MLB Power Rankings for September 21st- 2006

Welcome everybody to the second-to-last MLB Power Rankings of the season. By this time next week we’ll know who’s going to be playing baseball in October and who’s going to be playing golf. We’ll know whether or not Ryan Howard joined the 60-homerun club (he needs three), and whether Alfonso Soriano became the charter member of the 50-50 club (he’ll need a massive last couple days, 5 homeruns and 10 stolen bases). We’ll also know exactly how many homeruns Barry Bonds will need to catch Hank Aaron if he comes back and plays next year, and how many wins Roger Clemens will need to catch Denton True Young, better known as Cy (it’ll be somewhere in the 170 range, but I think he might be able to do it.).

So baseball fans… read on, enjoy, feel free to question, comment, and complain, and I’ll talk to you again next week for the season wrap-up.

Rank (Pv)	Team	Record	Comments
1 (1)		92-60	Did you think Matsui was going to be as rusty as Ben Roethlisberger in his return from the DL? Think again. Godzilla has hit .385 with an OPS of 1.067 since returning from a broken wrist.
2 (2)		92-58	The Mets have clinched their division, for the first time since the cocaine fueled ’88 team that lost the NLCS to the eventual world champion Dodgers.
3 (3)		89-61	The naysayers have been talking all year about Joe Mauer, but with two weeks left in the season Mauer still stands alone at the top of the batting average race. Jeter trails the young catcher by 4 points.
4 (6)		87-63	Rich Harden is listed as the probable starter for Thursday’s game.
5 (5)		90-61	Despite the Tigers lackluster second-half performance, they still have the best starting pitching in baseball, with an ERA of 3.95, and the third best relief pitching with an ERA of 3.38.
6 (4)		85-66	The Tigers and Twins are both talking magic numbers, it’s starting to look like the White Sox will need a miracle to sneak into the playoffs.
7 (8)		81-70	Bartolo Colon and Darren Erstad have played a combined 43 games and have been paid a combined $22 million.
8 (7)		80-69	Jason Isringhausen is done for the season, but this could be a diamond in disguise for the Cards. Isringhausen has been shaky all season long, and with his departure, the closing duties will go to either 25-year old Adam Wainwright or Braden Looper.
9 (9)		79-72	The Monday night game between the Dodgers and the Padres was one of the most amazing spectacles I have ever seen. Not only did the Dodgers hit back-to-back, back-to-back home runs, but the last three homeruns were hit on three consecutive pitches, the last two from one of the greatest closers of all time.
10 (11)		79-71	Sure, the Padres have a team and a ballpark built more on pitching, but they have scored less runs than any team within five games of a playoff spot.
11 (10)		81-70	The Boston Red Sox three mid-season acquisitions have been completely ineffective. Doug Mirabelli (acquired more for his defense than anything else) has hit just .184. Javy Lopez (acquired for Jason Varitek’s absence) has hit almost as bad, at .190, and Eric Hinske (acquired because the Sox couldn’t make any moves of relevance) seems to be the most successful of the three, with a .220 average, although he’s only knocked in two RBI since being acquired by Beantown.
12 (13)		79-73	Pat Gillick has an extensive track-record of building winning franchises and simultaneously stripping them of their young talent and leaving the team depleted and reeling for years to come. Gillick was the architect of the back-to-back World Series Blue Jays teams. The Jays haven’t finished higher than third since the ’93 season. Gillick left Toronto in ’94. When Gillick became the GM of the Orioles they hadn’t been to the playoffs in 13 years, but made it to the playoffs in ’96 and ’97. The Orioles haven’t had a winning season since. And more recently Gillick held the reigns the Seattle Mariners, who won 90+ games for four consecutive seasons before Gillick left in ’03. Seattle then became the first team in history to record consecutive 90+ loss seasons directly after consecutive 90+ win seasons. One thing seems certain: Philadelphia will have success under Gillick, but it will cost them the future.
13 (12)		80-72	Going into the All-Star break, the Blue Jays offense looked devastating, with a team OPS 14 points higher than the next closest team in the American League. Since the All-Star break, however, their team OPS is down to .769, ninth in the AL.
14 (14)		77-76	Kevin Millwood is a classic example of how pitchers suffer as the season goes on, pitching in the Texas heat. Millwood was second in the league in ERA last year. This year he has a road ERA of 3.70, but his home ERA is over 5.00.
15 (15)		74-77	Florida has slipped to five games back in the Wild Card race, and three games under .500, but what they have accomplished this season shouldn’t be overlooked because the will fail to make the playoffs. They have the best starting ERA in the National League (4.08), and third most wins from their starting staff (59).
16 (16)		75-76	Matt Cain was a preseason hopeful for the Rookie of the Year award, but initially didn’t look like he was ready for the big leagues. Lately, however, Cain has been filthy, putting up an ERA of 2.65 in August and 2.25 in September. The Giants had won his last six consecutive starts, until getting blown up in Colorado on Tuesday.
17 (17)		74-78	Obviously he no longer has ties with the Reds organization, but as a former player and manager for the team, this might be the best place to bring up Pete Rose. Pete Rose will do anything for money, including trumping a charity auction, and selling baseballs signed with the inscription, “Sorry I bet on baseball.” I’m not going to buy one of his baseballs. I’m holding out for the day he starts selling his autographed Vegas betting slips.
18 (18)		73-78	Craig Biggio is hitting .143 over the past 30 games, the lowest average of any 30 game stretch in his career.
19 (21)		74-78	The Braves signed Bob Wickman to a one-year extension for $6.5 million, which could be an indicator as to where the Braves plan on heading for next year. Obviously they wouldn’t have offered an extension to him at this point in the year if they were planning on rebuilding the team with a focus on younger talent. Wickman has converted 15 of 16 saves for Atlanta, with an ERA of 1.19.
20 (19)		71-79	Over the past five years there have been five different World Series winners, heading back to the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks, and none of them will be in the playoffs this year, guaranteeing that there will be the sixth different winner in six years.
21 (20)		68-83	Out of boredom one day I tried to name all 30 major league managers. I got through 29, but couldn’t remember Ned Yost, manager of the Brewers. This either says something about me, or about Ned Yost, and I’m not sure which.
22 (22)		73-79	Yuniesky Betancourt is getting quite a bit of fanfare in Seattle as an up-and-coming superstar shortstop, but he is a perfect example of how broken the Mariners organization really is. Granted, his .290 batting average looks promising, but in almost 550 at-bats Betancourt has only walked 17 times. Betancourt’s approach is a major reason the M’s have the third worst on-base percentage in baseball, but the 14th best batting average.
23 (23)		71-81	At this point in the season it is surprising that the Colorado Rockies don’t have a single player on the disabled list. They are the only such team in the National League.
24 (24)		70-80	Cleveland has done a fantastic job of compiling their young offensive talent for a very low salary (24th lowest in the league), but it will probably take them spending some money on pitching if they are going to make that next step of competing with the Twins, Tigers, and White Sox. Sabathia and Sowers look like they should be pretty sold starters in the future, but they definitely need another couple starters and the closing situation is far from solved.
25 (25)		66-86	What the Baltimore Orioles do in the off-season regarding Miguel Tejada will reveal a great deal about the inner workings of the franchise. There should be five or six team seriously interested in picking up Tejada if the price is right. In the AL East, the Orioles will have to focus more on building for the playoffs two or three years in the future, not as much for staying competitive for next season.
26 (26)		66-86	Nick Johnson has to be one of the most underrated players in baseball. He has a career on-base percentage of .395, and this year he is hitting .283 with 23 homeruns, and ranks second in walks (107), third in on-base percentage (.430), and ninth in OPS (.955).
27 (28)		64-87	If Ian Snell can win one more game this season he’ll be the first Pirate to notch 15 since Todd Ritchie did it in 1999.
28 (29)		62-91	Despite the Cubs awful record, Wrigley Field is still set to draw in excess of 3,000,000 fans, 6th most in baseball. They’ve filled 95.4% of their capacity, second only to Boston.
29 (27)		58-94	The Devil Rays were so upset that last week’s rankings had them ahead of the Pirates despite two more losses that they went ahead and lost eight games in row, so as to remove all doubt.
30 (30)		58-93	Jimmy Gobble (who leads the Royals pitchers in strikeouts with 75) should get in touch with Coco Crisp’s agent and see about doing some Thanksgiving endorsements.