D'backs, Royals show potential in opening weeks

In a few weeks, things will start to settle down a bit. Say mid-May or so. The end of May, at the latest. By then, most of the teams that you thought would be pretty good back in spring will be, for the most part, pretty good. Most of the stinkers will stink. We'll have some exceptions. We always do. But in baseball, things always seem to have a way of evening out. Not for awhile, though. And in Week One of the Power Rankings, things are always a little screwy, liking having the Royals, Orioles and Cardinals in the top 10.

MLB Power Rankings Rank LW Team 1 -- Arizona Diamondbacks The best record in baseball, a seven-game winning streak, a spankdown of their division ... hey, it's been a good start for these desert darlings. The D'backs' problem last year, if you'll remember, was scoring. Not so far in '08; they lead the league with six runs a game. Third baseman Mark Reynolds has five homers already. Newly re-upped center fielder Chris Young has four. Yeah, these guys are for real. 2 -- Kansas City Royals If the season-opening sweep over the Tigers didn't convince you that this is a different team, what about the series win over the Yankees? The Royals are playing with confidence, they're playing aggressively, their bullpen has been mostly very good (closer Joakim Soria has been perfect). They didn't have their first real stinker of the season until Thursday in a loss to the Yankees. They're pushovers no longer. 3 -- Chicago Cubs Centerfielder Felix Pie (I heard the other day that some smarty is calling him Felix Pennsylvania) was flopping around like a Lou Piniella lineup until he finally got a big hit Wednesday. The Cubs are on a five-game winning streak that has included a 12-inning win in which they blew a seven-run lead. So the Cubs, as is their way, are already playing with us. That Fukudome guy, by the way, may be OK. 4 -- Cincinnati Reds They beat the D'backs in an opening-season series and are 2-0-1 in their three sets against some pretty good teams. Their pen is the second-best in the NL (2.61 ERA) and they have a couple of young studs in the rotation that look all-out scary. Cueto and Volquez; maybe you've heard of them? If Corey Patterson, for Pete's sake, continues to hit homers (he has four), they're going to be tough to beat. 5 -- St. Louis Cardinals Some lights-out pitching (league-low 30 runs against) has the Cards flapping their wings. Kyle Lohse, who couldn't find a job for most of the winter, hasn't given up a run in 12 innings. And some overaggressive baserunning by Albert Pujols has the Cards flapping their jaws a little, too. (Note to Brandon Backe: Backe off; he's big.) I'm not convinced, though. We'll find out more this week against the Brewers. 6 -- Milwaukee Brewers That Opening Day gag by Eric Gagne got everyone worried in Milwaukee, but it's nothing that a sweep of the Giants couldn't cure. (The Giants will do that for a lot of teams this year.) A tough nine-game road trip, starting this weekend against the Mets, will tell us a lot more about this team. Remember, the '07 Crew were simply gawdawful (32-49) away from Miller Park. This is a big early test for them. 7 -- Baltimore Orioles The AL East leaders -- may be hard to get that line past the fact-checkers -- ran off a six-game win streak that piqued some interest in Baltimore. The streak was as long as any the O's had last year. But that doubleheader loss in Texas on Thursday squashed that. The bullpen looked good, too, running off 11 straight scoreless innings to start. The pen's 0.93 ERA leads the AL. Why do I think this won't last? 8 -- Los Angeles Angels Considering they're starting the season without their top two pitchers, the Angels can't complain. Howie Kendrick, Chone Figgins, Gary Matthews Jr., Torii Hunter, Vlad Guerrero -- they're all off to good starts. Lefty Joe Saunders has been very good (0.56 ERA in two starts). A huge weekend series in Seattle -- oh, the Mariners want them bad -- awaits. Dinged-up closer Francisco Rodriguez needs to be there. 9 -- Florida Marlins A sweep of the fallen-flat Nationals and a series win against the prone Pirates have the Marlins in this inflated position. Like the O's, the Cards, the Reds and the Royals, though, they'll probably come down. The worst starters' ERA (6.75) in the NL practically predicts it. "These games count as much as the ones in June, July, August, September," manager Fredi Gonzalez said. Enjoy 'em while you can, Fredi. 10 -- Oakland Athletics The good news is that the painfully young A's have a 2.65 ERA out of their starters (best in the AL), they won a series over the Indians and they swept three from the Jays in Toronto. The bad news -- though certainly not unexpected in Oakland -- is that one of their stud starters, Rich Harden, is now on the disabled list. And that one hurts. The '08 A's are just too fallow to handle those kind of setbacks.

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