I am really excited for 2024. The Slammer S-Scale, often-mocked, but many times correct, has an extreme makeover for this season.
The old system of ranking was fine, but it always had one major flaw in it in the past.
And that flaw was never hidden; I always was forward with it saying that oftentimes, there were categories where the separation between first and fourth was (let's go with homers for example) only a few homers, so it was not fair to give the first place team 6 points and the fourth place team 3 points in the system. Especially when fourth place would have a significant lead on fifth and sixth.
So that led to inconsistencies in the projected standings.
With that in mind, I decided to break out the calculator and do some math to figure out a new formula to credit a third-place team with more points if they were closer to the lead.
I still used the same system in terms of picking the top lineup, plus UTIL spots, plus one extra bat from current lineup and used the current Fantrax projections. I then took the entire pitching staffs and did the same thing.
Like before, your totals were matched up against everyone in your League, but this time, it's scored on a zero-to-10 scoring system, with 10.0 points being assigned to the team that wins the stat category, and the lowest point total being assigned to the team in sixth place.
To keep that point total for the last-place team being zero points, I used a formula that would automatically take the lowest stat total and subtract 20 percent from it to create the new low.
With that low total and the high total, it created our range of best to worst, and through Excel, I had it automatically look at everyone's stat projections for each category and assign you a point total from zero-to-10 on where you lied within that range.
Confused? I get it. Here's an example that should clear it up.
So for example, in the National League, the Slammers was projected to have 1,031 singles, so that was the high. The Scott's Tots had the low of 914, so it automatically turned the "low" into 731.2 singles (20 percent less). The Slammers got 10.0 points for being the best in the category, but with the Dude just 23 singles behind, he earned 9.2 points, and both Cheese and Quad Eh earned 8.6 points because they totaled 988 projected singles. In the past, they would have been punished and awarded jut 3.5 of the 6 points possible in the old system.
End of the long story and explanation here is, the new system really accounts for where you finish in statistical projections rather than just the place you are in.
With that said, here are the results:
| National League | TOTAL | BATS | ARMS |
| 1. Cheese Steaks | 171.8 | 87 | 84.8 |
| 2. Lebowski | 165.9 | 96.3 | 69.6 |
| 3. Slammers | 154.1 | 88.5 | 65.7 |
| 4. Nutz | 143 | 69.3 | 73.6 |
| 5. Scott's Tots | 143 | 76.4 | 66.6 |
| 6. Quad Eh | 139.6 | 77.3 | 62.3 |
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Right now, it looks like the National League is still going to have both the Dude and Steaks just battling it out for the top spot, but that final playoff position is certainly going to be up in the air. Last year, it was the Nutz and Slammers battling until the final weeks when the separation became clear.
The S-Scale has the Slammers in front by 11 points, but with the bottom three teams all separated by just 4 points, I think we're going to see a real battle for that third-place spot.
In the American League, it's hard not to pick the four-time champion Breakfast to take it all, and the S-Scale did that, but it's not a commanding lead by any means. The top four teams in the S-Scale all sit within 9 points of each other, and if we take into account that Topton's projections are lacking some stats because he's littered with SPs that won't return until mid-season and he has yet to be able to replenish them in free agency which would undoubtedly change this S-Scale completely, I don't think we can count Topton out either.
The American League could be a five-team slugfest throughout the year.
Both Leagues could be even more interesting when some of these Fantrax projections are thrown out the window.
Is Yamamoto really going to pitch to a 3.22 ERA?
Is Wyatt Langford really going to bat .331, but only hit 18 homers?
Are Trout and Harper really going to be limited to less than 90 RBIs?
There are so many questions abound, but according to the almighty S-Scale, there is no question: Steaks & Breakfast will once again take their respective Leagues.
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