The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

Thank God I don’t need to cover this road series.  I’ve had about as much travel as I can take for now.  Maybe I’ll get lucky and the birth of my daughter will take me off the road all together for this season…

Head's up alert - next week's Power Ten will have a guest writer.  From time to time during the season I may approach you to do a PT.  Next week the Maine PT will be hosted by none other than Sunstroke, himself.  Yay!  Should be a great read.  Onward...

#1.  Detroit Tigers 42-23
What can you say about this team?  They keep chuggin’ along.  Ivan Rodriguez is showing to be a great signing from two years ago and Kenny Rogers is providing that “dad” presence to a group of young guys.  Just hope none of them approach him with a camera.  Bad news for the Tigers, however as An arrest warrant for Dmitri Young was issued Tuesday when he didn’t show up for a court appearance. 

#2.  New York Mets 40-23
The Mets are playing great ball right now, winners of seven of their last ten games.  After pounding Arizona last night, the Mets turn their attention to Philly for a set that starts tonight.  Tom Glavine takes his 9-2 record into the city of brotherly love looking to keep the Mets five game winning streak alive.  Mets’ third baseman David Wright is currently the top vote getter in the NL all-star voting for that position.

#3.  Chicago White Sox 40-24
Catcher Pierzynski leads the White Sox with a .324 batting average after last night’s game, and it seems all the power numbers are coming from Jim Thome.  It appears last year’s 1 home run effort from Thome (or so it seemed) was certainly an exception and not the rule as he has launched 21 home runs.  Contreras has really settled into this rotation and leads the team (ERA wise) with a sparkling 2.62 – a career low.  Chicago are winners are of their last two in a row and seven out of ten, keeping pace easily with the Tigers as they trail by only a game and a half.

#4.  St. Louis Cardinals 38-25
Struggling in their last 15 games, St. Louis appears to have righted the ship with two straight wins.  Chris Carpenter spun a gem last night versus the Pirates, striking out 13.  It’s too bad that all you hear about this morning is Schilling – Santana, but Carp’s performance was just as masterful.  Taking a back seat to that was Jason Isringhausen becoming the all time leading save holding in Cardinals history, notching number 161 last night.

#5.  Boston Red Sox 36-26
The Sox suffered a heart breaker last night that turned a spot light on a huge weakness for this team.  Santana and Schilling spun gems, both giving way late in the game tied 1-1.  Boston took a 2-1 lead into the 12th inning and had to go to another right hander in their pen – although the bats coming up were a combined life time .187 against lefties.  The result?  A walk off grand slam 5-2 loss.  Boston’s bullpen is a tale of two sides.  On one side you have the suddenly untouchable Rudy Seanez (1.46 ERA in last ten games), David Riske and Jonathan Papelbon.  Then there is Keith “taken ‘em long” Foulke (15 day DL), Julian “kick ‘em when they are down” Tavarez and 40 year old Mike Timlin.  Boston needs arms.


#6.  New York Yankees 36-26
When you have as many injuries and needs as the Yankees do, what do you go after?  The talk was chasing down an outfielder, but as what price?  New York’s bullpen is strained and not performing well, and dropping like flies.  They don’t have anyone to call up in their system that is ready for this stage.  Jared Wright, who appeared to be headed to the bullpen, will stay in the rotation.  There is talk about going to a four man rotation and taking someone out for long relief, until Randy Johnson was hit around by Oakland.  They can’t afford a four man rotation with the age on this staff.


#7.  Cincinnati Reds 36-29
Not matter what team gets slotted in these next few slots, I’m not 100% comfortable.  Losers of 5 straight, the Reds are turning to 2-5 Elizardo Ramirez to stop the bleeding.  That can’t make Reds’ fans feel very comfortable.  The Reds are also an unacceptable 16-16 at home, teams that are “for real” play better at home than on the road.


#8.  Arizona Diamondbacks 35-29
Russ Ortiz was supposed to be an anchor to the Diamonbacks rotation this season, instead The Diamondbacks on Tuesday designated the veteran right-hander for assignment after watching him go 0-5 with a 7.54 ERA in six starts this year and 5-11 with a 6.89 ERA last year.  This means Arizona has 10 days to trade or release him.  At 32, Ortiz isn’t over the hill – but the Dbacks will have a hard time finding anyone willing to take on his monster contract.  After trading ‘El Duke to the Mets – I’m hoping the Dbacks don’t fall into a position where they get hit with the injury bug.


#9.  L.A. Dodgers 35-29
Derek Lowe, Brad Penny and Nommmmahhh are anchoring a surging Dodgers team that just might have enough to get it done in the weak NL West.  Struggling of late, L.A. is four out of their last ten and barely .500 on the road – however being above .500 on the road for this club is a success all in itself.  Grady Little is a very good manager and will go far with professional players like Bill Mueller on his squad.


#10.  Texas Rangers 34-31
I can’t quite figure out this Rangers team.  They don’t seem to have an overpowering offense, yet continue to score runs in buckets.  Their bullpen is sub-par at best, yet they continue to do okay in close games.  They don’t have much of a pitching rotation, yet they have managed to climb to an above .500 mark after starting the season well under the .500 level.  The AL West could turn into a two team race between the A’s and Rangers if the Angels don’t get into gear soon.

Good stuff, Maine...

Mets... David Wright made a diving grab of a scorched grounder down the 3B line last night against Philly in the opener that was nothing short of amazing, then pops up throws a perfect dart to second base and turned the double play. He might be the best "overall offense-defense" 3-bagger that I've seen in a long time.

Chi-Sox... Thome has definitely been hitting them out like he has a quota to fill, but two other white sox sluggers, Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye, are both posting pretty good power numbers as well. Dye, in particular, is having a legitimate all star caliber season.

Cardinals... I still think if King Albert is sidelined for a prolonged period of time, the Cardinals' record will suffer a lot. The guy who's really rebounded from injury this year...Scott Rolen is looking every bit as good as he did two years ago, when every conversation about the league's best hitters had Rolen's name mentioned at some point.

Yes Sir, the A's are starting to cacth fire a little here. The picthing has been much improved over the last 2 weeks, and that's with Harden on the DL. The big hurt is swinging a hot stick these days, and tradtionally the A's are a second half team.

It's only a matter of time before the rangers are overtaken!!!!!

Just for the record - I think that any of the teams at #6, #7, #8, #9 or #10 aren't any better than Toronto.  Mere record dictated those slots. 

I've already started my write-up...

1) San Diego Padres
2) TBD
3) TBD
4) TBD
5) TBD
6) TBD
7) TBD
8 ) TBD
9) TBD
10) TBD

 ;D

Stroke - Marlins should be #2

I have them #3 in my current rankings, but if they can smack the Braves around this week...who knows? ;)

how about them blue jays stroke, easily #3, maybe #2.

Depends...can we re-open trade talks for Cabrera? I can agree to rank the Jays no lower than #4, and even wear my Dave Stieb jersey out in public once a month the rest of the season. (totally kidding here, I swear)

"Tonight on Sportscenter...scandal, corruption and alleged payoffs slam the TDMMC MLB Power Ten..."

The Jays aren't even leading their own division, so #7 is the highest they can be ranked.

Well, 6th if you wanna subtract the AL West leader which is fine by me.

They might not be leading the division, but they probably will be by the time next week's PT comes out.

Yankees at Nationals who suck, so maybe they can hold off the Jays.

I'm still not scared of them though because while NY & Boston aren't playing their best baseball due to injuries or bad managing, the Jays ARE. Burnett won't make a difference when he comes back and gets injured 3 starters later.

Meanwhile, for the Yankees Chacon is back and Dotel is on his way. For the Red Sox, Crisp is back, Francona realized that Youkilis should be leading off or hitting higher than 8th and Beckett will improve.

I figured Beckett's ERA would go up by a run or so because it's a tougher hitting league, but not this high. This is just an adjustment period, he will rebound and do well. Plus, Clement is probably DL bound and even if you replace him with a pitching machine, the ERA will lower.

Jays are an 88 win tam, NY & Boston are in the 95-100 range still.

The jays aren't playing at there best. Have you seen the team. The pitching staff other then Halladay has been hit and miss. Chacin has struggled and is on the DL. Casey Janseen has been reliable at times and is a rookie. Lilly has been off and on. Towers has sucked. Ty too complicated last name, hasn't really been good this year, What do you expect from a guy that shouldn't even be in the Major leagues. Burnett is of course out and will be a huge boost for the team.

The Bullpen hasn't been what we were expecting. Same cast as last year so we assumed they would be like last year. So far it hasn't been that way. Everyone besides B.J has really Struggled. Our bullpen certainly isn't at it's best.

The only thing the jays are at there best is Offense and Defense. This team isn't at it's best.

 
sure your not scared. Don't underestimate the nationals. they could bite your team in the ass. Same thing with the marlins and jays. I want a sweep, but will that happen? Jays suck is sweeping series (0 for 9) so it would be safe to say the jays will come out of florida 1-2 or 2-1.

But you have to understand, that IS the Blue Jays team. Of course Lilly isn't reliable, he was NEVER reliable. Of course Burnett got hurt, he ALWAYS gets hurt. Chacin started to fade in the 2nd half last year. His windup only worked for 2-3 months and then hitters pounded his stuff.

Ryan is playing above expectations, but he can continue to play at a very high level. This is the team, except that Alex Rios will probably cool down.

On the other hand, the Yankees have had fluke injuries that they are now recovering from. And Boston will win more because Clement is gone and Beckett will improve. Not to mention that they will assuredly trade for bullpen help, even when Timlin comes back from the DL.

The Jays made some improvements this year, but unless another huge round of fluke injuries hit, they will finish in 3rd. Maybe next year they can get up to 90-92 wins.