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MLB Power Rankings

1 Last Week: 4	St. Louis Cardinals No team gets more offense from the right side of the infield than the Cardinals. They are the only team whose first baseman (Allen Craig) and second baseman (Matt Carpenter) both have adjusted OPS+ scores higher than 125 (i.e. 25 percent above average when taking league and ballpark into account). Carpenter has a 147 and Craig a 138.
2 Last Week: 1	Boston Red Sox The Red Sox lead the majors with 210 doubles and are on pace for 366 this season, which would rank sixth all-time. Notably, two Boston teams are already tied for second place -- the 1997 and 2004 editions both hit 373 -- while the '03 squad clubbed 371 doubles (fifth place) and the '10 Sox hit 358 (tied for sixth, for now).
3 Last Week: 5	Oakland Athletics Oakland has the AL's third-best bullpen ERA (3.14). Anchoring that group is closer Grant Balfour, whose 41st consecutive save broke a franchise record held by Dennis Ecklersley -- just part of his overlooked exploits this year.
4 Last Week: 10	Detroit Tigers In addition to being 13-0, Tigers starter Max Scherzer is also on pace to become only the third pitcher in AL history to finish a year with a K/9 above 10 while maintaining a WHIP below 1.00. The other two pitchers are Johan Santana, who did so with the Twins in 2004, and Pedro Martinez, who did it three times with the Red Sox in 1999, 2000 and '02.
5 Last Week: 7	Tampa Bay Rays David Price's first two starts since returning from a triceps injury have been his best two of the season -- combined, he's gone 16 innings with 15 strikeouts and one run allowed while not walking anyone. One important note, however, is that he faced the AL's two lowest-scoring offenses (Houston and Chicago) which also happen to be two of the four least likely to walk.
6 Last Week: 3	Atlanta Braves Even with two top relievers, Jonny Venters and Eric O'Flaherty, lost for the season to arm injuries, the Braves have overtaken the Pirates for best bullpen ERA in the majors at 2.65. Atlanta has seven pitchers who have made at least 14 relief appearances and who have an ERA under 3.00, which would tie a major league record for a season currently held by the 2010 Braves and the 2012 Athletics.
7 Last Week: 11	Texas Rangers Conjure a list of the AL's best hitters over the last four years, and you'll probably think of Miguel Cabrera, Jose Bautista, David Ortiz, Josh Hamilton and Robinson Cano. Indeed, those are five of the top six on the OPS leaderboard, but less discussed is the guy ranking fourth, Adrian Beltre, who has shaken off a slow start this season to hit 20 homers with a .909 OPS this season.
8 Last Week: 2	Pittsburgh Pirates The Pirates lost four straight games this week while scoring 1, 3, 1 and 1 runs in those games. Pittsburgh is actually tied for the major league lead with 15 wins in games scoring three or fewer runs, but that losing streak cost the Pirates their hold on first place in the NL Central.
9 Last Week: 6	Cincinnati Reds The Reds' offense continues to be propped up by Joey Votto, Shin-Soo Choo and Jay Bruce, with minimal help from the rest of the lineup. Those three are Cincinnati's only players whose adjusted OPS+ is above league average among the 11 Reds with at least 100 PAs -- only the Marlins and Yankees have fewer players with an above-average OPS+ this year.
10 Last Week: 15	New York Yankees The Yankees just won't fade away. They've won seven of their last 10 and get a major reinforcement on Thursday, as shortstop Derek Jeter returns to action. In his absence, New York had the majors' second-worst offensive production from the position with a .552 OPS.
11 Last Week: 12	Los Angeles Angels We're finally seeing some glimpses of the real Josh Hamilton. He hit his first multi-homer game of the season on Wednesday, and he recently compiled a 12-game hit streak in which he also drew seven walks -- that was a walk rate of one every 7.4 plate appearances, whereas the rest of the season he's been drawing a free pass only once every 16.4 PAs.
12 Last Week: 13	Los Angeles Dodgers Lost amid a crowded outfield of storylines -- Puig-mania, Matt Kemp's injury woes and Andre Ethier's status as possible trade bait -- is that Carl Crawford has returned to productivity. After two lost years in Boston, Crawford has a .271/.330/.420 batting line with a 110 OPS+ that is solidly above-average.
13 Last Week: 14	Kansas City Royals As Grantland contributor Rany Jazayerli noted on Twitter, Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas is in the midst of the worst single-season performance ever with runners in scoring position: entering play on Wednesday, he was 4-for-61 in those situations with four singles and just six RBIs. (No player with at least 60 ABs with RISP has fewer RBIs than Moustakas.)
14 Last Week: 9	Baltimore Orioles Manny Machado is one of four 21-and-under players to be named an All-Star, and he has gotten plenty of attention for his hitting -- he's on pace to break the record for doubles that has stood since 1931 -- but his defense has been exceptional, too. According to the Fielding Bible, he has saved 21 runs defensively, seven more than any other player at his position.
15 Last Week: 20	Arizona Diamondbacks After dealing with elbow pain this spring, rookie centerfielder Adam Eaton finally made his season debut on Tuesday. This will probably cut into the playing time for A.J. Pollock, whose .260/.299/.430 batting line is unspectacular, although he held his own defensively. Pollock ranks third among big league centerfielders with nine runs saved, according to the Fielding Bible.
16 Last Week: 8	Cleveland Indians The seventh inning seems to be Justin Masterson's breaking point. He has pitched into that frame 16 times but finished it only nine times. His ERA in innings 3-6 is no higher than 3.50 in each, but it's 10.80 in the seventh; it's also the only inning in which opponents are hitting at least .300 with an OBP of at least .400 and a slugging percentage over .500.
17 Last Week: 17	Chicago Cubs With all the attention on Carlos Marmol's shifting roles and eventual release from the team, it's been easy to overlook Kevin Gregg's dominance as his replacement. Before blowing a save (in a game the Cubs still won) on Sunday, he had converted 15 of 16 chances with a 1.53 ERA in 29 1/3 innings. He had inherited just eight runners but only one scored.
18 Last Week: 19	Washington Nationals The Nationals' offense tails off late in games. Their OPS in innings 1-6 isn't great (.721, 18th in MLB) but it dips dramatically in inning seven or later (.618, 29th in MLB). Relatedly, their highest-scoring innings are innings 2-5.
19 Last Week: 22	Philadelphia Phillies Phillies centerfielder Ben Revere had a .244 average and .287 OBP as recently as June 11, but he's had a torrid four weeks in which he's gone 44-for-108 (.407) and raised his season stats to a .302 average and .336 OBP.
20 Last Week: 21	New York Mets If you feel like the Mets' latest lousy season has been longer than usual, you're right. Not only has New York already played 11 extra-inning games this season, but five have gone at least 13 innings (including Monday night's 16-inning win in San Francisco) and their average game length is the third-longest in history, according to this story in the Wall Street Journal.

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