After 6 days and 10,040 words, Jakes OFFICIAL Power Rankings have come to a close. Heres teams #5-#1. I hope you had a good time reading these, maybe learned something and had a splendid Opening Day. 5. Texas Rangers The Texas Rangers go into the 2014 season on the backs of two of the biggest offseason acquisitions in baseball. 1B/DH Prince Fielder and OF Shin-Soo Choo are two of the most dangerous offensive threats in baseball, with Fielder having phenomenal power and Choo being an OBP machine. Fielder and Choo will be two welcome additions to an already powerful offense. 3B Adrian Beltre continues to be one of the best infielders in baseball as he begins his age 35 season. Finishing 7th in MVP votes in 2013, Beltre slugged his way to a .315 average and 30 homeruns. He also continued to dazzle with the glove at the hot corner as well, narrowly losing the Gold Glove to Manny Machado (shameless Orioles plug). To Beltre’s left will be the home of bright young SS Elvis Andrus. Andrus has proved to be a very capable leadoff hitter but he will have to step up his offensive production considerably if he wants to regain the lead-off role from Choo. Rangers traded away Ian Kinsler in the offseason, in part, to create room for stand-out prospect 2B Jurickson Profar in the crowded infield. Unfortunately, Profar suffered an injury and now will be out for up to 12 weeks before returning to the Rangers. Light-hitting journeyman IF Josh Wilson will take over the second base duties until Profar returns and could prove to be a gaping hole in an otherwise solid lineup. The Rangers’ pitching staff features 2013 Cy Young runner up, SP Yu Darvish, and the lights-out youngster SP Tanner Scheppers. Darvish is quite possibly the best strikeout pitcher in baseball and should only get better as he continues to adjust to MLB and the Texas heat. Scheppers is a much more interesting case as he’s making his first major league start on Opening Day. Scheppers was dominant out of the bullpen in 2013 and will look to translate his talents to the rotation this season. The Rangers bullpen could suffer after losing Scheppers and Closer Joe Nathan, but the once-great Closer Joakim Soria will look to bandage the wounds and rebound himself from a rough stretch over his past two seasons. If Soria can find his command once again and cut down on the walks, it would go a long way towards solidifying this bullpen in 2014. The Rangers are a fantastic team and should be able to use their additions to win the AL West this season. 4. Detroit Tigers Detroit is actually in a pretty interesting position going into 2014. On paper, they seem to have gotten a little worse over the offseason. Losing big-time slugger Prince Fielder is not only going to hurt overall offensive production but also, hurt twice-reigning MVP 1B Miguel Cabrera. Cabrera will suffer slightly from not having Fielder to hit around him in the order, but the best-hitter in baseball shouldn’t have too many problems from within the batter’s box in 2014. Cabrera is about as much of a lock as there is in baseball today. DH Victor Martinez and RF Torii Hunter continued to be very dangerous offensive threats in 2013 and will need to keep doing that to help flesh out this, somewhat depleted, Tigers lineup. 2B Ian Kinsler will be an interesting name to watch in 2014. Acquiring him in the trade that sent Fielder to Texas, Kinsler will replace Omar Infante who was extremely productive last season. Another hot-hitting middle infielder will have to be replaced after losing SS Jhonny Peralta in the offseason. The Tigers are turning to journeyman SS Alex Gonzalez (Acquired from the Orioles a few days ago) to produce from the position in 2014. Gonzalez started off his season on the right foot today, hitting a walk-off single to lead his to new team to victory. Detroit’s pitching staff was something to behold last season. Verlander had an off-year but was still extremely good over the course of the season. Expect him to rebound to his full Verlander ways in 2014. The real story was breakout SP and Cy Young winner Max Scherzer. Scherzer had one of the best pitching seasons in recent memory, going 21-3 on the season with a 2.90 ERA and a WHIP of 0.970. Can Scherzer maintain something even close to those numbers in 2014? History would suggest that it will be difficult as he’s never had numbers even close to what he had last season. With that said, his strikeout rate noticably improved in 2012 and continued in 2013, which led to two impressive seasons from him. If Scherzer keeps striking batters out, he’ll continue to impress. The biggest question for Detroit is undoubtedly their bullpen, which struggled mightily last season except for Joaquin Benoit (Who signed with the Padres) and Drew Smyly (Who has made the transition to the rotation). Acquiring Closer Joe Nathan could help the back-end of the pen but there’s still a lot of questions there. The Tigers should have no problem winning the AL Central, but they will only go as far as their bullpen takes them in the postseason. 3. Los Angeles Dodgers It was difficult for me to look at this Dodgers team and not mark them down as the number one team in the National League. Their offense is the best in the NL and I say that with full confidence. SS Hanley Ramirez only played in 86 games in 2013, but the time he had, he certainly made the most of, batting .345 with a 1.040 OPS. These are absolutely absurd numbers from a player who some had written off after he began to struggle a few years ago. 1B Adrian Gonzalez had yet another solid season for the Dodgers in 2013 but he’ll want to try to increase his power numbers this season to where they were during his days in San Diego. If he can do that, it would just give the Dodgers yet another player who can take even the best pitchers in the league deep at a moment’s notice. The outfield for the Dodgers is undoubtedly the best in baseball. When former MVP runner-up, (Though we all know he should have won) Matt Kemp, is your 4th maybe even 5th, outfielder, you’re doing something right. LF Carl Crawford continued to swing a hot bat in Los Angeles last season, batting .283 on the season. However, the main story for the Dodgers in 2013 was young Cuban phenom RF Yasiel Puig. The Dodgers were actually having a disappointing start to the season before bringing up Puig in the middle of the season. Puig dazzled in the field and at the plate from the moment he was brought up. Whether it was him making a diving play, gunning out runners trying to advance to third or smashing homeruns to all parts of the ballpark, Puig solidified himself as a star from the get-go and will look to continue impressing all of us in 2014. As good as the lineup is for this Dodgers team, the rotation might just be even better. SP Hyun-Jin Ryu was extremely impressive in his first season in MLB and SP Zach Grienke continued to show that he is one of the best pitchers in baseball. Unfortunately for the Dodgers, my main reason for dropping them to three in the rankings is the same reason that is leaving them very concerned at the start of the season. SP Clayton Kershaw, who is the best pitcher in baseball (It’s not that close), is on the DL to start the season with back pain. The Dodgers are hoping that it is nothing to worry about but nevertheless, it has fans (and Kershaw fantasy owners, like myself) quite concerned. Kershaw pitched posted a 1.83 ERA, 0.915 WHIP and had a league-leading 232 strikeouts last season. When Kershaw is healthy, the bullpen is hardly needed, but if they are, they have one of the best closers in the game in Kenley Jansen. Jansen is just about the closest thing to Mariano Rivera that we have left in the game. Featuring an absolutely filthy cutter, Jansen is essentially unhittable in the ninth inning by anyone…except maybe the Dodgers themselves. 2. Boston Red Sox The defending World Series Champions are the best team in the American League this season and you shouldn’t be too surprised. Sure, they lost one of the best Centerfielders in the game in Jacoby Ellsbury, but as always, the Red Sox are deep enough to suffer a few losses here and there. The offense continues to not be flashy, but rather win games by playing smart and hardnosed baseball, which is something any baseball fan can appreiciate. 2B Dustin Pedroia is the heart and soul of the Red Sox and epitomizes what it means to be a hard-nosed player. In 2013, he hit 42 doubles and batted .301 even though being hampered with a hand injury throughout the season, if that’s not impressive, I don’t know what is. DH David Ortiz did what he does best last season, hitting the ball to the gaps. He slugged his way to 38 doubles and 30 homeruns and will look to do much of the same in 2014. Losing shortstops Jose Iglesias and Stephen Drew could hurt the Red Sox this season but they’re very excited to see if top-prospect SS Xander Bogaerts is ready to contribute at the big-league level. If Bogaerts can hit consistenly and work well with Pedroia in the middle of the infield, the Red Sox lineup will continue to be extremely strong in 2014. Pitching is what won the World Series for the Red Sox last season, however, and there’s no reason to think that the pitching shouldn’t continue to be very efficient in 2014. SP Clay Bucholz was utterly fantastic last season, pitching to a 1.74 ERA and a 1.025 WHIP in 108.1 innings. With that said, SP Jon Lester was the only pitcher to go for over 200 IP in 2013 (And had a very nice season himself) so that will need to be rectified this season… but it certainly didn’t hurt them too badly last season. That was mostly due to the Red Sox having the best bullpen in the American league. Led by Closer Koji Uehara, RP Junichi Tazawa and RP Craig Breslow, the Sox were virtually untouchable in the latter innings of the ballgame. Uehara, in particular, was unbelievable in 2013, posting a 1.09 ERA and a breathtaking 0.565 WHIP. In addition to making me wish the Orioles had never traded him,(Though…Chris Davis is nice) Uehara made a lot of teams wish they had signed the 38 year-old Japanese closer after only giving up one run in the playoffs through 13.2 IP. The bullpen is, in my opinion, the most important part of any good team and the Red Sox certainly have the best in the game. It could very well see them to another World Series appearence in 2014. 1. St. Louis Cardinals Here it is, the Jake Radford’s OFFICIAL 2014 MLB Power Rankings leader, the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals have the best team in baseball right now and it’s not because of any one specific player on this team. This is a very balanced squad of world-class players and extremely promising young talent. The leader of the league’s best team is the league’s best Catcher, Yadier Molina. Molina’s offensive statistics certainly speak for themselves, smacking 44 doubles and batting .319 is EXTREMELY impressive for a backstop in today’s game that features primarily defensive-minded catchers. Here’s the thing, Yadier Molina also happens to be the best defensive catcher in baseball. There’s nothing better than having the best in the game at one of the most important positions on the field. The rest of the Cardinals lineup isn’t far behind either, which is what’s just so amazing about this team. 1B Allen Craig continued to be one of the game’s top hitters in 2013, hitting .315 on the year. While 3B Matt Carpenter broke out as one the best players in baseball finishing 4th in NL MVP voting. Carpenter led the league in hits with 199, runs scored with 126 and doubles with an absoultely ridiculous 55. The Cardinals lost one of the game’s best outfielders in Carlos Beltran, but didn’t rest on their laurels in the offseason. Instead deciding to sign one of the best hitting middle infielders in 2013, Jhonny Peralta. Peralta will play Shortstop for the Cardinals in 2014 and will look to keep mashing at the plate and meshing with rookie 2B Kolten Wong. Now we move on to the Cardinals’ dominant pitching staff. Ace Adam Wainwright led the league in Innings Pitched last season and did pretty darn well in those innings to boot. The veteran had a 2.94 ERA, a 1.068 WHIP and led the league in Complete Games with 6 (Fun fact, Wainwright had more complete games himself than 22 entire teams did last season). The rotation will also include two of the best young pitchers in baseball in SP Shelby Miller and SP Michael Wacha (Cue the Fozzie Bear jokes). Miller was extremely impressive throughout the length of the 2013 season while Wacha was lights-out after being called up late in the season. The Cardinals lost Closer Edward Mujica in the offseason to Free Agency and this would normally be a pretty big concern for most teams, not for the Cardinals. Waiting in the wings was former Setupman Trevor Rosenthal. Rosenthal will take up the closing duties for St. Louis in 2014 and should have no problem adjusting to his new role in the bullpen after a dominant 2013 campaign. The Cardinals are my World Series favorites to start the season. It’s a long road and one that can be treacherous at times with injuries, but St. Louis isn’t built around one particular player. They’re a sum of the parts kind of team and this should work in the favor as the new season unfolds and teams look toward October.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Apr 2014 04:32:22 +0000
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