Welcome to the 2021 edition of the Marlboro Softball blog. This year’s edition will look very similar to years past where it is mostly used to update power rankings with some occasional random posts sprinkled throughout.
The first entry is now a yearly tradition, the Captains’ pre-season poll.
To review how this works, I send out an email to all the captains asking them to rank the five best teams in the league. I then award 5 points for the number choice, 4 points for the number 2 choice, etc. If two teams are tied, the team that appears on more ballots wins the tiebreaker. Captains were unable to select their own team on their individual ballots. This year, 17 out of 18 captains submitted their choices. We’re inching closer to getting every captain to participate.
I want to thank all the captains who participated. I have a lot of fun putting the results together, and without the great turnout the results would be incomplete.
Before we get to this season's results, here's a quick breakdown of the previous three seasons:
In 2018, Team Goldfarb led a cursed group as the entire top 5 group lost in the first round of the playoffs. (Goldfarb, Marrone, Bykofsky, Brock, Wallman)
In 2019, Team Brock dominated the polls thanks to the Turanos steal. Team Brock had 29 points while second place Team Wallman had 9.
In 2020, Team Pollock edged out Team Wallman. Pollock made it to the semi-finals but Wallman bowed out in the second round. This was the first time the eventual champions appeared on the pre-season rankings with Steinberg coming in a modest 9th place.
Onto the results:
Rank Team(# of ballots) Total points
1 Wallman(15) 62
2 Larocca(12) 46
3 Marrone(12) 34
4 Lapine(7) 25
5 Pollock(6) 21
6 Seidenberg(6) 16
7 Steinberg(8) 15
8 Ferrarese(6) 9
9 Kessler(3) 6
10 Goldfarb(2) 6
Just like last year, 2021 is marked by the influx of new captains. 5 new captains in 2021 after 4 new captains debuted in 2020. Similar to the pre-season predictions of last year, the captains predict the season to be dominated by the veterans. Let’s see if any of the new cast of rookie captains can surprise the league the way Steinberg did last year.
Let’s also see if Wallman can break the curse of the Pre-Season Favorites.
