MLB Power Rankings
ESPN.com
In Week 11 of our rankings, our panel of experts was again unanimous in choosing the St. Louis Cardinals as the top team in baseball. The Toronto Blue Jays, meanwhile, climb 13 spots to move into the top five for the first time this season.This week's voters are Jim Bowden of ESPN Insider, Eric Karabell of ESPN Fantasy, Tim Kurkjian of ESPN, 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.
| 2015 Power Rankings: June 15 | |||||
| RANK | TEAM / RECORD | TRENDING | COMMENTS | ||
| 1 |
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Last Week: 1 | Second-year second baseman Kolten Wong (.353 OBP/.465 SLG) helped the Cardinals maintain their comfortable lead in the NL Central despite losing another key player to the disabled list in starting pitcher Lance Lynn. -- Matt Philip (@fungoes), Fungoes | |||
| 2 | 1 Last Week: 3 | Clayton Kershaw in his past four starts: 39 strikeouts, three runs allowed on 14 hits in 28 2/3 innings (0.94 ERA). Friday's 117-pitch outing was the longest of the season for Kershaw. Los Angeles is three games into a stretch of 15 of 20 games away from home. -- Diane Firstman (@dianagram), Replacement Grit | |||
| 3 | 3 Last Week: 6 | After hitting well over the first two months of the season (a combined .304 batting average in April and May), Kendrys Morales has struggled mightily in June, batting just .162. -- ESPN.com | |||
| 4 |
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Last Week: 4 | In 26 combined starts, Gerrit Cole (1.71) and A.J. Burnett (1.89) rank first and second in the National League in ERA. -- ESPN.com | |||
| 5 | 13 Last Week: 18 | Armed with an improved bullpen and some timely home runs, the Jays' winning streak now stands at 11. Unfortunately, the Yankees have won seven of 10 and the Rays have won nine of 12 over the same span. Undeterred, with Devon Travis soon returning, the Jays will look to continue their meteoric rise up the AL standings. -- Matt Gwin (@Matt_HBB), Blue Jays Plus | |||
| 6 | 1 Last Week: 7 | The Giants continue to do their best work away from AT&T Park and have a NL-best 18 road wins. Their .289 team average on the road is 21 points higher than the next closest team. -- Connor Grossman (@connorgrossman), West Coast Bias | |||
| 7 | 5 Last Week: 2 | Rookie Lance McCullers has pitched really well in six starts since being called up. In 36 innings pitched, he's allowed only one home run and has a 2.00 ERA. -- ESPN.com | |||
| 8 |
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Last Week: 8 | It was a strange week for the Yankees, who had two scheduled days off bookending a two-game series against the Nationals. They split that series before dropping two of three games over the weekend to Baltimore. They also took another injury hit as they lost closer Andrew Miller to the DL with a forearm strain. -- Brad Vietrogoski (@BradVietro), It's About the Money | |||
| 9 | 1 Last Week: 10 | The Cubs' hitters lead the NL in strikeouts as a team and rank just behind Houston for the most in all of baseball. -- Joe Aiello (@VFTB), View from the Bleachers | |||
| 10 | 2 Last Week: 12 | Jake Odorizzi became the fifth major league starting pitcher on the disabled list for the Rays. A few days later, his replacement -- Andrew Bellatti -- went on the DL, and then the Rays dropped their backup catcher to make space for more relievers. Injuries are the new normal for Tampa Bay, the team that keeps chugging along and is in a virtual tie for first place in the AL East. -- Tommy Rancel (@trancel), The Process Report | |||
| 11 | 6 Last Week: 5 | An ugly week for the Twins ended on a high note, with a win over Texas to end a five-game losing streak in Byron Buxton's MLB debut. -- Nick Nelson (@nnelson9), Twins Daily | |||
| 12 | 1 Last Week: 11 | Mitch Moreland has an OPS of 1.081 while batting in the cleanup spot since Adrian Beltre went down with a sprained and lacerated thumb on May 31. Joey Gallo (.300/.391/.625) also is making a case to stay in Arlington when Beltre returns. -- Brandon Land (@one_strike_away), One Strike Away | |||
| 13 |
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Last Week: 13 | The Mets' record in day games (15-6, .714) and record against division opponents (23-12, .657) are both second-best in the majors to the Cardinals (16-6, .727; 19-8, .704). Curtis Granderson has five multihit performances in his past seven games, going 11-for-31 (.355) in that period. -- Joe Janish (@metstoday), Mets Today | |||
| 14 | 5 Last Week: 9 | Jordan Zimmermann has struggled while pitching on the road this season. He has a 5.40 ERA and a .338 batting average against in six road starts. -- ESPN.com | |||
| 15 | 1 Last Week: 16 | The Tigers have Justin Verlander back, Victor Martinez is soon to follow, and the team has stayed reasonably close to the top in the AL Central race during their absences. Both returns are sure to provide a boost to a team that must take advantage as the Royals and Twins have begun to look more vulnerable. -- Grey Papke (@walkoffwoodward), Walkoff Woodward | |||
| 16 | 6 Last Week: 22 | Now mostly healthy, the O's have been on a roll of late and are now only three games out of first place in the AL East. A strong homestand against the Red Sox and Yankees, in which they went 5-1, was certainly timely. -- Matt Kremnitzer (@mattkremnitzer), Camden Depot | |||
| 17 | 2 Last Week: 15 | While Albert Pujols and Mike Trout are tied for the American League lead in home runs (18), the Angels are just 11th in the AL in runs scored (248). -- ESPN.com | |||
| 18 | 1 Last Week: 17 | Wil Myers came off the disabled list, but said there's a "high possibility" he'll have offseason surgery to remove a bone spur from his left wrist. Jedd Gyorko, in the first year of a five-year, $35 million deal, was demoted to Triple-A last Wednesday. After Tuesday, San Diego will play 18 of its next 23 games away from Petco Park. -- Diane Firstman (@dianagram), Replacement Grit | |||
| 19 | 5 Last Week: 14 | Fans who have been clamoring to #FreeLindor finally got their wish -- top prospect Francisco Lindor was called up to the big leagues Sunday. He'll join highly touted third base prospect Giovanny Urshela, who was called up earlier in the week when Jose Ramirez and Lonnie Chisenhall punched one-way tickets to Triple-A. -- Stephanie Liscio (@stephanieliscio), It's Pronounced "Lajaway" | |||
| 20 | 1 Last Week: 19 | The Braves have been on the losing end of three games this month in which they scored at least eight runs. From 2009 to 2014, they lost only two such games. The primary cause of this poor play in high-scoring games has been the bullpen, where the team can't seem to find consistency from anyone. -- Martin Gandy (@gondeee), Chop County | |||
| 21 | 3 Last Week: 24 | It was another .500 week for Seattle, one in which they often won big and lost big, thanks to inconsistent pitching and hitting. The team's newest acquisition, Mark Trumbo, is off to a slow start with the M's. Playing primarily DH, he's picked up just six hits in nine games, none for extra bases. -- Jeff Wiser (@outfieldgrass24), Inside the 'Zona | |||
| 22 | 2 Last Week: 20 | The D-backs were swept by the Dodgers, then got even by sweeping the Giants. Allen Webster made his 2015 major league debut and threw five hitless innings en route to a win Saturday, the day after Chase Anderson took a no-hitter into the seventh. When the pitching is on, the D-backs can be tough to beat. -- Jeff Wiser (@OutfieldGrass24), Inside the 'Zona | |||
| 23 |
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Last Week: 23 | The White Sox stayed uneven and maddening for another week, but at least they got Jose Abreu cooking again: The big man hit .409/.435/.818 last week with three home runs. -- James Fegan (@TheCatbird_Seat), The Catbird Seat | |||
| 24 | 2 Last Week: 26 | The Redlegs are coming off a winning week (4-3), but good news is always tempered with bad news in the Queen City. Shortstop Zack Cozart, in the midst of his best season, needs reconstructive surgery on his knee and won't return until 2016. -- Chad Dotson (@dotsonc), Redleg Nation | |||
| 25 | 2 Last Week: 27 | Mat Latos came off the disabled list Saturday and had his best start of the season: seven innings, four hits, two walks and 11 strikeouts. Former closer Steve Cishek returned from his demotion to Triple-A, where he tossed six scoreless innings. Miami has committed the fewest errors in the majors. -- Diane Firstman (@dianagram), Replacement Grit | |||
| 26 | 2 Last Week: 28 | Despite being on an A's team that has the worst record in the American League, Sonny Gray continues to dazzle. He has a 1.60 ERA in 14 starts. -- ESPN.com | |||
| 27 | 2 Last Week: 25 | The Rockies spent a second straight weekend flopping around as they struggled to fight the fish. However, the Denver nine took two of three from baseball's best team, the Cardinals, last week. The Rockies have played .500 ball recently, mostly playing outside of their division and they will now hit an interleague stretch. -- Jake Shapiro (@Shapalicious), Rockies Zingers | |||
| 28 | 7 Last Week: 21 | An 8-17 stretch left the Red Sox as the only team in the AL East with a losing record. Dropping six games in a row to the Orioles and Blue Jays -- their fourth losing streak of three or more games in the past month -- could be enough for the front office to start thinking about 2016. -- Ryan P. Morrison (@ryanpmorrison), Inside the 'Zona | |||
| 29 |
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Last Week: 29 | The Brewers produced another four-win week, this time behind an excellent debut by Taylor Jungmann, and a strong comeback against Washington. After Tyler Cravy's great debut the previous week, the Brewers' replacement starters now claim two of the best MLB pitching debuts in 2015. -- Nicholas Zettel (@spectivewax), Disciples of Uecker | |||
| 30 |
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Last Week: 30 | The Phillies were winless last week (0-6) as they continue to struggle to score runs. They're last in the majors in runs (197 in 64 games). -- ESPN.com | |||
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