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06/05/2056
We're back to the Power Rankings as the consensus was Washington was never going to come out the top spot! So welcome back Rum Runners to their second straight PR top spot. The real winner this last week was Toronto though who went 6-1 which included a four game sweep of Indy. Other big week were Baltimore and Dallas who each went 5-1, and New York and Wilmington who went 5-2. On the flip side Indy and Philly went 1-6. Some team leaders: Maine had a .300 average (PHI .180), opponents hit .192 against New York (Indy .312), Dallas swiped 16 bases (PHI 1), and the Drillers only allowed one home run (WC 9).
Power Rankings
1) Santo Domingo Rum Runners (116.9, o)
2) Washington Bats (116.7, o)
3) Baltimore Bulldogs (115.4, +)
4) Dallas Drillers (108.3, ++)
5) Seattle Pilots (106.9, -)
6) Wilmington Wildcats (100.0, ++)
7) Toronto Canadians (95.1, ++)
8) Los Angeles Dinos (93.3, --)
9) Phoenix Roadrunners (93.0, ++)
10) Carolina Tobs (92.1, o)
11) New Orleans Voodoo (92.0, --)
12) Pawtucket Patriots (87.3, +)
13) Pittsburgh Millers (85.7, --)
14) Denver Bulls (84.1, ++)
15) Hartford Whalers (84.0, --)
16) Maine Guides (83.8, --)
17) Windy City Blues (82.6, +)
18) Syracuse Snappers (81.2, -)
19) Batavia Muckdogs (77.7, -)
20) California Kodiaks (77.2, -)
21) New York Cyclones (77.2, +)
22) Indianapolis Clowns (74.5, --)
23) Montreal Exports (73.3, +)
24) Philadelphia Freedom (58.9, -)
Performance of the Week
P Oliver Lanham - We have a new #1 as Lanham now holds the top pitching performance of the season. On May 31st against Carolina he came out hot with three K's in the first inning. He finished the day by going eight innings, only allowing two hits, while giving up no runs and striking out 15. The 28 year old is now 6-0 with a 1.34 ERA, 0.92 WHIP, and 294 ERA+. Lanham was an 8th round pick out of high school by the Bulldogs back in 2045 and made his BLB debut in 2053. It is the fourth 15+K performance of the season, and the first by a non Tob.
Prospect of the Week
RF Walter Muller - The 17 year old will be smiling once he's a top five pick in the upcoming draft, or at least he should be according to scouts. He's known as a baseball rat who's always at the park, and scouts project him to be an 'elite' hitter and left fielder. He played in 154 out of 160 possible games during his high school career (he was suspended five games for a fight) where he hit .255/.449/.546 with 38 HRs and 97 RBIs.
Five Things We Think We Think
1. Parity has come to the BLB, well at least so far. We're in June now, and there isn't a team with less than 20 wins, and there isn't a team with more than 34 wins. No bigger example of this is the Ale, where first place Maine (26-25), and last place Syracuse (23-28) are separated by a whopping three games. When 14 of the 24 teams fall between a win percentage of .450 and .550 it means that we could have a lot of excitement down the stretch, and a lot of movement as teams trying to get that extra piece to give them a winning edge.
2. Andy Dillon is en feugo as he leads the league with 19 HRs and 46 RBI's and just took Player of the Week for the second time in three weeks. The 26 year old was a former 1st round pick who has been putting up a career year so far. He's on pace to hit 59 HRs while turning in a 7.0 WAR, and his .299 average is the highest since he hit .321 in 57 games as a rookie in 2053. After having elbow ligament reconstruction surgery in 2053 and missing almost nine months the scouts wondered if he'd ever be the same. It took him some time but it appears the answer is yes.
3. No one is filling the stands like the Phoenix Roadrunners this season. They lead the league with a 99.5% capacity for home games, as fans have 'flocked' to The Birdnest this season. On the other end is Windy City who's only filling their stadium to 62.4% on the year. Overall this season the Seattle Pilots have turned the turnstiles the most as their 1,271,117 attendance is tops in the league. With home games uneven though, the race to finish first still has a long way to go. Last season it was Washington who finished first with 3,488,705, which ended up only 21,116 more than second place LAD and 54,343 more than third place California.
4. Five teams tied with 17 wins last month, SDR, Pawtucket, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Washington. The Rum Runners were crowned the May champions though as they went 17-11, Washington and Pitt went 17-12, and Seattle and Pawtucket went 17-13. Some team leaders for the month of May: Pittsburgh scored 155 runs (BAL/IND 95), Phoenix hit 49 home runs (SYR 12), Phoenix swiped 56 bases (LAD 8), Baltimore only gave up 73 runs (BAT 168), and opponents hit only .212 against Baltimore (TOR .309).
5. What's on tap? This week we get Maine at Pittsburgh (who's the most mediocre in the Ale), Pawtucket at Hartford (ditto), and Syracuse at Indy (ditto part two). Streak wise Toronto has won six straight, Wilmington has won four straight, Indy has lost six straight, and Pittsburgh has lost four straight. Player wise Lon Leseberg (CAL) has a 25 game hitting streak, and Ken 'Baseball' Burns (SDR) hasn't lost in 10 straight starts.
Stat of the Week
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| Highest Attendance Relative To League (Top 25 Teams, SD is number of standard deviations better than league average) |
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