Yesterday, a few people came to the blog looking for a rugby related article. Sorry, fellas…I can’t even pretend to know anything about that sport, yet.
Hopefully the new MLB Power Rankings will cheer some of you up. For those of you that do not remember, the number in parenthesis is where the team was ranked in the last edition of the Power Rankings.
1. Los Angeles Dodgers (4)- Matt Kemp and Magic Johnson share the love on the cover of this week’s Sports Illustrated and at the top of Around The Corn’s Power Rankings list.
2. Baltimore Orioles (3)
3. Cleveland Indians (6)- One of, if not the, hottest teams in baseball just finished up a three-game sweep of rival Detroit at home…not bad for a ballclub whose fans are apparently too apathetic to care.
4. Tampa Bay Rays (1)
5. Texas Rangers (5)
6. Washington Nationals (9)- Still hanging onto a small lead in the competitive NL East, the Nationals enter a crucial three game series with Atlanta starting Friday. Like Tampa Bay a few years ago, the Nationals seem to be for real thanks to young talent that is finally ready to produce on the big stage.
7. Cincinnati Reds (8)- Baseball fans in Ohio should be happy; not to be outdone by the team up North, Cincinnati completed a four-game sweep of Atlanta to extend its winning streak to six games. That alone is good enough to propel the Reds ahead of St. Louis, who until today sat alone atop the NL Central.
8. St. Louis Cardinals (2)
9. Atlanta Braves (12)
10. San Francisco Giants (17)- The Giants have a ways to go before they can feel comfortable about hanging with Los Angeles, but can take solace in the fact that they are at least above .500 with a pretty significantly banged up squad this early in the season.
11. Miami Marlins (11)
12. Toronto Blue Jays (10)
13. New York Mets (7)
14. New York Yankees (13)
15. Chicago White Sox (19)
16. Boston Red Sox (27)- As bad as the Red Sox have looked at times, they are only 5 1/2 games out of first in the most competitive division in baseball thus far. Last place is never fun, but it could be much worse for Boston.
17. Houston Astros (20)
18. Oakland Athletics (14)- Manny Ramirez may be called up to help Oakland as early as May 30th. The question is, “how much help can Manny Ramirez really provide these days?”
19. Philadelphia Phillies (21)
20. Pittsburgh Pirates (18)
21. Seattle Mariners (24)
22. Arizona Diamondbacks (23)- Inconsistent pitching has Arizona in a deep hole that might be too difficult to climb out of if Los Angeles continues to play well.
23. Los Angeles Angels (16)
24. Detroit Tigers (15)
25. Milwaukee Brewers (26)
26. Kansas City Royals (25)- The Royals do have 10 players on the disabled list, but poor production from their budding stars who aren’t injured is even more of a problem. Is it too early to say “I told you so”?
27. Colorado Rockies (28)
28. Minnesota Twins (30)
29. San Diego Padres (29)
30. Chicago Cubs (22)- Losing nine straight games will drop you to the bottom of the list. Having the worst record in baseball doesn’t help, either…
– K. Becks
