Here is the "It's really too early to this" updated power rankings of the year. The two rules that apply to my power rankings will stay intact.
No team under .500 can appear on the official rankings.
This becomes less of an issue later in the season when a team that is 6-7 can't really be disappointed they're not being talked about as a top team. It becomes more of a gray area now when one game is the difference between a .333 winning percentage and a .667 winning percentage. Still, rules are rules.
Teams that are undefeated will always be ranked at the top, regardless of how I feel about their long term prospects.
If you haven't lost a game yet then you deserve all the credit and benefit of doubt until your first loss.
So far, the standings are dominated by teams who got little respect in the Pre-Season Captains Poll. Out of the six teams that are above .500, only one (Seidenberg) made the top 10 in the poll. In fact, the 10 teams that made the Captains' Poll are a combined 18-26. The 8 teams that did not receive enough votes are 18-10.
Only time will tell if this is a fluke or whether this is the year of the underdog.
Before I begin with the rankings, here's the paragraph I wrote about Steinberg and then had to delete after Wednesday's loss dropped them to 2-3:
This is clearly an example of not over-reacting to a team's record after four games. Both of Steinberg's losses were by one run. This is where the benefit of drafting a majority of a championship team will come into play. Noone is going to get down on the team or second guess their chances at success. Losing these close games might end up being the difference between Steinberg going 16-6 and 14-8, but ultimately I think they're set up for a long playoff run.
Editor's note: Ok, so Wednesday's loss was bad. It was reminiscent of when our team mercied them on a Wednesday night at Municipal last season. That seemed to be their wakeup call last year. Perhaps this loss will serve a similar purpose.
Power Rankings:
11. Kessler- earned this spot by beating the champs.two of those losses were rough though so verdict is still out.
10. Dimarco- I didn’t have to dig deep for this stat: Dimarco is 2-0 against pitchers who are cowboys. They’re 0-2 against non-cowboys. DiMarco’s the only team to score double digits and give up double digits every game.
9. Larocca- You don't get anymore Jekyll and Hyde outings like the one Larocca had over the last two games. Last win came against a much short-handed Drashinky squad.
8. Pollock- ANother Jeckyll and Hyde team. Our team scored 19 runs our last game after scoring a total of 11 in the first three games. With our strong defense, I like our chances if we can just score 9 runs a game.
7. Wallman- Preseason heavy favorites(in some eyes) have already had to deal with challenges. While last year the problems came from within(How should the defense be aligned?) this year's challenge was out of their control, Clamp's health. I'm hoping Dave is 100% soon.
6. Polzer- A lot of credit to Polzer winning the first game of managerial career against the defending champs. It's hard for me to gauge where this team will be by the end of the season, but I like that they have beaten tough teams, especially a UH bult Dimarco club on UH. I didn't think Polzer's team would play great defense but so far they're in the middle of the pack in Runs Against(10th) while playing 3/4 of their games on the offensively friendly Union Hill fields.
5. Conti- I didn't have Conti ranked in pre-season power rankings but so far it's hard not to be impressed. They're one of two teams not to give up more than 8 runs in any outing, and they're fresh off a 20-2 cubbing, the most lopsided win of this young softball season.
4. Harris- The ideal formula to a winning team is having a defense that doesn't give extra outs in the field, baserunners that don't give extra outs on the bases, and a player or two who outperform their selected rounds. What I love about the first four picks of Callow, Bykofsky, Gluck, Schefkind is that they were smart players. There might be others who put up bigger stats in those rounds, but these players will have to make you earn those runs. As for having a player who will outperform round value, rookie sensation Wagreich looks well on his way to establishing himself as a first four round player.
3. Lombardi- This is not the first time Lombardi started the season undefeated after the first three or four games. Last time the losses piled on quickly, so time will tell if one of the biggest early season surprise teams will suffer a similar fate. Similar to what I said about Wagreich, the early returns on Jason Young have been great and indicate he's much better than where he was drafted.
2. Pingaro- Pingaro knew. They weren't mentioned in the Captains' Poll or my pre-season power rankings. They were given a 9-13 prediction, second lowest of all teams. Pingaro had to hear many times "You took Ortiz too early", but he knew he had a star on his team. Of course a 4-0 start means more than just one person is contributing, but if there's one storyline that captures why this team is proving naysayers wrong, it's the emergence of AJ Ortiz as a force in this league.
1. Seidenberg- We all knew they could hit, and their 13.3 runs per game is second best in the league. Time will tell whether the 6.3 runs against is a fluke, but if Fradkin continues to throw strikes then this team will go from being one of the best to being THE team to beat. Best wishes to Darren Kay. Hope to see you on the field soon.
