Today’s a day off for the KBO so with all the teams having played seven or eight games let’s take advantage of the break and run down the rankings as they stand today. In my head. Last week’s rankings are in parenthesis the team records can be found on the KBO page in the bottom left-hand corner.

1. SK Wyverns (1) — Technically the Wyvrens have the fourth best record in the KBO, but it’ll take a prolonged slump for me to knock them from the top of this list. A little sluggish out of the gate the team has won four in a row, outscoring Doosan 15-4 over the weekend in a three-game sweep. Darwin Cubillan started yesterday’s game and threw six shutout innings yeilding just two hits. Park Jae-hong leads the league in hitting with a .455 ave.

2. Samsung Lions (3) — While the Lions will be a top hitting team when things are said and done the Lions are doing it with pitching and fielding thus far, leading the league in ERA (2.59) and defense (1 error through eight games). Play an interesting three game series against Lotte this week.

3. Lotte Giants (5) — Bringing in Jerry Royster as manager looks like a great move thus far. This team is playing with a ton of energy, scoring runs in the first inning and letting its solid starting pitching cruise through games. The Giants lead the league in HRs and seem to have found something in Karim Garcia, who has  hit three. Lee Dae-ho’s already got 14 RBIs.

4. Kia Tigers (4) — Not a terrible week, but the bats are a tad cold. Choi Hee-seop is hitting .226/.250/.387. He’ll come around and the team will score more runs. Wilson Valdez is 2 for his first 27 and threw his batting helmet in disgust after weakly grounding out to second during Sunday’s game vs. Hanwha. He’d better watch out, he could be the first foreign casualty if he’s not careful.

5. Doosan Bears (4) — Shaping up to be similar to last year…weak hitting, solid pitching. But take away a magical season by the league’s MVP and there could be trouble. Hitting a minuscule .212 thus far and is second in the league in errors committed with five in seven games. This team really needs Kim Sun-woo to lead the pitching staff. I’m not sure it’ll happen.

6. LG Twins (6) — To be fair the Twins have played the league’s top three teams to start the year, but from what I’ve seen this team looks awful.  Hitting is going to be a problem (currently .206) and it’s going to put a tremendous burden on the SPs to come through big. I look for them to bounce back a little with sets vs. Woori and Doosan this week.

7. Woori Heroes (8) — Well, well, well. Look who’s out to a 5-2 start. Maybe the unstable situation during 2007 was the problem last year. Possible, but I doubt it. I also doubt Cliff Braumbaugh will maintain his 1.308 OPS all year, though it sure looks impressive now. I need to see this for another week or two to seriously consider moving them higher.

8. Hanwha Eagles (7) — A 41/37 K/BB ratio won’t help you much and neither will a 5.68 team ERA. This despite having one of the league’s top arms in Ryu Hyun-jin? Could be a long year in Deajeon.