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Monday May.13/2013

The Rangers have opened up a 6 game lead over the Athletics – prior to their series with Oakland that kicks off tonight. They have also only played 15 Home Games – as opposed to 22 Road Games. Steady veteran hitting – and great Pitching all around has paved the way. They are the only team in the Division over .500

By Chuck Booth (Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner): Follow @chuckbooth3024

The Rangers are #1 again based on the Division lead they currently possess, plus the fact they play all of these teams a total of 76 Games this year.

St. Louis Cardinals have one hell of a pitching staff – and it is downright scary for the rest of the National League that they have played this well without the offense really clicking.

The Giants continue to streak.  I like their offensive makeup – because players like Buster Posey, Pablo Sandoval, Marco Scutaro and Hunter Pence all tend to be streaky.

The Boston Red Sox have begun to slow down recently.

The Tampa Bay Rays seem ready to make their charge.

Josh Hamilton and his 1 AB back in Arlington:

Goldschmidt hit HRs in 3 straight games this week – and 4 HRs for the week overall. With Justin Upton being traded away, “Goldy” needed to step up. He has 30 RBI. The club was smart enough to extend him to 5 YR/$32 MIL deal before the year started.

The AL Hitter of the Week (as voted by MLB Reports) was Evan Longoria.  he clubbed 3 HRs and 11 RBI – in leading his team to a 5 game winning streak.  He also hit for a 3 Slash Line of .464/.531/1.496.

The AL Pitcher of the Week was Chris Sale.  Like the NL Pitcher of the Month, he flirted with  no – hitter.  Sale only yielded 1 run in 16 .1 IP over his 2 GS.  He Walked no one and fanned 12 batters.  His WHIP was an incredible 0.43.

The NL Hitter of the Week was Paul Goldschmidt.  Read his picture above.

The NL Pitcher of the Week was Jorge De La Rosa – who flirted with a no – hitter in one game – en route to 2 Wins, 13 Scoreless IP, a .114 BA against and WHIP of  0.69.  If the Colorado pitcher keeps this up, he may be in the running for NL Comeback Player of the Year.

(Last Weeks Rating in Parenthesis)

1.   Texas 24 – 13 (1) Loads of pitching and they lead the MLB in ERA despite playing in The Ballpark in Arlington.

2.  St. Louis 23 – 13 (4) The Cardinals Starting Staff is 21 – 7, with a 2.11 ERA – are you serious?!

3.  San Francisco 23 – 15 (5)  Marco Scutaro hit .467 for the week with 6 XBH.  His Batting Average is up to .305 – and he is incredible for hitting at AT and T Park. ( 3 Slash Line of .326/.375/.841 in 258 AB).

4.  Detroit 20 – 15  (2)  a 1 – 4 week will drop you 2 spots in the rotation.  Miguel Cabrera still the best hitter on the planet with 40 RBI.

5,  New York Yankees 23 – 13 (8)  A 4 – 1 week was capped off by a brilliant 3 game series sweep versus the KC Royals.  Robinson Cano is looking like an AL MVP Candidate.  Vernon Wells and Lyle Overbay have provided key clutch hits.

6.  Cincinnati 22 – 16 (6)  The Reds are 16 – 6 at home and 6 – 10 on the road.  Tough piece of business to be in the same division as the “Zombie Cardinals” and the upstart Pirates.  Jay Bruce looks like he is coming around.

7.   Baltimore 23 – 15 (9) The Birds seem to win 4 times a week.  Manny Machado, Chris Davis and Adam Jones have played ALL – Star Caliber baseball and their defense continues to help win games.

8.  Boston 22 – 16 (2) a 2 – 5 Week saw the Beantowners lose 6 spots in the rankings.  Anybody not named Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz were touched up for some serous ERA Speedbagging. Don’t look now, but Tampa is just 2.5 games behind you.

9.  Washington 20 – 17 (10) Bryce Harper is fighting Minor injuries and Stephen Strasburg leads the NL in Un Earned Runs.  Ian Desmond and Adam LaRoche are heating up.  Ross Detwiler is the best 4th Starter in baseball.  NL East may be the weakest division in the National League.

10. Atlanta 21 – 16  (7) Another losing weak for Atlanta.  They are only ahead of the Nats by 1 game – having gone 9 – 15 after their quick 12 – 1 start.  Brian McCann looks great back in the Lineup – and B.J. Upton has been kept out of the lineup with his .153 BA.

11. Pittsburgh 21 – 16 (15) Jason Grilli is the latest journeyman Pitcher to assume great Closer stats for the Pirates. Clint Hurdle is using a proper rotation of Garrett Jones, Travis Snider and Gaby Sanchez in the OF and 1B.

12. Tampa Bay 19 – 18 (16) James Loney still hitting .376 and has clubbed HRs in back to back nights.  Here come the Rays!!

13. Cleveland 20 – 15 (17) Ubaldo Jimenez very well could have the been the AL Pitcher of the Week.  Scott Kazmir is looking like 2008 version of himself. Asdrubal Cabrera starting to rebound.

14. Kansas City 18 – 16 (11) Alex Gordon and Mike Moustakas had great weeks.  They were just in tough versus the New York Yankees over the last weekend.

15. Arizona 21 – 17 (13) How long before we start anointing him as the next great player after the awesome start of Didi Gregorius?  Cody Ross and Jason Kubel back into the mix.  Patrick Corbin is 5 – 0 with a 1.75 ERA.  See Paul Goldschmidt as NL Hitter of the Week.

16. Colorado 20 – 17 (14)  Tough schedule has brought them back to reality.  The bats have really cooled off.  Todd Helton back in the lineup.

17. Philadelphia 18 – 21 (21)  Each time the club inches back toward .500 – they are reminded the team is old.  Kyle Kendrick has been phenomenal thus far (4 – 1 with a 2.47 ERA).  They need Cole Hamels to assume ‘ace’ like status again.

18. Oakland 19 – 20 (12)  The Bats are hit and miss – while the pitching has not been there all year.  It may be a learning year for the Oakland team.

19. Seattle 18 – 20 (20)  The Mariners have good pitching, just need the bats to be average.

20. LA Angels 14 – 23 (23)  Losing the 1st 2 games versus the Houston Astros is unacceptable.  They were 1 hit last night by Chris Sale.  Josh Hamilton hit HRs in back to back games versus Houston – before posting a 1 – 12 weekend.

21. LA Dodgers 15 – 21 (18) 4th place in the NL West doesn’t look to pretty.  The club has 2 wins in May so far.

22. Minnesota 17 – 17 (24)  The Twins are pesky.  Joe Mauer collected 15 hits for the week – raising hit BA 60 points this week to .345.

23. Chicago White Sox 15 – 20 (22) Jeff Keppinger is causing everyone to look up how to score OBP – with his 3 Slash Line of .187/.184/.387.  The reason is that he has 2 Sacrifice Flies – where it is applied to your OBP – but no your BA.  0 Walks in 125 AB is not becoming of a #2 Hitter.

24. Toronto 15 – 24 (25)  It seems to be all or nothing for the offense.  A weekend series win at Fenway Park was just their 2nd Series win of 2013.  Edwin Encarnacion, J.P. Arencibia and Jose Bautista all in the top 5 for AL HRs.

25. San Diego 16 – 21  (Dropping 3 games versus the Rays cost them a chance to be closer in the NL West standings.)

26. Milwaukee 15 – 20 This team  played 21 out of their 1st 32 games at Miller Park – ballooning all of their offensive numbers.  Jean Segura and Ryan Braun are putting up great stats.

27. Chicago Cubs 15 – 22 (28)  Anthony Rizzo just signed a 7 YR/$41 MIL deal – and has been hitting for a good average in May.  He has 4 – 3 Hit games in the last 9 contests.  He is hitting .415 with 17 hits in his last 10 games.  Cubs had a nice 4 – 2 week.

28. New York Mets 14 – 20 (26)  The Mets can’t have Matt Harvey pitch every night, and please just use Jordany Valdespin as a PH.

29. Miami Marlins 11 – 27 (29)  1 – 5 this last week.  Justin Ruggiano has 7 HRs.  The Starters still keeping them in games.

30. Houston 10 – 28 (30)  Houston is on pace to lose 119 Games this year.  How much worse will it get?

The Brewers are 1 – 9 in their last 10 games. They have had the biggest swings in win streaks and then losing streaks. The club has played 21 games at home versus 14 on the road.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com or their partners.***

Chuck Booth – Lead Baseball Analyst/Website Owner and author of the Fastest 30 Ballgames:   To learn more about my  “The Fastest 30 Ballgames Book” and how to purchase it, click here .

You can also follow my Guinness Book of World Record Successful Bid to see all 30 MLB Park in 23 Days – click here.  I am happy to be part of such an awesome Magazine-Style Baseball Website and am looking forward to talking to all of the fans of the MLB.  You can reach me on Twitter here Follow @mlbreports

Ben Fallon (Left) and Chuck Booth (Right) at Nats Park (Patriots Day 2012).

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