MLB Rankings - 16 Jun

The Toronto Blue Jays are the only team to make a repeat appearance on the hot/not list this week, but they have switched to the other side of the spectrum. The top and the bottom of the standing remains unchanged, but there has been plenty of shuffling in the middle. Each team's name is followed by its weekly record, overall record, and previous ranking. Gaps between groups of teams represent gaps in performance.

1. NY Yankees (5-3) (38-28) (1)

2. Boston (6-1) (40-27) (7)

3. Philadelphia (7-1) (43-26) (4)

4. Detroit (4-4) (37-31) (5)

5. Atlanta (5-3) (38-31) (8)

6. Washington (5-2) (32-36) (13)

7. Milwaukee (5-3) (39-30) (9)

8. Texas (2-5) (36-33) (3)

9. Cincinnati (5-3) (37-33) (14)

10. Toronto (3-4) (34-34) (2)

11. Colorado (5-3) (33-35) (12)

12. San Francisco (5-2) (39-29) (15)

13. Arizona (4-4) (37-32) (10)

14. NY Mets (5-3) (34-34) (22)

15. Pittsburgh (5-3) (34-33) (11)

16. Saint Louis (1-6) (38-31) (6)

17. Chi Sox (3-4) (33-36) (16)

18. Seattle (4-4) (35-34) (17)

19. LA Angels (3-4) (33-37) (18)

20. San Diego (2-6) (30-40) (24)

21. LA Dodgers (2-6) (31-39) (21)

22. Baltimore (2-4) (30-35) (23)

23. Tampa Bay (4-3) (36-32) (19)

24. Cleveland (2-5) (36-30) (20)

25. Oakland (2-5) (29-40) (26)

26. Florida (1-8) (32-36) (25)

27. Minnesota (5-1) (27-39) (29)

28. Kansas City (4-3) (30-38) (28)

29. Chi Cubs (4-4) (27-40) (27)

30. Houston (2-6) (25-44) (30)

Hot

On Sunday the Boston Red Sox finished their third straight series sweep with a 14-1 pounding of the Toronto Blue Jays, their second straight double-digit victory. The biggest reason for their success has been Adrian Gonzalez, who batted 10-23 (.435) this week along with 7 RBI.

When the New York Mets had Chris Capuano, Dillon Gee, or Jonathon Niese on the mound this week, they came out on top. In the 33 innings pitched by the 3 starters, they gave up a total of 4 runs while striking out 27 batters and combining for a 1.09 ERA.

The Washington Nationals have won 5 straight, and Michael Morse has been their strongest player over that stretch. He hit 3 home runs this week while batting .391 overall and knocking in 7 runs. In more than 50 games entering this week, he only had a total of 9 home runs for the season.

Not

Toronto was hot last week, moving clear up to #2 in my rankings, but the Boston Red Sox embarrassed them this week over the course of three games, outscoring them 35-6 in those games. Over the past week 6 of Toronto's regular starters (including Jose Bautista) combined for a .142 BA.

St. Louis has lost 5 straight and 6 of 7, and in the 4 losses this week that were taken by the starting pitcher for the Cardinals, St. Louis' starters combined for a 6.86 ERA in just 21 innings pitched.

Texas has lost to the Yankees by a score of 12-4 on consecutive nights, but it gets even worse than that. Before that, they lost two straight to the Minnesota Twins by a combined score of 14-2. Even ace Alexi Ogando got rocked by the Yankees, giving up 6 hits and 6 runs in just 1.2 innings while taking his first loss of the season.

Predictions - 16 Jun

Most Likely MLB Blowouts

Brewers over Cubs

Phillies over Marlins

White Sox over Twins

Most Likely MLB Upsets

Tigers over Indians

Athletics over Royals

Prediction Results - 12 Jun

NBA Playoffs: 0-1 (.000) 56-25 overall (.691)

MLB Blowouts: 2-3 (.400) 15-10 overall (.600)

MLB Rankings - 8 Jun

Baseball season is about 40% over, but only one team is paying their way ahead of the rest of the field. Whoops, I meant playing their way ahead. This week's hot and cold teams are all located in the region surrounding the Great Lakes, while the rest of the league was reasonably stable all week. Here are this week's updated rankings, with team name followed by weekly record, overall record, and previous ranking in parentheses. Spaces between groups of teams represent gaps in performance.

1. NY Yankees (5-2) (33-25) (2)

2. Toronto (4-4) (31-30) (13)

3. Texas (6-3) (34-28) (5)

4. Philadelphia (3-5) (36-25) (1)

5. Detroit (7-1) (33-27) (22)

6. Saint Louis (5-3) (37-25) (3)

7. Boston (4-3) (34-26) (10)

8. Atlanta (3-4) (33-28) (4)

9. Milwaukee (5-3) (34-27) (6)

10. Arizona (4-4) (33-28) (15)

11. Pittsburgh (5-3) (29-30) (11)

12. Colorado (3-5) (28-32) (8)

13. Washington (5-4) (27-34) (20)

14. Cincinnati (5-3) (32-30) (9)

15. San Francisco (6-3) (34-27) (18)

16. Chi Sox (6-2) (30-32) (21)

17. Seattle (5-4) (31-30) (19)

18. LA Angels (2-6) (30-33) (17)

19. Tampa Bay (4-5) (32-29) (12)

20. Cleveland (3-6) (34-25) (7)

21. LA Dodgers (5-3) (29-33) (28)

22. NY Mets (5-3) (29-31) (24)

23. Baltimore (4-4) (28-31) (29)

24. San Diego (6-3) (28-34) (25)

25. Florida (1-7) (31-28) (16)

26. Oakland (0-8) (27-35) (23)

27. Chi Cubs (0-8) (23-36) (14)

28. Kansas City (3-6) (26-35) (27)

29. Minnesota (5-4) (22-38) (30)

30. Houston (4-4) (23-38) (26)

Hot

The Detroit Tigers lost only once this week, and swept the Minnesota Twins before that loss happened. They started out this week in style, winning two straight blowouts against the Texas Rangers. They have won 8 of the last 9 games after losing 3 straight to the Boston Red Sox two weeks ago.

Just across the border, the Toronto Blue Jays have also been hot, but it's not as easy to see, since they only went 4-4 over the last week. The losses were all either close games or against good competition, and the wins were all by a minimum of 3 runs. That's how they rose to the #2 spot even with a record just over .500.

Minnesota started the week the way everyone expected, being swept by the Detroit Tigers, but then they did something totally unexpected: they won 6 out of 7 games, including a sweep of the Kansas City Royals and a series win over the Cleveland Indians. They won the 4 games against Kansas City by an average of 5 runs per game, and removed themselves from the bottom spot in the rankings for the first time since April.

Not

Going into today's game, the Chicago Cubs had lost 8 straight games, including a sweep at the hand of the last-place Houston Astros, and another to the Saint Louis Cardinals. They closed the week with consecutive 8-2 losses to the Cincinnati Reds, and played themselves completely out of the playoff picture yet again.

The first game Cleveland played last week set the tone for the entire week, losing 11-1 against Toronto. They spent the weekend getting pounded by the visiting Texas Rangers, then lost to Minnesota on Monday before finally breaking through and winning a game against the hopeless Twins 1-0.

The St. Louis Cardinals lost 3 of 4 to the San Francisco Giants to start the week, but the Giants are not the team they were a year ago. They followed that up with a weekend sweep of the Cubs, but the Cubs were undeniably the worst team of the week, and their final game against the last-place Astros also did nothing to prove that they are really an elite team.

Predictions - 8 Jun

MLB

Most Likely Blowouts

Blue Jays over Royals

Giants over Nationals

Phillies over Dodgers

Angels over Rays

Most Likely Upsets

Angels over Rays

White Sox over Mariners

Rangers over Tigers

Prediction Results - 4-7 Jun

NBA Playoffs: 1-1 (.500) 55-24 overall (.696)

MLB Blowouts: 2-3 (.400) 7-3 overall (.700)

MLB Upsets: 1-4 (.200) 6-4 overall (.600)