Power Rankings S48- Start of Season (5-1)

As the prophetic band Europe once espoused this is the "Final Countdown". We have reached the top 5 the cream of the crop and you will notice a heavy lean towards one league.

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)

5. Atlanta Cheese Grits (96-66)
Hitting (B+)- (7)
Pitching (A-)- (7)
Fielding (15) (+43)

When you look at the overall grades you may wonder why Atlanta cracks the top 5...….. well as Rick Flair once said to be the man you have to beat the man...… Woooooooooooooooooo!!!. The Cheese Grits are the defending champs and a solid overall team. It will be interesting to see if they suffer from the championship hangover of delivery the first title in 47 seasons to Atlanta. The Cheese Grits for the most part are looking to run it back but key pieces on the roster are a year older and Kevin Fujikawa has now reached the point in his career where he is good.... but the sands of time have zapped most of his greatness. Father time remains undefeated. Expect Atlanta to be back in the playoffs and challenging for the Thunderdome title  (AL South)


4. Montreal Rippers (107-55)
Hitting (A+)- (4)
Pitching (B+)- (4)
Fielding (11) (+63)

In season 47, Montreal ownership announced their presence on the title contention scene winning their 3rd division title but with a 18 win jump. Before losing to the eventual champions in the ALCS. Gatesfanelli has been one of the most active owners on the trade market since joining the league and has amassed an amazing collection of talent especially hitters. His core of Terrance Wood, Jonathan Griffin, Wendall Cooke is likely the best trio combination in Hunter, the three have combined for 5 MVPs, 17 All- Star games & 17 silver sluggers. I think the Rippers will continue to outhit the competition the jury is still out on whether they have the pitching to go all the way.

3. Jacksonville (97-65)
Hitting (A-) (9)
Pitching (A+) (6) 
Fielding (6) (+20)

They say that pitching and defense wins championships which is what drives Jacksonville to the position as the top NL team. Jacksonville's pitching staff in my estimation is the best in Hunter with Jim Morandi, Bret Gyorko, Ivan Posada and David Pineda all at ace level. That level of pitching depth should have delivered a title but the Juicers seem snake bitten in the playoffs. On top of elite pitching the Juicers do boast a fearsome lineup headlined by S45 NL MVP Erubiel Belliard and S42 MVP Albert Ibanez. Jacksonville's depth of pitching and hitting makes them the favourite to represent the NL this year

2. San Francisco Night Demons (106-56)
Hitting (A) (8)
Pitching (A-) (1)
Fielding (4) (+50)

The Night Demons are one of the most successful franchises in Hunter history with 8 World Series Titles and 46 trips to the playoffs in 47 seasons, they have made the playoffs every season since season 12 and expect that streak to continue. The Night Demons were upset last year by the Louisville Sluggers in the first round (SF now 7-6 in playoff matchups versus Lou), they return in S48 with a great roster top to bottom, pitching, fielding, hitting, minor league talent stream and management infrastructure.  San Fran is lead Yadina Molina, an ace in a long line of Night Demon aces, who has racked up 7 Cy Youngs with the skill to add more. Expect the road to the World Series to go through San Francisco.

1. Washington Generals (107-55)
Hitting (A) (5)
Pitching (A-)(3)
Fielding (3) (+41)

I was very happy when Mdukes returned to Hunter after a 21 season hiatus in S39, as world get better when you add strong owners...…I was also very wary about Washington's return to dominance. Mdukes sent 4 seasons rebuilding a broken franchise and has now made the playoffs 4 consecutive years with back to back 107+ win seasons. Similar to San Francisco there are no holes in Washington they are great in all facets of the game (Pitching, Hitting and Fielding).  As of today Mdukes is 4th in Hunter Championships with four (NB-11, SF-8, Lou-5), despite the aforementioned hiatus. I believe this is the season that the title returns to Washington for the first time since season 16.

Season 48- Power Rankings Start of Season (10-6)

New start getting down to the nitty gritty. Feelings will be hurt, people will feel shunned, heads will likely be shaken in disagreement with my assessment but that part of the fun.

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)

10. Vancouver Lumberjacks (88-74)
Hitting (A)- (8)
Pitching (A)- (14)
Fielding (26)- (+25)

Timf is on his 2nd tour of duty in Hunter and have been a very competitive owner in both runs (almost became the Buffalo Bills losing 4 straight World Series before winning the 5th in Season 22). Last season pulled a first round upset on Jacksonville who we will be seeing later in this list.... that's called foreshadowing. Vancouver lost Charley Pettyjohn in the off-season but has been active in the trade market adding two high caliber starters in Oscar Tomlin and Raphael Rodriguez. A disappearance mid-season last year hurt his overall record and pitching staff. If the manager pays attention for the full season this is a team likely to rise in the rankings

9. New York Yankees (99-63)
Hitting (A)- (15)
Pitching (B+)- (2)
Fielding (12)- (+14)

Last season the Yanks came within one win of the championship. The Yankees are a well rounded team whose pitching staff likely slightly overperformed last season and owner shucky must have thought so as well. As it's big off-season additions are two useful arms Albert Heisler and Torey Witt from the type B bargain bin. NY is likely a lock to return to the playoffs having won their division by 18 games last season. We will see if game 7 season 47 was the best opportunity for the Yankees to take home a championship

8. Monterrey (97-65)
Hitting (A)- (1)
Pitching (A)- (17)
Fielding (20) (-3)

Welcome to Thunderdome…..wait I'm being told this isn't Thunderdome it's the AL South...….Monterry is the defending AL South Champion but two other AL South teams progressed further last post-season and the title resides in Atlanta. The AL South lead all divisons in total wins and 358 wins (.552 Win percentage as a divison) and playoff teams (3). Last year the Heat knocked the cover off the ball and look poised to do so again. Their weakness was pitching which mjs22 has aggressively addressed this off-season with the additions of three elite pitchers in Jiovanni Guyer, Apollo Mitchell and Al Oviedo. I think it's safe to the say the AL South will rise again

7. Louisville Sluggers (90-62)
Hitting (A)- (3)
Pitching (A-) - (14)
Fielding (7)- (+42)

The Sluggers finished 3rd in the AL South but were able to upset the Night Demons round 1 before falling to the Rippers of Montreal. The Sluggers return all key members of their 3rd rank offence and add Enrico Amaro to bolster their pitching staff. The majority of the improvement for the S48 Sluggers was made during season 47 as jahu43 addressed a major team issue. No team in S47 underperformed relative to exp. win percentage more than the Sluggers (full 10 games under expectation). This was due to an abomination of a bullpen which was over hauled last season with the addition of Jason Blackmon, Yan Guzman and Angel May, which took a weakness to perhaps the best in Hunter. This writer (who also happens to be Jahu43), will be very interested in how the bullpen performs over the full season.

6. Scottsdale Dawgs (99-63)
Hitting (A)- (2)
Pitching (A-) - (12)
Fielding (14) (+14)

Last year's NL South winner looks poised to repeat however is likely going to face a stiffer challenge from Vancouver this season. The end of last season a sweep at the hands of the Yorkies likely left a our taste in Rocky's mouth. He returns a very balanced team lead by a fearsome lineup which included 5 players with more than 100 runs created last season. The Dawgs have only made minor tweaks to a winning formula signing Mike Roberts a solid reliever to help shore up their bullpen. I expect Scottsdale to have World Series intentions and challenge again to lead Hunter in runs scored.

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.