BoS Power Rankings (July) / August Updates

The Boys of Summer Power Rankings from July 4th through August 1st, 2014.

John Lackey & other South Shore vets are showing that they are not going away, anytime soon.

Not too much differences from last month at the top, and for most part of the league -- only 4 of the 16 teams really experienced movement in the rankings. The Bronx Bombers have improved dramatically with improvements to their fielding, better run differential & their team ERA -- it appears they will make a run at that American League Wildcard spot. The Buffalo Yankees and the San Diego Heroes meanwhile are going in the wrong direction, as they dropped 3 slots each, and sit at 13th & 14th overall.

AUGUST UPDATES

Since the above Power Rankings & the Trade Deadline at the end of July, the San Diego Heroes have been on fire after making a few trades that have reshaped the team's fortunes.

Since the trades on July 26th, the Heroes have gone 21-8, and as of tonight's report (August 26th, 2014 for the season), the team is currently on a 10-game winning-streak (which I believe off the top of my head is a franchise record for the Heroes -- who were the Sacramento 66'ers during the first season).

They are currently 3 games out of the wild card spot which is owned by either the Traverse City Panthers or Hannibal Cavemen tied at 77-57, the team that doesn't win the N.L. East may be jeopardizing a chance at the playoffs with San Diego coming on strong.

Remember, only the division winners & the next best team (wild card) in each league, move on to the playoffs. The team with best overall record in each league, gets a first-round bye. So at the moment, if the season ended today, the Portland Microbrewers would have a bye (and be waiting in the League Championship Series), and Hannibal & T.C. would be in, with one of those teams being a wild card, the other would have home-field in a best-of-five series against the other. San Diego is currently out, but looking to shake things up.

Two big series are up in this week's mix, with Traverse City at Hannibal for 6 games, while San Diego visits Portland for 6 games.

"Crush" Davis does the usual... watches the ball go yard.

The Heroes' Chris Davis is closing in on the single-season mark of 50, set by teammate Edwin Encarnacion as a 66'er last season. Davis currently has 47 HR's with 120 RBI's through 134 games. 

Meanwhile, in the American League, the Bronx Bombers have been jumping into the A.L. Wild Card race while the Swatara Eliminators & Buffalo Yankees have overall been struggling. The Bombers at one point were 39-56 through 95 games, they would win 8 of 10 & have a record of 47-58 on July 26th (The Trade Deadline), and have played around .500 ball since -- standing at 61-73. Bronx trail in the wild card race by 3 games, while Buffalo finds itself a game out behind Swatara. The wild card team for the American League looks destined to represent a losing record.

It should be an interesting finish, as the playoffs are just around the corner -- it appears that we will have more drama than last year's finish.