Season 14 Power Rankings # 2

With a little more than half of Season 14 in the books, it's time to check in with another edition of the power rankings.  The story since the first rankings has been the incredible play of Buffalo, going 33-9 since the last rankings to pull out in front of the pack.  They have been bringing it on every level as of late, it has been quite the impressive run.  Oklahoma City comes in at #2, still playing very well.  New Britain stepped it up to leap from #10 up to # 3.   Previous #1 Memphis fell to #11 as their pitching staff's incredible start could not be maintained.  Here's the complete rankings!

	Team	W	L	PREV	Comments
1	Buffalo	59	23	2	They have been outstanding on every level as of late
2	Oklahoma City	51	31	3	Playing solid ball and winning games, still elite
3	New Britain	49	33	10	Their pitching is getting it done, leading to a nice bump
4	Honolulu	48	34	4	Their pitching has taken a hit lately, but still winning
5	Tampa Bay	47	35	11	Playing incredibly well, one of the best teams in pitching
6	Madison	48	34	12	It's all about offense here, but pitching has improved some
7	Detroit	46	36	14	Maintained it's hot offense, while the pitching stepped up
8	Seattle	46	36	18	Major improvement in pitching since last rankings
9	Tucson	47	35	5	Pitching took a hit, but offensive production increased
10	St. Louis	48	34	8	Their pitching took a nice turn, but offense has been down
11	Memphis	46	36	1	The pitching staff's incredible start has leveled off a bit
12	Pawtucket	46	36	6	Numbers fell off a bit across the board here, but still solid
13	Texas	45	37	23	Nice jump as the pitching really has come together lately
14	Rochester	42	40	15	Their pitching is amongst the best, but bats are a concern
15	Pittsburgh	41	41	19	Offense improved here, but the pitching fell of a little
16	Little Rock	40	42	20	Offense is great, but the pitching has been shaky lately
17	Toronto	41	41	22	Bouncing back a bit after a pretty rough start to the season
18	San Francisco	41	41	21	.500 for the 2nd straight rankings, pitching is on the up
19	Arizona	39	43	7	Rough stretch as of late, pitching fell off since last rankings
20	Nashville	38	44	17	Numbers were pretty stable, need pitching to step it up
21	Vancouver	40	42	9	It's been pretty bad as of late, numbers down overall
22	Jacksonville	36	46	16	Their pitching got roughed up, resulting in a bit of a drop
23	Oakland	35	47	29	Playing better, as the offense improved significantly
24	Chicago (AL)	37	45	13	Rough stretch, as their offense has fallen off a bit lately
25	Cincinnati	35	47	24	Hanging in there, they could use some offensive production
26	Burlington	35	47	26	Major fall off in offense, must have played a lot at home
27	Louisville	33	49	31	Showing signs of life with improvement across the board
28	Portland	29	53	32	Pitching is stepping up, with numbers a lot better lately
29	Cleveland	32	50	25	The numbers are down overall, resulting in them dropping
30	Indianapolis	30	52	27	Pitching isn't bad, but the offense isn't there quite yet
31	Chicago (NL)	29	53	30	Actually improved some after a horrid start so we'll see
32	New York	33	49	28	The rebuild here is still in process, they're not quite there

Season 14 Power Rankings # 1

We're a quarter of the way through Season 14, and thus far it's been a tale of two leagues.  The AL has shown tremendous parity this season, with a number of division races within a couple of games from top to bottom, while the NL has had a number of teams with tremendous records, that have broken away from the pack early.  In fact, so much so that the top 5 teams in the rankings all come from the NL.  At the top, with the world's top pitching staff, and a 7-1 record vs. the #2-4 teams, Memphis becomes just the 4th different team to land on top of the rankings with an amazing 28-12 start, jumping up all the way from #15.  Buffalo comes in at #2, and dethroned #1 Oklahoma City comes in at #3, but they are still a major threat, make no mistake.  Honolulu and Tucson round out the top 5.   And now, here's the complete rankings!

	Team	W	L	PREV	Comments
1	Memphis	28	12	15	#1 in ERA and beating the top teams, so they get the nod
2	Buffalo	26	14	3	Probably top team by the numbers, but 0-3 vs. Memphis
3	Oklahoma City	23	17	1	Still looking great, and may have been a bit unlucky so far
4	Honolulu	24	16	4	Solid through the first quarter, pitching has been great
5	Tucson	25	15	6	Holding their own in a very top heavy NL
6	Pawtucket	25	15	9	AL's top team right now, getting it done with offense
7	Arizona	22	18	2	Pitching started off slow for the defending champs
8	St. Louis	26	14	25	Hanging in well with the NL's top teams, nice pitching
9	Vancouver	26	14	26	Another surprise team cracks the top 10 with a nice start
10	New Britain	21	19	11	Offense is looking solid, the record should improve
11	Tampa Bay	20	20	7	Tremendous pitching, if the offense picks it up, look out
12	Madison	21	19	8	Their pitching has been getting lit, but offense is top notch
13	Chicago (AL)	22	18	20	Doing well so far, getting nice offensive production
14	Detroit	21	19	22	League's top offense has them with a winning record
15	Rochester	20	20	13	Nice pitching, but the offense hasn't shown up yet
16	Jacksonville	20	20	24	Great pitching, and numbers show record can improve
17	Nashville	20	20	18	Pretty average across the board, but still in it
18	Seattle	20	20	16	Pitching not getting it done, but AL is loaded with offense
19	Pittsburgh	19	21	10	Not bad so far, will be better if offense turns it up
20	Little Rock	19	21	12	Pretty decent numbers, so a rebound wouldn't be suprising
21	San Francisco	20	20	30	Hanging in there in the AL West so far, a nice surpise
22	Toronto	18	22	5	Not looking good so far, but potential is there to heat up
23	Texas	18	22	17	Pretty mediocre start, but offense is capabale of more
24	Cincinnati	16	24	14	It's tough in the NL right now, with a lot of great teams
25	Cleveland	17	23	19	Middle of the pack in most categories right now
26	Burlington	17	23	31	Showing signs of improvement, which is good to see
27	Indianapolis	17	23	32	Actually tied for the division lead right now
28	New York	18	22	27	Numbers not looking great, but hanging in record wise
29	Oakland	16	24	23	Pitching staff showing signs of improvement, a good sign
30	Chicago (NL)	11	29	28	Rough start may be a bit of bad luck, and tough schedule
31	Louisville	14	26	29	Clearly in rebuild right now, so not that much of a surprise
32	Portland	10	30	21	Bad start, but they actually have a pretty decent offense