Week Twenty-Three
by Asher B. Chancey, BaseballEvolution.com
September 10, 2007

Alright people, with just about 20 games left, only one divisional race seems to be decided, with the leader in the NL West simply running away from the pack. Meanwhile, the teams fighting it out in the other five divisions are all within 3.0 or fewer games of each other, and we even have a tie in the AL West. Anything could happen.

I am not, of course, talking about the races to see who is going to win each division, which are becoming less and less interesting, but rather the races to see who will finish last in each division, which have suddenly become quite compelling:

- In the AL East, Baltimore is taking a classic nosedive, and the D’Rays have been playing well enough over the last ten games to actually pull within a game and a half of the fourth place Orioles.

- Just when you thought the Royals had broken their 100 loss streak, Kansas City has been stuck on 62 wins, failing in five tries to clinch a double-digit loss season. Their five game losing streak has allowed the White Sox to climb to within 1˝ games of fourth place.

- The once left-for-dead Texas Rangers have reeled off eight wins in their last ten games and have drawn into a tie for third place with the Oakland A’s in the AL West.

- The surprising Nationals have put some distance between themselves the Joe Girardi-less Florida Marlins. The Nats are now 3.0 games up on the Marlins, who were officially eliminated from contention in the division this week.

- Houston has lost five straight games to fall behind the Pittsburgh Pirates in the NL Central, and the Cincinnati Reds, who just two weeks ago were looking to make the division exciting at the top, are now set to make the division exciting at the bottom as they falter their way to 2.0 games out of last place.

The only team that seems to have last place locked up is the San Francisco Giants, who are currently a commanding 9˝ games behind the fourth place Colorado Rockies in the NL west.

Stay tuned folks, it should be a good one.

In other news, this week we say goodbye to two more teams – the Detroit Tigers and the Seattle Mariners. Despite the exploits of Ichiro “200” Suzuki and Curtis “four twenties for a hundred dollar bill” Granderson, the Tigers and Mariners have each fallen irreparably behind their division leaders (6 and 8 games, respectively) and are losing track of the New York Yankees.

That’s right people – the Yankees are going to playoffs, which of course makes me look like a fool for keeping them behind the Line of Death for so long. And for calling the Tigers one of the three best teams in baseball all season. And for saying that the Indians had bad pitching. But I digress.

In the NL, the Cardinals continue to make a case for playoff contention, but it still just seems so unlikely. Now that Rick Ankiel is beginning to resemble Mark McGwire in more ways than one, one has to wonder how long he can keep up his hot hitting under the inevitable scrutiny he is sure to face in the coming weeks. As a sign of things to come – Ankiel went 1-for-10 this weekend as the Cardinals were swept by the D’Backs on the road.

This week's bubble team is the Los Angeles Dodgers - they simply must win four of six from San Diego and Arizona to stay in the hunt. Frankly, even that may not help them, but less than four wins this week and it is all over.

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

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