MLB Power Rankings
| 21 |  |
Last Week: 20 |
The Blue Jays' season
has been over for some time, so in light of the fact that they haven't been within 10 games of first place since the
All-Star break, it makes sense that their four most recent home games have drawn the four smallest crowds in the
history of Rogers Centre, each of which failed to crack 12,000 total. A few weeks ago, manager Cito Gaston said
the team needed its fans out there to help them win. Now he says they need to win and the fans will come back. He's
right. On both counts. Those fans haven't missed much, but they have missed the stunning power display this year of
Adam Lind and Aaron Hill, perhaps the most unlikely pair of 30-home run, 100-RBI teammates in baseball
history (non-Steroids Era, at least). |
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| 22 |  |
Last Week: 21 |
Since Jake Peavy
was traded, the Padres have been looking for a new ace. They're probably still looking, but Kevin Correia has
been more than adequate lately. In his past 11 starts, he's 5-2 with a 2.84 ERA. That's not going to make anyone
forget a Cy Young winner like Peavy, but it's not bad for a guy who was given a minor league contract and no
guarantees he'd even make the team this spring. Correia's improvement is not nearly as intriguing though as the fact
that Fort Wayne TinCaps, né Wizards, the Padres' low Class A team, won the Midwest League last week. OK, that's not
that intriguing, either, but you've got to love the logo, and any
team that names itself after a 19th-century
planter. |
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| 23 |  |
Last Week: 23 |
The Dave Clark Five
followed the Beatles in the British Invasion and had several hits in the mid-1960s, but were never thought of as
highly as their predecessors, despite some pretty
good songs. The Dave Clark Nine, in honor of the man who took over for Cecil Cooper as Astros manager this
week, has a much easier act to follow, as Cooper was canned with the team in the midst of what has become a nine-game
losing streak. (How is this the same team that just three weeks ago swept a four-game series from the Phillies?)
Houston fans aren't exactly "glad all over" about the move, or with the team's regression. Star closer Jose
Valverde said this week that he would test the free-agent market, meaning the Astros could well lose one of their
few reliable pieces. |
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| 24 |  |
Last Week: 26 |
It's too bad there are
no magic numbers for individual awards the way there are for teams looking to clinch playoff spots. If there were,
Albert Pujols would have locked up NL MVP in mid-June, and Zack Greinke would have clinched the AL Cy
Young Award after allowing just two hits in six shutout innings against the playoff-bound Red Sox. Perhaps even more
impressive is the fact that Greinke has been able to bolster his resume at the same time the Royals seem to be
throttling him down for the rest of the season to protect his increasingly valuable arm. He hasn't gone over 100
pitches in either of his past two starts, and made his second-lowest two-game total of the season. He's even got TV
comedy writers making his Cy Young case for him on Twitter.
Ken Tremendous, aka Michael Schur, a writer for Parks and Recreation and formerly The Office,
pointed out that the opponent OPS against Greinke is .608 this year, or almost exactly the same as teammate
Yuniesky Betancourt's major league-low .607. In other words, Greinke makes every batter he faces look like
Yuniesky Betancourt. Wow. |
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| 25 |  |
Last Week: 24 |
When Mark
Reynolds was asked about breaking his own major league record for strikeouts in a season, he said, "So what? So
what?" Um, how about because in almost one-third of your at-bats this season you have failed to even put the ball in
play. That is difficult to believe, especially for a player of Reynolds' ability. A 40-home run, 100-RBI season is
impressive (Reynolds is one of only four players in the majors to do this year), but it looks a lot more flukish when
so much of the time you're not even making contact with the ball. For some perspective: Reynolds has struck out more
times in the past two seasons (410 entering Wednesday night) than Joe DiMaggio did in his entire 13-year
career, and almost exactly the same number of times that Yogi Berra did in his 19 seasons (414). So, that's
what. |
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| 26 |  |
Last Week: 27 |
What was worse for the
Orioles this week? Not winning a single game or having one of their most promising young players, Nolan
Reimold, undergo surgery to fix his Achilles tendon, which may keep him rehabbing right up until spring training
starts? As usual, about the only good news is Brian Roberts, who tied Lance Berkman's record for most
doubles by a switch-hitter and now will attempt to become the single-season record-holder for doubles by a second
baseman, and perhaps, the first player since 1936 to record 60 doubles in a season. Not exactly Maris chasing
Ruth, but still interesting. |
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| 27 |  |
Last Week: 28 |
The Mets' season has been quite depressing, and perhaps nothing captures that mood better than a
New York Daily News poll asking fans whether Jose Reyes, who is still trying to return this season from
the hamstring injury that has kept him out since May, will ever be an elite player again. Fifty-four percent of
respondents answered "No, his best years are behind him." Even by the understandably pessimistic tone of Mets fans --
the last four seasons alone should be enough to make any Met fan consider breaking up with the team -- that was a
little surprising. Reyes is still just 26 years old and far from done, but if he needs offseason surgery to fix his
hamstring, it will be interesting to see how he responds next year. |
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| 28 |  |
Last Week: 25 |
Things have gotten so
bad for the Indians of late that some in Cleveland are actively trying to pass off their awful finish with the "good
news" that they will get a top-five draft pick out of it. Unfortunately, this isn't basketball and one top-five pick
won't fix what ails the Tribe. The Indians are now 3-19 in the month of September. Somewhere Jake Taylor is
furious, Ricky Vaughn is probably pitching in the California penal league and Roger Dorn is not caring
at all. |
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| 29 |  |
Last Week: 29 |
On Tuesday night,
the Nationals had more errors than runs scored in a loss to the Dodgers (their 99th of the season), leaving them one
loss away from becoming the first team this year to reach that dubious milestone and the second straight season
they've had triple-digit defeats. There are still two people at Nationals Park looking for important wins this year:
John Lannan, who needs one more victory for his tenth of the season (the last time the Nats failed to have any
pitcher reach double-digits in wins was two years ago, when Matt Chico led them with a mere seven) and, of
course, Teddy Roosevelt, who had an injury this week and remains 0-for-forever in the President's Race. |
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| 30 |  |
Last Week: 30 |
Another lesson in the
lack of worldliness of some major league baseball players, courtesy of the Padres' David Eckstein: "When we
were home last week and it was mentioned that there'd be the G-20 in Pittsburgh, some of the guys thought it was the
new Gatorade," he told the San Diego Union-Tribune. "I went to church here this weekend and (the minister) was
even talking about it, saying this was a great opportunity for the people of Pittsburgh to look at what's happening in
the world and contemplate something beyond the Steelers." You mean nobody is contemplating the Pirates? If any sports
team in Pittsburgh needs prayers these days, it's the Bucs, who have dropped five straight. |
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