After 6 games there is very little substance to base power
rankings on other than hunches and loosely drawn theories. One of the greatest things for a
baseball blog writer is the endless number of stats available to basically
support or refute these theories. This basically sums up week 1’s rankings
- Tampa Bay Rays – Last Week (-)
Rays start the season off as the
AL East favorites due in most part to their strong pitching and through 6 games
there is no reason to doubt that they are still the best staff the American
league if not all of baseball. All
starting pitchers threw 6+ innings in their first start including rookie
Alex Cobb and as a staff they are throwing above the league average in strike
percentage with Price and Hellickson leading the way at 68%. Rays season depends on its pitchers and
the one thing you ask your pitchers to do is throw strikes.
- Baltimore Orioles – Last week (-)
Most people have the Jays slotted
in this spot if not first in the division. But the Orioles had a great campaign in 2012 and deserve to
be acknowledged for that. Through
6 games last year the Orioles were 3-3 and that’s where they sit right
now. Most people expect a drop off
in their win total most notably because of their ridiculous record in 1 run
games (29-9) in 2012. They also
won 11 more games than their Pythagorean record (expected record based on runs
scored for and against). In fact
they were tied with the Jays last season for worst Pythagorean record in the AL
East. But Chris Davis is off to an
amazing start hitting .455/.500/1.136 (batting average / on base % / slugging %) with 4 HRs and 17 RBI through 6 games and
he’s not the only one. As a team
they’re 4th in runs, 3rd in hits, 3rd in RBI,
have the fewest number of strikeouts and overall are hitting .301/.359/.468. All this and they started the season
against the #1 team in our rankings. So
maybe their one record won’t be as good as 2012 but they might also be winning
those games by more than 1 run this year.
- Toronto Blue Jays – Last week (-)
There was so much hype to start
this season for the jays that I think anything less than a 6-0 start might have
been a disappointment. Instead
they sit at 2-4 after suffering two opening series defeats to Cleveland and
(shutter) the Boston Red Sox. To
be positive, the Jays opened 2012 at 4-2 winning their first two series against
Cleveland and Boston. Fans in
Toronto wanted the opposite of last year and so far we’ve got it. To continue on a positive note, they
are 3rd in the league in HRs and maybe other than Dickey, the most
acclaimed off season acquisition Jose Reyes is hitting .435/.519/.652 to
start. Bautista has 2 HRs in just
12 at bats, a rate we don’t expect him to maintain (2010 54 HR season he hit 1
in roughly ever 10) but it's a great sign for a guy coming off of a wrist injury.
Melky Cabrera, who’s struggled to find his timing at the plate in his return to the AL
East, has made up for it with his play in the field. Bautista and Cabrera will make teams think twice about
trying to grab an extra base on these arms.
- Boston Red Sox – Last Week (-)
Some might argue that this is a
biased ranking as the Red Sox are atop the division after the first week. But two of those wins came off Yankees
who more resembled a mish mash of American League rejects than a Yankees team
and a third win came at the hands of a 3 error night by Emilio Bonifacio which
proved to be the difference. Lester is a reason for the Sox to be excited every
5th day and Ellsbury being healthy and leading off is a great site
for Red Sox fans. Middlebrooks will
show flashes of brilliance (3 HRs) against the Jays on Sunday, but with youth
comes inconsistency. In addition
they already lost Lackey on their already questionable starting rotation. Not a single member of the rotation had
an ERA below 3.91 in 2012 and off season acquisition Ryan Dempster hasn’t had a
great season since 2008 and in 12 games in the AL last year posted an ERA of
5.09 and a WHIP of 1.43. Boston is
definitely in a period of flux where they try to build up their prospects and
keep a salary below $189 million to avoid paying the luxury tax.
- New York Yankees – Last Week (-)
Don’t need to go much further than
looking at their opening day roster that featured Vernon Wells, Lyle Overbay
and Kevin Youkilis and Travis Hafner.
The players they are counting on to carry them until ARod,
Jeter and Granderson get healthy are Ichiro (age 39), Brett Gardiner (only 2
seasons with 500+ plate appearances) and Robinson Cano, the only legit player
on the lineup in the prime of his career.
But without a threat ahead of or behind him in the lineup there is
nothing stopping pitchers from pitching around him and taking their chances
with Kevin Youkilis. With Jeter
due back the first of the big 3 (May at the earliest) this team might be out of
it before they even have a chance to compete. If any of their healthy veterans
are having good seasons, look for the Yankees to be sellers this season trying
to restock the farm system and look for a homegrown prospect to take over for
Jeter as the captain of the franchise.
For the Sake of Argument:
The cast of Twilight: Breaking
Dawn had 3 members paid $25 mill each, the cast of the Yankees in their
twilight have 4 players (ARod, Wells, Teixera and Sabathia) making an average
of $23.6 mill and Cano at $15 million this year and a free agent in 2014. Who would you rather have?
AL East Highlight of the week: (lowlight
for Jays fans)
Jays Highlight of the Week:
Henry Blanco could easily be cast as a grizzled special ops vet in a remake of Predator
Stat of the week:
3 of the last 5 World Series
winners have started the season 2-4 and only the 2010 San Francisco Giants have
been above .500 after 6 games.
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