MBL POWER RANKINGS

In this spot, I will make an attempt to rank the MBL teams based not on their won/lost record, but by taking an objective look at each team and assigning them a ranking.  I will base these rankings by assigning an ordinal rank to each team in various different batting, pitching and fielding categories.  I will combine the rankings in the individual categories to come up with an overall Power Ranking.  Keep in mind that I am not a mathematician.  This is certainly not a scientific measure of team performance.  I am simply crunching some numbers and spitting out objective results.  Having said that, let's take a look at how the teams stack up to date.

RNK	TEAM	BAT	PIT	FLD	PCT	PYTH	LUCK
1	San Francisco Quakers	1	3	15	.684	.672	1
2	Arizona Apaches	2	8	12	.583	.566	1
3	Pittsburgh Crawfords	11	2	3	.600	.611	(1)
4	Cleveland Rock 'N Rollers	8	5	9	.509	.594	(5)
5	Colorado Briar Jumpers	7	4	17	.596	.585	1
6	Boston Beaneaters	4	10	23	.614	.559	3
7	Baltimore Stouts	3	19	1	.439	.504	(4)
8	Toronto Redcoats	9	14	4	.467	.504	(2)
9	Tampa Bay Stone Ponys	5	17	10	.474	.541	(4)
10	Oakland Osprey	14	6	20	.491	.488	0
11	Cincinnati Red Stockings	12	13	11	.579	.536	2
12	New York Rippers	13	11	14	.483	.502	(1)
13	St. Louis Sliders	17	7	16	.526	.535	(0)
14	Miami Panthers	24	1	22	.574	.498	4
15	Milwaukee Phantoms	10	22	2	.533	.470	4
16	Houston Buffaloes	22	9	8	.407	.404	0
17	Seattle Lightning	16	12	18	.509	.459	3
18	Brooklyn Broken Arrow Bums	18	16	6	.444	.469	(1)
19	San Diego Vipers	6	23	24	.481	.428	3
20	Atlanta Stonecutters	15	20	13	.368	.390	(1)
21	New York Bombers	23	15	7	.404	.401	0
22	Detroit Buckeyes	20	21	5	.417	.401	1
23	Washington Senators	19	18	19	.439	.487	(3)
24	Minnesota Millers	21	24	21	.368	.385	(1)

GLOSSARY

BAT - Batting Rank

PIT - Pitching Rank

FLD - Fielding Rank

PCT - Actual Win Percentage

pyth - Expected Win Percentage

LUCK - Difference between actual wins and expected wins

Seeing as this is the first edition of the Power Rankings, let me explain what you are looking at in the above table.  The RNK column is the actual power ranking for the individual teams.  Pretty self-explanatory.  Same goes for the BAT, PIT and FLD columns.  These represent where the teams rank in each of the individual categories.  So as we see from the table, the San Francisco Quakers are ranked #1 overall in the power rankings.  They are the #1 rated hitting team, the #3 rated pitching team and come in at #15 defensively.  To come up with these different category rankings, I looked at several different sub-categories within the overall batting, pitching and fielding categories.

PCT is the team's actual win percentage to date.  PYTH is the team's expected win percentage based on the Bill James Pythagorean theorem of baseball.  Basically, the formula relates a team's runs scored and runs allowed to its won-lost record.  LUCK is the difference between actual wins and expected wins.  A positive number means the team is performing better than expected, while a negative number indicates a team theoretically in under-performing.  As we see from the table, the Miami Panthers have won four more games than they were expected to win, i.e. they have been "lucky".  On the other hand the Cleveland Rock 'N Rollers have been "unlucky" to date, having lost five games that they theoretically should have won.  These numbers explain why Cleveland is ranked #4 in the Power Rankings despite having a worse won-loss record than Miami, who is ranked #14 overall.

In the end, these rankings are just for amusement purposes.  Wins are all that really matter.  Miami is the most intriguing team as I look at these numbers.  They rank out as the best pitching team in the league, but also as the worst offensive team.  Quite a dichotomy.  They currently lead the CL's Southeast Division by 5.5 games, but the numbers say they should actually be trailing Tampa Bay by a 2.5 games.  As the saying goes, I guess that's why we play the games.

Two teams grade out right in the middle of the pack.  Cincinnati ranks 12th in batting, 13th in pitching and 11th in fielding.  Overall they occupy the #11 spot in the rankings.  The New York Rippers are very similar, ranking 13th in batting, 11th in pitching and 14th in fielding.  They are the #12 ranked team overall.

Going by the Power Rankings, the current playoff teams would be as follows:
CLASSIC LEAGUE
Division Winners:  Boston, Tampa Bay, Pittsburgh
Wildcard Teams:  Cleveland and Cincinnati

EXPANSION LEAGUE
Division Winners:  Arizona, San Francisco, Baltimore
Wildcard Teams:  Colorado and Toronto

That would mean that Miami and Milwaukee, currently leading their respective divisions, would be out of the playoffs altogether.  St. Louis, currently occupying a wildcard spot, would also be on the outside looking in.  Basically what this says to me is that nothing is set in stone as far as the standings go.  There is a long way to go, and if the expected wins even out throughout the course of the season, then we can expect some movement in the standings.

I'll try to update these rankings every week or so.  If anyone has any comments on any of this, please feel free to leave a comment here on the blog page, or email me or message on the Dynasty site.  Until next time.