With less than a month in the season, teams are really getting down to business. Some teams are closer to clinching a playoff spot than others, but the final push has begun. It will be an exciting last month of the regular season.
Here is this week’s Power Rankings. The number in parenthesis after the team name is where that team was ranked in the previous Power Rankings.
1. Philadelphia Phillies (1)- They have been the best team in baseball all season long, and will be the first team to clinch a playoff spot. The Phillies should be well rested come October.
2. Boston Red Sox (5)
3. Atlanta Braves (7)
4. Arizona Diamondbacks (6)- The Diamondbacks have been the hottest team in baseball the past two weeks. What a great time to go 9-1 in your last ten games…
5. New York Yankees (3)
6. Detroit Tigers (9)- The Tigers are probably scoreboard watching during every game. The Cleveland Indians are not giving up and a crucial three game series in Cleveland starts at the beginning of next week.
7. Texas Rangers (4)
8. Milwaukee Brewers (2)- The Brewers have cooled off, but built a solid lead over St. Louis over the past month. Their pitching should give them the edge if the Cardinals were to surge late.
9. Los Angeles Angels (13)
10. St. Louis Cardinals (11)
11. San Francisco Giants (8)- With Arizona playing as well as they are, the defending World Series champions may not get a chance to make it two in a row. Injuries have killed the Giants this year…
12. Cleveland Indians (12)
13. Los Angeles Dodgers (24)- The huge jump in this week’s Power Rankings is due to a 9-1 record over their last ten games. The Dodgers are out of the playoff race, but have an MVP candidate in Matt Kemp that nobody is paying attention to.
14. Chicago White Sox (14)- The Sox may be the most dangerous team in the AL Central, but needs to do better against divisional opponents if they want to stay in the race for the pennant.
15. Tampa Bay Rays (10)
16. New York Mets (17)
17. Cincinnati Reds (16)
18. Toronto Blue Jays (15)
19. Colorado Rockies (18)
20. Oakland Athletics (20)- Twenty-one days until Moneyball comes out and Oakland fans can relive the good years of the new millennium…
21. Pittsburgh Pirates (19)
22. Baltimore Orioles (29)- Buck Showalter couldn’t stop the losing streak; it now sits at 14 straight losing seasons for Baltimore.
23. Seattle Mariners (27)
24. Chicago Cubs (22)
25. Kansas City Royals (28)
26. Florida Marlins (25)
27. Minnesota Twins (21)
28. San Diego Padres (26)
29. Washington Nationals (23)- No one will fall below Houston in the Power Rankings this season, but the Nationals have really had an awful second half of the season…
30. Houston Astros (30)
– K. Becks
