2020 BILL VEECK’S LEG POWER RANKINGS
SEPTEMBER ADIOS EDITION
If you can’t remember how this works by now, seek medical help. Hitting & Pitching rankings based on actual BVL stats, not WAR.
YAY 2020 IS OVER TEAMS
14 – LAKE COUNTY (Last month: 14TH) – HITTING 13TH, PITCHING 13TH. THE BAD NEWS: Well, 2020. Current pace for losses: 100. Take the over. But… memories… of the way we were… in the five seasons from 2006-2010 the Commuters were the BVL’s best team, winning 90+ games in each including three Leg Series appearances (winning two.) But, in the 10 seasons since, including 2020, LAK has never again won 90 games (though they did make two more Leg Series appearances, splitting them). THE GOOD NEWS: 2021* looks much brighter, though 2023 might be more realistic for a return to the good old days. Getting Galway to part with a #1 for Anibal Sanchez could be the best deal since Dutch settlers bought Manhattan for $24 worth of nada.
13 – BERGEN (11TH (t)) – HITTING 8TH (t), PITCHING 8TH. THE BAD NEWS: Well, 2020. Five straight sub-.500 months is no way to go through life, son. Mudville was Party Central compared to this joyless year in Bergen. Like in LAK, there were once “good old days.” From 2010-2013, BGN averaged 94 wins per year and appeared in three Leg Series, painfully losing them all and becoming the BVL’s version of the Buffalo Bills. And then, the abyss: zero 90+ win seasons 2014-2020. Management has shown neither the interest nor ability to right this ship, and at this rate Christian Yelich will = Ernie Banks. THE GOOD NEWS: 2020 is just 24 games away from being over and hope springs eternal every Spring. But it starts with attitude, and if they get their heads on straight perhaps everything old will be new again.
12 – SAN ANTONIO (13TH) – HITTING 1ST, PITCHING 14TH. THE BAD NEWS: Well, 2020. Oh, and 2019 too. Management took over an Orleans franchise that defined sad: 11 seasons, 48% wins, zero playoff appearances. Perhaps in retrospect naming one’s new team after the most infamous battle defeat in U.S. history may have been bad mojo (what, The Pearl Harbors was taken?), and both SAA seasons have been worse than any Orleans mess. Playing in Coors is a challenge for sure, and it’s fair to say one that has resulted in abject failure. THE GOOD NEWS: this team has been patient, and content with building and losing, which helps with the building. Plus this team has underachieved, which doesn’t sound like good news but indicates that this is their final basement season. Onward, meet upward.
11 – MILWAUKEE (10TH) – HITTING 11TH (t), PITCHING 10TH. THE BAD NEWS: No pancakes in 2020. Well perspective is a good thing. Milwaukee is known for beer and so are the Landsharks. In 20+ seasons MIL has been all over the standings, winning between 52 and 91 games with exactly one playoff series win which is pretty hard to believe and even harder to do. This year another middle-of-the-pack non-playoff season. Always somehow competitive enough to beat you in a series but not enough to beat you in the standings. THE GOOD NEWS: The hope for pancakes in 2021. Because perspective etc. And sometimes fun can be measured in ways other than playoff series wins. Finally, I don’t know if anybody else EVER looks at the website, but I do and I love it and thanks Chris for making it great!
10 – ADDISON (11TH (t)) – HITTING 2ND, PITCHING 11TH. THE BAD NEWS: August helped ADD return to their statistical historical roots of mucho hitting and muy bad pitching. And losing. Can’t forget the losing. Coming off a solid 2019, in which the Riverdogs made the playoffs and won one of their two lifetime post-season series, there was reason for optimism which sadly soon gave way to the reality that pessimism was actually realism. Though not bad enough to be roasted monthly in the Power Rankings, also not good enough to be even playoffs-adjacent. THE GOOD NEWS: ADD remains a stalwart BVL franchise. True, over .500 only 4/21 seasons. But they represent in Vegas, host the draft in non-Vegas years, make one trade per year with Hollywood, and keep the books. Plus-ownership.
09 – JERSEY (9TH) – HITTING 14TH, PITCHING 9TH. THE BAD NEWS: Has it ever occurred to anyone that The Jinx may be, well, jinxed? Yeah the league-worst 25 1-Run Losses are a start, but it seems like this team always has a star player getting Tommy John surgery. Jersey won 105 games as recently as 2017, but since then… oy. How about… 57… then 58… and this year on a pace for 66 which sounds like a moral victory but since there are no moral victories in sports it’s just fewer losses than the previous two seasons and that bar was pretty low. Dead last in batting and 13th in Runs. Did I mention oy? THE GOOD NEWS: Well there’s a cabana, and there are cigars. And someday, hopefully sooner than later, there will be a suite in Vegas, and The Leg, and there will be laughter again.
08 – PHOENIX (8TH) – HITTING 7TH, PITCHING 12TH. THE BAD NEWS: Remember way back when the Fractals made the playoffs and were only one win away from winning the Gaedel? Oh yeah that was last year! This year the offense held up – 2nd in Runs Scored and 4th in HR – and the pitching overachieved until it didn’t, cue a wow 7-23 August (the worst month by any BVL team all season, by the way) which cemented their free-fall towards the bottom of the standings. If that type of suckosity continues in September these guys are gonna be in sweet Leg Lottery position whenever the heck there is another Leg Lottery. THE GOOD NEWS: Sweet Leg Lottery position is always good news once you have forgotten about all the bad news needed to achieve it. So let’s focus on that, shall we?
07 – TENNESSEE (7TH) – HITTING 8TH (t), PITCHING 6TH. THE BAD NEWS: Well, 2020. And, yeah, 2021 (or 2022 if there is no 2021. Or, potentially, both). I have railed in this space for years about the perils of going all-in, and that the worst thing a team can do is go all-in and not even make the playoffs. Gentlemen and gentlemen, your 2020 Tennessee Tuxedoes. I mean, I do get it. Coming off back-to-back close Leg Series losses, the window closing a bit, but still with impact talent. I know! Homage to Miles, let’s music metaphor this. The Tuxedoes went down to the crossroads and sold their soul to the devil. But unlike Robert Johnson, they came back alone. This team never did get off the ground. Zero +.500 months. THE GOOD NEWS: They have rebuilt it before and can do it again.
PLAYOFF TEAMS
06 – BAYOU CITY (6TH) – HITTING 6TH, PITCHING 7TH. THE BAD NEWS: The last time this franchise won a post-season game, it was a Leg-clincher as a previous unnamed regime way back in 2011. The Drillers have graced the playoffs just once in their 7-season tenure but were swept away in 2017. This year they decided Playoffs or Bust. It was at best wishful thinking, and at worst a horrible miscalculation, but lo and behold thanks to the Great TUX Debacle here they are, about to back into the #6 seed. THE GOOD NEWS: Who knows if they will hang around long (offensive overachievers Escobar & Yaz Jr. may 0-fer the playoffs) or have any shot at making it back to the post-season in 2021, but the future is now in Bayou City. Can they shock the world? Or at least win a playoff game?
05 – GALWAY (5TH) – HITTING 10TH, PITCHING 4TH. THE BAD NEWS: Every year one outlier team fails to get the WAR Memo. According to WAR, the Bays just aren’t that good. According to the Bays, WAR just missed the boat. (See what I did there?) The peripherals suggest GAL is indeed for real, and likely to end up the #4 or #5 seeds. They will be the underdog against every team they face in the post-season (except in the unlikely event of a BCD matchup), but Buhler & Flaherty should keep them in a lot of games. Eventually the below-average offense will show its true colors and that will be that. THE GOOD NEWS: Galway has only seen the playoffs once in the past decade, when their 116-win 2015 squad became the best team to ever lose the Leg Series. But this is a franchise on the upswing, and it starts now.
04 – WESTMINSTER (4TH) – HITTING 12TH, PITCHING 1ST. THE BAD NEWS: Back in February, when no one yet owned a non-Halloween mask, three BVL managers contemplated their upcoming seasons. All three would have been wise to play it conservatively; instead all three went all-in. They would need luck. TUX got none, BCD got a little, and the rest went to WES. No idea how they have done this well, except maybe clean living? Oh, remember when I said WES would pound the weaker teams and struggle with the better ones? 29-31 vs. the playoff teams… 50-22 vs. non. So, yeah. THE GOOD NEWS: The pitching coach deserves a raise, WAR says the #7 staff and the stats say #1. If Kershaw can extend his overachieving, and the offense comes to life, there could be a playoff upset in WES’s future.
LEG SERIES PREVIEW
03 – GRAND RAPIDS (3RD) – HITTING 3RD, PITCHING 2ND. THE BAD NEWS: Well I have said it all before about Grand Rapids, but I’ve got all this space to fill so I guess I’ll say it again. The Calvinists have jogged through this season. It might on the surface appear that they didn’t much care, becoming sellers and not buyers early and playing a bazillion NetPlay games. I think they care. I think they care a LOT… just not about the regular season. And it is true, while winning a division is advantageous to dreams of The Leg, once you’re a Wild Card it doesn’t matter much if you’re 3-4-5 or 6. THE GOOD NEWS: No one should be shocked if GRC wins The Leg. They are one of the three best teams this year, sit with great draft position for 2021, and has set themselves up nicely for continued elite seasons.
02 – BEVERLY (2ND) – HITTING 5TH, PITCHING 3RD. THE BAD NEWS: Not much in the Bad News Dept. in Beverly right now. Five straight winning months and a cushy lead in the Gaedel and even still a shot at the #1 seed. And true, the pitching isn’t as good as it’s shown but hey the hitting is better than it’s shown, so on balance what you see is what there is: one of the three best BVL teams since the outset. Still not sure why the offense hasn’t done better – 2nd in HR but only 5th in Runs Scored – but there’s another month left for those numbers to improve. THE GOOD NEWS: No one should be shocked if BEV wins The Leg. The offense is 10 runs waiting to happen. And this is a franchise that should be around to go deep into the playoffs for years to come.
01 – HOLLYWOOD (1ST) – HITTING 4TH, PITCHING 5TH. THE BAD NEWS: WAR insists this is the BVL’s best pitching staff and it would be if they just got more guys out. But that pretty much wraps up the bad news. HOL pulled themselves out of a slow but steady season-long decline with a stellar 20-win August and re-established order entering the season’s final month. (Vs. SAA, Howie Kendrick had a 2-hit game, a 3-hit game, a 4-hit game, and a 5-hit game. Yeah it’s SAA, but it’s still pretty good.) THE GOOD NEWS: With usage in fine-ish shape, the Stars look now to lock down the Minoso and the #1 seed. After a season behind their predicted longball pace, HOL finally caught up. Projected HR thru August: 231, 1st. Actual: 244, 1st.
PLAY BALL and FARE THEE WELL!
