MLB Rankings - 13 Apr

To go along with my first baseball predictions of the season yesterday, I'm debuting my Major League Baseball rankings today. I've split up the offensive and defensive ratings to create my formula, and averaged the two together to come up with the overall rankings below. Each team's name is followed by its overall record, offensive ranking, and defensive ranking.

1. Texas (9-2) (2) (4)

2. Cincinnati (8-3) (1) (9)

3. Colorado (7-2) (7) (1)

4. Toronto (5-6) (3) (6)

5. Chi Sox (7-4) (12) (2)

6. Arizona (5-5) (6) (7)

7. Philadelphia (7-3) (4) (13)

8. Atlanta (5-6) (14) (5)

9. Oakland (5-6) (9) (12)

10. Cleveland (8-3) (10) (10)

11. LA Angels (6-5) (18) (3)

12. Pittsburgh (5-5) (8) (20)

13. Washington (5-5) (5) (24)

14. Seattle (4-7) (17) (11)

15. Kansas City (6-4) (11) (18)

16. Milwaukee (5-5) (16) (15)

17. Baltimore (6-3) (19) (8)

18. Tampa Bay (3-8) (13) (28)

19. Minnesota (4-6) (22) (16)

20. NY Yankees (5-4) (15) (29)

21. San Francisco (5-6) (20) (26)

22. Saint Louis (4-7) (23) (23)

23. LA Dodgers (6-5) (21) (27)

24. NY Mets (4-6) (27) (14)

25. Detroit (4-7) (26) (21)

26. Chi Cubs (5-6) (25) (22)

27. San Diego (4-6) (28) (19)

28. Florida (5-5) (24) (30)

29. Houston (3-8) (30) (17)

30. Boston (2-9) (29) (25)

I'll have a bit more analysis of my rankings in next week's edition of the baseball rankings.

NBA Player of the Day

Pau Gasol - LAL - 17 pts, 17 reb, 5 ast, 7-12 FG, 3-4 FT

17 points may be the lowest output of any Player of the Day I've named all season, but adding 17 points to the mix and beating the top-seeded Spurs certainly make this a very strong performance from Gasol. They'll need more games like this in the playoffs, especially if Andrew Bynum ends up missing more time with his latest knee injury.

Predictions - 13 Apr

Upset picks are in italics.

Possible upsets are underlined.

NBA

Knicks at Celtics - Celtics by 7

Nets at Bulls - Bulls by 17

Wizards at Cavaliers - Cavs by 2

Hornets at Mavericks - Mavs by 6

Rockets at Timberwovles - Rockets by 6

Pacers at Magic - Magic by 9

Pistons at 76ers - 76ers by 8

Bucks at Thunder - Thunder by 9

Nuggets at Jazz - Nuggets by 5

Heat at Raptors - Heat by 10

Hawks at Bobcats - Hawks by 0

Trail Blazers at Warriors - Blazers by 2

Grizzlies at Clippers - Grizz by 3

Lakers at Kings - Lakers by 7

Spurs at Suns - Spurs by 4

MLB

Rangers at Tigers - Tigers by 1

Royals at Twins - Royals by 1

Athletics at White Sox - Athletics by 0

Blue Jays at Mariners - Blue Jays by 3

Reds at Padres - Reds by 3

Phillies at Nationals - Nats by 0

Brewers at Pirates - Pirates by 0

Indians at Angels - Indians by 2

Orioles at Yankees - Orioles by 0

Marlins at Braves - Braves by 5

Rockies at Mets - Rockies by 8

Rays at Red Sox - Rays by 2

Cubs at Astros - Cubs by 4

Cardinals at Diamondbacks - D-Backs by 9

Dodgers at Giants - Giants by 3

Prediction Results - 12 Apr

NBA: 3-0 (1.000) 725-308 overall (.702)

MLB: 5-7 (.417) 12-10 overall (.545)

Upsets: 4-1 (.800) 177-121 overall (.594)