May: Who Is This Year's Brew Crew?
by Keith Glab, BaseballEvolution.com
May 1, 2008

Today marks the evolution from the weekly Power Rankings format to a monthly version.  Why the change?  The weekly format was a pain, for starters.  The minutiae of determining each team's record for the week and who their opponents were coupled with the necessary formatting to have them appear on each of our team pages was tedious indeed.  But beyond that, how much sense does it make to rank a team weighted so heavily on the last week of play?  All great teams will go through a rough stretch at some point, and many futile teams have found fleeting success here and there.  Why, just on the last day of April, we had scores of 8-1,  19-5, and two instances of 13-1 blowouts.  Are we supposed to bow down to the winners of those blowouts and write off the losers?

Heck, going by a month of play has its limitations.  I'll tell you right now that between the Arizona Diamondbacks, Chicago Cubs, and St. Louis Cardinals - each of whom has set or tied a franchise record in April wins this season - at least one team will go the way of the 2007 Milwaukee Brewers.  I can't quite pinpoint which one it is yet, so for now, I'll hedge and rank them all high.

One reason its difficult to predict their downfall is that all three teams have players who will provide a boost in the coming months.  The Cubs get Alfonso Soriano back today.  The Diamondbacks just added phenom Max Scherzer to their rotation, and will see the return of Chad Tracy and Doug Davis before the All-Star break.  Colby "Lincecum" Rasmus has struggled to begin the year, but may be major league-ready in the second half, when the Cardinals could also add the likes of Chris Carpenter, Mark Mulder, and Matt Clement to their rotation. 

But we see this phenomenon further down the rankings as well.  The Angels figure to be unstoppable once John Lackey replaces Dustin Moseley in their rotation.  The Rays have to feel pretty good about being just one game out of first with Scott Kazmir due to debut against the team they're trailing this weekend.  Pedro Martinez and Jimmy Rollins could change the complexion of the NL East - we've already seen what the return of Curtis Granderson has done for the Detroit Tigers.

So let us review the first month of the season and muse about what lies ahead.  As always, feel free to comment.