Defending Champs from 2008 Hold Top Spot Heading into World Tournament
Rank Team Name (last month’s ranking show parenthetically if different)
1 Kitchener Rivershark Twins
2 Broken Bow Patsy’s
3 Aspen Interiors
4 Midwest Stampede (6)
5 The Farm (4)
6 Jarvis Gamblers (5)
7 Vancouver Grey Sox
8 Allbaugh, Inc
9 St. Thomas Centennials (10)
10 Midland Explorers (9)
11 Dominican Republic
12 Pueblo Bandits
13 NY Gremlins
14 Dolan & Murphy
15 Bar of Appleton (18)
16 Kegel Black Knights
17 Quad City Sox
18 Owen Sound (16)
19 Thomson Merchants (22)
20 California A’s
21 Saskatoon D’Backs (19)
22 Bar of Green Bay (21)
23 Ashland Mets
24 Winterset A’s
Editor’s Notes: The biggest story related to these rankings is the fact that the top 8 teams (shown above) get first round byes at the ISC World Tournament, no small matter. St. Thomas and Midland just missing that cut at 9 and 10, respectively.
The June rankings are set out after the jump, but in short, here is a summary of the changes:
* Top 10 remained the same, save re-arranging a few deck chairs in terms of order.
* Kitchener won convincingly at Monkton and has made its case for the top spot.
* Broken Bow Patsy’s hasn’t played a game all year yet hold the #2 spot solely on the basis of their reputation.
* Aspen played well, and managed to hold their # 3 spot over new # 4 Midwest, even though Midwest beat them at Monkton.
* The biggest jump by a top 10 team was the Midwest Stampede, jumping two slots from # 6 to # 4, no doubt on the strength of their runner-up finish at Monkton two weeks ago, and their win at Boys of Summer last weekend. The Stampede played these tournament without their New Zealanders, who are busy with the ISF, so certainly a team that everyone will keep an eye on. As the So Cal Bombers did in their 2007 runner-up World Tournament finish, the Stampede has some momentum as they head to Quad Cities.
* The Farm slipped one slot from # 4 to # 5, a product of Midwest’s strong performances of late, though pitching appears to be the big question mark heading into the World Tournament. Cox looked strong at Monkton against Kitchener in their opener when he was fresh, but carried the load, and the innings took their toll as the weekend wore on. Can Darryl Tilley get healthy for Quad Cities or will Korry Gorreau return?
* Jarvis dropped from # 5 to # 6, with Midwest moving past them. Jarvis played better than their Monkton record looked, losing close games to # 5 Farm and # 7 Vancouver. Paul Koert of course will be one of the keys, so Jarvis fans will pay close attention to his efforts for Team USA at the ISF’s in Saskatoon this week and next, but he will need support from Andrew Phibbs and the offence.
* Vancouver is perhaps the toughest top 10 team to figure out. They played well at Monkton, even without two front line pitchers, Nick Underhill and Travis Price, knocking off # 6 Jarvis. They did come on strong last Sunday to beat Team Japan convincingly, 10-3, to win their own Vancouver Challenge, but stumbled against a lower seeded local team on Saturday. Perhaps that will be the wake-up call that the Grey Sox need as they head to Iowa. It looked like it last Sunday.
* St. Thomas and Midland traded places, now at # 9 and # 10 respectively, but the change doesn’t mean too much, other than trading first round opponents, as both just missed the reward of the first round bye by finishing out of the top 8. St. Thomas may be missing Scott Wagar, who’s wife is due in mid-August, so a lot will be riding on the arm of Ward Gosse. The Midland Explorers haven’t played much during the year, and will probably only have their full squad together twice before the ISC (Boulevard Lounge Tournament and ASA). Three pitchers (Urquhart, Joseph, Kelly) give the staff depth, and their starters have tons of ISC experience and success.
* As for the remaining teams, The Bar of Appleton took the biggest jump, 3 slots from # 18 to #15, along with the Thomson Merchants fromi # 22 to # 19.
* At the risk of sounding like a homer for my home state California A’s, I think their # 20 ranking could be a good bit higher. The A’s are a merger team of last year’s ISC II defending champion California Lumberkings, along with a nucleus of last year’s So Cal Bombers, a top 10 team in 2008. The New York Gremlins are, to some degree a similar team, combining some of last year’s ISC II third place team from the NY Knights and some of the best players from the 2007 ISC II champs, TNT. I’m not saying the Gremlins are ranked too high at 13, but rather that I think the two teams (Gremlins and A’s) are closer in talent than the disparity of # 13 and # 20 are concerned. There has been a good deal said about the lack of ISC II teams moving up to the world tournament level. These two teams, the Gremlins and the A’s are largely former ISC II teams, who are not just moving up, but have the rosters to compete at the next level.
June 2009 rankings after the jump (more…)
