MLB Power Rankings: Chicago Cubs Stay at No. 1

MLB Power Rankings

8/18/2008 Rankings

By Paul Bessire, WhatIfSports.com

Aug. 18, 2008

WhatIfSports.com utilizes its award-winning baseball simulation engine to present the most comprehensive and unbiased ranking possible of all 30 teams in baseball each Monday during the regular season.

To come up with the rankings, using only their statistical performance to date this season, each team is simulated against every other team 100 times—50 at home and 50 at the opposing ballpark—so that all five pitchers in the current rotation start 10 times at each location.

(Note: This means that if a pitcher who was in the rotation was recently put on the DL, he will not be included in the simulations. This is true of position players as well, but an injury to one position player will usually have a lesser impact on the week-to-week results.)

Teams Ranked by Winning Percentage
(everyone plays everyone 100 times)

	Team	Change	Win Pct	RS/G	RA/G
1.	Chicago Cubs	-	62.1	5.5	4.2
2.	Milwaukee Brewers	+1	60.7	4.8	4.1
3.	Tampa Bay Rays	+1	59.5	4.7	3.8
4.	New York Yankees	+2	55.6	4.8	4.3
5.	Arizona Diamondbacks	+4	55.5	4.5	4.0
6.	Chicago White Sox	+1	55.4	4.7	4.2
7.	Philadelphia Phillies	-2	55.2	4.9	4.4
8.	New York Mets	+5	54.4	5.2	4.7
9.	Detroit Tigers	+3	54.3	5.0	4.5
10.	Boston Red Sox	-8	53.8	5.1	4.6
	Team	Change	Win Pct	RS/G	RA/G
11.	St. Louis Cardinals	-	53.5	4.9	4.5
12.	Los Angeles Angels	-4	53.3	4.5	4.2
13.	Los Angeles Dodgers	-3	53.2	4.3	3.9
14.	Toronto Blue Jays	-	52.1	4.2	3.9
15.	Florida Marlins	+1	51.0	4.5	4.3
16.	Minnesota Twins	+4	49.6	4.3	4.4
17.	Texas Rangers	+6	49.3	5.4	5.6
18.	Oakland Athletics	-	47.6	3.7	4.0
19.	Colorado Rockies	-4	47.3	4.6	4.8
20.	Atlanta Braves	-3	46.6	4.5	4.8
	Team	Change	Win Pct	RS/G	RA/G
21.	Baltimore Orioles	-2	46.2	4.8	5.1
22.	Houston Astros	+2	45.8	4.5	4.9
23.	Pittsburgh Pirates	+3	45.0	4.4	5.0
24.	Cleveland Indians	-3	44.7	4.3	4.9
25.	Washington Nationals	+2	42.3	3.8	4.5
26.	San Diego Padres	-1	42.0	3.8	4.5
27.	Seattle Mariners	+1	42.0	4.0	4.8
28.	Kansas City Royals	-6	41.2	3.9	4.7
29.	Cincinnati Reds	+1	41.2	4.4	5.3
30.	San Francisco Giants	-1	39.7	3.8	4.8

We hope that you enjoy our Beyond the Boxscore feature. As with all of our games, we are willing to listen to feedback and improve this page and content to make it as interesting and user-friendly as possible. With any comments, questions or topic suggestions, please contact Customer Support. Thanks!

Whatifsportsspecializes in answering the great "What if?" questions in sports by simulating games between historical teams, and has exciting simulation games for MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL, college basketball and college football.