Corey's MLB Power Rankings - 7/3/06 - American League Dominates

The Mets still get the nod over the Yankees because they are the only NL team with a remote chance of winning the World Series. The Yankees, right now, are fighting to stay in third place in their own division. You have to take these things into account with this thing.

I agree 100% christof.

I agree on the Yankees being ahead of the Mets. I think the Mets will be better in the long haul, but the Yankees are definitely better this week. Also, kind of surprised you still have the Cardinals that high. They just lost five out of seven, including two losses to the Royals! In their one win against KC, they allowed 7 runs. Getting Pujols back should give them a shot in the arm, but unless Pujols suddenly becomes a starting pitcher, middle reliever, closer and outfielder, the Cardinals have issues.

Bad call on Clemens, too. He got outdueled by Francisco Liriano in his first start, and he got outdueled by Nate Robertson in his second start. We all know what kind of pitcher Liriano is, and Nate Robertson is 8-3 with a 3.14 ERA in the AL. Those two can not be put in the same breath as the next guy he faces, who is 1-2 with a 4.18 ERA. And we all know how much better Clemens is in Houston. He made progress in his last start. He will not lose tonight.

You guys seem to be forgetting that the season series between the two teams was 3-3. I suppose I could rank all the teams by best record of the week if that's what you guys want.

I'm not saying that's what I want, I just thought that's what you were doing. Maybe it was a different power ranking where I was having this discussion, but I remember having a discussion about the power rankings being reflective of what a team did lately, not so much what they'd done overall. Was that someone else?

There's a lot of stuff you have to take into account. You can't just rank them by overall standing, or who had the best record in the last week. Why should the team with the best record in one league be penalized for one series when they're still more likely to go to the World Series than the teams you guys are saying they should be behind.

See, I follow his logic on what he's saying, because he's talking about the number one team in the National League. A team that is also dominating their division. You're trying to make that comparison using a team that is just 6 games above the fourth place team in its divison. A team that went something like 9-16 last month. His argument, whether or not I agree with it, makes sense. What you are saying is not logical at all, nor is it the same argument.

Hey man all I said was that he was facing his third straight young pitcher. I made no predictions he would lose or anything. Marmol did impress me the one time I saw him pitch though.

I know, I just had to showboat a little.  ;)

Besides, Clemens was facing the Cubs. Telling me he was going to beat them is like telling me the Royals are going to miss the playoffs.

You call being in first place by 3+ games struggling, ASwaff? What would they have to do to be succeeding, lead by 10 games? How picky are you?

Wow, how'd that get there? Let me put that comment in the right place.

If we really got down to tonight's games, Pittsburgh was the only NL Central team to surprise me, and that's only because they beat the Mets. Sure Houston and Milwaukee won too, but Houston played the Cubs, and Cincinnati's pitching was just barely worse than the Brewers' to hand the win to the Crew. I mean, All-Star Derrick Turnbow blows a save in the top of the ninth, then Todd Coffey (not that his was particularly surprising) blows the save in the BOTTOM of the ninth. I tell you, you've GOT to feel confident when you get to some these clubs' bullpens.

It's kind of surprising how bad some of the bullpens have been this year, even on teams that traditionally have good or great bullpens. I think the only Major League bullpens I'd really have faith in are the Rockies, Padres, White Sox and Tigers. Aside from Pepelbon, the Red Sox have struggled. The Yankees bullpen is old, and still fairly effective, but definitely not what it used to be. The Rangers bullpen folds like a cheap card table, and the Braves don't even have legs to hold the table up. The Astros are struggling with Lidge and Wheeler, and the Cardinals are hurting. The list goes on and on. The bullpens that are good are really great, but there is a huge disparity of bullpen talent this year. Closers are still good, but so many teams struggle to get the ball in their hands with the lead.