IP Sports Baseball Rankings: 04/23/2010

Back again with 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		NY Yankees	29	28	12	52	7
		Half a game back of the Rays; they will continue to be in the hunt for the full season.
2		TB Rays	30	30	4	51	6
		Best team in baseball, record-wise and run differential-wise; farm system is starting slow.
3		Minnesota Twins	28	26	14	50	2
		The favorites for the central continue to play well.
4		Philadelphia Phillies	27	29	10	50	1
		Tied for the best record in the NL with the Cardinals; early World Series favorite.
5		STL Cardinals	26	25	5	44	5
		The Cardinals haven’t lost a series yet; they are showing why they are the favorites in the division.
6		San Diego Padres	25	23	8	43	25
		The Padres are the surprise of the first month; we’ll see how this young team plays after a couple of months.
7		Florida Marlins	23	19	20	42	11
		This looks to be the same strong starting Marlins that we see every year.
8		Oakland Athletics	24	21	11	42	8
		Another surprise; the A’s are getting solid pitching and surprising run support.
9		San Francisco Giants	19	27	7	39	3
		An unlucky team; their run differential shows that they should have an additional 2 wins.
10		Milwaukee Brewers	18	24	15	39	21
		Crooked numbers against the Pirates has the run differential very high.
11		Colorado Rockies	16	22	22	38	13
		The Rockies look better now than they did a year ago at this time; they could be a force if they have another strong second half.
12		Seattle Mariners	22	20	6	37	26
		The Mariners had a strong week in the standings; they should look better when Lee and Bedard come back.
13		Atlanta Braves	17	14	29	36	14
		Run differential is even at this point; the offense, outside of Heyward, still looks stagnant.
14		Detroit Tigers	20	12	21	35	9
		More good hitting with sub-par pitching; when do you send Dontrelle to the scrap heap?
15		Toronto Blue Jays	21	18	2	34	4
		One of the big droppers of the week; they’d still be looking good in another division.
16		LA Dodgers	13	16	16	29	15
		The pitching has been pretty bad, giving up almost as many runs as they’ve scored.
17		Cleveland Indians	12	11	23	27	23
		Middle of the pack is pretty good for this team; they need a little more from their pitchers.
18		NY Mets	10	17	13	26	22
		The Mets finally win a series, but can they build on it.
19		Arizona Diamondbacks	7	13	30	26	12
		The good news is they are scoring more runs than last year; the bad news is they are giving up more too.
20		LA Angels	14	8	17	25	28
		As many predicted, they didn’t upgrade where they needed it; the pitching needs a lot of help.
21		Cincinnati Reds	9	7	24	22	17
		Noticing a trend yet; most teams down this way need pitching help. When will we see Chapman?
22		Chicago Cubs	5	10	26	20	19
		Will Zambrano moving to the pen really do anything?
23		Washington Nationals	15	6	1	19	24
		We’re still on Strasburgh watch; their pitching needs a lot of work.
24		Texas Rangers	8	15	3	19	10
		3 games under .500, but still scoring more runs than they give up. Bad luck?
25		KC Royals	6	9	18	18	18
		Pretty much as expected.
26		Boston Red Sox	4	5	27	16	16
		I’ll be looking at the Red Sox struggles this weekend.
27		Pittsburgh Pirates	11	1	9	15	27
		Off a bad series against Milwaukee, the Pirates aren’t looking for pitching help; they need it though.
28		Chicago White Sox	2	4	25	13	20
		A slow start may lead to some trades; Pierzynski’s name is already being floated out there.
29		Baltimore Orioles	1	2	28	12	30
		The worst team in baseball, but they have a strong system. We might see a lot prospects in the coming months.
30		Houston Astros	3	3	19	11	29
		The Astros look bad and won’t be getting better.