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American League

1) Royals. Everybody has an off game sometimes, and the Royals’ score floor is still second-highest in the AL. It’s too early to assume that Vissery’s rushing through the rest of the season came at the expense of the Royals’ ability to perform.

2) Cubs. The Cubs picked up another loss, but it was extremely narrow and this team’s score floor is still a ridiculous 15 runs. Just like with the Royals, we can’t automatically assume that speedrunning the rest of the season means that the Cubs stopped performing well, and I don’t think any of their opponents can count on an easy win against them.

3) Devil Rays. If this week’s results from the Royals and Cubs are indicative of the beginning of a decline, the Devil Rays will be the first team jumping up to take their place. DAWG has taken over this team ably.

4) Reds. I said the Reds needed to shape up and that’s exactly what they did. A strong game against the Angels allows them to maintain their position for another week.

5) Braves. The Braves are the most inconsistent team in the AL at present, struggling to produce one week and popping off the next. For the most part, though, the scores have worked out in their favor, and their defense has been a big part of that to bolster their ranking.

6) Rangers. The Rangers aren’t doing terribly, but being able to excel only on the road hampers their ranking.

7) Orioles. The O’s get an extra boost up this week for managing a massive upset against the Cubs. This team is really starting to come alive and could really go places if they can maintain their momentum from the past three weeks.

8) Angels. Poor Bobby really has seen improvement so far this season and has been doing a solid job in recent weeks, but he just keeps getting blown out. Parks is not a good field for the Angels’ defense, so their hope right now is that they can maintain the improvement in offense on the road.

9) Rockies. MartianMan put up a career best score to take down one of the juggernauts of the AL. That’s a great sign for his team, but we’re now deep enough in the season that a single outlying result can’t make a big shift in the power rankings, especially in a week where most teams went off. We’ll need to see a continuing trend before the Rockies really start to move here.

10) Pirates. Most of the AL went on a scoring spree this week, and the Pirates were one of the only teams left out. Gotta give them one thing, though – their scoring has been very consistent so far this season.

11) Hornets. Apparently the Hornets’ coach responded to their best score yet by quitting. That’s not going to help their momentum at all.

National League

1) Monsters. The Monsters’ scores are getting lower and lower each week in a concerning sign, but their opponents’ scores aren’t going up at all. And if their opponents can’t score significantly against them, it’s hard for anybody to get any sort of edge on them.

2) Diamondbacks. The D’Backs are on fire and now two games up in the NL Central, after taking out another top NL team with their highest score yet. Amazingly, their defense also still has one of the lowest run ceilings in the league and simply isn’t surrendering big scores. In what’s been a good season for rookies so far, Pepsi’s the rookie having the best season and he’s got it made if he can keep this up.

3) Cardinals. The Cards may have lost, and had their defense’s run ceiling blown out of the water, but they still performed respectably and this was against another top team. They’ll be back up and at ‘em in no time.

4) Giants. The NL East leaders maintain their spot in the rankings with another solid winning performance, and outside of last week’s game, their defense has held up well so far. But those two dud games do cast a shadow on them that the other top teams don’t suffer from.

5) Melonheads. Not all sunshine and roses for the Melonheads as they did put up their worst score of the season so far. But they’re still tied for the lowest run floor, and their defense had their best game yet. This team is getting it done when they’re not facing the top competition.

6) Yankees. The Yankees continue to be an extremely inconsistent team, and it’s all but impossible to know how well they’ll do from one week to the next, but one constant has been their poor defense, which now has the highest run floor in the NL. They have their work cut out for them each week to take home the W.

7) Twins. The Twins and Yankees are performing very similarly right now, right about at the same averages for runs scored and allowed and very inconsistent from week to week. So for now, the Yankees get the edge thanks to momentum as the Twins are coming off a loss to them.

8) Fishes. The mystery of Chris’s team continues as getting shut down by the Monsters is hardly an unusual or particularly indicative result. I think there’s a good chance that their stocks go down in the coming weeks, though.

9) Athletics. The A’s defense held up pretty well on the AI side, but a couple of home runs allowed by the user made the difference as they couldn’t scrape together quite enough runs. The big concern here is that they couldn’t keep up the increased run output from last week.

10) Brewers. The Brewers bounded back with their best score yet as they went off at Tin Can Alley. If Silver can stay sober this time and keep these sorts of scores up, this team could definitely continue to go up in the ranks in the coming weeks.

11) Marlins. The good news is that the Marlins were able to up their run ceiling this week with a single inning’s giant effort. The bad news is that they didn’t do much outside that inning, and still got beaten soundly by the Brewers as their defense put up another poor performance.

12) Wombats. Back to Steele, back to the Wombats team we’ve become familiar with this season.

Royals over Braves. The Royals are undefeated no more and will be playing at a field that doesn’t particularly favor them. And the Braves just broke out at their home field for their first good score there. This could be a spectacularly wrong prediction, but I think the Braves won’t be able to keep up this output and will have a rough game to close out the first half.

Orioles over Pirates. The Pirates have yet to reach their upswing, but the O’s have been looking a lot better lately. A win here would set them up nicely for the second half of the season.

Cubs over Devil Rays. The Cubs stumbled a bit last week for their second loss, but it was still a very solid performance, Emery’s still a very good player, and he should be able to out-maneuver his division rivals at Dirt Yards.

Rockies over Bombers. Something just tells me the Bombers aren’t winning this one.

Reds over Hornets. JY is finally getting it together, and an easy match against the Hornets ought to be a great way to carry that momentum into the second half.

Angels over Rangers. The Angels have been getting nastily beaten up in recent weeks, but a game on the road should be just what they need to finally stop the bleeding. Their squad looks well-built to take advantage of Steele over a more ill-suited Rangers team.

Cardinals over Wombats. The good news for the Wombats is that they don’t have to play at Casa. The bad news is that they have to try to stop the power-laden Cardinals at Steele. They have an uphill battle doing that for sure.

Monsters over Giants. A fellow cement team may have the best shot at getting the upper hand over the Monsters, but I think it’s more likely that they struggle in another game instead.

Yankees over Fishes. After snapping his nascent losing streak, can Crazy make it two in a row? I think so, as the Fishes aren’t in great shape right now and the Dubois boost will be in play.

Diamondbacks over Athletics. The D’Backs are flying high right now and get to play an away game at a field where they’ll be comfortable. An A’s win here would be a huge upset.

Melonheads over Marlins. The two Parks teams in the NL square off, but one has done a lot better at their home field than the other. I like the Melonheads’ odds to enter the All-Star break with a winning record.

Twins over Brewers. The Brewers just put up their best score yet, but even if Silver stays away from the alcohol, I don’t know if they can keep it consistent at Steele. I’m guessing that they rather continue their current flip-flop cycle and the Twins take one home.

American League

A very static week for the AL as almost every team scored in the 7-13 run range. Aside from the top teams of course, who remain at the top. The picture has barely changed.

1) Royals. Another week, another blowout. This team is on top of the world at present.

2) Cubs. In case anybody thought, for whatever reason, that Emery was going soft, he produced the season’s first 50 to make up for his loss against the Royals. Take Boston out of the picture and the Cubs remain by far the best team in either league.

3) Devil Rays. Big_DAWG is getting it done as this team’s defense does its job. The Rays are in great shape as long as this trajectory continues.

4) Reds. The Reds’ scores are looking less and less impressive every week, as this time they put out their lowest score yet and just barely squeezed out the win. Even if they are one of the last three teams with only double-digit run totals, they’ll need to shape up in their upcoming road trip if they don’t want to start dropping down these rankings.

5) Rangers. T-Boz proved on MOTW that this team still can get it done on the road, which helps this team’s ranking, but it’s hard to imagine their position climbing higher than this unless they manage to figure out their tough home games.

6) Angels. The good news, and honestly a very encouraging sign, for the Angels is that they put out a double-digit score for the second week in a row. The bad news is that their AI defense has been getting absolutely obliterated in recent weeks, their home field doing them no favors in that regard. Bobby’s done good work with this team but as it stands, he’ll need to do even more to overcome his defense.

7) Braves. Neither Atlanta’s big score nor the big score put up against them turned out to be sustainable. Overall what we have here is a team whose defense has mostly held true, but has themselves put out wildly inconsistent scores, and that merits a middling ranking.

8) Orioles. The O’s outburst at the Alley was indeed a one-team deal, but they did follow it up with their best other score yet, just narrowly losing to the Reds. Perhaps some of that improvement rubbed off on them and they’ll start to win more games soon.

9) Rockies. The Rockies’ trajectory remains the same through five weeks. If this sort of scoring continues, they’ll win a few more games – but only a few.

10) Pirates. QM, if you want to impress me enough to move your team back up, you’ll have to do better that that.

11) Hornets. Hey, a solid run total from the Hornets! But in order to actually move up in the rankings, they’ll need to sustain this improvement and see other teams fall on hard times. I don’t foresee an actual move soon.

National League

1) Monsters. The Monsters continue to put up surprisingly low run outputs, as this week they got their worst score yet in a situation that appeared very favorable for them. But they have been consistently putting up solid totals, still with the highest score floor in the NL, and only one out of five teams getting anything done against their defense is a big point in their favor as well.

2) Diamondbacks. The D’Backs were able to bounce right back and get it done in an intimidating matchup. Aside from that hiccup against the Monsters, they’ve had consistently solid run totals, and their defense has continued to hold as well and is currently #2 in the NL. Next week might well be their worst remaining matchup; if they can come out of that one on top, they’re in great shape to take the division.

3) Cardinals. The Cards proved that at least some of the time, they can get it done at home as well! Putting up the highest NL score so far this season is a significant boost to them, and the worst they can do at home now is 2-5. It seems likely that they’ll pick up some more home wins as well, and they’re in great shape for the wild card.

4) Giants. The Giants struggled for the second time in three weeks in a very concerning sign. They’re still sitting pretty in a weak division, but to look like good overall contenders, they need to stop putting on this sort of performance. Otherwise their stock will continue to fall.

5) Twins. The Twins put up their second mid-10s score in a row, and their defense held true once again. While they clearly haven’t reached the full potential that this lineup offers, this is starting to look like a team that has found its groove.

6) Melonheads. Some encouraging signs for the Melonheads as they had a monster first inning this week, picked up their second straight win, and have the second-best player R.D. in the NL. However, stuck in a division with both the Monsters and Cardinals and with a loss against each, the playoffs may be already out of reach, and this week also offered up other concerning signs for this team – namely, the one combined run they scored after the first inning, and the fact that their defense has yet to keep their opponents down to a single digit score.

7) Yankees. What I expected to be a resurgence for this team became a not-particularly-close loss instead for a team that just can’t find its footing in this league. I think the Yankees are in the conversation to win just about any week of the season, but they’re certainly not the favorites.

8) Fishes. I’m still not sure about this team and don’t have a clear read on their performance, but what is clear as that they’ve been getting it done for the past three weeks. Does Chris have a good grip on this team so that he can reliably score enough to win, if not by a ton, or has he just been getting lucky? Time will tell.

9) Athletics. Some good news for the A’s: they put up a new personal high score this week! Unfortunately, they were outshot by the Fishes, and in general if their AI defense doesn’t shape up for them, they’ll need to up their scoring even more.

10) Marlins. Not only did the Marlins have a rough run-in with the Monsters defense, but with big games by a couple of other teams, they now have the lowest ceiling of any team in the NL, the only ones not to hit double digits yet. Their situation is looking grim.

11) Brewers. The Brewers couldn’t keep the momentum going as they crashed right back down against the Cards. Clearly, Silver drinking is not the right solution for this team.

12) Wombats. The good news is that the Wombats finally had their breakout score this week with a nice total of 15 runs. The bad news is, well, just about everything else.

Royals over Rockies. Boston gets yet another road game at a favorable field. Tin Can’s high walls may not be quite as much their style as the short fences of Parks and Steele, but it should still work well with their big bats to give them yet another big game.

Cubs over Orioles. It’s the Cubs versus not-the-Cubs-or-Royals. Not a lot else to be said.

Devil Rays over Rangers. DAWG has proven that he has what it takes to get it done with this team, and the Rangers’ home field won’t do them any favors as they struggle against that nasty defense.

Hornets over Bombers. This game may be the Bombers’ best chance of getting a win this season. It may even be a better chance than they’d have had if they still had a coach. But it’s still not a good chance.

Reds over Angels. Tough one to call, especially with the Angels’ upswing in the last two weeks, but given the overall trends we’ve seen thus far from these two teams, I’m expecting the Reds to pop off at Parks and the Angels to get outshot yet again.

Braves over Pirates. This one’s gotta be a gut call. The Braves haven’t done well at home so far, but I doubt the Pirates will love playing at Eckman either. I really don’t have any read on how it will turn out.

Cardinals over D’Backs. Two heavy-hitting teams square off. If the D’Backs can take this one, it’s another big win in their hunt for the division title, but I feel like the Cards will enjoy their visit to Playground and outshoot their foes.

Monsters over Fishes. The Fishes have picked up a few wins, but I don’t think their offense hits hard enough to take down the Monsters. The undefeated season will continue on, for now.

Twins over Yankees. Games at Steele are normally a best-case scenario for Crazy, but I don’t think his team has enough power hitters to take this one home. The matchup definitely favors Toast on paper.

Melonheads over Athletics. The Melonheads’ struggles on defense coupled with the A’s coming fresh off their highest score gives some cause for concern. But I still think the Melonheads can take this one home to break even in record for the first time this season.

Brewers over Marlins. I don’t think that Tin Can is going to particularly favor the Marlins. If the Brewers can shake off their rough performance from last week, they should be able to grab another win here.

Giants over Wombats. As the Wombats continue the quest for their first win, I don’t think a home game against the toughest team in their division is very promising. They’ll have to wait some more.

Royals over Angels. We can all count our blessings that the Royals don’t get an away game at Parks. For whatever that’s worth. Unfortunately for Bobby, it doesn’t make a shred of difference to the Angels.

Reds over Orioles. Can the Orioles replicate their smashing success away from TCA? If Mav’s past history is any indication, the answer is no and the Reds won’t have much of a target to beat.

Cubs over Bombers. It’s theoretically possible that somebody will lose to the Bombers’ AI this season. It’s not theoretically possible that this somebody would be Emery.

Devil Rays over Rockies. We have yet to see how Big_DAWG performs, but I think the Rockies are going to have a lot of trouble against his defense, leaving the door open for him to be able to win even without a particularly impressive performance.

Rangers over Pirates. T-Boz went to town in his first game at Playground. Why not the second as well?

Braves over Hornets. Atlanta may not be too comfortable at their home field, where they’ll be playing on the road this week, but the good news for them is that the Hornets aren’t either.

Cardinals over Brewers. The Brewers would love a chance to carry their momentum forward into a new week… but Casa de Pablo is not a field where they’ll have an easy time doing that. It may be a short-lived resurgence.

Monsters over Marlins. Seeing how well the Monsters perform at Parks should be interesting, but it will also be painful for their opposition.

Fishes over Athletics. The A’s were in quite a funk in their last game, and Eckman Acres won’t be the best place to try and regain their momentum.

Yankees over Diamondbacks. This could be a very important matchup for a D’Backs team hoping to hold onto its division lead. Unfortunately, the Yankees will have the Dubois boost on their side and a field that will be none too friendly for the D’Backs’ offense.

Giants over Twins. The Paveway isn’t a great place for the Twins’ bats – especially if their game at Cement was any indication. The Giants should be able to take this one home.

Melonheads over Wombats. The Melonheads are re-energized after their first win, while the Wombats are starting to lose hope. If their respective scores from the first four weeks are any indication, those feelings will only be reinforced by this week’s matchup.

American League

1) Royals. The Royals had a comparatively poor game this week – but still ended up with a score that only four other teams have matched so far this season. As it stands right now, they do indeed have what it takes to simply win by brute force.

2) Cubs. The reigning champ is up to his usual tricks, with an average score far outpacing everybody else’s except the Royals. This team’s stock isn’t going down anytime soon.

3) Reds. The Reds manage to take the third spot despite being 0-3 to start the season. Why? Because they’ve had two strong scores in a league where consistent strength has been rare so far, and the three teams they’ve lost to are the three strongest teams in the early going. Now that they’ve escaped that personal hell, they should start piling up some wins.

4) Braves.Still fourth despite their rough third game? If you balk at this, remember two things: Only four active coaches have outscored the Braves in total runs right now, and even more importantly, Atlanta’s defense has been performing quite well so far. Amazing scores aren’t necessarily required to come out on top.

5) Rangers. This certainly isn’t a home field sort of team, but they could still have a solid season if they perform well on the road as they did in their first game.

6) Devil Rays.The bad news is that a completely new and untested coach is now at the helm of this team for the rest of the season. The good news is that he inherits a defense that might win him some games on its own. Don’t count DAWG out before we see what he’s capable of.

7) Angels. The Angels did get blown out in Week 3… but what’s a team to do against the Cubs? Ultimately this team’s scores so far are a concern, but they’ve been more consistent than several other teams, and I think it’s still too early to draw concrete conclusions about their chances during the rest of the season.

8) Rockies. MartianMan has finally claimed a win! I don’t think this will be his last one either. On the other hand, this team is hardly dominant, and I don’t think they’ll collect a lot of wins.

9) Pirates. Only seven runs against the Bombers isn’t the resurgence that Baltimore was looking for. This offense showed a lot of promise, but they need to kick it into gear right about now or it won’t be able to keep up with their rivals.

10) Orioles. The O’s did manage to claim their first win, but 2-2 is hardly an impressive contest. They’re in a deep rut at the moment.

11) Hornets. Yep, still in the same situation.

National League

1) Monsters. Last week was a comparatively poor showing for the Monsters, who logged their worst score so far as their AI was defeated for the first time. Still, they’re one run worse than the best-performing offense and the best-performing AI defense so far. They’re in good shape.

2) Diamondbacks. Things keep going well for the D’Backs. In fact, if you add up all three of their opponents’ run differentials so far, the sum is less than the D’Backs worst showing in the first three games. (The same is also true for the Monsters, but it’s much more impressive with the D’Backs supposedly more suspect defense). The caveat here is that the three teams the D’Backs have faced so far have all been struggling in their other games as well; next week will be a very important one for them as we find out how they fare against another one of the NL’s big dogs.

3) Giants. The Giants had their first loss on Match of the Week, in a much worse performance than their first two. Could this be a sign that they’re in trouble when not facing off against the league’s worse defenses? Possibly, or they could possibly bounce right back up next week. Promisingly, their defense has also held up well so far.

4) Cardinals. Another dominant showing for the Cards firmly establishes them as a strong road team; the question now is how well they’ll do at home. Is the combination of Casa’s slow speed and their slow runners enough to sink them in these games, or will the opposition struggle and the Cards hit well enough for them to win anyway? Next week should be a good indicator of whether their stock will continue to ride high, or will fall some due to their home field woes.

5) Yankees. The Yanks have been very inconsistent through the first three weeks of the season, and it’s anybody’s guess which version of them we’ll see for the majority of the coming games. But it’s still hard to bet against Crazy, they have a higher ceiling thus far than the teams below them, and successfully pulling it off in two of three games so far helps their stock as well.

6) Athletics. The A’s have performed consistently on offense, with okay but not great scores. Right now their fate seems to largely rest with their defense – and that gave an encouraging sign this week, as they largely shut down a strong team to give Arco his second win. If it can keep performing at a high level, they don’t need to score a ton of runs.

7) Marlins. This week was a bit more encouraging for the Marlins, as they upped their run output again and only narrowly lost to the offense-heavy Yankees. It’s enough to stay their course in these rankings for now, as a team that hasn’t done terribly but doesn’t have a lot to get excited about right now.

8) Melonheads. The bad news is that the Melonheads haven’t pulled it off yet and are 0-3 to start the season. The good news is that they’ve been consistently scoring, and all three games have been close losses where victory was within reach. They’ve also exclusively faced strong teams so far, so maybe their prospects will brighten once they get to an easier part of their schedule.

9) Twins. The pieces are there for some big Twins games, but so far they haven’t been able to put them together and have been operating in something of a funk. If they ever do put it all together, their stock here should go rocketing up, but as long as they don’t, they’ll be down in the doldrums.

10) Fishes. Some encouragement for the Fishes this week, as they had their best game yet by far for their first win. Thus far, though, I still don’t see a specific strength for them and am not optimistic that the success can continue.

11) Wombats. Game Three for the Wombats went about as the first two did. The upside for them: They get their first game away from Steele next week.

12) Brewers. The Brewers are struggling badly right now. Can they ever shake off the jitters to achieve the sort of performance we know they’re capable of?

Cubs over Royals. This is a tough one to call. Beating the Royals’ bats at Parks is a tough ask for any team, but the champ and his dominant team are probably the best-equipped to take advantage of the faovrable scoring positions and outscore the Royals via smaller ball.

Rangers over Bombers. I don’t know how much the Rangers will enjoy playing at the Flats, but they should at least be able to beat the AI.

Devil Rays over Hornets. Big_DAWG is completely new to the BBL, but with the defense he’s taking over, he shouldn’t need to put up very many runs to take home this game. I think he can manage it.

Orioles over Rockies. MartianMan doesn’t seem to really have his groove at Tin Can Alley yet, but it’s a field where Mavfatha has put up some big scores in the past. I think the conditions are ideal for the O’s to finally have a big game.

Pirates over Reds. JY has put on better performances so far than QM has, but Steele should be a great park for the Pirates’ lineup. This could go either way but I think Baltimore can pull off the upset.

Braves over Angels. The Braves will be anxious to bounce back after a rough Week 3, and the short fences at Parks should help them in that quest. The Angels won’t be so happy to face off against their defense, either.

Cardinals over Fishes. The Cards are returning to a home field where they oughtn’t to enjoy playing very much, but with the way they’ve been hitting lately, it might not even make that big of a difference. Are the Fishes really the team that can take advantage of this situation and overpower them? I’m doubtful.

Twins over Athletics. The A’s are coming off their second win and have been more consistent than the Twins, but the short left field fence at Playground will play very well to the Twins’ bats indeed. BABE or no BABE, the Twins can out-slug the A’s.

Yankees over Melonheads. This week’s Match of the Week ought to be a big one, two offense-heavy teams duking it out at Parks. A bit hard to call which team will have the edge, but I’ll pick the Melonheads to fall slightly short as has been their norm this season.

Monsters over Diamondbacks. This is a match to watch for sure, two of the hottest teams in the NL vying for superiority. The D’Backs shouldn’t mind the Monsters’ killer infield as much as most teams, but in the end I still favor Yurya’s experience to gain the edge.

Giants over Marlins. Right now I’m inclined to believe that Itaniium’s rough MOTW performance was a fluke, and they’ll bounce back at the Marlins’ home field – where the Marlins performed notably worse than in their two road games so far.

Wombats over Brewers. Two teams that have had a rocky start to the season square off, and one will collect their first win. Ultimately I think M will be more comfortable playing at the Alley than Silver will, and that will make the difference.