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Well, the good folks over at the World-Wide Leader have graced the Internets with the first in-season ranking of all 30 MLB teams.

Let's look at some of the biggest changes after Week 1; your thoughts and opinions are welcome of course.

Let's cut right to the chase ... the AL East has four of the top nine teams ranked, including your Blue Jays at a hale and hearty #8 ...



The Yankees -- your pre-season #1 -- are now #2, behind only the Phillies, who started the year at #3. The Red Sox, who started the year at #2 are now one spot ahead of the hometown heroes at #7, while the Tampa Bay Rays are one spot behind the Jays at #9. The Yanks, Bosox and Rays started the year at 1-3-4, so even at 2-7-9 this week, they've fallen quite a ways!

And the largest improvement from the pre-season through Week #1? That'd be your Blue Jays, jumping all the way from #25 into that eighth slot.

The biggest drops? That takes us to the left coast, where the L.A. Dodgers plummeted from #10 to #19, which is almost as far as the fall of their neighbors, the Los Angeles-ish Anaheim Angels of California, who cratered to #20 all the way from #8.

The Pirates have escaped the cellar, moving from #30 up to #24, while the new basement dwellers, and this shouldn't come as a surprise if you've been paying attention, is MLB's sole remaining winless club, the Astros.

Eleven teams are within two spots (either direction) of where they began, while three -- Texas at #12, Cincinnati at #18 and Cleveland at #26 -- are exactly where they started. I was born in Ohio and live in North Texas, so there's something to be said here about consistency, only I have no idea what it is that needs to be said.

After all that ... take a look at the list yourself. See anything glaringly wrong or amiss? And how 'bout them Jays?

Posted by Mick Doherty on Tuesday, April 13 2010 @ 12:30 AM EDT.
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ayjackson - Tuesday, April 13 2010 @ 09:26 AM EDT (#213535) #

And how 'bout them Jays?

Sounds like a Jimmy Johnson quote - not surprising coming from bid D, but in these parts we look back fondly of the days of Fergie Oliver and his

How about those Toronto Blue Jays?

[ Reply to This ]
rpriske - Tuesday, April 13 2010 @ 11:58 AM EDT (#213546) #

I just read that the Jays 'are the most likely' trading partners with the Giants for Fred Lewis.

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/04/fred-lewis-decision-coming-soon.html

Why? What would we do with him? Send Snider down?

[ Reply to This ]
cascando - Tuesday, April 13 2010 @ 12:10 PM EDT (#213549) #
Lewis has decent speed and on base skills.  He's a lefty and he hits RHP pretty well.  He and Bautista could form a pretty solid OF platoon. 
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Mick Doherty - Tuesday, April 13 2010 @ 01:22 PM EDT (#213553) #
Would he be the only Jay "Fred" since McGriff? Or have there been others?
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John Northey - Tuesday, April 13 2010 @ 01:36 PM EDT (#213554) #
For 'ranking' type things I love Baseball Prospectus' adjusted standings and playoff odds reports.

The adj standings show the Jays as having a W3 of 4.4 wins vs the real 5 wins so they are actually doing better than their runs for/against suggest for what might be the first time in a decade :P The playoff odds (basic version) have the Jays at 36.4% [just uses this years stats]. The PECOTA version has their odds at a more realistic 2.28% (vs the 1.01% after losing opening day).
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Matthew E - Tuesday, April 13 2010 @ 01:41 PM EDT (#213555) #
Mick: AlFREDo Griffin has played for the Jays since McGriff. I wouldn't be surprised if there had been others. Fred Manrique, of course (one of the first Generation X players in all of baseball!), but he was earlier.
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rpriske - Tuesday, April 13 2010 @ 02:12 PM EDT (#213560) #

"Lewis has decent speed and on base skills.  He's a lefty and he hits RHP pretty well.  He and Bautista could form a pretty solid OF platoon. "

 

I'm not arguing that... just how we would make room for him. Someobdy would have to go down. Ruiz? McCoy?

[ Reply to This ]
Thomas - Tuesday, April 13 2010 @ 02:25 PM EDT (#213561) #
Well, I would suspect Reed would go down if he was acquired. Once Hill is back, then McCoy would go. Even if Ruiz spends almost all his time on the bench, he's still the biggest bat they have in reserve and McDonald can handle McCoy's infield duties and Lewis his outfield duties. It leaves the team a bit thin on the infield, but a four-man bench will usually leave you short somewhere.
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