1-30 Rankings: Actual Performance vs Pre-Season Expectations

[glanzer]

I put together my own overall rankings of all 30 teams, based on 2012 performance vs. expected performance.

 

For instance, the obvious surprise teams like the Orioles and A's rank very high. Teams like the White Sox that ended up better than expected also rank high even though they missed the playoffs. Teams like the Marlins and Angels which entered the season having spent tons of money on free agents and missed the playoffs are at the very bottom. Teams like the Rangers and Yankees who, even though are post-season bound, are still fighting to win their divisions with two games left and are ranked around 10th.

 

I've put the Twins and Indians more towards the middle---terrible seasons, but ended about where people expected.

 

Again, just my opinions. Thoughts?

 

1. Orioles

2. Nationals

3. Athletics

4. Giants

5. Reds

6. Braves

7. Padres

8. White Sox

9. Yankees

10. Rangers

11. Tigers

12. Cardinals

13. Mariners

14. Pirates

15. Mets

16. Astros

17. Cubs

18. Indians

19. Twins

20. Blue Jays

21. Royals

22. Rockies

23. Brewers

24. Diamondbacks

25. Dodgers

26. Rays

27. Phillies

28. Angels

29. Marlins

30. Red Sox

[J-Dog Dungan]

I would have gone with Marlins at the bottom. I might have also had the Dodgers and Red Sox right next to each other, because they had the same problem this year, with the same personnel: the highly-paid vets that they had on the payroll weren't enough to overcome the rest of the team not being as good. i think your ranking of the Twins and Indians is also about right.

[Kirby_waved_at_me]

I agree with most of the list -

 

I think the Angels did about as well as they were expected to do, but because the Athletics did so much better than expected they are outside of the playoff picture. The Angels had worse than expected results from Pujols (though overall, not a bad season) and much better results than anyone expected from Mike Trout. To me, it evens out. My memory is not that they were runaway favorites to take the AL West from the Rangers, it was going to be a battle.

 

I would also place the Cubs a bit lower on the list, I think a bad season was to be expected, but not 100 losses. Personally I didn't think that Theo Epstein coming meant instant winning seasons, but a lot of opinion said that a turnaround was expected. I wouldn't switch places with LAA and CHC, but I think they should be closer together on the list.

[biggentleben]

The Nationals don't belong in the top 3...they were expected to finish first in the NL East in many national papers with a wild card prediction by pretty much everywhere that I read.

[Seth Stohs]

I agree with the comments on the Angels. I would have expected them to win 90-93 games, and they'll probably win 89-90.

 

And, I thought the Nats would be really good.

 

Interesting list though. Definitely a fun way to look at it!

[silverslugger]

Would be interesting to see a 1-30 based on Vegas preseason over/under versus final season record.

[Kirby_waved_at_me]

Here's how I would break it down

 

Performed Better than Expected:

1. Baltimore

2. Oakland

3. Washington

4. Cincinnati

5. Chicago White Sox

6. San Fran

7. Atlanta

8. Pittsburgh

 

Performed About As Expected:

9. Texas

10. Milwaukee

11. LA Angels

12. Detroit

13. New York Yankees

14. LA Dodgers

15. Tampa Bay

16. Saint Louis

17. Arizona

18. Seattle

19. San Diego

20. Kansas City

21. Minnesota

 

Performed Worse than Expected:

22. New York Mets

23. Toronto

24. Cleveland

25. Houston

 

Much Worse than expected:

26. Chicago Cubs

27. Colorado

28. Miami

29. Boston

30. Philadelphia

 

 

Philadelphia gets the worst of the worst for me because I saw several WS predictions for them. Even though Colorado was not expected to be a playoff team, I don't recall many people saying they would barely get past 60 wins. Washington kind of surprised me, but when I went back to look at preseason projections from several sites, they were sitting at somewhere between 10th and 15th on most lists - I'd call their season much better than expected for that reason. The White Sox were picked last in several polls, so that's why I put them so high on the list, even though they missed the playoffs.

[beckmt]

I feel Washington should be at the bottom of the better than expected and Pittsburg should be higher, Minnesota should be in the Worse than expected as many expected the Twins to bounce to close to .500. I would also move Seattle higher as it was assumed they could lose between 90 - 100 games. Cubs would be in my worse than expected, not much worse and the Indians would be in the worse than expected group.