Author: Garrett Rudolph

The season is winding down, and most division winners are firmly locked into their places. However there are still 12 teams marching around 8 open chairs, waiting for the music to stop. The team that has to feel the most pressure is the Detroit Tigers, who have spent most of the season casually atop the division, and now suddenly they can hear the Twins and White Sox coming up behind them and it might be too late to start pedaling harder.

The National League Wild Card still takes a mathematician to figure out who has a chance and who doesn’t, so I think we’ll just have to let the dust settle and figure it all out when it’s over.

We’ve finally gotten another no-hitter (ending the longest drought in MLB history), and although I wasn’t able to fulfill a life-long dream of seeing one in person, or even watching it top to bottom on television, I did get to see the final six outs on live TV, and I thought I was going to cry right along with Anibal Sanchez. I held it back. Barely.

Some other goings on have postseason implications- Mark Mulder is shutting it down for the season to have his torn rotator cuff repaired, Eddie Guardado is doing the same for a torn ligament in his elbow, and superstars Pedro Martinez, Hideki Matsui, and Gary Sheffield are still yet to return. On the other side of the coin, Big Papi is back in the lineup, and Flash Gordon has come back just in time for the Phils. But the loudest whispers on the injury news wire involve a guy named Liriano, and I’m not talking about Nelson.

Another old and crafty left-hander has been shipped from a pretender to a contender, but does the three-time All-Star, two-time Cy Young candidate, one-time 20 game winner, still have anything left in the tank?

Will Ryan Howard chase after the Ruth/Maris homerun mark in his first full major league season?

Will Delmon Young’s work with the bat in his hand be enough to erase the memory of his classless act of throwing one?

And how about those Marlins? Their entire team should just be awarded one huge Rookie of the Year Award to share, but will they have enough talent to keep them close in the Wild Card race? I can guarantee that if they make it to the postseason, they’ll be the number one team nobody wants to face.

And, oh, yeah, I almost forgot, we have new top dog.

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.

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.

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.