MLB Power Rankings for July 20th- 2006

The trade deadline is nearing and teams are taking it to the wire trying to figure out who should be buyers, who should be sellers, and who should just stand pat.

It seems there are quite a few more superstar caliber players on the trading block this year than in past years, a list which includes Greg Maddux, Alfonso Soriano, Bobby Abreu, Miguel Tejada, Shea Hillenbrand, Carlos Lee, Adrian Beltre, John Smoltz, Barry Zito, Jason Schmidt, and Juan Pierre. So far, things have been relatively quiet on the trading front, but that shouldn’t last for too much longer.
The trade deadline is nearing and teams are taking it to the wire trying to figure out who should be buyers, who should be sellers, and who should just stand pat.

It seems there are quite a few more superstar caliber players on the trading block this year than in past years, a list which includes Greg Maddux, Alfonso Soriano, Bobby Abreu, Miguel Tejada, Shea Hillenbrand, Carlos Lee, Adrian Beltre, John Smoltz, Barry Zito, Jason Schmidt, and Juan Pierre. So far, things have been relatively quiet on the trading front, but that shouldn’t last for too much longer.

Rank (Pv)	Team	Record	Comments
1 (1)		64-31	The Tigers have stretched their major league lead to 5.5 games over the next best White Sox. While the Sox have only won three out of their past ten games, the Tigers have done the exact opposite, winning seven of ten.
2 (2)		58-36	During the first half of the season the Sox beat the Tigers in five out of six games, but so far in the second half they’ve only come out on top in one game out of the three game series. Nine games remain between the #1 and #2 teams in baseball.
3 (3)		57-36	Boston wasted no time in signing off-season acquisitions Coco Crisp and Josh Beckett to contract extensions. Both will be in Beantown through 2009.
4 (4)		57-38	After a hot start, rookie Lastings Milledge has cooled off. The top NY prospect is hitting .233 with 3 homeruns in 24 games.
5 (5)		55-37	You would think the Yankees farm system would be depleted after making last second trades every single year, but I’d say it is likely they’ll pull off another move before July turns into August.
6 (6)		53-41	Former Cy Young candidate Mark Mulder (2nd in ’01) has the highest ERA of any starter on the Cardinals staff, at 6.09.
7 (7)		52-42	Shea Hillenbrand is getting all the wrong kinds of attention with his little dugout escapade, and it’s not only hurt his own value, but has also hurt the Blue Jays ability to get fair market value for a career .290 hitter. They need pitching, but at this point, who wants to give up an arm for a whiny third baseman?
8 (8)		53-40	I hate to talk about Francisco Liriano every week, but he amazes me more and more each time he takes the mound. He is 11-2. His ERA a mere 1.94. His batting average against is a knee-wobbling .196. And the best part is that he is 22 years old.
9 (9)		50-44	Rumor has it the Padres have a great deal of interest in acquiring Adrian Beltre from the Mariners. Although Beltre has scorched NL pitching this year, he hasn’t proven he’s still a homerun threat. His numbers have come up dramatically since the beginning of the season, but he still only has 7 homeruns. Combine that power-shortage with Petco Park and that could be a disastrous move. However, history tells us that all takers come out on top when dealing with Seattle.
10 (10)		50-45	Despite the fact that Zito’s contract ends after this season and he has hired Scott Boras to negotiate a big-dollar contract in the off-season, there is almost zero chance Zito will be dealt before the deadline. The A’s have a proven track record of losing superstars without getting anything in return, yet they continue to replenish their team with young talent.
11 (13)		50-46	So far Guardado has looked like an incredible pickup for the Reds. He has converted all four save chances in six appearances, has an ERA of 1.59 and a WHIP of 0.43.
12 (12)		49-46	Kevin Millwood has finally looked like the pitcher Texas thought he would be. Millwood has won his last two starts with an ERA of 2.77. They’ll need his arm if they’re going to stay in the AL West race.
13 (11)		47-48	Has anybody noticed the Dodgers have an infield made up of three shortstops? Izturis (3B), Furcal (SS), and Garciaparra (1B). Even Jeff Kent (2B) has played some games in his career at short.
14 (19)		48-46	The Angels have finally shown some life, emerging as one of the hottest teams in baseball since a few games before the All-Star break, and it’s been their pitching that has made the difference. On the season their team ERA is a bit over 4.00. For the month of July it is 2.74 and they have eight pitchers on the staff that have ERAs under 2.25 in July.
15 (15)		48-47	The Giants have said they won’t ship Schmidt, but I have a hard time seeing him in a San Fran jersey next year. There are so many teams in desperate need of an arm I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody made an offer that was too good for the Giants to refuse.
16 (14)		45-49	The Rockies haven’t won a game since before the All-Star break, so despite being within striking distance of the wild card race, they’ll likely become sellers, if they make any moves at all.
17 (16)		46-49	Houston picked up Aubrey Huff, and is rumored to be in the mix for Miguel Tejada or Alfonso Soriano, but the truth is that their chances of picking up either superstar before the trade deadline is extremely slim, and their bullpen is so bad they can’t afford to waste too much time in a losing battle for the two big bats.
18 (20)		47-47	The Diamondbacks are a confusing team. They start off slow, catch fire and become one of the hottest teams in baseball, and then fall to pieces after one of their bottom end players gets caught up in the drug scandal. Now, they’ve won seven out of their last ten and have re-entered both the NL West chase and wild card talks.
19 (17)		45-50	Seattle will be neither a buyer nor a seller before the trade deadline. There is a rumor that the M’s have made a play for Soriano, but it sounds as if the offer was half-assed at best. At five games under .500 their best move is to stand pat and not mortgage next year’s team for a hobbling attempt toward the AL West pennant. They’ll have a fair amount of salary room open up after this year, when the salaries of Guardado, Everett, Piniero, and Moyer come off the books.
20 (26)		45-50	As soon as I open my loud mouth and refer to it as a “foregone conclusion” that the Braves will not make the playoffs, they go on a tear and get themselves back in contention for the NL Wild Card. Also, their pickup of big Bob Wickman should shore up the end of their `pen. Big Bob has converted 90% of his saves over the past six seasons.
21 (18)		46-50	All-Star Derrick Turnbow has turned into a train wreck as of late. He has blown four saves in his last seven appearances and has an ERA of 29.70 in July.
22 (21)		43-50	Chase Utley currently has a 21-game hitting streak, the third longest in the majors this season.
23 (22)		42-52	Congratulations to Slider, the Cleveland Indians mascot for his (her? Its?) nomination for the Mascot Hall of Fame. Thus far Slider has edged out the Seattle Moose by about 10,000 votes as the top vote-getter of MLB mascots. However, Slider trails Clutch the Bear of the Houston Rockets by almost 3.5 million votes. You can show your support at www.mascothalloffame.com.
24 (23)		44-53	Tejada wants out of Baltimore and the O’s are ready for him to go, but it seems unlikely that a move will be made until the off-season begins. It always seems that when a superstar player leaves his playoff caliber team in search of the almighty dollar stories abound within a year or two that the player is unhappy as a member of his losing ballclub that signs his rather large paychecks.
25 (24)		42-52	Probably three-quarters of the league has asked the Marlins about trading the D-Train, and they’ve yet to waiver in their stance that he will not be traded. It’s almost as if they know something that nobody else does about Willis’ status in Florida. I have a sneaking suspicion he’ll be be wearing Florida teal again next year.
26 (25)		40-56	The Soriano sweepstakes has begun. It doesn’t seem to be a question of whether or not he will be moved, but to whom and for how much. Washington should be able to get some sold young talent in exchange for the perfect example of a rent-a-player.
27 (27)		39-56	As bad as the Devil Rays are, they’ve only been shutout three times this year. Compare that to, say, the Mariners, who have been shutout 10 times already, and the Tampa Bay offense isn’t sounding quite as bad.
28 (28)		36-57	Perhaps I’m being overly critical, but Juan Pierre seems to be more a player who steals bases than he is a basestealer. He has stolen 294 bases since 2001 (most in the majors), but his career stolen base percentage is only 74%. Compare that to Ichiro (77%), Dave Roberts (78%), Barry Bonds (78%), Kenny Lofton (79%), Derek Jeter (79%), ARod (80%), and Willie Bloomquist (84%).
29 (30)		34-62	The Pirates pitching staff leads the league in both walks (383) and batting average against (.292), which means there are a lot of baserunners for their opponents.
30 (29)		32-62	The battle for next years first overall pick in the amateur draft continues as the Royals have lost eight out of their last ten games to slide back into their familiar #30 slot.