Power Rankings May 29

This week is a special week, well for me at least.  Over the last 2 weeks I’ve personally been charting stats for every game in that time frame.  I did this for a few reasons but the top one is to help me make better assessments during my Power Rankings, this way I can actually see how a team has been doing recently and not just go by general stats and make a educated guess on who is doing better.  With that said lets take a look at this weeks Power rankings.

1)                   Texas Rangers- It’s starting to look like this team may never leave the top spot from this point on.  In the last 2 weeks they are hitting .274/.326/.410 (Avg/On Base Percentage/Slugging).  The pitching has been doing with a team ERA of 3.50 and K/9 rate of 10.8 they keep looking strong.

2)                   St. Louis Cardinals- Having a down week but still keeping strong.  The loss of Jamie Garcia is a blow but not to the rotation per say just to the fact they need to find a new pitcher to fill the void.  They have the depth in the minors so I don’t see a need to worry just yet.

3)                   Atlanta Braves- No shocker here but it was a close call and honestly you can interchange the Cardinals and Braves and I wouldn’t have an issue with that.  The thing that stands out about the Braves is the pitching has been great with a 3.19 ERA and 1.17 WHIP (Walks and Hits per Innings Pitched) in the last 2 weeks.  Maybe a little lucky but for now they have the hitting and pitching to keep it up.

4)                   Baltimore Orioles- Another coin toss between them and the next team on the list.  Not really a great pitching week for them but hitting has been going on all cylinders as of late.  I would like the pitching to match the hitting but we shall see.

5)                   New York Yankees- While having an off couple of weeks in both hitting and pitching they still show signs of life.  With Granderson out again though I am starting to worry how long this can last before the injuries start to over take the team.  They always seem to in the end but this team, for now, is standing strong.

6)                   Boston Red Sox- With the strong pitching and good hitting Boston’s making sure that the rest of the league knows that they’re not going anywhere.  Of these teams on the list Boston has the best starting pitching and can stand toe to toe with Atlanta but the relief staff is still weak after losing both closers.

7)                   Cincinnati Reds- Getting Cueto back makes them stronger than they are already.  If St. Louis starts to lose players from injuries or production starts to regress they could make a strong push.

8)                   Detroit Tigers- Pitching is starting to worry me.  Justin Verlander has been struggling for the last few starts, remember Verlander struggles does not equate to say Joe Blanton struggles, and the bullpen continues to be mediocre at best.  The best thing they have going for them is that Valverde has come back and pitched very well as the closer.  Hitting is still dominant and I don’t see that changing any time soon.

9)                   Arizona Diamondbacks- One of the things that worried me about the team was the pitching; could they keep the ball in the park while at home well enough to actually stay in the race.  With the HR/FB sitting at 3% for the week (that’s 5 Homeruns out of 199 Fly balls) means the team is doing just that and I think they could keep that up.  As for the hitting Paul Goldschmidt is making everyone forget Justin Upton and has a strong MVP type season going on.  They could run away with this division if the Giants and Rockies aren’t careful.

10)                San Francisco Giants- One of the oddest teams in the last 2 weeks, having one of the top Avg. and OBP in the league and yet only having a low SLG hurts them offensively but they can survive that.  What worries me is the pitching.  A .489 ERA and 1.44 WHIP as a team is not going to help them moving forward and could be the downfall.

Now for the Bottom 5 Power Rankings.

26) Milwaukee Brewers- No hitting to speak of and the pitching isn’t doing much better.  This team isn’t going anywhere for a while but at least they do have good young players to fall back on.

27) New York Mets- Again there isn’t much to say other than the team has its problems but has some bright spots.  Matt Harvey has been a great story so far and I believe he can be an ace someday soon.

28) Houston Astros- I can hear the yells already but let me explain.  First the stat line for the hitting is currently .258/.326/.376.  This for a team like them is pretty darn good and shows they can be a threat to teams offensively.  Pitching owns a 3.72 ERA and 1.42 WHIP with a K/9 of 9.4.  The walks are bad at 4.6 per 9 but at least they keep it on the ground having the best Fly Ball to Ground Ball (FB/GB) rate of 0.9 and having the most GB’s so far.  No they’re not going to win the division and no they will still finish last but they may not be the worst in baseball for now.

29) Minnesota Twins- Wow they have been bad and that’s it.

30) Miami Marlins- Bad pitching and bad hitting period.