The 13: Happy Birthday, America.

Here's Week 2 of the 13. Happy Fourth.

13. New Bedford Bay Sox (7-13, minus-31 run differential)

Minus-31 run differential. Yikes. Getting blown out 15-1 on the road by Vermont doesn't help the cause, but the Bay Sox are looking like the worst team in the league for a variety of reasons. They're last in runs scored (65) and ERA (4.37) and are 12th in batting average (.221). New Bedford, simply put, gives up a lot of runs and doesn't score many.

12. Newport Gulls (9-12, minus-2)

The Gulls have lost eight of their last 10 and look lost. Since starting the year 7-4, they've fallen off quite a bit. Newport ranks 11th in both ERA and batting average, and they've struggled to get anything going. It's weird to see a perennial contender three games under .500 entering July, and to make things worse they're not showing signs of heating up.

Mikael Mogues has been one of the best
hitters in the league for Vermont.

11. Vermont Mountaineers (6-13, minus-6)

After a franchise-worst start to the summer, the Mountaineers have shown signs of life. They beat then-Northern Division leading Keene twice, and have won four straight at home. They rolled over the Bay Sox, 15-1, scoring the most runs by any NECBL team in a game this season. With reliable pitching and an offense that is heating up, Vermont is in position to turn around their season. Sitting seven games under .500, the Mountaineers have a ways to go -- but they're only 4 1/2 out of the fourth playoff spot.

10. Sanford Mainers (9-11, minus-21)

Over the last five games, the Mainers are hitting .241 and have averaged four runs a game. To put into perspective their offensive woes this summer, that's a hot stretch. Sanford enters July hitting a league-worst .217 and they've averaged just 3 1/2 runs per game. Even with strong pitching, it'd be hard to overcome that.

9. Upper Valley Nighthawks (9-11, minus-3)

The league's newest franchise has lost three straight for the second time this season, and it's dropped them two games below .500. The Nighthawks lead the league in average (.275), but they've been blown out during this three-game slide. Losing games to Valley, Winnipesaukee, and Mystic, the Nighthawks have been outscored 27-8. Opponents are hitting .254 against Upper Valley pitching, a mark that ranks 10th in the league.

8. Danbury Westerners (12-12, minus-18)
7. Plymouth Pilgrims (10-10, plus-17)

Danbury and Plymouth are a pair of .500 teams I'm not sure what to say about them. The Westerners have a minus-18 run differential, and the Pilgrims are plus-17. It's interesting how much of a swing that is. The Westerners have given up a league-high 123 runs, while Plymouth's played four less games and given up 53 less runs. Random.

6. Mystic Schooners (11-10, plus-3)

The defending Southern Division champions sit three games back of Ocean State, and have alternated wins and losses for much of the season. The Schooners lead the league in runs scored and on base percentage, but they've coughed up quite a few runs with one of the league's worst pitching staffs. Mystic ranks second to last in ERA (4.36), a far cry from the template that allowed them to advance to the finals last season. With a league average pitching staff, Bill James pythagorean expectation would put them with a record of 14-7, one of the best in the leagues. 

5. Winnipesaukee Muskrats (11-9, plus-5)

The new-look Muskrats have come on as of late, entering this week with a two-game winning streak having won seven of their past 10. A crowded top of the North Division doesn't have room for four top teams, but expect the Muskrats to be one of the last teams standing. They're gaining on the Swamp Bats and have split the season series so far with them at one game apiece. Winnipesaukee's paced by Anthony Godino, one of the best players in the league, who's hitting .357/.471/.586 with four doubles, four home runs, 20 runs, and 12 walks.

Vermonter Mike LaBeau has been excellent.

4. Keene Swamp Bats (12-8, minus-15)

How does a top four team have a minus-15 run differential? By winning a lot of close games and getting blown out in others. The Swamp Bats, losers of two straight, are a team that could very easily be 8-12 instead of 12-8. They've lost back-to-back games to last place Vermont, and are a mediocre 5-5 over their last 10 games. Since starting the year 7-1, they've gone just 4-7. It's easy to see that Keene could continue to fall, but they do have bright spots. Michael LaBeau has been one of the league's best relievers, piling up six saves, while fellow reliever Carmen Giampetruzzi has been equally dominant.

3. North Adams SteepleCats (11-9, plus-19)

The SteepleCats have gone 1-3 since my last edition of these rankings, losing three straight after winning three in a row. That back-and-forth play has been maddening for North Adams fans, but they have potential. They're second in the league in runs scored and are lurking just outside of first in the North. 

2. Valley Blue Sox (12-8, plus-34)

You can easily make an argument for the Blue Sox at the top, notably with both run differential (the best in a landslide) and how well-rounded they are. Winners of three straight, Valley is heating up once again and have a dangerous roster. They're second in team average (third in runs scored) and third in ERA, and they've also swiped a league-best 47 bases. The Blue Sox have pop and get on base -- their .262/.358/.387 slash line is second in the league. 

1. Ocean State Waves (13-6, plus-18)

The Waves are 3-4 (still on pace for 30 wins) since their 10-2 start, and that includes a pair of losses to Danbury and another to New Bedford. They've slowed down, and a huge part of that has been a lack of production of the offensive side of things. Ocean State has the league's best pitching, easily -- they rank first in both ERA (2.42) and opponent average (.210). However, the offense has cooled off, hitting just .184 over the last five games. Ocean State beat Mystic and Newport back-to-back to keep their top spot, but they've averaged just over two runs a game during this recent 2-3 stretch, and will have to heat up to stay atop the league.

The 13: Waves come rolling in

Welcome to the 2016 season-premiere of The 13, a weekly ranking of the NECBL teams. I'm planning on releasing it every Monday for the rest of the season, and now that we have three weeks under our belt, I can use a broad range of criteria to look at how the standings have shaken out so far. Here's Week 1 of The 13, enjoy.

13. Vermont Mountaineers (3-12, minus-26 run differential)

Coming off of their third championship in franchise history and back-to-back divisional titles, Vermont's limped to a 3-12 record out of the gate. They celebrated Opening Day with a eighth-inning rally to beat newcomer Upper Valley, 2-0, but the postgame fireworks were one of a few things Mountaineers fans have had to cheer about lately. Losing streaks of seven and four games have seen them drop 12 of their first 15 games, positioning them four games out of a playoff spot already.

Signs of life from the offense are there, but they're still struggling to score runs. Averaging just 3.5 a game, Vermont's shaky defense has let teams back into games when they don't have the run support to overcome. Defensively, the Mountaineers lead the league with 33 errors and rank last in fielding percentage (.941). How bad is that? The per-game average of 2.2 errors would be the highest in the Pointstreak Era (2010-present), while the fielding percentage would be the lowest. That's a historically bad defense that the Mountaineers are putting out there every night, and it's costing them. They've allowed 25 unearned runs through 15 games, a hopefully unsustainable trend.

We're at the quarter pole in the NECBL season, and Vermont needs to find their sea legs. Over the past three years, 15 teams across both divisions have wrapped up the first month under .500. They have four games left in June, and at this pace, they'll end the first month at 4-15. Out of those 15 teams mentioned above, seven finished the first month with five or fewer wins -- and just one qualified for the playoffs.

That team was the 2013 Keene Swamp Bats, who went a shaky 3-11 the first month, then rattled off a 23-5 month of July to win the Northern Division. The Swamp Bats would go on to win the NECBL title, dispatching the Mountaineers in the divisional finals along the way. The results from the other six teams are much ugly. Just one of the remaining six finished remotely close to .500, with the 2013 New Bedford Bay Sox finishing at 20-24.

Excuse the pessimistic outlook, but it’s easy to say -- history is against the Mountaineers. An improved defense and better hitting with runners in scoring position is all the team needs to figure out.

12. New Bedford Bay Sox (4-9, minus-16)
11. Sanford Mainers (7-8, minus-16)
A pair of teams with woeful offenses come in the next two slots. New Bedford has only played 13 games to Sanford's 15, so I'll single out the Mainers. Sanford's dropped a pair of games and sits just below .500, but unless they find a spark in their offense, it will be a quiet season for a team just removed from a divisional finals appearance.

Sanford has the fifth-best pitching staff in the league, but have a team batting average just eight points from the Mendoza line. They don't have a batter hitting over .300 in their lineup, and are just .173 (26-for-150) with runners in scoring position, a mark over 30 points lower then the next team. They've been held to one run in three of their past four games, and they're hitting just .191 over the past five games. I could list off plenty of stats that show the slump they're in, but I'll spare you. After starting the year 3-1, Sanford's had trouble stringing together wins. With a strong group of arms, the Mainers are in a similar place as the last-place Mountaineers. If they can piece together a strong lineup, they'll be back in contention. The advantage they have on Vermont? They've managed to stay around .500, and sit in a three-way tie for the fourth playoff spot in the North.

10. Plymouth Pilgrims (6-9, minus-2)
9. Newport Gulls (7-8, minus-1)
The Gulls, surprisingly, are in the middle of the Southern Division pack. The main reason for this? A shaky pitching staff. Newport ranks last in the NECBL in ERA (4.50), a stunning statistic when you consider the past few years. Here's where the Gulls pitching has ranked in various measures over the last six years.

ERA: 4th, 9th, 1st, 1st, 1st, 1st,
WHIP: 4th, 8th, 2nd, 7th, 2nd, 1st
Strikeouts: 4th, 1st, 2nd, 2nd, 7th, 3rd

The staple of the Gulls has been overpowering pitching, and there's signs of that this year -- they lead the league in strikeouts by a wide margin -- but they're below .500 because the pitching hasn't clicked yet. Newport's 1-4 over their last five games for two reasons. First, the pitching has allowed 38 earned runs for a 5.82 ERA, causing them to drop to the bottom of the rankings. Secondly, the offense is hitting just .170, and a barely more impressive .211 over the past 10 games. It's a strange sight to see the perennial contenders a middle-of-the-pack team, but that's where they are through a quarter of the season.

8. Winnipesaukee Muskrats (7-8, minus-4)
7. Danbury Westerners (8-9, minus-6)
6. Upper Valley Nighthawks (7-8, plus-8)

The league's newest franchise sits a game below .500, despite looking like a strong contender in the North. The Nighthawks lead the league in average (.279) and slugging (.413) by healthy margins, rank second in fielding percentage (.976) and have a strong pitching staff that sits sixth in ERA (3.74). So why are they a sub-.500 team?

It's a difficult question to answer.  “I expect us to play better, be more consistent,” Upper Valley manager Nick Cenatiempo told the Valley News' Josh Weinreb. “Defensively we’ve been great. … I think, offensively, we’re going to get better. We need to keep playing, it’s coming along. I’ve told you before, I’m still waiting for someone in this bullpen to take ownership of that back-end role.”

The on-and-off play from the Nighthawks was summed up by assistant coach Matt Lynch, “I think they’re pressing a little bit. For the most part, we have a lot of kids that want to be good players. We have a lot of good players, and they just want to get the job done.Most games we play, we’re the team that’s crushing the ball more than the other,” he added. “They want to be that guy. I tell them sometimes a walk or a hit-by-pitch or a bloop single, you don’t have to be this Superman, home-run hitting machine. Just do the job.”

With plenty of potential, it'll be interesting to see if the Nighthawks can shake out of the back-and-forth start to the season they've had.

5. Mystic Schooners (8-7, plus-3)
4. Keene Swamp Bats (10-5, minus-4)
What a season it's been for the Swamp Bats. They sit atop the Northern Division, but all signs indicate it's an inflated record. Bill James' Pythagorean Expectation, which adjusts winning percentage based on runs scored and allowed, pegs them as a 7-8 team. They're 3-0 in one-run games and 6-1 in two-run games, so nine of their 10 wins have been narrow victories. Keene is 10th in ERA (4.07) and ninth in average (.235), and somehow sit five games above .500 with a minus-four run differential.

What does this mean for the rest of the season? Keene's won two in a row, but there's a pair of teams in the Northern Division on three-game winning streaks that are sure to pass them eventually. North Adams and Valley are both more well-rounded teams, so it won't be a surprise if the Swamp Bats end up mired in the fight for the final two playoff spots in the division.

3. North Adams SteepleCats (10-6, plus-21)
2. Valley Blue Sox (9-5, plus-22)
1. Ocean State Waves (11-3, plus-21)

Ocean State is showing no signs of slowing down, and they're very deserving of the top spot in these rankings. The Waves, owners of a dominant pitching staff and capable offense, are easily the most well-rounded team in the NECBL. They lead the league with a 2.34 ERA, 82 points lower than the second-place mark. They have a team average of .265, good for second, and also rank third in fielding percentage.

The bullpen has been incredible -- the Waves are 10-1 when leading after five, and a perfect 11-0 after seven innings with the lead. They've been getting it done with ease through the first three weeks, and are 8-2 over their last 10 games as well. They've beat up on nearby divisional foes Newport and Plymouth, beating them three and four times, respectively. With incredible pitching, the Waves are a formidable matchup and easily claim the No. 1 ranking.