The Money Ballers

the-money-ballers

So are The Money Ballers makin’ any sense now?

I know there was a bit of concern if this system would actually spit out the year’s top clutch scorers, but from lookin’ at our weekly top 15, at least for me, it’s tough to argue with who’s on there.

Ryan Ward and Craig Point still sit one and two. Yeah, they didn’t pick up many points this past weekend after getting snowed by Philly in the fourth, but just look at the amount of tying or go ahead goals these two studs have tossed back this year! The two have factored in on almost 20 goals each  for the Swarm on goals that have either knotted things up or put Minny ahead. To me, those markers are as good as cold hard cash in the NLL, right? Isn’ that almost the defintion of what a clutch scorer is? A guy that has his stick on goals that are deciding the direction of a game? Many times being the ultimate decider in a game?

Jake Bergey, who may not be lighting up the regular scoring charts, just keeps coming up with his stick on goals that have been so important to Philly’s season so far. How can you deny that?

And for anyone in TO this year, you know that every time you’re jumpin’ outta your seat to big it up for a monster goal (see Lauren Ward), nine times outta ten, it’s usually gonna be Shooter or Manning.

Yeah, guys like John Grant (8.5 Money Ballers pts), Lewis Ratcliff (4.5 pts) or Mike Accurrsi (8 pts) are leading their teams in scoring and in most cases are close to the top of the league scoring charts, but with their teams struggling in the standings and continuously getting rocked late in a lot of their losses, doesn’t it make sense that these guys wouldn’t be considered “money” this year? Most, if not all our current top 15 is filled with ballers that have stepped up in those tight situations.

Is this system perfect? No, probably not. And like I said earlier this year, we’ll probably tinker with it each year in order to score us a better and maybe more accurate reading, but I gotta tell you, after looking at the guys listed below, I dare ya to try and argue they haven’t been crazy important to their team’s success this year.

Hit the boards, lemme know who you think is clutch this year, and for the most popular guys, I’ll make sure to breakdown their digits next week. There’s a difference between rep & a guy being your fave baller versus what they’re actually registering for their team. And just so ya know, sitting just outside our top 15 are Chad Culp, Jason Wulder (who actually just got knocked off the charts for the first time this year), Gavin Prout, Kevin Dostie, Derek Malawsky, Brian Langtry, Delby Powless, Aaron Wilson, Jordan Hall and even Rochester’s Scott Evans, who right now is easily leading the Hawks’ Money Ballers team ranking.

I’m also gonna go out on a limb here and say that with Minny on a bye and the Wings playing twice this weekend, I’m thinkin’ Jake or maybe Nooch are sittin’ at the top of the charts next week at this time.

Anyways, here are this week’s Money Ballers





  FIRST THREE PERIODS FOURTH PERIOD OT CLUTCH
PLAYER TIE AHEAD GWG TIE AHEAD GWG GWG PTS
  G A G A G A G A G A G A G A  
Ryan Ward (T8) 3 1 3 4 1 0 2 4 1 0 0 0 0 0 23.0
Craig Point (11) 3 2 4 3 0 1 2 4 0 1 0 0 0 0 21.0
Jake Bergey (T30) 1 0 3 2 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 19.0
J Sanderson (27) 3 2 3 2 0 1 0 1 2 0 0 1 0 0 18.0
Luke Wiles (18) 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 18.0
Andy Secore (T8) 1 4 2 1 0 0 2 3 0 1 0 0 0 1 16.5
Colin Doyle (10) 0 1 3 2 0 0 0 1 2 1 0 0 0 1 16.0
Athan Iannucci (T16) 0 1 2 2 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 15.5
Mark Steenhuis (T3) 3 1 2 3 1 1 0 2 0 2 0 1 0 0 15.5
John Tavares (1) 3 2 0 3 0 2 0 2 2 0 0 1 0 0 15.5
Dan Dawson (T13) 0 3 1 1 0 0 2 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 15.0
Blaine Manning (T13) 1 5 2 5 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 14.5
Jeff Zywicki (T5) 1 1 2 1 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 14.5
Sean Pollock (T21) 0 1 1 3 1 0 2 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 14.5
Cory Bomberry (T30) 2 0 1 3 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 13.5
Dan Carey (T16) 1 2 4 1 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 2 0 0 13.5
Casey Powell (2) 0 2 2 2 1 1 1