Season 24 Power Rankings #1

A little late with these, my apologies!  Here's the power rankings for Season 24 through game 40.

	Team	W	L	PREV	Comments
1	Atlanta	30	10	2	Taking back the top spot with elite play across the board
2	Cincinnati	28	12	16	New owner has the team playing their best for sure
3	Houston	24	16	4	Living up to the hype this season, offense is great
4	Dover	23	17	1	Putting up good numbers still, so can't count them out
5	Arizona	24	16	8	Offense is firing and the pitching is holding its own
6	San Juan	23	17	5	Pitching mediocre so far, but offense getting it done
7	Boston	25	15	7	Steady combination of good pitching and hitting so far
8	Charlotte	23	17	6	Playing well so far, looks like another strong season
9	Florida	23	17	11	Getting it done so far, yet numbers not quite elite yet
10	Buffalo	23	17	14	Pitching is really good, but offense a slight question mark
11	Salt Lake City	24	16	15	League's top pitching so far has them moving up quickly
12	Ottawa	24	16	22	Big jump, thanks to well balanced pitching and hitting
13	Trenton	22	18	23	Offense has been solid, pitching is just ok
14	Pittsburgh	21	19	12	Surprisingly high ERA for them, but still in contention
15	Pawtucket	18	22	3	Pitching has been roughed up early on, but they're good
16	Louisville	19	21	13	Getting a ton of offense, but giving up a lot of runs too
17	St. Louis	19	21	17	Numbers show they could make a move up later on
18	Austin	21	19	21	Better than expected start for them is a good sign
19	Texas	21	19	27	Pitching has been the key to their over .500 start
20	Colorado Springs	17	23	19	A little slump at the end, but numbers are pretty good
21	New York	20	20	25	Offense is a bit of a concern, but .500 record is good sign
22	Syracuse	20	20	26	Pitching hasn't been great, but they are decent overall
23	Durham	19	21	20	Offense is going to have to step it up to get back in it
24	Jacksonville	17	23	24	Pitching has been respectable, but not much offense yet
25	Tampa Bay	15	25	9	Rough start, but certainly capable of improving
26	Los Angeles	15	25	10	Pitching hasn't gotten fully into gear yet, it looks like
27	Albuquerque	15	25	30	Rebuild is coming allong, the offense is pretty good
28	Salem	17	23	32	Pitching still isn't at the level to move them forward
29	Las Vegas	15	25	18	Haven't gotten much offense yet this season
30	Seattle	15	25	29	Not getting the pitching numbers you'd expect for Seattle
31	Philadelphia	10	30	31	It just hasn't come together for them quite yet
32	San Francisco	10	30	28	Pitching is surprisingly bad, and very little offense

Season 24 Preseason Power Rankings

Season 24 is about to get under way, so it's time to check in with the preseason power rankings!  We had some excellent preseason insights from topoftheworl as well, that were quality additions to the blog.  Let's see how they compare!   At the top of the preseason rankings, we have the 3-time defending champion Dover.  The roster is a year older, but the same was said last season, and they came through.  Gotta show respect for the champs.  Coming in at #2 is Atlanta, probably the most talented team in Cobbfather on paper.  Another impressive season seems extremely likely.  #3 is Pawtucket, who emerged last season as a top AL team.  With the top offensive threat in the world and some quality Free Agent signings, it's not hard to see why.  #4 is Houston, who struck it big in Free Agency once again and looks to be loaded.  An upcoming San Juan team rounds out the top 5, as rawdk looks to have his team ready to contend again.  Here are the complete rankings, good luck to all in your openers!

		Season 23
	Team	W	L	Comments
1	Dover	107	55	Getting older, but can 3peat champs be anywhere else?
2	Atlanta	108	54	Extremely talented roster that could easily win it all
3	Pawtucket	92	70	Coming off a great season, and active in Free Agency
4	Houston	87	75	Loaded up in FA once again, so should be solid
5	San Juan	90	72	They've got a lot of youth, so should improve again
6	Charlotte	98	64	Great last season, but the AL is looking very tough
7	Boston	96	66	Aging roster and lost Almanzar, but still pretty good
8	Arizona	88	74	Looked good last season, and should be in it again
9	Tampa Bay	89	73	Haselman is getting older, but still a very good team here
10	Los Angeles	88	74	Always in the mix with tremendous pitching staff
11	Florida	86	76	Should build on last season, Leiter was a nice add
12	Pittsburgh	86	76	Consisitently solid and looking to get back in the fold
13	Louisville	87	75	Nice offense, if the pitching improves, will be strong
14	Buffalo	85	77	Loss of Hernandez hurts, but have very good pitching
15	Salt Lake City	81	81	Looking to break out of the pack this season
16	Cincinnati	78	84	Added a couple of pieces, so they could improve
17	St. Louis	81	81	Very strong pitching is a plus, we'll see about the offense
18	Las Vegas	71	91	Ontiveros was a nice add, so improvement is possible
19	Colorado Springs	74	88	Management is confident in improvement this season
20	Durham	69	93	It's a tough division, but they did improve their pitching
21	Austin	82	80	A lot of roster movement, so we'll see how it works out
22	Ottawa	83	79	Lost some pieces, but they still a solid pitching staff
23	Trenton	77	85	Middle of the pack last season, so we'll see about them
24	Jacksonville	74	88	New ownership is still getting acquainted with the team
25	New York	78	84	Pitching was an issue last season, we'll see if it improves
26	Syracuse	77	85	Pretty average across the board, can they take next step?
27	Texas	80	82	With star slugger Riley, so could improve this season
28	San Francisco	64	98	Almanzar provides needed pitching help, good offense too
29	Seattle	69	93	Took steps forward, can they continue upward trend?
30	Albuquerque	58	104	Second year owner is still making team their own
31	Philadelphia	55	107	A lot of youth, can they take a step forward this season?
32	Salem	55	107	Not sure about this team, but we think they'll be better

topoftheworl's Top 25 Pitchers - NL

The top 25 pitchers in the NL:

	Name	Team	Raw Score
1	Douglas Banks	Buffalo	3600.8
2	Norman LaPorta	Houston	3487.5
3	Manuel Estrada	Houston	3391.3
4	Vic Vizcaino	Arizona	3380.0
5	Will Ogden	Dover	3361.0
6	Antonio Ishida	Buffalo	3337.0
7	Marvin Walsh	Pittsburgh	3315.0
8	Davey Torrealba	Texas	3309.0
9	Jim Goulet	Texas	3294.5
10	Dioner Ontiveros	Las Vegas	3270.0
11	Don Monahan	Dover	3259.3
12	Destin Beirne	Ottawa	3258.3
13	Dennis Saito	Syracuse	3247.3
14	Artie Stone	Arizona	3221.0
15	Terry Kramer	Los Angeles	3203.8
16	Homer Butler	Los Angeles	3198.3
17	Brent Voyles	Arizona	3192.5
18	Sid Townsend	Buffalo	3177.5
19	Bill Hermanson	Philadelphia	3175.0
20	Chief King	Pittsburgh	3168.0
21	Red Collins	Florida	3125.0
22	Billy Cooper	Houston	3116.0
23	Fausto De La Rosa	Ottawa	3115.0
24	Houston Austin	Los Angeles	3109.0
25	Clarence Poole	Houston	3104.8

topoftheworl's Top 25 Hitters - NL

Now its the NL's turn.  First the top 25 hitters:

			Projected
	Name	Team	RC
1	Willie Cerda	Jacksonville	127.4
2	Pascual Hernandez	Houston	126.6
3	Howard Greer	Pittsburgh	122.3
4	Garrett Patrick	Dover	121.0
5	Jerrod Griffiths	Houston	119.8
6	Hootie Cookson	Dover	119.8
7	Greg Riley	Texas	119.7
8	Vic Crowe	Ottawa	119.6
9	Abraham Tannehill	Syracuse	118.2
10	Albert Pineda	Dover	116.3
11	Albert Pineda	Buffalo	115.2
12	Will Maxwell	Houston	112.8
13	Dustan Jackson	Houston	112.3
14	Benito Acosta	Buffalo	111.4
15	Pepe Guillen	Ottawa	111.2
16	Carlos Trevino	Jacksonville	110.9
17	Aurelio Lima	Syracuse	110.8
18	Tony Hujimoto	Arizona	109.6
19	Luis Duran	Salt Lake City	108.0
20	Stan Dickens	Dover	107.9
21	Alex Mercedes	Salt Lake City	106.1
22	Benny Franco	Ottawa	106.0
23	Gary Harvey	Florida	105.8
24	Victor Guzman	Arizona	105.4
25	Vic Castro	Arizona	104.3

topoftheworl's Top 25 Pitchers - AL

Top 25 AL pitchers.  Stamina was not given any weight in this assessment so RP's are right in there with SP's.  The "raw score" is just a ranking tool and does not equate to anything specific.

	Name	Team	Raw Score
1	Tony Mota	St. Louis	3479.25
2	Jayson Klesko	Boston	3419
3	Trevor McQuillan	Salem	3394.5
4	Aneury Tejeda	Atlanta	3345.75
5	Thomas Hutchinson	Atlanta	3344
6	Victor Almanzar	San Francisco	3339
7	Ron Jefferson	Boston	3307.25
8	Allen Cox	Louisville	3284
9	Miguel Colon	Trenton	3260
10	Alex Satou	Pawtucket	3258.25
11	Clinton McNeil	Durham	3243.5
12	Yeico Oliva	Boston	3228.5
13	Julio Sanchez	Tampa Bay	3228.25
14	Ron Gross	Pawtucket	3217.75
15	Alberto Beltre	Pawtucket	3213.25
16	Calvin Wanatabe	Tampa Bay	3206.25
17	Gus Masaoka	Atlanta	3205
18	James Haselman	Tampa Bay	3177.5
19	Walt White	Charlotte	3164.25
20	Antone O'Neill	St. Louis	3164
21	Edgard Fernandez	Albuquerque	3161
22	Lloyd Chiasson	San Juan	3151.5
23	Kevin Kingland	New York	3149
24	Jhoulys Olmedo	Salem	3143
25	Hiram Ogawa	St. Louis	3140.5

topoftheworl's Top 25 Hitters - AL

Here are the top 25 hitters in the AL.  Pure bats, not points for defense.  The second column is my estimate of their predicted runs created for the year.  Home ballpark has not been figured in.

-----This just in:  Albert Cruz is a BEAST!-----

			Projected
	Name	Team	RC
1	Albert Cruz	Pawtucket	134.7
2	Timothy Steinbach	Atlanta	121.4
3	Enrique Garces	Atlanta	120.8
4	Mendy Kondou	Boston	120.3
5	Morgan Cerda	Atlanta	120
6	Eugene Brantley	Tampa Bay	117.5
7	Kendry Lunar	Boston	114.4
8	Vic Park	Atlanta	113.6
9	Crash Meacham	Atlanta	113.2
10	Benjamin Delcarmen	Cincinnati	111.8
11	Vladimir Troncoso	San Juan	111.6
12	Neifi Gandarillas	Louisville	111.5
13	Junior Roberts	Charlotte	111
14	Alex Manto	Atlanta	109.4
15	Joshua Hendrick	San Juan	109.2
16	Theo Waters	Pawtucket	108.3
17	Stubby Shaw	Boston	107.7
18	Takumi Tanaka	Salem	106.3
19	Joey Ryan	Louisville	105.8
20	Joe Foster	San Juan	104.6
21	Vern Connelly	Louisville	103.6
22	Vinny Dickinson	Atlanta	103.1
23	James Dillard	Charlotte	101.6
24	Yuniesky Nieves	San Juan	101.3
25	Brutus Henry	St. Louis	101.1

topoftheworl's Future Rankings

Future rankings

Since I am in the middle of a rebuild I decided to see how I am coming along.  I took every player at every level and scored all of them 25 or under.  This is a flawed system, of course, because my advanced scouting sucks.  However, in theory my advanced scouting should be inaccurate in a way that does not bias any one player or team.  I broke up prospects into 5 tiers.  Tire one are the truly elite and tier 5 probably should never make the majors.  Teams got the most points for a Tier 1 players and a tiny amount for a tier 4 prospect (with nothing for tier 5).  I did not make a distinction between ML and minors since we all run our teams differently.  The total points don't mean anything except giving me a final way to rank teams.

Rank	Team	Total Points
1	San Francisco	18
1	Austin	18
1	Buffalo	18
4	Colorado Springs	17.5
4	New York	17.5
6	Salt Lake City	17
7	San Juan	16.5
8	Florida	14.5
9	Jacksonville	12
9	Las Vegas	12
11	Atlanta	11
12	Salem	10.5
12	Cincinnati	10.5
12	Seattle	10.5
15	Trenton	10
16	Arizona	9.5
17	Charlotte	9
18	Albuquerque	8
18	Durham	8
20	Syracuse	7.5
21	Texas	6.5
22	Ottawa	6
22	Philadelphia	6
24	Houston	5.5
24	St. Louis	5.5
26	Boston	3.5
26	Los Angeles	3.5
28	Louisville	3
28	Pawtucket	3
28	Tampa Bay	3
31	Pittsburgh	2
32	Dover	1.5

Thoughts: No tears for Dover since they have won back-to-back. SF and Buffalo are projected to make the playoffs. Atlanta is 11th and the 2nd best team overall in my projections.

topoftheworl's Season 24 Preview

I had a little extra time this last week (Barrow, AK, my home, shuts down for a local holiday on the 2nd so we all had a 5 day weekend) and the wife and kids are out of town.  Rather than do something useful I broke out an old spreadsheet I had and put Cobbfather's 32 teams into it.  I used to do the blog over in Long Haul and I used it then.  I asked A-log if I could share my results and the fruit of my efforts is below.  I'll start by giving the caveat that it is really hard to quantify defense into a formula and so while I try, its probably undervalued in my final product.

Projected AL records:

AL North	W	Ḷ	GB
Pawtucket	90	72	-
St. Louis	86	76	4
Cincinnati	79	83	11
New York	69	93	22
AL East	W	Ḷ	GB
Atlanta	111	51	-
Boston	100	62	11
Trenton	81	81	30
Durham	71	91	39
AL South	W	Ḷ	GB
San Juan	92	70	-
Charlotte	85	77	7
Louisville	76	86	16
Tampa Bay	75	87	17
AL West	W	Ḷ	GB
San Francisco	76	86	-
Colorado Springs	73	89	3
Albuquerque	66	96	9
Salem	65	97	10

My thoughts:  If this holds I will owe ploppie a season since I promised 76 wins.  I ran Tampa Bay twice because I didn't believe how poorly they did.   San Francisco is a team to watch.  Not only are they the class of the West now, but they are only getting better (more on that later).  Atlanta has the best offense and the 2nd best pitching.  Boston has the best pitching and the 2nd best hitting.  One of them will not win their division ;)  Trenton projects to have a run differential of 0.  I've never had that happen before.

Projected NL records:

NL North	W	Ḷ	GB
Ottawa	87	75	-
Pittsburgh	83	79	4
Syracuse	78	84	8
Seattle	72	90	15
NL East	W	Ḷ	GB
Dover	95	67	-
Buffalo	86	76	9
Florida	77	85	18
Philadelphia	71	91	24
NL South	W	Ḷ	GB
Houston	107	55	-
Jacksonville	81	81	26
Austin	73	89	34
Texas	60	102	47
NL West	W	Ḷ	GB
Arizona	91	71	-
Los Angeles	80	82	11
Salt Lake City	79	83	12
Las Vegas	78	84	13

My thoughts:  Houston is really, really good.  Their pitching staff is projected to be 20 runs better than LA's and 60 runs better than anyone else.  In addition they have the 2nd best offense.  Their run differential is projected to be bigger than Dover's and Arizona's combined.  Texas is real trouble on offense.  Buffalo is the San Francisco of the NL, but better.  They should make the playoffs this season and they are only getting better.