BoS Power Rankings (July) / August Updates

The Boys of Summer Power Rankings from July 4th through August 1st, 2014.

John Lackey & other South Shore vets are showing that they are not going away, anytime soon.

Not too much differences from last month at the top, and for most part of the league -- only 4 of the 16 teams really experienced movement in the rankings. The Bronx Bombers have improved dramatically with improvements to their fielding, better run differential & their team ERA -- it appears they will make a run at that American League Wildcard spot. The Buffalo Yankees and the San Diego Heroes meanwhile are going in the wrong direction, as they dropped 3 slots each, and sit at 13th & 14th overall.

AUGUST UPDATES

Since the above Power Rankings & the Trade Deadline at the end of July, the San Diego Heroes have been on fire after making a few trades that have reshaped the team's fortunes.

Since the trades on July 26th, the Heroes have gone 21-8, and as of tonight's report (August 26th, 2014 for the season), the team is currently on a 10-game winning-streak (which I believe off the top of my head is a franchise record for the Heroes -- who were the Sacramento 66'ers during the first season).

They are currently 3 games out of the wild card spot which is owned by either the Traverse City Panthers or Hannibal Cavemen tied at 77-57, the team that doesn't win the N.L. East may be jeopardizing a chance at the playoffs with San Diego coming on strong.

Remember, only the division winners & the next best team (wild card) in each league, move on to the playoffs. The team with best overall record in each league, gets a first-round bye. So at the moment, if the season ended today, the Portland Microbrewers would have a bye (and be waiting in the League Championship Series), and Hannibal & T.C. would be in, with one of those teams being a wild card, the other would have home-field in a best-of-five series against the other. San Diego is currently out, but looking to shake things up.

Two big series are up in this week's mix, with Traverse City at Hannibal for 6 games, while San Diego visits Portland for 6 games.

"Crush" Davis does the usual... watches the ball go yard.

BoS Power Rankings (June 2014)

Bumgarner & the Fairgrove Tigers are clicking, while they get into the 2014 title mix.

BoS Power Rankings for Month #3 (May 28th - July 3rd)

 Biggest Jump (Placement): Four teams jumped upward two places, the South Shore Fighting Imps made big improvements last month, they started the month by clobbering Traverse City at home, winning their series 5-1 -- which set the tone for them as they went 24-10, since their 31-22 start. The Hannibal Cavemen caught fire, sweeping their last opponent Seattle, to take first place away from the Traverse. The King Road Kings and Urbana Locomotives, also move up two spots, while playing .500 or better ball of late.

Here is the top 7 teams record-wise for the last month

1. Fairgrove (25-9)

2. South Shore (24-10)

3. Hannibal (23-11)

4. San Diego (18-16)

4. Swatara (18-16)

4. Urbana (18-16)

5. King Road (17-17)

Biggest Jump (Points): The King Road Kings' pitching has really come around, which has helped matters in where they stand compared to the league -- the unfortunate thing is that they could not gain any ground on San Diego during this stretch, even though the Power Rankings indicate that San Diego is treading water, while King Road has almost a 20 pt advantage on the Heroes.

Staying Steady: The rankings from #9-#12 in the Holland Hitchhikers, Buffalo Yankees, San Diego Heroes & Chicago Nine show their statistical performances to be staying steady, while Holland's and Chicago's records reflect they are sliding; Holland is 14-20 the last month, while Chicago was 13-21.

Biggest Drop (Placement): The Seattle Rainiers dropped three spots to 15th (out of 16) on the Power Rankings, while the Traverse City Panthers dropped 2 spots -- T.C.'s batting has been a big reason for it's decline.

Biggest Drop (Points): Once again the Rainers & Panthers, both dropping 15.5 points -- The Panthers fell below the 100 point level for first time this season, with two consecutive months of them slipping on this chart (a total of 3 places, while losing 19.5 points). The good news for the Rainiers, there is always Boston below them.

Teams to Watch: The Fairgrove Tigers (a league-best 25-9 since May 27th) in the American League, that is led by Cy Young candidate Madison Bumgarner (14-3, 2.09 ERA) is on pace for 26 victories -- to put it in perspective, he only had 13 victories the same season for the Giants. On the National League side of things, the Hannibal Cavemen just snuck past the Panthers, and taken control of the division at the All-Star break.

BoS Power Rankings - May

Anibal Sanchez: 7-1, 2.01 ERA, 68 K's & .989 WHIP in 62.2 innings for Portland this season.

The power rankings for month #2 (May) through May 28th.

Biggest Jump (Placement): Good things for the Mosher family circle in the month of May: The Fairgrove Tigers (Robert Mosher) and Holland Hitchhikers (Steve Ruder) moved up the most places on the Power Rankings -- each moving up 4 slots. As you may or may not know, Steve became a father last year, giving "Tiger Bob" another grandchild.

Biggest Jump (Points): It's hard to believe that just a month ago, the Portland Microbrewers ranked #4, had only 88.5 points in the ranking system, they have been on fire since, going 22-2 since, and winning 24 of last 26 games. Not to mention the BoS League Record 14 game winning-streak.

Staying Steady: The Traverse City Panthers did drop a spot (falling to 3rd) & lost 4 points, but have stayed relatively steady, while Portland & Fairgrove blown past them. The Buffalo Yankees (11th) didn't move any spots, while losing 7 points.

Biggest Drop (Placement):  The Chicago Nine dropped 4 slots, while losing 13 points in the BoS Power Rankings. 

Biggest Drop (Points):  The King Road Kings dropped 20 points, and slipped two spots -- their division mates San Diego Heroes had one of the biggest drops (-18.5); Both bad news for two teams while Portland starts putting serious distance between both teams. The Heroes are in second, but already trail by 10.5 games.

Team to Watch: The South Shore Fighting Imps are the defending BoS World Champions, they were #1 during the end of April - Power Rankings, and have recently fallen to #4 in the rankings, by dropping 3 slots & 19.5 points. The team only played .500 ball during May (12-12), while still owning a 5 game lead on the Swatara Eliminators. The Imps have played better on the road, going 18-12. 

BoS Power Rankings (End of April)

The above was taken from last year's example of how I came up with the Power Rankings formula, in time I may eventually add bullpen & stolen base aspects to the rankings. This is how it will work for this year though.

The 2013 BoS World Champion South Shore Fighting Imps lead the end of April BoS Rankings, followed by the Traverse City Panthers, Swatara Eliminators & Portland Microbrewers. We are playing the 2014 BoS Baseball Regular Season (2013 MLB stats).