Season 15 Power Rankings # 3

We're three-quarters of the way through Season 15, so it's time to check in with the power rankings before we hit the stretch run.  After being ranking #1 at the mid-way point last season, Buffalo fell off a bit, unable to maintain their momentum.  This season is a different story, as Buffalo has kept it rolling and is a pretty clear #1 once again at this point.  They have 2 tough challengers in the NL, in #2 Honolulu, whose numbers don't look that different from Buffalo, and #3 Oklahoma City who saw improved numbers all around since the last ranking.  Seattle comes in at #4, with their good offensive numbers continuing, and a red hot New Britain comes in at #5.  Honorable mention goes to St. Louis, who cracks the top 10 at #8 after posting the 2nd best record since the last rankings, overcoming a mediocre start.  Here are the complete rankings, good luck to all down the stretch!

	Team	W	L	PREV	Comments
1	Buffalo	85	37	1	No letdown after the halfway mark this year, rolling along
2	Honolulu	79	43	3	Putting up similar numbers to Buffalo, so looking strong
3	Oklahoma City	76	46	4	They've improved across the board, so look out
4	Seattle	74	48	5	Getting better offense this season, and pitching is solid
5	New Britain	71	51	11	Excellent since last rankings, numbers up overall
6	Detroit	75	47	2	Mediocre as of late, but still a very strong team
7	Pawtucket	69	53	6	Offensive powerhouse is certainly a contender in the AL
8	St. Louis	69	53	14	On fire since last rankings, thanks to great pitching
9	Toronto	70	52	7	Hanging in there, pitching improved a lot, but offense down
10	Tucson	63	59	15	Been playing better, thanks to a major boost in offense
11	Rochester	60	62	18	Numbers look better than their record indicates
12	Indianapolis	65	57	19	Nice season, I think this is the highest they've ever been
13	Nashville	63	59	8	Have faltered a bit, the offense has been down lately
14	Little Rock	60	62	27	Made major strides since last rankings, with pitching impoved
15	Cincinnati	65	57	10	Still doing good with pitching, but not getting much offense
16	Scranton	58	64	20	Took a step forward with their pitching, and offense is great
17	Tampa Bay	59	63	9	Struggling a bit as of late, but pitching still very good
18	Pittsburgh	62	60	16	Pitching has stepped it up, but offense is down some
19	Durham	61	61	12	It's all offense for them, which is consistent with their park
20	Jacksonville	55	67	29	Major improvement across the board, which is a good sign
21	New York	56	66	21	Pitching roughed up a bit, but the offense is improving
22	Helena	57	65	17	Playing ok as of late, with the offense picking up steam
23	Oakland	52	70	24	Pitching took a step back, but they have great offense
24	Salt Lake City	50	72	32	They're improving, with a winning record since last rankings
25	Cleveland	50	72	13	Offense cooled off a bit, which resulted in taking a step back
26	Burlington	55	67	22	The offense is down a bit here, but still getting good pitching
27	Chicago (AL)	52	70	26	Offense improved, but pitching has been a problem for them
28	Louisville	51	71	25	Decent hitting, and the pitching made some strides forward
29	Chicago (NL)	51	71	30	Pitching improving, but the offense hasn't been there
30	Memphis	44	78	28	Offense took a major step back since the last rankings
31	San Francisco	48	74	23	Pitching roughed up lately, which has resulted in some L's
32	Vancouver	47	75	31	Look to be rebuilding, as the pitching seems just awful

Season 15 All-Star Coverage

Season 15's All-Stars have been announced, so it's time to see who will be playing in this year's classic!

In the American League, the representation was pretty spread out with Detroit, Pawtucket and Seattle leading the way with 4 All-Stars each.  13 teams had players make the team.  Jay Borbon of Nashville has the most number of appearances in the AL, with this being his 9th All-Star game.  Others deserving mention include Sherman Perez (8th appearance), Matty Posada (8th appearance), and Clyde Hurst (7th appearance).

In the National League, two teams' players dominate the roster, with Buffalo having 8 All-Stars and Honolulu having 7 make the team.  Despite the domination of these two teams, 12 teams still had players make the team.  The big news on the NL side is that Che-Bang Kata of Oklahoma City has now hit double digits in All-Star appearances, with this being his 10th.  Fellow hurler Stewart Mouton also deserves a mention for making his 7th All-Star team.

Congrats to all who had players make the team!  Here are the complete All-Star rosters!

AMERICAN LEAGUE
Starters

	Player	Franchise	Appearance
C	Carlos Mercedes	Pawtucket	2nd
1B	Torey Guerrero	Oakland	1st
2B	Sherman Perez	Pawtucket	8th
3B	Andy Minor	Jacksonville	1st
SS	Delino Santana	Little Rock	2nd
LF	Jose Reyes	Pawtucket	1st
CF	Marshall Wood	Pittsburgh	4th
RF	Kyle Surtain	Detroit	2nd
DH	Achilles Sadler	Detroit	2nd

Pitchers

	Player	Franchise	Appearance
P	Zachrey Coleman	Toronto	2nd
P	Douglas Schlereth	Pawtucket	5th
P	Matty Posada	Nashville	8th
P	Victor Diaz	Detroit	1st
P	Howie Ponson	Nashville	1st
P	Yorman Vincente	Pittsburgh	2nd
P	Jay Borbon	Nashville	9th
P	Nicholas Miller	New Britain	1st
P	George McCartin	Seattle	1st
P	Clyde Hurst	Helena	7th
P	Valerio Baez	New Britain	2nd
P	Jack Thompson	Toronto	2nd
P	Joshua Ramsay	Detroit	1st

Reserves

	Player	Franchise	Appearance
C	Livan Espinoza	Little Rock	4th
1B	Alfredo Izquierdo	Seattle	2nd
2B	Marc Towers	Durham	3rd
3B	Orber Pena	Little Rock	2nd
SS	Emmanuel Scheffer	Chicago	1st
LF	Vasco Correa	Oakland	1st
CF	Rolando Camacho	Seattle	1st
RF	Otto Gibson	Seattle	1st

AL All-Stars by Team

Detroit	4
Pawtucket	4
Seattle	4
Little Rock	3
Nashville	3
New Britain	2
Oakland	2
Pittsburgh	2
Toronto	2
Chicago	1
Durham	1
Helena	1
Jacksonville	1

NATIONAL LEAGUE 
Starters

	Player	Franchise	Appearance
C	Jeremy Randall	Buffalo	6th
1B	Randall Holt	Rochester	5th
2B	Albert Valenzuela	Buffalo	2nd
3B	Tony Bonifacio	St. Louis	3rd
SS	Albert Uribe	Buffalo	1st
LF	Bip Waters	Buffalo	1st
CF	Norm Hodges	St. Louis	1st
RF	J.C. Ganzel	Honolulu	3rd

Pitchers

	Player	Franchise	Appearance
P	Che-Bang Kata	Oklahoma City	10th
P	Jolbert Camacho	Honolulu	1st
P	Stewart Mouton	Honolulu	7th
P	Ellis Brock	Tampa Bay	1st
P	David Silva	Buffalo	4th
P	Russ Robinson	Buffalo	4th
P	Dwight Flynn	Buffalo	3rd
P	Nerio Morton	Cincinnati	1st
P	Jimmie Soto	Buffalo	5th
P	Timo Kida	Burlington	1st
P	Allan Blackley	Cincinnati	1st
P	Jim Forbes	Burlington	1st
P	Karim Calderone	Honolulu	1st
P	Dan Ohlendorf	Honolulu	2nd

Reserves

	Player	Franchise	Appearance
C	Trenidad Franco	Honolulu	3rd
1B	Richard Brohawn	Honolulu	1st
2B	Everett Barnes	Indianapolis	1st
3B	Destin Morandini	Oklahoma City	5th
SS	Emmanuel Amaro	St. Louis	1st
LF	Wandy Javier	Tucson	6th
CF	Felipe Miranda	Salt Lake City	1st
RF	Luke Romero	Cleveland	2nd

NL All-Stars by Team

Buffalo	8
Honolulu	7
St. Louis	3
Burlington	2
Cincinnati	2
Oklahoma City	2
Cleveland	1
Indianapolis	1
Rochester	1
Salt Lake City	1
Tampa Bay	1
Tucson	1

Season 15 Power Rankings # 2

The regular season is half-way over for Season 15, so it is time to check in with a new edition of the power rankings.  Let's get right to it!  Fueled with motivation of being denied the top spot in the last edition, Buffalo played tremendous ball since the quarter-way mark, and is the new # 1 team.  An equally hot Detroit team comes in at #2, whose pitching improved while maintaining stellar offensive numbers.  Pitching-dominant Honolulu comes in at #3, the only team with a team ERA under 3.00.  #4 is Oklahoma City, dropping from #1, they actually didn't play that bad since the last rankings, there were just other teams that were more dominant.  Here's the complete rankings!

	Team	W	L	PREV	Comments
1	Buffalo	55	26	3	Felt they were #1 last time, this time they get the top nod
2	Detroit	54	27	6	Offense has been big, and pitching is stepping it up
3	Honolulu	52	29	2	League's top pitching staff, definitely amongst the elite
4	Oklahoma City	49	32	1	Fell off a little, but still a force to be reckoned with
5	Seattle	49	32	4	Offense is suprising so far, but pitching roughed up lately
6	Pawtucket	47	34	5	World's top offense, and getting good enough pitching
7	Toronto	48	33	8	They're back in the mix, pitching improved a lot
8	Nashville	44	37	7	Still playing well, with solid numbers across the board
9	Tampa Bay	43	38	14	Excellent since the last rankings, so a nice bump here
10	Cincinnati	44	37	9	Offense is struggling a bit, but pitching is getting it done
11	New Britain	43	38	11	Pitching has stepped it up, but offense fell off a bit
12	Durham	43	38	18	Pitching has settled down, and still getting nice offense
13	Cleveland	38	43	29	Have turned it around, with the bats producing big time
14	St. Louis	40	41	10	Good team started slow, capable of turning it around
15	Tucson	39	42	13	Fairly middle of the road on all the numbers, so we'll see
16	Pittsburgh	41	40	12	Pitching improved some, and they have decent offense
17	Helena	39	42	15	Could use a little more offense to get in the AL West mix
18	Rochester	39	42	17	Might be a bit unlucky, numbers say they're better
19	Indianapolis	41	40	20	Still hanging in there, good pitching, but not much offense
20	Scranton	37	44	22	They have the offense, and pitching has improved some
21	New York	37	44	27	Playing better with a nice improvement across the board
22	Burlington	41	40	16	Hasn't gone well since the last rankings, but still over .500
23	San Francisco	38	43	21	Offense has been struggling, but hanging in there
24	Oakland	36	45	24	Pitching got roughed up some since last rankings
25	Louisville	33	48	31	Improved since the last rankings, after rough start
26	Chicago (AL)	33	48	32	Also trending upward with better all-around play
27	Little Rock	33	48	19	The wheels have fallen off as of late, really struggling
28	Memphis	31	50	25	Offense is up some, but pitching has been rocked lately
29	Jacksonville	33	48	26	Showed some improvement pitching wise, a good sign
30	Chicago (NL)	34	47	30	Just not getting the offense to compete right now
31	Vancouver	33	48	23	They're not playing well on any level currently
32	Salt Lake City	29	52	28	Offensive numbers show some promise here