Written by Marvin. A. Azrak
With the playoff race heating up by the day, team fortunes can change in the blink of an eye, which can create chaos in MLB Power Rankings, which is precisely what happened to ours here at the Jewish Voice. So without further ado, let’s see where your favorite team stacks up amongst the rest of the league at this current moment in the 2021 season.
My updated power rankings 8/10/21
1. Los Angeles Dodgers(69-45) (1):
The Dodgers split their highly anticipated two-game series with the Astros, and Max Scherzer K’d 10 over six innings of one-run ball in his LA debut. Over the weekend, a series win over the Angels(3-4, 5-3, 8-2) kept them alive in the NL West race.
2: San Francisco Giants(73-41) (2)
San Fran just keeps on winning. They took three of four from the league-worst D Backs, before finding a way to defeat the NL Central-leading Brewers(1-2, 9-6, 5-4) to become the first team in the league this season to surpass the 70 wins benchmark. The even better news is that they’ve got Arizona and Colorado as their next two opponents, with a chance to begin the quest to 80 wins.
3. Houston Astros(68-46) (3)
After their mini-trip to LA, Houston lost three of four to the Twins. However, they righted the ship by defeating the Rockies, to stay two games ahead of the A’s in the AL West race.
4. Tampa Bay Rays(69-45)) (4)
Tampa is 10-6 in their past 16 games, and a league best 20-9 since July 6th having a 4-1 record against their AL East rival Red Sox in that timespan. Tampa entered play on Thursday five games up on the Bosox in the loss column, and six up on the Blue Jays, and Yankees.
5. Milwaukee Brewers(69-46) (7)
The Brew Crew may have lost their series to the league-best Giants, but did show they can hang with the best of them come Playoff time. As for intra-divisional play, Milwaukee took the series from the Pirates, and Cubs sandwiched around the series against San Francisco. Rookie Corbin Burns(7-4, 2.23ERA, 172 K in 121 IP) added onto his historic season, by setting down 10 consecutive Cubs on Wednesday, part of an 15 strikeout performance over eight stellar scoreless innings, as Miwaulkee put up seven runs in the first and never looked back enroute to a 10-0 win.
6. Chicago White Sox(67-48) (6)
Chicago rebounded from a series loss to the Royals, with a sweep of the Cubs, and are 10 games ahead of the Indians for the AL Central lead. Although they did lose this week’s three-game series against the Twins, they did win the season series 13-6 against them. They will also have an opportunity to show the world what they’re made of in the “Field of Dreams game” in Iowa against the Yankees for the beginning of a three-game series on Thursday.
7. Oakland Athletics (66-48) (9)
Oakland is on a tear, now having won 10 of their past 12 games to move into first place in the Wild card race ahead of the reeling Boston Red Sox.
8. Toronto Blue Jays(62-51) (10)
Toronto has recently become my favorite team to watch, having gone on an astonishing 12-4 clip to put themselves right in the thick of things in the Wild Card, and AL East race, now tied with the division-rival Yankees in the Wild Card hunt. They also will have a “Favorable” schedule ahead of them with the Angels, Mariners, Nationals, and Tigers all ahead in that order across the next 10 contests.
9. San Diego Padres(66-50 ) (8)
San Diego has looked very vulnerable without their superstar Fernando Tatis Jr, who may move from Shortstop to Outfield when he returns from injury in a couple of weeks. “Slam Diego”, entering Thursday found themselves eight games back in the NL West race, four behind the Dodgers for the first Wild Card, and just 4.5 games up on the streaking Reds(Four in the loss column) for the final playoff spot.
10. New York Yankees(63-51) (12)
The starting 1B(Anthony Rizzo), SS(Gleyber Torres) 3B(Gio Urshela), C(Gary Sanchez), 1 SP(Gerrit Cole), 2 SP(Domingo German), 4 SP(Jordan Montgomery), and closer(Aroldis Chapman) along with 13 others are out for NYY on the IL. Yet, the injury-ravaged Yankees, who set a record with most IL stints in a season this week(42), have won 12 of 16, 20 of their last 28, and 10 of their last 11 series to get themselves back in the playoff chase. However, their depth will be put to the test when they face the powerhouse Chicago White Sox on Thursday in Iowa in the “Field of Dreams” game being played in the middle of a cornfield to honor the iconic baseball movie.
11. Cincinnati Reds(61-54) (14)
Have won 10 of 16 to get themselves back in the NL wild-card hunt.
12. Seattle Mariners(59-55) (13)
Losing three of four to the Yankees hurt, but opportunities to stay in the Wild Card race, will arise with the lowly Rangers(Twice), and the Playoff-hunting Blue Jays on the horizon.
13. Boston Red Sox(66-50) (6)
Have lost 11 of 16, and have gone from leading the AL East, and eight losses up on the Yankees, to now looking at a five-game deficit to the Rays, and only lead the Yankees by one in the loss column. Yes the 20-8 victory over the Rays on Wednesday was nice, but it was also only one game in the standings, and if they can’t follow this up with some more wins, it won’t matter.
14. Philadelphia Phillies(59-55) (16)
A sweep of the Mets, capping off an eight-game win streak has vaulted the Phillies into first place in the NL East. Bryce Harper(299 BA, 20 HR, 45 RBI,) has been playing like an MVP on the offensive side of the ball, while Zach Wheeler(10-6, 2.42 ERA, 181K in 156IP), who just twirled a complete-game shutout against the Mets, has made his impact felt in the CY Young conversion.
15. Atlanta Braves(59-55) (15)
Despite being severely undermanned, including being without superstar Ronald Acuna JR, Atlanta has rattled off 11 wins in their last 16 games and is now back in the conversation for the NL East (AKA the NL” Least” because of how underwhelming this division is) race.
16. New York Mets(57-55) (11)
Have lost 11 of 16 out of nowhere, and are now in danger of missing the postseason yet again. Something that seemed unlikely at the beginning of the season, when many projected the Mets to be a Playoff team, some even going as far as saying they had the potential of reaching the NLCS. But Here’s the catch, while the Mets do have the lowly Nationals this week (Who they took game one from 8-7 on Wednesday), they then will battle the Dodgers(7) and Giants(6) for a combined 13 straight games, something teams such as the Phillies and Braves can capitalize on, and extend their lead in the division.
17. St Louis Cardinals(57-56) (18)
A good sign for Cardinals fans is that Adam Wainwright went the distance on Wednesday, twirling a complete game shutout with 7 k’s, in a 4-0 win over the Pirates in Pittsburg.
18. Cleveland Indians(55-57)(17)
Cleveland Guardians 2022! Maybe the name change will breathe some life into this team. Right now, they’re just trying to play the role of spoiler in the playoff race.
19. Los Angeles Angels(57-57) (19)
Shohei Ohtani continues to lead the league in Homers, blasting #38 on Wednesday. It’s upsetting we probably won’t be seeing this man in the playoffs this year.
20. Detroit Tigers(56-60) (20)
They have gone 16-9 since the All-Star break, and it has jolted Miguel Cabrera, who went deep for the 499th time in his career on Wednesday. One more to 500!
21. Colorado Rockies(51-64) (27)
22. Kansas City Royals(49-64) (24)
23. Washington Nationals(50-63) (25)
24. Chicago Cubs(52-64) (26)
25. Minnesota Twins(50-65) (23)
26. Miami Marlins(48-67) (21)
27. Pittsburgh Pirates(41-73) (28)
28. Texas Rangers(40-73)(29)
29. Baltimore Orioles(38-74)(22)
30. Arizona Diamondbacks(35-80) (30)
