MLB Power Rankings- Week 3 04/14/08

The Arizona Diamondbacks have sprung upon the NL West with a venomous attack. Their pitching has been beyond reliable and the young hitting has proven both clutch and dependable. SP Doug Davis will be inactive for 4-6 weeks as he recovers from surgery due to Thyroid cancer. His heroic final start in which he gained the victory with his arm and aided with his bat (2-2 1 RBI), should provide motivation for his team to continue their success. Remarkably enough his replacement will be five-time Cy Young award-winner Randy Johnson. The Unit’s success could very well vault the D-Backs to an even higher level. We’d like to take this time to remind you that Arizona is currently at 15-1 odds to win the World Series.

All that glitters is not gold in the NL as the hot Cincinnati Reds hit sub zero temperatures when they traveled to Pittsburgh of all places. The AL is obviously open for grabs, but none of the favorites are in first place to start the season, and maybe there’s a little more parity in baseball than NFL fans would have you think.

[Editor's Note: Listed next to each team is their record and last week's power ranking while each team's record over the past week leads off their narrative paragraph.]

1.
Arizona Diamondbacks 9-3 (1)
-(5-1) Not only are they off to a great start, but they are 8-1 against division rivals. Look for that trend to continue when they take on the Giants and Padres this week. While you're watching make sure to catch a glimpse of Justin Upton (this past week he went 10 for 21 with 2 HR and 8 RBI).

2.
Chicago Cubs 7-5 (12)
-(4-2) Derrek Lee, Kosuke Fukudome & Geovany Soto are leading their offense while Aramis Ramirez & Alfonso Soriano suffer through their typical April slumps. Ted Lilly and Rich Hill really need to return to their 2007 form in order for the Cubbies to have a legit chance in 2008. Their bullpen has been bad and they need to stop blowing saves. Surprisingly though, even with these problems, they've gotten out to a good start and sit at No. 2 this week. That tells you how good Lee, Fuku & Soto have been!

3.
St. Louis Cardinals 9-4 (8)
-(4-3) I know splitting a series isn’t the end of the world but when you split against San Francisco it makes me wonder if the Cardinals are a top team. Joel Pineiro, Todd Wellemeyer and Adam Wainwright gave up a combined 15 earned runs this week. They’re on top of the NL Central right now, but for how long?

4.
Toronto Blue Jays 7-5 (10)
-(3-3) They sweep, their swept and they sweep again! Four of their five losses have come by one run, and with the return of BJ Ryan to the bullpen, maybe they’ll be on the winning side of those one run games from here on out.

5.
Boston Red Sox 7-6 (13)
-(4-2) David Ortiz is in the slump of his life, but Manny Ramirez and JD Drew are coming through with big hits. Middle relief is looking very shaky, but Jonathan Papelbon and Hideki Okajima are solid as they come. The versatility of Kevin Youkilis and the off-season acquistion of Sean Casey has made the injury to Mike Lowell a bit easier to deal with.

6.
Milwaukee Brewers 8-4 (2)
-(3-3) The Brew Crew has relied on the long ball to pace their offense even with Prince Fielder yet to hit one out this year. Dave Bush needs to watch a video of himself from 2006 and figure out how to pitch like that again if he wants to stay in the rotation. Eric Gagne bounced back from his 2nd blown save to save the last 2 games.

7.
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 7-6 (6)
-(3-3) Will K-Rod’s ankle be a nagging injury? I know it’s not an arm problem but with his violent delivery, he cannot afford to be landing on weak ankles. John Lackey is making progress with his recovery from his right triceps strain, expect him back in early May.

8.
New York Yankees 6-7 (9)
-(3-4) Girardi has had his hands full shuffling the lineup due to early injuries to Jeter and Posada, but the young pitching has been the crux of the team thus far. Hughes and Kennedy (Yanks 1-4 in their starts) have combined to allow 14BB in 16.1 IP thus far. They’ll need to work on that control or it’ll be a long season in the Bronx, and by long I mean 4-hour plus games like the one I had to sit through on Sunday night.

9.
Chicago White Sox 7-4 (19)
-(3-2) The White Sox are 5-1 against the slumping Detroit Tigers and are a less impressive 2-3 against the rest of their opponents. Joe Crede is playing out of his mind right now and hopefully for Chicago fans the White Sox will trade him when his value is this high.

10.
New York Mets 5-6 (5)
-(3-3) The Mets' injury problems are starting to pile up. Carlos Beltran and David Wright will need to continue to carry the offensive load, especially if Jose Reyes has to make a DL trip. The Mets also need to avoid giving Johan Santana the “Pedro treatment” and score some runs for their ace to get some wins.

11.
Philadelphia Phillies 6-7 (15)
-(4-3) The Phils are another team that is fighting the injury bug. Shane Victorino will be put on the shelf for 15 days with a calf strain. His return will not be rushed because of a lingering calf problem he had last year. Good news is that reigning NL MVP Jimmy Rollins is expected to return to the lineup on Tuesday.

12.
Atlanta Braves 5-7 (7)
-(2-4)They had a tough trip to Colorado and have found themselves on the wrong end of six 1-run games, including three just last week. The Braves need to be more clutch & have better bullpen production (0-4, 5.20 ERA, 3 blown saves) to pull some of those games out.

13.
Oakland Athletics 8-5 (22)
-(5-1) Is it true that the A’s won 4 games in a row without hitting a homerun? Who said a team can’t win without power? The A’s are finding ways to win with doubles and triples and surprisingly have the best record in the A.L. Wait, Harden’s back on the DL? Shocker!

14.
Colorado Rockies 5-7 (16)
-(4-2) The Rockies are climbing their way back up to .500 folks! You can thank Mr. Matt Holiday for catching fire and lighting a spark under this team. If their pitching doesn’t get it together it’s going to be a battle all season to catch the D-Backs in the NL West. The Rockies are 1-5 against the D-Backs, but let’s not hit the panic button quite yet.

15.
San Diego Padres 7-6 (11)
-(3-3) Two 1-run losses to the Giants hurt, but the Padres have been getting what was expected: fantastic pitching & terrible offense. Well, their offense isn’t terrible, as they have one of the better team averages in baseball (.276, 3rd in the majors), but they just don’t get on base (.690, 24th), hit homeruns (6, t-26th) or score runs (41, t-27th).

16.
Seattle Mariners 6-7 (17)
-(4-3) The trade with the Orioles isn’t paying it’s expected dividends quite yet, considering Eric Bedard, the deal's centerpiece, has been scratched from two starts for what is beginning to appear like an injury that might nag him all season. Add that to George Sherrill, one of the pieces traded away, has been great in the closer's role for the Orioles and could have filled in for injured closer J.J. Putz. But considering their best two pitchers have been hurting, this team should make some noise once they get healthy.

17.
Tampa Bay Rays 6-6 (18)
-(3-4) The Evan Longoria era has begun in Tampa. The top prospect should fare well in a young lineup and has a great shot to keep his starting job even when Willy Aybar comes off of the shelf.

18.
Kansas City Royals 7-5 (20)
-(3-3) Brian Bannister and Zack Grienke have the starting pitching staff rolling, and Joakim Soria is shutting the door on opponents. If Alex Gordon and Billy Butler keep on raking and develop a bit more power, the Royals may soon have the Bash Brothers v2.0 on the team.

19.
Cincinnati Reds 6-7 (4)
-(2-5) They wanted to convince us they were good by winning their three series against Arizona, Philly and Milwaukee to start the season, but then they go and get swept by Pittsburgh. It’s going to be a roller coaster ride all season for the Reds, especially if Cueto has more “hiccups” like his last start (6 IP, 5 ER, 2 HR allowed).

20.
Los Angeles Dodgers 5-7 (3)
-(1-5) James Loney has a career best 12 game-hitting streak going for him, batting .390 over that stretch. Jonathan Broxton is showing that he is the dominant closer of the future striking out 10 batters in just 5 and 1/3 innings of work. Chad Billingsley will show that with a year under his belt, he will now dominate NL batters, so if he isn’t taken in your fantasy league scoop him up because he will not be there for long. This is the team that looks good on paper that just isn't winning games.

21.
Florida Marlins 7-5 (27)
-(4-2) Good news in Florida, the Marlins are first in the NL East! Hanley Ramirez is showing that he’s the real deal down in Miami. Mike Jacobs is really starting to heat things up as well. Things are looking good for the Marlins, although a team ERA of 7.17 may be a red flag that things won’t always be that way.

22.
Cleveland Indians 5-7 (14)
-(2-4) The week started with a bang as closer Joe Borowski blew his first save on a grand salami to Torii Hunter, and ended with a whimper when CC and Carmona surrendered 12 earned runs in just 6.2 innings to the A’s. Indians fans need to thank Cliff Lee for bringing it, and should chew on this; Pronk 4 RBI in the two wins and only 1 RBI in the 4 losses.

23.
Baltimore Orioles 7-5 (21)
-(3-4) Aubrey Huff is batting .111 and has a whopping 0 RBIs in his last 5 games. Everyone is excited over Daniel Cabrera’s new “fastball” plan, which he only gave up 1 earned run over 6 2/3 innings against the Rays last Saturday. Has his inconsistent talent been finally conquered? The answer is no. He still walked 3 batters bringing his season total to 12. The Orioles will be in third (if not worse) in the A.L. East by the end of the week.

24.
Pittsburgh Pirates 6-6 (25)
-(3-3) Xavier Nady has shown up to work in April but I doubt he’ll still be hitting come July. Also, Jason Bay decided to join the team and get a few hits this week. That was nice of him. This may sound a bit bleak but I’m not even sure if there are any Pirates fans out there anymore. Am I wrong? If by some miracle they can maintain a .500 record maybe the fans will come back.

25.
Minnesota Twins 6-6 (23)
-(3-2) Livan Hernandez has filled the void left by Santana admirably, but how long can that last? Francisco Liriano’s return to the majors did not go as expected as he was knocked out in the 5th inning last night, as he had control problems. Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Delmon Young have to hit better and carry this offense to get some wins.

26.
Texas Rangers 5-7 (24)
-(2-4) The Texas bullpen has allowed 0 home runs through Sunday. The offense has fallen asleep during clutch at bats going .184 with runners in scoring position. It is going to be a long season at the bottom of the AL West for the Rangers.

27.
Houston Astros 5-8 (29)
-(3-3) They finally put together back to back wins this past weekend. Even though it came at the expense of the lowly Marlins, the Astros won with excellent pitching from Backe and Wandy Rodriguez. Wandy who has compiled a 2.33 ERA and a 0.93 WHIP has kept the Astros (3-0 when he starts) from fading. Tejada is also enjoying NL pitching; he has a 7 game hit streak and has reached base safely in all but one game this season.

28.
San Francisco Giants 5-8 (30)
-(4-3) Tim Lincecum continues to dazzle and the Giants are 3-0 when he starts (even though it took two Bengie Molina HR’s to pull off the victory in one of them). Zito on the other hand continues to fizzle and it shows as the Giants are 0-3 when he starts. Jonathan Sanchez had an excellent start against the Padres, and would be a pleasant surprise for an already solid starting rotation.

29.
Washington Nationals 4-9 (28).
-(1-5) The Nats took a downward spiral loosing 9 straight games after being victorious in their first 3. An offense full of free swingers needs more patience at the plate.

30.
Detroit Tigers 2-10 (16)
-(2-4) This team was shutout 3 times in one week. That should not be happening and neither should, their Ace, Justin Verlander have been bested by Gavin Floyd. Tiger’s fans can take solace in the fact that even with this horrendous start they are only 3 games behind the Indians (their supposed main competition for the division title).

MLB Power Rankings

MLB Power Rankings - Week 3

MLB Power Rankings - Week 2

MLB Power Rankings - Preseason

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