At this point in the season, we’re starting to separate the playoff contenders from the pretenders. The contenders are mostly the usual suspects, with the addition of the recently red-hot Dodgers, the Twins, who remain within striking distance, and the Reds, if they can maintain at least their wild card lead after an important set with the division leading Cardinals. The pretenders, on the other hand include a mix of the usual suspects and some teams that normally don’t fall into that category. The pretenders: Seattle, who has lost 17 divisional games in a row; Toronto, who continues to firesell its expendable players despite being only 6.5 games out; Atlanta, whose pitching looks worthless for the first time in 15 years; and Houston, who despite only being 6.5 games out, doesn’t look to have any ability of making a late-season run and will probably finish the year well under .500.
Rank (Pv) |
Team |
Record |
Comments |
| 1 (1) |  |
79-42 | The Tigers have lost a key component in second basemen Placido Polanco. Polanco is the hardest hitter in the game to strikeout, an important off-set to free-swingers like Curtis Granderson and Brandon Inge. |
| 2 (2) |  |
72-48 | The injury to Pedro Martinez should concern Mets fans, but a banged up Martinez is still better than most other pitchers in the league. The thing that I think the Mets should be worried about is getting complacent over the last two months of the season, with the NL East title all but wrapped up. The potent New York offense has only slugged .432 since the All-Star break. |
| 3 (3) |  |
70-48 | In Derek Jeter’s improbable quest for MVP one stat sticks out as particularly interesting. Jeter has a groundball to flyball ratio of over 3.5. Compare that to similar hitters like Joe Mauer (1.97), Freddy Sanchez (1.05), Michael Young (1.59). Luis Castillo has the second highest ratio at 3.35 and Preston Wilson was third at 2.35. |
| 4 (5) |  |
72-48 | Chicago pitching might be struggling, but the Sox have enough punch in their offense to overcome just about any defecit. Thome, Konerko, Dye, and Crede are on pace to combine for 150 homeruns. |
| 5 (4) |  |
70-50 | With Liriano out, the rest of the Twins’ Staff will have to pick up the slack. Radke appears to have returned to his old self- his 2.80 ERA since the All-Star break is lowest among Minnesota pitchers. Carlos Silva and Boof Bonser need to show some consistancy. Rookie Matt Garza got lit up in his Major League debut, but shows a ton of promise, holding hitters to a .174 average in Triple-A. |
| 6 (6) |  |
69-50 | The Red Sox got a big monkey off their backs by winning the World Series in 2004, but now they have another monkey to deal with. The Red Sox have taken second place in the AL East for 8 eight consecutive years, and look to headed for number nine. |
| 7 (7) |  |
68-52 | In case anybody was curious, Jeremy Brown, Billy Beane’s fat catcher from Moneyball has an on-base percentage of .325 with 10 homeruns in 63 games at Triple-A Sacramento. |
| 8 (8) |  |
64-56 | Mark Mulder will be making a rehab start on Thursday, but it’s hard to say whether or not he’ll be much help. The southpaw had an ERA of 6.09 before being put on the disabled list (June 23rd). His ERA last year was 3.64. |
| 9 (9) |  |
65-56 | Reed Johnson has silently put together a breakthrough season. The Blue Jay outfielder is third in the league in hitting (.335), seventh in on-base percentage (.411), and tenth in opS (.926). |
| 10 (12) |  |
64-57 | It seems I’ve had something to say about Greg Maddux every week since he was traded to Los Angeles, and this week is not an exception. Anybody who watched Maddux throw against the Giants was treated to a rare glimpse of pitching mastery. In eight innings Mad Dog allowed two hits, no runs and only threw 68 pitches. Schmidt was almost as dominant, but the Blue Crew won the game on a Russel Martin solo homerun. |
| 11 (10) |  |
63-59 | On paper the Angels looked to have the best bullpen in baseball before the season started, but it hasn’t turned out that way. K-Rod has been solid and Scot Shields is one of the underrated setup men in the game, but Brendan Donnelly has never bounced back from the pine-tar incident, and JC Romero has been a disaster (7.09 ERA). Their bullpen has a team ERA of 4.27, 19th in the majors. |
| 12 (11) |  |
62-59 | Eric Milton (8-7, 5.01) hasn’t made much of an impact since his return from the disabled list, but he has had four consecutive starts in which he gave up three runs or less. |
| 13 (14) |  |
62-60 | My favorite single-player fan club of all time is, by far, the Padilla Flotilla, from when he played in Philadelphia. It was a group of guys who brought paddles to every game Padilla threw and they would perform a synchronized rowing dance after every strikeout. I fully intend on restarting this tradition at my next possible opportunity. |
| 14 (15) |  |
61-60 | Johnny Estrada is one of the finalists for the NL Comeback Player of the Year Award, but I’m not completely sure why. He played 105 games last season. Regardless of the merits of the award nomination, he is having a great season, hitting .301 with 57 RBI. |
| 15 (13) |  |
60-61 | Todd Walker has given the Padres some much needed offense, since he came over from Chicago. In 13 games he’s gotten on-base at a .375 clip. |
| 16 (18) |  |
58-63 | Once again, the longball has become Brad Lidge’s undoing. Manager Phil Garner says that Qualls, Wheeler, and Miller will make up his closer by committee for the remainder of the season. |
| 17 (17) |  |
58-63 | A scary thought: If Barry Bonds wants a ring as bad as he says he does, there might be a legitimate chance that he’ll sign a one-year contract with a team like the Yankees (short porch in right, unlimited payroll), Red Sox (near unlimited payroll, hole in leftfield with or without Manny), or Oakland (if he’s willing to play for pennies on the dollar). |
| 18 (19) |  |
59-61 | Not much attention has been paid to Jimmy Rollins this season, since his hit streak ended (that carried over from last year), but the Philadelphia shortstop has put up about the kind of year everybody expects him to: .275-.337-.464, 18 HR, 53 RBI, 27 stolen bases. Four of his homeruns have come within the past week. |
| 19 (21) |  |
59-62 | Jason Jennings and Jeff Francis have flown under the radar for most of the season, because they play in Colorado and have a combined 16-18 record, but their ERAs are stunning (3.34 and 3.39). If they played in New York, Boston, or Los Angeles we’d be calling them aces. |
| 20 (22) |  |
57-64 | Corey Hart: Isn’t he the guy who wears his sunglasses at night? |
| 21 (20) |  |
56-64 | Andruw Jones was placed on waivers, but later retracted when teams claimed him. This has to mean that the braves will be entertaining offers for the superstar centerfielder in the off-season. Last year Jones lead the league in homeruns and RBI, but came in second place in MVP voting. Dante Bichette was the last player to lead the league in both HR and RBI and not win the MVP (1996). |
| 22 (23) |  |
56-64 | Jeffrey Loria, you truly are something I scrape off the heel of my shoe. I was reminded how much loathing I have for you when you were heckling an umpire on balls and strikes (as fans, heckling is our right; as a team owner, it’s simply being a loudmouthed jerk-off). You go and make things worse by scheduling a press conference to announce you’ve fired your team’s manager because he asked you to stop heckling (a manager, remember, who will probably win Manager of the Year). However, this is only a portion of why I think so lowly of you. Before the 2003 season began you owned the Montreal Expos, and, like a spoiled child you complained that the team couldn’t be profitable, and thus cajoled Bud Selig into purchasing the team (which, in itself, is a ridiculous concept, that one team could be owned by the other 29 MLB teams). You took the PROFIT of the sale to purchase another notoriously unprofitable baseball franchise, won a World Series, then sold off enough talent to have a payroll $30 million less than the next cheapest team. |
| 23 (16) |  |
56-65 | Rookie Mark Lowe is causing quite a fuss in Seattle. The flame throwing right-hander loaded the bases in his major league debut, but escaped the inning without allowing a run. Since then, he’s entrenched himself as a reliever who is unaffected by inherited runners. In 17+ innings Lowe has yet to allow an earned run. |
| 24 (24) |  |
54-66 | Shin-Soo Choo has been swinging the bat with a vengeance since being traded. The 24-year old Korean was only hitting .091 when he left Seattle. With Cleveland he has hit .336 with a .991 OPS and 15 RBI in 16 games. |
| 25 (26) |  |
53-68 | I’m not a betting man, but if I were, I’d probably have to say the Nationals are not going to catch the Mets. |
| 26 (25) |  |
53-68 | I’ve got to think Miguel Tejada will be moved in the off-season to whatever team offers the best pitching prospects. Baltimore is not the right place for him, and when you really look at the numbers he’d be a bargain at under $12 million. Perhaps the Angels and Red Sox would be among the teams in the bidding. |
| 27 (27) |  |
48-73 | The much anticipated arrival of BJ Upton hasn’t made waves the way Devil Rays brass would have liked. Upton made his Major League debut in ’04 when he hit .258 in 45 games. This year, in 15 games, Upton is struggling to keep his head above the Mendoza line- he currently sits at .189 with two RBI and one stolen base. And one thing I don’t understand is that his name is Melvin Emmanuel, but his initials are BJ. Can anybody explain that? |
| 28 (28) |  |
52-68 | As a starter Ryan Dempster never really amounted to his potential, never really more than about a .500 winning percentage, but in two seasons as the Cubs clsoer he’s put up respectable numbers (6-8, 37/44 saves, ERA about 3.50). |
| 29 (29) |  |
46-75 | Mike Gonzalez is the only closer in the majors without a blown save in at least 20 opportunities (21/21). Joe Nathan of the Twins has the second highest conversion percentage (26/27). |
| 30 (30) |  |
43-79 | Surprisingly the Royals have the second highest pinch-hitting average in the majors (.288). The Tigers have the highest at .312. The Royals have been playing pretty good ball as of late, sweeping the Red Sox and taking two out of three from the White Sox in impressive fashion. |
6 replies on “MLB Power Rankings for August 17th- 2006”
Jeremy Brown Brown has also had three stints in the big leagues and I bet is up for good next season. That would make four guys from that draft class established in the majors which is a drafting home run. There could be a fifth as Benjamin Fritz isn’t too far away.
Are you a mets fan? — How can you possibly make them the #2 team in the Power Rankings? They’re 3-4 in the last week and one of the wins was against a Phillies pitcher that isn’t ready for the big leagues. They’re still a top 10 team but they shouldn’t be #2.
Agree I’ve been saying that for the longest. An NL simply doesn’t belong in the top 4 or 5. It’s not that they’re not good, they’re just inferior. I can’t explain why. It’s just like an unwritten rule.
just heard girardi and the marlins will most likely part ways after the season is over.
No. I am not a Mets fan. Nobody has yet given any reason why the Mets cannot be the second best team in baseball, or make a genuine run at winning the world series– the only thing they can say is that national league teams are inferior, as if its some unwritten rule.
They have a great offense, a very solid defense and a ton of speed. However, I say all this before the Glavine news has come fully to light… If Glavine is really done for the season, the Mets will be in serious trouble come playoff time, and even more so if Pedro is not 100%.
Da Mets OK…first off, the Mets are in a divison where the second place team is .500. Only 6 teams are above .500 in the NL, and they’re BARELY at that!!
The Mets pitching is slowly falling apart in the NL! The NL has one GREAT hitter, Albert Pujols. That’s it. No lineup in the NL is a legite threat. The Red Soz won the series with them this year, the Orioles won their series, and they split with the decrepit Yanks of mid-season. They couldn’t hang in a series today.
The NL is full of mediocrity, it’s pathetic really. The Mets haven’t felt what it is to be in a real series. Playing OK teams all year simply prepares you enough to be an OK team.
Early on in the year, I would have agreed that the Mets were a top 3 team, but given how some teams have improved, and other haven’t, I’d say they’ve fallen from the glory given by a lineup “on paper.”
Better than the Yanks, BoSox, ChiSox, Tigers? Not a chance! Twins, maybe.