With Apologies to Dallas Braden

After remarking that there was no end in sight to the Bay Rays' dominance, this happened. That is quite possibly the most poignant perfect game in baseball history.

New Standings for Mother's Day

Remember PSB fans, even the Seattle Mariners have mothers who love them. Good thing, too, because loving them has grown difficult for their fans this past week -- the M's have spent the last eight days losing all eight games they contested, though they kept most of them close. Their woeful performance has dropped them five spots in the Championship standings, the biggest change in position of any team in either grouping. The bottom four teams in both divisions remain their respective dregs, and the worst of the worst have worsened further yet. Pittsburgh are essentially treading water with a change from -79 to -82, and Baltimore took a slide from -40 to -52. Houston, however, have plummeted from -38 down to -61, wresting control of the penultimate place in the Championship away from the hapless O's.

The Rays and Yankees continue to prove themselves the class of baseball, and there's no end to their dominance on this season's horizon. The Twins, Giants, Cardinals, and Phillies are battling in the second tier of the Premiership, with the Rockies ready to join them. And what happened to the Angels? Is their pitching that bad, or have they just faced good teams? Updated standings based on current MLB records across all games as follows:

PREMIERSHIP STANDINGS (MLB)

POSITION	TEAM	GAMES PLAYED	WINS	LOSSES	RUNS SCORED	RUNS ALLOWED	RUN DIFF	Win PCG	Last Week
#1	Tampa Bay Rays	30	22	8	174	90	84	0.733	#1
#2	New York Yankees	29	21	8	175	102	73	0.724	#3
#3	Minnesota Twins	32	21	11	164	116	48	0.656	#5
#4	Philadelphia Phillies	31	19	12	165	120	45	0.613	#6
#5	San Francisco Giants	30	18	12	140	97	43	0.600	#2
#6	St. Louis Cardinals	32	20	12	141	101	40	0.625	#4
#7	Colorado Rockies	30	15	15	152	118	34	0.500	#7
#8	Toronto Blue Jays	32	18	14	152	136	16	0.563	#11
#9	Texas Rangers	31	17	14	142	131	11	0.548	#9
#10	Florida Marlins	31	14	17	144	142	2	0.452	#10
#11	Chicago Cubs	32	14	18	153	161	-8	0.438	#8
#12	Atlanta Braves	31	13	18	121	133	-12	0.419	#12
#13	Los Angeles Dodgers	30	13	17	153	171	-18	0.433	#13
#14	Boston Red Sox	31	15	16	156	174	-18	0.484	#14
#15	Los Angeles Angels	32	14	18	130	169	-39	0.438	#15

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (MLB)

POSITION	TEAM	GAMES PLAYED	WINS	LOSSES	RUNS SCORED	RUNS ALLOWED	RUN DIFF	Win PCG	Last Week
#1	San Diego Padres	31	19	12	137	97	40	0.613	#1
#2	New York Mets	31	17	14	137	120	17	0.548	#2
#3	Milwaukee Brewers	30	14	16	173	159	14	0.467	#6
#4	Detroit Tigers	31	17	14	149	146	3	0.548	#4
#5	Oakland Athletics	31	16	15	131	128	3	0.516	#3
#6	Arizona Diamondbacks	31	14	17	167	183	-16	0.452	#7
#7	Washington Nationals	31	17	14	129	146	-17	0.548	#8
#8	Cincinnati Reds	31	16	15	147	168	-21	0.516	#10
#9	Chicago White Sox	31	13	18	129	151	-22	0.419	#9
#10	Seattle Mariners	30	11	19	94	123	-29	0.367	#5
#11	Cleveland Indians	29	11	18	106	144	-38	0.379	#11
#12	Kansas City Royals	31	11	20	128	168	-40	0.355	#12
#13	Baltimore Orioles	32	9	23	107	159	-52	0.281	#14
#14	Houston Astros	31	10	21	85	146	-61	0.323	#13
#15	Pittsburgh Pirates	31	14	17	113	195	-82	0.452	#15

Next weekend: the moment you've been anticipating. Updated True standings next Saturday!

Updated Standings, Crushing Depression, and Pretending I Know about Statistics

Before we get to the updated standings, let's briefly consider the performance thus far of our leagues cellar dwellers, the Pittsburgh Pirates. As of this writing, they have amassed a total of 82 runs (28th in baseball) and allowed 161 (last in baseball), good enough for a run differential (RD) of -79. The Pirates have allowed nearly twice as many runs as they have scored through 23 games. It's a small sample size, but we're going to have fun with it anyway! Because America loves comparisons, that's why. How do this year's Bucs look next to the worst team in recent memory, the 2003 Detroit Tigers*, and the worst team in baseball history, the 1899 Cleveland Spiders?

	Runs thru 23 games	Runs allowed thru 23 games	RD thru 23 games	Record thru 23 games	Season Record	Season RD
1899 Cleveland Spiders	77	179	-102	3-20	20-134	-719
2003 Detroit Tigers	52	118	-66	3-20	43-119	-337
2010 Pittsburgh Pirates	82	161	-79	10-13	?	?

Clearly, the Pirates have fared much better than the other two teams in the wins column, and they're on top of this heap in runs scored as well. Things aren't even quite as bad as they seem in the RA column; remove their staff's three worst outings this year, and that number shrinks from 161 down to 109. Omitting these outliers would give 2010 Pittsburgh an RD of -27, moving them up from #15 to #12 in the Championship Standings. All this to say, the 2010 Pittsburgh Pirates are not a good baseball team, but they're not among the worst teams of all time.

In fact, they might not even be the worst team in baseball this season -- the hapless O's of Baltimore have an RD of -40, and they haven't allowed more than 9 runs in a game. Pirates pitching without the outliers has given up 5.45 runs per game; the Orioles have allowed 5.5 on average, and their offenses have also produced at an identical pace. Playing as the only Championship club in the AL East while Pittsburgh cavorts in the Championship-rich NL Central should permit Baltimore to surpass the Pirates in mediocrity as the season progresses. Be Brave, Bucs faithful -- it's only May 1st.

PREMIERSHIP STANDINGS:

POSITION	TEAM	GAMES PLAYED	WINS	LOSSES	RUNS SCORED	RUNS ALLOWED	RUN DIFF	Win PCG	Last Week
#1	Tampa Bay Rays	24	17	7	146	80	66	0.708	#1
#2	San Francisco Giants	23	14	9	107	66	41	0.609	#5
#3	New York Yankees	23	15	8	124	86	38	0.652	#2
#4	St. Louis Cardinals	24	16	8	111	76	35	0.667	#6
#5	Minnesota Twins	24	15	9	122	92	30	0.625	#4
#6	Philadelphia Phillies	23	13	10	125	99	26	0.565	#3
#7	Colorado Rockies	24	11	13	122	101	21	0.458	#7
#8	Chicago Cubs	25	12	13	119	112	7	0.480	#11
#9	Texas Rangers	24	12	12	108	102	6	0.500	#12
#10	Florida Marlins	24	12	12	114	111	3	0.500	#8
#11	Toronto Blue Jays	25	12	13	113	112	1	0.480	#9
#12	Atlanta Braves	24	10	14	95	104	-9	0.417	#13
#13	Los Angeles Dodgers	23	9	14	117	129	-12	0.391	#10
#14	Boston Red Sox	24	11	13	112	131	-19	0.458	#14
#15	Los Angeles Angels	25	12	13	101	125	-24	0.480	#15

CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS:

POSITION	TEAM	GAMES PLAYED	WINS	LOSSES	RUNS SCORED	RUNS ALLOWED	RUN DIFF	Win PCG	Last Week
#1	San Diego Padres	23	15	8	106	77	29	0.652	#1
#2	New York Mets	24	14	10	105	83	22	0.583	#3
#3	Oakland Athletics	25	13	12	110	102	8	0.520	#2
#4	Detroit Tigers	25	15	10	123	115	8	0.600	#7
#5	Seattle Mariners	24	11	13	85	87	-2	0.458	#5
#6	Milwaukee Brewers	23	9	14	126	129	-3	0.391	#4
#7	Arizona Diamondbacks	24	11	13	139	145	-6	0.458	#6
#8	Washington Nationals	24	13	11	101	115	-14	0.542	#10
#9	Chicago White Sox	24	10	14	99	117	-18	0.417	#9
#10	Cincinnati Reds	24	12	12	109	132	-23	0.500	#13
#11	Cleveland Indians	23	10	13	82	108	-26	0.435	#8
#12	Kansas City Royals	24	10	14	103	131	-28	0.417	#11
#13	Houston Astros	23	8	15	71	109	-38	0.348	#12
#14	Baltimore Orioles	24	6	18	87	127	-40	0.250	#14
#15	Pittsburgh Pirates	23	10	13	82	161	-79	0.435	#15

Remember, true standings (against teams within the Premiership and Championship) will be released on a less regular basis due to small sample sizes and (frankly) effort involved. Coming soon, opinion pieces on the game, Cubs fandom, and the nature of strategy in Premiership Baseball.


*I was surprised to learn in my research that this team had neither the worst offensive production nor the worst pitching/defense in the majors that season. Those ignoble honors go to the LA Dodgers (574 runs scored) and the Texas Rangers (969 RA). Of course, the Dodgers had the best staff in baseball that year with 556 RA, and the Rangers were 8th in baseball with 826 runs.