Strength of Schedule

I wrote an article at the midway point of the year analyzing how keeper performance impacted overall team performance. If I had gone back through the years and looked at a bigger sample size, I'm sure I would have gotten more conclusive results, but this year keeper performance basically meant nothing - James' keepers were performing beyond expectations as dictated by their O-Ranks and Ranks, and he was in last. All in all, the article was basically a waste of time.

Kurt did the same thing last week when he took a look at statistical milestones and the players that posted those numbers, and it meant "Pretty much nothing. The findings were inconclusive."

I type all this while preparing to give you yet another possibly interesting, yet probably useless article for your (and my) enjoyment - the Strength of Schedule.

As I sit in playoff limbo, 5 games out, Kurt falling fast, Alex within striking distance, and Ben just .5 games ahead, I've been passing on a few enticing trade offers, nervous that the trade will take me out of the playoff race that I probably have no business being in. I thought to myself:

"How much longer can I play this game with myself? I'm out of the playoffs, right? I mean I have to be, I'm in 8th. Well, wait a minute. I'm not playing the top 3 from here on out. Ok, good. This week I have Ben, that's a toss up. Then Alex, another good match. Then James - wow! I have a chance! Colin is a tough draw to end the year but hey what can you do...hold on, what about Ben? And then Alex and Kurt? And then..."

And so, this article wrote itself. It's more food for thought, as we've already seen these types of articles fail to reflect worthwhile information, but hey, third time's a charm, right? The chart is organized by lowest number of wins of remaining match ups (ex - Team A plays Team B (1 win) and Team C (2 wins) - strength of schedule would be 3). I can't figure out how Yahoo! arrives at it's winning percentage - it's not wins/total categories. I think they weight ties differently, so I went with the next best thing I could think of. So without further adieu, here's the remaining strength of schedule for the rest of the league, with a pinch of analysis from yours truly:

8th - Richie......320

3rd - Adrian.....323

10th - James....331

1st - Drew........342

5th - Kurt.........345

7th - Ben...........351

4th - Colin.........352

6th - Alex..........352

9th - Jarrett......357

2nd - TJ.............371

My fears were confirmed - I have a shot at the playoffs. I have the easier SOS, and therefore the best chance to move up in the standings. In fact, of the 5 teams that are in the mix for the last 3 spots, the next closest is Kurt, who has the 5th easiest SOS (25 wins tougher). TJ's toughest SOS might suggest that the bye week will be hard to hold on to, while Drew and Adrian have much easier ends to their seasons.

Prediction

1-Drew

2-Adrian

3-TJ

4-Colin

5-Kurt

6-Richie (I can dream, damn it)

7-Alex

8-Ben

9-Jarrett

10-James

Like I said, probably more of a food for thought-type article, but it looks delicious to me! (that sounded more clever in my head).