Power Rankings- Week 11

Last week's rankings are parentheses.

1.       Pollock(1)- It’s been said in write ups, but it’s worth mentioning again. We’re now 7-0 on non Union Hill fields. On Union Hill we’re giving up an average of 14 runs per game. Off of Union Hill, we’re giving up an average of 5.85 runs per game.

2.       Younger (2)- They have not given up more than 7 runs to any team all season. . . ALL SEASON! No other team has given up 7 or fewer runs to a team fewer than three times.

3.       Harris (8)- Yep, big surprise move on this week’s list. Every team have a few weeks that they’d like to write off, and Harris has would certainly point to games against Pollock and Carlin that stand out as atypical. Besides these few clunkers, we have a very consistent team who plays solid defense and provides enough pop to crack double digit run totals(that’s tied for the 4^th most in the league).

4.       Mamone (7)- The defense has been superb and the offense is starting to resemble what we saw the first two weeks of the season.  Teams have to hope they don’t get to choose what field they play on during the playoffs. Between Mamone, Tvrdik, Conti, Turner they’ll be extremely tough to beat on Union Hill.

5.       Applebaum(4)- Last week’s loss aside, their week to week results remind me a lot of what we did last year en route to a championship. Like our team from 2011, they’re also mostly winning with a great offense. If their defense can gain just a little more consistency, they’ll solidify themselves as an elite team.

6.       Lapine (3)- They haven’t been dominant in awhile, and while some of their wins have been impressive, some have come against teams missing their top guys. Now is a tough time for Lapine’s squad being that they’re still a vacationing Drapkin.  A loss will drop them to 7-6 which is almost unthinkable considering how great they were in the beginning of the season.

7.       Feldman (9)- They’re so close to making that push, but they still have not proved to play at their best on a consistent basis(notice how “consistent” is the key word for many of these teams). I’m surprised they’ve given up double digit runs 3 out of their last 4 games. That’s a number I expect to this team to improve during the second half.

8.       Wallman (5)- This may be too steep of a fall from last week’s spot, but I was very surprised to see that 11-5 loss to Younger. I still believe this is a team capable of 13 win season, but they have to prove they can beat the elite teams.

9.       Sarcona (6)- At 6-4 and only a half game out of first place, this team may have an argument about being placed too low on this list. I don’t know though, something just says “middle of the road” to me. They play a lot of close games, so that can work to their advantage in the playoffs. Certainly, they play well enough to make it far this year. I just have not seen anything yet to move them into the next category of teams.

10.   Goldfarb (10)-  When you have  an offense as good as Goldfarb’s, you always have a puncher’s chance. Goldfarb currently has a streak of 5 games with 10+ runs scored. Team Pollock is the only other team to have a streak like this at any point this season.

11.   Granese (11)- Speaking of streaks, no other team other than Younger has more consecutive games of giving up fewer than 10 runs than Granese. Add this to the fact that the team has scored 20+ runs on multiple occasions and we have a sleeper on our hands.

12.   Carlin (14)- Any time Carlin wins it’s time for the rest of the league to say “Uh-oh”. It’s hard to believe they can be 4-7 with the talent they have. It’s very easy to imagine Carlin figuring things out just in time for the playoffs.

13.   Schefkind (12)- Somehow Team Schefkind has a somewhat respectable record despite having the worst run differential in the league. It may be time for their record to start matching their poor run output. They have players capable of doing a whole lot better, so there’s always a chance that their 6.6 runs per game can take a turn for the better.

14.    Randell (13)- Not too many teams have an offensive 1-2-3 like JZ, Petrosino, and Rothschild. But in order to win consistently (there’s that word again), you have to be at least average defensively and on the base paths. It’s hard to draw conclusions based on the one or two games you see first-hand, but what I see is a team that can make some noise if they can get out of their own way.

15.    Jacoby (15)- With an influx of new players, we may be looking at a completely different Team Jacoby performance wise in the upcoming weeks. Will this be the last we see of a team close to basement of the power rankings? Will the new blood provide the spark this team so desperately needs? Stay tuned.

16.   Beilis (16)- It’s hard to sugar coat what’s been a dismal season so far. At least they’ve clinched a playoff spot. Looking at Beilis’ playoff track record he has this team exactly where he wants them.

softball predcitions

Predicted winners are in bold:

Lawcash (Younger) v Ace Aluminum (Wallman)

Main Electric (Applebaum) v CK Baseball (Harris)

Jiffy Lube (Feldman) v Massage Envy (Sarcona)

Paco's (Granese) v Nonna's (Lapine)

Sports Zone (Randell) v Express Imprints (Pollock)

Bagel World (Goldfarb) v Arrow (Beilis)

Tuscanyrose (Schef) v Pizza/Pasta (Carlin)

Fradkin Law (Jacoby) v Elite (Mamone)

Power Rankings Week 10

Coming next week will be a more detailed, mid-season report(hopefully). For this week though here’s an abbreviated version of the power rankings.

1.       Pollock(3)

2.       Younger(1)

3.       Lapine (2)

4.       Applebaum(7)

5.       Wallman (5)

6.       Sarcona (6)

7.       Mamone (10)

8.       Harris (4)

9.       Feldman (9)

10.   Goldfarb (8)

11.   Granese (13)

12.   Schefkind (11)

13.   Randell (12)

14.   Carlin (14)

15.   Jacoby (15)

16.   Beilis (16)

Wednesday Night Preview

Randell vs. Applebaum:

Normally I’d pick Randell because they’re such a good Union Hill team, but I think Applebaum still have a lot of offense left in their bats from Sunday. Besides, Randell has alternated between a win and a loss every game this season. Why stop now?

Pick: Applebaum

Younger vs. Granese:

I see an upset happening tonight. Younger is a very sound team but is having too much trouble scoring runs lately. In fact, no team has scored fewer runs over their last three games than the 15 runs Younger has scored. While you can get away with minimal run production on most other fields, it’s going to take a lot more offense to win tonight, especially against a Granese team who has put up 20 runs twice recently.

Pick: Granese

Week 9 Power Rankings

Power Rankings Week 9:

1.       Younger(1)- I’m keeping my promise and keeping them at the top despite their tough loss to Lapine.

2.       Lapine (2)- Perhaps they’re deserving of being #1 right now.  Only Younger has a longer stretch of keeping teams under 8 runs.

3.       Pollock(3)- Perhaps WE should be deserving of the top spot right now! Seriously, the top 3 teams are very close and are currently experiencing the same strengths and weaknesses. We’re all struggling to score runs but are keeping teams to a low enough total to win. The offenses have to pick up or else the gap between us and the rest of the league will close quickly.

4.       Harris(6)- Shutting down Randell’s team last week was their most impressive win yet.

5.       Wallman (8) – On one hand I hesitate to put Wallman so high when they’re the lowest scoring team in the league. On the other hand, the rest of the league is so equal that any team with a huge strength gives them a leg up on the competition.

6.       Sarcona (7)- They’ve been a Jekyll and Hyde team with their defense so far. A little more consistency could place them with the elite.

7.       Applebaum (4)- Things had to even out a little bit after their 5-0 start, but two of their three losses during this losing streak have only been by one run. They’re still a very good team who has a good chance at righting the ship this week.

8.       Goldfarb (15)- This may be the biggest jump ever in one week of my power rankings. Outscoring their opponents by 25 runs over the last three weeks, Goldfarb has been clearly the most dominating team over this stretch of time.

9.       Feldman (5)- I think it’s surprising to most that this team has lost 5 out of their last 6 games. I’d be even more shocked if they don’t find themselves in the top 5 of these rankings at some point during the rest of the season. Their team offensive numbers indicate that they should be scoring more runs than they have been.

10.   Mamone (13)- Two impressive wins in a row means Mamone is officially back on track. For my team’s sake I’m hoping it’s a little too late to overtake us in the AL East.

11.   Schefkind (12)- Their wins haven’t been overly dominant but in the end it doesn’t matter. With a 4-1 record over their last 5 games they’ve quickly made up a lot of ground in the NL East.

12.    Randell (11)- They have yet to have a streak of any kind this season. That’s pretty amazing.

13.   Granese (9)- For a team that’s only 3-6, they have a lot of potential. They’re embarking on a very tough 3 game stretch right now.

14.   Carlin (10)- It says a lot about the parity of the league right now that there’s no one in the league who would  feel comfortable playing the 14^th ranked team right now.

15.   Jacoby (14)-  Jacoby has given up 18+ runs three times this season. No other team has done it more than once.

16.   Beilis (16)- If Union Hill didn’t jumpstart their offense, maybe playing against the second lowest rated defense in the league this week will.

Stat of the Week

Random Stats of the Week:

Here are everyone’s records when scoring less than 10 runs in a game:

Jacoby: 0-7 (They are 4-0 when scoring 10+ runs)

Applebaum: 2-3

Schefkind: 4-4 (They have only scored 10+ once this year, a 15-14 win over Randell)

Granese: 0-4 (On the bright side, they are 20-0 when scoring 20+ runs in a game)

Feldman: 1-6

Goldfarb: 0-4

Randell: 1-4

Younger: 3-2

Beilis: 0-7 (2-0 when scoring 10+ runs)

Pollock: 3-0 (Current 3 game winning streak consists of all 10 or fewer runs scored per game)

Wallman: 3-4

Mamone: 1-4

Carlin: 1-5

Harris: 2-2

Lapine: 2-2

Sarcona: 3-3

Here are everyone’s records when giving up fewer than 10 runs a game:

Jacoby: 3-3

Applebaum: 3-2

Schefkind: 4-0

Granese: 2-3

Feldman: 4-2

Goldfarb: 4-1

Randell: 3-0

Younger: 7-2 (Amazingly, they still have not given up more than 7 runs in any game)

Beilis: 2-4

Pollock: 4-0

Wallman: 4-3 (They gave up fewer than 10 runs in every game except their first)

Mamone: 3-2

Carlin: 3-2

Harris: 5-1

Lapine: 5-1

Sarcona: 4-0

Week 8 Predictions

Quick Predictions for today's games. My picks are in bold:

Bagel World (Goldfarb) v Pizza/Pasta (Carlin)

Jiffy Lube (Feldman) v Elite (Mamone)

Main Electric (Applebaum) v Express Imprints (Pollock)

Sports Zone (Randell) v CK's Baseball (Harris)

LawCash (Younger) v Nonna's (Lapine)

Fradkin Law (Jacoby) v Massage Envy (Sarcona)

Tuscanyrose (Schef) Arrow (Beilis)

Paco's (Granese) v Ace Aluminum (Wallman)

Power Rankings- Week 8

There seems to be a point in every NFL season where talk show hosts and columnists have the epiphany that this is the year where there is parity in the league. Every single year it happens and every single year they sound surprised. I’m getting the feeling the same holds true for the Marlboro Softball League. Last week was the week that made it clear that there really IS parity in this league. Consider the following:

Teams that went into last Sunday with four or more wins went a combined 2-5. One of those wins occurred only because they faced another four win team so somebody had to be the victor.

On the other hand, teams that went into last Sunday with two or fewer wins went a combined 4-1. The only loss occurred when that team played another team with two or fewer losses so somebody had to be the loser.

In addition, both winners this Wednesday were the teams with the lower records. As a result, there are only a few teams who are clearly the cream of the crop right now and an even fewer amount of teams who are not in the middle of the pack. This makes for a power rankings where the #13 or 14 team can easily be the #5 or 6 team. We’ll see how things play out:

 Week 8 Power Rankings. Last week's ranking is in parentheses.

1.       Younger(1)- And despite all the talk about parity, Younger is by far the best team in the league right now. Even if they lose this week against the #2 ranked Lapine, they’ll retain the top spot.

2.       Lapine(2)- This week’s showdown vs. Younger is the game of the year so far. Lapine is coming off a devastating loss, so it’ll be interested to see how they rebound.

3.       Pollock(3)- The improved defensive play is a big reason why our team is starting to create some separation in the AL East. This marks the beginning of a tough three game test(Applebaum,Lapine,Younger) where our opponents currently have a combined 18-5 record.

4.       Applebaum(3)- What better way to start off the interleague part of the schedule than to have the top 4 teams facing each other? Team Applebaum needs to start proving that their 5-0 start was no fluke. Hopefully for my team’s sake, they’ll start proving it next week instead.

5.       Feldman (4)- It is not the best of times for Team Feldman after a brutal double header. Still, there is a lot of talent here and they’re too good to continue this losing streak much longer.

6.       Harris (8)- Team Harris is probably still celebrating their improbable win from last Sunday. They should be able to build on that momentum.

7.       Sarcona(7)- The 10.9 runs against average is a bit of a concern right now, but here’s a team that epitomizes the state of the league right now. I don’t imagine Sarcona going on any long winning or losing streaks this season. I think they’ll have anywhere between 11 and 13 wins and could make a deep run in the playoffs if everything goes right for them.

8.        Wallman (6)- Once again, it’s not the makeup of this team that’s resulted in a losing record so far. It’s that they’re not getting on base as often as they have in the past. A team built around getting on base can be successful even without sluggers, but Team Wallman is currently ranked 15^th in OBP. I expect their win totals to increase as their OBP machines start getting the job done.

9.       Granese (12)- there have only been five times this season that a team has scored 20+ runs in a game and Granese has done it for their last two games. Sunday’s matchup against Wallman should be fun to watch. On one hand we have a hot offense playing on the field most conducive to high scoring games. On the other hand, we have one of the better defenses in the league. Which will win out?

10.   Carlin (14)- Will Sunday’s comeback victory against Sarcona be the spark thatignites Carlin’s season? After a few uninspiring performances it looks like this team is ready to get back on track. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Team Carlin in the top 5 before the August hits.

11.   Randell (9)- Although they did go 1-1 since the last rankings, this time falls two spots because of the lack of consistency shown. It’s hard to get optimistic about a club who has yet to put a string of good games together. Oncce the defense comes along, the wins could come in bunches.

12.   Schefkind (11)- This is where it bears mentioning again that a majority of these teams are so bunched together as far as team outlook goes. I don’t see much difference between Team Schefkind than I do from Harris or Sarcona except for just a smaller amount of offense.

13.   Mamone (13)- It’s hard to believe that a team that just gave up zero runs and was a pre-season favorite is still far down on this list. As impressive as the shutout was, Mamone still only scored five runs as their puzzling offensive drought continues. Whether or not this time can rise to their early promise completely depends on whether or not they can find the stroke that led to 30 runs the first two games.

14.   Jacoby(10)- With Team Jacoby on pace to play 30 games before Harris, Sarcona, Mamone play their allotted 22, we should have a good idea where this team stands. However, despite impressive wins against Pollock, Applebaum, and Feldman they’re also a team that gives up 20 runs two out of their last three games.

15.   Goldfarb (16)- Perhaps I’m underrating them a bit based on their 20 run outburst and 2 game winning streak. I still feel like other teams around them have a little more upside, but I’ve been wrong before. Another win this week against Carlin will make me a believer.

16.   Beilis (15)- The bad news is Beilis has scored 6 runs over their last three games. The good news is they’ve only given up 21 runs in that same stretch. Ok, so that’s not the best of news. Maybe a game at the friendly confines of Union Hill will jumpstart the offense.

Week 7 Predictions

Predicted winners are in bold:

Fradkin Law (Jacoby) v Paco's (Granese)

Bagel World (Goldfarb) v Sports Zone (Randell)

Pizza/Pasta (Carlin) v Massage Envy (Sarcona)

Express Imprints (Pollock) v Ace Aluminum (Wallman)

Jiffy Lube (Feldman) v LawCash (Younger)

Arrow (Beilis) v Elite (Mamone)

CK Baseball (Harris) v Nonna's (Lapine)

Jiffy Lube (Feldman) v Fradkin Law (Jacoby)

Tuscanyrose (Schef) v Main Electric (Applebaum)

Power Raknings- Week 7

Power Rankings- Week 7. Last week's rankings are in parentheses.

1.       Younger (2)- This is inarguably the most complete team right now. In no game this season have they given up more than 7 runs. Their +6/7 run differential is #1 by a healthy margin.

2.       Lapine (4)- The team is getting production from everywhere in the lineup. An amazing 5 out of the top 10 hits leaders comes from this team including the runaway winner for Most Improved Player of 2012- Jordan Krant.

3.       Applebaum (1)- Now that they’re perfect season is officially over, we’re going to learn a lot about this team over the next few  weeks.  First a matchup against a Team Schefkind that is hot in their trails and then a tough game against the top offense in the league, Team Pollock.

4.       Feldman (3)- It’ll be an interesting double header as Feldman is going from one extreme(Municipal) to another (Union Hill). They’ll have their work cut out for them as they face the best team in the league in Team Younger and of the hottest right now in Jacoby.

5.       Pollock (6)- Right now we’re only one game off the pace we set last season en route to the league’s best record. While our offense continues to routinely score double digits(except for last week’s 5 run outing), our defense is steadily improving. If we can find some more consistency , we’ll  be competing for the best record in the league.

6.       Wallman (9)- You can’t keep the Bykofskys down for too long. Team Wallman will continue to be a fascinating study of how far a solid defense will carry a team in the absence of power hitters.  I think they have enough solid singles hitters to be among the top teams at season’s end.

7.       Sarcona(7)- Last week’s victory against Harris gives them the edge over a team who I think is very much their equal.

8.       Harris (5)- Team Harris has hit a little rough patch over past few weeks, but they’ve also shown the ability to be a tough team.

9.       Randell (10)- I subscribe to the philosophy that you can thrive in this league with a great offense and just an average defense. With an average of 11 runs per game, Team Randell certainly has the first part. Unfortunately, they’re giving up a league worst 12.2 runs per game. If this doesn’t improve then it’ll be hard to rise above the .500 mark. If they can show just a little improvement, they’ll be a hard club to beat playoff time.

10.   Jacoby (14)- A couple of big wins over the past few weeks has put Jacoby on the radar. I still think they have to win a few more games to get into the next tier of teams, but beating the last undefeated team in the league is as good of a sign as any that they’re ready to make a run.

11.   Schefkind (12)- They’re probably not the 13-9 team I thought they’d be pre-season, but Schefkind’s two game winning streak has put them in the middle of the pack. I think they can pull off the upset against Applebaum this Sunday.

12.   Granese (13)- The bad news is every time Granese wins, this blog gets quoted to make my predictions look foolish. The good news is that you only write the summaries when your team wins, so this ends up happening only once a month. All kidding aside, Wednesday’s night crushing of Team Carlin was an eye opener for several reasons. This week’s matchup against a beatable, but very hot Team Jacoby will continue to raise Granese’s team profile.

13.   Mamone (11)- I can’t believe it’s this late in the power rankings and I’m just getting around to Mamone and Carlin. Every week I expect Mamone’s club to turn it around, only to be surprised by the sudden lack of offense. After scoring 30 runs in their first two games, they’ve scored a combined 18 runs in the next four.

14.   Carlin (8)- I don’t know how much we can make of the extremely sloppy Wednesday game in which Carlin gave up 22 runs. In their previous four games they gave up 4,8,7,3 runs. More troublesome is the lack of offense. In three of the last four games, Carlin has scored 6 or fewer runs.

15.   Beilis (15)-The only number necessary to look at is the league worst 6.9 runs per game.  

16.   Goldfarb (16)- Speaking of offensive futility, Team Goldfarb has only scored 12 runs over their past three games. During this span they’ve given up close to three times as many runs.