The Milwaukee Brewers, our No. 1 team for three straight weeks earlier this season, hold tight to the No. 4 spot after going 3-3 last week. The St. Louis Cardinals round out the top five by jumping nine spots to No. 5 after having a 4-2 week.
This week's voters were Jim Bowden of ESPN Insider, Tim Kurkjian of ESPN The Magazine, David Schoenfield of the SweetSpot Blog Network/ESPN.com and Jayson Stark of ESPN.com. Most of the team comments come courtesy of the bloggers on the SweetSpot Blog Network. How do you rank all 30 teams? Go ahead and rank them yourself.
Tell us what you think about the Power Rankings. Use the hashtag #ESPNMLBPOWER.
| 2014 Power Rankings: May 19 | |||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | ||
| 1 |
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Last Week: 1 | The Tigers remain red-hot after sweeping both the Orioles (at Camden Yards) and the Red Sox (at Fenway Park). It was the first time since 1983 that the Tigers managed to sweep the Red Sox in Boston, and they did so in convincing fashion. The pitching was simply dominant, allowing just 16 hits the entire series. -- Sam Genson (@Tigercub33), Walkoff Woodward | |||
| 2 | 1 Last Week: 3 | Josh Donaldson leads the American League in WAR with an all-around attack: very good power, a solid approach at the plate, and great defense at third base. Not bad for the league minimum salary. -- Jason Wojciechowski (@jlwoj), Beaneball | |||
| 3 | 1 Last Week: 2 | Pablo Sandoval has stepped up nicely in the absence of Brandon Belt, riding a .389 batting average over a nine-game hitting streak. This team just keeps finding new ways to win, holding a three-game lead in the NL West heading into a big series in Colorado beginning on Tuesday. -- Andrew Tweedy (@WCBGiants), West Coast Bias | |||
| 4 |
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Last Week: 4 | The Brewers' up-and-down month of May continued last week with a 3-3 record against the Pirates and Cubs. While the pitching has mostly remained strong, injuries to hitters like Carlos Gomez and Aramis Ramirez have limited run scoring. On the plus side offensively, Rickie Weeks has an OPS of nearly 1.500 since the calendar flipped to May. -- Ryan Topp (@RDTopp), Disciples of Uecker | |||
| 5 | 9 Last Week: 14 | The Cardinals won four in a row last week as Shelby Miller appears to have straightened himself out. The bad news is that reliever Trevor Rosenthal, who walked in the tying run Sunday, still hasn't. -- Matt Philip (@fungoes), Fungoes | |||
| 6 | 1 Last Week: 7 | Justin Upton is batting just .200 with a .290 on-base percentage in the month of May. He's also second in the National League in strikeouts (52). His brother, B.J., tops the strikeout list (56). -- ESPN.com | |||
| 7 | 2 Last Week: 5 | The Rockies stumbled in Kansas City and finished 2-3 last week after a series win against the Padres. They face a much tougher schedule this week, with three at home against the Giants and then three in Atlanta. Winning three would keep them in the thick of it. Getting Wilin Rosario back should be a huge lift. -- Juan Pablo Zubillaga (@jpzubillaga ), Rockies Zingers | |||
| 8 | 2 Last Week: 6 | A quarter of the season is done. The Orioles have suffered a rash of injuries, an offensive desert with a couple of oases, starting pitching full of extremes, and a powder keg of a closer -- and they're just a half-game out of the AL East lead. Not too shabby. -- Jon Shepherd (@CamdenDepot), Camden Depot | |||
| 9 | 1 Last Week: 8 | Having Drew Butera pitch twice in three games sums up L.A.'s lackluster 3-3 week. Clayton Kershaw's second-shortest start ever saw him yield three triples in one inning. Yasiel Puig's franchise-record eight straight games with at least one extra-base hit and one RBI ended Sunday. -- Diane Firstman (@dianagram), Value Over Replacement Grit | |||
| 10 | 2 Last Week: 12 | The Halos have surged to a 24-19 record thanks to a 5-2 week and now own the third-best run differential in the AL (+40). The offense is firing on all cylinders (even with a slight slump from Mike Trout), placing third in the majors with a 111 wRC+, and it should receive a boost with Kole Calhoun likely returning this week and Josh Hamilton soon to follow. -- Justin Millar (@Justinmillar1), Halos Daily | |||
| 11 | 1 Last Week: 10 | The week started off badly for the Yankees with two home losses to the Mets and with the news that both Carlos Beltran and CC Sabathia would miss some time, which placed the spotlight on inexperienced players, namely Zoilo Almonte and Chase Whitley. The Yankees then won four out of their next five to finish the week leading the AL East. Oh, and Masahiro Tanaka is still perfect at 6-0. -- Kenny Ducey (@Kenny Ducey), It's About the Money | |||
| 12 | 3 Last Week: 9 | Another starter went on the DL in Adam LaRoche (.319/.421/.504), but the Nats have to make their move now. Over the next two weeks, they play 13 straight games against teams currently under .500. -- Harper Gordek (@harpergordek), Nationals Baseball | |||
| 13 | 4 Last Week: 17 | While his defensive game is shaky at best, reclamation project Juan Francisco's hot bat has found a welcome home in the Blue Jays' lineup. In the month of May, Francisco has posted a .300 batting average and 1.048 OPS. -- -- Callum Hughson (@callumhughson), Mop-Up Duty | |||
| 14 | 3 Last Week: 11 | A 3-4 week, which doubled their win total in road games for the year, was overshadowed by Jose Fernandez's UCL injury and subsequent surgery. Going into Sunday's game, Giancarlo Stanton was tied for first in homers in the NL, led in RBIs and was 10th in batting. After 20 games in 20 days, they get a day off before hosting the Phillies. -- Diane Firstman (@dianagram), Value Over Replacement Grit | |||
| 15 | 2 Last Week: 13 | You'd think that with David Ortiz crushing four home runs in Minnesota, the Red Sox would finally find that long-lost power stroke of theirs. Then they got swept by the Tigers, scoring a grand total of three runs in the three-game slaughter -- the fewest runs they've scored in a series of that length since 2008. -- Brett Cowett (@BACowett), Fire Brand of the AL | |||
| 16 | 4 Last Week: 20 | The Royals salvaged a four-game split against the Orioles with Danny Duffy's 1-0 gem on Saturday and then Alex Gordon's two-homer, six-RBI game on Sunday. That's eight wins in 12 games, and six of their next nine are against the White Sox (minus Jose Abreu and Chris Sale) and the Astros. Time to make a good run. -- David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield), SweetSpot | |||
| 17 | 2 Last Week: 19 | With Joey Votto joining Jay Bruce among Cincinnati's walking wounded, the return of Devin Mesoraco from the DL couldn't have come at a better time. Mesoraco hit a three-run homer in his first at-bat, went 4-for-4 with two doubles in his second game, and is now hitting .500/.541/.870 on the season. -- Chad Dotson (@dotsonc), Redleg Nation | |||
| 18 | 5 Last Week: 23 | Mets and Marlins batters are tied for the NL lead in walks with 147. The Mets have seven batters with 10 or more bases on balls this year; that's the most players with double-digit walks of any NL club. -- Joe Janish (@metstoday), Mets Today | |||
| 19 | 7 Last Week: 26 | The Twins have won three consecutive series to climb back to .500. Brian Dozier, who leads all major league second basemen in homers since the start of 2013, has been a destructive force at the top of the lineup. -- Nick Nelson (@nnelson9), Twins Daily | |||
| 20 | 4 Last Week: 16 | Nick Franklin, leading the PCL with a .376 average, was pulled from Sunday's game, leading to speculation he'll be joining the Mariners in Texas on Tuesday. With Brad Miller still hitting .154, Franklin may get a chance to win the shortstop job. Or he could end up DHing if Corey Hart lands on the DL after Sunday's hamstring strain. -- David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield), SweetSpot | |||
| 21 | 6 Last Week: 15 | After 44 games, the Rangers have hit only 27 home runs, good for third-worst in baseball. The culprit? A ground ball rate of 50 percent and a fly ball rate of only 26.9 percent. -- Brandon Land (@one_strike_away), One Strike Away | |||
| 22 | 2 Last Week: 24 | The Rays spent another week treading water, going 3-4 on a West Coast road trip. They lost Ben Zobrist for a few weeks with a thumb injury; however, expect Alex Cobb to return this week. Tampa Bay is still just a handful of games back in the AL East, but each week they stay in the hole makes the climb out that much more difficult. -- Tommy Rancel (@TRancel), The Process Report | |||
| 23 | 5 Last Week: 18 | White Sox starting pitching allowed 25 earned runs in 33 innings pitched last week, and they lost every game in which one of their hulking 1B/DH-types did not hit a massive three-run homer. -- James Fegan (@TheCatbird_Seat), The Catbird Seat | |||
| 24 | 2 Last Week: 22 | After starting 5-2, the Pirates are a lackluster 13-23. The offense has actually hit well in May -- .281/.352/.425, including a .333/.379/.611 line from Starling Marte -- but you wonder if that 9-16 April is going to haunt them for the rest of 2014. -- David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield), SweetSpot | |||
| 25 |
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Last Week: 25 | After getting shut out four times in eight games, the Phillies exploded for 20 runs in wins over the Reds on Saturday and Sunday. Interesting note: Two years ago, the Phillies led the NL in attendance, at 44,021 per game. In just two years, they've dropped down to eighth at less than 31,000 per game. -- David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield), SweetSpot | |||
| 26 | 1 Last Week: 27 | Good sign: Twenty-five of their next 28 games are against teams currently .500 or worse. Bad sign: Their No. 4 and 5 hitters on Sunday (Yonder Alonso and Jedd Gyorko) are hitting .197 and .154. -- David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield), SweetSpot | |||
| 27 | 6 Last Week: 21 | The Indians had a season-high 22 hits in a 15-4 rout of the Blue Jays on Wednesday. Then they dropped their next four games, including a sweep by the visiting A's. On the plus side, Corey Kluber has struck out nine or more batters in each of his past three starts. -- Susan Petrone (@SusanPetrone), It's Pronounced "Lajaway" | |||
| 28 |
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Last Week: 28 | After dropping two of three to the Nationals when the D-backs had a great chance to win the series (had it not been for Addison Reed's sixth home run allowed in 2014), the team responded by taking two of three from the Dodgers. The offense has clicked as of late, scoring 5.33 runs per game in the last week, while the pitching continues to be hit-or-miss. -- Jeff Wiser (@outfieldgrass24), Inside the 'Zona | |||
| 29 |
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Last Week: 29 | This season, the Cubs are 1-21 when trailing after the sixth inning and 14-2 when leading after the sixth inning. -- Joe Aiello (@VFTB), View from the Bleachers | |||
| 30 |
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Last Week: 30 | Took two of three at home against both the Rangers and White Sox. Monday's game in Anaheim will represent their fifth attempt at a three-game win streak. Houston's 16 wins have been collected by nine different pitchers (2009 Padres have record: 24 different pitchers with at least one win). -- Diane Firstman (@dianagram), Value Over Replacement Grit | |||
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