[StLee]

Analysis

Oberland and Goodneighbor swapped at the top once again. Though the Hancocks have been one of the two hottest teams in the CBO, the rankers moved the T-51s back to the top spot. Goodneighbor trails Oberland by three games in the race for the #1 seed, and it looks like these two teams will remain competitive throughout the season to try for that home advantage.

The other hottest team is the Nordhagen Beach who followed up a six-game winning streak with their current longest streak of seven games. In four series in July, the Party Boys have won all four and now sit at 10-1 in the month to push their league lead to seven games over The Slog and eight over Easy Town.

Abernathy climbs up the Power Rankings again thanks to a sweep of Sale, which included a 21-inning affair, and a series win at Lexington. That turnaround comes after going 1-5 in the Institute League in their first two July series. Now the Adamantium hold a one-game lead over both Fort Hagen and Starlight in the league we featured last week.

Another team that has been super hot in July is Warwick, which now holds a better position in the Minutemen League after beating University Point two out of three times. The Mirelurks are two games up on Quincy and three up on the Deathclaws for the ML Wildcard spot.

Power Rankings

Weekly Team Power Rankings: Here are the current team power rankings for Commonwealth Baseball Organization:

Teams (Total Points, Tendency):
1) Oberland T-51s (141.6, +1)
2) Goodneighbor Hancocks (139.2, -1)
3) Nordhagen Beach Party Boys (130.9, o)
4) Warwick Mirelurks (109.1, +2)
5) Abernathy Adamantium (103.1, ++6)
6) Fort Hagen Silver Shroud (101.6, -1)
7) Starlight Lady Killers (98.6, +1)
8) The Slog Ghouls (98.6, -1)
9) Easy Town Assaultrons (98.2, +1)
10) Quincy Gunners (98.2, ++5)
11) Diamond City Swatters (95.7, --7)
12) University Point Deathclaws (91.7, --3)
13) FHE Yao Guai (89.3, +1)
14) Concord Radstags (84.8, -2)
15) Salem Witch Hats (78.9, +1)
16) Finch Farm Four Leafs (77.8, --3)
17) Vault 81 Dwellers (76.0, ++4)
18) Lexington Synths (75.4, -1)
19) Jamaica Plain Red Rockets (71.9, o)
20) Sunshine Tidings Chemists (69.0, ++3)
21) Egret Ninjas (67.4, +1)
22) County Crossing Bloodbugs (66.0, --4)
23) Atom Cats (61.0, --3)
24) Roxbury Knuckle Punchers (38.8, o)

The CBO MVP is in the South

While several players are having MVP-like seasons and are bound to be competitive for the North Charles Association MVP, the overall CBO MVP appears to be a player in the South Charles Association. We will analyze those three below in our current order of prediction for the final vote should it happen today.

Wayne Lacy, RF. Diamond City

Just recently, we may have had Lacy as the unanimous favorite. However, the two players below have come on as of late to make this race a little tighter. First, here are Lacy's impressive numbers:
.373 average (8th CBO)
112 hits (T-10th)
27 home runs (1st)
75 RBI (2nd)
72 runs (T-3rd)
.433 OBP (6th)
.713 SLUG (1st)
.340 ISO (1st)
4.7 WAR (T-1st)

Jumper Hayes, 2B, Goodneighbor

Hayes has been one of the hottest hitters in the league, including winning the Player of the Week award for the second time this month, which will probably earn him the July Player of the Month award. Hayes' numbers in the Top Ten of the CBO:
113 hits (T-7th)
66 runs (T-5th)
4.7 WAR (T-1st)
15.5 Def. Zone Rating (2nd)
1.152 Def. Efficiency (6th)

Stuart Costantino, C, Quincy

Costantino seems to be a longshot for the MVP at this point, but he hits well from a difficult position. Not many other catchers in the league hit as well as Costantino does, pushing him up on the overall outlook because of his position. Here are his numbers in the Top Ten:
.376 average (T-6th)
65 runs (7th)
.450 OBP (3rd)
4.5 WAR (3rd)