We are officially a month into the season and the likes of the Rays, O's, A's, White Sox and Marlins are in first place. Don't these guys know they are supposed to be in rebuilding years?
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| Dan Haren's Diamondbacks have the makings of a true contender. (Getty Images) |
The Rays have the best bullpen ERA in baseball at 2.26. The Marlins are third-best at 2.81, while the A's are fourth at 2.82. The O's are tied for a baseball-high seven relief victories with their No. 8 overall bullpen (3.39) and the White Sox are No. 10 in bullpen ERA at 3.60.
Pitching does win championships, but don't count on the Rays, O's, A's, White Sox or Marlins being there in the end.
Starting pitching tends to be twice as important to winning, especially when you consider a starter should be counted on for the first six innings, while the bullpen finishes up the final three on most good nights. Twice as important, a 2-to-1 ratio seems about right.
The steady No. 1 team in our power rankings, Arizona, rounds out the top five bullpens at 2.60 and boasts the best starting ERA in the league at 3.08. Now, that is a true contender.
Granted, the A's do have the second-best starting ERA in baseball to the D-Backs at 3.30, and that is mostly with two of their top starters spending most of the month on the DL -- Rich Harden (shoulder) and Justin Duchscherer (biceps). And the White Sox are also No. 10 in starting pitching ERA (3.85) thanks mostly to the recent emergence of Gavin Floyd and John Danks.
We give the A's and White Sox at least a fighting chance. They occupy first place in their divisions with quality pitching to date and slot No. 10 and 11 spots in our latest rankings.
The starting-pitching-poor Rays, Marlins and O's are Nos. 13, 14 and 18. Little respect there.
The Marlins are a particular case of a team outperforming its suspect starting rotation. Sure, Scott Olsen (3-0, 2.06) is a nice third-year starting pitcher breakout, and Mark Hendrickson (4-1, 3.68) is enjoying a renaissance. But you cannot trust young Andrew Miller (1-2, 7.94), Ricky Nolasco (1-2, 5.13) and Burke Badenhop (0-2, 8.36) to be much more than their erratic selves.
The O's just had Adam Loewen (0-1, 7.85) go on the DL and are relying on the likes of Steve Trachsel (1-3, 6.08) on the back end. Brian Burres (3-1, 2.49) has been a pleasant surprise after Jeremy Guthrie (0-3, 4.34) was unearthed last year, but Daniel Cabrera (2-0, 4.14) has epitomized disappointment thus far in his career.
The Rays do have Scott Kazmir coming off the DL to add to a rotation of James Shields (3-1, 2.54), Matt Garza (0-0, 7.62), Andy Sonnanstine (3-1, 5.28), Edwin Jackson (2-2, 3.86) and Jason Hammel (2-1, 4.32). But, honestly, folks, do you really see them challenging the Red Sox in earnest before 2009?
Nope. Not even in this upside-down start to the season.
Heck, even the Lovable Losers are in first place.
But, no the times aren't a'changin'. Reality just hasn't set in yet.
The complete Power Rankings:
| Power Rankings | ||||||||||
| Current | Team | Previous | ||||||||
 | 1 | Red Sox · Trends | 1 | |||||||
| The impermeable bullpen had a lousy week. Hey, it happens ... Nowadays, Mike Lowell participates in "baseball-related activities" more than he does actual baseball ... Of course Tim Wakefield doesn't deserve All-Star consideration based on his numbers (or, more accurately, his numbers vis-à-vis those of Kevin Millwood or Jarrod Washburn or Nick Blackburn or ... hell, about 16 other starters). But given how the All-Star Game has devolved into a foofy exhibition, a kindly 54-year-old knuckleballer should make for better theater than any of the faceless career-year guys. Good luck getting either Joe Mauer or Victor Martinez to catch anything he throws, though. | ||||||||||
 | 2 | Dodgers · Trends | 2 | |||||||
| I've been sounding this alarm for weeks (to be fair, so too has everybody who watches the Dodgers on a regular basis and most responsible exercise physiologists), but Joe Torre is riding his bullpen horses into the ground. On Sunday, Jonathan Broxton looked like a truck coasting to a halt immediately after blowing an engine ... Gotta love Chad Billingsley's passable Pete Rose imitation as he lowered a shoulder and plowed into Padres catcher Eliezer Alfonzo. I feared for the life of an ace until the tale of the tape was told: Billingsley checks in at 6'1" and 245 pounds, while Alfonzo is a mere 5'11"/218. | ||||||||||
 | 3 | Yankees · Trends | 6 | |||||||
| Here's why the Yankees are pretty darn okay about now, beyond the fact that they pay their organist more than the Padres do their starting infield: The guys who matter in the bullpen (Alfredo Alceves, Phil Coke and Phil Hughes) have been unconscious for about a month now. As we well know, bullpen performance defies prediction, but the Yankees will be very difficult to take down if any of those guys can continue to staunch the middle-inning bleeding ... My impression of Andy Pettitte discussing the new Yankee Stadium: Wah! Wah! It's small! Wah! Suck it up, guy ... Derek Jeter's sculpted-from-beautiful-beautiful-stone face actually registered human emotion on Monday afternoon, when he implied in a totally non-menacing and still-marketable manner that the umps blew a series of calls. I didn't think he had it in him. | ||||||||||
 | 4 | Rangers · Trends | 14 | |||||||
| Is this elevation an overreaction to the happy events of the prior week? Maybe. The bottom line: they're outscoring their opponents by a bunch and they've got reinforcements (Josh Hamilton, a bunch of hard-throwing kids) on the way. For the first time since Billy Beane revolutionized baseball -- indeed, revolutionized life as we know it -- by unearthing an obscure statistic called "on-base percentage," the AL West is more interesting than cardboard ... I don't have any more information about the allegedly precarious financial situation of Rangers owner Tom Hicks than anyone else -- he was recently spotted foisting a stack of coupons on a disbelieving King Soopers cashier -- but it'd sure elate players and fans alike if he can pull together a few nickels to add a starter (Doug Davis is the only guy out there) and a right-handed bat (Josh Willingham, or Matt Holliday if they want to gamble on a resurgent second half). | ||||||||||
 | 5 | Angels · Trends | 8 | |||||||
| How cool is it that we get a second Rangers/Angels go-round immediately after last week's clash? Very cool, that's how cool ... They're once again playing "Angels baseball," which as I understand it, involves hitting lots of singles and merrily circling the basepaths and saying wheeeee!!! ... It's worth noting, though, that they've played sub-.500 ball within the division and that they ran up their record during interleague play (14-4). | ||||||||||
 | 6 | Rays · Trends | 3 | |||||||
| I remain a big-time believer in the talent on hand, but there are some bad signs here -- the baserunners getting doubled off, the dropsies in the field, the starters making each half-inning feel like a half-marathon. Take away the thrashing they administered during interleague play (13-5) and they're a sub-.500 team... On a more whimsical note, the Hudson Valley Renegades, the team's Class A affiliate, is planning a "Ball-Less Baseball" promotion tonight in which men won't be able to enter the park until the sixth inning and all team employees will don women's clothing. And yet if the team chose instead to run with, say, "T*ts-Free Tuesday," the National Organization of Women would be protesting within the hour. I call sexism! Sexy sexism! | ||||||||||
 | 7 | Giants · Trends | 7 | |||||||
| Let's start a movement to vote Pablo Sandoval into the All-Star Game -- not merely because he deserves to be there (he does), but also because there's a chance he'll whack a ball into the gap that caroms off the wall just so, allowing us to witness the aerobic calamity that is a burly fellow legging out a triple ... The .313 team OBP is troubling, but help could be on the way: recent rumors link the Giants to Adam Dunn, Adam LaRoche and Freddy Sanchez ... How sadly ironic would it be if an injury incurred while hitting is the one that ends Randy Johnson's career? He deserves a better send-off. | ||||||||||
 | 8 | Rockies · Trends | 5 | |||||||
| They've settled in as an above-average team. Rockies fans are likely thrilled about that, given how the season started ... Jason Marquis has long found himself on the receiving end of baseball's biggest backhand compliment: "He's an inning-eater." This would be lovely if those innings were decent ones; Marquis' rarely were. Yet suddenly he's an All-Star who's blinding hitters with ... well, whatever it is he throws. I do not have the slightest idea what to make of this. | ||||||||||
 | 9 | Tigers · Trends | 4 | |||||||
| Intelligent organization alert: the Tigers are skipping Rick Porcello's next start so as not to overtax his wondrous young arm. If Porcello pitched for the Royals, he'd not only make that start but also do a multi-inning stint out of the 'pen on Sunday. | ||||||||||
 | 10 | Blue Jays · Trends | 9 | |||||||
| It's about damn time they demoted Vernon Wells in the batting order ... Cito Gaston on B.J. Ryan: "I don't know what to do with the guy. Can he type? Can he take dictation? I'm kind of at a loss here." Okay, that's me paraphrasing, but that's the gist of Cito's dilemma. Ryan is the walking, dinger-serving-up embodiment of "sunk cost" about now. | ||||||||||
 | 11 | Twins · Trends | 12 | |||||||
| The Twins might as well book non-refundable, non-transferable All-Star plane reservations for the Morneau/Mauer/Nathan trio nine months in advance ... Maybe I'm only seeing what I want to see, but it sure seems that Delmon Young has had more of a clue at the plate in recent weeks. I still get the impression that he's gone as soon as the Twins can get something good for him, though. | ||||||||||
 | 12 | Cardinals · Trends | 13 | |||||||
| It might be time to start throwing around the word "historic" when referencing Albert Pujols' 2009 campaign. The cherry-picked stat that makes my chest swell with something that's either pride or the first sign of an imminent cardiac episode: 31 HRs, 34 strikeouts. That's inhuman ... Everybody/everything else about the Cards? Meh. Chris Carpenter is good again, I guess. | ||||||||||
 | 13 | Phillies · Trends | 10 | |||||||
| Even if you factor in this weekend's sweep of the decaying Metsies and Monday's annihilation of the Reds, they're 8-14 in their last 22 games. They may drip with championship baubles and have WE ARE AWESOME 2008 NO. 1 YEAH banners waving high atop their ballpark, but right now they're a team that doesn't much resemble a contender. The calendar says 2009, kids, or at least it would if I could bring myself to turn past the December 2007 spread of Eliza Dushku dressed as Sexy Mrs. Claus. | ||||||||||
 | 14 | Brewers · Trends | 11 | |||||||
| They can't pitch and Ryan Braun isn't happy about it, as witnessed by his "we can't pitch, so get us some pitchers, please" comments the other afternoon. He's got balls calling out management like this after last season's mammoth trade for the mammoth C.C. Sabathia. Doug Melvin's pennant-race bona fides can't be doubted after that one ... There's lotsa talk out there about the possibility the Brewers will deal Corey Hart and his night-vision sunglasses (requisite old-person pop-cultural nod) as part of a deal to net some of the aforementioned pitching. Based on his sporadic effort and pending priciness, I don't think he alone nets anything worth having. | ||||||||||
 | 15 | Mariners · Trends | 16 | |||||||
| They don't lose series too often -- only to the Yankees and Rockies during the last six weeks or so -- and just completed a more-than-passable 5-4 road trip to Dodgerville, Yankeetown and the socialist republic of Boston. But here's why I have a tough time elevating them much above the middle of the pack: Their team OBP is an Ausmusian .316, which places them in the game's bottom five. Sooner or later, the pitchers are going to hit a rough stretch and, barring a miracle resurgence, the hitters won't be able to pick up the slack ... You wish that the kids and scrappers would spend more time aping the approach of Russell Branyan, who battled Brad Penny for what seemed like four hours on Saturday. | ||||||||||
 | 16 | White Sox · Trends | 15 | |||||||
| The "who's better, the Twins or the White Sox?" debates that have long raged in these here parts will be settled definitively this weekend in Minnesota. Whichever team wins the series will, now and eternally, be able to claim triumphant superiority in all matters of baseballishness, and the losing fans will be required to sign an oath of fealty to the victorious ones. | ||||||||||
 | 17 | Cubs · Trends | 17 | |||||||
| I'd like to elevate them, but I don't know who you bump down ... They're generating something akin to momentum, with a sorta-impressive series win over Milwaukee and Aramis Ramirez returning to the lineup a mere two months after he trashed my keeper-league roto team ... Is Rich Harden healthy? Does it matter? His strikeouts are way down and his home run rates are up. Expect a bogus DL stint attributed to something like "just can't get crap together" or "strained patellar trapezoid" before too long. | ||||||||||
 | 18 | Marlins · Trends | 19 | |||||||
| They went 17-11 in June. Ricky Nolasco is once again pitching like a person who lists "pitcher" on the employment line of his tax forms. These two statements are not unrelated ... They've become the default choice to make the playoffs, for no other reason than they won a World Series in both 1997 and 2003 (and thus 2009 should be next). If this happens -- and it won't -- it'll be because Cameron Maybin returns from the minors and establishes himself as the force we all expect him to be ... I'm also listing Andrew Miller high on my list of potential second-half breakouts. In recent starts, he has looked considerably more refined; he's shed that giraffe-with-slider awkwardness of his first 15 or so starts. | ||||||||||
 | 19 | Braves · Trends | 21 | |||||||
| We can talk all we want about the Braves' starting-pitching depth and how Tommy Hanson looks so awesome that I plan to name my first daughter Thomasina Hanson Dobrow, but the bottom line is that they don't score enough damn runs. Until they get at least one hitter of moderate impact, we can only mete out so many Power Rankings air-kisses. We're not cheap, you know ... They're all-business on the trade front, with rumors circulating about dealing Yunel Escobar or Javier Vazquez for an individual whose primary skill is making contact with pitched balls ... This isn't to dump on the excellently crusty Bobby Cox, but it's amazing that it took him this long to see what has been apparent to everyone else for 18 months now: that Jeff Francoeur sucks. Platoon issues or no, Matt Diaz is the better choice. | ||||||||||
 | 20 | Astros · Trends | 23 | |||||||
| When Roy Oswalt gets on a streak like his current one -- a 1.17 ERA in his last three starts, with 12 hits allowed and 22 strikeouts in 23 innings -- just get out of the way and enjoy the artistry ... God didn't want to see the Astros and Padres play on Thursday night, either, as witnessed by the plague of bees He/She delivered upon them ... Regardless of my opinion about the irresponsible way the Astros are run, they're basically a .500 team right now. Consider this, then, a begrudging delivery of respect. They're more fun to watch than most of the teams on this list. That counts for something, I guess. | ||||||||||
 | 21 | Mets · Trends | 18 | |||||||
| Just another typical week in the sad burg of Metville: plenty of I-got-it-I-got-it-uh-maybe-I-don't-got-it-do-you-got-it?-uh-oh hijinks in the field, a no-show against a heated rival (three runs in three games against a pitching staff so desperate for reinforcements that they're eyeing Pedro Martinez? Eesh.) and a Furry convention awaiting them when they arrived at their Pittsburgh lodgings early last Thursday. La di da ... They boast a single reliable starting pitcher, a paucity of patient hitters and blooper-reel defense. This can't happen in New York, where there are seats to fill and punny tabloid headlines to inspire, but the Mets would be better off shipping their few useful parts -- Ryan Church, Brian Schneider, whoever -- to a legit contender than sacrificing whatever little is left of their farm system to add a medium-rare thumper like Josh Willingham. | ||||||||||
 | 22 | Pirates · Trends | 22 | |||||||
| I can't believe I'm about to type the following words, but the Pirates are kinda smart nowadays. The deal for Lastings Milledge isn't unlike the one that netted them judgment-impaired prospect Jose Tabata: they're assuming another team's high-ceiling headache, and at negligible cost to boot. They probably won't get much for Freddy Sanchez, Jack Wilson or Adam LaRoche -- all three come with contracts that most teams will find difficult to absorb, even for only a few months -- but the idea here is to turn the page. Bully for them. | ||||||||||
 | 23 | Reds · Trends | 20 | |||||||
| Whenever Edwin Encarnacion touches the baseball, bad things happen -- a throw past the catcher on a potential force at the plate, an impromptu and unintentional juggling exhibition, etc. Get this guy into a DH cocoon, fast ... Edinson Volquez has been on a throwing program for so long that it's threatening to become a throwing miniseries ... It doesn't just seem like Bronson "Brandon" Arroyo is allowing a run almost every inning; he's actually doing it, with 37 plated in his last 38 frames ... Hello, Nick Masset! Somebody outside your immediate family recognizes that you're really good! Hi! | ||||||||||
 | 24 | Athletics · Trends | 25 | |||||||
| Anyone else catch Brett Anderson against the Red Sox last night? Words fail me, other than "whoa!" and "hubba hubba!" ... If I'm Nomar Garciaparra, who returned to Fenway last night for the first time since being dealt away right before the Red Sox became world-beaters, I am one bitter S.O.B. The lengthy ovation had to serve as something of a balm, though ... Matt Holliday costs a lot of cash and he's put up a line of .242/.348/.305 since June 7. If traded, he's not going to net the prospects that A's fans expect. | ||||||||||
 | 25 | Orioles · Trends | 24 | |||||||
| Here's a missive that landed in the e-mailbox right after Baltimore's stirring 11-10 come-from-behind victory over the Red Sox last week: "I'm glad you think the O's aren't worthwhile as they come back from 10-1 to beat you're [sic] 1 ranked Sox with Felix Pie right in the middle of it. Beautiful when stupid statements are proven to be just that....isn't it?" Of course, the O's then blew a four-run lead in the ninth inning the next night and a pair of four-run leads over the weekend. How about this: let's all agree to think before we type, okay? I'll try to do the same ... Laserbolt-armed prospect Chris Tillman looks ready and the Orioles have "help wanted" signs hanging in the rotation ... Focus, Brian Roberts, focus. | ||||||||||
 | 26 | Indians · Trends | 26 | |||||||
| Just so everybody knows: GM Mark Shapiro says the jobs of Eric Wedge and his coaches are safe. So officially, nobody is to blame for the Indians' struggles except the thirsting-for-martyrdom GM himself ... I'm on the Shin-Soo Choo bandwagon just like everybody else, but let's wait until he starts hitting lefties a bit more before we anoint him, like, the Asian Paul O'Neill. | ||||||||||
 | 27 | Diamondbacks · Trends | 28 | |||||||
| Sad. | ||||||||||
 | 28 | Royals · Trends | 29 | |||||||
| Outside of "we need enough players to field a team," there is no reason the Royals should be employing a cooked wall-runner-into like Ryan Freel ... How about that team-versus-writer kerfuffle that, uh, kerfuffed when smart dude/Royals fan Rany Jazayerli had the audacity to criticize a Royals trainer who has consistently failed to keep Royals players healthy? This organization has a terminal case of the stupids. | ||||||||||
 | 29 | Padres · Trends | 27 | |||||||
| If David Eckstein is as tough and gritty and hard-working as we've been told, how come he's on the DL now with a hamstring pull? Huh? We've been LIED to, people. | ||||||||||
 | 30 | Nationals · Trends | 30 | |||||||
| That's the great thing about sucking so relentlessly: You can spin every move, whether prematurely giving up on a frustrating 24-year-old or importing a good-hit-no-field speedster to play centerfield, as "an attempt to change the culture." So congratulations on the first of what projects to be a lot of culture change in the months ahead, Nats fans. | ||||||||||
