ABL Power Rankings: Week 1, 2010

I'm proud to announce a new regular-season weekly feature here at 49th State Hardball, the weekly power rankings. This is pretty much a just-for-fun ranking, similar to those made popular in football but also in MLB baseball, etc., to give you an idea of not just who has the best record, but who has the most dominant team of late.

The rankings are based mostly on a mathematical formula. At it's core, the formula takes into account a team's overall record, last ten games, and winning/losing streak, but I have included a "fudge factor" in that formula which allows me to tweak them to my pleasing. Most of the time I don't intend to use this, as long as the formula works as planned, but this week I did because not every team has played the same amount of league games and therefor it gave the 1-0 Fire the top ranking by a very wide margin. I thought that was kind of dumb, so I basically just switched the Fire and the Oilers around.

Rank	Team	Trend	Notes
1	Oilers	--	The Oilers got off to a fast start, firing on all cylinders. Their hitting and pitching has been solid and they opened the season on a 4-game roll before dropping a doubleheader pair against the Goldpanners to split the four-game series.
2	Miners	--	The Miners took two of three in the preseason against the Pilots and then continued to roll, taking another game from each Anchorage team.
3	Fire	--	The Fire have only played one league game, but it was a 7-3 win over the Pilots fresh on the heels of their undefeated California preseason swing.
4	Goldpanners	--	The Goldpanner rolled into Kenai without any warm- up games to their credit, but managed to split the series 2-2 with the red-hot Oilers.
5	Bucs	--	The Bucs' efforts have largely been for naught so far, but they have been the victims of a few close games and did score a victory over the cross-town rival Pilots. They'll get some more bounces going their way soon.
6	Glacier Pilots	--	The Pilots have had some trouble getting their bats going so far in the season, but have been hamstrung by a short-handed roster and are poised to bounce back.

On a personal note, I'll be at the Fire @ Miners game in Palmer tonight. If you wanna come say hi, I'll be running about snapping photos and scribbling down notes like a madman. If you want to punch me in the face because you don't like what I wrote about your favorite player or team, I'll be the guy who's 6'10" with 290lb of raw muscle, so feel free to track me down and pick a fight. Yep. That's me.