MLB Power Rankings

1. St. Louis Cardinals. Put six players in the All-Star Game: a Cy Young contender (Adam Wainwright), an MVP candidate (Yadier Molina), a Rookie of the Year favorite (Shelby Miller), a first-rate closer (Edward Mujica), the league's best hitter with runners in scoring position (Allen Craig), and a potential Hall of Famer (Carlos Beltran).
2. Boston Red Sox. If he continues to pitch at this elite level (a 2.78 ERA and excellent strikeout numbers), MLB should rename the Comeback Player of the Year Award after John Lackey.
3. Detroit Tigers. Despite all the star power on its roster, Detroit is still only a game-and-a-half up on Cleveland in the AL Central. Proof that defense and bullpens matter.
4. Texas Rangers. With only 11 extra base hits this season, Elvis Andrus owns the dishonorable distinction of having a better on-base percentage (.300) than slugging percentage (.280).
5. Oakland Athletics. The exact opposite of the Tigers: the A's don't have a single star on their roster (Josh Donaldson is their best player) but they're still a top-10 team in both offense and pitching while sitting in first place in the AL West.
6. Pittsburgh Pirates. Amazingly, Pittsburgh's pitching staff has a collective 3.09 ERA this season, which means the entire team as a whole is pitching like Roger Clemens.
7. Cincinnati Reds. Fifth starter Mike Leake has a 2.69 ERA. It's a pitcher's world right now.
8. Atlanta Braves. Justin Upton hit 12 home runs in April and has hit four since.
9. Tampa Bay Rays. Still thought of as an all-pitch, no-hit team, the Rays actually have a better offense (6th in runs scored) than pitching staff (11th in ERA).
10. Baltimore Orioles. Rick Reilly wrote a cynical article for ESPN.com suggesting that Chris Davis' "out of nowhere" offensive explosion could be a result of performance-enhancing drugs. Reilly clearly isn't paying attention -- since his debut in 2008, Davis' fly balls have left the ballpark 22.6% of the time, the fifth-best rate in baseball over that span, trailing only Pedro Alvarez, Ryan Howard, Giancarlo Stanton, and Jim Thome.
11. Arizona Diamondbacks. Yeah, they're in first place, but it's hard to take a team that employs Health Bell as its closer seriously.
12. Cleveland Indians. Yasiel Puig hogged all the attention in June, but Indians second baseman Jason Kipnis was arguably even better (.419/.517/.699).
13. Washington Nationals. The first half's most shocking disappointment. The Nationals looked like a 100-win team in March, but they're only 48-47 in mid-July.
14. New York Yankees. Robinson Cano getting hit on the knee by a Matt Harvey fastball in the first inning of the All-Star Game perfectly encapsulates how this season has gone for the Yankees.
15. Los Angeles Dodgers. This whole Yasiel Puig honeymoon period is awesome and everything but at some point people (including opposing pitchers) are going to realize that he has 36 strikeouts and six unintentional walks.
16. Toronto Blue Jays. At first, you recoil at the sight of R.A. Dickey's ugly 4.36 ERA. Then you realize it's the best ERA in Toronto's starting rotation, and you begin to weep.
17. Philadelphia Phillies. When Michael Young has the highest OBP on your roster, it's time to reevaluate your roster.
18. Los Angeles Angels. Maybe the Angels should try to solve their many problems by throwing obscene amounts of money at top free agents. Have they tried that yet?
19. Kansas City Royals. It bears repeating, over and over again, that this team is giving playing time to Miguel Tejada.
20. San Francisco Giants. Quietly eight games under .500, the defending champions' once-elite pitching staff is now leaning heavily on quality starts from Chad Gaudin.
21. Colorado Rockies. Typical Rockies development: three hitters in the All-Star Game starting lineup; four games under .500.
22. Seattle Mariners. Clearly, Raul Ibanez still has a few Horcruxes left.
23. San Diego Padres. Opening Day starter Edinson Volquez has a 1.62 WHIP in 20 major league starts, which is hard to do.
24. Chicago Cubs. Their clearance sale continues: Matt Garza will probably be traded any day now, and that won't be the last deal the Cubs make.
25. New York Mets. At the ripe age of 30, David Wright (career: .301/.382/.506) is already the best player in Mets franchise history.
26. Milwaukee Brewers. He's stuck on a last-place team, but Carlos Gomez is having an MVP-caliber season: a .296/.338/.534 line, 14 home runs, 21 steals, and elite defense in center field.
27. Minnesota Twins. Collectively, Twins starting pitchers are allowing a .308 opponent average while only striking out 4.73 batters per nine innings, which is impossibly bad.
28. Chicago White Sox. A soul-crushing offense that doesn't have a single regular player with a .330 OBP or an .800 OPS.
29. Miami Marlins. It's one thing to be last in the majors in runs scored. It's another thing entirely to be thirty-nine runs worse than the 2013 Chicago White Sox.
30. Houston Astros. How many Astros can you name? If it's more than two, pat yourself on the back.