PSPBL Week 9 Power Rankings

Bo Bichette came alive this week to continue F&F’s success (Getty)

Despite this being a week with three one-category victories, we continue to see weekly shakeups in the down-ballot portion of the Power Rankings as we also try and continue to sort out just who to take more, or less, seriously.

Granted, that’s not the easiest thing to do given that the Pride is pulling away, F&F is doimng the same to a lesser extent, and you have four teams within a half-game of each other in the Benders, Bikini, the Hackers and their new friend, BDPH, though all four are at least five and a half games out of the playoffs at the moment.

If anything, the standings are reflecting what we’re seeing in the league generally: There’s a few teams that pretty clearly have their act together and look like contenders, given their consistent results (particularly in the Pride’s case). Then … yeah. Even looking at the matchup records for those teams makes it clear that you don’t exactly know what you’re going to get from them week-to-week, as the Benders and BDPH are both 4–4–1, Bikini is 4–5 and the Hackers are somehow hanging on by a thread at 1–8.

As mentioned, BDPH is the newcomer to that group after its crushing defeat at Fall Guy’s hands, but it’s not necessarily an unfamiliar spot and, well, maybe the place where they belong at the moment.

We’ll discuss that more as we head to the countdown.

1. LANCER PRIDE (Hitting 3rd, Pitching 1st): The beat just goes on for the Pride, which didn’t necessarily post dominant numbers this week but still seemed to coast to victory. It should be noted some — some — of the Pride’s success has been the result of good fortune. Other than runs, they won most of the offensive counting stat categories this week by slim margins, for instance. The Pride doesn’t necessarily feel like a team that should bowl you over when you look at it, either: Yes, Yordan Alvarez has had a great start to the season, and toss in Ronald Acuna, Chris Sale and Zach Wheeler. But names like Yandy Diaz, Carlos Cortez and Ezequiel Duran also have big numbers for this roster, which might seem kind of unexpected. Whatever it is, it’s working for the Pride and they have to hope it keeps working.
2. SOUTH BEND BENDERS (Hitting -3 to 7th, Pitching 2nd): The Benders did get a win this week, though it came by just a single category over a team that only has one matchup victory on the season thus far in the Hackers. Ultimately, when you see a team ranked this high, but with a record that’s still sub-.500, you have to start looking for areas where regression may kick in. Consider the following — the Benders rank sixth in the league in runs scored but are just 3–6 there, rank fourth in the league in RBI and are also 3–6 in that category, have the league’s third-best batting average but are just 4–5 in that realm, and have the league’s most quality starts, but are just 4–2–3 in that space. Long story short, the numbers say the Benders should be better than they are. It just hasn’t shown up yet, but it might in due time.
3. (+1) FUKUROUND AND FINDOOT (Hitting 6th, Pitching -1 to 4th): There was some sad news from the Jonathan Dyer camp this week, as his mom, Lisa Dyer, who competed for the league in one season, as well as his uncle, passed away. Dyer informed the league he may be taking a bit of a leave of absence, though if he did, it didn’t necessarily show up in the standings as F&F had an easy time with Mercy, getting an eight-category win. Given the Benders are still trying to dig out from the hole of their 10-category loss to Catuli in Week 2, the smell test says F&F is the league’s second-best team to the Pride right now, and they get to test that theory out in their second matchup against the Pride this week, having dropped the first in Week 2, 8–3. That said, we’re sure the F&F camp has other things on their mind this week and understand if fantasy baseball isn’t front & center.
4. (-1) EAMUS CATULI (Hitting 1st, Pitching -1 to 9th): Unfortunately, we’ve seen this before with Catuli — a hot start has turned sour for them after their pitching has kind of petered out. It’s not like their staff doesn’t have names, from Yoshinobu Yamamoto to Shota Imanaga to Freddy Peralta to Max Fried. However, Fried is now hurt, Peralta and Imanaga had pretty bad weeks, and Catuli is left with the question of what to do about a five-matchup losing streak with largely the same team that accumulated a four-matchup win streak to start the season. Furthermore, while the offense stays atop that split this week, they still slashed just .181/.615 against the Pride, while they’re also dealing with Giancarlo Stanton and Cal Raleigh, who was struggling this season to begin with, also being on the injured list. It’s just not a fun time in the Catuli camp and their hold on the Schulz looks tenuous at best right now.
5. (+2) FALL GUY STUNTMAN ASSOCIATION (Hitting -1 to 10th, Pitching +2 to 3rd): OK, that’s more like what we expect out of Fall Guy. Granted, while they did sweep the offensive categories, it wasn’t necessarily a breeze, as they slashed just .230/.688 and only won the RBI category by one. Still, Fall Guy is getting some great pitching to make up for an offense that’s still finding itself. It just kind of felt like a matter of time, and in sniping BDPH, they also cheekily swatted them out of a playoff spot and grabbed it for themselves. Now comes a bit of a test, though: A rematch against the Hackers team that put Fall Guy behind the 8-ball for a while with a 13–1 win over Fall Guy back in Week 3. Revenge would both be sweet and put Fall Guy in a position to take over the lead in the Schulz with Catuli not only struggling but on the schedule in Week 11 for the Stuntmen. All in all, things got one heck of a lot brighter pretty fast for Fall Guy over the course of Week 9.
6. JUDAS PRIESTER (Hitting +2 to 5th, Pitching -1 to 8th): Priester came away with a somewhat unremarkable 8–7 win over HDH this week. They won mostly on the hitting side where their numbers were solid, particularly with seven net stolen bases. After an eventful start to the season, Priester seems to be settling in some with a team that plays good defense, scores a lot of runs, and strikes out a lot of batters, though their team ERA is still the league’s worst. Things are looking up, though, and they banked enough category victories early on that just holding steady should probably be enough for them to have the postseason on the brain. They take on a reeling Catuli team this week, so they’ll just want to stay the course and continue their steady ways.
7. (+4) RHUBARB BIKINI (Hitting +1 to 4th, Pitching +1 to 11th): Bikini also looked a little more like the team we expect year in and year out this week, though it only added up to an 8–7 victory over JJZS. Bikini is still a hitting-first team this year, and that was indeed the case this week as they went 7–1 on that half while going 1–6–1 on the pitching side, though their pitching numbers were passable in every regard save maybe walks. Needless to say, this week’s matchup for Bikini is a test against the Benders, and while Bikini is the better hitting team generally, other than in stolen bases, where they’re strong, their offenses look fairly similar numbers-wise. If the Benders can get the pitching they’re capable of this week, that’s where Bikini could struggle in the battle for Glorioso dominance.
8. (+1) ANDY HACKS AT 3–0 (Hitting +1 to 9th, Pitching 6th): The Hackers got close to ending their recent skid this week, but couldn’t pull it off, falling by a category to the Benders. They had the offense to get the job done, including eight stolen bases and 12 home runs, but those homers came with very few men on base as they only recorded 26 RBI (though that was still a category winner) while they looked very three-true-outcomes-ish with a .201 batting average. One fun fact: The Hackers have now made five player adds during the course of the season. One came purely from the free agent pool in Jose Soriano, but the other four — Jarren Duran, George Springer, Devin Williams and, just this morning, Framber Valdez — all Miller castoffs, as in players cut from either Mercy or BDPH. There’s not necessarily any meaning to that, however, given those teams all sit below the Hackers on the Power Rankings right now, one wonders if these three clubs are simply rotating players who haven’t been getting the job done. [shrug]
9. (-4) BIGADODDLEDOOPENGUINHEADS (Hitting 2nd, Pitching -1 to 12th): Hey, speaking of BDPH, here they are … yes, way down here now. There’s not a lot of ways to spin this week’s loss to Fall Guy other than to call it a disaster. BDPH committed five errors, slashed just .225/.639, had a net stolen bases number of zero, an ERA of 6.23, a WHIP of 1.49, walked nearly one man every two innings and posted a net wins number of minus-5. Other than the six net saves they recorded in the one and only category they won, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln? We’ve seen seasons where BDPH falls off the table before, but the reversal of fortune has rarely been so sudden. That said, it was sudden and BDPH can maybe hope it was just one bad week and move on, especially with a winnable matchup on tap against the sororal unit. But still, 14-category losses aren’t exactly common in the PSPBL, and any way you slice it, it leaves BDPH with a hole to dig out of in more ways than one.
10. JOHN JACOB ZIMAHEIMER SCHMITT (Hitting 8th, Pitching +2 to 7th): In a season that’s been spent entirely below .500 in a division with three other highly competitive teams, it’s easy to look at a one-category loss for a JJZS team that doesn’t look like it’s having much impact on the 2026 PSPBL season and just kind of give it a shrug. It was a meaningful win for Bikini to keep pace in the Glorioso, and it was good for the Zimas in that it continues to show their pitching is getting better. But there’s still a ways for the Zimas to go before they feel relevant, and even remaking their roster as they have in recent times doesn’t seem to be doing that just yet. At least they get a bit of a respite this week in that they take on an HDH team that doesn’t look like it’s really participating.
11. (-3) HARRY DOYLE’S HANGOVER (Hitting 11th, Pitching -1 to 5th): HDH hung in against Priester, including with a 1.87 ERA and 1.01 WHIP. But counting stats are a problem for HDH right now. Their total of 16 RBI was too low, while their total of four errors was two high, not to mention that even with those good pitching rate numbers, their net wins number this week was zero, and they still lost, 8–7. HDH is still only six and a half back in the Glorioso, but without making any moves, it’s hard to see the ghost ship getting back on the right course. At least, for now, they’re still hitting the pitching minimums.
12. HAVE MERCY (Hitting 12th, Pitching 10th): … and then there’s Mercy, which is still only five games back in the Glorioso. That’s saying something considering they lost to F&F by an 11–3 final this week. Mercy only accumulated 17 runs, four homers and 21 RBI this week, while also committing five errors and posting a minus-1 number in net stolen bases. That’s … not great. Their pitching numbers were mildly better, but this week was ultimately a kind of emblematic performance of their season, not to mention their numbers were in line with their season numbers. The 2026 season for Mercy might be best exemplified by the defense played by one of its outfielders this week, Pete Crow-Armstrong: Simply not up to par. But hey, they have a chance to beat their brother this week, and who doesn’t enjoy doing that? •