Better Lucky Than Good raised their point total to 112 yesterday to take over sole possession of the lead in the NON-indexed standings.



Through Thursday, July 7

Updated through Thursday, July 21

Updated through games of Tuesday, August 9.

I was at 99.5 yesterday. Sincerely, Oaktown Steve.

What I think is kinda weird is the lack of fluidity at the top of the boards. I mean, injuries happen, players slump, other players come from out of nowhere... It seems that over the course of a season, you might see a similar effect for entire fantasy teams.

But we haven't. Pretty much from out of the gate, the top 10 teams have played musical chairs, except that none of them go away.

I get that the deeper you get into the season, the more likely you are to stay at the top of your individual league (because other players will give up once they feel their season is hopeless), but that doesn't explain the lack of movement at the top of the RCL Universe leaderboard.

Anyway, it's working out for me, so I'm not complaining. (It's good to be the King).

Well, let me take that back. I still think the indexing sucks ass.

While you and a couple of others have been consistently at the top, other teams have come and gone.

Here is the top 10 on May 9:

Pesky Pole Dancers Trippin' Baseballs
Castro Libre RCL 3
Oakland Oaks Matthew Berry is a Tool
Puppets in Disguise RCL: The Number 23
Bad Juju Cracking the WHIP
Champaign Enema Bandits Partially Torn RCL
Batty Batterson Too Drunk to Call a Cabrera
WilPonzi Scheme RCL 30
Roswell Stooges The Beer League
Corona Labias Roast Beef Curtains

And on June 21

Pesky Pole Dancers Trippin' Baseballs
That's a shame The Dread Pirate Rides Again
Better Lucky Than Good Partially Torn RCL
THE VILLE AL KOHOLIC A ECFBL
Fart Factory Patrons of Poonhoundery
Cooperstown SchMohawks Slam and Legs Special
reverse schmohawks RCL 17
Random ItalicizedVoice RCL 5
Bad Juju Cracking the WHIP
Dukes of Flatbush The Beer League



Are you just saying that because it hurts your team, or do you really think it is unfair? I mean, you still have a good chance to be the overall champion despite your league's lower index. Here is a comparison of your league and Random ItalicizedVoice's league for just the last month:

Average: PTRCL .276 RCL 5 .275

Runs: RCL 5 1800 PTRCL 1726

HR: RCL 5 421 PTRCL 410

RBI: RCL 5 1751 PTRCL 1710

SB: RCL 5 300 PTRCL 279

K: PTRCL 2151 RCL 5 2147

W: RCL 5 161 PTRCL 157

S: PTRCL 160 RCL 5 158

ERA: RCL 5 3.52 PTRCL 3.69

WHIP: RCL 5 1.208 PTRCL 1.2556

I'm 1/2 joking.

The index does suck because there's nothing you can do as an owner, and the difference between a LI of 98 and 104 is freakishly difficult to overcome when you are scoring in the 100 points or more. I mean, it's a six point swing (or more). So, that's the 1/2 that is non-joking. It's crippling. I mean, I could get to 120 points and still lose the title to a team that scores 113, right?

Also, regarding the different stats in the two leagues: that's to be expected when 2 or 3 of the teams in my league are running out teams with 3-4 DLd players, and haven't made a roster change since April. But that doesn't make me any better or worse in terms of my team's performance (OK, there may be differences at the margins in that competition for FA's and waiver claims is less pronounced). Ultimately, I'm just thinking (purely because I'm in this position) that the index should be tweaked in a way compares actual team stats across leagues. So maybe in determining final standings, you'd take the top 10 teams and do a weighted average between the existing LI and how the teams would perform if they were in a league together. In other words, the absolute stats accumulated by individual teams should be considered, since that's all we really have control over.

Of course, the 1/2 that is joking has to do with how happy I am to be complaining about this.

You know what's funny? I like the indexing. While not perfect, I think it actually is a good way to bring a semblance of balance across leagues. I don't think anyone would argue against the fact that it's easier to win a league where 25% of the teams (in RCLs, that's only 3...and I'm sure there are leagues with more than that) are inactive.

In terms of the "lack of fluidity at the top" you reference....I think that that is actually to be expected in a group of 450+ teams, at this point. The teams that drafted exceptionally well and make a few key pickups early, and that's what it takes to be in the top 2% of a group this large, should remain near the top as long as they dont incur devastating injuries.

Don't get me wrong: I think indexing is necessary. No doubt that my team is benefiting from the 4 teams in my league that have given up (one from day one).

But which league would you rather find yourself in? Yours, or mine?

And if you had a great draft (I liked mine and my strategy seems to have held up so far), wouldn't you be a little disappointed if it was wasted because you found yourself in a less competitive league?

Honestly, I don't think there is any way to get completely away from indexing, but I do think there should be a way to do it better. Suppose on draft day, you had a competitive draft, picked your team and went the whole season without making any adds from the wire. Now suppose at the end of the season, you were number 1 out of all 450 teams in each and every category. And also assume that everyone else in your league, after draft day, did nothing to manage their team, so your league was the least competitive of the 45.

You'd have clearly drafted the best team out of 450, managed well, and even though you wound up with the best stats of anyone in the league in every single category, you'd be vulnerable to the index - even though your non-competitive league-mates had nothing to do with your success.

That's why I think the index could be improved if there was some kind of weighted averaging done that incorporates absolute stats. (Maybe you just consider stats accumulated by the players that you drafted (or drafted and traded for)).

Extreme examples rarely make good examples, and yours is as extreme as it gets. In fact, such examples have their own name....exceptions or outliers.

I think we agree that the system isn't perfect. However, as with all games, there is luck involved. It's luck of the draw which league you end up in. And that is the nature of the game. I think even if the indexing system were tweaked, you can never eliminate the luck or randomness inherent in any such system...and someone will always be disappointed.