Power Rankings Review

It’s Monday, so it’s time to take a look at the Power Rankings of your favorite sports writers.

Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune doesn’t seem to care that the Tampa Bay Rays have moved ahead of the Boston Red Sox into first place in the AL East. He ranks Boston #1. Here are his high fives:

• Boston Red Sox
• Chicago Cubs
• Tampa Bay Rays
• Chicago White Sox
• Los Angeles Angels

And his low fives:

• San Francisco Giants
• Cincinnati Red
• Seattle Mariners
• San Diego Padres
• Washington Nationals.

Aram Tolegian of Fox Sports puts the Rays over the Red Sox. Here are Aram’s top five:

• Tampa Bay Rays
• Boston Red Sox
• Chicago Cubs
• Los Angeles Angels
• Chicago White Sox

and his bottom five

• Cleveland Indians
• Washington Nationals
• Colorado Rockies
• San Diego Padres
• Seattle Mariners.

And ESPN ranks both the Red Sox and the Los Angeles Angels ahead of the Rays. Here are the top five:

• Boston Red Sox
• Los Angeles Angels
• Tampa Bay Rays
• Chicago Cubs
• Oakland Athletics

and the bottom five:

• Colorado Rockies
• Cincinnati Red
• Seattle Mariners
• Washington Nationals
• San Diego Padres.

Baseball’s Ten Best ERA’s

There are ten major league pitchers with ERA’s under 3.00:

• Justin Duchscherer, Oakland Athletics, 1.91
• Edinson Volquez, Cincinnati Reds, 2.08
• Cliff Lee, Cleveland Indians, 2.34
• Time Lincecum, San Francisco Giants, 2.38
• John Danks, Chicago White Sox, 2.62
• Shaun Marcum, Toronto Blue Jays, 2.65
• Felix Hernandez, Seattle Mariners, 2.83
• Ben Sheets, Milwaukee Brewers, 2.83
• Dan Haren, Arizona Diamondbacks, 2.85
• Jair Jurrgens, Atlanta Braves, 2.94

New Cleveland Indians Fan Site

Hey, there, Cleveland Indians fans!

In my continuing (and seemingly endless) efforts to complete my site, Baseball Fan Site Online, I have finished Phase I of the Cleveland Indians page.

This is a great site for Indians fans to get news and go shopping.  Our news feed will keep you informed with game reports, team and player updates and other Indians news.  And you can shop for jerseys, hats and posters.  Looking for tickets?  Find them here.

And visit our Facebook Page, too.  Click on Cleveland Indians Stuff.  Become a fan!

Cubs and White Sox To Finish City Series

The City Series is always a big deal here in Chicago.  In general, Cubs fans and White Sox fans are highly intolerant of each other.  They love to see the other team lose almost as much as they love to see their own team win.  And when a single game can cause their own team to win and the other team to lose, that’s almost a slice of heaven.

But this year, the series is intensified by a remarkable truth.  This year, both teams are division leaders.

The Chicago Cubs are in first place in the National League Central Division.  At .620, they have the best record in baseball.  They are 4.5 games over the second-place St. Louis Cardinals.

On the South Side, the Chicago White Sox are in first in the American League Central Division.  They cling to that position, a mere 0.5 game over the surging second-place Minnesota Twins. But the Sox have been in that spot 49 days this season.

Today starts the second half of the City Series with three games to be played in U.S. Cellular Field, the Sox’ park.

The Cubs owned the first half of the series.  They swept the Sox at Wrigley.  The combined score for the three games was 22-11.

But the Cubs are great at home and less great on the road.  And taking the Red Line from Addison down to 35th Street counts as being “on the road.”

At home, they are 33-10.  On the road, they are 16-20.  And the same is true, if not as extreme for the Sox.  At home, the Sox are 24-11 and away they are 19-24.

Ryan Dempster, 9-2 with a 2.63 ERA, will be pitching for the Sox against Jose Contreras, 6-6 with a 3.96 ERA.

It’s the White Sox’ turn this week-end.  Let’s see if they take it.

Five Have Hit 20 Home Runs

Five MLB players have hit 20 or more home runs.  They are:

• Dan Uggle, Florida Marlins, 23
• Chase Utley, Philadelphia Phillies, 22
• Lance Berkman, Houston Astros, 21
• Adrian Gonzalez, San Diego Padres, 21
• Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers, 20

White Sox Cling to First Place; Cubs Sitting Pretty

Although both of the Chicago teams are still in first place, the Chicago White Sox lead has been shaved to 0.5 games over the second-place Minnesota Twins. The Sox are 4-6 in their last ten games. Dropping the City Series to the Cubs last week-end didn’t help them in the standings. And they lost again Wednesday night to the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-0.

Dodgers’ pitcher Eric Stults is 2-0 after his complete-game shut-out. He threw 116 pitches. The Sox only hit four of them.

Sox outfielder Dewayne Wise has been having better results recently than his team has. He has been getting some playing time since Paul Konerko is on the disabled list. Wise has gone 8-for-16 and scored four runs in his last five games. He didn’t play Wednesday, though.

The Sox need to keep an eye on the Twins. Although the Twins were down by 6.5 in the standings behind the White Sox a couple of weeks ago, they have made up a lot of ground. They beat the San Diego Padres last night 9-3 and have won eight straight and nine of their last 10.

Meanwhile, Chicago has another team. The Chicago Cubs are 4.5 games ahead of the second-place St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Central Division. And they still have the best record in baseball.

Wednesday night, they beat Baltimore 7-4. Ted Lilly got the win and Kerry Wood got his 20th save.

I’m really happy to see Jim Edmonds performing. He had a home run and three walks in Wednesday’s game. He has had five home runs and 12 RBI’s in his last 10 games.

The Cubs finish up their series with Baltimore today and the Sox finish their series with the Dodgers. Then they face each other for three games in Sox Park.

And the stats that are immutable: The Chicago White Sox won the World Series in 2005, a mere three years ago. The Chicago Cubs last won the World Series a little longer ago, in 1908, which would be, let’s see now . . . 100 years. That’s right, a century. And the Cubs and the White Sox last faced each other in the World Series even longer ago than that. The last all-Chicago World Series was in 1906.

Top Ten Batting Averages

Here is a list of the top ten batting averages in baseball:

1. Chipper Jones, Atlanta Braves, .394
2. Lance Berkman, Houston Astros, .360
3. Albert Pujols, St. Louis Cardinals, .347
4. Milton Bradley, Texas Rangers, .330
5. Matt Holliday, Colorado Rockies, .328
6. Alex Rodriguez, New York Yankees, .324
7. Three-way tie: Joe Mauer, Minnesota Twins, Johnny Damon, New York Yankees and Hideki Matsui, New York Yankees, all at .323
8. Two-way tie: Xavier Nady, Pittsburgh Pirates, and Bengie Molina, San Francisco Giants, both at .314
9. Russell Martin, Los Angeles Dodgers, .313
10. Two-way tie: Placido Polanco, Detroit Tigers and Ryan Theriot, Chicago Cubs, both at .316.

Three Teams at .600

Major League Baseball have three teams playing at .600 or higher.

1. The Chicago Cubs have the best record in baseball, with .623.  The Cubs lead the National League Central Division
2. The Los Angeles Angels are playing .615.  They are in first place in the American League West.
3. The Boston Red Sox are at an even .600.  The Sox are in first place in the American League East.

New Tampa Bay Rays Fan Site

Are you a Tampa Bay Rays fan?

This is a great year to be one, the break-out year for the Rays. The first year of the franchise that they have had a winning team. Since the team was created, they have wound up in last place all but one year, when they were in fourth place.

This year, they are in contention with the current world champions.

It’s a great year to be a Rays fan. And we have a new and improved Tampa Bay Rays page for you.

Looking for Tampa Bay Rays tickets? Check out our site. Need a Rays hat? Check out our site. Looking for your favorite player’s jersey? Check out our site for that, too.

And you’ll find a news feed on the site so that you can keep up with game reports, player news and other news stories. So bookmark the page. You’ll want to check it out often.

And visit our Facebook Page.  If you like it, become a fan!

We’ll see you on our site and on our Facebook Page.

Cubs and White Sox Both End Streaks

The Chicago Cubs and the Chicago White Sox both ended streaks Tuesday night. For the White Sox, it was good news. For the Cubs, not so much.

The White Sox beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 6-1 to end a 9-game road losing streak. Mark Buehrle led the team, giving up the single run and six hits in eight innings. He also got the 1000th strike-out of his career.

Jermaine Dye hit his seventh home run in his last eight games. He has driven in 17 runs in that time.

The White Sox lead baseball in home runs in interleague play, with 285 since interleague play began in 1997.

The Sox 9-game road losing streak is over. Three of the games that they lost during that streak were at Wrigley Field over the week-end as the Cubs were working on their home winning streak. It was broken at 14 last night when the Baltimore Orioles beat the Cubs 7-5.

The Cubs, champions at coming from behind, didn’t manage it last night. Down by 7-1, they narrowed the Oriole’s lead when Jim Edmonds hit a three-run homer. Later, Fukudome had a solo homer to bring the score to 7-5.

Then, in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Cubs loaded the bases with no out. And you would be pulling for them to do what they have done so often: win a game that they had been losing. But no luck last night. With three on and no out, George Sherrill struck out three in a row, ending the game and the winning streak.

In the course of the game, the Oriole’s Brian Roberts got three hits to reach a career 1000 hits.

The Cubs still have the best record in baseball. At 48-29, they are in first place in the National League Central Division, 3.5 games ahead of the St. Louis Cardinals.

In fact, both Chicago teams are still in first place. The White Sox lead the American League Central Division with a 42-34 record, 1.5 games over the Minnesota Twins.

It has been three years since the White Sox won a World Series, 100 years since the Cubs won a World Series and 102 years since the Cubs and Sox faced each other for the world championship.l