Power Rankings (May 21, 2018)

"Title Contenders"
1. Philly (33-13) - 16-8 at home, wow, what a start. Oh wait, they’re even better on the road (17-5). Jay Bruce for MVP?
2. London (30-17) - Winners of nine straight, the Knights dominate left-handed pitching (12-3 record, .301 average against lefties).
3. Savannah (27-18) - Same record as the Flyers, but Atlanta swooning while Sabers are rising (five straight wins).
4 Baltimore (26-20) - Offense is uninspiring, but pitching staff is the real deal.
5. Atlanta (27-18) - Dropped five in a row, but slide shouldn’t last for too long.
6. San Juan (26-21) - Five games over .500, and in last place. Would have second best record if they were in the World League.

"We really want that playoff bonus"
7. Paris (25-24) - Pimps are 15-8 on the road but only 10-16 at home, a number that should even out as the season moves on.
8. Halifax (25-23) - Sort of a disappointing start. Boring offense — no one has more than eight home runs — and underachieving pitching has no one excited.
9. Taipei (26-21) - Not buying the start, but the Far East is so weak, someone has to win it.

"Maybe next year"
10. Scotland (22-26) - Not pretty — outside of Hamilton (.337, 18, 40) — but probably the best of the rest so far.
11. Cleveland (20-28) - Offense is a snoozer, and 80 percent of the pitching staff have been awful.
12. Kyoto (21-26) - Slumbering offense being somewhat carried by pretty decent pitching (get Affeldt out of there).
13. Chiang-Mai (21-26) - Carbon copy of Kyoto, just with worse pitching.

"Let's go ahead and just call it a day"
14. Bedford (16-31) - What a disaster. Gets placed ahead of Ireland and Osaka just based on being in the American League. Good news is that the offense (194 runs, second lowest in league) shouldn’t be this bad forever. Bad news is that the pitching will be.
15. Ireland (15-33) - Almost $40 million tied up in three starters, and the Invaders have a 4.92 ERA. THAT’S GOTTA HURT.
16. Osaka (17-32) - Only one team in SLB history has finished a season with an ERA above 6.00 — the 125-loss Tennessee Thunder, who came in at 6.79. Osaka’s ERA right now is 6.72, so at least they’re not Tennessee-bad.