IP Sports Baseball Rankings: 05/21/2010

When will the Rays get knocked off the top of the mountain?

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	22	57	1
		Same old story…Rays still playing great baseball.
2		Philadelphia Phillies	29	29	8	51	5
		Philles jump up to 2 after a strong week.
3		Toronto Blue Jays	24	26	25	50	8
		Blue Jays staying in contention, but need to get past the Yankees for Wild Card consideration.
4		NY Yankees	28	28	4	48	2
		Dropped 2 spots even though they are playing well.
5		San Diego Padres	27	27	5	47	4
		The Padres team is more suited for this ballpark now, which has translated to early success.
6		Minnesota Twins	26	23	15	46	3
		Everything seems to be working well for Minnesota right now…
7		Detroit Tigers	25	17	14	41	9
		…which makes it all the more frustrating for the Tigers, who are right there with them.
8		STL Cardinals	23	25	2	40	6
		The offense is still struggling, which is allowing the Reds to flip-flop with them for first.
9		Florida Marlins	18	21	23	40	14
		Hanley’s antics aren’t the only thing to worry about; this team isn’t scoring a ton more than they give up.
10		Atlanta Braves	16	20	29	39	16
		The Braves system lifts them into the top 10.
11		Texas Rangers	22	19	12	39	7
		Pitcher change-over recently could spark this team.
12		LA Dodgers	21	18	17	39	17
		The Dodgers have been playing well recently, but can it continue without Andre Ethier?
13		San Francisco Giants	19	24	11	39	11
		The Giants are falling back, mainly because their pitching hasn’t been as good as it was a few weeks ago.
14		Cincinnati Reds	20	15	21	37	10
		The Reds are over-achieving, but they are sticking near the top.
15		Boston Red Sox	17	14	28	36	15
		Things continue to slowly get better; they need an offensive spark though.
16		Colorado Rockies	14	22	1	29	19
		Still trudging along, hoping to be a good spot for that second half run.
17		Washington Nationals	15	11	18	28	13
		They are slowly starting to slow down; Strasburg had another strong outing in Triple A this week.
18		NY Mets	13	16	9	27	12
		Jerry Manuel could be on the unemployment line soon…
19		Chicago Cubs	10	13	19	25	21
		The Cubs really need to get a spark; they’d take it in the rotation or batting order.
20		LA Angels	11	8	20	23	23
		Wow, it’s a little weird seeing the Angels this low after a few years of really good ball.
21		Oakland Athletics	12	10	10	22	18
		Is Billy Beane counting down the days until the trade deadline yet?
22		KC Royals	7	6	30	21	26
		With the top farm system in the rankings, the fans of the Royals will have something to cheer for…down the line.
23		Milwaukee Brewers	5	12	7	15	20
		Milwaukee continues to slide; could they be as bad as Houston or Pittsburgh?
24		Cleveland Indians	4	4	26	15	22
		I still can’t figure out what happened to this team. It was 2 years ago they were the AL Central favorite.
25		Seattle Mariners	3	5	27	15	24
		They looked good on paper, but not on the field.
26		Pittsburgh Pirates	9	1	16	15	27
		With a run differential of over -100, it’s amazing they win any games.
27		Arizona Diamondbacks	8	9	3	15	28
		Wouldn’t they just love to see what Brandon Webb could do?
28		Chicago White Sox	6	7	13	15	25
		5 seasons ago, they were World Series Champions; Ken Williams needs to do something major to get them back there.
29		Houston Astros	2	2	24	11	29
		Changes has started, with Kaz Matsui being shown the door; many more are needed.
30		Baltimore Orioles	1	3	6	5	30
		It really can’t get much worse here.