MLB Power Rankings - Week 9 - 5/26/08

After yet another big week from the Floridian teams, we at SportsHubris.com can deny them no longer. The Rays made the jump all the way to number 2 as they have made it to Memorial Day as the AL East's 1st place team. The Marlins made the biggest jump, going from 14 up to 7 as we finally show a little respect to the 2-time world champions, who seem like they have a nice little formula down there.

On the flip side, the underperforming Mets & Indians both took dives in the rankings because of their continued uninspiring play. And the Royals and Mariners found a way to each go winless. To the fans in New York, Cleveland, Kansas City and Seattle, I am so sorry for the suckitude that encased your teams over the past week (or more).

1.
Arizona Diamondbacks 30-20 (1)
-(2-4) The 1-2 pitching duo of Brandon Webb and Danny Haren came crashing back to earth, losing back-to-back games with them on the hill for the first time this year (obviously, since it was Webb’s 1st lost after a perfect 9-0 start). The offense took a snooze in Florida but bounced back in a big way in Atlanta with two blowout wins.

2.
Tampa Bay Rays 30-20 (6)
-(5-1) Since May 8th, the Rays have gone 13-4. Wow. These are not your older brother’s Tampa Bay baseball club. Oh no, these aren’t the Devil Rays. These are the Rays. And this team looks like it may have some staying power, because they have a great pitching staff and a good offense. Scott Kazmir has been absolutely filthy since his return from the DL, and is looking like a potential Cy Young candidate.

3.
Boston Red Sox 31-22 (3)
-(4-3) The Red Sox are keeping up with a recent Boston tradition of being amazing at home and terrible on the road. They started the week with a “taking care of business” sweep of the hapless Royals, highlighted by Jon Lester’s no-hitter. Then they went to Oakland and apparently their bats got lost by baggage, as they scored just 6 runs in being swept by the A’s. They will have to play better on the road to keep up with the surging Rays.

4.
Chicago Cubs 29-21 (2)
-(2-4) They had a tough road trip, but they were in every game and the games that they lost stayed close: all 4 losses were by 2 runs or less, including 2 games that went to extra-innings (albeit they were in extra innings because they blew a save in the 9th both times). In the past week, Derrek Lee (.357, 2 HR, 6 RBI) & Aramis Ramirez (.385, 2 HR, 7 RBI) showed why they are one of the top 3-4 combinations of the National League.

5.
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim 30-22 (4)
-(4-2) K-Rod kept slamming the door this week, saving all 4 wins to bring his season total to 21 saves. Look at that – 30 wins for the Angels, 21 saved by K-Rod. How bad would this team be if they had someone like Eric Gagne at the back end of the pen?!? Did I mention he yielded only 1 hit in 3.2 innings this week? He’s proof that having a big-time closer is an important weapon to have.

6.
St. Louis Cardinals 30-22 (7)
-(4-2) Let’s hope the rest of the team is ready to step up once Ryan Ludwick comes back down to Earth or else the Cardinals won’t be playing .577 ball for very long. Manager, Tony La Russa is still hoping Jason Isringhausen will be able to come back and be a dominant closer. I’m thinking that’s as likely as Paula Abdul attending an AA meeting.

7.
Florida Marlins 29-20 (14)
-(5-1) The Marlins were 1-5 last week and are now 5-1 this week. Damn, I told you this team was streaky! Maybe that off-season pickup of “Frank the Tank” wasn’t the smartest move by the Marlins. I hear he loves streaking. Also, the Fish have been able to rack up the wins by closing out games with Kevin Gregg. Gregg hasn’t let up a run since May 2nd… Sick!

8.
Chicago White Sox 27-22 (9)
-(4-2) Is it too early to let the Triple Crown talks officially begin in Chicago? Carlos Quentin (14 Hrs, .303 AVG, 44 RBIs) is beginning to make people in Chicago whisper about the possibilities of a Triple Crown. As a fan of baseball it would be amazing to see someone win the Triple Crown, but the reality is it's highly unlikely and way too early in the season. The White Sox keep finding a way to win and Bobby Jenks looks brilliant. Would you take the over or under on Jenks' listed weight of 275 lbs?

9.
Philadelphia Phillies 28-24 (8)
-(4-3) Ryan Howard’s offensive production seems to be decreasing every year while his K’s continue to pile up. He has 75 K’s to 27 BB’s. Not a good ratio, especially when he is only batting .204 and he cannot get salary arbitration until 2010.

10.
Houston Astros 29-23 (10)
-(4-3) The Astros barely maintained a top 10 position in our rankings. Lance Berkman only had 2 RBIs this week but since he has 46 overall we’ve decided to give him a pass for a bit. The pitching staff on the other hand, which has allowed more homeruns than any other team, has been absolutely atrocious. They’re going to need the pitching to come around if they expect to compete against the Cubs and Cards all season.

11.
Atlanta Braves 27-23 (12)
-(5-2) The Braves’ pitching was top-notch in their 4-game sweep of the Mets before running into some trouble against the mighty D-backs, but they are back to a familiar spot: Leading the National League in fewest runs allowed. And the offense seemed to produce a new hero every night, from Chipper Jones to Brian McCann to Jeff Francoeur to Mark Teixeira.

12.
Oakland Athletics 28-23 (11)
-(4-2) Bobby Crosby leads the team in batting average with a whopping .266. If the A’s could score some runs Justin Duchscherer (4-3) could easily be 7-0. If the A’s could make a trade for a bat, which they won’t do, they could slip into that wild card spot come September. The A’s bullpen has a 3.10 ERA and opponents are batting a pathetic .230 AVG. The A’s need to make a few phone calls to bring back Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire, and Rickey Henderson. That would be as cool as Vanilla Ice.

13.
Toronto Blue Jays 27-25 (15)
-(4-2) The Jays have been heating up, winning 10 of their last 13, yet they still find themselves barely in 3rd in the hyper-competitive AL East, which has clearly regained “best division in baseball” status. This team can get on such good rolls with the stellar starting pitching they have; Halladay, Burnett, Litsch, McGowan & Marcum are a combined 24-18 with a 3.53 ERA and 1.17 WHIP, all while averaging 6 ½ innings per start and striking out 7.19 per 9 innings. How have they lost 18 times?!? They need to stop taking pointers from the Padres circa 2007, methinks.

14.
New York Yankees 25-25 (18)
-(5-1) The Yankees lost their 1st game of the week, falling to 20-25 and everyone and their brother began the annual ‘this is the year the Yankees don’t bounce back’ conversations. But like the villains of every horror movie, they just keep coming back, reeling off 5 straight wins to get back to .500 and reminded everyone that you need to kill them over and over if you want them to actually go away.

15.
Los Angeles Dodgers 26-23 (16)
-(4-2) The prodigy known as Clayton Kershaw has been called up and will make a dynamic impact to a very young team. The cancer known as Andruw Jones is going under the knife for knee surgery. The fragile Rafael Furcal remains on the DL with on-going back problems.

16.
New York Mets 23-25 (5)
-(1-6) Terrible week for the underperforming Mets, as manager Willie Randolph’s head is being called for by the New York fans and media. Is he to blame that the Mets got shown up in getting swept by division rival Atlanta? Probably not, but something needs to rattle this team’s cage soon, because they are too talented (and too expensive) to be under .500.

17.
Texas Rangers 26-26 (19)
-(4-3) We all know that the Rangers are not a team to compete this year, but can Josh Hamilton continue to be a threat to win the Triple Crown? Kids let this be a lesson to you ... Don’t do drugs.

18.
Minnesota Twins 25-25 (20)
-(4-3) The Twins continue to battle as they find themselves sitting on .500 after a nice bounce-back week. Kevin Slowey, Nick Blackburn & Glen Perkins all pitched fantastic over the week, showing off the continued excellence of the Twins organization’s ability to produce great young pitchers.

19.
Cleveland Indians 23-27 (13)
-(1-5) What is happening to the Tribe? Fausto Carmona could be out a month, which is a huge loss. The Indians, batting a league worst .233, may need hitting more than pitching at this point but losing one of your top pitchers certainly can’t help such a slumping team. At least Cleveland rocks, right?

20.
Baltimore Orioles 24-25 (17)
-(1-5) Uh oh… The O's had a piss poor week. The O’s made a trip to Tampa this week and got swept the Rays. The O’s find themselves playing under .500 ball and knocking on the cellar door. Will they be able to handle the Yankees when they come to Camden Yards this week? Could a fat kid pass up a Twinkie? I doubt it.

21.
Pittsburgh Pirates 24-26 (23)
-(3-3) The Pirates actually don’t suck as much as I thought they did. Don’t get me wrong they still suck, just not as much as I thought they would. I’ll admit that I’m still shocked that Xavier Nady, 39 RBIs, is still hitting the ball as well as he is. But if the Pirates can get to .500 this late in the season then I say its been a successful one.

22.
Cincinnati Reds 23-28 (21)
-(2-5) Is Jay Bruce the final piece in turning around this hurting franchise? Bruce was named last year's Minor League Player of the Year by both Baseball American and The Sporting News. Adam Dunn is finally hitting homeruns, 9 in May, which is upping his trade value for the Reds who will unlikely be in contention come July.

23.
Milwaukee Brewers 23-27 (24)
-(3-3) Corey Hart took the “Carrying the Offense” torch from Ryan Braun this past week, belting out 4 HRs and Mike Cameron has been heating up at the dish; but the outfielders have been doing this all year. The infield production has been admissible throughout the year, and without some major contributions from Hall, Hardy, Weeks & Fielder, they will not be climbing out of their disappointing hole any time soon.

24.
Colorado Rockies 20-30 (27)
(3-3) Another week of waiting for the Rockies to break out. I sound like a broken record but at some point this team has to catch fire. There is way too much talent in Colorado to have this poor of a record. Well I guess it is hard to win games when all your precious talent is heading to the DL. It’s sad when a 3-3 week is actually a good week for the Rockies this season.

25.
Detroit Tigers 21-29 (28)
-(4-2) A pretty good week, except that 3 wins came against the Mariners, who have been terminally bad, and they lost 2 big ones to their divisional rival Twins. While they did explode for 19 runs in their win against the Twins, the Tigers consistently score way too much when they get good pitching and not at all when they get decent to bad pitching. Their closer, Todd Jones, is 7 for 7 in save opportunities this year, which is good, but the fact that he’s only had 7 chances to save a game is troubling. Their like the anti-Angels.

26.
Washington Nationals 22-29 (26)
-(3-3) Well the real question is can the Nationals score any runs with Austin Kearns on the DL and a banged up Ryan Zimmerman? Let the Wily Mo Pena show begin. Oh and someone needs to inform Aaron Boone that is 15minutes are up and he doesn’t need to be clutch anymore.

27.
San Francisco Giants 20-31 (29)
-(3-3) A good week for the Giants, led by none other than Bengie Molina, who hit a .609 this past week, with 5 straight multi-hit games, and he drove in 9 runs. He’s filled in as Barry’s replacement as the Giants’ cleanup hitter rather well this year. Tim Lincecum continues to dazzle opponents ranking in the 2nd in the NL in ERA and 3rd in strikeouts.

28.
Kansas City Royals 21-29 (22)
-(0-7) Ouch! Losers of 7 straight games alongside being swept on the road by both the Red Sox and the Blue Jays are not a good sign for team morale. Mark Grudzielanek and his over inflated batting average is coming back down to earth. Mark Teahen’s bat seems to be compromised by his change of position.

29.
San Diego Padres 19-33 (30)
-(3-4) What is with the Padres and extremely long extra inning games this year? For the 2nd time this year, they played at least two games worth of innings in only one contest, and they were more successful this time around when Adrian Gonzalez (who should be nicknamed ‘The Offense’ cause he’s the only Padre that hits regularly) hit a walk-off homer.

30.
Seattle Mariners 18-33 (25)
-(0-6) The Seattle Suck Tour took in a national audience on Sunday and didn’t disappoint, throwing the game away against the Yankees, after getting pounded in the other two games of the series. If that wasn’t bad enough, they were coming off being swept by the Tigers. Let’s summarize: this week, the allowed 61 runs. Need I say more?

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