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Updated May 20
Because most of the message board public tend to not see things coming, we are going to go ahead and make a bold statement that flies in the face of public perception and even (some) numbers:
The NL has surpassed the AL as the superior league.
Lock it up.
Go ahead and stew on the boards. Write scathing comments about your most-hated baseball power ranker in Internet history. Tell him and anyone who will listen how you are never reading this rag again.
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| Acquisitions like Dan Haren prove the NL was much more aggressive this past offseason. (AP) |
The NL might be known as the Senior Circuit, but is has been the inferior league. Until now.
We couldn't say it before. The AL has dominated the All-Star Game for 10 years and has won three of the past four World Series. It has also dominated interleague play, going 427-329 from 2005-07. In fact, in the 11 years of interleague before this season, the AL had the better mark in seven of them.
The AL even went 22-19 this weekend, but we are still pretty certain the balance of power has shifted.
But this debate and the Power Rankings are not about current winning percentages. We could reprint the standings for you every Tuesday and call it Power Rankings, but that is telling you what you already know.
Like Chris Farley once said, or tried to say, "You can look up a bull's, uh ... but wouldn't you want to take the butcher's word for it?"
We strive to tell you what you might not know yet, and what might very well be.
Sure, the charmed Red Sox are the defending champs and a solid No. 1 in our Power Rankings, but seven of the top 10 spots belong to NL clubs. Deservedly so.
The NL started taking the elite players from the AL sellers who stopped trying to compete with the big-budget franchises of the Red Sox, Yankees and Angels. Those three clubs make the playoffs every year, no matter how much money you try to spend to compete with them.
The NL is more wide open, so more conducive to aggressive moves like the addition of Big Tex.
The shift began last July when Mark Teixeira was dealt to the Braves (No. 10 below) to kick things off. They went from elite pitching to the AL-like "let's mash" model -- as did the Astros (No. 9), who brought in Miguel Tejada from the O's.
Then the NL took two of the elite arms from the AL. The Mets (No. 7) won the Johan Santana sweepstakes and Arizona (No. 3) paid the lofty price tag for Dan Haren.
Pitching might win championships, but you win games by scoring more runs than your opponents. Of the top 10 teams in runs scored, eight of them reside in the NL: Cubs, D-Backs, Astros, Phillies, Pirates, Cardinals, Dodgers and Marlins. Only the Red Sox and Rangers crack that elite group from the AL.
The NL was more aggressive with the imports this year, too. Again, hope breeds aggression. The Cubs (No. 2) added Kosuke Fukudome and the Dodgers brought in Hiroki Kuroda.
The NL has also been better with the rookie breakthroughs. The aforementioned Cubs have Fukudome and monster-mashing catcher Geovany Soto leading the NL ROY race. The Reds have burgeoning star Joey Votto and Johnny Cueto, who has been compared to a young Pedro Martinez.
The aforementioned Braves stole rookie arm Jair Jurrjens from the pitching-poor Tigers -- heck, the everything-poor Tigers.
The AL gained ... Edgar Renteria, Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis. How have they worked out for the Tigers? They are merely the second-worst team in baseball and have the second-worst ERA in baseball at 4.93.
Josh Hamilton (.319, 11 HR, 50 RBI) was a great AL addition, but it came at the expense of the best pitcher in baseball to date, Edinson Volquez. The fellow Dominican Dandy leads everyone with a 1.33 ERA.
We could go further into how the transformation occurred, but you should get the point by now.
If case you are stubborn and still not convinced, match up the current All-Star teams. Yours truly did here. Tell us which side looks stronger.
Hopefully, this power ranker has earned a shred of your respect for being able to look ahead instead of back. Yeah, right.
The complete Power Rankings:
| Power Rankings | ||||||||||
| Current | Team | Previous | ||||||||
 | 1 | Cubs · Trends | 1 | |||||||
| The run differential sits at a dominant plus-189 heading into September ... According to the Chicago Tribune, Carlos Marmol is on pace to become the first pitcher to surrender fewer than four hits per nine innings over the course of a season. That's impressive, especially given how Lou Piniella worked him ragged earlier in the season ... Of course the Cubs should be easing up on Carlos Zambrano and Rich Harden as they careen towards the post-season. I mean, duh ... Koyie Hill had four fingers reattached last year in the wake of what was vaguely described as a "saw accident" and now he's back in the majors. That, friends, is commitment ... They're 9-0-2 in their past 11 series, with Houston and Cincy up next on the slate. | ||||||||||
 | 2 | Rays · Trends | 2 | |||||||
| The Baltimore staff might have to go into therapy after the physical and psychological battering -- 34 runs and 40 hits, 14 of the extra-base variety -- they absorbed against Tampa this weekend ... And here come the bright-eyed and slingshot-armed minor-league reinforcements, headed by prospect-fanboy crush David Price ... The Rays will have ample opportunity to convert the few remaining skeptics over the next three weeks. They play six games against both the Red Sox and Yankees, four against the Twins and three against the Jays. | ||||||||||
 | 3 | Angels · Trends | 3 | |||||||
| Two ejections for Mike Scioscia this week. The pressure of a 42-game division lead must be getting to him ... Howie Kendrick has a little bit of Bobby Crosby in him, not so much in the sweet arc of his swing as in his propensity to succumb to any ache or injury, no matter how minor ... Truth is, the Angels might as well get everybody healthy now, as they don't play a single game that matters this month. And before somebody gets on me about home-field advantage, please note that the Angels are the sole AL powerbroker that plays as well on the road as they do at home amid the Thundersticks cacophony. | ||||||||||
 | 4 | Brewers · Trends | 4 | |||||||
| They did what they had to do in August, getting fat on white-flag teams and going 20-7. September should prove a bit more challenging, with 13 games against the Cubs, Mets and Phillies on the calendar ... The Mets and Phillies bullpens have justly been ripped over the course of the season, but it's not like the Brewers have a Mike Stanton/Jeff Nelson/Mariano Rivera trifecta lined up for the seventh through ninth innings, either ... Any mention of "Ben Sheets" and "strained groin" in the same sentence can't be good ... From the things-I-can't-stop-harping-on file: CC Sabathia has been everything Brewers fans wanted and more, pitching 88 of a possible 99 innings in his 11 starts. But if he tires again during October, we're going to wonder why he was allowed to finish off the offensively indifferent Pirates on Sunday, despite having a 7-0 lead after seven innings. Me, I plan on delivering my "I told you so" in limerick form. Anyone have a good rhyme for "Villanueva"? | ||||||||||
 | 5 | Red Sox · Trends | 7 | |||||||
| Them's a deep, solid team, as witnessed by the back-to-back series wins against the Yankees and White Sox while playing at about 65 percent strength ... In addition to the injuries to Beckett, Drew and Lowell, apparently some kind of turbo-flu swept through the clubhouse last week. If you've ever visited the Fenway home clubhouse -- it's roughly the size of a Safeco Field restroom stall -- you'd understand why germ infestations pose a major problem ... I am a Yankee fan and I am in love with the way Dustin Pedroia (1.060 OPS, five steals in five tries in August) plays the game of baseball. Admitting it is my first step on the road to recovery. | ||||||||||
 | 6 | White Sox · Trends | 5 | |||||||
| Smart call, giving John Danks a bit of extra rest. Safe-than-sorry, etc. ... It's tough to make generational comparisons nowadays, given the advances in "weight training" and "nutrition" that warp all BALCO-era stats. That said, Jim Thome deserves a hearty slap on the shoulder for pulling even with Mickey Mantle on the home-run list. A career .969 OPS ain't half-bad ... This space is 100 percent politics-free -- unless the discussion turns to my political and gender-relations mentor Bella Azbug -- but I sure loved how Barack Obama trumpeted, rather than muted, his ChiSox loyalties during his sit-down with Stu Scott: "You go to Wrigley Field, you have a beer, beautiful people up there. People aren't watching the game. It's not serious. White Sox, that's baseball." Politician, numismatist, actuary, whoever: Pick a team and stick with it. | ||||||||||
 | 7 | Twins · Trends | 6 | |||||||
| They've treaded water so far on the Republican road trip, with a 5-6 record heading into the three-game capper at Toronto. That's better than it looks, given that they've faced a gaggle of the crafty-lefty types who tend to vex them ... The Denard Span bullet to the plate from right field that preserved a one-run lead and helped end a four-game losing streak on Wednesday felt like one of those "defining moments," didn't it? ... The Twins will miss Roy Halladay during the upcoming series against the Jays. | ||||||||||
 | 8 | Mets · Trends | 9 | |||||||
| Say what you want about the bullpen and the flimsy platoons, but the 2008 Mets have an uncanny ability to rebound from groin-punch losses like last Tuesday's defeat to the Phillies, in which they led 7-0. They've almost always won the following day ... Of course, most Mets fans I know have taken to watching the late innings of their team's games in a dark room with the blinds drawn and the air-conditioning set to 52 degrees ... They're 15-5 in their past 20 and have beaten the Phillies, the only team that passes for competition in their division, 10 times in 15 tries. What this says to me: The Mets are a pretty OK baseball team about now. But then, I tend to oversimplify. | ||||||||||
 | 9 | Phillies · Trends | 10 | |||||||
| They have a slightly easier schedule than the Metsies the rest of the way, with only a three-game series at Shea and a four-game visit from the Brewers looming as legit obstacles ... More Moyer in '09, please. He's allowed more than three runs just once since June 1 ... Has anybody ever written anything about recent acquisition Matt Stairs without identifying him as a "professional hitter"? Maybe we can append that description to include "hippo in cleats," which neatly encapsulates his clumsiness outside the batter's box ... The real professional hitter in recent weeks, of course, has been Jayson Werth, without whom the Phillies would have been swept by the Cubs last weekend. | ||||||||||
 | 10 | Blue Jays · Trends | 11 | |||||||
| Too soon to call up super-prospect Travis Snider? ... They have the game's toughest schedule over the next two weeks: 14 games in 13 days against the Twins, Rays, White Sox and Red Sox ... I don't know if John McDonald loses more runs with his bat than he saves with his glove, but he gets to every ball hit anywhere near him. | ||||||||||
 | 11 | Astros · Trends | 16 | |||||||
| A 21-9 mark in August and a six-game winning streak, including a sweep of the team at which they're looking up in the standings, all forged with key contributions from players like Geoff Blum, Darin Erstad and Mark Loretta. I don't understand it, either ... The organization might be a Mariners waiting to happen, but you can't argue with the on-field product right now ... Ty Wigginton presented a solid case for most-awesomest-of-the-month honors with his 12 home runs, but every performance and inspiration-related award for August is destined to land in CC Sabathia's expansive lap. | ||||||||||
 | 12 | Yankees · Trends | 12 | |||||||
| The Yankees are a middling team right now and several of the regulars -- most notably Robinson Cano, blessed with the temperament to smile broadly in the wake of game-crippling gaffes -- have more or less quit on 2008. But I can't in good conscience rank them below teams in the sparkly-giggly NL that have roughly the same record, both for the season and over the past two weeks ... It might be time to remove that "Andy Pettitte, big-game pitcher" tag. At a time when the Yankees have needed him to earn his salary, Pettitte has notched a 1-4 record and 7.01 ERA in his past seven outings, surrendering 58 hits in 42 innings ... Numbers are my God. I subscribe to their newsletter, tithe regularly to their cause, and fast during the Holy Revelation of the Immaculate OPS+. Yet while those numbers tell me that Alex Rodriguez has been the Yankees' best hitter this season, his August -- 11 rally-obliterating double plays -- has shaken my faith to its foundation. | ||||||||||
 | 13 | Cardinals · Trends | 8 | |||||||
| They've lost 4.5 games in the wild card standings in the past two weeks, which speaks to both the high quality of Milwaukee's play and the low quality of their own ... Albert Pujols hit into a double play in a key spot during Monday's loss to the D'backs. Take THAT, A-Rod! ... The bullpen looks fried nowadays. Chris Carpenter, still on shaky physical ground, can only help so much. | ||||||||||
 | 14 | Diamondbacks · Trends | 13 | |||||||
| They're 3-7 in their past 10, including a sweep at the hands of the barely-conscious Padres, yet they've maintained their 2.5-game division lead during that time ... If the Big Guy/Gal upstairs is as merciful as we've been led to believe, He/She will end the NL West war of attrition this weekend in Los Angeles. A D-Backs sweep -- they have Webb and Haren cued up, just as they did last weekend -- could ice it, sparing us the indignity of having to pay further attention to either of these unworthy possible playoff participants ... David Eckstein can't hit, field, run or grab the pickles from the pantry without a step ladder, but pairing him with the similarly-of-limited-value Tony Clark gives the D-Backs baseball's best intangibles-first twofer. And wouldn't you know it, "intangibles" is the fourth tiebreaker for home field in the playoffs, ahead of a coin toss but behind record in interleague play. | ||||||||||
 | 15 | Marlins · Trends | 15 | |||||||
| I'm guessing we wouldn't have heard much about Kevin Gregg's knee ouchie had he not surrendered eight runs in his past two blown saves ... Yeah, elevating Luis Gonzalez (.758 OPS) in the batting order is a sure-fire way to spark your offense. Might I also recommend Paul Lo Duca in the cleanup spot? ... They haven't won consecutive games since July 31. | ||||||||||
 | 16 | Indians · Trends | 17 | |||||||
| A winning streak ends and a losing streak begins. It's the cirrrrrrrrcle of liiiiiiiife ... Do you think that the Pirates might be regretting the deal they negged last winter surrounding Cliff Lee and Jason Bay? | ||||||||||
 | 17 | Tigers · Trends | 19 | |||||||
| I don't profess to be a baseball forensic pathologist or anything, but those conducting the Justin Verlander postmortem might want to begin with the 74 walks he's allowed in 178 innings, compared with 67 in 202 innings last year ... The entirety of Jim Leyland's postgame press conference following Monday's Labor Day matinee, which doesn't deserve to be categorized as professional baseball: "I'll make this easy for you. We basically threw a lot of balls when we should have thrown strikes and we threw some strikes when we should have thrown balls. And that's the end of the conversation. I'll see you later." And then it was off to the tunnel for another stealth cigarette. Poor guy. | ||||||||||
 | 18 | Rangers · Trends | 21 | |||||||
| The New Orleans levees are the only entity on the planet more often characterized as "beleaguered" than the Texas bullpen, which could crack the team's own record for most relief innings pitched in a single season (601 1/3 in 2003) ... The Rangers could also claim Seattle's record for most bases-loaded walks issued (28) with a strong September push. Again: Move back the Arlington fences, expand the foul territory, whatever -- just do something to make it so that Texas pitchers have half a chance. | ||||||||||
 | 19 | Dodgers · Trends | 14 | |||||||
| Getting swept by the Nationals results in immediate revocation of true-contender status, even if the sweepee can still wangle its way into the postseason. Sorry, but those are the rules ... If Jeff Kent is gone for good, he'll leave behind a charisma void akin to the one left when Latrell Sprewell vanished from the NBA. I kid, I kid -- Kent's no more surly than half the other guys he'll eventually be joining in Cooperstown. | ||||||||||
 | 20 | Rockies · Trends | 18 | |||||||
| I hear nothing but nice things about Dexter Fowler, who should arrive in town tonight for an audition and render Willy Tavares redundant before too long ... I can't decide if Jorge De La Rosa is any good or whether he's another in the long line of pitchers who has found the NL more to his liking than the AL. | ||||||||||
 | 21 | Orioles · Trends | 20 | |||||||
| 2-11 in their past 13 ... Remind me again why the Orioles felt it was so important to hang onto Kevin Millar and Aubrey Huff at the trading deadline ... Journeyman pitchers who react to being yanked from the game by flipping the ball to the manager and storming off, as Fernando Cabrera did last week, deserve a stern punch to the throat and a job behind the counter at Arby's. | ||||||||||
 | 22 | Athletics · Trends | 23 | |||||||
| Huston Street is pitching well, but Brad Ziegler and Joey Devine are pitching better. This team will rebound in a hurry, assuming the young hitters live up to their end of the bargain ... Josh Outman is the proud owner of the best last name in the history of relief pitching, at least until a guy named Roger Rallystopper makes his way to the Bigs. | ||||||||||
 | 23 | Reds · Trends | 26 | |||||||
| Nobody cares, probably not even his mommy, but Bronson "Brandon" Arroyo has been a solid-verging-on-very-good pitcher since his 11-run, one-inning outing a few months back ... Joey Votto seems to have taken to the cleanup spot ... The Cincy/Pittsburgh series that kicks off today is, if nothing else, an existentialist's delight. Now that school is back in session and some of the good TV shows have returned, the over/under on attendance for the three games has been set at 42,500. Gamble away. | ||||||||||
 | 24 | Giants · Trends | 22 | |||||||
| There is no chance that you'll hear San Fran's recent call-up, 36-year-old minor-league masher Scott McClain, described as anything other than "the modern-day Crash Davis," so you might as well embrace the inevitable ... 132 pitches for Tim Lincecum in his last start? Some teams have to learn the hard way. | ||||||||||
 | 25 | Braves · Trends | 25 | |||||||
| Debate all you want about David Wright, Pujols, Sabathia and the other anointed NL MVP candidates. I'm focusing my attention on the Least Valuable Player race, in which Jeff Francoeur (540 plate appearances, .637 OPS) has been installed as the mother of prohibitive favorites ... As cliché as it sounds, you have to respect the Braves for continuing to play hard. There's a level of effort here you don't see from the other low-performing teams. | ||||||||||
 | 26 | Royals · Trends | 24 | |||||||
| Doesn't it feel like they've played the Tigers for, like, three consecutive weeks? ... Far be it from me to offend His Exquisitely Manicured Majesty, but Mike Aviles is outslugging (.487 to .400) and out-OBP-ing (.358 to .356) Derek Jeter. It'd be a shame if the finger injury he sustained on Sunday knocks him out for a while, as he's the team's only remotely interesting everyday player. | ||||||||||
 | 27 | Nationals · Trends | 30 | |||||||
| Whoo! Seven straight wins, bitches! Put that in your Collin Balester and smoke it! ... Congrats to Cristian Guzman for joining Chad Moeller and Neifi Perez atop the list of "least transcendent players to hit for the cycle" ... Am I overreacting by jumping them up four spots? Probably. But those of us who do this for a living need Jim Bowden to keep his job, if only for the copious amount of column fodder he provides. Let's go Nats! | ||||||||||
 | 28 | Padres · Trends | 29 | |||||||
| Nice work sweeping the D-Backs, but it isn't like they took down a Senator or a fire-spewing dragon or anything ... It's possible -- not likely, but possible -- that Luis Rodriguez is an upgrade on Khalil Greene at shortstop ... Adrian Gonzalez has stopped hitting homers ... Trevor Hoffman is still alive ... Is there anything I missed? | ||||||||||
 | 29 | Mariners · Trends | 28 | |||||||
| Barring another Adrian Beltre cycle (unlikely), a triple play (unlikely), a no-hitter (possible if King Felix is on the hill) or a bullpen prank gone awry that leaves R.A. Dickey suspended from the Space Needle by the too-elastic band of his trunks (hey, you never know), I doubt we're seeing too many more Mariners/Rangers highlights on the national sportscasts this week ... They swept the Indians, who'd just rattled off 10 straight wins, so maybe some respect is in order. On second thought, nah. | ||||||||||
 | 30 | Pirates | ||||||||