Thursday, June 27, 2013

MLB Power Rankings

Here is the latest top 10 from CBS Sports.  The team on top hasn't finished with a winning record since 1992.  And the top five teams are all from the NL Central or the AL West.

1.  Pittsburgh Pirates:  48-30
2.  Texas Rangers:  46-33
3.  St. Louis Cardinals:  48-30
4.  Oakland Athletics:  46-34
5.  Cincinnati Reds:  45-34
6.  Detroit Tigers:  42-35
7.  Boston Red Sox:  47-33
8.  Baltimore Orioles:  43-36
9.  Atlanta Braves:  45-34
10.  New York Yankees:  42-36

Natstown, which is dragging along with a record of 39-38, is ranked 18th.

26 comments:

  1. Thanks for posting this, Go Heath.

    Bartolo Colon won his eighth straight start, as Oakland won at home against the Cardinals, 6-1. So, midway through their 162-game regular season, the A's are 47-34. That's a half-game behind Texas in the American League West; the Rangers have lost one fewer game than has Oakland. The A's lead the A.L. wild-card standings, two games ahead of the Orioles and four ahead of the Yankees.

    Oakland's typical starting lineup is Derek Norris (.188, 3 home runs, 15 runs batted in and 3 stolen bases) at catcher, Brandon Moss (.235, 14, 40, 1) at first, Eric Sogard (.270, 0, 9, 7) at second, Josh Donaldson (.312, 12, 52, 2) at third, Jed Lowrie (.306, 4, 31, 1) at short, Yoenis Céspedes (.226, 15, 41, 2) in left, Coco Crisp (.280, 9, 28, 13) in center and Josh Reddick (.219, 3, 24, 6) in right. Outfielder Seth Smith (.279, 6, 32, 0) also is often in the starting lineup; he's the team's most frequent designated hitter. The other guys who've gotten at least 100 at-bats are outfielder Chris Young (.188, 7, 27, 6), catcher John Jaso (.276, 2, 19, 0), second baseman/shortstop Adam Rosales (.195, 4, 8, 0) and first baseman Nate Freiman (.277, 2, 17, 0).

    The starting pitchers are Colon (11-2 with a 2.79 earned-run average), A.J. Griffin (6-6, 3.56), Tommy Milone (6-7, 4.06) and Jarrod Parker (6-6, 4.27). Dan Straily (4-2, 5.00) started 12 games in the first half, but he was sent back to the minors this past week. Grant Balfour is the closer (18 saves, 2.03). The other relievers who've thrown 25 innings or more are Sean Doolittle (3.28), Ryan Cook (2.88), Jerry Blevins (2.67), Pat Neshek (2.10) and Jesse Chavez (2.52).

    ReplyDelete
  2. The only A's who were among the leaders at their position in All-Star balloting as of June 22 were Lowrie (fourth at shortstop), Donaldson (fifth at third base) and Céspedes and Crisp in the outfield (10th and 11th, respectively). We can vote online through July 4. I voted for all of the A's, except our second baseman on the ballot, Scott Sizemore, who's out all season with an injury. At second base, I wrote in Oakland manager Bob Melvin.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Come on, Oakland! Jed Lowrie just hit a two-run homer to give the A's a 6-5 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning against St. Louis. The A's and Cardinals have split the opening two games of this series.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jed Lowrie is a 29-year-old from Salem, Ore., who starred at Stanford and then was Boston's first-round draft choice in 2005. Red Sox fans appear to have gone overly nutso for him; as one ThroughTheFenceBaseball.com writer put it in 2011, "Jed Lowrie is a player made to be popular and successful in Boston." Boston, however, traded him to Houston winter before last, and then the A's picked him up from our division-rival Astros this February. Baseball-Reference.com compares Lowrie's major-league career to this point to that of Bobby Morgan, who played for the Phillies, Dodgers, Cubs and Cardinals in the 1950s. Bobby Morgan's last game came at age 31, and I imagine that Jed Lowrie remains hopeful that his big-league career has more than a couple of seasons remaining. But being compared to Bobby Morgan sounds pretty favorable to me.

      Delete
  4. Still 6-5. Things looked dire for a bit there in the top of the seventh, as Coco Crisp left center field with a hurt back and St. Louis got its leadoff hitter on with a double to open the inning. But then Sean Doolittle managed to retire the Cardinals' potent 2-3-4 batters (Yadier Molina, Carlos Beltran and Allen Craig), and now ... THERE! RIGHT THERE! JOSH DONALDSON--MY MAIN MAN FROM MOBILE, ALA.--JUST SLUGGED A TWO-OUT, SOLO HOMER IN THE BOTTOM OF THE SEVENTH TO EXPAND OAKLAND'S LEAD TO 7-5! #GREENCOLLAR!

    ReplyDelete
  5. It is hard to imagine that Jed Lowrie and Josh Donaldson would not have vaulted to the top of A.L. All-Star voting at shortstop and third base, respectively, in the last hour.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I just voted two more times for Lowrie, Donaldson and the rest of the A's.

      Delete
    2. OK, I'm voting two more times. The Twitter desk just started following Josh Donaldson, and it turns out that earlier this month he Tweeted out a picture of an autographed Rickey Henderson jersey that he acquired.

      Josh Donaldson ‏@BringerOfRain20 12 Jun
      Don't be jealous I got the one and only Mr Henderson jersey auto!! pic.twitter.com/JFEHYXJQrI
      3:34 PM - 12 Jun 13

      Delete
  6. Top of ninth ... still 7-5 ... Grant Balfour gets St. Louis's first pinch-hitter to fly out, then he throws called strike outside, called strike outside, ball outside, ball outside, ball outside, swinging strike (out) inside to second pinch-hitter. Now we've got Matt Carpenter, the Cardinals' leadoff man (.323 on season and three-for-five today with two doubles and a home run) ...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BUT, NO, SIR! GROUNDOUT! LOWRIE TO BRANDON MOSS! #GREENCOLLAR, BABY! A'S WIN!!!

      Delete
    2. Three more ballots submitted for the Swingin' A's!

      Delete
  7. So, Oakland sweeps two with Cincinnati and beats St. Louis two of three. I better be careful about wearing my Coco Crisp shirt around western Kentucky this week.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This is very good, by the way. St. Louis came to Washington back in April and swept the Nats with very little difficulty.

      Delete
  8. Natstown put up 13 runs today -- only the second time all year they've scored 10 or more runs in a game -- and beat the Mets to reach the halfway point at 41-40.

    ReplyDelete
  9. No. 1 vs. No. 4!

    MLB Public Relations ‏@MLB_PR
    ESPN has selected @Athletics vs. @Pirates for Wednesday Night Baseball, July 10, at 7pmET (via @KristenESPN)
    12:41 PM - 1 Jul 13

    ReplyDelete
  10. So, Derek Norris, of the .188 average a couple of days ago, just slugged a two-out, three-run home run over the left-center wall in the bottom of the eighth, giving Oakland an 8-7 lead on the Cubs. I put on my Coco Crisp shirt with two out, one on and Josh Reddick (.219 a couple of days ago) up to bat. Reddick walked, and then Norris homered. It's past midnight back here in Kentucky, and I was literally jumping up and down in the living room, watching the bonus coverage of the game on MLB Network.

    GO, GRANT BALFOUR! GO, A'S!

    Sports: So great.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Leadoff walk for the Cubs in top of ninth. Urgh.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. BUT BALFOUR STRIKES OUT THE SECOND CUB BATTER, AND THEN NORRIS THROWS OUT THE RUNNER AT SECOND! TWO OUT!!! GO, A'S!!! GO, A'S!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      Delete
  12. A.L. West
    Oakland 49-35
    Texas 48-35 (0.5)
    Los Angeles 40-43 (8.5)
    Seattle 36-47 (12.5)
    Houston 30-54 (19)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Another 10 rounds of All-Star votes for the Swingin' A's!

    ReplyDelete