ESPN.com
After winning three of four games from the St. Louis Cardinals over the weekend, the San Francisco Giants rise into the No. 1 position in our Power Rankings. The Oakland Athletics, last week's No. 1 team, fall one spot to No. 2.The Detroit Tigers also fall one spot to No. 3, while the red-hot Toronto Blue Jays move up four spots and take over the No. 4 position. The Los Angeles Angels, in the fifth spot, round out the top five teams.
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: June 2 | |||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | ||
| 1 | 2 Last Week: 3 | After taking two of three from the Cubs and three of four from the Cardinals, the Giants continue to boast the best record in baseball at 37-20. They finished May with a record of 19-9 and lost only one series during the entire month. With seven scoreless innings Sunday, Tim Hudson now has the second-best ERA in the National League at 1.75. -- Andrew Tweedy (@WCBGiants), West Coast Bias | |||
| 2 | 1 Last Week: 1 | On a weekend when the franchise honored the 40th anniversary of the 1974 World Series-winning A's, the current team swept the second-place Angels, scoring 26 runs. They've now scored more runs than any other team in baseball, an achievement made all the more remarkable by their tough home park. -- Jason Wojciechowski (@jlwoj), Beaneball | |||
| 3 | 1 Last Week: 2 | The first-place Tigers stumbled a little bit during a weeklong West Coast trip that saw them go 3-4, as their starters and closer got knocked around. On the plus side, ersatz setup man Joba Chamberlain was very strong, and picked up just his third save since 2010. -- Alexandra Simon, Walkoff Woodward | |||
| 4 | 4 Last Week: 8 | The Blue Jays are the hottest team in baseball right now. In the past 20 games, the Blue Jays are 16-4. In the past 17 games, Edwin Encarnacion has hit 14 home runs. Mark Buehrle is the first pitcher to reach 10 wins in 2014 and has allowed only two home runs in 81 1/3 innings pitched. -- Callum Hughson (@callumhughson), Mop-Up Duty | |||
| 5 | 1 Last Week: 4 | The Angels continue to struggle with division foes, going 2-5 vs. the Mariners and A's last week. They're now 5-13 against teams other than the Astros in the AL West, with 39 such games left on the year. If they can't improve on their intra-division W-L record, it's not going to matter how well they play against everyone else. -- Nate Aderhold, Halos Daily | |||
| 6 | 1 Last Week: 7 | The Brewers went 4-2 last week against the Orioles and Cubs. The offense has produced 6.125 runs per game since Ryan Braun was moved into the second slot in the batting order on Memorial Day weekend. Aramis Ramirez is scheduled to return to the lineup on Tuesday. -- Ryan Topp (@RDTopp), Disciples of Uecker | |||
| 7 | 2 Last Week: 5 | Top prospect Oscar Taveras walloped a home run in his major league debut, but it was one of the few highlights of the week. The Cardinals lost five of seven to open their homestand and lost first baseman Matt Adams to the DL. -- Matt Philip (@fungoes), Fungoes | |||
| 8 | 2 Last Week: 6 | The Braves stumbled against Boston, but righted the ship against Miami. Atlanta continues to infuse the team with new talent from the farm system. Tommy La Stella has filled the second base hole by starting his major league career 6-for-15 (.400) with no strikeouts -- a refreshing change. Reliever Shae Simmons provides the Braves with another power arm in the pen. -- Martin Gandy (@gondeee), Chop County | |||
| 9 | 1 Last Week: 10 | Carl Crawford's sprained ankle hastened Matt Kemp's return to the lineup and playing left field. Hanley Ramirez posted only the 17th 4-4-4-5 box score line in history Saturday. Brian Wilson has allowed at least one baserunner in 12 of his past 13 appearances. -- Diane Firstman (@dianagram), Value Over Replacement Grit | |||
| 10 | 2 Last Week: 12 | The Yankees split their week, going 3-3. Mark Teixeira's wrist is acting up again, Masahiro Tanaka is their only reliable starter, the offense can't score and yet they're somehow still in second place in the AL East, 3.5 games behind red-hot Toronto. -- Stacey Gotsulias (@StaceGots), It's About the Money | |||
| 11 | 2 Last Week: 9 | Losing on a walk-off home run Sunday -- by Michael Bourn of all people -- was a fitting end to a dreadful 2-7 trip. The silver lining? The Rockies are .500 despite having played more road games than any other team. Coors Field will be a busy place this summer, and Colorado's .696 winning percentage at home is best in the majors. -- Ryan Hammon (@rockieszingers), Rockies Zingers | |||
| 12 | 2 Last Week: 14 | Since May 13, three Nationals starters have combined to put up an ERA of under 2.50, keeping the Nats hanging around in the NL East race. But the three don't include Gio Gonzalez or Jordan Zimmermann. The three are Stephen Strasburg, Doug Fister and Tanner Roark. -- Harper Gordek (@harpergordek), Nationals Baseball | |||
| 13 | 2 Last Week: 11 | Steve Cishek yielded a rare homer Sunday, as the Braves swept three games in Miami. The Marlins have now lost their past four at home, after starting 20-7. Up next, a home-and-home with the Rays before three at Wrigley. Giancarlo Stanton in the past 30 days: .366/.487/.699. -- Diane Firstman (@dianagram), Value Over Replacement Grit | |||
| 14 | 1 Last Week: 13 | The 2013 season saw the Orioles lead the majors with 212 home runs, including four players with over 20. This year, the team is hitting far fewer with only one on pace to hit 20 or more. That player is Nelson Cruz. He has 20 home runs already. -- Jon Shepherd (@CamdenDepot), Camden Depot | |||
| 15 | 4 Last Week: 19 | Texas finished an 11-game road trip, the club's longest of the season, with a 7-4 record. Now feeling a bit better about themselves, the Rangers will be at home for a nine-game homestand before heading out on the road to take on other AL West rivals. -- Brandon Land (@one_strike_away), One Strike Away | |||
| 16 | 4 Last Week: 20 | Expecting one player to transform a whole substandard unit is foolish, unless it's Chris Sale. He allowed one run over his first 18 innings since returning from the disabled list, struck out 23 and held opposing hitters to a sub-.200 OPS. Chris Sale, Chris Sale, Chris Sale. Also, Jose Abreu comes back this week. -- James Fegan (@TheCatbird_Seat), The Catbird Seat | |||
| 17 | 9 Last Week: 26 | The Red Sox are a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma: 10 straight losses followed immediately by seven straight wins. The youth movement blazed forward, with Xander Bogaerts carving out 0.7 fWAR in just a single week, Brock Holt belting seven extra-base hits and Rubby De La Rosa hurling seven shutout innings with a 8/0 K/BB ratio. Now that's how you go streaking. -- Brett Cowett (@BACowett), Fire Brand of the AL | |||
| 18 | 2 Last Week: 16 | With Endy Chavez DHing, .219-hitting Justin Smoak batting cleanup and no Robby Cano, the Mariners still beat Max Scherzer on Sunday. That's because rookie lefty Roenis Elias spun a three-hit shutout. He threw his curveball 28 times, 26 recorded strikes and 13 recorded outs. -- David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield), SweetSpot | |||
| 19 | 4 Last Week: 15 | Mike Moustakes returned Sunday after hitting .355 in eight games at Triple-A. He went 0-for-3 in a 4-0 loss to the Blue Jays. After winning the first two games in Toronto, the Royals dropped the next two. They remain last in the AL in slugging percentage and next-to-last in on-base percentage. -- David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield), SweetSpot | |||
| 20 | 2 Last Week: 22 | In the midst of a 10-game trip, the Pirates are 4-3 so far and just won three of four from the Dodgers in Los Angeles. They finish up the trip with three games in San Diego, beginning Monday. -- ESPN.com | |||
| 21 | 3 Last Week: 18 | Just when it looked like the Reds were fading away for good, Cincinnati won four out of five games this week. They'll need Joey Votto to miraculously return soon, however; the Reds have scored fewer runs than every team in the majors except one. -- Chad Dotson (@dotsonc), Redleg Nation | |||
| 22 | 5 Last Week: 17 | Since returning from the DL in late May, Josh Willingham has a 1.086 OPS with three homers in seven contests. With several hitters struggling badly, the Twins lineup needed that boost. -- Nick Nelson (@nnelson9), Twins Daily | |||
| 23 | 1 Last Week: 24 | Jacob deGrom is the first pitcher in Mets history and the first in the majors since 2000 to begin a career without a win after four starts with at least six innings pitched and three runs or fewer allowed in each of them. -- Joe Janish (@metstoday), Mets Today | |||
| 24 | 3 Last Week: 21 | The Indians were swept by the White Sox and then swept the Rockies, closing that series with a walk-off home run by Michael Bourn for the Tribe's fourth walk-off win of the season. The Indians pitching staff is the first in the majors to reach 500 strikeouts this season, due in large part to Corey Kluber's 60 strikeouts during the month of May. -- Susan Petrone (@SusanPetrone), It's Pronounced "Lajaway" | |||
| 25 | 2 Last Week: 27 | If the Padres are ever going to make a move, now is a good time: Their next 16 games are against teams currently .500 or worse. On the bright side, since May 9 Yonder Alonso is hitting .300/.364/.543. Now they need Jedd Gyorko and Chase Headley to join him. -- David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield), SweetSpot | |||
| 26 | 1 Last Week: 25 | Ryan Howard drove in his 1,000th career run over the weekend and now has homered in four of his past seven games with 14 RBIs. The Phillies and Mets also became the first teams to play three straight games of 11 innings or more since 1991; maybe they can make it four in a row Monday. -- David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield), SweetSpot | |||
| 27 | 4 Last Week: 23 | After taking four steps forward, the Rays took six steps back as they went 0-6 on their trip through Toronto and Boston. The slide gives them the worst record in the American League after two full months. If that wasn't enough, Wil Myers and Ryan Hanigan were placed on the disabled list. -- Tommy Rancel (@TRancel), The Process Report | |||
| 28 | 2 Last Week: 30 | Two straight losses following a surprising seven-game winning streak. Managed only 10 runs in four-game series versus Orioles. Last 30 days: George Springer hit .307/.397/.673 and Dallas Keuchel allowed a .198 batting average with a 0.842 WHIP. -- Diane Firstman (@dianagram), Value Over Replacement Grit | |||
| 29 | 1 Last Week: 28 | Mike Olt's nine home runs before June 1 makes him the first Cubs rookie to do it since Geovany Soto in 2008. -- Joe Aiello (@VFTB), View from the Bleachers | |||
| 30 | 1 Last Week: 29 | Arizona took two of three from the Padres before losing three of four to the Reds. Hot and cold was the theme, as Josh Collmenter had a shutout of the Reds, while Wade Miley struck out 11 Padres, only to give up four homers in his next start. The offense was decent, but until there's some consistency on the mound, the D-backs won't truly heat up. -- Jeffrey Wiser (@InsidetheZona), Inside the 'Zona | |||
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