AL Power Ranking

Anytime you do a ranking based purely on stats, any number of things can go wrong. A team with a hitter's ballpark is obviously going to put up the best offensive stats. A team with fences that are a mile from home plate is going to have the best ERA and give up the least HR's. But nonetheless, here is the current AL Power Ranking:

#1 - Colorado Knockers: They're only a couple of games above .500, and they've lost 7 of their last 10, but this club hits HR's like it's nobody's business, and their pitching staff would do much better if they didn't play in Coors. The pitching staff leads the AL in strikeouts, and they have some decent fielders behind them, for the occasional ball that actually hits the grass. They are in a tough division, so it remains to be seen if their squad can continue putting up these numbers while the pitching staff gets creamed.

#2 - Norfolk Tides: Not too far behind Colorado in the offensive categories, Norfolk is 6 games above .500, but has similar pitching issues to Colorado. They have a fair amount of speed, and a decent fielding squad, but can they keep this up with their sub-par pitching staff?

#3 - Atlanta Major Duckies: I should have taken away a few points for the team name, but these guys are 6 games above .500, and also putting up similar numbers to Norfolk and Colorado at the plate. The pitching and fielding are average so far, maybe even below average. The best pitcher on the squad is their closer, which is bad news for the rest of the staff. Either the offense needs to continue hitting HR's, or they need to go out and make a few changes to the pitching staff.

#4 - Philadelphia Starz: Don't worry Scranton, it's just a ranking. Philly's pitching staff is tremendous so far, leading the AL in WHIP and second in ERA, and they're the best fielding team in the league. But thank god for pitching, because these guys are last in the league in runs scored, and don't crack the top 10 in any major offensive category except for stolen bases.

#5 - Scranton Miners: The best record in the AL so far, these guys are lighting people up. They're in the top 3 in just about every major pitching category, and their offense isn't atrocious. They're at least scoring more runs than Philly so far. They love 1-run games too, going 5-2 in in such contests so far.

#5 - St Louis Archies: Not a typo, it's a tie for the 5th spot. Tough division, with three squads right on top of each other in the rankings. Sporting the same record as Philly, they are in this spot for an entirely different reason. While the Starz have great pitching, but not much else, the Archies are in the middle of the road in almost every category. That's the sort of team that scares me though. They don't do any one thing really well, but they do everything decently, so they don't really have any weaknesses.

#7 - Pawtucket Pawsocks: 2 games above .500, and dominating their division so far, they probably wish all 162 games were against Norfolk, Pitt, and Cleveland. They're very similar to StL, in that they scored in a lot of categories. More specifically, they scored points in 9 of the 10 categories for this ranking. They hit HR's, they steal bases, and their pitching does enough to keep them in games. They're used to dominating this division, so they will only climb these rankings as the season goes on.

#8 - Tampa Bay Rays: A perfect example of how a ranking based on stats can go wrong. The second best record in the AL so far, but they're only #8 in this ranking. But just like Paw and StL, they do a lot of stuff fairly well, and nothing poorly. The pitching staff hasn't been doing great so far, but the offense is making up the difference. If these guys aren't in the top 3 by the all-star break, I'd be surprised.

#9 - Pittsburgh Steelheads: Maybe the most disappointing team so far, after winning the division last year, and sporting a $110M payroll budget this year. The offense has gotten off to a very slow start, while they have relied on the pitching staff to keep them in games. Considering how much money is invested in the offense, they really need to step it up if this team wants to contend for the division.

#10 - Las Vegas Gamblers: It's bad news for the AL when the 10th best team in the league isn't even above .500 at this point in the season. But that's where we are, with LV's above average pitching, and so-so hitting. Will they contend in the playoffs? They might not even contend for their division.

Others:
#11 - Albuqureque
#12 - Texas
#13 - Florida
#14 - San Francisco
#15 - Toronto
#16 - Cleveland