MLB Power Rankings for August 24th- 2006

The Detroit Tigers seem to have lost their stranglehold on the #1 slot, but keep it because they were able to win two games against the division rival White Sox. Perhaps I’m just an optimist in thinking that National League teams have as much chance at winning a World Series as American League teams, but the New York Mets still hold the #2 slot. The Yankees looked primed to make the upward jump after sweeping the Red Sox in a critical five-game series, but then go and lose two of three to the pathetic Seattle Mariners. As they say, I guess that’s why they play the games.

On a more individual note, two veterans changed teams this week: Jamie Moyer brought his 200 career wins to the City of Brotherly Love and Shawn Green takes his 300 career homeruns to the Big Apple. Two other players had significantly different outcomes with non-baseball related ailments: Tom Glavine avoided surgery on a possible blood-clot, while Chan Ho Park went under the knife, hoping to solve internal bleeding.

Rank (Pv)	Team	Record	Comments
1 (1)		81-47	For the first time since arriving in the #1 slot, the Tigers’ position looks shaky. Young arms are getting tired because they’ve never pitched this much, and old arms are getting tired because they’ve been pitching this many innings year after year. Although the Tigers still have the best record in baseball, I think one of the New York teams will surpass the Motor City Kitties by next week’s rankings.
2 (2)		78-48	Mets fans breathed a sigh of relief on hearing that Tom Glavine will not require surgery. He should be back on the mound within a week. The Mets continue to impress (despite being a supposedly inferior National League team); they’ve won seven in a row.
3 (3)		76-50	The Yankees five game sweep of the Red Sox at Fenway cemented New York as the team to beat for the remainder of the season and leading into the playoffs. They showed that they can pound opponents into submission, but they can also be patient and do the little things to win close games. Their only weakness is their starting pitching.
4 (4)		75-52	Although it doesn’t sound serious, Thome’s hamstring pull should concern Sox fans. He’s spent a great deal of time on the DL over the past two seasons, and the Sox will need his bat if they’re going to maintain their Wild Card lead.
5 (5)		74-52	Joe Mauer is just now showing why catchers don’t win batting titles. The wear and tear the position takes on the human body causes the batting average to drop lower and lower as the season goes on. In May, Mauer hit .386. In June he hit .452. In July and August he has hit a combined .293. However, he does maintain a 20 point lead in the batting title race.
6 (7)		72-55	You’d think Oakland fans would be pretty happy where the Athletics are at right now, but that is not necessarily the case. Check out www.firemacha.com if you’re looking for a kick in the pants.
7 (6)		71-56	The good news for Boston is that David Wells looked like the ace he used to be. The bad news is that it’s David Wells looking like an ace while Schilling and Beckett get destroyed.
8 (8)		66-60	A dozen little leaguers can’t be wrong. Out of the 15 members of the Missouri Little League World Series team, I think 13 said their favorite player was Albert Pujols.
9 (11)		67-61	Garret Anderson has been such a consistent performer over the past half-dozen years, it’s weird to see his numbers slumping the way they were earlier in the season. His bat is finally starting to heat up: after hitting under .250 during May and June, he’s hit .296 in July and .329 in August.
10 (9)		67-60	What has happened to the Blue Jays? Three weeks ago they were in the race for the AL East pennant. Then there was a tiff between management and Shea Hillenbrand, so Hillenbrand went away. Now, it’s a fight in the tunnel between manager John Gibbons and Ted Lilly.
11 (12)		67-61	The injury to Eddie Guardado is a heartbreaker. The aging closer had found a revitalization in Cincy, but his health has been in question for quite some time now. He’s been placed on the 15-day DL, but he might be out for the rest of the season.
12 (10)		66-61	Brad Penny has too much talent to let it go to waste by becoming an emotional time-bomb. The Dodgers need his arm on the mound and his anger directed at his opponents- not teammates, coaches, umpires, fans, media, etc.
13 (15)		65-62	Chan Ho Park underwent surgery to stop his internal bleeding, but team officials say he could be back on the mound at some point in the season. I wouldn’t bet on it.
14 (13)		66-63	Carlos Lee changed his mind about allowing Scott Boras to represent him this off-season, which is fine by me. Boras is baseball’s equivalent of Drew Rosenhaus, except baseball players get guaranteed contracts, which kind of makes him worse, in a way.
15 (18)		64-63	The Jamie Moyer trade is interesting, because last season he vetoed a trade that would have sent him to the Astros and potentially would have given him a chance to play in the World Series. Moyer gave up three earned runs in six innings in his victorious Philadelphia debut.
16 (14)		62-65	The Shawn Green trade will allow Carlos Quentin a chance to show whether or not he has what it takes to be an impact player in the majors. Right now he’s hitting .239 with 4 homeruns in 29 games, but his playing time will go way up now that the expensive veteran is no longer in the desert.
17 (17)		62-66	Despite a 6-7 record Noah Lowry is one of the few young bright-spots on the Giants. He has an ERA of 3.92 and he’s only 25. Imagine if Matt Cain ever lives up to expectations, and if the Giants have any chance of re-signing Schmidt, their pitching staff could be formidable in the next year or two.
18 (16)		60-68	It seems this year has been a year for hitting streaks. Jimmy Rollins started the season by ending his 30+ game streak; Chase Utley had his, and Manny Ramirez put together almost 30 games. Now Willy Taveras is aiming for 28. Which means it’s time for a couple interesting facts about hitting streaks. When Dimaggio hit in his 56 consecutive games his batting average over the streak was .408, and after his streak ended he immediately started another streak that lasted 16 games (perhaps as impressive as his 56 games, is the fact that he hit in 72 of 73 games). Also, in the same season, Ted Williams became the last player to hit over .400 (.406 to be exact), and had the longest hitting streak of his career, a mere 23 games.
19 (20)		62-65	Geoff Jenkins is the highest paid position player on the Brewers at over $7 million. Offensively he’s nowhere near the highest producing player at .251-10-58. His batting average is down over 20 points from his career, his on-base percentage down about 40 points, and his slugging almost 100 points.
20 (21)		59-67	Bob Wickman has been successful on all nine save chances since getting traded to Atlanta.
21 (22)		60-66	39 of the Marlins 58 wins this season have come from rookie pitchers.
22 (19)		59-68	Rumor says SS Kaz Matsui will return to Japan after the season ends. In his three major league seasons he failed to live up to his Ichiro comparisons, hitting .272, .255, and this year, .209.
23 (23)		58-69	T-shirt seen at Seattle’s Hempfest: Seattle Marijuaners. I think this might be the only possible explanation for the Mariner’s recent losing streak.
24 (24)		58-68	Since his earlier struggles with the DL and cheeseburgers, Sabathia has looked solid. He leads the American League in complete games with 5 (in only 22 games) and has the fifth best ERA (3.30).
25 (26)		56-71	Some news on a former Oriole: Albert Belle is going to the slammer, sentenced to 90 days in prison for stalking. And I always though he was a stand-up human being. Oh, except for that time he threw a baseball at a fan who called him Joey. Oh, and that other time…
26 (25)		54-73	NL Rookie of the Year favorite Ryan Zimmerman has been mired in an 0-14 slump, which might be enough for Dan Uggla, Josh Johnson, or Andre Ethier to steal it away.
27 (27)		52-76	Manager Joe Maddon has suggested the Devil Rays might switch to a six-man rotation for the rest of the year, which I think more teams should consider. Teams that are out of the playoff hunt and have a multitude of young pitchers, like the Devil Rays, the Marlins, Rockies, and Giants, should switch to a six-man rotation just to regulate the innings of their youngsters. It still allows them to get regular work, but it seems like it would save muscles, ligaments, and tendons better for the long run by allowing them to build up their innings year by year. Scott Kazmir’s arm is far too valuable to waste the same way the Cubs wasted Prior and Wood, and the Athletics may have done to Rich Harden. Only time will tell.
28 (28)		54-73	Wade Miller has become the forgotten guy in Chicago with the perpetual injuries to Wood and Prior. After putting up an ERA of about 3.50 from 2001 to 2004, Miller has spent this entire season on the DL, recovering from shoulder surgery. In ’04 and ’05 combined he only made 31 starts.
29 (29)		50-78	When will teams like the Pirates learn? The only way to win with a sub-par payroll is to spend money wisely, and spend it on youth first, veterans second, or not at all. Two examples: Jeromy Burnitz, age 37, $6 million (.229, 16 homeruns); Joe Randa, age 36, $4 million (.271, 3 homeruns). I would also have included Sean Casey in this list at the beginning of the year.
30 (30)		46-83	The Pirates and Royals both. I just don’t get it. The Royals are going nowhere. Not this year, not next year, and probably not the year after that. What good does it do to re-sign Mark Gruzielanek? And why would Grudzy want to sign an extension? I’m sure there are a few teams that would be interested in giving up a prospect in exchange for a veteran, particularly the Detroit Tigers.