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Defending Champs from 2008 Hold Top Spot Heading into World Tournament<\/strong><\/p>\n Rank\tTeam Name (last month’s ranking show parenthetically if different)<\/p>\n 1\tKitchener Rivershark Twins 9\tSt. Thomas Centennials (10) Editor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Notes: <\/strong>The biggest story related to these rankings is the fact that the top 8 teams (shown above) get first round byes at the ISC World Tournament, no small matter. St. Thomas and Midland just missing that cut at 9 and 10, respectively.<\/p>\n The June rankings are set out after the jump, but in short, here is a summary of the changes:<\/p>\n * Top 10 remained the same, save re-arranging a few deck chairs in terms of order. June 2009 rankings after the jump <\/p>\n June 16, 2009 Rankings<\/strong><\/p>\n Rank\tTeam Name<\/strong> Defending Champs from 2008 Hold Top Spot Heading into World Tournament Rank Team Name (last month’s ranking show parenthetically if different) 1 Kitchener Rivershark Twins 2 Broken Bow Patsy’s 3 Aspen Interiors 4 Midwest Stampede (6) 5 The Farm (4) 6 Jarvis Gamblers (5) 7 Vancouver Grey Sox 8 Allbaugh, Inc 9 St. Thomas Centennials […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3444"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3444\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3444"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3444"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3444"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n2\tBroken Bow Patsy’s
\n3\tAspen Interiors
\n4\tMidwest Stampede (6)
\n5\tThe Farm (4)
\n6\tJarvis Gamblers (5)
\n7\tVancouver Grey Sox
\n8\tAllbaugh, Inc<\/p>\n
\n10\tMidland Explorers (9)
\n11\tDominican Republic
\n12\tPueblo Bandits
\n13\tNY Gremlins
\n14\tDolan & Murphy
\n15\tBar of Appleton (18)
\n16\tKegel Black Knights
\n17\tQuad City Sox
\n18\tOwen Sound (16)
\n19\tThomson Merchants (22)
\n20\tCalifornia A’s
\n21\tSaskatoon D’Backs (19)
\n22\tBar of Green Bay (21)
\n23\tAshland Mets
\n24\tWinterset A’s<\/p>\n
\n* Kitchener <\/strong>won convincingly at Monkton and has made its case for the top spot.
\n* Broken Bow Patsy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/strong> hasn’t played a game all year yet hold the #2 spot solely on the basis of their reputation.
\n* Aspen<\/strong> played well, and managed to hold their # 3 spot over new # 4 Midwest, even though Midwest beat them at Monkton.
\n* The biggest jump by a top 10 team was the Midwest Stampede<\/strong>, jumping two slots from # 6 to # 4, no doubt on the strength of their runner-up finish at Monkton two weeks ago, and their win at Boys of Summer last weekend. The Stampede played these tournament without their New Zealanders, who are busy with the ISF, so certainly a team that everyone will keep an eye on. As the So Cal Bombers did in their 2007 runner-up World Tournament finish, the Stampede has some momentum as they head to Quad Cities.
\n* The Farm <\/strong>slipped one slot from # 4 to # 5, a product of Midwest\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s strong performances of late, though pitching appears to be the big question mark heading into the World Tournament. Cox looked strong at Monkton against Kitchener in their opener when he was fresh, but carried the load, and the innings took their toll as the weekend wore on. Can Darryl Tilley get healthy for Quad Cities or will Korry Gorreau return?
\n* Jarvis <\/strong>dropped from # 5 to # 6, with Midwest moving past them. Jarvis played better than their Monkton record looked, losing close games to # 5 Farm and # 7 Vancouver. Paul Koert of course will be one of the keys, so Jarvis fans will pay close attention to his efforts for Team USA at the ISF\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in Saskatoon this week and next, but he will need support from Andrew Phibbs and the offence.
\n* Vancouver<\/strong> is perhaps the toughest top 10 team to figure out. They played well at Monkton, even without two front line pitchers, Nick Underhill and Travis Price, knocking off # 6 Jarvis. They did come on strong last Sunday to beat Team Japan convincingly, 10-3, to win their own Vancouver Challenge, but stumbled against a lower seeded local team on Saturday. Perhaps that will be the wake-up call that the Grey Sox need as they head to Iowa. It looked like it last Sunday.
\n* St. Thomas and Midland <\/strong>traded places, now at # 9 and # 10 respectively, but the change doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t mean too much, other than trading first round opponents, as both just missed the reward of the first round bye by finishing out of the top 8. St. Thomas<\/strong> may be missing Scott Wagar, who’s wife is due in mid-August, so a lot will be riding on the arm of Ward Gosse. The Midland Explorers<\/strong> haven’t played much during the year, and will probably only have their full squad together twice before the ISC (Boulevard Lounge Tournament and ASA). Three pitchers (Urquhart, Joseph, Kelly) give the staff depth, and their starters have tons of ISC experience and success.
\n* As for the remaining teams, The Bar of Appleton<\/strong> took the biggest jump, 3 slots from # 18 to #15, along with the Thomson Merchants fromi # 22 to # 19.
\n* At the risk of sounding like a homer for my home state California A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s<\/strong>, I think their # 20 ranking could be a good bit higher. The A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s are a merger team of last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ISC II defending champion California Lumberkings, along with a nucleus of last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s So Cal Bombers, a top 10 team in 2008. The New York Gremlins<\/strong> are, to some degree a similar team, combining some of last year\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ISC II third place team from the NY Knights and some of the best players from the 2007 ISC II champs, TNT. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not saying the Gremlins are ranked too high at 13, but rather that I think the two teams (Gremlins and A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s) are closer in talent than the disparity of # 13 and # 20 are concerned. There has been a good deal said about the lack of ISC II teams moving up to the world tournament level. These two teams, the Gremlins and the A\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s are largely former ISC II teams, who are not just moving up, but have the rosters to compete at the next level.<\/p>\n
\n
\n1\tKitchener Rivershark Twins<\/strong>
\n2\tBroken Bow Patsy’s
\n3\tAspen Interiors
\n4\tThe Farm
\n5\tJarvis Gamblers
\n6\tMidwest Stampede
\n7\tVancouver Grey Sox
\n8\tAllbaugh, Inc
\n9\tMidland Explorers
\n10\tSt. Thomas Centennials
\n11\tDominican Republic
\n12\tPueblo Bandits
\n13\tNY Gremlins
\n14\tDolan & Murphy
\n15\tKegel Black Knights
\n16\tOwen Sound
\n17\tQuad City Sox
\n18\tBar of Appleton
\n19\tSaskatoon D’Backs
\n20\tCalifornia A’s
\n21\tBar of Green Bay
\n22\tThomson Merchants
\n23\tAshland Mets
\n24\tWinterset A’s<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"