Wherever David Price goes — if he goes? — or whichever team snaps up Cliff Lee or those other Phillies stars, we know it will affect what we do here. That means scads of movement in our rankings possibly. Or, on a personal note, scads of overtime as we sift through the wheeling and dealing.
But there’s little movement this week, at least at the very top. Our 1-2-3-4 teams are the same after only the one second-half opening series to go on. We’re not even sure a wild trading season before the July 31 deadline could change much with powerful Oakland in our top spot again.
1. Oakland A’s (61-37, last week No. 1): Sonny Gray, true ace. He’s got a 0.95 ERA over his last four starts and is 8-1 overall in games that follow an Oakland loss.
2. Los Angeles Angels (59-38, last week No. 2): What silly closer celebration is going to fire them up this week? Fernando Rodney has already felt the pain.
3. Detroit Tigers (54-41, last week No. 3): Headline fun: “Drew Has Tigers All Smyly After Sunday Win.” And no, there’s never been a pun like that involving that pitcher’s name.
4. Los Angeles Dodgers (55-45, last week No. 4): Feisty series with the Cardinals over the weekend could mean October intrigue, eh?
5. Washington Nationals (53-43, last week No. 8): Just beat the Brewers in a series, validating our ranking them ahead of Milwaukee.
