ESPN.com
After falling out of the top spot in our rankings last week for the first time since mid-June, the Oakland Athletics are back in the No. 1 spot. The A's won a series over the weekend from the Los Angeles Angels, who fall back into the No. 2 position.The Washington Nationals hold tight to the No. 3 spot for the second straight week. The Nats are winners of 12 of their past 13 games.
This week's voters: 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: August 25 | |||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | ||
| 1 | 1 Last Week: 2 | The A's won two of three against the Angels and sit one game back in the West but lost ace closer Sean Doolittle and solid catcher/DH John Jaso to the disabled list. A partial-strength squad could struggle to keep pace with its division rivals. -- Jason Wojciechowski (@jlwoj), Beaneball | |||
| 2 | 1 Last Week: 1 | Kole Calhoun is quietly becoming a force to be reckoned with atop the Angels' lineup. Since June 1, the undersized right fielder is batting .314/.365/.504 with 31 extra-base hits in 68 games. Among leadoff hitters, his 148 wRC+ is the best mark in baseball this season, and his .202 ISO is tops in the American League. -- Nathan Aderhold (@AdrastusPerkins), Halos Daily | |||
| 3 |
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Last Week: 3 | Jordan Zimmermann has been very good in the past month and change, compiling a 2.70 ERA in seven starts. In that span, he's pitched 46 2/3 innings and has 39 strikeouts while issuing only four walks. -- ESPN.com | |||
| 4 | 1 Last Week: 5 | Chris Davis is batting just .149 with a .555 OPS and 31 strikeouts in 74 at-bats in August. -- ESPN.com | |||
| 5 | 1 Last Week: 4 | A 4-2 week pushed the NL West lead to 4½ games. The Dodgers now go on a five-game road trip with two versus the Diamondbacks and three against the Padres. L.A. is a combined 19-8 versus those two teams. Adrian Gonzalez is hitting .344/.393/.552 since the All-Star break. -- Diane Firstman (@dianagram), Value Over Replacement Grit | |||
| 6 |
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Last Week: 6 | The Royals have won nine of their past 10 series and split the other one. They're 24-7 since July 22, are fourth in the majors in runs scored in that period and play 20 of their next 26 games at home. The playoff odds now suggest they're the favorite to win the AL Central. -- David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield), SweetSpot | |||
| 7 |
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Last Week: 7 | The Brewers muddled through a 2-3 homestand against the Blue Jays and Pirates last week. The two wins came in games started by Mike Fiers, whose return to his early 2012 form has been a revelation. With Kyle Lohse returning to the rotation this week and Matt Garza not far behind, the Brewers will have to decide what to do with Fiers in the near future. -- Ryan Topp (@RDTopp), Disciples of Uecker | |||
| 8 | 1 Last Week: 9 | The bullpen rescued the starters, allowing one run in 15 1/3 innings, as the M's completed their first sweep in franchise history at Fenway Park in a series of at least three games. They've gone 15-6 in August, outscoring their opponents 105-52, in part because the offense is finally hitting: seventh in the majors in wOBA for the month. -- David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield), SweetSpot | |||
| 9 | 1 Last Week: 10 | First place continues to be asymptotic for the Cardinals, who drew within a half-game of the Brewers with a sweep of the Reds but then finished the week 1½ games out after losing the rubber match to the Phillies on Sunday. -- Matt Philip (@fungoes), Fungoes | |||
| 10 | 2 Last Week: 8 | As bad as the week seemed for the Tigers, they pulled off a 4-3 road trip and stayed within two games of Kansas City. Their offense finally came alive in Minnesota, but after Detroit gave up 32 runs in two games, Anibal Sanchez and Joakim Soria cannot return soon enough. -- Grey Papke, (@walkoffwoodward), Walkoff Woodward | |||
| 11 | 1 Last Week: 12 | Buster Posey and Pablo Sandoval are hitting for a combined .321 average in August, carrying an offense that has struggled mightily since June. A decent 3-3 road trip has kept the Giants in contention to retake the NL West lead, sitting only three games behind the Dodgers in the loss column. -- Andrew Tweedy (@WCBGiants), West Coast Bias | |||
| 12 | 2 Last Week: 14 | The Braves are slowly solving their road woes this season, and a winning record on their current road trip is keeping them in the hunt in the NL wild-card race. Getting Mike Minor back to top-of-the-rotation form is a huge boost. -- Martin Gandy (@gondeee), Chop County | |||
| 13 | 2 Last Week: 11 | Andrew McCutchen returned earlier in the week -- the Pirates went 5-9 when he was on the DL -- and they took a much-needed two of three in Milwaukee. Next up: Six of their next nine games are against St. Louis. -- David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield), SweetSpot | |||
| 14 | 1 Last Week: 15 | After starting the week by losing two of three to the Astros, the Yankees recovered to sweep the White Sox. They had good pitching and timely hits, and they have kept themselves in the hunt for the second wild card. -- Stacey Gotsulias (@StaceGots), It's About the Money | |||
| 15 | 2 Last Week: 13 | The Jays, now just two games over .500 after going 3-7 in their past 10, play both the Red Sox and Yankees this week. At minimum, Toronto needs to win both of these series to be in a position to challenge for the division title. -- Matthias Koster, Mop-Up Duty | |||
| 16 | 3 Last Week: 19 | A 2-3 week versus the lackluster Rockies and Rangers stalled the playoff push a bit. The Marlins are four games back of the second wild card with a tough week at Anaheim and Atlanta coming up. Giancarlo Stanton's 1.059 OPS since the All-Star break leads the majors. -- Diane Firstman (@dianagram), Value Over Replacement Grit | |||
| 17 | 1 Last Week: 18 | Series wins over the Twins and Astros pushed the Tribe three games over .500 for the first time this season. Recent acquisition Zach Walters added some fireworks by homering in three consecutive games. -- Susan Petrone (@SusanPetrone), It's Pronounced "Lajaway" | |||
| 18 | 2 Last Week: 16 | Time continues to tick away for the Rays as they continue to trade wins and losses instead of gaining ground in the chase for a wild-card spot. The club welcomed back Wil Myers and could get a pair of veterans back this week (David DeJesus and Ryan Hanigan). Although they should be at full strength down the stretch, they may simply run out of games in their pursuit. -- Tommy Rancel (@TRancel), The Process Report | |||
| 19 | 2 Last Week: 17 | The Redlegs ended a seven-game losing streak over the weekend, but Cincinnati is now as close in the NL Central standings to the last-place Cubs as it is to the third-place Pirates. The culprit, of course, has been the offense; the Reds have been outscored by all but three teams in the majors. -- Chad Dotson (@dotsonc), Redleg Nation | |||
| 20 | 1 Last Week: 21 | Lucas Duda leads the majors in home runs (12) and is ninth in RBIs (27) since the All-Star break. -- ESPN.com | |||
| 21 | 1 Last Week: 20 | Andrew Cashner returned from the DL on Saturday and pitched five innings, allowing two runs but earning just one strikeout. Still, at least he's back. In other news, Jedd Gyorko leads the team with 44 RBIs. -- David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield), SweetSpot | |||
| 22 | 2 Last Week: 24 | The Twins are averaging nearly six runs per game in August, and what's most encouraging is that their offensive success is being driven by young hitters like Danny Santana, Oswaldo Arcia and Kennys Vargas. -- Nick Nelson (@nnelson9), Twins Daily | |||
| 23 | 1 Last Week: 22 | The White Sox are hurtling into protected-draft-pick territory thanks to a six-game losing streak that's brought them to a season-worst 12 games below .500. Since Adam Eaton last got through a whole game on Aug. 5, they're 4-12 and averaging 3.1 runs per contest. -- James Fegan (@TheCatbird_Seat), The Catbird Seat | |||
| 24 | 2 Last Week: 26 | The Cubs have two of the majors' five worst starting pitchers in terms of ERA in Edwin Jackson (6.09) and Travis Wood (4.91). -- Joe Aiello (@VFTB), View from the Bleachers | |||
| 25 | 2 Last Week: 23 | It wasn't the best of weeks for the Red Sox -- losing seven games isn't exactly cheery -- but Yoenis Cespedes has been a revelation on offense and defense. Over the past 15 days, Cespedes has slugged .463 and hit four of the team's nine homers. This past week, Cespedes racked up two more outfield assists, making him the major league leader in that category. -- Brett Cowett (@firebrand), Fire Brand of the AL | |||
| 26 | 1 Last Week: 25 | Hope on the farm? Maybe not. Triple-A Lehigh is 62-74, Double-A Reading is 59-75 and the two full-season Class A teams are 45-87 and 50-80. -- David Schoenfield (@dschoenfield), SweetSpot | |||
| 27 | 1 Last Week: 28 | A 3-3 week at New York and Cleveland finished a 10-game road trip at 5-5. The Astros' next road win will tie their total for all of 2013 (27). Chris Carter leads the American League with 11 homers since the All-Star break and leads the majors with 32 RBIs during that time. -- Diane Firstman (@dianagram), Value Over Replacement Grit | |||
| 28 | 1 Last Week: 27 | Mark Trumbo has a slugging percentage of just .385 in 615 at-bats against right-handed pitchers since the beginning of the 2013 season. It may be time to consider platooning Trumbo with upstart Ender Inciarte, who has amassed 1.5 WAR in a half-season of play. -- Ryan P. Morrison (@InsidetheZona), Inside the 'Zona | |||
| 29 | 1 Last Week: 30 | The news doesn't get any better for the Rockies, as Michael Cuddyer joined Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez on the disabled list. The team is responding, though, winning five of its past eight to move out of the cellar for the majors' worst record. Corey Dickerson continues to be 2014's shining light, and he'll look to rally the troops as August ends. -- Scott Fults (@theREALsfults), Rockies Zingers | |||
| 30 | 1 Last Week: 29 | At 50-79 on the season and on pace for 99 losses, the Rangers find themselves in the unenviable position of attempting to avoid the franchise's first 100-loss season since 1973. -- Brandon Land (@one_strike_away), One Strike Away | |||
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