I know what any of you that are reading this post are thinking. And yes, I am acutely aware that this is my first article of any kind on this blog in over a month. I’m not going to try to make any excuses, but only leave you with this: try and fit writing for a blog (and another sports media site) frequently into your summer schedule.
If that sounds easy, either you have a freakish ability to churn out articles in about 15 minutes, or you don’t have enough on your plate (to which I would ask, how are you making any money?).
At any rate, it’s been a month since I’ve done my “bi-weekly” MLB Power Rankings, so I’ll kick off my attempt to write more often this summer with a new edition. As always, the number in parenthesis next to the team name is the position that team was in for the last Power Rankings.
1. St. Louis Cardinals (3)
2. Boston Red Sox (2)
3. Oakland Athletics (17)- Oakland made one of the biggest jumps of any team in this week’s Power Rankings (which is somewhat less impressive than usual considering how long it has been since the last rankings), but their rise hasn’t been sudden. The Athletics have been getting surprisingly good outings from guys like Bartolo Colon all year long, and just got done sweeping the Yankees. Life is good for the Green and Yellow.
4. Pittsburgh Pirates (15)- The Pirates are dead set on making the NL Central pennant race one of the more memorable ones in many years. With three teams hovering around .600 less than a month from the All-Star break, it isn’t crazy to think that half the division could end up in the playoffs.
5. Cincinnati Reds (13)
6. Texas Rangers (7)- Texas has been hanging around the top of the AL West standings for the past few weeks without Ian Kinsler at second base. This is going to be a dangerous team when he comes back, which could be as soon as this Sunday.
7. Atlanta Braves (4)
8. Detroit Tigers (6)- With the teams in the AL Central behind them on some sort of season long rollercoaster with regards to consistency, it appears that all Detroit needs to do is continue to play solid baseball and their lead will continue to grow.
9. Arizona Diamondbacks (12)
10. New York Yankees (9)
11. Baltimore Orioles (5)- A huge series with Boston this weekend could potentially bring the Orioles to within half a game of the AL East lead.
12. Colorado Rockies (14)- Eventually, I’ll get around to writing a more in-depth article as to why I think the Rockies are poised to make a late summer run a la 2007. Hopefully they don’t tank before that…
13. Tampa Bay Rays (20)
14. Washington Nationals (10)- With so many injuries, it’s difficult to accurately evaluate the Nationals at this point. All the team can hope for is that it can stop the bleeding and not lose sight of the Braves before guys are ready to come back.
15. San Francisco Giants (1)
16. Kansas City Royals (11)- One of the hotter teams in baseball has a great opportunity to slide up in the standings and put the heat on Detroit next week when they begin a three game series with division rivals Cleveland and Chicago.
17. San Diego Padres (16)
18. Cleveland Indians (8)- The most inconsistent team in baseball just broke out of an eight game losing streak a couple of nights ago with back-to-back wins over Texas. Prepare for another extended winning streak and a jump in the next Power Rankings…
19. Philadelphia Phillies (21)
20. Minnesota Twins (18)
21. Toronto Blue Jays (26)
22. Seattle Mariners (19)
23. Chicago White Sox (23)
24. Milwaukee Brewers (22)
25. Los Angeles Dodgers (28)
26. Los Angeles Angels (27)
27. Chicago Cubs (25)
28. New York Mets (24)- It’s a good thing that the All-Star game is coming to Citi Field to provide some much needed entertainment, because there isn’t much to cheer about in Corona, New York right now.
29. Houston Astros (29)
30. Miami Marlins (30)
– K. Becks
