MLB Power Rankings

1. St. Louis Cardinals. In back-to-back starts against the Rockies this weekend, Shelby Miller and Adam Wainwright combined to throw 18 innings of shutout, three-hit baseball.
2. Texas Rangers. Lance Berkman is quietly putting up a .425 OBP for an offense that's survived the losses of Josh Hamilton and Mike Napoli.
3. Detroit Tigers. Over the past calendar year, Torii Hunter has hit for the fourth-highest batting average in all of baseball (.328) even though his career average is just .278.
4. Cincinnati Reds. Shin-Soo Choo was the most important acquisition made by any team over the winter. Cincinnati's leadoff spot was a black hole last year; now Choo is wreaking havoc from that position with a .309/.451/.547 slash line and seven home runs. Remarkably, he's also reached base on a hit-by-pitch 11 times already this season.
5. Boston Red Sox. Once 20-8, they've lost eight of ten and a shaky bullpen is becoming a concern.
6. Atlanta Braves. After surrendering only seven runs all of last year, Craig Kimbrel has already given up five.
7. San Francisco Giants. Through 92 career starts, Madison Bumgarner is on pace to have essentially the same career as Clayton Kershaw.
8. Washington Nationals. A five-game winning streak has them back on track, but Ryan Zimmerman's throwing woes, Adam LaRoche's terrible start, and Gio Gonzalez's regression are all reasons to worry.
9. Baltimore Orioles. Bryce Harper in 2012: .270/.340/.477. Manny Machado in 2013: .323/.363/.513.
10. New York Yankees. Vernon Wells has as many home runs for the Yankees as Josh Hamilton and Albert Pujols have, combined, for the Angels, which really can't be explained by modern science.
11. Cleveland Indians. Good luck finding any pitching on this roster, but the likes of Carlos Santana (1.063 OPS) and Mark Reynolds (.996) are fueling a suddenly-powerful offense.
12. Arizona Diamondbacks. The latest pitching phenom out in the desert is Patrick Corbin, who has surrendered just nine runs across his first seven starts in 2013.
13. Oakland Athletics. An extended skid (16 losses in 23 games) has dropped the A's back into a virtual tie for second place in the AL West with the Mariners. Uncharacteristically, they've scored the most runs in all of baseball but own just the 25th-best ERA.
14. Tampa Bay Rays. Turns out that last year's spectacular bullpen performance (collective 3.19 ERA) hasn't carried over to 2013 (4.67 ERA).
15. Kansas City Royals. They fancy themselves contenders, but it's difficult to take them seriously as long as Jeff Francoeur and his appalling .229/.266/.322 batting line are starting in right field.
16. Pittsburgh Pirates. Career Revival Alert: in 39 starts with the Pirates since the beginning of last year, A.J. Burnett has struck out nearly a batter per inning and owns a 3.33 ERA. He's also a free agent next winter ...
17. Los Angeles Dodgers. Thank goodness the Blue Jays and Angels exist, because otherwise, everyone would be noticing how utterly dreadful this expensive roster has been (15-21 record, last place in the NL West).
18. Colorado Rockies. Troy Tulowitzki (.324/.415/.627) is immeasurably better than every other shortstop in baseball. If he could stay healthy, he'd be the best player in the sport.
19. Los Angeles Angels. Who's to blame for this smoking crater of a baseball team? The easy target is Josh Hamilton, whose .338 slugging percentage is lower than Omar Vizquel's career mark of .352. And all four of his home runs came against the Astros.
20. Toronto Blue Jays. After the World Series, the Blue Jays and Angels should play a seven-game series to the death in which the loser gets contracted out of Major League Baseball.
21. Philadelphia Phillies. No one has mastered the art of the empty batting average quite like Michael Young: 32 of his 40 hits are singles, and he's already grounded into 10 double plays.
22. Milwaukee Brewers. It's Carlos Gomez's world, and we're all just living in it. The Brewers' center fielder is hitting .371 and slugging .645 with six homers and seven steals.
23. Seattle Mariners. In 24 starts since joining the Mariners last season, Hisashi Iwakuma has been shockingly dominant: a 2.33 ERA with 129 strikeouts against just 36 walks.
24. Chicago White Sox. After 29 games played in 2013, Jeff Keppinger has yet to draw a single walk. This is the most interesting baseball development involving the 2013 Chicago White Sox.
25. New York Mets. If the Mets win a game, but no one is there to see it, did it really happen?
26. Minnesota Twins. All of their pitchers have combined to strike out just 189 hitters all season, good for dead last in baseball and half as many as the league-leading Red Sox.
27. Chicago Cubs. Getting strong pitching performances from unlikely sources like Scott Feldman and Carlos Villanueva, who could be interesting names to remember for trading season.
28. San Diego Padres. At least the Astros and Marlins are actively seeking ways to be spectacularly bad, which makes them interesting. The Padres are just normal-bad, leaving them as the most bland and irrelevant team in baseball.
29. Houston Astros. Since throwing a perfect game a year ago, Philip Humber's ERA has been over 7.00 and he's been cut by the pitching-starved Astros. One of the all-time great flukes.
30. Miami Marlins. The Marlins' team slugging percentage is .321. In other words: they've been even worse than Josh Hamilton.