MLB Power Rankings: Seattle still surging

With the season just past the halfway point, who are the movers and shakers in the MLB Power Rankings?

While the All-Star Break kind of feels like the halfway point, it’s usually a week or two beyond the actual halfway point of 81 games (in a 162-game season). MLB teams went past the 81-game mark earlier this week and pennant races are sorting themselves out a bit, at least in the American League.

The AL has four teams on pace for 100 or more wins and none of the four are in the AL Central. The Red Sox, Yankees, Astros and Mariners are the behemoths right now, although one of the four is not like the other. The Red Sox, Yankees and Astros all have run-differential of +111 or more. The Mariners’ run-differential is +22.

Still, the Mariners have banked 54 wins in 85 games and are just a half-game behind the Astros in the AL West. Their one-run record is up to 26-11 and they are 8-0 in extra innings. Despite running into a detour in Boston and New York, they got back on the expressway against Baltimore and Kansas City.

In the AL East, the Red Sox and Yankees played three games in New York over the Weekend and none were remotely close. The Yankees won 8-1 on Friday and 11-1 on Sunday. On Saturday, they got pummeled 11-0. This rivalry will likely be at its most heated in September when they play each other six times in the season’s final 12 games, with the last three games of the season being in Boston.

Then there’s the AL Central, where Cleveland figures to run away from a division in which they’re the only team with a winning record. Detroit was a nice story a couple weeks ago. Then they lost 11 straight games and now they are who we thought they were.

In the National League everyone keeps waiting for the Washington Nationals, Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Dodgers to take command of their respective divisions but the Atlanta Braves, Milwaukee Brewers and Arizona Diamondbacks refuse to concede. The Philadelphia Phillies and San Francisco Giants aren’t going down without a fight either.

At least the NL has a wild card race. Six teams are within 5.5 games of the second wild card spot. The AL wild card race is basically the Oakland A’s hoping to make up eight games on the Seattle Mariners. Every other team is at least 11 games back of the M’s for the second wild card spot.

So with two weeks left until the All-Star break, let’s look at the Power Rankings. These rankings are based on a special formula that includes each team’s actual record, run-differential, expected record and how they’ve played over the last 30 days. I’ve included that information with each team, along with where they ranked two weeks ago in parenthesis.