FanGraphs Power Rankings – 10/3/11

Welcome to the 23rd and final edition of the 2011 FanGraphs Power Rankings! As Dean Pritchard would say, it’s been quite a journey. We’re going to close out the season in three parts — one today, two after the postseason. First, your final end of the regular season Power Rankings, with some end of season awards sprinkled in (note — awards are totally made up by me and may or may not be prestigious (read — are not at all prestigious)). One quick note on the Rankings this week — in the final three games of the season, 20 teams moved up or down, including the Rangers, who vaulted over the Yankees and Red Sox with an incredible finishing kick.

After the postseason, I will delve into some graphical views of the 2011 Rankings, and last, but not least, I’ll crowdsource for ways the Rankings can improve moving forward, as I know many of you have opinions on the matter, and I want to make sure everyone gets a chance to be heard. But for now, let’s put a capper on the season. Since FAN% is now weighted at zero, WAR% and TOTAL% have become one in the same, so in place of the usual broken out WAR% and FAN%, I’ve included ranks for position player (POS) and pitcher (PIT) WAR. Also, just so I don’t have to type it 30 times, know that each of the team blurb sentences start with the words “Congratulations to.”

(As always click here to check out the methodology behind the Power Rankings.)

1. Texas: Last week – 3, POS – 2, PIT -5, TOTAL% – .658
Ian Kinsler, who led the Majors in BB/K this year at 1.25, easily the best showing of his career. Of course, did this stop TBS broadcaster Buck Martinez from calling him a “very aggressive hitter” this weekend? No, no it didn’t.

2. New York Yankees: Last week – 1, POS – 3, PIT – 3, TOTAL% – .654
Brett Gardner, for not only leading the Majors in UZR for the second-straight season, but for becoming the first player in the UZR-era to tally consecutive seasons with 25+ UZR.

3. Boston: Last week – 2, POS – 1, PIT – 7, TOTAL% – .651
Adrian Gonzalez, who tallied a .380 BABIP this season to become the co-BABIP’er of the Year along with Matt Kemp.

4. Philadelphia: Last week – 4, POS – 12, PIT – 1, TOTAL% – .602
Ryan Howard, who led the league in Chris Cwik’s, which is swinging on 3-0 counts — he did so 16 times. Look for some research from Chris on this topic in the near future. See how I just committed you to finishing that article, Chris? Ain’t I a stinker?

5. Milwaukee: Last week – 5, POS – 6, PIT – 11, TOTAL% – .599
Ryan Braun, whose .433 wOBA was a career high and led the National League.

6. St. Louis: Last week – 7, POS – 4, PIT – 19, TOTAL% – .584
Kyle Lohse, who led the league in first-strike percentage this year, at 67.7%. That mark tied Carl Pavano in 2009 for the 17th-best F-Strike% of the past decade.

7. Detroit: Last week – 8, POS – 9, PIT – 8, TOTAL% – .583
Brad Penny, who tallied the lowest SwStr% of the season among qualified pitchers at 4.6%. It also tied for the seventh-lowest total of the past decade.

8. Arizona: Last week – 6, POS – 8, PIT – 14, TOTAL% – .577
Diamondbacks fielders, who led the Majors in UZR, and are the only team to tally 50+ UZR in each of the past two seasons.

9. Tampa Bay: Last week – 9, POS – 7, PIT – 18, TOTAL% – .569
David Price, whose average slider was almost a mile and half per hour faster than the second-fastest (Chris Carpenter).

10. Los Angeles of Anaheim: Last week – 10, POS – 11, PIT – 9, TOTAL% – .554
Jered Weaver, who led the Majors’ in QS% at 85%.

11. San Francisco: Last week – 14, POS – 22, PIT – 4, TOTAL% – .537
Matt Cain, who took his xFIP confounding ways by leading the Majors in HR/FB with a lowly 3.7%.

12. Los Angeles Dodgers: Last week – 12, POS – 13, PIT – 13, TOTAL% – .535
Kenley Jansen, whose 16.1 K/9 is now the highest K/9 for a qualified reliever in Major League history, beating the 15.99 high that Carlos Marmol established last year.

13. Chicago White Sox: Last week – 11, POS – 27, PIT – 2, TOTAL% – .533
Carlos Quentin, who really earned his HBP title by ranking first in what I like to call the Pain By Square Inch metric, which is really just HBP divided by PA. Quentin got hit in 4.76% of his plate appearances this year.

14. Cincinnati: Last week – 13, POS – 5, PIT – 7, TOTAL% – .531
Drew Stubbs, for wresting the strikeout title away from Mark Reynolds this year, making 2011 the first time in four years that Reynolds has not led the Majors in strikeouts.

15. Kansas City: Last week – 16, POS – 10, PIT – 21, TOTAL% – .525
Royals hitters, who with a 7.1 BB% were the least patient team in the American League.

16. Atlanta: Last week – 15, POS – 21, PIT – 6, TOTAL% – .523
Brian McCann, who by posting 3.7 WAR this season became the only full-time catcher to post better than 3.0 WAR in each of the past three seasons.

17. Florida: Last week – 18, POS – 18, PIT – 15, TOTAL% – .510
Randy Choate, who tied Trever Miller for the least pitches thrown per relief game, with just eight.

18. Colorado: Last week – 17, POS – 17, PIT – 17, TOTAL% – .507
Dexter Fowler, who narrowly edged out Corey Patterson to be the least effective base stealer of the season (min. 20 SB attempts), as Fowler was only successful on 57.14% of his stolen base attempts.

19. Toronto: Last week – 19, POS – 16, PIT – 23, TOTAL% – .493
Rajai Davis, for winning the Most Opportunistic Base Stealer Award. Davis successfully stole a base in 41.46% of his 82 stolen base opportunities this season. If only he could steal first base…

20. Washington: Last week – 21, POS – 19, PIT – 20, TOTAL% – .491
Jordan Zimmermann, who had the least effective pitch in the Majors this year (per 100 pitches) among qualified pitchers — his wCH/c was -9.05, which edged out Ricky Romero’s wSL/C of -8.71.

21. New York Mets: Last week – 20, POS – 14, PIT – 26, TOTAL% – .486
Jose Reyes, not for winning the NL batting title, but for topping the Majors in Speed Score at 8.4. Interestingly enough, the total is actually only the fifth-highest of Reyes’ career, and was a below-average year for him.

22. San Diego: Last week – 24, POS – 15, PIT – 25, TOTAL% – .483
Cory Luebke, who led all starters with less than 110 innings pitched as a starter in K/9, with 9.92 K’s per nine innings.

23. Chicago Cubs: Last week – 23, POS – 20, PIT – 22, TOTAL% – .481
Alfonso Soriano, who really is the 21st century Pedro Cerrano. Soriano not only saw the highest percentage of curveballs among qualified hitters, but also the highest percentage of sliders as well.

24. Oakland: Last week – 25, POS – 28, PIT – 10, TOTAL% – .471
Gio Gonzalez, whose 4.13 BB/9 was the highest in the AL among qualified pitchers.

25. Cleveland: Last week – 22, POS – 25, PIT – 16, TOTAL% – .470
Carlos Santana, whose 27 homers were the most for any catcher who started at least 60 games this season.

26. Baltimore: Last week – 27, POS – 24, PIT – 27, TOTAL% – .425
Orioles pitchers, who take home the Suckiest Bunch of Sucks That Ever Sucked Award for allowing 10 runs or more in a game a Major-League leading 16 times this season (they were also the only team to allow 10 or more runs in three straight games, as they did so July 6-8). You won’t believe this, but Baltimore was 0-16 in those contests.

27. Seattle: Last week – 26, POS – 30, PIT – 12, TOTAL% – .423
Mariners relievers, who tallied the least amount of meltdowns on the season, with 50.

28. Pittsburgh: Last week – 28, POS – 26, PIT – 29, TOTAL% – .417
Jeff Karstens, who led the Majors in games started in which the pitcher threw less than 80 pitches, with nine. Interestingly enough, Karstens worked six or more innings in three of those starts, and allowed three runs or less in five of them, but his outing on Aug. 15, in which he allowed nine runs in 3 1/3 innings, kicked his ERA for those nine starts up to 5.71.

29. Houston: Last week – 29, POS – 23, PIT – 30, TOTAL% – .415
Jason Bourgeois, who in just 388 plate appearances is already tied for 35th on the Astros’ all-time stolen base leaderboard. Next stop, Richard Hidalgo!

30. Minnesota: Last week – 30, POS – 29, PIT – 24, TOTAL% – .412
Nick Blackburn, who tied Matt Harrison for the AL lead in batters who reached on an error with 15.