Category: MLB General

The All-Star Game has past. The trade deadline has past. Barry Bonds’ grand jury has expired. Which means the playoffs are rapidly approaching, however, while this should be the beginning of the most exciting stretch of the baseball season, we are inundated with news from football training camps across the country, and for some of us, a panic that our basketball team might pack their bags and head east.

And speaking of heading east, your faithful weekly power rankings writer will be doing the same, taking a jaunt into the Idaho wilderness for an obscure music festival in the mountains. How does this affect you? It probably doesn’t, but for four days you’ll be able to talk all the smack you want without me being able to defend myself.

Welcome again to another week of the Sportscolumn Power Rankings. The Tigers extend their lead in the AL Central and the Yankees have overtaken the Wild Card. The Dodgers have fallen off the face of the earth and Cincinnati is still clinging to playoff hopes by the skin of their teeth. And although the division leaders are all still the usual suspects, half of baseball is still in the playoff hunt. Right now there are 12 teams within four games of the division leader and 3 more teams within four games of the Wild Card.

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.