Rank(Pv)
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Team
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Record
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Comments
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| 1 |
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3-3 |
Dontrelle Willis and Josh Beckett were extremely good this week. Those two will never be able to keep up that pace, but the bats will produce enough runs for this team to win games in the tight NL East.
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| 2 |
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4-3 |
The name change angered faithful fans of the Anaheim Angels this offseason, but they should welcome the change if it allows the Angels to keep signing big names. Nothing especially notable out of them last week, but they’re still the favorites in the AL West.
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| 3 |
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3-4 |
Another blown save by Mariano Rivera is cause for worry, as are a couple errors by A-Rod. That said, Randy Johnson doesn’t look bad and the Yankees lineup is still among the best in baseball. They’ll contend, as always.
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| 4 |
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4-2 |
Maybe Smoltz forgot that he needed to pitch multiple innings in his first outing, because it makes no sense that he could be so bad the first game and so good the second game. The Braves are going to depend on good pitching this year, everyone knows that, and based on the results of the first week there’s no reason they can’t stay up here.
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| 5 |
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3-4 |
Boston has not gotten off to a particularly good start, and David Wells hasn’t looked promising at all. Keith Foulke hasn’t started strong either. A couple losses to Toronto don’t help the cause, but they are 2-2 against the Yankees so far.
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| 6 |
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2-3 |
Mulder didn’t pitch well in his first game as a Cardinal, but not bad enough to really warrant too much worry. They have a great lineup once again and I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see it improve after the replacement of E6gar Renterria with David Eckstein.
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| 7 |
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3-3 |
Johan Santana is flat out terrifying when he’s on top of his game. He wasn’t in the opener, but got better Sunday against the White Sox. The AL Central should be a pretty tight division, and a healthy Joe Mauer will go a long way in helping the Twins to another division title.
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| 8 |
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4-3 |
The Dodgers signed J.D. “L” Drew to a big deal this offseason, and he has two hits so far. The last player the Dodgers signed to a big deal? Darren Dreifort. Cesar Izturis and Jeff Kent aren’t going to hit around .400 all year, and I would be surprised to see this team stay here all year.
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| 9 |
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4-2 |
Their rotation scares me, and not in a good way. They were really good last week though, and if they keep that up the White Sox will also contend in the AL Central. It’s going to be an extremely tight division, so they need to keep winning close games.
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| 10 |
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3-4 |
Injuries plague the Cubs, news at 11. This team can’t survive without their pitching, and Dusty Baker seems intent on proving that. I’m betting that he leaves Prior out for over 100 pitches when he comes back, and Prior gets injured again. I don’t want it to happen folks, its just reality. Healthy, they’re still one of the best teams in the MLB.
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| 11 |
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4-2 |
We know their pitching will be solid, but the question about this team is whether Bagwell and Biggio can continue to produce. So far, the answer has been yes.
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| 12 |
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3-4 |
Bob Wickman hasn’t looked good at all so far, and the management has been rather dubious (Ryan Ludwick starting over Grady Sizemore?). Jhonny Peralta’s defense hasn’t been impressive either. I still think this team will compete in the AL Central, but I’m definitely less sure about that now that they decided to not hit or field in the first week.
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| 13 |
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3-4 |
I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see this team contend in the AL West. Pitchers shouldn’t be happy to see this lineup, but Seattle’s own pitching is a bit of a question mark. So far, they haven’t been great, but Seattle should be able to win with what they did last week more often than not.
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| 14 |
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3-3 |
This team has a really solid lineup, and they will also compete in the AL Central. Every team in that division is solid though, and their weak rotation will really hurt them as the season goes on.
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| 15 |
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4-2 |
Bonds has said he’s out for half the season, and if they continue playing at the level they have been the first week, they may just be in position to make the playoffs when he returns. Three wins over Colorado isn’t overly impressive, but they need to beat the teams below them until Bonds comes back.
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| 16 |
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4-3 |
Splits against the Pirates and Rockies to start the season don’t bode well. This team has a good lineup on paper, but they can’t seem to produce runs consistently. The pitching is rather weak after Peavy, and I’d be surprised if X (Nady) continued to give it to ya’ the whole season.
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| 17 |
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3-3 |
Pat Burrell and the offense has got off to a quick start, but the bullpen has been pretty awful. Five relievers with 8.00+ ERA’s is a problem.
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| 18 |
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3-3 |
Harden was good in his first appearance, but Zito has been terrible (11.57 ERA in his first two games). This team isn’t going to put up huge numbers of runs for the bottom of the pitching rotation, so Zito needs to pick up wins.
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| 19 |
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3-3 |
Another team with rather poor bullpen work so far. Sosa has done nothing so far, but their offense should get better than it was last week. They still won’t contend in the AL East, plus the Nationals are stealing their market according to Peter Angelos.
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| 20 |
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4-2 |
The AL East leaders! Their closer, Batista, has been okay so far, and the entire offense has been consistent, but they’re in a division with the Yankees and Red Sox. They won’t be absolutely terrible, but they’re not winning the division.
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| 21 |
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2-5 |
Pedro mirrored John Smoltz in his first two starts, terrible first innings followed by incredible second outings. The pitching behind Pedro hasn’t been good though, and Mike Piazza looks like he’s ready to fall off huge this season. Beltran and Wright need to produce for this team.
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| 22 |
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4-2 |
Hey, they were the last undefeated team in the MLB. If they continue their play from last week, they’ll at least finish ahead of the Pirates and Reds (which isn’t saying much). At least Ben Sheets is fun to watch. It sure would be nice to watch him and Oliver Perez battle it out for the next 6-7 years, but the Pirates are never going to be able to hang on to Perez and the Brewers will have a tough time keeping Sheets.
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| 23 |
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3-3 |
Casey and Dunn should hit a lot of home runs, but they’ll strike out a ton too. It would be nice to see Griffey play the whole season. They have really weak pitching; this team will battle it out with the Pirates for last in the NL Central.
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| 24 |
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3-3 |
Same old D-Rays. They annihilate lefty pitching and look clueless against righties. Hopefully they’re able to keep this team together though, because they should be really good down the road.
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| 25 |
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3-4 |
Texas’ bullpen has been absolutely abysmal so far this year. They don’t have good starting pitching either. The young bats won’t be enough to carry this team if the pitchers keep performing like this.
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| 26 |
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3-3 |
You know, eventually people are going to realize that the Nationals are just the Expos in different uniforms. Those people are going to be mad. You can’t not love Brad Wilkerson though.
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| 27 |
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3-3 |
Vazquez picked up right where he left off last season, 15.43 ERA. They had to resort to attempted assassination by Craig Counsell to get Derek Lowe out of the game. Don’t expect too much out of the D-Backs.
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| 28 |
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3-4 |
The Royals were really pathetic in their opener, but they also beat the Angels twice. They’re really not all that good, I’ll watch them once or twice when Greinke is pitching, just to see if his curveball is as insane in real life as it is in MVP 2005.
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| 29 |
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2-5 |
Oliver Perez and Kip Wells? 10+ ERA’s. Mark Redman, Josh Fogg and Dave Williams? All lower than 1.59 ERA’s. Adding to the bizzaro world of the Pittsburgh Pirates were Craig Wilson, who cut off his pretty hair and grew a creepy moustache and Rick White, who walked in the winning run in a 1-0 game.
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| 30 |
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1-4 |
Poor Todd Helton. Every year he puts up great numbers, every year the Rockies suck and get rid of key players. I’d love to see him traded to a contender later on, but I think he’s the only reason people still buy tickets out in Colorado.
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One reply on “MLB Power Rankings April 11th 2005”
interesting I’m back and forth on the marlins. half the time i think they’re going to the series, half the time I think they’ll be Completely Useless By September. So its interesting you ahve them first. But I dont think beckett’s going anywhere, he’s going to have more blister problems that affect his pitches. I think Cardinals should have been lower than the Twins since I havent been all that impressed with StL bats and twins just have reliable, solid pitching. but pretty impressive ranking overall…