Week Nine
by Asher B. Chancey, BaseballEvolution.com
May 28, 2007

I don't know if the average baseball fan realizes this, but half of the teams in the Majors have already been eliminated from contention for the post-season.

And I am not just talking about the Devil Rays, Royals, and Nationals, four teams with no pitching who play in strong divisions and will have no chance to make headway this season.

I'm talking about teams like Philadelphia and the Yankees, teams that have plenty of hitting but whose pitching is simply not going to get them where they need to be this season.

I'm also talking about teams like the Cubs and the Giants, who have plenty of talent but distractions to the point of dysfunction at this point in the season.

And how about teams like the Blue Jays and the Marlins, teams with high hopes coming into the season who for one reason or another (injuries for the former, young and inexperience for the latter) can't seem to put it together.

Then, of course, there are the teams who have the deck stacked against them so badly that one wonders if they will ever be able to succeed without some sort of serious paradigm shift - Colorado, Texas, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh.

And, of course, the team that is willing to sacrifice its season so that its franchise player can get 3,000 hits - the Astros.

At this point in the season - the first week in June - there are probably really only 15 teams left who can have a legitimate expectation of making a run at the playoffs:

Boston in the AL East; everyone in the AL Central except KC (though the clock is ticking, Chicago); the Angels, A's, and Mariners in the AL West; the Mets and Braves in the NL East; the Brewers and Cardinals in the NL Central; and the Padres, Dodgers, and D'Backs in the NL West.

So, from this point through the remainder of the season, I am going to place a dividing line in the Power Rankings: the teams above the dividing line are still in the hunt for the post-season; the teams below the line are already out. And this won't change each week - we're going for the Full Monty here - once a team is below the line (let's call it the Line of Death, shall we), they stay there for the rest of the season.

The only way a team which falls below the Line of Death can get back above the line is by completing a transaction, or series of transaction, which changes the dynamic of their team.

It is up to the teams to prove me wrong.

Without further ado, here are the Week Nine Power Rankings. Enjoy and, as always, feel free to comment.

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Team

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Questions? Concerns? Comments? Asher lives in Philadelphia, PA, and can be reached at asher@baseballevolution.com.