AL West Power Rankings; the Post-April Edition

For those of you who saw our divisional power rankings for April, this next part of the series shouldn’t be that hard to follow, as we go through each of the six divisions and rank each team within the division. This way we can figure out which team is the best in the division, outside of the wins and losses on the field.

One major difference that should be noted is the fact that since each division only has five teams, there points awarded will start at five and then descend down to one in reverse order of the teams respective rank.

Oh, and we will still be using strike out to walk ratio (K/BB) for the pitching stat — despite having access to a team’s FiP and xFiP — for consistencies sake.

So anyway, onto the power rankings:

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Rating Your NFL Playoff Contenders By Comparing Them To The Types Of Women Single Guys Meet

By J-Dub and Meehan

Despite what they would like you to think, most guys don’t really understand football, and they understand even less about women.  But when it comes to both, they all think they know something.  As a public service for you, the blog-reading public, we are offering you a comparison using both of those things you guys mistakenly think you understand to give you a clear picture as to who your Super Bowl contenders really are.

For purposes of full disclosure, this isn’t a piece written about, or intended to encourage gambling. Nor is it intended to offer advice on the same.  This is because not only is gambling illegal at Bushwood, sir, but women are way more fucking dangerous than any wager. You can still read our blogs after you lose your house payment to a bookie, but the same isn’t true after you die from a case of Tasmanian Scrotum Rot or from catching a butcher knife in the face.  So proceed with caution, and see how the teams in the current NFL playoff hunt can be compared to some of your local neighborhood barflies.

1) “The Incredibly Hot Bridesmaid”

What We Learned From Week 11 of the 2013 NFL Season

By J-Dub and Meehan

Up until now, we’ve been consulting our medical expert Dr. Kelly Brackett for his prognoses on NFL teams. But now that we are clearly in the homestretch, it’s time to shift our focus from the survivors and the casualties to an analysis of the survival of the fittest. That means we change our expert as well; rather than looking for overall health, this becomes an exercise in actuarials…or to make it sound less insurance-like..it’s time to look at the odds of each possible contender making the play-offs.  For that, we have invited legendary movie odds-maker Sam “Ace” Rothstein for his thoughts.

AFC:

1) Indianapolis Colts (7-3)

Remaining Games:

• @Arizona
• Tennessee
• @Cincinnati
• Houston
• @Kansas City
• Jacksonville

Odds of Making Play-offs:

Metaphysical certainty. Steal as much money as you can get your hands on, then bet twice that much that Indianapolis will be in the play-offs.

Key Facts:

With six games to go, the Colts have a three-game lead in the AFC South over their closest competitor, and they just beat them on the road with a dramatic comeback victory.The Colts will make the playoffs because no one else in the AFC South will step up and challenge them.  The Titans are in second place, and the other two teams might as well be Terri Schiavo two days after they yanked her feeding tube.  They’ve already beaten Seattle, San Francisco, and the Broncos, and by the time they get to the Kansas City Chiefs, both teams could be just resting up for January.

Pac-12 Power Rankings for Week 12

Was there ever that on thing you always you always wanted as a child — whether that be a particular toy set or a certain girl in your grade school class to notice you? No matter how hard you tried, you never could get that one thing…it is enough to drive any human being insane.

One thing I’ve noticed as an adult is that that desire never goes away, it just manifolds itself in different ways. For me, one of those things that I’ve wanted is for Oregon to capture a national championship game to shut up those obnoxious Husky fans that troll Oregon because they haven’t captured a national title yet. After all, it’s not like Oregon has a most recent Rose Bowl victory AND ten straight wins over UW…that’s sarcsasm by the way.

Unfortunately, that won’t be happening this upcoming January; in fact, one Duck fan feels like their window for a national championship has closed. I completely disagree with his argument, but that is not what this post is about…this post is about ranking the Pac-12 and we shall do that.

Like right now:

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Pac-12 Power Rankings for Week 11

It was a rather empty slate for the Pac-12 conference this past weekend. There was a grand total of four games — eight teams — that happened this past weekend. There were no real upsets, but there were some surprising results that left a fan base up in arms about something that doesn’t really mean anything. Anyway’s, this weekend was rather lame and the power rankings should reflect that.

1. Oregon Ducks: The Ducks and Cardinal got the entire week to prepare for their match-up on Thursday Nov. 7th.
2. Stanford Cardinal: See above team.

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Pac-12 Power Rankings for Week 10

The landscape of college football went relatively unchanged  after week ten. For the Pac-12, the week was full of predictability, as there weren’t any upsets; there also weren’t too many close games to speak of. In other words it was a pretty boring weekend for those — meaning me — who liked the chaos of the previous week. Now, let’s get to the power rankings for the Pac-12.

1. Oregon Ducks: Oregon regained its title of the great spread coverers; the Duck’s 28 point victory over the Bruins was impressive.

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Pac-12 Power Rankings for Week 9

I know that you guys were extremely concerned, but be concerned no more as the Pac-12 Power Rankings are back. It has been an interesting hiatus that has cost me some excellent humor opportunities at the expense of some Pac-12 teams, but its ya know….whatever.

For those of you who missed the pre-season power rankings, you can find them here. For those of you who don’t care and just want to see how I have the conference stacking up right now, keep on reading.

1. Oregon Ducks: For the first time in 2013, the Ducks failed to cover the spread. I think it means that it is time for those folks in Eugene to start panicking. I know I would if I was them.

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Sports with Neil’s Pac-12 North Pre-Season Power Rankings

Last year the Pac-12 was extremely exciting to watch, as the North continued its string of winning the Pac-12 title. There is going to be a lot of interesting story lines as we move through the season; does the hot seat talk for Steve Sarkisian end, or does it boil over? Are the Cougs able to [actually] turn things around in Mike Leach’s second year at the helm? Is Jim Mora Jr. the solution for the UCLA Bruins?..and many, many more.

That being said, the story lines are only part of what this post is about. This post is taking a look at how I think the Pac-12 teams rank going into the season.

That’s right folks, Pac-12 Power Rankings have returned; and we will start with the Northern Division.

1) Stanford: The Cardinal posted an impressive 12-2 record last season, as the won the conference and the Rose Bowl. Last season started off good for the Cards with an impressive upset win over the Trojans of Southern California in conference play. There success continued throughout the season (minus a couple of hick-ups against he Huskies and Notre Dame); and ended with a 20-14 win in the Rose Bowl over Wisconsin.

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The 2013 Dubsism All-Star Break Baseball “Sucks/Doesn’t Suck” Rankings

For me, the All-Star break has always represented the “far turn” in the horse race that is the Major League Baseball season. This is the point when general managers acting as jockeys must decide whether they are contenders or pretenders; whether to go to the whip (trade for talent to augment a “stretch run”) or “wait for next year” (have a fire sale). Not to mention, this another great opportunity to see how wrong we really were from the pre-season predictions.  And let’s be honest…we were wrong on a lot of stuff.

1)  Pittsburgh Pirates ↑ 15

What We Said:

Even though the Bucs just missed out on a .500 record, it had to be considered a successful campaign because their farm system took a big leap forward. Pirates fans need to be patient because I really think the turnaround is coming.

Really.

I get that it is hard to ask fans of a team that has sucked swamp water to two decades to be patient, especially in the light of two straight second-half collapses.  Breakout superstar Andrew McCutchen needs to lead an offense featuring Russell Martin, Gaby Sanchez, Travis Snider, and promoted prospect Starling Marte. The starting rotation has potential with a top three of A.J. Burnett, Wandy Rodriguez and James McDonald, but that three still has some questions. Beyond there’s more :what ifs,” such as Francisco Liriano Jonathan Sanchez. Boil it all down and I see the Pirates as an even bet to reach .500 for the first time in two decades.

What Happened:

Pitching wins, and the Pirates lead the National League in team ERA. The question is after two straight post All-Star Game folds, is this the year the Bucs finally can make a run all the way to they way.

2) Boston Red Sox ↑ 16

What We Said:

For the second year in a row, the mantra is Boston is as follows: The Red Sox are not nearly as bad as their record last year would indicate, it was just a storm of everything falling apart at exactly the same time.

The difference is that they seem to have grasped what the really need to do to rebuild over the long haul.  Namely, they needed to not make the same mistakes when it comes to giant money, long-term contracts. This past off-season, the Red Sox only signed free-agents who were willing to accept contracts of three years or fewer, who wouldn’t cost them a compensatory draft pick and who aren’t pains-in-the-ass.  Having said that, third-place is the upside for this team.

What Happened:

Remember what I just said about pitching? Well, Boston is second in the American League in team ERA. Top that off with the fact the Red Sox are also second in the AL in team batting average, and their #2 ranking, while surprising to me given what I though of this team at the beginning of the season, really shouldn’t be surprising.

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Tiger Ends Winless Streak to Take Bay Hill

Tiger Woods stopped all naysayers — at least for a few more weeks — as he dominated the field this week to beat Graeme McDowell on Sunday by 5 strokes at the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill on Sunday.