Thursday, July 25, 2019

Season 48- Power Rankings- Start of Season

All figured it was about time to resurrect the Power Rankings, I'm going to be posting in 3 segments over the next 3 days. This first post will be all the Honourable mention teams. 2nd Post will be 10 to 6, the 3rd post will be 5-1. 

A couple notes for my analysis when I talk about fielding and say a team was net (+21), that doesn't mean they had 21 plus plays that means they had 21 more plus plays than negative plays. IE: 27 plus plays and 6 negative plays ends up as a net (+21). Also just for frame of frame of reference as a world last year the average was a net of (+20), which is a great sign for the health of a world as it means overall we are fielding better than average defenders. 

While I've tried to take some time to make the list reflective obviously, this is a subjective list. 

Now on to the Honourable mentions in no particular order

Sample: 
Team Name (Last Season Record)
Hitting (Subjective Ranking Current Season)- (Last Season Rank by Run)
Pitching (Subjective Ranking Current Season)- (Last Season Rank by ER)
Fielding (Last Season Rank Fielding Percentage)-(Net Fielding plays (+ plays less - plays)

Iowa Cornpickers: (90-72)
Hitting B+ -  (11)
Pitching B  -  (14)
Fielding (9) (-24)

Last season made the playoffs to exit in the first round, a solid overall team in terms of both hitting and pitching, leaves a little be desired with the glove. The Cornpickers single biggest asset Cristobal Baerga has been plastered all over Watertowers of sleepy towns in Iowa. One of likely 10 players who in any given year could lay claim to the best player in Hunter. Relatively quite in FA but did add solid CF Bengie Colome and solid pitcher Bob Gray. Improvement will have to come from within. 

New Orleans Raging Cajun: (69-93)
Hitting (C+)- (13)
Pitching (B)- (30)
Fielding (32) (-59)

When you look at last season's record and stats especially pitching  (underperformed last year in my opinion) and fielding you may wonder why New Orleans made the honourable mention list. It's because Tony made a bit of a splash in FA signing 5-time All Star Bronson Franco (CF/2b), which would normally be a team's top off-season signing however he also added Charlies Pettyjohn. Pettyjohn is likely to go down as the greatest pitcher in Hunter history (sorry Felipie Bournigal), with 8 Cy Youngs to his name. While 38, Pettyjohn still has some tread left on the tires. We will see if you can remake a team in FA

Boston Minutemen: (77-85)
Hitting (B+)- (10)
Pitching (B+)- (21)
Fielding (10)- +51

The Minuteman were a solid team last season, that was a strong offensive and great fielding team. Tlcogan decided to tweak his team in the offseason as opposed to going for a big splash. He went bargin shopping in the Type B FA adding useful bullpen arm Dioyr Nunez and utility INF Sean House. Then acquired Alexi Gonzalez a solid rotation arm and position flexible Cord Durham in small deals. With a bounce back performance from the rotation and the incremental improvements Boston should be pushing for the playoffs

New Britain Yorkies (87-75)
Hitting (C+)- (16)
Pitching (C+)- (10)
Fielding (8)(-8)

So I'm going to be honest New Britain is here because Djbradford is the Bill Belichek of Hardball Dynasty when I look at his current ML roster I see a team that's going to miss the playoffs (I'm not making any conjecture on who's getting called up). However, New Britain has not missed the playoffs since season 25 and has won the NL North 19 of 21 seasons in that span. Plus Dj has won 11 titles during his time in Hunter...… He's likely going to make the playoffs and somehow find his way into the World Series

Detroit Tigers (81-81)
Hitting (B)-(27)
Pitching (B-) -(11)
Fielding (25) (+29)

The Tigers faded hard in the 2nd half of last season to finish at a .500 record much to the frustration of owner Xtrahits. Looking over their roster I have trouble reconciling the hitting talent, I see and their 27th ranked offseason last year. So I've come to the conclusion that the Tigers this season will look more like the team battling for a playoffs spot than the team that swooned in the 2nd half. For the most part they have decided to run it back except for the addition of Jesse Velarde a good 2b/3b who can bat near the top of a lineup.

Boise Bombers (79-83)
Hitting (B-)- (12)
Pitching (B)- (16)
Fielding (5) (+51)

So this is a another vote for infrastructure plus some personal bias. The Bombers had made the playoffs 8 consecutive seasons prior to last season and I kept waiting for them to make a late season push. Fun Fact the Night Demons have won the AL West 43 of 47 seasons, the Bombers are reasonable for 2 of the 4 loses. They are always among the best defending teams in Hunter and I fully expect them to rejoin the playoff hunt. To start this summary I noted a personal bias...…. the Bombers own the soul of the Sluggers in the playoffs and Mettir has robbed me of at least one championship.




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