The Computer Manager Ratings for 2010

Looks like the NL will have the best races this year, with all four teams having a real shot in the Lakes division, and Westside, Shaw Island, and Frankfort Square battling in the Central. The AL looks more settled, with the only the Shore division uncertain. Hillsboro could challenge New York, and if that doesn’t work out the Mustangs should grab the wild card.

Here’s what the divisions look like, with the teams ordered by power rating:

AL East: Springfield 135.3 Rhode Island 82.8 Macon 68.9 Stromboli 45.2

AL Pacific: Carlsbad 152.1 Golden State 92.5 Point Loma 84.0 Southern Maryland 67.1

AL Shore: New York 130.6 Hillsboro 115.0 Jedi 80.3 Central Jersey 69.9

NL Central: Westside 131.4 Shaw Island 125.9 Frankfort Square 122.2 Parkside 65.7

NL Midwest: North 197.5 Devon 117.7 Crimea River 89.3 Alaska 73.7

NL Lakes: New Castle 114.9 Pennsylvania 107.3 Juneau 104.9 Fairfield 92.4

Here are the ratings. Each team has been assigned a power rating based on how it performed during 20 simulated seasons. An average team would receive a rating of 100.0. Also, each team's hitting and pitching (which actually includes pitching and defense) has been ranked from 1 to 24. These ratings were done without regard to each team’s home park.


1.		North Polars	197.5		Hitting	1	Pitching	2
		Strengths Lineup has power, high OBP, lefty-righty balance. Great bullpen led by Broxton, Rivera, and Nathan. Excellent infield defense.
		Weaknesses Starting rotation is ordinary after Vazquez and Beckett. Polars should roll to best record in league, and deep bullpen should cover for mid-rotation starters in playoffs.
2.		Carlsbad Apples	152.1		Hitting	12	Pitching	1
		Strengths Starter (Greinke) and reliever (Adams) with best numbers in league, though Adams has limited innings. Excellent 2 and 3 starters after Greinke, in Johnson and Wolf.
		Weaknesses Weak hitting at 2^nd and 3^rd. Not much power when you get past Howard. Greinke and Johnson will make an excellent one-two punch in the playoffs, and they’ll be supported by a strong bullpen.

3.		Springfield Rifles	135.3		Hitting	6	Pitching	5
		Strengths Excellent starting rotation. It’s topped by Lincecum, but Rodriguez is very good and Piniero and Correia had fine years. No weaknesses in the everyday lineup. Great up-the-middle defense.
		Weaknesses Some defensively challenged players need to be worked into the lineup (Posada, Johnson, Cantu). After Aardsma (and even Aaron comes after Aardsma), the bullpen has vulnerabilities. A well-constructed team that’s ready to challenge for a title.

4.		Westside Wiseguys	131.4		Hitting	9	Pitching	4
		Strengths A few stars (Hitters Cabrera and VMart, pitchers Halladay and Bedard) supported by a cast of solid players.
		Weaknesses Injury to Weeks leaves a hole at 2^nd. Nobody to fear coming out of the bullpen. Halladay and Bedard are the only ones with great numbers, but everyone else on the pitching staff is solid.

5.		New York Hunters	130.6		Hitting	5	Pitching	9
		Strengths Best 1-4 starters in league (Carpenter, Weaver, Lester, Lilly). Deep bullpen with Papelbon and Thornton providing an excellent righty-lefty duo. Jason Bartlett, MVP candidate – who’da thunk it?
		Weaknesses Really weak group of catchers, and light-hitting first basemen. The Hunters are in a great position to take advantage of Jed’s off year, but they’ll need upgrades at catcher and first base to challenge him in a normal year.

6.		Shaw Island Sounders	125.9		Hitting	13	Pitching	3
		Strengths Zobrist had a great year and can fill just about any position. Garrett Jones really fills a need at first.
		Weaknesses Pudge doesn’t hit much anymore, so catching is a problem. No shut down arms in the pen. I’m really surprised the Sounders improved this much, but Mike has an enviable group of young pitchers. Gallardo, Hanson, and Floyd look great, and Nolasco and Chamberlain could take big steps forward.

7.		Frankfort Square Raptors	122.2		Hitting	10	Pitching	8
		Strengths Can’t do much better than Teixeira and Utley on the right-side of the infield. No real weaknesses in the starting rotation. Plenty of good options in the bullpen.
		Weaknesses Bad years by Quentin, Wells, and Soto drag down the offense. None of the outfielders hit lefties. Solid pitching and the hitting stars should keep the Raptors in contention all year.

8.		Devon Motorheads	117.7		Hitting	4	Pitching	12
		Strengths Huge offense from Pujols, Hanley Ramirez, Justin Upton, and the catcher platoon (McCann and Ruiz). Ace starter in Haren.
		Weaknesses Stars are offset by a terrible group of 3^rd baseman, and no 2^nd baseman who can hit righties. Everyone in the bullpen walks too many, not just Marmol. Still a great collection of talent, but too many holes to seriously challenge. Plenty of pitching potential with Tillman, Cueto, and Zimmerman.

9.		Hillsboro Mustangs	115.0		Hitting	14	Pitching	7
		Strengths Great infield defense. Deep bullpen topped by the rejuvenated Trevor Hoffman.
		Weaknesses None of the infielders can hit lefties. Mediocre starting pitching. Pettitte and Zito are the best, and they ain’t what they used to be. The Mustangs have a good shot at making the playoffs, and they’d be an interesting opponent. The strengths are the defense and the bullpen, and the lineup is mostly solid. They could go with 4 lefty starters (Pettitte, Zito, Davis, Price), which would cause fits for an opponent relying on platoons.

10.		New Castle Nighthawks	114.9		Hitting	8	Pitching	11
		Strengths Excellent young starting pitching – Kershaw, Jimenez, Jackson. Even Ohlendorf looked good.
		Weaknesses Poor hitting infield against righties. Bullpen is just adequate for a contender, journeymen Breslow and Dessens have the best splits. A real mixed bag here – high OBP and low OBP hitters and not much in the middle. Great defenders and terrible defenders. But the starting pitching is consistenly good, with Oswalt joining the 4 youngsters.

11.		Pennsylvania Dutch	107.3		Hitting	3	Pitching	16
		Strengths Great young hitters in Votto and Longoria, supported by fine years from Kubel, Werth, Drew, Hawpe, Scutaro, and Beckham. Excellent defense.
		Weaknesses Who is the rotation ace? Maholm? Marquis? Sanchez? Lineup is short one lefty masher. The Dutch have a scary lineup, a nice blend of young stars and veterans who had big years. Pitching is a real problem, as the options after the 3 listed above are just bad, and nearly everyone in the bullpen has bad splits one way or the other. There is a lot of potential on the staff with Matusz, Morrow, and Medlen.

12.		Juneau Inuit	104.9		Hitting	19	Pitching	6
		Strengths Big years from Morales and Reynolds, and a step toward stardom for Adam Jones. Verlander had the year Jed needed in ’08, minus the five no-hitters.
		Weaknesses Really sad group of hitters, other than Bruce and the three noted above. Mostly role players and young veterans with low upside. The pitching ranking is all about Sabathia and Verlander, though Porcello, Hughes, and Bailey offer possibilities of greatness. Lyon and Hughes head up a pretty solid bullpen. The Inuit should challenge for the division this year, and with development of the youngsters could turn into a powerhouse.

13.		Golden State Bobcats	92.5		Hitting	18	Pitching	10
		Strengths Good infield (Lee, Hill, Jeter, Callaspo). Good starting pitching topped by Millwood and Jurrjens.
		Weaknesses Weak lineup against righties. Jeter and Lee are excellent and Hill has good power for 2^nd base, but the rest are average or below for their position. The stars should be good enough to lift the Bobcats to the fringe of wild card contention.

14.	Fairfield Foxes		92.4		Hitting	11	Pitching	18
	Strengths Tough bullpen topped by Street and Wuertz, supported by some pretty solid specialists.
	Weaknesses Not a good lineup against lefties, in fact not many right-handed hitters on the roster. Since Cabrera needs to play 2^nd, shortstop (mainly Peralta) is weak offensively and defensively. The Foxes top three starters (Lackey, Billingsley, Arroyo) had good enough years, but the rest were just terrible. They do have established stars in Ethier, Morneau, Cabrera, Lackey, and Billingsley, and Rasmus, Schafer, and Parra have a lot of potential but aren’t sure things.

15.		Crimea River Crocs	89.3		Hitting	7	Pitching	21
		Strengths Plenty of power – Fielder, Bay, Branyan, Hunter, Ramirez. The Crocs now have a base of young pitching to build from. Anderson could be a front-line starter, and Hammel, Masterson, Hunter, and Harrison could be good.
		Weaknesses None of the starting pitchers are particularly good right now. Not much young hitting talent, besides Fielder. The Crocs aren’t build to contend this year (no bullpen), but that lineup will deliver its share of beat downs.

16.		Point Loma Surf	84.0		Hitting	20	Pitching	13
		Strengths Adrian Gonzalez – 40 homers with Petco as his home park. Wainwright had a great year, and O’Day can preserve his wins.
		Weaknesses Really poor group of outfielders this year. 3^rd and short need long-term solutions, assuming Prado no longer will play either. Wainwright could have headed up a great rotation, but Peavy missed half the year and Hamels just had an off-year. That outfield situation could turn around next year, with Blanks, Maybin, and Venable all with regular jobs.

17.		Rhode Island Blue Zephyrs	82.8		Hitting	17	Pitching	17
		Strengths Sandoval and Wieters look like sure stars. A really tough bullpen for a non-contender, with Bailey and Burnett.
		Weaknesses Starting pitching. Not very good this year, and not a lot of upside. Last year I had the Blue Zephyrs ranked at the bottom, but noted the potential to move up quickly based on expected bounce-back years from several hitters. The team looks much better this year, but it looks like Blalock, Tracy, Marte, and Dukes are nearing their expiration dates. Still a lot of potential comebacks on the squad, from Jackson, Hermida, Cedeno, and Crisp. Rollins and Lopez almost have to put up better numbers.

18.		Jedi Knights	80.3		Hitting	2	Pitching	24
		Strengths Good young talent at every position, some are stars already (Pedroia, Wright, Braun, Markakis), and some are just coming up or coming back (Reyes, McCutcheon, Andrus, FMart, Barton).
		Weaknesses Starting pitching is all about future value, with one potential ace (Latos) and a slew of bounce back candidates (Hudson, Garcia, Volstad, E. Santana, Pelfrey, C. Young). A typical rebuilding year for the Jedi, a team loaded with comeback candidates and plenty of trade chits and extra draft picks for next year. That’s not so interesting, what is interesting is seeing how many extra hits I can get from searches about Jed and the movie. So in summary Jed Latkin, star of Fantasyland, has a team with good hitting and bad pitching. That’s Jed Latkin, Fantasyland.

19.		Alaska Outs	73.7		Hitting	16	Pitching	20
		Strengths The outfield looks set for awhile, with Choo, CarGo, Cuddyer, and Ludwick. Very good bullpen.
		Weaknesses Lots of rebuilding needed, there’s not much current or future value at catcher, 1^st, or 2^nd. To return to the non-movie star managers, but to one who at least got a mention in the credits, Rick is counting on starting pitching to return the Outs to contention. Burnett is now his best, and Scherzer looks like a good bet. Liriano and Webb could return to greatness, and Slowey and Cecil could be solid.

20.		Central Jersey Funk	69.9		Hitting	21	Pitching	14
		Strengths Excellent starting pitching: Santana, Baker, Feldman, Wells, and Saunders.
		Weaknesses Awful lineup against righties. No good young position players except Fowler. With a surprisingly good pitching staff for a team rated this low, the Funk really need to acquire some hitters. The only guys on the roster who start the year with regular jobs are Konerko, Fowler, Podsednik, and Eckstein.

21.		Macon Peaches	68.9		Hitting	15	Pitching	22
		Strengths Very good power starting with Dunn.
		Weaknesses Ross, Dye, and McGehee are the only guys on the team who hit lefties really well. The Peaches are a collection of veterans on the downside, and some players in their late 20s without a lot of upside. Like Central Jersey, Macon isn’t good enough to compete now, and isn’t likely to get better without a rebuilding effort.

22.		Southern Maryland Golden Eagles	67.1		Hitting	23	Pitching	15
		Strengths Good bullpen headed by the Wilsons, C.J. and Brian and Carl and the late Dennis.
		Weaknesses Lineup is full of faded veterans, Sheffield, Griffey, Renteria, Soriano, and Rolen. Another team in need of a rebuild. Snider and Danks could be stars and Niemann looks solid. The other younger players are not especially young and not likely to make any all-star teams.

23.		Parkside Paladins		65.7	Hitting	22	Pitching	19
		Strengths Excellent young starting pitchers (King Felix and Garza).
		Weaknesses A lot of dead weight on the roster left over from playoff runs the past few years. This year will be step back for the Paladins, as Bob looks for young veterans like Sizemore and Martin to bounce back to their previous levels, and a bunch of youngsters to get a shot to play (Saunders, Allen, Parra, Holland). He also goes into next year loaded with high draft picks.

24.		Stromboli Death Puppets	45.2		Hitting	24	Pitching	23
		Strengths Solid starting pitching: Cain, Zambrano, Dempster, and Meche.
		Weaknesses No power at all. Former home run hitters Ordonez and Burrell didn’t do anything. Another roster full of players past their prime, though there is hope for a comeback for Ordonez and a few others. Dr. Bob did start the rebuilding process by drafting LaPorta, Borbon, Gamel, and Desmond.