THT Dartboard: Week Eleven

Dartboard
Divisional Picture

Dartboard

Welcome to The Hardball Times Dartboard, our weekly attempt to rank all the teams in baseball. The Dartboard Factor is how many wins a team would be expected to have at the end of the season if it played a neutral schedule. An explanation of our method can be found here.

#1 Los Angeles Dodgers (Dartboard Factor = 103): Manny Ramirez begins his tune up set to re-join the Dodgers in early July. In the meantime, the Dodgers continue to cruise atop the NL West.

#2 Boston Red Sox (Dartboard Factor = 95): 12 strikeouts and no walks for Josh Beckett over his last two starts. Four walks and four runs in 3.1 innings suggest that Daniel Bard might have some room left to develop.

#3 New York Yankees (Dartboard Factor = 92): Nada for Alex Rodriguez at the plate this week, but the the rotation did a fine job keeping the Yankees in games and the bullpen didn’t allow a single run to cross the plate. Remarkable.

#4 Tampa Bay Devil Rays (Dartboard Factor = 90): Gabe Kapler made the most of his 12 PAs with six hits, four for extra bases and a .600/.667/1.500 line.

#5 Toronto Blue Jays (Dartboard Factor = 90): Not a great week for B.J. Ryan who in 62 pitches missed just one bat and threw 32 pitches for balls. He walked five in just 2.2 innings.

#6 Los Angeles Angels (Dartboard Factor = 89): Vladimir Guerrero had eight hits, but all of them were singles, a rarity for him. Juan Rivera’s four home runs helped power the offense.

#7 Texas Rangers (Dartboard Factor = 88): Texas slips off the throne of the AL West for the time in months as the offense continues to crater badly. Eight more strikeouts for Chris Davis in just 17 trips to the plate.

#8 New York Mets (Dartboard Factor = 86): Think the Mets are missing Jason Vargas and Mike Carp? The bullpen had another poor week and the rotation followed suit. Notably, Johan Santana was destroyed in New York.

#9 St Louis Cardinals (Dartboard Factor = 86): A boring week for the Cardinals from a weekly total point of view. The offense, rotation, bullpen, everything ended up around average with no standouts except for perhaps Yadier Molina’s single barrage.

#10 Minnesota Twins (Dartboard Factor = 85): Three singles, two doubles, two triples, two walks and a home run add up to a .444/.500/.944 line for Michael Cuddyer on the week.

#11 Colorado Rockies (Dartboard Factor = 84): Not a stellar bullpen week, nor a good start for Jorge De La Rosa, victim of a .667 BABIP in his 2.1 innings leading to seven runs allowed.

#12 Detroit Tigers (Dartboard Factor = 84): Adam Everett went just 1-for-17. Miguel Cabrera came in with a three home run, nine-hit week through. On the pitching side, Dontrelle Willis lands back on the DL with more anxiety issues as he still cannot find the strike zone.

#13 Milwaukee Brewers (Dartboard Factor = 84): Ouch! Braden Looper and Dave Bush combine for 16 innings on the week. In those they did strike out nine and walk only two, but seven home runs and a total of 24 runs were scored against them.

A Hardball Times Update
Goodbye for now.

#14 Chicago Cubs (Dartboard Factor = 83): Four home runs for Derrek Lee, but everyone else on hte Cubs offense was pretty quiet. Ted Lilly did rack up 11 strikeouts to zero walks, but also allowed three home runs over his pair of starts.

#15 Philadelphia Phillies (Dartboard Factor = 83): Raul Ibanez started showing signs of slowing down and now has hit the disabled list. In his absence stepped Shane Victorino with ten hits and seven walks giving him an impressive .630 OBP this week.

#16 Seattle Mariners (Dartboard Factor = 79): The offense still has its issues as Chris Woodward, in his eight PAs, led the team in offensive production on the week, but the rotation continues to keep the team afloat.

#17 Atlanta Braves (Dartboard Factor = 78): Another pair of home runs for Nate McLouth this week and in the pen Rafael Soriano pitches a near perfect two innings with five swinging strikeouts and one fly out.

#18 Cincinnati Reds (Dartboard Factor = 78): A pretty tepid offense this week with just five home runs total was not well supported by the pitching either. Johnny Cueto yielded ten runs in just 10.2 innings and Matt Maloney was tagged with six in 5.2 innings.

#19 San Francisco Giants (Dartboard Factor = 77): Three big flies for Pablo Sandoval this week was the team’s biggest power output. Matt Cain also held court for his two starts, 17 strikeouts and just three walks over 17 innings.

#20 Pittsburgh Pirates (Dartboard Factor = 75): Nate who? Andrew McCutchen rakes in ten hits this week including a pair of triples and a home run for a 1.118 OPS.

#21 Cleveland Indians (Dartboard Factor = 75): The rotation took a dive this week, but the offense showed up especially in Shin-Soo Choo (six walks), Luis Valbuena (three home runs) and Travis Hafner (two walks, three home runs).

#22 Florida Marlins (Dartboard Factor = 75): Ronny Paulino got just 10 trips to the plate this week and he singled in three of them and homered in another three. He also made contact on every swing he took.

#23 Arizona Diamondbacks (Dartboard Factor = 74): Billy Buckner has a touch of a home run problem, but he certainly has Major League stuff as evidenced by his high missed bat rate and correspondingly solid strikeout ratio.

#24 Kansas City Royals (Dartboard Factor = 73): Kyle Davies got absolutely destroyed allowing three home runs and eight runs total over 2.2 innings in his last start.

#25 Chicago White Sox (Dartboard Factor = 73): John Danks steamrolled in his last start, with nine strikeouts to no walks or home runs over seven innings and just 99 pitches.

#26 Baltimore Orioles (Dartboard Factor = 72): Big week for Ty Wigginton in just 15 PAs he launched seven hits and three walks. The rotation also did well for themselves all around highlighted by another great Koji Uehara start.

#27 Oakland Athletics (Dartboard Factor = 72): Well that was a short lived hot streak for the team. Matt Holliday’s OPS for the week was under .600 and really only Jack Cust provided any sort of production.

#28 Houston Astros (Dartboard Factor = 71): Wandy Rodriguez and Brian Moehler had weeks to forget. For Wandy, five walks and three home runs allowed in just four innings, while for Moehler it was five home runs allowed in 12 innings.

#29 San Diego Padres (Dartboard Factor = 71): Adrian Gonzalez is building off his reputation for killing the ball this year and turning it into some more walks as per the seven drawn this week. Will Venable also drew four walks in just 13 trips to the plate. Unusual for such a hitter as Venable’s talent.

#30 Washington Nationals (Dartboard Factor = 58): Nick Johnson the on base machine draws another seven walks, but oh man does the rotation needs a make over. This week’s biggest goat is Ross Detwiler and his six walks and two home runs allowed to just three Ks over two starts.

Divisional Picture

The playoff picture takes the above ranking and reforms the teams back into their leagues and divisions including the wild card. This is in no ways a prediction, this is an assessment of how teams have played so far this season, not how each team is going to play.

AL EAST
Red Sox – 95
Yankees – 92
Rays – 90
Blue Jays – 90
Orioles – 72

AL CENTRAL
Twins – 85
Tigers – 84
Indians – 75
Royals – 73
White Sox – 73

AL WEST
Angels – 89
Rangers – 88
Mariners – 79
Athletics – 72

NL EAST
Mets – 86
Phillies – 83
Braves – 78
Marlins – 75
Nationals – 58

NL CENTRAL
Cardinals – 86
Brewers – 84
Cubs – 83
Reds – 78
Pirates – 75
Astros – 71

NL WEST
Dodgers – 103
Rockies – 84
Giants – 77
Diamondbacks – 74
Padres – 71


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