year, Freddy hit a respectable 500+ last year, these will be key players for them in the home stretch of the season
going forward.
4. Young Gunz (4-4)
Every year it seems like there’s one team that is particularly thin with respect to depth. This year, its glaringly the Young Gunz — top heavy and
live and dies by attendance. Dan is notorious for missing regular season games, the outcome of this team’s season will depend on how much everyone else is able
to keep it together. They’ve seen some relatively iffy performances when short handed vs Troopers for example, but come playoff time we’re going to assume that
this team has all hands on deck, and when so, we feel good about the teams 4 rank especially over SemiPro which showcased some real lackluster performance in
week 1 against the hungry Young Gunz. Week in week out you will see spectacular performances from Dan, Chris, and Anthony who has continued his
performance as one of the two most improved players from last year, while the same cannot be said about Saeed Anwar. The rest of the team, though, you’re not
sure what you’re going to get. Justus and Josh can look spectacular, add some real pop and make some solid defensive plays, Saiful is hobbled but his bat can still
pack some of the punch that it used to back in the day. Depending on what Saturday night looks like for some of their guys, we sometimes see low energy
hungover performances. This team will need a lot of support from the supporting cast.
5. Semi-Pro (5-3)
They lost their best player in the offseason Jerry Liang, and all of a sudden no one is afraid of these guys anymore. Last year it seemed like no lead
was ever safe. This year, we see them struggling to find a groove. This coming week vs Heavy Hitters will be a good barometer for where this team really stands.
We see them as being in the middle of the pack. Finally as stats have been available on the website, newcomer Umar has underperformed with the bat, Naeem
has been having his struggles on the field, and Chris Mui the once elite hitter seems to have come down by at least one tier, dare we say two? These are veterans
in the game and if these guys can turn it around, it adds a bit of fear to this team as an opponent. The production that Jerry Liang brought last year will require
multiple players to pick up the slack. We feel confident in the production from Omar, Mike, Milan, and Adrian, but the rest don’t seem to be pulling their weight
enough.
6. Scorpion Scorers (2-4)
On paper these guys look like they belong in the top half of the league standings, but it has clearly been a different story. We saw
newspaper articles about Jordan Ramlogan, one of the new guest players was supposed to be along the lines of Dan Diiorio, yet there are only two wins to show
for it all. Make no mistake the team has veterans that have had their share of success, and the stop and go schedule is not likely to be paying them any favors. We
expect these guys to turn it around quickly and come playoff time, we think theyre just as likely as any of the top 5 to win it all in the end. They face a good test vs
Young Gunz this week.
7. Dadbods (2-6)
These guys, year in year out get incrementally better and never fail to have a good time while doing so. They still bring their core which includes
captain Parvesh, Luis, Vito, Alvin, Randy and this year theyre flanked by some new guest players that really add some dynamic capability both in the lineup and
in the field. The 7 spot for power rankings has more to do with the known names and the associated historical performance by the players on the teams ranked
higher than these guys, but this team is not to be slept on the way they sometimes were slept on in previous years. Recall last year that they did beat Dothrakis
and a few other teams that likely did take their foot off the pedal. We’re excited to see where this team winds up when all is said and done. A 2nd round playoff
berth would be a first reasonable first milestone to achieve for this team. This week will be up against savages. If they manage to pull off a split or even a sweep,
we could see this team jump into the 4 or 5 spot by next week.
8. Dynasty (2-4)
With a few last minute additions in Waqas Ali to shore up the shortstop defense, he joins Lou, Yamin, Ray, Shadesh, Vivek, Jonathan and Amit as
the more fearsome core of the lineup and defense. The one thing this team relatively lacks is some youth and athleticism, which we think may ultimately cost
them down the stretch. Yamin needs to step up his historically stellar production, or maybe is it really time for him to join the 5 ranks? This season with some
stats, we might be able to tell. These guys are all vets, and you’re not going to get too many easy mistake outs from these guys either.
9. Troopers (1-7)
Last but not least, but if you look at the roster, its not a team that’s going to roll over and give you the W’s like they did in the past couple of years,
when they showed up that is. They benefit from the modified guest rule this year, and Mike Kauffman looks like his injuries finally may be behind him – with a
few weeks to shed the rust, will he be able to bring back his elite bat and absolutely FLAME throwing arm? If he’s able to get that back, it’s a head above any of the
rest in the league. Attendance seems to be less of an issue with the team this year, and especially now that they managed to imprison Faizan for the rest of the
season on their roster, they will have one more veteran to provide depth and defensive utility. Burhan adds some fire in the dugout and some pop to opposite
field, Anthony when healthy is a great athletic player with good utility and speed, Ankit is the same – if he only ran out the box on his potential grand slam to tie
the game vs Semipro. We’ve yet to see the full arsenal of the new guests that they added from other leagues, Victor Mejia and Bryan Giron. If they are what their
ratings hope for them to be – this team may catapult by next week into as much as the 5 spot, dare we say. This week against Dynasty will be a good first test for
these guys.
