A new team on top in the updated rankings…
These aren’t your typical rankings; I look at record, run differential, and farm system. I weigh the scores on all 3; record makes up half the score, the run differential makes up a third of the score, and a sixth of the score is from farm system.
For Run Differential, I use the Pythagorean Theorem formulated by Bill James to see what a teams record should be; you can predict how well a team should be playing by this. In theory, a team should be in about the same range for their Pythagorean Record as their true record.
Rank | Team | Record | Pythagorean | System | Total | Last Week | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | TB Rays | 30 | 30 | 27 | 59 | 2 | |
Easily the best team in the game right now; farm system as strong as the team. | |||||||
2 | NY Yankees | 28 | 28 | 15 | 52 | 1 | |
2 1/2 games back of the Rays, but playing strong ball. | |||||||
3 | STL Cardinals | 29 | 27 | 7 | 49 | 5 | |
Top team in the NL; has only lost 1 series this season. | |||||||
4 | San Diego Padres | 27 | 26 | 10 | 48 | 6 | |
Biggest surprise of the season has been the Padres; they finally built a team to fit the ballpark. | |||||||
5 | Minnesota Twins | 26 | 23 | 17 | 47 | 3 | |
Little adjustment to the new park was needed, as the Twins sit atop of the AL Central. | |||||||
6 | NY Mets | 25 | 25 | 16 | 47 | 18 | |
The Mets are starting to look good, following a strong week. Are they contenders or pretenders? | |||||||
7 | San Francisco Giants | 24 | 29 | 1 | 44 | 9 | |
Only a game and a half back of the Padres; weak performance from their system has hurt them. | |||||||
8 | Detroit Tigers | 22 | 18 | 23 | 42 | 14 | |
Even with a winning record, the Tigers need to increase their run differential (+3) to keep up with the Twins. | |||||||
9 | Philadelphia Phillies | 23 | 22 | 4 | 39 | 4 | |
What happened to Cole Hamels? If he can put it back together, they’ll be ahead of the Mets. | |||||||
10 | Oakland Athletics | 20 | 21 | 11 | 38 | 8 | |
Oakland’s falling back to the pack after a great start. | |||||||
11 | Florida Marlins | 16 | 19 | 26 | 37 | 7 | |
Much like Detroit (+3 run differential), but with less actual success. | |||||||
12 | Colorado Rockies | 18 | 24 | 8 | 37 | 11 | |
Tied with the Giants for Most Under-Performing Team; both should have an additional 3 wins based off of run differential. | |||||||
13 | Seattle Mariners | 17 | 20 | 19 | 37 | 12 | |
Cliff Lee is returning this weekend; should help the pitching a lot. | |||||||
14 | Washington Nationals | 21 | 11 | 20 | 35 | 23 | |
The Nats are winning dispite being outscored this season by 14 runs. | |||||||
15 | Boston Red Sox | 14 | 10 | 29 | 30 | 26 | |
The Sox are seeing a little life come back; a dolid weeks has them up 11 spots. | |||||||
16 | Arizona Diamondbacks | 15 | 17 | 9 | 29 | 19 | |
+2 run differential explains .500 record. At least the Dodgers are playing worse. | |||||||
17 | Toronto Blue Jays | 12 | 13 | 25 | 29 | 15 | |
Toronto continues to drop after a great first week; this was expected. | |||||||
18 | LA Angels | 19 | 7 | 13 | 28 | 20 | |
Tied with the Nationals for the second luckiest team this season; they have 3 more wins than they should. | |||||||
19 | Cincinnati Reds | 13 | 8 | 24 | 26 | 21 | |
Second best team in the weak NL Central; 4 games back won’t end the season at this point though. | |||||||
20 | Texas Rangers | 11 | 16 | 14 | 26 | 24 | |
Rich Harden is this close to officially being a bust signing. | |||||||
21 | Chicago Cubs | 9 | 14 | 18 | 24 | 22 | |
Still looking for Alfonso Soriano. Fan’s have to be hoping for Zambrano to fix something in the bullpen. | |||||||
22 | Cleveland Indians | 8 | 5 | 28 | 21 | 17 | |
Pretty much as bad as expected; at least the system is playing well. | |||||||
23 | LA Dodgers | 4 | 12 | 21 | 19 | 16 | |
Manny on the DL, Kemp getting blasted by the GM in the media; Not much going right in LA these days. | |||||||
24 | Milwaukee Brewers | 7 | 15 | 5 | 19 | 10 | |
How much longer will Trevor Hoffman be the closer if he continues to lead the league in blown saves? | |||||||
25 | KC Royals | 2 | 4 | 30 | 15 | 25 | |
Top farm system in the game won’t console many fans in KC, especially since most of the help is at least 2 years away. | |||||||
26 | Atlanta Braves | 3 | 6 | 22 | 14 | 13 | |
9 game losing streak is sinking Bobby Cox’s fair well tour. | |||||||
27 | Chicago White Sox | 6 | 9 | 2 | 13 | 28 | |
Rumors of Jermaine Dye returning probably won’t help this team. | |||||||
28 | Pittsburgh Pirates | 10 | 1 | 3 | 12 | 27 | |
The luckiest team in the league with 5 wins more than they should have due to the worst run differential in the league. | |||||||
29 | Houston Astros | 5 | 3 | 12 | 11 | 30 | |
The had looked better for a couple of games, but this is a truly bad team. | |||||||
30 | Baltimore Orioles | 1 | 2 | 6 | 4 | 29 | |
If things continue this way, look for a lot of the kids to get more playing time. |