All A's for the D-backs

Chipper Jones is hitting an ungodly .443, but the Braves couldn't put together a winning streak if you spotted them a two-run lead in every eighth inning for the next two weeks.

The Padres have the best starting pitching in the National League, but they couldn't score three runs if you gave them, say, 22 innings to do it in.

The Tigers finally got their bats rolling this week, but their pitching is still AWOL and their record is still the worst in the league.

And the Royals have the American League's best pitching -- Zack Greinke has a 0.75 ERA in three starts -- but they just can't put up any runs. Yep. It's still a bit dicey out there in the early going. Here are this week's Power Rankings:

MLB Power Rankings

1 Last Week: 1	Arizona Diamondbacks They have Brandon Webb, who does nothing but win with his Sinker from Hell, and could-be ace Dan Haren, and Micah Owings has had three straight good starts, and now Randy Johnson is back and looking pretty good. And, oh yeah, they have the best-scoring team in the game, and the reigning NL Manager of the Year and those cool snakeheads on their unis. The D'backs will cool off. But the heads will always be hot.
2 Last Week: 13	Boston Red Sox David Ortiz can't hit his way out of a Papi bag right now, but the Sox still can hold their own with the Yankees. Boston just whipped through Detroit, the Yanks and Cleveland at 7-3, and though none of those teams is playing like it should be, that's still impressive. Look, the Sox have their problems. Ortiz. Julio Lugo's glove. Schilling's mouth. They're allowing more than five runs a game. But they're OK.
3 Last Week: 5	St. Louis Cardinals Still not buying them long-term, but there's no denying these guys are on a roll. Kyle Lohse, despite getting abandoned by his bullpen on Thursday, continues to be the early season pitching surprise. Rick Ankiel, who worked a 17 pitch at-bat for a walk against Carlos Villanueva of the Brewers on Wednesday (Andruw Jones doesn't see that many pitches in a week), is for real. Give the Cards credit. They're playing well.
4 Last Week: 12	Chicago White Sox Joe Crede made a backhand stop the other day down the line on Oakland's Chris Denorfia that was positively Brooksian. Man, it was pretty. He was playing off the line, too, and moving the other way. Dive. Get up. Gun him down. He's pounding the ball, too, with five homers and 18 RBIs. So is Carlos Quentin, a young Arizona castoff. This team is intriguing in a division that's a lot shakier than it used to be.
5 Last Week: 19	Seattle Mariners In spring, they talked about an improved defense, but the M's are booting it around way too much in the early going. That said, they're putting up some runs (five a game) and Felix Hernandez, in the absence of imported ace Erik Bedard (still down with a bad hip), is assuming control of a solid rotation. King Felix is 2-0 in four starts, with a 1.47 ERA. The bullpen (6.13 ERA) is scary, but J.J. Putz could be back next week.
6 Last Week: 8	Los Angeles Angels In a lot of ways, the Angels are still just hanging on -- like a lot of other teams -- until their pitching gets healthy. Yet they continue to be worth watching. Wednesday against the Royals, Casey Kotchman was smart enough to see that Billy Butler had stopped running on a popup to first base. He let the ball drop, tagged first for the out and threw to second for a tag on Mark Grudzielanek. Clever guys, those Angels.
7 Last Week: 6	Milwaukee Brewers Got one of those text alerts on the new phone Thursday. Prince Fielder hit a home run. When they're sending out alerts for that, we know things have been strange in Milwaukee. Fielder's first homer, an extra-inning shot to beat the Cards, was a big sigh of relief for the Crew, which still needs some life from Ryan Braun, Rickie Weeks, J.J. Hardy, Bill Hall ... well, just about everybody. It's amazing they're winning.
8 Last Week: 11	New York Mets Pedro Martinez says he can be back in maybe two weeks, which is news to a lot of people in the Mets' front office. And it's a chest-grabber for a majority of Mets' fans. Don't tease like that, Pedro. Don't get the hopes up. The best news is really Jose Reyes. After a talking-to from teammate Carlos Beltran, Reyes looks to be back to his ol' happy-go-go self. He has eight hits in the last three games, all New York wins.
9 Last Week: 3	Chicago Cubs The dope on the hop is that it probably wasn't the hop at all. At least according to Alfonso Soriano, it wasn't. Soriano is on the disabled list with a strained calf. He pulled up lame after one of his quirky trademark hops he takes while fielding pop flies. "Look, I don?t know. That?s the way he feels comfortable catching the ball. I don?t know," manager Lou Piniella says. This is what passes for news in Chicago.
10 Last Week: 2	Kansas City Royals The Billy Butler gaffe aside (see Angels), the Royals still are doing better than most. They lead the AL by allowing only 3.19 runs a game. They've committed only three errors. (Butler's doesn't count). They split two-game series with both the Mariners and Angels. This team has possibilities. Seen on the Star Web site, a nickname suggestion for their closer: Joakim "The Dream" Soria. Beautiful.
11 Last Week: 9	Florida Marlins The NL East leaders -- that alone tells you something about the current state of the NL East -- are getting an unexpectedly powerful start out of first baseman Mike Jacobs, tied for the big-league lead with six home runs. They have the worst ERA in the NL, though (5.17). Tells you they won't be the leaders much longer.
12 Last Week: 14	New York Yankees Can those Red Sox-Yankees games be any more interminable? Oh. My. God. It's like four hours of dental work. Sans anesthesia. It's as if the pre-game tension immobilizes everyone. Anyway, the Yanks are in the middle of playing 18 of 20 games on the road, thanks in large part to the Pope. Read the news, wouldja?
13 Last Week: 7	Baltimore Orioles A rally against Bobby Jenks and the White Sox on Thursday saved the O's -- young Adam Jones had a big hit in the 10th -- but couldn't stop a tumble down the PRs. When Kevin Millar scored the game-winner, it was the only lead the O's had in the series. We may have seen the high point of Baltimore's year right there.
14 Last Week: 10	Oakland Athletics Looking for a little hope for this team? Susan Slusser of the Chronicle points out that Eric Chavez and Joe Crede of the White Sox had the same back surgery. The A's third baseman is just a few months behind Crede, that's all. And a couple shoulder surgeries. But once that's straightened out ... whoa.
15 Last Week: 4	Cincinnati Reds The week didn't get off to a very good start when the Reds were swept by the Pirates last weekend in Pittsburgh. Then Dusty Baker had to go back to Wrigley Field, where the Cubs won two of three. The good news, Cincinnati, is the young pitchers (not Josh Fogg) and four more to 600 for Ken Griffey Jr.
16 Last Week: 17	Toronto Blue Jays If these guys were any streakier, we'd have to put a towel on them. (Hey, it gets cornier in the second half of the PRs.) Sweep the Rangers in Texas. Lose two to the Rangers in Toronto. Whatever. Hey, closer B.J. Ryan is back, which is good news. But I'm sure there's lots of bad news in there, too.
17 Last Week: 15	San Diego Padres You know what says everything about the Padres? I mean everything? Thursday night's game. Jake Peavy going eight innings, giving up four hits, no runs and getting diddly for it. A bullpen pitching lights-out. And getting squat. A 2-1 loss. In 22 innings. Leaving 24 men on base. One word. Arrrrrrrrgh.
18 Last Week: 23	Philadelphia Phillies Nobody knows what to make of the defending NL East champs just yet. A big showdown this weekend at home against the Mets might shed some light on things. But with the time that Jimmy Rollins has missed, with Ryan Howard's whiff-filled start (21 strikeouts, a .211 average), we're still waiting on the real Phils.
19 Last Week: 21	Los Angeles Dodgers Juan Pierre has a better OPS than both Andruw Jones and Russell Martin. That cannot be good. A couple of easy wins over a self-destructing Pirates' team helped the Dodgers last week, but they go on the road against the Braves and Reds now. They're going to need more than Rafael Furcal and James Loney.
20 Last Week: 18	Tampa Bay Devil Rays The Rays are the kind of a team that has to have everything go right. And everything never goes right in Tampa Bay. Scott Kazmir is on track to be back in early May, but now the Rays' setup man, Al Reyes, is down with a bad shoulder. Matt Garza should be back late next week. But ... hold on, Rays' fans.
21 Last Week: 16	Texas Rangers Bad signs in Texas: When the manager, Ron Washington, deems it necessary to hold not one, not two but three meetings in a single week. Hank Blalock's balky back. Michael Young hitting .234.
22 Last Week: 24	Colorado Rockies One of the problems with the Rockies -- they have a lot more than one -- is their slow starts. They've had only two first-inning leads all season. That .208 average with runners in scoring position is a little bit of a concern, too.
23 Last Week: 20	Minnesota Twins The Twins would have had an abysmal week -- thanks to the bullpen, it was pretty bad as it was -- if not for lucking into a win Wednesday when Delmon Young tagged up and scored on a foul ball that Tampa Bay's Carl Crawford probably should have let drop.
24 Last Week: 25	Atlanta Braves The bullpen is a bandaged mess -- Peter Moylan may be out for the season -- Tim Hudson's velocity is down and Mark Teixeira is sleeping. But, man alive, Chipper Jones (.443, four homers, 14 RBIs) is a piece of work, eh?
25 Last Week: 26	Detroit Tigers I'd be more apt to push the Tigers up a few more notches if they didn't allow themselves to be pounded every third or fourth day. Yeah, the bats seem to be coming around. When do the arms kick into gear? Ever?
26 Last Week: 22	Cleveland Indians They got into a little beanball tiff with the Tigers midweek, which at least showed they had some life in them. More life than C.C. Sabathia is showing, anyway. "I'd boo myself," the big guy said after his fans did just that.
27 Last Week: 30	Pittsburgh Pirates A nice four-game win streak was ruined by two pathetic performances in L.A. A big beef: How can a young team with a supposed emphasis on defense give away that many runs (baseball-worst 21 errors)? Embarrassing.
28 Last Week: 28	Houston Astros So Miguel Tejada says he's really 33, while his new general manager, Ed Wade, says he's playing like he's 25. At $13 million this season, you have to admit, the guy's getting paid like a veteran player, isn't he?
29 Last Week: 29	San Francisco Giants "It's depressing, actually, watching some of our at-bats," says hitting coach Carney Lansford to the Chronicle. Maybe the only thing more depressing? Watching Barry Zito get slapped around
30 Last Week: 27	Washington Nationals Manny Acta was pushed out of his new office to make room for the Pope. (Read the news!) The Nationals have lost 12 of their last 13 . This team is bad. Not this bad, maybe. But, right now, really bad.