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Welcome to the MLB Star Power Index -- a weekly undertaking that determines with awful authority which players are dominating the current zeitgeist of the sport, at least according to the narrow perceptions of this miserable scribe. While one's presence on this list is often celebratory in nature, it can also be for purposes of lamentation or ridicule. The players listed are in no particular order, just like the phone book.

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Jose Ramirez
CLE • 3B • #11
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We have on occasion in this miserable space emphasized the vital differences between the medallion and the amulet. The medallion is but a benign appurtenance, often a signifier of a divorcee's zodiac or a means to declare -- falsely -- that one owns gold bullion in stunning abundance. The amulet, however, graces the brandisher with magical faculties, provided the brandisher is pure of heart and hairy of chest. It is the amulet, not the medallion, that allows Saturday night to last all week. It is the amulet, not the medallion, that makes every song that song. 

Buoyed and made better by those distinctions, you and your medallion of repurposed cadmium should lay undeserving eyes upon Future Guardian José Ramírez and his amulet: 

Lo and also behold: That is indeed a man wearing an amulet of a man and his amulet. Note how it sparkles and protrudes when set against his king's raiment of the deepest silver -- the same tint of the fine cutlery he uses only when a fellow amuleteer is José Ramírez's guest. You may approach such heraldry only to serve it, and even then you should remain out of view/smell in the coach house unless and until summoned.

As for the fact that the amulet depicts the amulet-wearer, know that this practice is not often glimpsed. That is because it is likewise not often that one surveys all available gods and decides -- rightly, in this instance -- that oneself is more worthy of adoration and reverence than anyone in the jurisdictional pantheon. 

Monsieur Ramírez has of course long been an MVP-grade performer on the fields of baseball. This season, he stands out on the Cleveland roster even more than usual thanks to calculated neglect on the part of the Dolan spawn and the trust funds that conduct them through life. In that sense -- and with half-hearted apologies to a coterie of useful Cleveland pitchers -- consider the amulet above to be a team photo of sorts. 

Mostly, though, consider it to be a talisman of justified self-appreciation on the part of Future Guardian José Ramírez, amulet-wearer and conjurer of baseball magic. 

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Javier Baez
DET • SS • #28
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While this is not the primary reason for Javier Báez's inclusion in this edition, please do briefly appreciate that our hero swings for the downs even when a pitched baseball is barely involved: 

Javier Báez was acquired by the New York Mets leading up the July 30 trade deadline. He is a pending free agent who also spent time on the IL earlier this month. Thus, ergo, and therefore, Báez will quite possibly succeed in putting open flame to 2021 Mets funeral pyre despite, in the end, playing no more than 40 or so games for them. This is not because of any performance deficits on his part. Rather, this is so because Báez recently succeeded in adding a fresh layer of tension and shared contempt to the most timeless rivalry in modern baseball -- the Mets versus their fans. 

You'll recall with soaring delight that Báez and a few of his mess-mates have taken to "celebrating" on-field accomplishments with a gesture of seeming bathos -- i.e., the dual thumbs down. Best of all, Báez very recently explained that this was their way of metaphorically booing the fans as reprisal for the fans' non-metaphorical booing of them in the first place. Relevant sports quotation incoming: 

SPI endorses whatever sows chaos across the sport, so it is good that Mets fans are booing their sworn enemies, Mets players, and it is no less good that Mets players are "booing" them right back. Now, though, let us consider the timeline in the service of improving the chronicle of these events. 

Báez's righteous rejection of norms seized baseball and its paid observers by the tailored lapels on Aug. 29. But please note this bit of color television sports footage in tandem with Razzball commentary:

So the Mets have been doing the thumbs-down thing since at least Aug. 6. Imagine Báez's relief and sense of achievement when a reporter -- speaking far too loudly after realizing he or she had been muted during the first attempt -- at last asked him about it via soul-whittling Zoom call. 

At this point, it matters not when the thumbs down first came into being or when those in Lo Duca shirseys first started booing the hometown squadron. What matters is that it's difficult to advance the cause of mutual hostilities when the other side has failed to notice your attempts at being hostile. 

Maybe the Mets players will dismiss the pre-Aug. 29 thumbs-down instances as proof of concept, but that's not the point. The point is that if the Mets want to do a thumbs down in response to positive Mets occurrences, then they'll need to expand the definition of positive Mets occurrences. Thumbs down after every called ball at the plate. Thumbs down after every time a Mets pitcher passes the foreign-substance check between innings. Thumbs down every time a Mets player makes it down the dugout stairs without stumbling head-first into the nearest commode. Thumbs down every time a Mets player doesn't make it down the dugout stairs without stumbling head-first into the nearest commode. 

Then they will notice you. Then they will boo you some more. Then the season will end.