Post by White Sox GM (Michael) on Jan 13, 2016 17:03:47 GMT -5
READ THE BLURB THEN READ THE RANKINGS AND THEN YOU CAN BITCH
A month ago, I posted power rankings for the 2016 season. You can read those right here. Now, with free agency done, I'm ranking the teams again, still by current roster construction only.
I'm also not giving reasoning, because it takes too long and I just did it a month ago - most of what I'd say here would be a repeat of last time besides "but, they acquired player X."
Another few notes: I didn't include tiers this time, because I felt that there weren't those clear separations anymore. Instead, picture your tier as the two or three teams above and below you. There's nothing scientific about these rankings, so you can definitely (and will definitely) argue for a few spots, and it might be warranted, because I didn't compare every single team side-by-side. If you went up or down from the last rankings, it's because other teams did something, you did something, or I just realized that my ranking for you was a little too high or low last time. I didn't post +2 or -3 for a reason, and it's because it's not important and doesn't mean much at all. I'll also have a few thoughts about the league construction after these rankings (at the bottom).
1. Boston Red Sox
2. Chicago Cubs
3. Miami Marlins
4. Pittsburgh Pirates
5. Kansas City Royals
6. Chicago White Sox
7. Philadelphia Phillies
8. San Diego Padres
9. New York Mets
10. Detroit Tigers
11. Arizona Diamondbacks
12. Tampa Bay Rays
13. San Francisco Giants
14. Seattle Mariners
15. Baltimore Orioles
16. Minnesota Twins
17. Cincinnati Reds
18. Texas Rangers
19. Cleveland Indians
20. Milwaukee Brewers
21. Los Angeles Dodgers
22. Washington Nationals
23. Atlanta Braves
24. Houston Astros
25. Toronto Blue Jays
26. Oakland Athletics
27. New York Yankees
28. Colorado Rockies
29. Los Angeles Angels
30. St. Louis Cardinals
-----
Now for some of my thoughts:
---As I said before, I don't think there are clear "Best of the Best," "Strong Contenders," etc. tiers here. Instead, there's a smooth transition from the top teams all the way down.
---The AL is pretty crowded. Not only are there 9 or 10 competitors, but they are all pretty close together. The NL has a lot of the top teams, but it's still crowded due to the Rise of the Sacks.
---Speaking of the sacks, I'm sure their rankings (Padres ahead of D-Backs and Mets right behind Phillies) both come as a surprise.
-----Starting with Noah, his rotation is probably second in the NL to Psych's and his lineup is both pretty deep and fairly strong. Jason's rotation is considerably less strong than it was last season (losing Arrieta will do that), and while the bullpen is still stellar, the lineup isn't deep enough for this team to be the clear favorite in the NL West again. I'm still pinning this as a three team race between San Diego, Arizona, and San Fran, who acquired Stephen Strasburg this offseason.
-----Now to the NL East. I see Marlins as the favorite right now, but this is another division with three competitors (sorry Bryan). I think I ranked Oren a few spots too high last time, and although he added Arrieta, he traded a lot of his rotation in the process. His bullpen could also be deeper. The hitting is pretty strong; however, Jack has built up a very powerful lineup (Harper, Davis, Cruz) that has a bunch of other key contributors to round it out, and rotation is five-deep with decent to great pitching. I'm concerned that this rotation isn't deep enough, especially considering Pineda's injuries, but I actually toyed with putting this team ahead of the Phillies.
---Going off of that last comment, the top of the league is actually very close. That's pretty exciting to see. I know I didn't do tiers, but everyone in the range from Pirates through Rays got moved around quite a bit. As an example besides what's already said, I considered putting myself behind Tigers (side note: fuck my division).
---Altogether, I think the biggest broad takeaway here is that there are a lot of very good teams, more than I or probably most other owners expected. Moreover, the separation between these teams is really tight right now, and given how much some of the mid-tier teams want to compete are and how devoid of MLB talent the worst teams are, there probably won't be a lot of separation created before May or June. It should make for a pretty fun and competitive season here.
A month ago, I posted power rankings for the 2016 season. You can read those right here. Now, with free agency done, I'm ranking the teams again, still by current roster construction only.
I'm also not giving reasoning, because it takes too long and I just did it a month ago - most of what I'd say here would be a repeat of last time besides "but, they acquired player X."
Another few notes: I didn't include tiers this time, because I felt that there weren't those clear separations anymore. Instead, picture your tier as the two or three teams above and below you. There's nothing scientific about these rankings, so you can definitely (and will definitely) argue for a few spots, and it might be warranted, because I didn't compare every single team side-by-side. If you went up or down from the last rankings, it's because other teams did something, you did something, or I just realized that my ranking for you was a little too high or low last time. I didn't post +2 or -3 for a reason, and it's because it's not important and doesn't mean much at all. I'll also have a few thoughts about the league construction after these rankings (at the bottom).
1. Boston Red Sox
2. Chicago Cubs
3. Miami Marlins
4. Pittsburgh Pirates
5. Kansas City Royals
6. Chicago White Sox
7. Philadelphia Phillies
8. San Diego Padres
9. New York Mets
10. Detroit Tigers
11. Arizona Diamondbacks
12. Tampa Bay Rays
13. San Francisco Giants
14. Seattle Mariners
15. Baltimore Orioles
16. Minnesota Twins
17. Cincinnati Reds
18. Texas Rangers
19. Cleveland Indians
20. Milwaukee Brewers
21. Los Angeles Dodgers
22. Washington Nationals
23. Atlanta Braves
24. Houston Astros
25. Toronto Blue Jays
26. Oakland Athletics
27. New York Yankees
28. Colorado Rockies
29. Los Angeles Angels
30. St. Louis Cardinals
-----
Now for some of my thoughts:
---As I said before, I don't think there are clear "Best of the Best," "Strong Contenders," etc. tiers here. Instead, there's a smooth transition from the top teams all the way down.
---The AL is pretty crowded. Not only are there 9 or 10 competitors, but they are all pretty close together. The NL has a lot of the top teams, but it's still crowded due to the Rise of the Sacks.
---Speaking of the sacks, I'm sure their rankings (Padres ahead of D-Backs and Mets right behind Phillies) both come as a surprise.
-----Starting with Noah, his rotation is probably second in the NL to Psych's and his lineup is both pretty deep and fairly strong. Jason's rotation is considerably less strong than it was last season (losing Arrieta will do that), and while the bullpen is still stellar, the lineup isn't deep enough for this team to be the clear favorite in the NL West again. I'm still pinning this as a three team race between San Diego, Arizona, and San Fran, who acquired Stephen Strasburg this offseason.
-----Now to the NL East. I see Marlins as the favorite right now, but this is another division with three competitors (sorry Bryan). I think I ranked Oren a few spots too high last time, and although he added Arrieta, he traded a lot of his rotation in the process. His bullpen could also be deeper. The hitting is pretty strong; however, Jack has built up a very powerful lineup (Harper, Davis, Cruz) that has a bunch of other key contributors to round it out, and rotation is five-deep with decent to great pitching. I'm concerned that this rotation isn't deep enough, especially considering Pineda's injuries, but I actually toyed with putting this team ahead of the Phillies.
---Going off of that last comment, the top of the league is actually very close. That's pretty exciting to see. I know I didn't do tiers, but everyone in the range from Pirates through Rays got moved around quite a bit. As an example besides what's already said, I considered putting myself behind Tigers (side note: fuck my division).
---Altogether, I think the biggest broad takeaway here is that there are a lot of very good teams, more than I or probably most other owners expected. Moreover, the separation between these teams is really tight right now, and given how much some of the mid-tier teams want to compete are and how devoid of MLB talent the worst teams are, there probably won't be a lot of separation created before May or June. It should make for a pretty fun and competitive season here.
