In this game (through many seasons of playing) I'd say that the ratings tend to outdo the *'s.
If you look at a 'troll' result, where a team loses to another that is maybe average 2*'s worse you'll see the lower level players will rate 8's and 9's, whereas the better team will only it 5's, 6's and 7's.
Saying that, over a season i'd rather have a team of 7 * players playing average than 2* players playing well!