Power Rankings

1. Grumpy Munchkins – The rich get richer with the recent trades. Suring up the pitching staff makes this team perhaps the most intimidating force we’ve seen in the league. Of course, he’ll be picking a lot late next year (12 picks in the final five rounds), but can’t blame him for putting his chips all in. Though if he quits at the end of the year, we’re going to have to all go kick him in the sac.

2. Clayton & King – Russ took care of business with Urban last week with some spectacular pitching. Buying low on Buchholz is looking like a brilliant move, while the King has bounced back in a big way and he may have caught lightning in a bottle with Sheets. A deserved big jump here. If Berkman rebounds, he could be the only team with the ability to match Casten’s O.

3. One Nut – Though I’m sure Jason wanted more than 6-3-1 against Troy, the fact that Utley and Howard have been hitting is a positive. Still, the pitching is spotty and his over-fascination with grabbing every anointed closer on the wire isn’t really helping.

4. Montezuma’s – Limped into the break and kept limping in the week after. The main concern here is that vaunted pitching staff isn’t dominating as designed and it just lost a valuable part in Colby Lewis. Still, the disappointing threesome of Upton, Santana, and Hosmer has shown signs of life, so perhaps its just a blip, but the Desmond injury hurt.

5. Ring – Kemp comes back and Ortiz and Votto to the DL; Dagan just can’t seem to stay healthy. The pitching is inconsistent and the closers are low tier now that Myers was traded and this side of the box score is the largest impediment to success facing this team.

6. Cowhide – Don’t look now, but Dave has gone 25-0-5 the past three weeks. The ARod injury hurts and he probably paid too much for Kubel, but there’s no doubt Dave is very much in contention thanks in large part to the resurgence of RZimmerman and FLiriano.

7. Moose – Another tough week for the O, which could only muster half of Casten’s ridiculous 22 homers in the extended week and just 36 rbis. Brian managed to scrape a couple wins in the pitching categories by winning ERA and WHIP by .07 and .06, respectively. He’s got some buffer from the next worst team, but that could go away quickly if things don’t improve.

8. Donkey – Chris beat up my lousy squad pretty good 3-6-1, compliments of Gallardo, Cain and Volquez and an offense that didn’t need to do much to beat the Revenge’s sorry 42/8/38/10/.329 line. Did good getting a first rounder for Halladay’s first off year in a while and still has a bunch of parts to play with.
9. Keepin – The question is when will Pierce actually actively try and trade his parts because he hasn’t done much. There’s a nice base in Pedroia, Wright, Ellsbury, Lester (maybe next year) and Sale and some other intriguing options, but there’s also lots of quality parts that could help a contender.

10. Angry – Kudos to Kyle in capitalizing on my stupidity in dumping Kubel (he only had six HR when I traded him). There’s a few pieces left on the bone, but its mostly a skeleton outside of his nice group of young keepers.

11. Urban – There’s some good parts, but the question is whether he plans to keep four OFs (Choo, Harper, DJennings, and BUpton). If not, there’s value to be had in trading one of them. There are others like Craig, Altuve, Burnett, Ruiz, and BNorris who could help a team down the stretch.

12. Prestige – Like Pierce, Lars hasn’t really attacked the trade market in earnest yet. He could stand to upgrade from past keepers like Stubbs and ACabrera, so there might be some movement in the next three weeks before the deadline.

13. Anal – Managed to beat off Pierce 6-4 and hold strong in 10th. Might be better than I give the team credit for. Andrew is well stocked for the 2013 draft, but he needs some solid keepers beyond Bourn, Strasburg, and Verlander.

14. Billy – Willingham has been a monster, but would be a good sell candidate given his lack of sustained historical performance, as he’s not really a keeper. JParker, though, the guys looks for real and could very well play up to keeper status.