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Sunday, June 17, 2012

NEW POWER RANKINGS



UPDATED: 2012 Power Rankings
 66 GAME MARK.
Barton Silverman/The New York Times

TOP 10 TEAMS 
10. Atlanta Braves.  (35-31) not ranked last poll. 4-6 in last 10 games. 4 games back of Washington I am still a believer that the Braves are a playoff team. With Brandon Beachy the NL ERA leader headed to the DL they will look to hold their ground in the NL East. Currently 8th in overall runs scored while only 16th in ERA but 27th in Quality Starts. Need better Starting pitching and they need young slugger Freddie Freeman to get healthy. 

9. San Francisco Giants. (37-30) not ranked last poll. 5-5 in last 10 games.  Still well behind the Dodgers in the West as they trail by 5 but they certainly have inched closer the last few weeks. Matt Cain fresh off a perfect game my finally get some respect around baseball as a illegitimate top tier ace.  Nothing new here they still have a brutal offense as they suprisingly rank 8th in team batting but rank 22nd in runs scored. The pitching has been brilliant aside from Lincecum as they are a clear cut top 5 staff in baseball. Sunday wraps up all that has been and continues to be wrong with the Giants as they just don't score enough runs to be a top 5 team, they took another 2-1 loss. 
8. Cincinnati Reds. ( 38-27) not ranked last poll. 7-3 in last 10 games. First place in the Central up 4 games on Pittsburgh. Playing solid baseball lately led by of course Joey Votto who is on pace for 70 something doubles- ridiculousness. Surprisingly the Reds rank 6th in ERA while they are only in the middle pack on runs scored. Jay Bruce leads the team in Home Runs (15) and RBI (44)  Johnny Cueto has been lights out and if he had any doubters he has done a fine job trying to change people's minds. He is leading the team in Wins (8) ERA (2.38) and K's (67) and would have to show up on most Cy Young ballots somewhere.
7.  Tampa Bay Rays. (37-29) ranked 7th last poll. 6-4 in last 10 games.  3.5 back of the Yankees in the East as they are currently 3rd in the division.  How Joe Maddon does it, no one knows. Spectacular at nothing they plot on and remain a potential playoff force. 14th in runs scored and 7th in overall team ERA you have to wonder if Maddon has used all the magic up in that wand. If the point of the game is to win games then I guess no other stat matters right? Getting the organizations best player back in Evan Longoria should reinforce the offense. Without Matt Joyce I don't know where the Rays would be. He leads the team in hits (56) Home Runs (11) and average (.283) 
6. Baltimore Orioles. (39-27)  not ranked last poll. 7-3 in last 10 games. Can you believe Baltimore is only 1.5 games back of the first place in the AL East? If you predicted that in April then you are a liar. Ranked 9th in overall runs scored and an above average team ERA with 3.78 the Orioles have been playing solid baseball all season long. Buck Showalter should get a lot of the credit but it's not like he is the one scoring the runs. Adam Jones is probably the AL MVP at this point in the season and if the Orioles want to remain in the playoff hunt he will have stay in the top 5 the remainder of the season. .311/18 HR/ 39 RBI/.360 OBP/ 82 hits. 
5. Los Angeles Angels.  (36-31) ranked 10th last poll. 7-3 in last 10 games. Throw all the stats on the Angels out the window as the slow start killed all the pretty numbers. The Angels have roared back into the picture doing so while ace Jered Weaver is on the shelf. The Angels are who we thought they were a great team. A very deep lineup led by Mike Trout,  Mark Trumbo and of course Albert Pujols they are scoring runs in bunches and with the pitching they have should push the Rangers in the second half. Mark Trumbo has been the teams MVP to this point as he leads in all major offensive categories. 
4. Texas Rangers. (40-27) ranked 4th last poll. 7-3 in last 10 games. Well they got to beat up on the Astros over the weekend so that will always solve good teams problems. Statistically the Rangers offense ranks first in all major categories while their pitching ranks right about 10th in overall peformance compared to the league. This will always result in a lot of regular season wins. Most will still consider the Rangers the best team in baseball but i see things differently. It is very difficult for a team to reach 3 consecutive World Series, so to think that they can just snap their fingers and automatically roll over teams in the Divisional Series and ALCS is not right. Will Yu Darvish hold up in the Texas heat? Will fragile body and minded Josh Hamilton hold up? Right now they remain strong and certainly one of the favorites in all of baseball. 
3. Washington Nationals. (38-26)  ranked 3rd last poll. 6-4 in last 10 games. Up 4 games on the Braves it's no secret how they been winning games on a regular basis. Pitching has been the formula as they rank at the top of almost all major pitching categories led by Strasburg and Gio as both are Cy Young candidates entering the second half. Questions remain as they don't score a whole lot of runs currently 25th in overall run production. Can the pitching carry the entire season? It's time Ryan Zimmerman and the offense step up and put up a crooked number every once in a while. When Adam LaRoche is your offensive MVP then you have problems. Can a team with no offensive stars make arun in the playoffs? Yes, but can they win the whole thing? Ehhhhh Giants? 
2. Los Angeles Dodgers. (42-25) ranked 1st last poll. 6-4 in last 10 games.  What you don't know about the LA Dodgers- well they have been holding their own without all world Matt Kemp up until this point. The offense isn't as bad as everyone assumes. You have to look at the stats people. Currently 2nd in overall OBP which is leading to a respectable 12th in runs scored. (6th in team batting average) What you probably already know the pitching has been outstanding. 2nd in ERA and 3rd in Quality Starts along with a bullpen that has stepped up their game which  has made manager Donny Mattingly look real good this year. They just locked up Andre Ethier long term and they are starting to build something in real LA not fake Anaheim L.A. 
1. New York Yankees.  (40-25) ranked 10th last poll. 9-1 in last 10 games.  Finally the Yankees have come back.... to the top spot in baseball. It's official they are the hottest team in baseball in the toughest division.  Jeter,Cano, Granderson, A-Rod, Swisher, Teixeira good luck opposing pitchers. Courtesy of ESPN check out the bats of the Bronx Bombers, not much more is needed to be said. 

BATTING
NAMEGPABRH2B3BHRRBITBBBSOSBCSBAOBPSLGOPS
Brett Gardner928592003115720.321.424.393.817
Derek Jeter642773987120621117203751.314.361.422.784
Robinson Cano6525344762111231135263910.300.367.534.900
Eduardo Nunez20517152105195661.294.356.373.728
Alex Rodriguez642383564601031100295660.269.360.420.780
Eric Chavez419992670384271800.263.306.424.730
Nick Swisher5821426561801040104205011.262.325.486.811
Chris Stewart19545142007161900.259.273.296.569
Curtis Granderson652574766912140140377433.257.353.545.897
Mark Teixeira6223433591601139108273511.252.332.462.794

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