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. | |||||||
