Theres 5 days until the Orioles Opening Day! Here are #25-#21 teams in my very OFFICIAL Power Rankings. 25. Philadelphia Phillies Can you believe that it was just two seasons ago that the Phillies had clinched their 5th straight division title? Just a year before that, they were making their 3rd straight NLCS appearance. To see them now, you would have to wonder how things got this bad so quickly. In truth, it’s due to the fact that the Phillies’ ownership seems desperate to hold onto their aging, and quickly decling, veterans (For reasons beyond human comprehension, surely). SS Jimmy Rollins seems to already be in the doghouse of new Manager Ryne Sandberg, which doesn’t bode well for the team that will need him to have any success. Elsewhere, the Phillies maintain a very old but somewhat capable roster. SP AJ Burnett decided against retirement in favor of signing with the Phillies. He’ll help to support SP Cliff Lee in a rotation that will be without SP Cole Hamels for the start of the season. Burnett and RF Marlon Byrd are the biggest acquisitions the club made in the offseason. It will be interesting to see if the success these two aging veterans had in 2013 carries over into the new year. My two cents doesn’t see it happening. The Phillies will finish in fourth this season and ace Cliff Lee will dealt at the deadline, hopefully a disappointing season will give Philadelphia the push it needs to clean house and start building for the future. If you need inspiration, Phillies, just look at what your neighborhood basketball team is doing. 24. Colorado Rockies The team in Colorado has some of the most dangerous 3-4-5 hitters in all of baseball in SS Troy Tulowitzski, LF Carlos Gonzalez and RF Michael Cuddyer, unfortunately, the rest of the roster ranges from just above mediocre to just plain bad. Centerfield is a major question mark for this Rockies squad, the camp battle in Spring Training has remained relatively inconclusive with Corey Dickerson, Brandon Barnes and Drew Stubbs still looking to nab the job before Opening Day. Any of the three could provide decent numbers from the spot but none of them are truly wowing people in Arizona. SP Jhoulys Chacin will be the ace in 2014 after a very respectable performance last season. He finished with a 3.47 ERA, a WHIP of 1.262 and a HR/9 of 0.5, fantastic numbers in a ballpark that seems less inclined to keep the balls inside the field of play. New closer LaTroy Hawkins will have to keep the ball on the ground if he wants to survive his age 41 season. Can he do it? I think it will be difficult, possibly as difficult as the Rockies finishing anywhere above 4th in 2014. 23. San Diego Padres The Padres are one of the most interesting teams in the National League this season, simply for the fact that that they could take a strong step forward and challenge for a wildcard slot this season or they could disappoint and finish last in a division that’s quickly becoming one of the strongest in baseball. The Padres have added SP Josh Johnson to a rotation that already features one of 2013’s best starting pitchers in Andrew Cashner. Johnson should really help fill out a rotation that was extremely top-heavy last season. (And I mean, EXTREMELY top-heavy) The Padres’ lineup could very well have a breakout season in 2014. Led by reliable 3B Chase Headley and LF Carlos Quentin, the middle of the order should see it’s fair share of power numbers despite playing in a ballpark that actually hates homeruns. The two biggest questions that face San Diego this season are SS Everth Cabrera, who will try to improve after his first Allstar season in 2013, and RP Joaquin Benoit, who had a phenomenal season in 2013 in Detroit. Whether or not both of these players can continue their success will play a large role in how much the Padres improve in 2014. For now, they’re 4th in my book, but not by much in either direction. 22. Milwaukee Brewers Some might berate me for having the Brewers this low, but there are a lot of question marks with the team from Milwaukee in 2014. Can Carlos Gomez actually maintain his torrid pace from 2013? How much of Ryan Braun’s success was due to the PEDs he was taking? Is the Matt Garza we’re seeing this Spring Training going to improve in the regular season? If the answers to all of these questions are negative, it’s going to be a LONG season for Brewers fans. Similarly to Carlos Gomez, SS Jean Segura had a career year in Milwaukee in 2013. The 23 year old looked phenomenal all season and his age suggests that he will only get better as time goes on. Segura is the catalyst of the offense and the success of Gomez, Braun and 3B Aramis Ramirez could very well rise and fall with him. As for the pitching staff, Yovani Gallardo is coming off a season where he looked more like a 3rd starter instead of the ace he’s supposed to be. He’ll need to get his strikeout rate back up if he wants to find success in 2014. Lastly, Closer Jim Henderson has struggled mightily during Spring Training so far, if he doesn’t find his touch quickly, the Brewers may turn to Setup-man Francisco Rodriguez for the 9th inning, after having success with him there in 2013. There’s a lot of question for this Brewers team, the answers to those questions will decide whether or not this team is a Wildcard contender or a 4th place finisher in the weak NL Central. 21. New York Mets The “Other New York Team” might not considered that for too much longer. The way the rotation is shaping up for 2015, with Matt Harvey, Zack Wheeler, Noah Syndergaard, Bartolo Colon and Rafael Montero, we could be looking at one of the best in all of baseball… But I’m getting ahead of myself here, it’s 2014. Matt Harvey is out for the season after Tommy John surgery, Syndergaard and Montero haven’t cracked the big league club yet and Bartolo Colon is about as big (no pun intended) of a question mark as there is in the National League. So for now, the Mets still remain about a season away from making their push towards the division crown. Nevertheless, that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing for Mets fans to be excited about in 2014. RF Curtis Granderson will be the best bat the Mets have put around Allstar 3B David Wright in quite some time. Don’t expect Grandy to hit 40+ homeruns like he did in 2011-12, but Citi Field should push up his two-bagger numbers to about 35. On top of this, the protection he’ll give Wright should come with a bump in the third baseman’s numbers as well. Despite the top of the order looking very much like a contending team’s, the bottom of the order is one of the worst in the National League. Touted 1B Ike Davis struggled to even hit above the Mendoza line in 2013, along with SS Ruben Tejada and a small-sample size of another highly-touted player in C Travis D’Arnaud. If these three can contribute even decently with the bat, it would go a long way towards making the Mets a worry for other teams’ pitching staffs. The bullpen is another big issue for the Mets in 2014. Closer Bobby Parnell pitched very well in the ninth inning for the Mets in 2013, (along with recently departed LaTroy Hawkins in the eigth) but the other bullpen arms were the very definition of mediocre. If the Mets can fix the bullpen issues and the bottom of the order, this could be a team that challenges for a Wildcard spot, until then, look for them to finish in third above the Phillies and the Marlins, but well below the vastly superior Braves and Nationals.
Posted on: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 20:14:49 +0000