The bi-monthly installment of my MLB Power Rankings is back!
I had hoped to do this starting a couple of weeks ago, but I think it was better to wait until the season had been in progress for over a month anyway. For those of you who kept up with this ongoing segment last season, not much has changed. I’ll list the teams from 1 to 30 based on a number of factors, most importantly which teams are hot and which teams are slipping.
Here they are, the first rankings of the season.
1. Tampa Bay Rays
2. St. Louis Cardinals
3. Baltimore Orioles- The Buck Stops Here! It’s still early, but who would’ve thought that Baltimore would be on top of the AL East at any point this season?
4. Los Angeles Dodgers
5. Texas Rangers- The Rangers have cooled off a bit, but Josh Hamilton’s four home run night on Tuesday still has fans excited about where this team could be headed.
6. Cleveland Indians
7. New York Mets- New York is surprisingly in the thick of what is arguably the most competitive division in the league right now. Things won’t get any easier from here on out, either…Philadelphia will make a run eventually.
8. Cincinnati Reds
9. Washington Nationals- The Nationals’ situation is very similar to that of Texas…the team has cooled off a bit after a hot start, but 19-year old phenom Bryce Harper has fans in the nation’s capital excited about the future.
10. Toronto Blue Jays
11. Miami Marlins- Things are getting better in Miami…Ozzie has been quiet, and the team has won eight of its last nine games to pull within spitting distance of the AL East lead.
12. Atlanta Braves
13. New York Yankees
14. Oakland Athletics
15. Detroit Tigers- Justin Verlander is good, but he isn’t a miracle worker. Detroit’s pitching needs to improve behind it’s ace, or they could find themselves fighting for a playoff spot in what is turning out to be a very weak AL Central.
16. Los Angeles Angels
17. San Francisco Giants- Tim Lincecum isn’t having a good year so far, but Madison Bumgarner is picking up the slack. If both San Francisco and Los Angeles stay at the top of the NL West, it will be an exciting summer.
18. Pittsburgh Pirates
19. Chicago White Sox
20. Houston Astros
21. Philadelphia Phillies- The good news for Phillies fans? The team is only five games back, and half the division is playing at a level that probably won’t be sustained. The bad news? The Phillies still aren’t scoring runs.
22. Chicago Cubs
23. Arizona Diamondbacks
24. Seattle Mariners- Not much to comment about here, but I am buying their hat sometime in the next week.
25. Kansas City Royals
26. Milwaukee Brewers
27. Boston Red Sox- The Bobby Valentine Experiment isn’t working out as planned, and Boston fans aren’t happy. Can you blame them after their team dropped two of three in Kansas City?
28. Colorado Rockies
29. San Diego Padres
30. Minnesota Twins
– K. Becks
Roll Tribe