The Dog Days of Baseball are here ... everyone has injuries. Everyone needs pitching, except for the City of Pitching Love. Right now we have eliminated a few teams from playoff consideration, but the next month we will find who is ready to push to the playoffs. Sorry Mets, A's, Dodgers, O's, Twins, Fish, Cubs, Astros, and Royals fans, you are playing for next year. Now we get to find out who will fight it out with the Yankees, Red Soxs, and Phillies for the championship.
And always remember, a day at the ball park is better than a day at work.
Although I once was in charge of a company trip to a Royals game and as luck would have it, it was a true double hitter against the Twins. The Royals lost by a combined score of 22-1 and many people disagreed with the above statement.
As always, I hope this is a jumping off point to talk about baseball. Tell everyone why your favorite team is under-ranked. I have yet to see someone say I have ranked their boys too high.
Boston starts its second week at the top of the power rankings. The Yankees, by virtue of not having to play Boston this week moves from #6 to #3. The Yankees are 1-8 vs. Boston and 42-22 against everyone else. I project the Yanks to win more games than Boston, because they dominate the weak sisters so much, but that doesn't mean in a playoff series I would place any bets on the boys in the pin stripes.
Phili is the class of the NL, have the best pitching, average offense and no one wants to face that starting rotation in a playoff series. I am thinking they are looking really good.
Tampa Bay is the big mover of the week. They are road warriors, a rare team that wins more on the road than at home. But they still have a lot games left against the Yankees / Red Soxs. Third best in the AL East means you are a good team, but that doesn't win you much in the grand scheme of things.
Arizona has moved .5 ahead of the Giants. With all that pitching (assuming the Twins leave town soon) the Giants have to find a way to score more runs to be an elite team.
The Nationals continue their move to the top half of the board. They are playing excellent baseball, and more talent is on its way. A few more pieces at the trade deadline and they could be a factor in the wild card.
The AL Central is a mess. Cleveland has stopped the bleeding. Detroit has cooled. The White Sox are a mystery. The Twins are playing like everyone thought they would, except being the worst team in baseball for two months is just too big of a hole to climb out of. And the Royals, the Royals, oh, the poor Royals....
(Moment of silence please ...)
Let's Go Royals!
Power Rankings - June 9, 2011
Rank |
Last |
Score |
MLB |
Projected Wins |
Projected Losses |
1 |
1 |
4.8 |
Boston |
97 |
65 |
2 |
2 |
5.0 |
Philadelphia |
101 |
61 |
3 |
6 |
5.2 |
NY Yankees |
98 |
64 |
4 |
3 |
7.7 |
Atlanta |
92 |
70 |
5 |
13 |
9.2 |
Tampa Bay |
88 |
74 |
6 |
9 |
9.8 |
Arizona |
88 |
74 |
7 |
11 |
9.9 |
Texas |
86 |
76 |
8 |
4 |
10.3 |
St. Louis |
86 |
76 |
9 |
12 |
11.0 |
Cleveland |
87 |
75 |
10 |
7 |
11.5 |
Milwaukee |
87 |
75 |
11 |
5 |
11.7 |
San Francisco |
86 |
76 |
12 |
10 |
12.0 |
Detroit |
86 |
76 |
13 |
8 |
12.5 |
Cincinnati |
85 |
77 |
14 |
16 |
13.5 |
Washington |
82 |
80 |
15 |
15 |
14.5 |
Colorado |
82 |
80 |
16 |
20 |
14.7 |
Chicago Sox |
79 |
83 |
17 |
19 |
16.3 |
Pittsburgh |
80 |
82 |
18 |
14 |
16.5 |
Toronto |
79 |
83 |
19 |
17 |
16.7 |
Seattle |
80 |
82 |
20 |
21 |
17.0 |
LA Angels |
78 |
84 |
21 |
18 |
17.2 |
NY Mets |
79 |
83 |
22 |
27 |
18.3 |
Oakland |
75 |
87 |
23 |
25 |
21.5 |
San Diego |
69 |
93 |
24 |
22 |
22.0 |
LA Dodgers |
72 |
90 |
25 |
24 |
22.8 |
Baltimore |
73 |
89 |
26 |
28 |
23.2 |
Minnesota |
71 |
91 |
27 |
23 |
23.8 |
Florida |
71 |
91 |
28 |
26 |
23.9 |
Kansas City |
68 |
94 |
29 |
29 |
26.8 |
Chicago Cubs |
65 |
97 |
30 |
30 |
27.0 |
Houston |
61 |
101 |
Standard Disclaimers –
Power Rankings are based solely on what a team has accomplished, not its potential, nor its current state of health. The entire system, both the power rankings and the projected records are based on team, not individual totals.
The raw score is included. This is a relative rank measure, scaled from 1 to 30. It has a confidence interval of around plus or minus 1. That means if your favorite team is less than 2 (1 from their estimate and 1 for the other team's) away from another team, statistically there is a chance the places could be reversed. (The maximum likelihood is the order given though ...) The closer the two scores, the more likely a reversal.
Projected Final Standings are based on simulations and involve rounding. While each team’s total games is 162, the total numbers of wins and losses in the league may not equal each other. Also the Final Standings assumes all postponed games will be completed and this is not always the case.
The poll is based on who would be in the playoffs TODAY, not who I think will be in the playoffs at the end of the year. Teams tied for a playoff spot are also included. If you team is not in the poll, simply tell them to win more games and they can be in next week’s poll.