We’re just past the halfway point in the season, which makes these Power Rankings somewhat worth reading now. Everything else before this point has been teams jockeying for position, determining if they have the necessary parts to go the distance and compete with the other elite teams in the league. Now, being in the top ten in the Power Rankings actually means that you are a pretty good team, not just that you played well during the past two weeks.
Here is this week’s Power Rankings. The number in parenthesis after the team name is where the team was ranked in the previous Power Rankings.
1. Philadelphia Phillies (1)
2. Atlanta Braves (4)- If one could ever feel sorry for a team playing almost .600 baseball, it would be the Atlanta Braves, who have to compete against a team playing .625 baseball.
3. New York Yankees (3)- When we all wake up from our “Derek Jeter 3000 Hit Watch” trance, we will realize that the Yankees are quietly playing some of the best baseball in the majors.
4. Boston Red Sox (2)
5. San Francisco Giants (6)- The Rockies are slowly fading, and even their trademark late summer hot streaks may not save them this time. If the Giants could just shake off those pesky D-Backs…
6. Tampa Bay Rays (5)
7. St. Louis Cardinals (15)-See? I was wrong.
8. Cleveland Indians (7)
9. Texas Rangers (12)
10. Los Angeles Angels (19)
11. New York Mets (20)- Rumors are circulating that the team is thinking about putting “Reyes” on the front of their jerseys…
12. Detroit Tigers (10)
13. Pittsburgh Pirates (16)- The NL Central is the most exciting division in baseball right now, and the Pittsburgh Pirates are contributing to that excitement. That sentence is as 90s as the term “Bucs Fever“.
14. Arizona Diamondbacks (8)
15. Washington Nationals (9)
16. Milwaukee Brewers (14)
17. Minnesota Twins (13)
18. Cincinnati Reds (11)- The first half of the 2011 season has been a disappointing one for Cincinnati. Fortunately for Reds fans, they are still in the hunt for the division lead, and they have as much talent as anyone in the NL Central on the mound.
19. Chicago White Sox (18)
20. Seattle Mariners (21)
21. Toronto Blue Jays (22)
22. San Diego Padres (28)
23. Colorado Rockies (17)- A late season run won’t help them if they can’t at least hover around .500 right now…
24. Florida Marlins (29)
25. Oakland Athletics (25)
26. Kansas City Royals (27)
27. Baltimore Orioles (26)
28. Chicago Cubs (24)
29. Los Angeles Dodgers (23)- No, this is not because of the Frank McCourt situation. That doesn’t help, but the Dodgers are just playing bad baseball.
30. Houston Astros (30)- The NL Central always needs a team to play like the Pirates normally do. Houston has happily filled the vacant cellar spot, and Chicago is waiting in the wings in case Houston decides they want to start playing hard.
– K. Becks
