mlb power rankings: athletics stay on top, reds start to climb - mlb

8/12/2019 MLB Power Rankings: Athletics stay on top, Reds start to climb - MLB

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MLB Power Rankings: Athletics stay on top, Reds start toclimb - MLB

Another week, another first-place finish for the Athletics, who once again grabbed all seven votes forthe top spot. Hard on their heels are the Brewers, who jumped from fifth to second, pushing theGiants down to third place. The Angels remained at No. 4, with the resurgent Cardinals roundingNike Dri-Fit T-Shirts out the top-five.

They're No. 1: Athletics. For the second week in a row, Oakland is the unanimous No. 1 on our list.It's not hard to see why: The A's have the best record in the majors at 47-29 (.618) and the best rundifferential (+135) by a whopping 86 runs over the Giants (+49). Oakland took two of three fromhttp://www.hamilton.edu/athletics the rival Rangers and three of four from the Red Sox this week,and nearly rallied to sweep Boston on Sunday before losing in extra innings. The A's now have a five-game lead over the Angels in the American League West, the second-largest advantage for anydivision frontrunner, just a half-game behind the Brewers' 5-game edge on the Cardinals in theNational League Central.

Cellar Dweller: Diamondbacks. True Grit took another hit, as Arizona lost five of seven to theBrewers and Giants. One loss to Milwaukee came in part because of a focus on "tough-guypoints," when manager Kirk Gibson ordered the retaliatory plunking of Brewers star RyanBraun, followed immediately by fistbumps when the offending pitcher, Evan Marshall, was ejectedand then -- d'oh! -- Jonathan Lucroy's go-ahead grand slam. The Snakes are now 15 games under.500 and 15 games behind in the NL West, so one has to think that the end of the Kevin

Towers/Gibson regime is approaching. When Josh Byrnes and A.J. Hinch were dispatched as generalmanager and manager, respectively, in mid-2010, Arizona was 17 games under .500 (31-48) and15 out.

Biggest Riser: Reds. With eight wins in its last 11 games via series victories over the Brewers,Pirates and Blue Jays, Cincinnati has climbed to .500 and into third place in the NL Central, thoughit actually lost half a game in the division race in the process. Billy Hamilton has heatedup (.324/.354/.527 this month) to secure his spot atop the Reds' lineup, while both JayBruce and Ryan Ludwick have returned to the land of the living. The former has hit.279/.346/.544 in June, compared to .197/.314/.318 prior, while the latter has produced a sizzling

.410/.452/.692 line in part-time play after batting just .246/.314/.352 through May. Not everybody isred-hot; Tony Cingrani has been sent to Triple A Louisville after getting raked for a 5.81 ERA with18 walks in 31 innings since returning from the disabled list in mid-May, but at least his demotionheralded the arrival of Jumbo Diaz.

Biggest Faller: Rockies. What a week for Colorado. In their six games, all losses, the Rockies wereoutscored by 25 runs, were no-hit by Clayton Kershaw in one of the most dominant pitchingperformances in major league history last Wednesday, gave up three runs on a wild pitch onSaturday and made 10 errors. If there's any solace to be had, it's that they faced two good teams,the Dodgers and Brewers, avoided a major injury and Nolan Arenado (broken finger) could begin

a rehab assignment soon. Still, Colorado's monthly winning percentages now read like this: .571,.462, .300. Hate to say we told you so.

A few words about the...
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Angels: C.J. Cron is ready for his close-up. The 24-year-old rookie homered in three straight gamesto help the Angels sweep the Rangers at home after dropping road series to both the Indians andBraves, taking over the league's No. 2 spot in run differential (+42) in the process. Through 116plate appearances, Cron is hitting .286/.310/.536, a strong enough showing that the brassunconditionally released the struggling Raul Ibaez (.157/.258/.265) on Sunday in order to carveout more playing time.

Is this the end of the line for the 42-year-old Ibaez? From here, he seems likely to get one moreshot, given that just last season, he bopped 29 homers and has both a history of providing power off the bench (think 2012 postseason) and a great reputation in the clubhouse. Don't bet on him to giveup; this is a man who persevered to rack up 289 homers from age 29 onward after hitting just 14prior.

Cardinals: St. Louis was dealt a major blow on Sunday when both Michael Wacha and JaimeGarcia hit the disabled list with shoulder injuries. That Garcia's surgically-repaired left shoulder isaching again isn't a huge surprise given that the joint has bothered him since early 2012. The stressreaction in Wacha's right shoulder, however, is a major concern. There's no fracture there, butthere's also no timetable for his (or Garcia's) return, meaning the Cardinals will be without their No.2 starter indefinitely.

This could be an opportunity for Carlos Martinez, who made a spot start in place of AdamWainwright a week ago and remained in the rotation this past weekend, to become a permanentmember of the starting staff. Tyler Lyons, who just returned to Triple A from his own shoulderissue, is likely to fill the other spot. St. Louis also disabled Kolten Wong on Saturday due to yetanother shoulder injury, one that has been blamed for his struggles at the plate this year. Theseinjuries have taken some of the steam out of the Cardinals' surge. They had won eight of ninethrough last Tuesday, but were just 2-3 over the remainder of the week.

Blue Jays: Having gone 3-7 on a road trip through Baltimore, the Bronx and Cincinnati, Toronto hasnow lost 11 of 15, shrinking its AL East lead from a generous six games to a measly 1. The Jayshave lost more than that along the way, as both Brett Lawrie and Jose Bautista left Sunday'sloss to the Reds with injuries.

Lawrie suffered a fractured right index finger after being hit by a Johnny Cueto pitch. Though hisoverall numbers don't look like much, Lawrie had shaken off an all-or-nothing April (.192/.243/.384with six homers and little else) to hit .277/.333/.440 since. He could be out three to six weeks, a lossthat leaves Toronto with a platoon of Munenori Kawasaki and Steve Tolleson at second base

(where Lawrie had seen considerable time in recent weeks) and Juan Francisco at third. As forBautista, he left with a left leg injury that required an MRI, results of which are pending at thiswriting. The slugger is hitting .305/.433/.526 with 15 homers and an AL-best 59 walks (he also leadsthe league in OBP). Limited to just 210 games over the past two seasons, he has yet to miss a gamethis season.

1

1Oakland Athletics

last week: 1POINTS: 210


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High Vote: 1st (7x)

Low Vote: N/A

2

2Milwaukee Brewers

last week: 5

POINTS: 199

High Vote: 2nd (5x)

Low Vote: 5th

3

3San Francisco Giants

last week: 2

record: 197

High Vote: 2nd

Low Vote: 3rd (6x)

4

4Los Angeles Angels

last week: 4

record: 182

High Vote: 2nd

Low Vote: 9th

5

5St. Louis Cardinals

last week: 6

record: 177

High Vote: 4th (2x)

Low Vote: 7th (3x)


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6

6Toronto Blue Jays

last week: 3

record: 169

High Vote: 4th

Low Vote: 10th

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7

7Los Angeles Dodgers

last week: 9

record: 167

High Vote: 5th (3x)

Low Vote: 14th

8

last week: 7

record: 164

High Vote: 4th

Low Vote: 12th

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9

last week: 11

record: 153

High Vote: 6th

Low Vote: 10th (4x)

10

last week: 12
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5/9

record: 146

High Vote: 7th

Low Vote: 13th

11

last week: 13

record: 139

High Vote: 8th

Low Vote: 14th

12

last week: 8

record: 132

High Vote: 6th

Low Vote: 15th

13

last week: 15

record: 130

High Vote: 8th

Low Vote: 20th

14

14Atlanta Braves

last week: 10

record: 124

High Vote: 9th

Low Vote: 16th

15

15Cincinnati Reds


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last week: 20

record: 115

High Vote: 13th

Low Vote: 16th (2x)

16

16Pittsburgh Pirates

last week: 18

record: 103

High Vote: 12th

Low Vote: 19th

17

last week: 14

record: 98

High Vote: 15th

Low Vote: 19th

18

18Cleveland Indians

last week: 16

record: 95

High Vote: 15th (3x)

Low Vote: 23rd

19

last week: 21

record: 79

High Vote: 17th

Low Vote: 23rd (2x)


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20

20Boston Red Sox

last week: 22

record: 72

High vote: 18th

Low Vote: 22nd

21

last week: 25

record: 64


Low Vote: 24th (2x)

22

22Colorado Rockies

last week: 17

record: 63

High Vote: 16th

Low Vote: 26th

23


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23Texas Rangers

last week: 19

record: 61


Low Vote: 28th

24

last week: 23

record: 52

High Vote: 19th

Low Vote: 26th

25

last week: 27

record: 41

High Vote: 24th

Low Vote: 27th (2x)

26

last week: 24

record: 39

High Vote: 21st

Low Vote: 28th

27

27Chicago Cubs

last week: 26

record: 38

High Vote: 18th


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Low Vote: 30th

28

last week: 30

record: 21

High Vote: 24th

Low Vote: 30th

29

last week: 29

record: 18

High Vote: 27th

Low Vote: 30th

30

30Arizona Diamondbacks

last week: 28

record: 11

High Vote: 28th

Low Vote: 30th (4x)

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mlb power rankings: athletics stay on top, reds start to climb - mlb

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