Yahoo Power Rankings

Yahoo has it's newest power rankings out and the Red Sox top the list.

1. Boston Red Sox. Hard to believe that, five years ago, Manny Ramirez was put on waivers. Now, it looks like the Red Sox will trip over themselves to pick up his $20 million option for next season.

2. Arizona Diamondbacks. The sudden thumpin’ by the offense is impressive, but how about that staff ERA? I’ll spare you from looking it up: It’s 2.98.

3. Los Angeles Angels. What’s most encouraging about Ervin Santana’s fast start is that when he has pitched on the road, he hasn’t crumbled like a bad onion ring. He’s 2-0, 3.46 ERA away from Angel Stadium.

4. New York Mets. Nice bit of news for the Mets’ near future: Moises Alou is hitting .500 (6-for-12) in his minor league rehab stint.

5. Chicago Cubs. There have been complaints about racist T-shirts celebrating Kosuke Fukudome around Wrigley Field. It is demeaning, uncalled for and pretty bad, but it’s not John-Wayne-in-The-Fighting-Seabees bad.

6. Milwaukee Brewers. Milwaukee can’t keep pretending that maybe this is the year Ben Sheets gives them 35 starts. He won’t. But they should be tough enough to contend without him.

7. St. Louis Cardinals. Perhaps this is payback for Tony LaRussa’s suggestion that the Cards would sign Barry Bonds: St. Loo is 3-4 vs. San Francisco, 9-3 vs. everyone else.

8. Chicago White Sox. Just about all of Bobby Jenks’ numbers check out. He’s six-for-seven on save attempts. His ERA is 2.25. But how do we explain a measly four strikeouts in 8.0 innings?

9. Oakland Athletics. Don’t get me wrong, Emil Brown has bounced back nicely over the last few years. But if he’s your No. 3 hitter, then your flirtation with first place is doomed.

10. Toronto Blue Jays. If Roy Halladay complains that the postgame meatloaf is a bit cold, are the Blue Jays going to kick his rump to the curb the way they did after Frank Thomas whined?


Coming in a little bit will be the new players of the week and a recap of the Texas series.