Of the five teams that lost only once this week, not one was ranked in last week's top 12, which means that none of them have done enough to take over the top spot yet. The majority of teams played .500 ball this week, meaning that the strength of their competition did most of the work in determining which teams moved up and which moved down.
1. NY Yankees (3-2) (12-8) 1/1 (8)
2. Texas (3-3) (14-9) 2/3 (3)
3. Cleveland (2-3) (14-8) 4/4 (1)
4. Boston (5-1) (10-12) 3/5 (13)
5. LA Angels (3-4) (14-10) 6/2 (2)
6. Toronto (2-3) (11-12) 7/6 (24)
7. Kansas City (1-5) (12-11) 5/11 (4)
8. Saint Louis (4-3) (12-11) 8/7 (5)
9. Detroit (4-1) (12-11) 12/8 (27)
10. Atlanta (4-3) (12-13) 9/10 (11)
11. Cincinnati (3-4) (12-12) 10/13 (6)
12. Florida (6-1) (15-7) 19/9 (22)
13. Colorado (4-2) (16-7) 16/12 (17)
14. Philadelphia (5-2) (15-8) 11/17 (16)
15. Tampa Bay (3-2) (11-11) 14/18 (14)
16. Milwaukee (3-3) (12-11) 15/16 (9)
17. Oakland (2-5) (11-13) 21/14 (23)
18. Chi Sox (3-4) (10-14) 13/21 (10)
19. Baltimore (2-3) (9-12) 22/19 (15)
20. NY Mets (5-1) (10-13) 24/20 (30)
21. Washington (2-5) (10-12) 18/24 (12)
22. Minnesota (3-1) (9-12) 27/15 (29)
23. LA Dodgers (4-3) (12-13) 17/26 (28)
24. San Francisco (1-4) (11-11) 25/22 (7)
25. Arizona (3-4) (10-12) 23/25 (18)
26. Pittsburgh (2-4) (10-13) 20/28 (20)
27. Seattle (3-3) (9-15) 26/23 (19)
28. San Diego (2-6) (9-15) 30/27 (21)
29. Houston (3-3) (9-14) 28/30 (26)
30. Chi Cubs (2-5) (10-13) 29/29 (25)
On Fire
The New York Mets jumped out of last place this week by winning five straight games, the best of which was an 8-4 win over the Diamondbacks and Armando Galarraga, dealing him his first loss of the season. The Mets had played tough against good teams before that, but they had lost 12 of 14, so this week's breakthrough helped out their ranking.
Detroit started this week with a 4-game winning streak before falling to Seattle last night, but their last two wins over the White Sox were especially impressive, with a combined score of 12-0 between the two. That performance lifted the Tigers from the bottom five into the top 10 in just one week, although movement in April is always more exaggerated.
Florida had an awesome week, sweeping the Pirates and beating the Dodgers twice, while taking their weekend series over Colorado 2-1, which is no small feat considering the Rockies have the league's best record. They have played 8 straight at home, which changes this week when they travel to Cincinnati and Saint Louis, but if they can keep up their hot streak, they could challenge for the top spot next week.
Ice Cold
San Francisco needed extra innings last night to win for the first time in a week against perennial basement-dweller Pittsburgh, and didn't come closer than 3 runs in their four losses. The losses did come to very good Atlanta and Colorado teams, but you'd expect more out of last year's World Series champions.
Cleveland lost the #1 ranking this week by losing three straight games over the weekend, including two embarrassing losses to the Minnesota Twins. They came back with a victory over Kansas City last night, and they've got a very tough series coming up against Detroit this weekend.
San Diego has an excuse for their performance this week, after playing 8 games in 7 days, 3 of which went into extra innings. They also had to play the last 6 games against Philadelphia and Atlanta, two of the favorites in the NL East, and they did manage to steal one from the Braves.
Predictions - 27 Apr
Upset picks are in italics.
NBA
76ers at Heat - Heat by 10
Grizzlies at Spurs - Spurs by 5
Nuggets at Thunder - Thunder by 2
MLB
Dodgers at Marlins - Dodgers by 1.4
Reds at Brewers - Brewers by 0.5
Rockies at Cubs - Rockies by 1.9
Braves at Padres - Braves by 2.6
Phillies at Diamondbacks - Phillies by 1.2
Athletics at Angels - Angels by 3.9
Red Sox at Orioles - Red Sox by 3.1
Royals at Indians - Indians by 1.9
Mariners at Tigers - Tigers by 1.7
White Sox at Yankees - Yankees by 4.0
Mets at Nationals - Mets by 0.8
Giants at Pirates - Giants by 0.0
Blue Jays at Rangers - Rangers by 2.1
Cardinals at Astros - Cards by 5.2
Rays at Twins - Rays by 0.9
NBA Player of the Day
Luol Deng - CHI - 24 pts, 6 reb, 7 ast, 3 stl, 7-14 FG, 3-5 3P, 7-8 FT
Deng may not have scored as much as Rose last night, but he did hand out more assists than his point guard and hit a couple of very important 3-pointers for the Bulls as they finally played like a #1 seed in eliminating the Indiana Pacers in game 5 of their first round series. It was by far his best game of the postseason so far, and a good sign for the advancing Bulls.
Prediction Results - 26 Apr
NBA Playoffs: 3-0 (1.000) 28-9 overall (.757)
MLB: 9-5 (.643) 109-98 overall (.527)
Upsets: 3-0 (1.000) 211-139 (.603)
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