An entire MLB season has come and passed, and here are the final power rankings going into the playoffs. As always, comments and criticisms are appreciated.
Rank(Pv) |
Team |
Record |
Comments |
| 1(1) |  |
100-62 | The Cardinals were the only team in the MLB to reach 100 wins this season, and they only just got there. |
| 2(2) |  |
99-63 | The White Sox were having problems a couple weeks ago, but now they’ve won five straight going into the playoffs. |
| 3(5) |  |
95-67 | The Angels finished the season on quite a tear, earning home field advantage in the ALDS against the Yankees. |
| 4(3) |  |
95-67 | New York managed to make the playoffs yet again after a pretty poor start. Perhaps most important to the Yankees were the contributions of Shawn Chacon and Aaron Small while the rest of the rotation was in disarray. |
| 5(6) |  |
95-67 | Jonathan Papelbon has excelled in the 17 appearances he’s made this year, but he really has a chance to make a name for himself with some solid work in the set-up role this postseason. |
| 6(4) |  |
93-69 | The Indians fell just short of the playoffs in agonizing fashion, but it is obvious that this is a team that will be contending for a good amount of time, starting next season. |
| 7(7) |  |
90-72 | Andruw Jones is the single player that contributed most to the Braves’ playoff run this season, but they certainly couldn’t have done it without rookies like Jeff Francoeur and Kyle Davies. |
| 8(8) |  |
89-73 | The Astros have had a remarkable season, going from one of the worst teams in the league and talk of trading Roger Clemens, all the way to a playoff berth as the NL Wild Card team. |
| 9(10) |  |
84-74 | The Phillies did all they could to make the playoffs in the last few weeks of the season, but in the end it just wasn’t quite enough. Jimmy Rollins still deserves a lot of credit for turning it on at the end of the season like he did. |
| 10(9) |  |
85-72 | Oakland fans can’t be too disappointed at the way their team finished. They started as one of the worst teams in the league, so the type of second half they had was really a nice surprise. |
| 11(11) |  |
83-79 | New York should be optimistic about next year. If they can shore up the bullpen in the off-season then they should be contending next year. |
| 12(16) |  |
83-79 | Johan Santana finished the season strongly yet again, giving up one run or less in nine of his last 13 starts. |
| 13(17) |  |
82-80 | Unfortunately, the Padres managed to barely scrape above .500. The odds of the Padres getting swept are so high, that you should actually lose money if you bet on that and they do. |
| 14(14) |  |
83-79 | With all the clubhouse drama of late, the Marlins need to bring in a disciplinarian style manager. Could they convince Lou Piniella to stay in the state? |
| 15(12) |  |
81-81 | Milwaukee’s streak of seasons without a winning one is still alive thanks to the Pittsburgh Pirates, who are perhaps determined to get a winning season before the Brewers. |
| 16(13) |  |
81-81 | No teams in the NL East finished below .500, perhaps none more remarkably than the Nationals. It was a memorable opening season for the team’s stay in Washington that also showed a great deal of promise for the future. |
| 17(18) |  |
80-82 | Josh Towers certainly surprised most this season in leading the Blue Jays with a respectable 3.71 ERA. Towers, a more experienced Gustavo Chacin and a healthy Roy Halladay should enable Toronto to bea pretty good team next year. |
| 18(19) |  |
79-83 | Derrick Lee had a truly fantastic season, leading the league in average (.335) while hitting the second most homers in the NL (46). He fell behind in the RBI race though, which is really quite understandable considering his team. |
| 19(21) |  |
77-85 | Arizona didn’t have a great season, but compared to last year’s 111 losses it was practically a division title (which they, sadly, only missed by five games). |
| 20(15) |  |
79-83 | The Rangers really need to find some competent pitching this winter. Finishing below .500 with that offense is kind of sad. |
| 21(20) |  |
75-87 | If you would’ve told me before the season that the Giants’ offensive leaders would be Ray Durham and Pedro Feliz, I would’ve expected this type of season for the team. |
| 22(25) |  |
74-88 | The Orioles have quite a few problems to deal with this offseason, especially what to do and how to replace Sammy Sosa, Rafael Palmeiro and (for the beginning of the year) Brian Roberts. |
| 23(24) |  |
71-91 | J.D. Drew wasn’t that much of a bust for the Dodgers when he played, but he actually played in less than half the games this season. |
| 24(22) |  |
71-91 | Alan Trammell was finally fired after a year in which the Tigers underachieved hugely. He did a lot to help move them away from the culture of losing that had been so prominent when he took over, but there was obviously nothing more he could do with that team. |
| 25(23) |  |
73-89 | The Reds finished the season pretty pathetically, going 2-8 in their last 10 games. |
| 26(27) |  |
69-93 | The Mariners needed one of their unproven starters to step up this year, but none of them did (except Felix Hernandez, but he came much too late to help Seattle). |
| 27(29) |  |
67-95 | Jack Wilson had a miserable season for sure, but he did show signs of improvement throughout September, hitting .350 in that month. |
| 27(26) |  |
67-95 | The D-Rays showed a lot of potential in the second half of this season, but the winning has to start with a commitment by the owner this off-season. The chances of that are low, especially since Lou Piniella cited that as a reason for his leaving. |
| 28(28) |  |
67-95 | Todd Helton led the Rockies in nearly every offensive category yet again. On the defensive side, Jaret Wright’s 5.46 ERA somehow ended up as the best on the team. |
| 30(30) |  |
56-106 | Zach Greinke had a very difficult year, hopefully he can get his head back around for next season (just in time to get clocked again). |