Power Rankings Week 18

It always seems that the week leading up to the final regular season game also serves as a look ahead to the playoffs. For this reason, some of the commentary (ok, almost all of the commentaries) focus on playoff implications.

Power Rankings:

1.       Applebaum (1): They can lose by 20+runs on Sunday and still have the #1 spot going into the playoffs.

2.       Carlin (2): I spent awhile debating whether Carlin or Jacoby would get this slot. Despite the standings I think Carlin has a slightly better chance in the playoffs.

3.       Jacoby (3): We’ll see if defense can triumph for two years in a row. Applebaum vs. Jacoby Semi-Final matchup would be fascinating.

4.       Wallman (4): They may have the AL crown but they’re only 7-6 against their division. The advantage to pick their field should be enough to get them into round 2.

5.       Randell (5): Their five game losing streak can be attributed more to their recent missed games than to any alarming decline.

6.       Pollock (7): As of right now the only two teams in the past five years to have a better Runs Scored average are the 2010 Lapine team(won championship) and this year’s powerhouse Team Applebaum. A great offense and an ok defense can get a lot of mileage. We just have to consistently play “OK defense”. If we do, then we can be a sleeper in the playoffs.

7.       Lapine ( NR): It’s a sign of the current state of the AL that all of a sudden Lapine has the #2 seed and even has an outside shot at #1. In my season preview, I said this would be a team that would gain momentum as the year progressed. They may be peaking at the right time. There’s one potential problem . . .

8.       Younger (6): . . . Two forfeits in one season might be unfortunate for all the teams directly involved, but Team Lapine might be the team who is most negatively affected in the long run. Younger is much better than their 8-13 indicates. They’re slotted as the #7 seed yet have the second best run differential in the AL. Yet because of these two forfeits they’ll most likely have to face the #2 seed, currently Lapine, and potentially knock off a team who could have otherwise advance a few rounds.

Around the League:

While the theme for most of the season was the dominance of the top few teams, the theme of the final few weeks has been the (re)emergence  of teams previously left for dead until 2015.  Two weeks ago, Granese was 6-13 and seemingly headed nowhere. Since then they beat two tough teams in Randell and Carlin. Meanwhile Team Harris, while still owning the league’s worst record, opened many eyes by doing the almost impossible- beating Applebaum. Not to be left out, Bykofsky just recently had a stretch where they won 5 out of 6 games.

Over the AL, no team has ever completely fallen off the radar. The beginning of the season saw Feldman as the clear favorite only to fall back to the middle of the pack. With some of their key players starting to heat up, they can make some playoff noise. Once upon a time, Mamone looked like they belonged with the Elite NL teams. Now they’re 1-7 in their last 8 games(although some reasons are due to poor attendance),  and will have to dig deep to find the swagger they had when they were 8-4 and scoring runs with ease. Beilis and Goldfarb are also lurking and define what a “sleeper” really is. Neither have shown for an extended period of time their full potential, but have shown enough to prove they can challenge any of the other American League teams in the playoffs. And then there is the forever limping Team Marrone. Have they been playing possum all season just like last year? Recent dominating performance against Wallman (23-7) and Beilis (24-5) suggest anything is possible.

For awhile the 2014 season looked like it would inevitably come down to one of the Elite teams facing Wallman or Mamone in the finals. While that scenario is more than just a possibility, there has been enough excitement in the league over the past few weeks to suggest a wild, anything can happen playoffs.