1. 1.
New Orleans
3 seasons ago BigTex put me on
notice that the Jazz were going to make some noise. It turns out the noise was
Championship music. Two seasons ago in a Power Ranks post I stated the thing
holding New Orleans back was a lack of MVP bat and Bigtex quickly remedied that
with the acquisition of Branch Garnder. This acquisition lead to a title which
would point to me being correct ,however the defending NL MVP is E. Patterson
who was on the roster that the time I made my comment…..whoops
2. 2.
San Francisco
BJB correctly pointed out that
over the last 5 seasons he has likely had either the best or 2nd
best team on paper every season and hasn’t won a title since S21. The scary
part is during the game 22 annual prospect pissing content this perennial title
contender took silver. The end of the Night Demon run is no where in sight. The
one thing other teams can take solace in is the “Playoff Crap Shoot Factor”,
all a team can hope for is to put itself in position to potentially win a
title.
3.
3. St. Louis
If there was a candidate for the
next “New Orleans Jazz” it would be the Browns. This team has been built slowly
and then augmented with a few key trades however has yet to see the talent
convert to post season success. The
Browns are likely to secure one of the two AL byes which shortens the road to
the championship. I have a feeling that if SF is bounced from the post-season
this year it will by this roster
4.
4. Salt Lake City
There are a few owners in the
world that can be counted on to create perennial contenders and Shmish is definitely
among those ranks the S24 champs are off to yet another good start and have a
roster built for title contention. Estaban Gomez entering his 2nd
complete ML season anchors the batting order while providing gold glove defense
in CF. A huge bat at a premium position
5.
5.New Britain
For the first time in as long as I
can remember there are 3 NL teams in the top 5 of the power ranks. I’ve often joked that the NL is Quadruple A
and the jokes for years were well founded whenever a huge player hit the FA or
trade market it was always an AL team that stepped up to secure the player as
the AL was a nuclear arms race however in recent seasons that trend has started
to shift and it shows in roster talent.
I’m a full paragraph in and haven’t
mentioned the Yorkies. DJ moved to the NL and turned around a disappointing
franchise in a very short period of time. Making the WS in S25, was likely a
year or two ahead of schedule but they came within a win of DJ’s 4th
championship. This S25 young roster has matured to become what will likely be a
championship contender for years to come.
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