Pre-Final Transfer List Season 57 Rankings
Lots of transfers still to finish up before the official start of the season on Saturday, with one pending for after Saturday's games (Seattle's PG Eric Madden - last season's 21st pick in the draft) - so lots could change with this, because I'm doing these rankings based on variations of team salaries. Couple of things to take into consideration:
1. Two teams currently have 17 players on the roster (Philly Dribble & pintipv - neither of which has a player currently listed on the transfer list.
2. Three teams currently have 11 players, one of which has two players listed so I expect them to be adding in the next couple of days.
3. The majority of teams have 12-15 players currently rostered, though I know for myself, I'll be trying to settle in at 13 players
Current League Leaders in Salary
1. Mighty Moose Rockets with $315,387 - though it appears they're shedding some salaries with the transfer listing of both Jean-Louis Fleurent ($66,867) and David Charles ($35,587). If Hutch44 successfully cashes in on those, they're looking at nearly $3 mil in cash, which I'd assume would be used for replacement salaries, unless a tanking is in the works.
2. Philly Dribble with $312,245, with no players listed currently
3. Gremlins with only 12 players rostered comes in at $296,384.
Current League Leaders in Assumed Starting 5
These are probably not the actual starting 5 in all scenarios, but for simplicity, we'll assume the highest 5 paid players would be the starting 5 for each team.
1. Mighty Moose Rockets coming in at $270,241 (again, this could change if both Fleurent and Charles are sold)
2. Gremlins with $217,873
3. Lion Rebels with $211,969
Current League Leaders in Assumed Top Coming Off the Bench Players
Again, for simplicity, we're assuming the top 6-10th players in salary would be coming off the bench and playing meaningful minutes - obviously, this is probably not the case depending on manager style, team training efforts, tank jobs, or a desire to play deep into the Cup tournament.
1. Philly Dribble - $72,467
2. Gremlins - $72,101
3. San Dominica Warriors - $71,974
With all of that, here's the prediction for league rankings heading into season 57
Big 8
1. Mighty Moose Rockets
2. Lion Rebels
3. Philly Dribble
4. Rip City Revival
5. Linndale
6. War Birds
7. Seattle SuperSonicz
8. San Dominica Warriors
Great 8
1. Gremlins
2. The Beer Bellys
3. Żubr Białystok
4. pintipv
5. Dallas Bomskwad
6. The Ashkickers
7. Miami Cleo
8. Weather Society
I gauged this on a weighted scale based on three criteria - 1) Top 5 Salaries; 2) Top 10 Salaries; 3) Top 6-10 Salaries. The higher ranked in tier 1, the more points - the higher ranked in tier 3, more points, but much less than tier 1 and 2.
One thing to note - for the Great 8, 5 teams are within $17k in total salary of each other, so there's lots of room variance here. There's quite a much larger discrepancy in the Big 8 - overall higher salaries and not as many teams as tightly put together.
Final side note before moving on to my playoff/relegation predictions - looks like there was at least another player added to the transfer list WHILE I WAS WRITING THIS. How dare you Bomskwad! ;)