Plenty of Internet ink is spilled on rating and ranking individual players and teams in baseball, but what about doing the same thing for divisions?
Obviously, the offseason isn’t over, what with some big names still available in free agency (Masahiro Tanaka, Ubaldo Jimenez, Matt Garza and Ervin Santana come to mind) and others on the trade market (David Price, Jeff Samardzija and Andre Ethier, to name a few) who can swing things, depending on where they land.
With pitchers and catchers barely more than a month from reporting, though, the most major moves have already been made, and shifts in talent and power have taken place as a result. Plus, it’s a new year to boot, so why not take stock with a snapshot in time by running down the six different divisions—along with some noteworthy names to arrive and depart from each—worst to best?
The purpose here will be to put greater emphasis on the good and less on the bad. In other words, if a division has one or two awful teams at the bottom, that’s not quite so damning if there are two, or even three, strong clubs at the top.
Let’s rank.