Season 28 Power Rankings #1

For the first time since the Season 26 preseason rankings, there's a #1 who isn't Little Rock!  And it happens to be your defending champions, Helena.  Check out the rest of the rankings below!

Biggest Climbers: #4 Salt Lake City (+28), #5 Syracuse (+22), #3 New Britain (+15), #13 Seattle (+12)

Biggest Falls: #32 Monterrey (-18), #24 Ottawa (-15), #15 Charlotte (-10), #25 Nashville (-10), #17 Tampa Bay (-9)

					Pitching	Offense
	Team	W	L	PREV	Rank	Rank
1	Helena	29	11	2	7	2
2	Durham	25	15	3	2	7
3	New Britain	26	14	18	10	6
4	Salt Lake City	24	16	32	13	4
5	Syracuse	22	18	27	3	10
6	Little Rock	24	16	1	22	1
7	Atlanta	21	19	4	5	11
8	New York	21	19	12	1	16
9	Boise	23	17	7	14	8
10	Tacoma	24	16	11	4	28
11	Honolulu	20	20	6	11	14
12	Buffalo	20	20	10	6	22
13	Seattle	19	21	25	15	12
14	Wichita	20	20	24	16	13
15	Charlotte	20	20	5	30	3
16	Augusta	21	19	26	19	17
17	Tampa Bay	21	19	8	18	24
18	Rochester	18	22	13	9	25
19	Norfolk	21	19	16	21	23
20	Sioux Falls	20	20	22	28	15
21	Baltimore	16	24	17	8	27
22	Burlington	18	22	19	17	19
23	Santa Cruz	20	20	29	25	29
24	Ottawa	18	22	9	29	5
25	Nashville	18	22	15	23	21
26	Richmond	17	23	20	24	19
27	St. Louis	18	22	21	27	18
28	Omaha	18	22	31	12	32
29	Santa Fe	15	25	28	32	9
30	New Orleans	16	24	30	20	30
31	Oakland	13	27	23	26	31
32	Monterrey	14	26	14	31	26

Season 28 Preseason Power Rankings

Season 28 is about to kick off, so it's time for the Preseason Power Rankings!  For the 10th consecutive edition, Little Rock holds the top spot.  Their offense looks incredible again, with a solid rotation to boot.  At #2, it's your defending champion, Helena, who looks poised to make a run at back-to-back titles, with a great team all-around.  World Series runner-up Durham checks in at #3 as they look to continue their dominance of the NL.  Atlanta, featuring a most impressive pitching staff, comes in at #4, while Charlotte rounds out the top 5, ranking in the top 6 in both Starting Pitching and Hitting.  A lot of the top teams from last season remain near the top of the Preseason rankings, but a lot can change come the regular season.  Good luck to all, here are the complete rankings!

				Starting	Relief
		Season 27		Pitching	Pitching	Hitting	Fielding
	Team	W	L	Rank	Rank	Rank	Rank
1	Little Rock	102	60	7	27	1	5
2	Helena	101	61	6	2	7	9
3	Durham	102	60	8	19	4	4
4	Atlanta	92	70	5	3	13	19
5	Charlotte	84	78	3	28	6	21
6	Honolulu	86	76	12	11	2	21
7	Boise	90	72	13	5	3	15
8	Tampa Bay	82	80	10	10	9	21
9	Ottawa	82	80	4	25	11	26
10	Buffalo	89	73	25	4	5	15
11	Tacoma	81	81	1	12	22	5
12	New York	90	72	11	31	12	3
13	Rochester	77	85	27	6	10	1
14	Monterrey	82	80	16	9	15	19
15	Nashville	94	68	24	1	17	11
16	Norfolk	65	97	9	17	23	5
17	Baltimore	60	102	19	22	14	11
18	New Britain	98	64	2	21	27	32
19	Burlington	75	87	23	28	8	26
20	Richmond	83	79	28	7	16	29
21	St. Louis	73	89	15	18	18	21
22	Sioux Falls	68	94	17	8	27	2
23	Oakland	65	97	22	13	20	21
24	Wichita	82	80	20	26	19	8
25	Seattle	78	84	18	20	25	9
26	Augusta	44	118	26	23	21	11
27	Syracuse	79	83	29	14	26	15
28	Santa Fe	78	84	30	24	24	26
29	Santa Cruz	80	82	21	32	30	29
30	New Orleans	82	80	31	30	29	31
31	Omaha	63	99	14	16	32	14
32	Salt Lake City	85	77	32	15	31	15

Top Hall of Fame Candidates for season 28

JC Ganzel Right Field

Ganzel is arguably one of the 3 best hitters in the history of Kenny Powers and should be a no brainer addition to the Hall of Fame.  Ganzel is a 5 time NL MVP and made 10 All Star appearances and 10 Silver Slugger awards.  Ganzel was also strong in the field winning the Gold Glove for right field in season 14.  JC spent most of his career as the leader of the Honolulu Tiki Gods and had 2625 career hits for a lifetime batting average of .310.   Ganzel was feared by opposing pitchers at the plate due to his tremendous power, he is currently 3rd all time in home runs with 632 and runs batted in with 1726.  Ganzel also scored 1482 runs in his career and finished with a .386 obp., .582 slg. and .968 ops.  While JC led his team to the playoffs 10 times and appeared in 104 career playoff games he never played in a World Series.  That was no fault of his own, Ganzel had 118 hits in the post season for a .305 average with 24 home runs and 57 rbi.  This is JC Ganzel's 1st season of eligibility for the Hall of Fame.


Butch Borland Left Field

Borland is a 4 time All Star Left Fielder who was Rookie of the year in season 9 and won two Silver slugger awards and a Gold Glove.  Borland was a powerful presence at the plate collecting 2050 career hits for a .287 batting average with 566 home runs and 1444 rbi.  Borland also scored 1153 runs and finished with a .354 obp., .565 slg. and .919 ops.  Borland played in 54 career playoff games and collected 57 hits for a .281 batting average with 10 home runs and 29 rbi whule scoring 22 runs.  He won a World Series ring in season 18 with the Syracuse Blizzard.


Richard Ma Starting Pitcher

Richard Ma was a dominant starting pitcher who made 5 All Star appearances and won two Cy Young awards.  He also won 3 world series rings as a starting pitcher on the Oklahoma City Bombers.  Ma had a career record of 203-114 with a lifetime era of 3.22.  He had excellent control as shown by his career whip of 1.21 and struck out 2283 batters in 2697 career innings pitched.  Ma won 20+ games 4 times in his career with records of 22-4 in season 8, 21-6 in season 10, 23-5 in season 11 and 21-3 in season 12.  Ma was excellent in the post season posting a 18-6 record in 35 career starts and 213 2/3 post season innings with a 3.24 era.  He was particularly dominant in the season 12 post season going 5-0 with a 1.62 era in 44 1/3 innings striking out 28 and allowing only a .187 batting average and .79 whip.  Ma suffered a major elbow injury in season 14 and missed that entire season, after surgery he went on to pitch 8 more seasons but was not as dominant as he was in the 1st 8 seasons of his career.  Despite the decline in his ability Ma is still deserving of a place in the Hall of fame.


Tony Gwynn Starting Pitcher

Tony Gwynn was an ace starter who made 4 All Star apperances and won a World Series ring in season 19 with New Britain.  Gwynn had a career record of 236-161 with a lifetime era of 3.33.  Gwynn had 550 career starts in 591 appearances.  Having excellent control Gwynn had a lifetime whip of 1.19 and struck out 3005 batters in 3695 innings. Gwynn had 20 postseason starts in 22 appearances posting a 7-7 record with a 4.05 era.  In seasons 18-19 Gwynn went 5-1 with a 2.52 era in 12 appearances with 11 starts.


Rob Ross Left Field

Rob Ross is a 2 time League MVP who made 5 All Star appearances.  He won a Gold Glove as a Left Fielder and 2 Silver Sluggers as a Second Baseman.  Ross played the majority of his career at his true position in Left Field.  Ross was has 2107 hits with a lifetime average of .293.  Ross had 351 career home runs, 430 doubles and stole 226 bases while driving in 1313 runs and crossing home plate 1144 times.  He posted an obp. of .364 with a .516 slg. and .880 op and hit for the cycle in season 7. Ross was not particularly successful in the playoffs  appearing in 49 post season games and had 46 hits for an average of .237 with 9 home runs and 36 rbi.  Ross is a borderline Hall of Fame candidate.


Chipper Nippert Third Base

Chipper Nippert was primarily a Third Basemen and is probably one of the two best Third Basemen in Kenny Powers history.  Early in his career Nippert played Short Stop but moved to his more natural position of Third Base in season 10.  Nippert made 6 All Star appearances, two as a Short Stop and four times as a Third Baseman.  He Also won 3 Silver Sluggers, two as Short Stop and one as a Third Baseman.  He also won five Gold Gloves, all of them as a Third Baseman and would have likely won more if he had played that position at the start of his career.  Nipppert made 178 plus plays at 3b, 59 plus plays at SS and 14 plus plays at 2b.  Nippert was powerful hitter who collected 2193 hits for a career batting average of .255.  To go along with his stellar play at the hot corner he also slugged 515 home runs and had 1435 career rbi while scoring 1280 runs himself.  He had a career obp. of .315 with a .480 slg. and .795 obp.  Nippert appeard in 131 post season games and won 3 world series rings in seasons 7,9 annd 13.  He had 122 hits in the playoffs with a .241 average hitting 25 home runs with 68 rbi and scored 71 runs.  He also made 15 plus plays in the post season with no minus plays.  Nippert is deserving of Hall of Fame consideration.


Ernie Hines Third Baseman

Ernie Hines is the other top Third Baseman in the history of Kenny Powers deserving of Hall of Fame consideration.  Hines made 7 All Star appearances winning 2 Gold Gloves and a Silver Slugger.  Hines was a five tool player who had 2367 career hits for a .283 average with 298 career home runs 1143 rbi.  Hines also ran very well with 472 career doubles 58 triples while stealing 411 bases and scoring 1291 runs.  Hines posted a career obp of .346, slg of .459 and ops of .805.  During his career Hines played every position in the field including catcher, but he started 1922 games at Third Bases where he collected 158 plus plays and the Gold Glove in season 14.  Hines won a World Series ring in season 11 and had 82 hits for a .248 average in 83 post season games.  He had 11 homers drove in 35 runs while scoring 44 himself and also stole 20 bases in the post season.  Hines is deserving of Hall of Fame consideration.  It is debatable whether Hines or Nippert is the best Third Baseman of the 1st quarter century of Kenny Powers, and one of them should be inducted to the Hall of Fame.


Blake Lofton Left/Right Fielder

Blake Lofton was an outfielder who split time between Left and Right Field.  He made 3 All Star appearances but also won 5 World Series rings.  Lofton had 2309 career hits for a lifetime average of .289 with 257 Home Runs and 1024 rbi.  Lofton had one talent in particular that was very valueable, he got on base.  Lofton's keen eye at the plate led to 1346 walks and career obp. of .394.  Lofton wasn't a speedster but sill ran the bases extremely well leading to 467 doubles and 277 stolen bases while scoring 1468 runs.  He has a career slg, of .454 and ops of .848. Lofton could hit anywhere in the lineup but spent most of his career leading off or hitting second and setting the table for championship teams.  Lofton played in 150 post season games and collected 166 hits for a .290 average.  He is the all-time leading run scorer in the post season with 113 and he also had 22 home runs and 63 rbi.  His obp, in the postseason is .389 and has a .472 slg and ops. of .861.  Based on his postseason heroics alone on 5 World Championship teams Lofton is an overlooked shoe in Hall of Famer.  But his career numbers on top of that clearly elevate him to being a candidate that simply cannot be ignored.