1.St. Louis Cardinals (84-46, Last Week-1): The Cardinals continue to win and seemingly never go in a slump. Pretty much a lock for them to win 100 games.
2. Kansas City Royals (80-50, Last Week-2): Cueto hasn’t been anything special with the Royals in six starts, going 2-3 with an ERA just below 4.00; but, if he gets hot, the Royals will reach 100 wins.
3. Pittsburgh Pirates (79-50, Last Week-3): Mark Melancon has been great as closer saving 43 of 45 games with a WHIP below 1.00 and an ERA of 1.71.
4. Toronto Blue Jays (74-56, Last Week-5): A record of 21-5 in August is unreal and it will be interesting to see how they play in September.
5. Chicago Cubs (74-55, Last Week-4): Jake Arrieta pitched a no-hitter last night at Dodger Stadium where his pitches were as sharp as they have been all year.
6. Los Angeles Dodgers (72-57, Last Week-8): They’ve been no-hit twice in the span of nine days, which is one of the shortest spans in history.
7. Houston Astros (72-59, Last Week-6): Important for them that they went .500 on a tough road trip to Yankee Stadium and Target Field especially because the Rangers are inching closer, only three games back.
8. New York Yankees (72-57, Last Week-7): Didi Gregorious has played very well over his last seven games hitting .400 with two home runs and 10 RBIs. If he continues to hit well, it will be very important to the Yankees as some of the big bats may wear down during September.
9. New York Mets (72-58, Last Week-9): Crazy home and away splits for Noah Syndergaard. At home, he is 7-1 with a 2.15 ERA, a batting average against (BAA) of .198, and a WHIP of 0.83. On the road, he is 1-5 with a 4.91 ERA, a BAA of .286, and a WHIP of 1.56.
10. San Francisco Giants (69-61, Last Week-10): Big series starting tonight in LA where they must win as time is running out on the Giants, who are 3.5 games back.
11. Texas Rangers (68-61, Last Week-11): They can bury the Angels if they can sweep them this weekend in Anaheim. The Rangers have been hot and are now closer to the Astros than the Angels.
12. Minnesota Twins (67-63, Last Week-13): I went to two games at Target Field this weekend, and it is definitely one of the nicest stadiums in baseball. They’re only a game and a half out of the wild card.
13. Washington Nationals (66-63, Last Week-17): Losing Denard Span for the rest of the season means they are going to miss the playoffs.
14. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (65-65, Last Week-12): They have fallen all the way back to .500 after a stretch of 12 wins in 36 games.
15. Tampa Bay Rays (64-66, Last Week-15): What a turnaround for Erasmo Ramirez, who had a career ERA near 5.00, and has a 3.68 ERA this year with a WHIP of 1.15.
16. Cleveland Indians (63-66, Last Week-21): Wouldn’t it be funny if somehow the Indians snuck into the playoffs? They have the pitching to do it, but they are five games out and play Toronto next.
17. Arizona Diamondbacks (63-67, Last Week-16): Paul Goldschmidt has an OPS of 1.007 and is definitely in the conversation for NL MVP.
18. Baltimore Orioles (63-67, Last Week-14): Being swept by Minnesota and Texas pretty much seals their fate as they have fallen out of the wild card race after leading the second wild card not too long ago.
19. San Diego Padres (63-67, Last Week-18): Andrew Cashner has been very disappointing this season with an ERA over 4.00 and a WHIP of 1.38.
20. Chicago White Sox (61-68, Last Week-20): Jose Abreu has had a very solid season with an OPS of .848 and 24 home runs.
21. Seattle Mariners (61-70, Last Week-22): Finally fired GM Jack Zduriencik after seven years of mediocre play. Things would have turned out much differently if nearly every prospect did not fail.
22. Boston Red Sox (60-70, Last Week-24): Xander Bogaerts is hitting .315, but it seems like no one is talking about it because Boston has been pretty bad all year long.
23. Detroit Tigers (60-70, Last Week-19): The pitching in Detroit is atrocious, other than Verlander, and it will be interesting to see how they address that in the offseason.
24. Oakland A’s (57-74, Last Week-23): Marcus Semien has slowed down on his error pace, which was at nearly 50 for the season.
25. Milwaukee Brewers (55-75, Last Week-25): Francisco Rodriguez blew his first save of the season in what has a been a great one for him.
26. Cincinnati Reds (53-76, Last Week-27): Brandon Phillips has really lost his power as his ISO (SLG-AVG) is just .101.
27. Colorado Rockies (52-76, Last Week-29): Jose Reyes is not playing well in Colorado, which will make it harder for them to trade him away at the end of the season.
28. Atlanta Braves (54-76, Last Week-26): After being 42-42 in Mid-July, they have gone 12-34 since; huge collapse.
29. Miami Marlins (52-79, Last Week-28): Giancarlo Stanton should be returning from injury this week, which is great for the game of baseball.
30. Philadelphia Phillies (52-79, Last Week-30): Rookie Aaron Nola has looked strong in his early outings going 5-1 with an ERA of 3.26 and a WHIP of 1.07.
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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