MLB Power Rankings April 19 2005

The second week in the MLB featured one team playing exceptionally well (the Dodgers) and two teams playing horribly (the Rockies and Pirates). Here’s the power rankings after that, comments and disputes are always welcome.

Rank(Pv)	Team	Record	Comments
1(8)		11-2	They don’t have any one player producing really great numbers, but everyone is contributing a little bit. Odalis Perez has been pitching really well, he’s 3-0 in his three starts, and the rest of the pitchers have been solid. It’s tough to beat a team which has any number of players who can step up each game, as evidenced by the Dodger’s seven game winning streak.
2(9)		10-4	Their starters have all been really solid so far. Nothing great, but no starter has really taken them out of games the way other teams’ fourth and fifth starters have.
3(1)		8-6	The Marlins pitching has continued to be remarkable. They’ve given up just 29 runs, while the next best team, the Astros, has given up 40. In addition to that, their opponents only hit .200 against them. If their pitchers keep up that sort of effort, they can easily continue to be a middle of the pack team offensively and win.
4(19)		9-5	What’s Brian Roberts, like 5’2″? There’s obviously a slim chance he’ll actually lead the league in home runs, but its fun to cheer for him for a while at least. Bruce Chen’s CG 4 hitter against the Yankees was a nice surprise as well.
5(20)		9-6	You really can’t say anything about the Blue Jays. Gustavo Chacin has established himself as the Rookie of the Year frontrunner, despite being pretty ugly. Halladay is pitching extremely well to this point as well.
6(6)		8-4	Well, they’ve been crushing the Pirates the last couple games, which isn’t really anything to get excited about. They have put up decent numbers offensively, yet don’t have any regular starters over a .300 batting average.
7(4)		7-7	Raul Mondesi hasn’t been good, and Andruw Jones hasn’t had the breakout season some expected so far. Hampton and Hudson have tried to make up for it, but even though they each have ERAs less than one they only have two wins in six starts combined.
8(2)		7-7	Paul Byrd was rather surprising in his last start, going 8 innings against the Mariners and giving up just 1 run. K-Rod has been as good as advertised so far, giving up 2 hits and no runs in 4 appearances.
9(5)		8-6	The Red Sox offense has continued to be good this year, they’re fourth in runs with 75. Wakefield has been solid yet again for the Sox, even though David Wells and Curt Schilling have left something to be desired early on.
10(10)		7-7	Prior has been great, but Kerry Wood has not looked good at all. He’s given up seven runs to the Padres and five runs to the Reds in his last two starts. The rest of the Cubs rotation hasn’t been anything special either. Derek Lee needs to continue what he’s doing right now with 16 RBI.
11(7)		8-6	The injury to Morneau hurts the Twins, and Kyle Lohse has continued his performance from the end of last season. Santana is 3-0, despite his 4.00 ERA.
12(17)		7-7	Billy Wagner hasn’t given up any runs in 6 appearances, while Tim Worrell has a 10.80 ERA after 7 appearances. Burrell has continued hitting home runs well and now has 5, but the team only has 9 total.
13(26)		8-6	They’ve only lost one series, against the Marlins, but they can’t keep that up with no starters over a .500 winning percentage. The change of scenery has been good for Jose Guillen.
14(13)		7-7	Gil Meche is 1-0 in his three starts despite a 6.14 ERA. That’s the sort of run support a lot of pitchers would like, but it won’t be there all year. Both Meche and Sele (6.19 ERA) need to improve for the Mariners.
15(21)		7-7	The Mets have recovered from their slow start to make it back to .500. Maybe a 7 HR effort today will help jumpstart an offense that his been in the bottom third of the league.
16(15)		6-6	A heartbreaking loss to the Dodgers early last week after a big mistake in LF has to have Giants fans longing for Bonds’ return. Brett Tomko has been terrible so far, giving up 6 runs to the Padres last start.
17(18)		7-7	This team basically did the same thing the last two weeks. The offense has not been good, and Zito continued his rough start last week. Harden has continued his good start though, with a 0.68 ERA.
18(25)		7-8	Pedro Astacio has been good, but no one else has stepped up so far. If they’re really trying to trade Alfonso Soriano, they need to get some pitching.
19(23)		7-6	Ramon Ortiz’s injury really hurts them. Their lowest ERA for a starter is Aaron Harang with 3.93. They shouldn’t continue to have the same amount of home runs as the Brewers though.
20(11)		6-7	The 2nd worst team in the league in terms of power with only 8 home runs in 12 games. Clemens doesn’t look like he’s ready to retire yet, with a 0.43 ERA in three starts. Despite that, he only has one win.
21(3)		5-9	It’s still early in the season, but the Yankees and especially Joe Torre are on the hot seat. The only team that has let up more runs is the Colorado Rockies, a bad sign for a team that wanted to focus on pitching last offseason. Seeing Randy Johnson pick up his first loss can’t make Steinbrenner any happier.
22(12)		6-8	Scott Elarton started off well, but he gave up five runs to the Royals today. C.C. Sabathia was solid on his return from the DL though, picking up the win against the Twins, making Elarton less of a problem.
23(16)		6-7	The Padres got shutout twice against the Dodgers over the weekend. Khalil Greene suffered a broken finger, which really hurts this team as that makes Geoff Blum their starting shortstop.
24(14)		6-8	Well, as long as Jeremy Bonderman pitches against the Royals he’s okay. He’s let up two runs to the Royals in two starts against them, while the Indians scored seven on him.
25(22)		5-8	They signed Sheets to a deal this week, which should make Brewers fans happy. Unfortunately, losing a 6-0 lead to the Dodgers earlier today won’t, and neither will this current five game losing streak.
26(27)		7-7	They’re 7-7, but four of those wins came against the Rockies and they got swept by the Nationals. I’d be really surprised if they were still at .500 after next month.
27(24)		5-9	They broke a 4 game losing streak today with a 6-2 win over Randy Johnson and the Yankees after 19-8 a shellacking the previous night. Their starters have 2 wins total.
28(28)		5-9	Well, they managed to score five runs against Scott Elarton of the Indians and pull out the win, but they’re still second to last in runs scored with 43.
29(29)		4-10	You know a team sucks if the hitter that started out the season at the number three spot in the lineup is now no longer an everyday player. Either that or your manager sucks. Monday’s ninth inning against the Cardinals was painful to watch.
30(30)		3-10	There’s a rumor of Todd Helton being traded to the Orioles, but I don’t think it’s very likely. As much as I would love to see Helton on a good team, no one wants his albatross of a contract.