Upon doing some research on MLB rosters (originally for fantasy purposes) I was looking over the STEAMER Projections trying to determine the strongest team to the weakest team going into 2015. Due to the makeup of the league I was looking at I decided to concentrate on each team's top 6 hitters, top 4 starters and closer - hence the 11. I found that most teams, once you get past the 6 best hitter and 4th best starter, typically became a soup of replacement types anyway.

Someone suggested I share this in a FanPost so here you have the it. Team Power Rankings based upon 11 players using STEAMER's Projections. The "points" system that you will see is based upon a fantasy league that counts your normal offensive stats including steals. etc. and based upon the normal pitching stats.

Caveat*: Bear in mind that defense is not included nor is the strength of the minor league systems or team depth. The latter as you will see tends to "hurt" the beloved home team quite a bit. For each team I listed the points, rankings in both hitting and pitching and the players that were included in the study (6 hitters, 5 pitchers). Teams that had a position that did not reach a certain status received pts based upon a "replacement" player - 250 for hitters/150 for pitchers. Replacement slots are represented with an (*) below

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Team Power Rankings: #30 - #1

#30: Philadelphia Phillies: 3114 pts (Hitting: 30th/Pitching: 22nd)

Hitters: Utley/Franco/Asche/*/*/*

Pitchers: Hamels/Lee/Harang/*/Papelbon

#29: Arizona Diamondbacks: 3130 pts (Hitting: 24th/Pitching: 29th)
Hitters: Goldschmidt/Trumbo/Hill/Pollock/*/*

Pitchers: Hellickson/Collmenter/Anderson/*/Reed

#28: San Diego Padres: 3272 pts (Hitting: 29th, Pitching: 14th)
Hitters: Upton/Kemp/Myers/Gyorko/*

Pitching: Ross/Cashner/Kennedy/Despaigne/Benoit

#27: Minnesota Twins: 3303 pts (Hitting: 22nd/Pitching 28th)
Hitters: Mauer/Dozier/Hunter/Arcia/Plouffe/Vargas

Pitchers: Hughes/Santana/Gibson/*/Perkins

#26: Houston Astros: 3376 pts (Hitting: 19th/Pitching: 25th)
Hitters: Altuve/Springer/Carter/Lowrie/Valbuena/Rasmus

Pitchers: Keuchel/McHugh/Oberholtzer/Feldman/Gregerson.

#25: Milwaukee Brewers: 3406 pts (Hitting: 13th/Pitching: 26th)
Hitters: Gomez/Braun/Lind/Segura/Ramirez/Gennett.

Pitchers: Garza/Peralta/Lohse/Nelson/Broxton

#24: Atlanta Braves: 3410 (Hitting: 28th/Pitching 7th)
Hitters: Freeman/Markakis/Simmons/Upton/*/*

Pitchers: Teheran/Wood/Miller/Minor/Kimbrel

#23: Oakland Athletics: 3414 pts (Hitting: 25th/Pitching: 16th)
Hitters: Zobrist/Butler/Lawrie/Crisp/Vogt/Davis

Pitchers: Gray/Kazmir/Pomeranz/Chavez/Doolittle

#22: Tampa Bay Rays: 3419 pts (Hitting: 26th/Pitching: 10th)
Hitters: Longoria/Jennings/Loney/Souza/Cabrera/Jaso

Pitchers: Cobb/Acher/Smyly/Odorizzi/McGee

#21: Kansas City Royals: 3428 pts (Hitting: 21st/Pitching: 23rd)
Hitters: Gordon/Hosmer/Cain/Rios/Moustakas/Morales

Pitchers: Ventura/Vargas/Duffy/Guthrie/Holland

#20: Baltimore Orioles 3439 pts (Hitting: 11th/Pitching: 27th)
Hitters: Jones/Pearce/Davis/Hardy/Machado/Schoop

Pitchers: Tillman/Gausman/Gonzalez/Chen/Britton

#19: New York Mets 3494 pts (Hitting: 23rd/Pitching: 12th)
Hitters: Wright/Duda/Cuddyer/Granderson/d’Arnaud/Flores

Pitchers: Harvey/deGrom/Niese/Colon/Mejia

#18: Colorado Rockies: 3501 pts (Hitting: 3rd, Pitching: 30th)
Hitters: Tulo/Gonzalez/Morneau/Dickerson/Blackmon/Arenado

Pitchers: de la Rosa/Matek/Butler/*/Hawkins

#17: New York Yankees: 3512 pts (Hitting: 16th/Pitching: 20th)
Hitters: Headley/Ellsbury/Gardner/McCann/Beltran/Tex

Pitchers: Sabathia/Tanaka/Pineda/Nova/Betances

#16: Chicago Cubs: 3548 pts (Hitting: 20h/Pitching: 11th)
Hitters: Rizzo/Bryant/Alcantara/Soler/Baez/Castro

Pithers: Lester/Arrieta/Hammel/Hendricks/Rondon.

#15: Cincinnati Reds: 3564 pts (Hitting: 27th/Pitching: 4th)
Hitters: Votto/Bruce/Phillips/Frazier/Mesoraco/Byrd

Pitchers: Cingrani/Bailey/Cueto/Leake/Chapman.

#14: Miami Marlins: 3580 pts (Hitting: 10th/Pitching: 21st)
Hitters: Stanton/Yelich/Ozuna/Prado/Morse/*

Pitchers: Fernandez/Latos/Haren/Alvarez/Cishek

#13: Cleveland Indians: 3605 pts (Hitting: 19th/Pitching: 9th)
Hitters: Santana/Brantley/Kipnis/Moss/Gomes/Bourn

Pitchers: Kluber/Carrasco/Salazar/Bauer/Allen

#12: San Francisco Giants: 3634 pts (Hitting: 17th/Pitching: 8th)
Hitters: Posey/Belt/Pence/Aoki/McGeHee/Crawford

Pitchers: Bumgarner/Hudson/Peavy/Lincecum/Casilla

#11: Texas Rangers: 3670 pts (Hitting: 8th/Pitching: 18th)
Hitters: Fielder/ChooBeltre/AndrusMartin/Moreland

Pitchers: Darvish/Gallardo/Holland/Detwiler/Feliz

#10: Boston Red Sox: 3684 pts (Hitting: 4th/Pitching: 24th)
Hitters: Ortiz/Ramirez/Sandoval/Pedroia/Napoli/Bogaerts

Pitchers: Porcello/Miley/Buchholz/Masterson/Uehara

#9: Seattle Mariners: 3700 pts (Hitting: 14th/Pitching: 5th)
Hitters: Cano/Seager/Cruz/Miller/Ackley/Morrison.

Pitchers: Hernandez/Iwakuma/Paxton/Elias/Rodney

#8: Pittsburgh Pirates: 3730 pts (Hitting: 6th/Pitching: 16th)
Hitters: McCutchen/Marte/Polanco/Walker/Alvarez/Harrison

Pitchers: Cole/Liriano/Burnett/Worley/Melancon

#7: Los Angeles Angels: 3785 pts (Hitting: 5th/Pitching: 14th)
Hitting: Trout/Pujols/Calhoun/Aybar/Hamilton/Freese.

Pitchers: Richards/Weaver/Wilson/Shoemaker/Street

#6: St. Louis Cardinals: 3812 pts (Hitting: 12th/Pitching: 3rd)
Hitters: Holliday/Heyward/Carpenter/Adams/Peralta/Wong.

Pitchers: Wainwright/Lynn/Lackey/Wacha/Rosenthal

#5: Chicago White Sox: 3831 pts (Hitting: 7th/Pitching: 6th)
Hitters: Abreu/LaRoche/Ramirez/Eaton/Cabrera/Garcia

Pitchers: Sale/Samadzjia/Quintana/*/Robertson

#4: Detroit Tigers: 3880 pts (Hitting: 2nd/Pitching: 19th)
Hitters: Cabrera/VMartinez/JMartinez/Kinsler/Castellanos

Pitchers: Price/Sanchez/Verlander/Simon/Nathan

#3: Los Angeles Dodgers: 3936 pts (Hitting: 15th/Pitching: 1st)
Hitters: Puig/Gonzalez/Crawford/Kendrick/Rollins/Pederson

Pitchers: Kershaw/Greinke/Ryu/McCarthy/Jansen.

#2: Toronto Blue Jays: 3949 pts (Hitting: 1st/Pitching: 13th)
Hitters: Encarnacion/Bautista/Dondalson/Reyes/Saunders/Smoak

Pitchers: Stroman/Hutchison/Buerhle/Dickey/Cecil

#1: Washington Nationals: 4019 pts (Hitting: 9th/Pitching: 2nd)
Hitters: Rendon/Harper/Zimmerman/Span/Werth/Ramos

Pitchers: Strasburg/Zimmermann/Scherzer/Fister/Storen.

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Comments:

• High Surprise: #5 Chicago White Sox: Not many are picking the Pale Hose to over take the Tigers or Royals in the AL Central but they arguably had the best under-the-radar off-season of any team. Their top end is very good but they have low value at C/2B/3B/4th Starter/5th Starter so it remains to be seen if they can fill those gaps.
• Low Surprise: #28 San Diego Padres: The Padres have had a pretty high-profile make-over this offseason yet still rank #28 here. STEAMER takes into account ball-park of course when determining counting stats so Petco still plays a role here and the pitching which has promise is filled with ???s
• Low Surprise (Home Team): The Sox are at #10 hanks largely in part to low projections for the pitching staff. Also what Boston may not have in top-end it makes up for in young depth. Noticably missing are Betts/Castillo

Crank it UP!

BZ