Major League Baseball Power Ranking: Week 17 – Part 2
The Philadelphia Phillies are clear leaders in the National League with no serious competition from any other team. The only teams who are a distant threat to the Phillies are the Atlanta Braves and the San Francisco Giants but they are six and 6.5 games
behind the Phillies respectively.
Philadelphia has impressed everyone with their quality pitching and now, their batting is also starting to gain momentum. They currently have the second-best pitching outfit in the Majors with a team ERA of 3.13 and 66 quality starts.
After the All-Star break, the Phillies have managed eight wins in 11 games including a five game inning-streak. They have won all of their previous nine series and have not dropped two consecutive games since June 3 and 4. Going on, the Phillies are expected
to continue with this tremendous effort with Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Shane Victorino leading the pack brilliantly.
2. The Boston Red Sox hold on to their second position in week 17 of the Major League Baseball Power Rankings. Their sustainability can largely be attributed to their strong batting line-up which is ranked as the best in the Majors. The batters have added
542 runs thus far and their team batting average of .278 and team slugging percentage of .454 is ranked Number one.
Their powerful pitching, led by Josh Beckett and Jon Lester forms an alarming pitching rotation. Lester has won all of his previous three starts and now has a win-loss record of 10-4. Like the Phillies, the Red Sox have also won eight of their 11 encounters
post All-Star break and with Kansas City Royals and Chicago White Sox to play next this record is expected to further improve.
With only 1.5 games behind Phillies in the Majors, Boston certainly has a fair chance of finishing top.
3. New York Yankees have followed suit of the top two teams and have held to their third spot firmly. They were on a scoring spree in the past week and now are ranked third in the list of most runs scored by a team.
The pin-striped Yankees have impressed after the All-Star break. After a shaky start with two consecutive losses, the Yankees came back strong with eight wins in 11 games. More importantly, the Yankees are now riding a three-game winning streak and are likely
to extend it when they take on the distressed Seattle Mariners in the last game of the series before a four-game series against the Orioles at home. The Mariners are on a 17 game losing-streak and Phil Hughes will have a nice opportunity to improve his 1-2
win-loss record when the two teams meet on Wednesday, July 27.
The Yankees are just 3.5 games away from the top notch in the Majors and a few good weeks can assure them a spot in the World Series.
4. Texas Rangers entered the top five this week aided by their 12 game winning-streak. The Rangers continued to impress after the All-Star break with five consecutive wins including three shut-outs.
In total, they have won eight out of their 12 previous games and their success has chiefly come from their ability to score runs. They showed a glimpse of their ability when they posted 20 runs against the Minnesota Twins on Monday, July 25.
Continued in Part 3
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