The New York Yankees have been red hot since the All-Star
break as the team continues to put space between them and the rest of the
American League East Division. New York has swept the Baltimore Orioles this
week and also took two games out of three in exciting fashion against the
Minnesota Twins with an off day thrown in for good measure, will that mean a
rise in the rankings? Will the St. Louis Cardinals remain in the top spot or
will the acquisition of Aramis Ramirez for the Pittsburgh Pirates be enough to
dethrone their top competitors in their division and in these rankings? You’ll
have to keep reading to find out.
We start off this week’s rankings the same way we start off
every week’s rankings, the top spot. The St. Louis Cardinals came in at the #1
position this week while the Philadelphia Phillies finished in the last spot,
lonely #30. The New York Yankees were 8th for the third consecutive
week last week and this week they were able to jump two more spots to their
season high, the #6 spot.
To round out the rest of the American League East Division
we have the Toronto Blue Jays finishing with the #13 spot while the Baltimore
Orioles finished at the #14 spot. The Tampa Bay Rays finished with the #16 spot
while the Boston Red Sox continue to bring up the rear in the division at the #25
spot.
The biggest rise of the week goes to the San Diego Padres
who rose five spots to the #20 position while the biggest fall goes to the Boston
Red Sox who also fell five spots to the #25 position. The Top Five teams in the
rankings in order are the #1 St. Louis Cardinals, the Kansas City Royals, the Pittsburgh
Pirates, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The
five worst teams according to the rankings are the #26 Cincinnati Reds, the #27
Miami Marlins, the #28 Colorado Rockies, the #29 Milwaukee Brewers and the #30
Philadelphia Phillies.
The July 31st trade deadline is looming and we
may see some drastic changes in these rankings because of it. It may not be
immediate, especially for those teams that look to acquire pitching before the
deadline, but like most things this will work itself out in the end. These are
exciting and fun times as a fan, especially if your team is rising in the
rankings and buying at the trade deadline, and I can’t wait to see how it all
unfolds.
This is something I wrote a long time ago, well April of this year to be exact....
ReplyDeleteOne of the greatest talents to play baseball in my lifetime, and he screwed it all up thinking he needed that something extra. What a jerk, fans may say his ego got to him, I say nay, nay!
I think it was his lack of self-confidence, not his ego! Playing with the two teams before the Yankees, he got very little recognition for his game, it was always Nomar and Jeter. Is there anyone out there in the baseball world that can honestly say; "A-Rod wasn't the best SS or player in baseball"? When one stipulates he hadn't used drugs until he joined Texas. take his first 8 years and compute what might have been without the dirt he inflicted upon himself.
What A-Rod said of Jeter was the truth, just think about it. If Jeter had played for any other team than the Yankees or Boston he would have been a very good singles hitter playing SS and nothing more! All those years A-Rod was the best SS but who knew, not the baseball fans! Jeter would never have played SS for 20 years on other teams as he did with the Yankees. Being the poster boy for the Yankees made him out to be much better than he really was. Pitchers didn't worry about him or any other singles hitter, but they pitched very tough to guys like Tino, Bernie, A-Rod, O'Neill, Giambi and Posada. Power hitters don't get 3,000 hits very often...A-Rod will be one of nine power hitters to make the 3,000 hit club, joining 19 single hitters in said club! He will be one of three to join the 3,000 hits and over 600 home runs.
Don't think A-Rod is done, he has talent that few others have ever had, he never needed help from any drugs at all.
Jeter gave the Yankee fans someone to look up to and kids to emulate for over 20 years and will go into the HoF because he hit in the #2 slot and played for the Yankees, both he and Joe T, will go into the hall for the same reason. Being on the right team at the right time gives one a much better chance than others with as much if not more talent going into the Hall.
The above was written 4/1/15 @0214 hrs.