quarta-feira, 10 de abril de 2013
| 2013 Power Rankings: April 8 | |||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | ||
| 1 |
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Last Week: 1 | After assembling what most considered to be a top-notch pitching staff, the Nats suffered their biggest loss by margin of victory since moving to Washington with a 15-0 defeat to the Reds this past Friday. --Harper Gordek, Nationals Baseball | |||
| 2 | Last Week: 5 | Six games and five home runs for Justin Upton. With the Braves having high expectations for the season, getting off to a 5-1 start backed up by Upton and solid starting pitching is exactly what the team had hoped for. -- Ben Duronio, Capitol Avenue Club | |||
| 3 | Last Week: 2 | Victor Martinez has been slow to get out of the gate (a .143 batting average and only one RBI in the first six games) after missing all of last season after having microfracture surgery on his left knee. -- ESPN.com | |||
| 4 | Last Week: 3 | The Redlegs kicked off the season in style, taking two of three from the Nationals and the Angels. Todd Frazier is already making Reds fans forget Scott Rolen; he's hitting .480/.519/.920 with three homers and nine RBIs after one week. -- Chad Dotson, Redleg Nation | |||
| 5 | Last Week: 4 | It's extremely early, but postseason hero Marco Scutaro's slow start -- 2-for-23 with no extra-base hits and back issues -- is a tad concerning for a 37-year-old infielder. -- Chris Quick, Bay City Ball | |||
| 6 | Last Week: 10 | Lance Berkman, perhaps the biggest wild card in an overhauled Rangers lineup, has more than fulfilled expectations thus far with a monstrous .450/.542/.750 opening week of the season. -- Joey Matschulat,Baseball Time in Arlington | |||
| 7 | Last Week: 6 | The Angels haven't exactly jumped out of the gate, but there's still plenty to be optimistic about. Jason Vargas and Tommy Hanson held their own in their debuts, Albert Pujols has already quelled fears of a repeat of last April, and the revamped bullpen has been solid thus far. Now if Josh Hamilton could just bring his strikeout rate below 40 percent, everything would be great. -- Nathan Aderhold, Halos Daily | |||
| 8 | Last Week: 13 | The heroics of Chris Davis' four home runs (one in each of the Orioles' first four games) has helped overcome the poor performances from their starting rotation. Now, off to Boston and New York for a six-game trip, the rest of the team will need to show up. -- Jon Shepherd, Camden Depot | |||
| 9 | Last Week: 11 | New A's shortstop Jed Lowrie has the second-most hits (13) in the majors, including three home runs, so far. -- ESPN.com | |||
| 10 | Last Week: 9 | How will the Rays replace the 200-plus innings lost by trading James Shields? Each starter went at least six innings the first time through the rotation, allowing a combined 11 earned runs in 32 1/3 innings (3.06 ERA). There's a start. -- Tommy Rancel, The Process Report | |||
| 11 | Last Week: 7 | It helps that Clayton Kershaw started two of the Dodgers' first six games, but L.A. pitchers allowed only 10 runs and walked only eight batters. That's one more walk than Tim Lincecum had by himself in his first start. -- David Schoenfield, SweetSpot | |||
| 12 | Last Week: 15 | At 4-2, the Red Sox are off to their best start since 2006, in large part because of great pitching and defense. The Red Sox have surrendered an AL-low 19 runs so far and are second in all of baseball in run differential (plus-17). -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL | |||
| 13 | Last Week: 8 | Have a bad six-game stretch in the middle of the season and it's no big deal. Have it at the start of the season and it gets blown out of perspective. The Jays are minus-12 in run differential, R.A. Dickey and Mark Buehrle were shelled in their last start and Jose Bautista missed three games with an ankle sprain. --Matthias Koster, Mop-Up Duty | |||
| 14 | Last Week: 12 | After a stuttering first four games of the season, the Cardinals finished Week 1 outscoring their opponents 37-24. -- Matt Philip, Fungoes | |||
| 15 | Last Week: 17 | Paul Goldschmidt has been on fire to begin the season as he's batting .370 with five extra-base hits in the first six games. -- ESPN.com | |||
| 16 | Last Week: 20 | Typical White Sox baseball: They relied on the home run in going 4-2, hitting 11 while scoring only 22 runs. But Chris Sale has been good, Alex Rios had two big home runs against Seattle over the weekend and the Sox won three games by one run. They'll be tested this week with a three-game trip to Washington. --David Schoenfield, SweetSpot | |||
| 17 | Last Week: 18 | K.C. coughed up a two-run lead to the Phillies in the ninth Saturday, and nearly blew a five-run cushion Sunday but survived to finish with a 3-3 week. Despite slugging only .385, they scored 30 runs, thanks in part to a 1.002 OPS with runners in scoring position. --Diane Firstman, Value Over Replacement Grit | |||
| 18 | Last Week: 14 | Two bad starts from Cole Hamels and a disastrous opening week from the bullpen have torched the morale of a historically bipolar fan base. All is not lost, of course. Small-sample caveats apply, but the team would do well to win some games early while everyone is healthy and before someone gets dinged up. Father Time is undefeated. -- Eric Longenhagen,Crashburn Alley | |||
| 19 | Last Week: 21 | Good news: Mike Morse (five home runs) is carrying the offense. Bad news: Dustin Ackley is hitting .150 and has been benched twice for Robert Andino. Don't-panic-it's-still-early news: Felix Hernandez's fastball averaged 88.6 mph on Saturday. -- David Schoenfield,SweetSpot | |||
| 20 | Last Week: 24 | The Indians defeated both reigning Cy Young winners, getting a combined 11 earned runs and 15 hits off of R.A. Dickey and David Price. The offense was led by Carlos Santana this week, as he hit .500 with a 1.455 OPS, including a 5-for-5 performance Sunday in Tampa. -- Stephanie Liscio, It's Pronounced "Lajaway" | |||
| 21 | Last Week: 28 | The Rockies were expected to hit, and have done so, but the starting rotation has been the unexpected bright spot. In the first six games of 2013, Rockies starters produced five quality starts, putting them well ahead of pace to beat last year's sad total of 27. --Logan Burdine, Blake Street Bulletin | |||
| 22 | Last Week: 25 | The Mets won their first two series of the season for only the second time in the past 10 years. They were led by the red-hot bat of John Buck, who's hitting .400 and leading the NL in RBIs with nine. Last year, it took Buck 25 games to reach nine RBIs. -- Joe Janish, Mets Today | |||
| 23 | Last Week: 16 | It was obvious with all of their injuries that the Yankees would start slowly, but a poor first week from Robinson Cano and the pitching staff meant that it was an even worse week than some of the more optimistic fans expected. -- Rob Abruzzese, Bronx Baseball Daily | |||
| 24 | Last Week: 19 | The Brewers had a tough week, highlighted by injuries to sluggers Ryan Braun and Aramis Ramirez. Closer John Axford also allowed four home runs in his first three appearances of the season (20.25 ERA). -- J.P. Breen, Disciples of Uecker | |||
| 25 | Last Week: 22 | Yielding 16 runs over six games should result in better than a 1-5 record, but the Buccos hit .119/.188/.159 versus the Cubs and Dodgers. Andrew McCutchen accounts for the team's only homer while Russell Martin has begun the year 0-for-14. -- Diane Firstman,Value Over Replacement Grit | |||
| 26 | Last Week: 27 | The Twins have gotten off to a fast start despite hitting only three home runs in their first six games. --ESPN.com | |||
| 27 | Last Week: 26 | While it's easy to focus on the struggles and demotion of Carlos Marmol from the closer's role, it's more important to note that going into Sunday's game, the rotation was 2-2 with an ERA of 2.08 and an opponent batting average against of .157. -- Joe Aiello, View from the Bleachers | |||
| 28 | Last Week: 23 | The Padres have the worst run differential in the majors (minus-26!), hit one home run and gave up 10 home runs. That should get the fans pumped up for the home opener against the Dodgers on Tuesday. --David Schoenfield, SweetSpot | |||
| 29 |
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Last Week: 29 | Rookie Jose Fernandez dazzled in his debut, striking out eight while allowing one run and three hits in five innings Sunday. That was probably the highlight of a 1-5 opening week. They're "expecting" 30,000 for their home opener Monday. -- Diane Firstman, Value Over Replacement Grit | |||
| 30 |
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Last Week: 30 | After a win in the opener, the Astros have been as bad as everyone predicted. In six games, they've drawn nine walks and struck out an amazing 74 times (12.3 per game). Remember when Brett Wallace was a good hitting prospect? He has fanned 13 times in 17 at-bats. Ouch. -- David Schoenfield, SweetSpot | |||
