I first came upon Hypothetical Standings in the legendary reports of stat service pioneer Jerry Heath. The idea is simple: Compute the standings based on the Draft Day rosters of teams, using the actual stats they accumulated this year to see just how much of their success or failure came via the draft, and concomitantly how well their inseason moves helped their chances.
These draft day rosters don’t tell you why the teams that did poorly failed. It could have been injuries or buying Adam Dunn. The point is that these are the teams each owner bought in the auction, and how they would have ended up in a Draft and Hold league.
Here are the standings of most improved teams this year from their draft day roster:
| Owner | Draft | EOS | Diff |
| Shandler | 41 | 59.5 | 18.5 |
| Grey | 62 | 79 | 17 |
| Berry | 56 | 70 | 14 |
| Erickson | 70.5 | 83 | 12.5 |
| Schechter | 91 | 96 | 5 |
| Peterson | 53.5 | 54.5 | 1 |
| Zola | 62.5 | 61.5 | -1 |
| Wolf/Colton | 71 | 64 | -7 |
| Moyer | 68.5 | 56.5 | -12 |
| Collette | 75 | 63 | -12 |
| Michaels | 61 | 45.5 | -15.5 |
| Siano | 68 | 47.5 | -20.5 |
Thanks to Tout Wars’ stat service provider, onRoto.com, for providing hypothetical (and actual) standings all season long.
I always love my team coming out of the draft. Unfortunately, it never loves me back.
“At least I won something this year,” said the owner of Adam Dunn.