Week Nineteen
by Asher B. Chancey, BaseballEvolution.com
August 13, 2007

Okay, I can admit it - something has gone awry. I have made an ever-so-slight design mistake in my "Line of Death" system. You see, I still don't think the Yankees are going to make the playoffs. However, that does not mean that the Yankees are worse than every other team in baseball. Quite the contrary - if the Yankees were playing in the National League, I think that they would have to be World Series favorites at this point. The Yanks are easily better than the Cubs, Brewers, D'Backs, Padres, Dodgers, Rockies, and Phillies, and possibly also the Braves and Mets. Likewise, at this point it is fair to say the Yankees are better than the Cleveland Indians given their sweep of the Tribe this weekend.

I am not sure how to handle this - clearly I can not resurrect the Yanks for the LOD, because they have not yet met my criteria, making a move than transforms them into a contender. At the same time, however, I can not continue to keep a straight face and rank them 14th in baseball.

For the record, the run the Yankees are on is truly impressive, but they have done it with tons of offense and very little pitching, against less than spectacular competition. In their upcoming series against the Red Sox and Tigers, I anticipate the going being a bit rougher. I would really like to see the Yanks pick up an arm - any arm, be it Daniel Cabrera, Jose Contreras, Carlos Silva, or even Matt Morris, who is being wasted in Pittsburgh.

I pondered treating the Yankees like an embassy of sorts, whereby the Yankees could be ranked fourth in all of baseball, but their spot above the Line of Death would amount to "Line of Death Soil" in the non-Line of Death territory. That is a little complex.

Basically, the point is this - I still don't think the Yankees are a playoff team, but rather a hot team that has benefitted from from playing several slumping teams. I know they are certainly better than the 14th or wherever I had them ranked last week, so I will rank them accordingly.

In other news, it is time to ask - does anybody in the National League want to go the playoffs as the NL Wild Card team? We are in serious danger now of seeing the Arizona Diamondbacks win the NL West, and the Colorado Rockies winning the wild card, and seeing the Phillies, Braves, Cubs, Cards, Padres and Dodgers all stay home. Think about it - a D'Backs, Rockies, Mets, Brewers NL post-season. Amazing. When was the last time the National League post-season was made up exclusively of expansion teams? you may ask. That would be 1986, when the Mets and Astros faced off in the NLCS. And that was the only time it ever happened.

In the American League, I expected an Indians collapse, but what had been the three best teams in baseball - the Tigers, Red Sox, and Angels - have all struggled. The Red Sox are once again the team to beat, and they are getting melted by the Yankees all of a sudden. These are still three stunningly complete teams, even despite their current mediocre play, but they need to step it up. The Red Sox have no excuse for letting the Yankees back in it, and there is no reason the Tigers should not have put away the Indians yet.

This week, we say goodbye to the Minnesota Twins and hello to the Philadelphia Phillies. The Twins were still in the AL Central race because of the poor play of the Tigers and Indians, but subsequently lost six of seven to the Indians, Royals, and Angels. Meanwhile, the Phillies' acquisition of Kyle Lohse has gone as expected - minus the line drive to the forearm that caused quite a scare. Lohse pitched 6.1 "good enough to win" innings against Florida in Philly this week, and the Phils supported him with 12 runs. Lohse is an inning-eating arm who, contrary to what I thought two weeks ago, is good at minimizing damage against him.

What impact has this had on the Phillies? Two weeks ago, both J.D. Durbin and Adam Eaton were rotation regulars, and now the team gets to choose between them. And that is good. Welcome back, Phillies!

Despite being tempted, the Cardinals are not resurrected by the return of Rick Ankiel. It is a great story, and a great return, but I don't see how his arrival makes the pitching staff better. Ironically.

Without further ado, here are the Week Nineteen Power Rankings. Enjoy and, as always, feel free to comment.

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Questions? Concerns? Comments? Asher lives in Philadelphia, PA, and can be reached at asher@baseballevolution.com.