Power
Rankings

I get half of first because 108 roto points, 52 days in first, and a nine-point lead are stubborn facts that don't care about the Oracle's (or your) feelings. Julio Rodríguez put up 1.030 OPS with four home runs, which mostly just confirmed what was already obvious. Ben Rice — Ben Rice — went for 11 RBI on a 1.278 OPS, which is a number I had to read twice. Sike, this is the AL player of the month we're talking about. Steven Matz contributed 3 innings at an 18.00 ERA, which is very on-brand Steven Matz, no notes 🤌. The Oracle has this roster fourth. That's the only reason this isn't a closed discussion.

Rollie gets the other half of first because the Oracle has them first by a real margin, and I can't argue my way around that. Ninety-nine roto points, second in the league, but the gap between first and second is a cavernous nine points. Jarren Duran was elite again, which at this point is just the expected version of Duran — the question is when the rest of the category sheet catches up to the top of the lineup. Oneil Cruz added steals to the power line. Ranger Suárez threw 10 innings at 8.10 ERA with 14 strikeouts. Enough Ks to make you feel okay about the ERA until you look at the ERA. QS and K are still the gap. That's the whole argument.

Best week in the top five and philbell earns the spot over Melonheads. Ronald Acuña Jr. had the kind of week where you check the stats twice: 1.417 OPS, five home runs, five steals is not a stat line, it is a hostage situation for everyone else's category sheet. Jeremy Peña helped with the home run and RBI columns like a perfectly adequate supporting cast member. Nolan McLean tossed 8.1 innings at 8.64 ERA, which is the price of pitching depth that isn't quite deep enough. The Oracle still has this roster fifth. This wasn't the week that helps that argument.

Down three roto points, worst week in the top five, and philbell's surge was all the excuse needed to make the swap. James Wood and Cam Smith gave the offense something to point at, which was not enough, but they tried. Zebby Matthews delivered another loud, expensive, high-strikeout start and left the ERA column with a cleanup bill, which is exactly what Matthews does and something I know intimately. Don't believe me? Check his transaction history. Third in the standings, third by Oracle. Fourth here is a weekly demerit, not a structural slide. This team will be back the moment Zebby hits free agency or someone else gets worse first.

Oracle's second-best roster, flat week, fifth in the standings at 73 points. This ranking has been having the same argument with the standings since March and neither side is winning. Yordan Alvarez hit 1.347 OPS with five home runs and nothing changed. Rafael Devers went for 10 RBI and nothing changed. Riley Greene posted .373 OPS and a single RBI, which is functionally equivalent to not being there. ERA climbed two category points. SVH sits at one. Ten lineup sessions for the week, for the Oracle's second-best roster, that's second worst. I have noted it. I have mentioned it. Be better.

Juan Soto put up 1.339 OPS with three home runs and eight RBI and this team still dropped half a roto point on the week. The explanation is the pitching side: K at 3, QS at 2.5, and Devin Williams converting a save opportunity into a personal apology note at 15.43 ERA, which is about as Mets as Mets can get. OPS at 12 and ERA at 11 are elite and largely unearned by anyone not named Soto. The Ks and quality starts are taxed every week regardless. Jorge Mateo had a fine week, and I mean that literally — it's down here in the footnote section. Seventh in the standings, sixth here. The pitching side is not getting better on its own.

Sixth in the standings at 67 points, seventh here, because Sam has OPS at 12 and Vin has OPS at 2. that's basically all that separates them. Bryan Reynolds put up the best individual batting week on the roster and Curtis Mead joined in with three home runs and eight RBI; the team still lost 1.5 roto points because R at 2 and OPS at 2 are structural problems, not unlucky weeks. Hot individual performances don't fix them, they just obscure them temporarily. QS at 11 and K at 11 are genuinely good. The offense is genuinely not.

Six roto points gained, best week in the entire league, and Pat holds eighth. That is the unfortunate math on what a best-in-league week earns you when the Oracle has you twelfth. JJ Bleday and Andy Pages both had real weeks — 1.356 and 1.254 OPS respectively, six home runs between them. ERA climbed three category points. RBI is at 10, which is actual progress. Brice Turang logged a .250 OPS and one RBI and technically showed up. Look, Patrick is a nice guy. Tries hard. Loves the game. This current roster construction however, doesn't respond to effort.

Millville set two lineups this week. Ian Happ went 1.054 OPS with three home runs and 11 RBI, which is Ian Happ doing Ian Happ things entirely unsupervised. Christian Walker helped with the home run column. Brandon Nimmo posted .483 OPS and three RBI, which is what happens when no one's in the office to do anything about it. The Oracle has this roster seventh. The engagement table has them twelfth. ERA at 2 and SB at 1 are the category gaps. Two lineups. Auth, crack that DSM-5 textbook and learn how to take an autistic special interest in your team.

Changed the name, kept the ERA. Jonesin' is a fresh start for a tired roster, but unfortunately our 5x5 roto format doesn't include names as a statistical category. Oracle has this as the ninth-best roster, with Zach Neto at 19, but the standings have them eleventh at 31.5 points and the category shape explains why: ERA at 1, WHIP at 2, a pitching staff converting innings into ratio damage. Jonathan Aranda had the best batting line in the lower half this week: 1.443 OPS, three home runs, which is a pretty unhinged number for a guy 169th in the Oracle. Kazuma Okamoto added two more homers. Bryce Elder responded with 3.1 innings at 13.50 ERA and one strikeout, which is the whole tension of this roster in a single box score: the bats show up, and then the pitching hands it all back.

Down four roto points and drops two spots, most of it from the ERA column falling apart. Shota Imanaga threw 11.1 innings at 9.53 ERA, which is bad in the specific way where you can see exactly what happened, understand it completely, and not be able to do anything about it. Brooks Lee went 1.071 OPS with three home runs and 10 RBI. Yandy Díaz hit 1.131 OPS. Neither of them could offset what the ERA column did. This is still the Oracle's eighth-best roster. HR at 1 and SVH at 2 are the categories keeping the projection and the results from ever actually meeting.

And at long last, Mommy sinks to the bottom. Top level insights: eight of ten minor league slots empty. Willy Adames and Freddie Freeman both produced real offense — two of the genuinely better performances on the roster this week. Adolis García went .236 OPS, ERA slid two more category points, and the names anchoring this lineup are Machado, Bogaerts, Snell, and Perez: a strategy that made sense three years ago and is now a holding pattern with no stated destination. Anthony inherited a shitty team from someone I never talked to and whose name I don't remember (Oracle knows but I'm not bothering him at this hour), but you can't expect to climb out of the basement unless you make moves (source: Vin). The minor league slots are where dynasty rosters get rebuilt. Eight of them are sitting empty. The roster is a 60-year-old realizing they forgot to fund their 401k. REBUILD