GatewayRedbirds.com

I read that the Cards were #1 in the NL and 3rd overall in this ranking system. My question is: Who determines this and what exactly is the criterion?

the short answer is whichever site/paper you read the rankings and whatever their criteria is

Jocephus wrote:the short answer is whichever site/paper you read the rankings and whatever their criteria is

I see. Thanks

Baseball Prospectus does a rankings list and actually tries to make it objective. It's complicated beyond belief, but what they essentially do is take the runs a team "should have" scored, runs they "should have" given up, throw in a strength of schedule factor, and come out with a number that represents wins adjusted for schedule.

But most of them are just some hack giving his opinion.

I had to laugh at the new ESPN Power Rankings today. Despite getting swept by the Rangers this weekend, the Red Sox actually moved up and overtook Texas for the #1 spot.

As jim said, these weekly rankings obviously don't mean a lot and are completely subjective, but how you rationalize moving a team to the top spot after it lost three in a row to #2 is beyond me.

ThatGuy wrote:I had to laugh at the new ESPN Power Rankings today. Despite getting swept by the Rangers this weekend, the Red Sox actually moved up and overtook Texas for the #1 spot.

As jim said, these weekly rankings obviously don't mean a lot and are completely subjective, but how you rationalize moving a team to the top spot after it lost three in a row to #2 is beyond me.

ESPN has a special weighting factor in their formula just for the Red Sox and Yankees.

I don't know why anybody would expect baseball power rankings to be any more precise that a college football top 25.

FWIW, I see that we have finally caught up with our Pythagorean projection - both numbers are now at 20-11.