MLB Power Poll

Welcome to the sixth edition of the isportsweb MLB Power Rankings. Once again, our panel of baseball experts examined the state of the game across both leagues and all six divisions. Each panelist has ranked the teams from best to worst, and has provided some key thoughts on how the year has unfolded thus far. New rankings will be submitted every two weeks throughout the regular season. John Mitchell was not available to participate in the rankings this week so Tal Venada our Phillies correspondent stepped in to help out.

Rising		Falling
+10		-7
+10		-7
+6		-5

Power Poll

#	+/-	Team	Comment
1	-		56-32: Best record in the American League East: Check. Best record in the American League: Check. Best record in Major League Baseball: Check. (Tim Anderson)
2	+4		54-34: The Rays are back after surging and winning eight of their last ten. They find themselves only two games behind the Yankees in the division. Pena is on another of his homerun surges. (Tim Anderson)
3	+1		52-36: The Braves have won their last 4 series: 2 at home and 2 on the road. They went into parks of the The Phillies and Mets, and won with dominant pitching. The strong return of Jair Jurrjens and the emergence of Kris Medlen have only created a more dangerous divisional opponent. (Tal Venada)
4	+1		51-37: The Padres have leveled off a bit having lost back-to-back series to the red hot Rockies and slumping Nationals. The last series San Diego has won was a 3 game sweep of the Marlins, June 25-27. Pitching and defense are the reason the Padres remain in first place in the NL West. They lead all of baseball with a 3.25 team ERA and are second in baseball with just 33 errors. (Rob White)
5	+10		49-38: The White Sox have won 25 out of their last 30 games!!! Wow. What a streak. The apparent season ending injury to Jake Peavy has done nothing to rattle the red hot White Sox. How long can they stay this hot isn’t really the question. What fans are wondering is can they play winning baseball the rest of the year and stay in the hunt. My answer to that; yes. (Joe White)
6	-3		51-37: All the injuries are starting to catch up to the Boston’s Sox. They find themselves at 4-6 in their last ten and five games behind the Yankees. They almost had a scare when Adrian Beltre and Kevin Youkilis nearly landed on the disabled list. (Tim Anderson)
7	-5		50-38: The Rangers slump into the break after suffering a shocking four game sweep at the hands of the Baltimore Orioles. However, the Rangers sent a sign to the rest of the American League that they are playing for keeps by acquiring Cliff Lee from Seattle. The Lee trade makes the Rangers front-runners to hold onto the A.L. West lead and play in October. (Tim Griffin)
8	+10		49-39: The Rockies are on a roll as they have won 4 straight series and 10 of their last 13 games. Colorado ranks second in baseball with 430 runs scored. Offensively they are led by young stud Carlos Gonzalez. CarGo heads into the break with a .314 batting average with 17 homers and 60 RBI. Ubaldo Jimenez hits the break with a sparkling 15-1 record, 2.20 ERA, and 113 Ks. The Rockies have more home wins than any team in the NL with 31. (Rob White)
9	+4		48-38: The Tigers continue to do good work against the weaker teams in baseball, exemplified by their sweep of the O’s this week. The good news came when they took 2 of 3 from the Twins this weekend, including slapping Francisco Liriano around for the 2^nd time in a row. The Tigers will shop for an 8^th inning arm to replace Joel Zumaya. If they land a good one, they will make a push for the division crown. (Joe White)
10	-2		43-35: Three walk-off losses in a row hurt, they become the second team this week to blow a six-run lead in the ninth. But still lead the Central by one game going into the break. The Reds still lead the NL in batting with a .272 average and in HRs with 108. (Steve Balestrieri)
11	+6		49-39: The Dodgers are hanging around thanks to a productive offense that has scored 423 runs which is good for 3rd most in baseball. They are still waiting for Andre Ethier to get back into a groove as he has just 3 homers since returning from injury back on May 31st. The Dodgers have won 4 straight series since they finished interleague play which was not kind to them. (Rob White)
12	-5		48-40: Cracks are starting to surface in their starting pitching, and Jose Reyes is having health issues. That’s important because he was driving the offense. The Mets are coming off a 2-4 home stand, where they had a 28-12 record before The Reds and Braves came to town. (Tal Venada)
13	-1		47-40: The injury-riddled Phillies are returning to health, which spells danger for The Braves and The Mets. The Phils lost 2 games to The Braves due to a 2-inning bullpen, which improved overnight with the return of Ryan Madson. The team goes into the break with a convincing 4-game sweep of The Reds. (Tal Venada)
14	-3		47-41: With the first half done, St. Louis still finds itself trailing the Reds for first in the division. The two teams have been amazingly close over the past couple of months, and in fact, this could be a historically tight race when all is said and done. Statsitically, the Cards remain the slightly superior team, though they need that to translate to the standings before the year ends. (Matt Strobl)
15	-1		47-41: The Giants have won 7 of their last 10, but they also find themselves in 4th place in the NL West. They continue to be led by their pitching staff which ranks 3rd in baseball with a 3.50 team ERA. Aubrey Huff leads the offense with a .295 average, 17 homers, and 54 RBI. The wildly disappointing Pablo Sandoval is now hitting .263 with just 6 homers and 34 RBI. (Rob White)
16	-7		46-42: Minnesota has fallen 3.5 games back in the Central. Some people look at this as a problem, but the Twins are quite comfortable coming from behind to win a pennant as we all watched last year. Ron Gardenhire never lets his team fall too far out of it and this year won’t be an exception to that rule. The Twins are down, but they will be back. (Joe White)
17	-7		47-44: A bad series in Chicago followed by losing two of three in Oakland meant the Angels were unable to take advantage of the Rangers’ recent woes. It is yet to be seen whether they will match the Rangers and try to add some players to guarantee another birth into October. (Tim Griffin)
18	-2		44-45: When you live by the homerun ball, you die by the homerun ball. Currently the Jays are dying as they have only one four of their last ten. Pitching remains an issue as they are 21^st in the MLB in team ERA. (Tim Anderson)
19	-		43-46: In the middle of nine players landing on the DL, including three starting pitchers, the A’s are a respectable three games under .500 at the All-Star Break. Texas is a big winning streak away, but this young squad has their eyes set on finishing over .500 and building on that going into 2011. (Tim Griffin)
20	-2		42-46: The Marlins went 6-6 in their last dozen games. Why? For every strength there is an equal weakness. Chris Volstad was just sent down to Triple-A, and he was a counted-on starter. They have fallen to 10 games out, which is a heavy lift. (Tal Venada)
21	+2		40-49: Ryan Braun’s game-winning hit Friday and big game on Sat. may have finally turned a corner for him in a horrible July slump. The Brew Crew trail only the Reds in slugging HRs but their pitching remains third from the bottom of the NL. (Steve Balestrieri)
22	+3		39-49: The Kansas City Royals have played better baseball under new manager Ned Yost and are one big hot streak away from getting in the mix in the division. The bottom line is KC just doesn’t have enough talent to make a White Sox like push. 4^th place will likely be their home for the rest of the year. (Joe White)
23	-1		39-50: The Cubs are simply not competitive. They need to sell before the deadline, unloading (at least) Derrek Lee and Ted Lilly before the pair walk away as free agents. (Matt Strobl)
24	-1		39-50: The Nationals have starting pitching woes, and Stephen Strasburg can only occupy 1 of the 5 slots. They are 14 games behind and went 5-6 in their last 11 contests. The Nats have a bright future but a bleak present. (Tal Venada)
25	+2		36-53: The best thing that Houston can say about its first half is that it is not baseball’s worst team. Don’t be surprised to see some big names on the trading block as the end of the month draws near. (Matt Strobl)
26	-2		35-53: July has been unkind to Seattle as the Mariners have managed only two wins. Coming into the season, high expectations have been thrashed by a 35-53 mark. The Mariners are the worst team in the American League whose name doesn’t start with B, and they have much higher payrolls than the other teams who share a similar record. (Tim Griffin)
27	+1		34-54: The Indians have packed it in and are just playing out the season…again. Hard to imagine it was just a few short years ago that they were in the playoffs and looking like an elite franchise. Cleveland needs pitching in a bad way. (Joe White)
28	-2		34-55: These guys can hit as they have cranked 100 long balls which is good for 3rd most in the NL. The problem continues to be an MLB worst pitching staff with a team ERA of 5.27. The other problem is that when the Diamondbacks aren’t bashing homers they are usually swinging and missing. Arizona hitters have fanned an MLB worst 817 times and the next closest team (Florida) has 698 Ks. (Rob White)
29	-		29-59: The Birds just came off an impressive four game sweep of the Texas Rangers. What more do you want? They are 5-5 in their last ten. (Tim Anderson)
30	-		30-58: Contrary to popular belief, the Pirates staff will not be pitching for the Home Run Derby during the All-Star break. A team ERA of 5.09 is not getting it done at all. Neither is the team’s .235 batting average, bottom of the National League. (Steve Balestrieri)