Pre-Season power rankings

Instead of doing a league wide breakdown, I’m only going to focus on the top 8 teams. This counts as the pre-season power rankings which will be updated next right before the first Wednesday night softball game.

1. Team Younger:  While it’s no secret that my brother and I tend to draft more offense laden teams, we appreciate that drafting pitching and defense is a safe way of ensuring, at minimum, a consistently competitive team. Clampffer/Kay/Younger gives this team the best up the middle defense in the league. The rest of their defense is above average as well, but the player who will make the biggest difference is newcomer Joe Joroski. I feel his outfield presence will help Team Younger overcome what might be just a moderately successful offense and mirror what Team Younger looked like in 2012 and what Team Jacoby put together in 2013 and 2014.

2. Team Harris: The big news story at the draft(ar at least from watching it on the computer) was the trade that made Dave Silverberg, one of the most feared sluggers  in the league, essentially a 4^th rounder. They may have the best 1-5 in the league and with late round pop from Messinger and the Trittos, the lineup has good depth as well. Defense is solid, if not spectacular. Getting Kastner as their pitcher in the 5^th round is a great bargain. One of the best teams in the league.

3. Team Pollock:  I’m aware I’m putting our team higher than where most experts have us, but let me start with an anecdote. After a fantasy baseball draft around 10 years ago, I asked my friend, who now has a second job writing for FanGraphs, how he felt about his team.  He said confidently, “If my own projections don’t have my team as being the best then something went horribly wrong”. Sure we like our team a lot. We would not have drafted the players we did if we didn’t feel like it would make us the most successful. In typical Pollock fashion, our offense is our biggest strength; we have the deepest lineup in the league. While some questions about defense might be fair to ask, we know we will hold our own, especially with Herm on the mound.

4. Team Wallman: I love the depth of this lineup as well as how solid they are at practically every position. Roland, Carlin, Jackson, Schwartz are all proven all-stars, but the sleeper here is Mark Stewart. He had a great season two years ago along with being one of the best third basemen in the league. Wallman’s draft is full of players who could have and should have been drafted a round earlier than where they went, especially Carlin, Schwartz, Rosenblum.

5. Team Carlin: Every year Carlin puts together a solid team, and this year is no different. Carlin’s offense is balanced with big power threats like Goldstein and Conti along with some of the best on base guys  like Carlin, Hor, Silbermans. Ronnie Carlin also drafted doubles machine Wayne Sherman, who used to be the most underrated hitter in the league but will finally be getting his due this year. Overall, I see Team Carlin’s squad as being very similar to Team Harris. Great hitting team with enough defense to keep them at the top of the standings.

6. Team Feldman: There are certain teams who you can pretty much copy and paste the same pre- season thoughts only needing to replace same player names. Team Feldman is one of those teams. Great outfield defense, but will there be enough offense to carry the load? I liked their offense a little more at the beginning of 2014, which is why they landed at the #1 spot of 2014’s Pre-season rankings. Still, they have enough hitting to give Feldman hope he can improve upon his decade worst 3-11 playoff record.

7. Team Goldfarb: Goldfarb’s team will be a challenger for best defense in the league, which is enough to put them in the top 8 of the pre-season rankings. Their overall success will largely depend on pitching which at this time seems to be a question mark. I’d also feel more comfortable predicting a 13+ win season if they had one or two more big bats, but they’re still a team that will be in contention all year.

8. Team Bykofsky: With an outfield that includes Mamone and Bykofsky, an infield that has solid defenders throughout, and perennial Cy Young candidate Rob Bykofsky on the mound, this team should be the best team Justin has had as captain. Whether or not the lineup has enough pop is yet to be seen, but they have enough to contend for the #1 or 2 seed.