Tuesday, July 21, 2020

2020 Power Rankings Week 3

It’s always tough writing the early power rankings of the season when there are only a few games to go on. This year adds the extra wrinkle of evaluating some teams who have played six games while others played 3 or 4.


Early on the talk has been about the parity of the league. While we say that every year, and the point can be made again this year, I think the bigger story is that for the most part, the teams that were predicted to be strong are the ones with winning records, and the teams many thought would struggle are in fact at the bottom of the standings. Sure there are a few exceptions, some that will be listed in the rankings, but for the most part I think teams are who we thought they would be. 

Before we get to this week’s rankings, here’s another yearly reminder that Power Rankings are based on, in some order: personal opinion, team record, run differential, strength of opponent. In the early rankings I will also factor in the pre-season expectations.

Pre-Season power rankings are listed in parentheses.

10(NR). Goldfarb- If these rankings were written last week, they’d be #1 because I always have a team at the top of the rankings until they lose a game. My concern about Goldfarb’s club from the beginning was whether or not they’d be able to score enough runs. In the early going, their 7.0 runs scored average is second lowest in the league. 

9(NR). Lombardi- As I mentioned earlier, most teams are performing how the consensus thought they would but there have been some surprises. Count Lombardi as one of those surprises(at least judging by the published previews). I’m rooting for this team more than any other than my own for all the connections to the 2011 championship team(Jim and Paul Lombardi, JZ, Brock Hor, Eric Lurie). 

8(6). Steinberg- Evan’s team stumbled out of the gate, losing their first two games, but a nice rebound has them close to where I thought they’d be when the season started. Beating Bykofsky is a nice first win to have. 


7(NR). Ferrarese- Cowboy Mike must have been nervous after a horrible first game that saw them scoring two runs in the first and zero the rest of the way. However, scoring 22,22,15 over the next three games is the perfect response. Team chemistry will always be an advantage with Mike as captain, and I see Ferrarese club outperforming expectations all season. We already knew Chase Sandler could hit, but so far he has taken his game to Offensive Player of the Year levels.

6(7). Harris- For some reason Team Harris has flown under the radar a bit. In my pre-season write up I mentioned they could use an extra bat or two, and so far they’re tied for 11th in runs scored average, so that could still be true. The difference maker thus far has been pitching and defense led by the always great Dave Polzer. 

5(1). Wallman- If these rankings were purely based on what has happened on the field so far, Wallman would be ranked a bit further down. They have a 3-2 record but two of those wins were a 10 inning nail biter vs. a Schefkind team that’s now 0-5 and a victory over a short handed Team Jacoby. However, this team is really, really talented and should start rattling off wins unless they keep getting in their own way.

4(4). Bykofsky- Another year, another good Bykofsky team. The big difference between this year and last year has been the offense explosion. Last year Team Bykofsky was tied for last place in runs scored. So far in 2020, they are 5th. Defensively, they’re solid as always and the outfield is as tremendous as advertised.

3(NR). Jacoby- Before the season started, the buzz around the league was Wallman has the best team. After all the scrimmages and start to the regular season the buzz now is Look how good Team Jacoby is. They were a sleeper from the beginning but there are three big reasons why they have taken the leap from sleeper to top contender: Juska is bargain as a 5th round pick, Mamone is playing lights out the way he did before injuries set in, and Saler is playing like he did in 2018. Even if Granese misses a handful of games, Team Jacoby will enter the playoffs as a top seed.

2(2). Pollock- The #1 team in the Captains’ poll has certainly lived up to the hype with a 5-1 start(11-1 if you include the scrimmages). Everything people predicted about having two first round caliber players in Peragine and Martino has been true. Contributions though have come from everywhere in the lineup. The biggest challenge this year is going to be staying healthy as we already have major injuries to Schwag, Mike Paladino, and Rob Rozencwaig. The next few weeks might be tough. This ranking does NOT imply I’m predicting a Pollock win overJacoby on Sunday. 

1(5). Marrone- Speaking of predictions, I learned very early on to be careful when it comes to making Sunday predictions about my own team. Marrone learned that the hard way in his first game of the season. Since giving up 18 runs to Applebaum, Marrone has given up a total of FIVE runs in three games, outscoring the opposition 32-5 during that stretch. RIght now they have a run differential that is 1.9 runs lower than the nearest competition. The last time there was that large a difference between first and second place was in 2012. Dominant defense is always a recipe for a strong season.