1. St. Louis Cardinals (75-42, Last Week-1): Pitching continues to be incredible and it is very impressive that they have done this without Wainwright, Adams, and Holliday for most of the season.
2. Kansas City Royals (71-46, Last Week-2): They are 6.5 games ahead of the second best AL team and are running away with the top spot in the AL.
3. Pittsburgh Pirates (69-46, Last Week-3): Swept the Mets this weekend which shows that they are truly one of baseball’s best teams.
4. Los Angeles Dodgers (67-51, Last Week-4): Greinke pitched another gem and homered yesterday against the Reds. They head to Oakland looking to extend their winning streak.
5. Chicago Cubs (67-49, Last Week-6): Just got their nine-game winning streak snapped by Chris Sale. They would be in first place in every other division, but they are third in the NL Central.
6. Toronto Blue Jays (65-54, Last Week-5): According to Bob Nightengale, this is the first time in 20 years they have had 40,000 plus in attendance for four straight games. Rogers Centre should be a fun place come October.
7. Houston Astros (64-54, Last Week-8): They finished their road trip 2-7, but lucky for them they are fantastic at home as they have been 12-3 since the All-Star Break.
8. New York Yankees (64-52, Last Week-7): They won the series in Toronto and are now in first thanks to some Carlos Beltran heroics.
9. New York Mets (63-55, Last Week-9): Lost a great opportunity to gain ground on the Nationals as they got swept at home by the Pirates. The sweep shows that they are not on the same level as the Pirates.
10. San Francisco Giants (64-53, Last Week-11): Something that I’ve noticed that was interesting is that every time the Giants got hot or cold it seemed that the Dodgers got hot or cold. I guess that explains why they have been so close all year.
11. Baltimore Orioles (60-56, Last Week-13): Chris Davis is on fire and they have surpassed the Angels for the second wild card after winning three in a row against Oakland.
12. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (60-57, Last Week-10): They have been very cold since their 17-3 hot streak, going 6-17 in their last 23. A big reason for their struggles is that Mike Trout is only hitting .175/.299/.281 in his last 15 games.
13. Texas Rangers (59-57, Last Week-15): They are only a game out of a playoff spot and with Derek Holland coming back soon I like their chances to make the playoffs.
14. Washington Nationals (58-59, Last Week-12): Oh, how the mighty have fallen. This team was projected to win 100 games, but they’re going to struggle to get 90 as that would require a 32-13 finish to the season.
15. Tampa Bay Rays (58-59, Last Week-14): Being swept by Texas hurts their wild card chances and now they will have to look to turn it around in Houston where the Astros have won more than 2/3 of their games.
16. Arizona Diamondbacks (57-59, Last Week-16): It’s good to see Patrick Corbin pitching well (ERA of 3.43) after being out all of 2014.
17. Minnesota Twins (59-58, Last Week-18): Their upcoming three city road trip to New York, Baltimore, and Tampa will be important as they’ll need to play well if they want to be a wild card.
18. Detroit Tigers (56-61, Last Week-17): Miguel Cabrera is back and after missing over a month, but even he won’t be able to right the ship for the Tigers.
19. Chicago White Sox (55-60, Last Week-19): Chris Sale was masterful against the Cubs striking out 15 and only allowing a hit over seven innings.
20. San Diego Padres (56-62, Last Week-23): Matt Kemp hit for the first cycle in Padres history and completed it with a triple in the ninth.
21. Seattle Mariners (55-63, Last Week-20): After Mike Montgomery’s strong start he is 0-3 with an ERA of 7.99 in his last seven starts.
22. Cleveland Indians (54-62, Last Week-21): They have three starters with WHIPs under 1.10, which shows that the offense and bullpen have really let the team down.
23. Oakland A’s (51-68, Last Week-22): Ike Davis (first baseman) pitched in an 18-2 loss yesterday, which probably hurt less than the 27 one-run losses
24. Atalanta Braves (53-64, Last Week-24): Mike Foltynewicz has disappointed with an ERA of 5.61 and a WHIP of 1.62. Not what they expected in return for Evan Gattis.
25. Cincinnati Reds (51-65, Last Week-25): Todd Frazier has disappeared over the last 30 days with only four home runs over that span and hitting a paltry .198.
26. Boston Red Sox (52-65, Last Week-26): Scored 22 runs in a game Felix Hernandez pitched and if only they got that run support all year long they would have lived up to expectations.
27. Milwaukee Brewers (51-68, Last Week-27): Taylor Jungmann looks like the real deal as he has an ERA of 2.23, more strikeouts than innings pitched, and a good K/BB ratio.
28. Colorado Rockies (48-68, Last Week-28): Carlos Gonzalez is building his trade value for the offseason as he is slugging .770 with 16 home runs in his last 30 games.
29. Miami Marlins (47-70, Last Week-30): The only complaint about Dee Gordon is his OBP as it is only 21 points higher than his AVG, but it is not much to complain about because he is hitting .330.
30. Philadelphia Phillies (46-72, Last Week-29): They were in 29th for one week, so that’s good for them…
Sources:
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/schedule/index.jsp
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/standings/index.jsp
http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/sortable.jsp
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