Season 24 Preview

Special thanks to Power Rankings correspondent topoftheworl for his work below!

Regular Season Predictions

AL North

Kansas City (107-55)
Boise (89-73) WC #1
Vancouver (84-78)
Philadelphia (71-91)

AL East
Trenton (86-76)
Syracuse (83-79)
Richmond (79-83)
New Britain (66-96)

AL South
Nashville (86-76)
Jackson (79-83)
Florida (75-87)
New Orleans (63-99)

AL West
Las Vegas (101-61)
Honolulu (88-74) WC #2
Cheyenne (83-79)
San Diego (71-91)


NL North
Pawtucket (96-66)
Cincinnati (93-69) WC #1
Milwaukee (73-89)
Chicago (67-95)

NL East
Indianapolis (101-61)
Jacksonville (86-76)
Durham (76-86)
Baltimore (73-89)

NL South
Charlotte (95-67)
San Juan (90-72) WC #2
St. Louis (88-74)
Little Rock (57-105)

NL West
San Francisco (84-78)
Santa Cruz (72-90)
Los Angeles (66-96)
Helena (64-98)



Top 75 hitters
Player Team RC/27
Jin-Chi Itou LV 9.19
P.T. Feliz KC 8.43
Christy King SYRA 8.21
Jamey Brewington JV 7.73
Jumbo Sanchez LV 7.66
Tommy Webster JACK 7.59
Ken Woods PHIL 7.46
Edwin Jones HELE 7.40
Moises Morales IND 7.31
Ron Casey StL; 7.26
Geronimo Marquez PHIL 7.19
Bengie Fernandez SF 7.19
Alan Duncan HELE 7.14
Michael Palmer BOI 7.08
Yonder Rosado KC 7.02
Zack Matthews HON 6.99
Tony Jones BALT 6.92
Vinny Catalanotto HON 6.92
Terry Taylor SJ 6.90
Rob Counsell SF 6.88
Hector Cortez SF 6.86
Dicky Barker LV 6.84
Scott Herndon SC 6.83
Yunel Guerrero TREN 6.81
Del Camacho KC 6.76
Vicente Carrara VANC 6.71
Hugh Figueroa CHAR 6.70
Tomas Padilla NB 6.69
Rudy Carpenter BOI 6.65
Tom Burnett MILW 6.64
Ruben Barrios SYRA 6.64
Brad O'Connor KC 6.63
Vladimir Henriquez NASH 6.61
Fred O'Malley LV 6.61
Douglas Valentin BOI 6.59
Nate Gagnon CHAR 6.57
John Hasegawa SYRA 6.53
Adrian Hendricksen VANC 6.52
Joe Dipoto TREN 6.52
Wilt Swisher FLO 6.47
John Yamamoto SYRA 6.46
Pedro Ortiz PAW 6.43
Timothy Denham CIN 6.41
Alfonso Piedra KC 6.39
Jimmie Russell VANC 6.38
Lewis Gilkey PAW 6.36
Cam Ford LA 6.34
Julio Javier CIN 6.31
Nicky Cooke CHY 6.31
Yovani Crespo IND 6.28
Bob Tucker CHAR 6.26
Juan Carrasquel PHIL 6.24
Daniel Moylan TREN 6.24
Jorge Lunar KC 6.23
Marcus Martin CHY 6.23
Orlando Navarre DUR 6.22
Willie Jepsen KC 6.21
Angel Cruz SF 6.20
Farmer Ferguson CHAR 6.18
Sam Benoit CHAR 6.17
Omar Gutierrez NASH 6.12
Alfredo Payton SJ 6.12
Robinzon Beltran LV 6.12
Bill Williams Jr. CHI 6.12
Robert Brown SD 6.11
Madison Clayton TREN 6.11
Tris Fitzgerald NB 6.10
Joe Whitman JACK 6.09
Edwin Balester NASH 6.04
Juan Aramboles IND 6.04
Lyle Nichting KC 6.03
Vicente Rodriguez LR 6.01
Takahiro Hasegawa JV 5.99
Alejandro Valenzuela JACK 5.98
Alfredo Ozuna BOI 5.97


Top 75 pitchers (SP and RP together)
Orlando Fernandez IND 3380
Derrick Dawkins BALT 3364
Al Troncoso CHAR 3343
Santos Eovaldi KC 3324
Yamil Duran CHAR 3305
Jack Harding PAW 3277
Frank Hong PHIL 3275
Jeremi Wilkerson JV 3275
Darren James BOI 3247
Vern Stone LV 3242
Jack Parrish DUR 3241
Benji Ramirez IND 3232
Domingo Hernandez JACK 3229
Rick Branson JV 3229
Lew Ellis SYRA 3213
Benj Trammell CHY 3213
Louis Wilson SYRA 3209
Trever Springer NASH 3199
Mark Martin BALT 3198
Vicente Prieto CHI 3183
J.R. Blackley PAW 3180
Jair Gonzalez IND 3172
Edgardo Diaz SJ 3171
Phil Chang HON 3167
Walt Hairston TREN 3165
Jesus Gutierrez LA 3163
Jason Gruber PHIL 3157
Corban Chiasson NASH 3156
Ezdra DeRojas LV 3146
Esteban Borges IND 3145
Jason Haywood KC 3142
Ugueth Rodriguez SJ 3141
Damaso Sojo PAW 3125
Irv Porter BALT 3123
Tony Escobar LV 3110
Mariano Delgado IND 3094
Robinzon Andino StL 3091
Nigel Keats HON 3071
Ivan Amezaga PAW 3065
Nelson Jordan VANC 3065
Lou Donald BOI 3064
Jose Palacios JV 3052
Kurt Marte DUR 3051
Fausto Fernandez CHAR 3051
Jorge Seanez SYRA 3048
Joel Marte HON 3047
Wally Jones IND 3038
Timothy Rossy NASH 3033
Joe Johnson BALT 3030
Dan LaRocca BOI 3026
Diory Diaz LA 3024
Stan Hansen StL 3023
Blake Maxwell SD 3014
Juan Veras KC 3004
Sammy Morales TREN 2998
Sean Kennedy LV 2993
Enrique Bolivar PHIL 2975
Bobby Kennedy LV 2975
Asdrubal Pineda SJ 2974
Norberto Lecuona KC 2967
Rich Sinclair DUR 2963
Bud Waner CHY 2961
Quentin Weaver PAW 2958
Oswaldo Vizquel CIN 2955
Fritz Robertson VANC 2953
Alex Pimentel IND 2942
Ned Shields LV 2942
Domingo Palmeiro StL 2942
William Bunning JACK 2937
Zeus Quinn HON 2935
Vern Buckley NB 2935
Carl Meyer CIN 2932
John Reed StL 2930
William Mather KC 2929
Dustin McGee NASH 2928



Opening Day Power Rankings

1 Indianapolis If you win 3 in a row and 4 out of the last 5 you get the # 1 ranking no matter what. I mean who does that? Their roster ranked 3rd anyway so they are great!

2 Kansas City No matter how I slice and dice the numbers Dakar’s squad is the best by a country mile. SP Santos Eovaldi & RF P.T. Feliz are among the best players at their position.

3 Las Vegas Having recently made 2 WS it should be no surprise that Mongoose’s quad is Rikki Tikki Terrific. Their pitching is tremendous (#1 overall).

4. Pawtucket With the second best pitching overall and 2 straight seasons in a row with 10 plus win improvement the Griffins make Peter, Chris, and Stewie proud.

5 Cincinnati JBugg has worked hard this off-season to get this team playoff ready. He seems to have done enough, though I expect him to continue to improve his team.

6. Jacksonville The pitching was already top 5 and their recent trade allowed them substitute their two worst starter with their 2nd and 3rd best. Super young.

7. Cheyenne With support from Dan Snyder the ******* *****’s have a fabulous offense that that should easily be enough to power them to the playoffs.

8. Boise Boise and Cheyenne projected to have the same overall run differential. Boise’s pitching is a little better.

9. Charlotte A nice balanced team that easily could over perform. There is no reason to doubt that they will win their third straight division title.

10. Nashville With the 5th best pitching and weak division, the BootLegegger should easily make the playoffs, though their trend is worrisome. This owner liked their off-season.

11 Honolulu Last year’s AL representative in the WS looks to have a tough journey to take his team back to the promised land. Not a bad team, just not WS level.

12 Trenton Another projected playoff team, their elite offense will have to carry their pitching.

13 San Juan I’ve run the numbers in two ways. In one they made the playoffs, in the other they didn’t. The Padres would seem to be a candidate for an in-season trade.

14 Syracuse I don’t have them in the playoffs, but Trenton is only two spots up and very catchable. Sitting there with 16 mil in cap room watch out for jcairns.

15 St. Louis The Blues have the hitting to make a run, but will need to find some pitching.

16 Richmond Steelforge’s history says that they are better than what I have them ranked. Decent at everything, amazing at nothing.

17 San Francisco That I have them projected as a playoff team is more the product of a bad division than a comment of the robustness of their talent.

18 Vancouver Vancouver is the first team I have every run to project a 0 run differential. They should be able to hit, but could use another star pitcher.

19 Jackson Remember when I said they have a deep farm system? Let’s focus on that. They are not bad, but they are not making the playoffs either.

20 Philadelphia With the 2nd worst farm system wholck has some work to do. They won 100 games 6 times in a row, but now they are just expensive.

21 Florida And they lost LBJ. Not a good time to be in Florida right now. At least they have the Dolphins?

22 Los Angeles After years in below 60 win land Los Angeles is improving.

23 Durham I’ve really enjoyed playing against bux. He’s a good owner, but I’ll be honest, I do not see a 3rd straight playoff appearance as likely.

24 New Britain The rebuild is well on its way. With the first pick there are signs of life in dbird’s squad.

25 Baltimore Their pitching is playoff level. Their offense is only better than Little Rock’s. They have studs on the way so that will help.

26 Milwaukee Milwaukee is going to score a lot of runs. It will not be enough.

27 New Orleans Blanch13 knew wanted he wanted to be this season and looks forward to the payoff of being a top 10 team very, very soon.

28 San Diego They are not good, but it’s a well-balanced not good.

29 Chicago From the outside it looks like cretins is building a future winner. There is some pitching there, but the offense leaves a lot to be desired.

30 Santa Cruz It took Colton a little bit to figure out who they are, but he now seems to be well on his way collecting talent like Herzog and Belte to go with the Big, Bad Wolf.

31 Helena Helena is going to give a lot of runs this year. With nothing in the system, hotdog has a lot of work to do.

32 Little Rock Little Rock actually has pretty decent pitching. That they are ranked dead last shows how bad their offense is