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Monday July.08/2013

The Boston Red Sox started out the season 21 – 8 after their 1st 29 games, and have maintained over the last 61 games, with 33 Wins and 28 Losses. They are #1 on our rankings charts.

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

Past this page break or the Dodgers logo, is the written version of the rankings.  If you want to listen to the audio podcast we did for this, we have the links below to download or just listen.

Triple Play Podcast Ep #15 Monthly Rankings For All 30 Teams

The Dodgers are also on the move ever since they called up Yasiel Puig and put Hanley Ramirez back in the batting order. The LA club should duke it out With Arizona for the National League West.  Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and Hyun-Jin Ryu provides the kind of pitching necessary in order to reel off a baseball streak – where they play around .600 baseball.  The Dodgers just traded for Ricky Nolasco – and clearly they are not done either.

Team Rankings (Last Week in Parenthesis) and Moving of spots up or down.

Standings as of July.08/2013

* Denotes Division Leaders

1.  Boston Red Sox* 54 – 36 (3) +1: The Beantowners have reeled off 8 wins in their last 10 games.  What is better than that is the Orioles have had an ordinary week.

With Boston, it is any number of game changers on offense like:  David Ortiz, Mike Napoli, Dustin Pedroia or Jacoby Ellsbury.  You throw in the renaissance year of John Lackey – and it has been a whole new team in 2013.

2.  Detroit Tigers* 48 – 39 (7) +6:  The Tigers have won 5 in a row, are sending a pile of ALL – Stars to New York, keep having awesome pitching performances from their staff – and half of the hitters is hitting over .300.

It is time for the club to make their move up the standings.  Last year, they went 33 – 11 in their last 44 home games.  With Justin Verlander finding his right mechanics in a recent outing – it could spell bad news.

3.   St. Louis Cardinals* 53 – 34 (5) +2:  The Cards are sending 5 ALL – Stars to Citi Field, and could have easily sent 2 or 3 more.  The club is deep with a bunch of Average hitters.  Yadier Molina is not getting his due credit for all things involved.

4.  Oakland Athletics* 52 – 37 (6) +2:  The A’s that get no respect.  I am sure they will be not sending any Christmas cards to Jim Leyland anytime too.The snubs of Grant Balfour and Josh Donaldson are pretty apparent.  The club hasn’t even received a big stretch of awesome play from Yoenis Cespedes.

5.  Pittsburgh Pirates* 53 – 34 (2) -3:  The Bucs are a great team, just in trouble in a division with the Reds and Cardinals.

6.  Atlanta Braves 50 – 38:  38 – 37 since starting 12 – 1.  That will not get it done with the Nationals charging.  The NL East winner will have in the 92 – 95 win range.

7. Arizona Diamondbacks* 47 – 41 (10) +4:  The Rockies, Giants and Padres are free falling down the Standings.  The Dodgers are hot, but started off to far back.  DBacks play 42 more games at home and only 33 on the road to close out the year. The OF has a lot of depth – and they are looking to trade for Yovani Gallardo.

8. Texas Rangers 51 – 37 (4) +3:  Signing Manny Ramirez to a Minor League Contract is not going to solve the DH woes for the club.  A struggling Elvis Andrus and all of sudden hittable Yu Darvish, speaks for Jon Daniels to make a trade to infuse some energy.

9.  Cincinnati Reds 50 – 38 (8) -1:  They have a lot of ALL – Stars on their club even though Mat Latos and Mike Leake are not on the National League ALL – Star team, but could be replacements if pitching schedules permit.

10. Washington Nationals 46 – 42 (13) +3:  It is good to have Bryce Harper back in the lineup.  Stephen Strasburg and Ian Desmond snubs were pretty glaring.  Are we trying to win this game or is it about having teams all be represented?

11. Tampa Bay Rays 49 – 40 (12) +1:  David Price is back ladies and gentleman.  Matt Moore looks to have righted the ship.  Longoria should take his ALL – Star snub personally out on the rest of the MLB.

12.  Baltimore Orioles 49 – 40 (9) -3: Scott Feldman is a nice pickup – but they better not be done with acquiring Pitching.  Can Chris Davis and Manny Machado really keep this up?

13.  Cleveland Indians 46 – 42 (11) -4:  The Tribe is about a bad week away from falling another 4 spots like they did this week.  The Tigers are just too strong.  They must win against any other team to stay afloat.

14.  New York Yankees 48 – 40 (15) +1:  A 6 game winning streak has certainly answered the bell for this club’s resolve with their current roster.  Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, and Michael Pineda may come back soon.  Cashman, go get some more depth.

15.  LA Dodgers 42 – 45 (16) +3:  With Yasiel Puig stealing all of the thunder – does anyone even realize that Hanley Ramirez has great numbers since he returned.  His return has coincided with the recent teams roll.  Carl Crawford back, Matt Kemp out.

16.  LA Angels 43 – 45 (17) -1:  The Angels have to keep winning series.  Josh Hamilton is chewing tobacco again – and it looks like it might give him one less thing to worry about.  They just need the pitching to come around and join the offense.

17.  SF Giants 40 – 47 (14) -3:  They are 12 – 25 in their last 37 Games.  Here is the good news:  They are only 5.5 Games out.

18.  Kansas City Royals  41 – 44 (19) +1:  KC is 6 – 4 in their last 10 Games.  Eric Hosmer is finally hitting with power, now only if Mike Moustakas could follow suit.

19.  Colorado Rockies 42 – 47 (18) -1:  They must remain close until Troy Tulowitzki comes back.

20. Philadelphia Phillies 43 – 46 (22) -2:  Ryan Howard to the 15 DAY DL just as the offense was coming around is a big blow.  Good for Domonic Brown making the Mid – Summers Classic.

21.  Toronto Blue Jays 43 – 45 (21) Even: 5th in the AL East is more like 12 out when you are chasing 4 clubs.  You have to win against your own Division.

22.  San Diego Padres 40 -49 (20) -2:  Trade Chase Headley, Jason Marquis and Carlos Quentin. Losing 9 in a row is a bad things when ‘Dbacks have won 6 straight.  At least you did it early to do this.

23.  Seattle Mariners 39 – 49 (24) +1: Hisashi Iwakuma and Felix Hernandez headed to New York for the ALL – Star Game.

24.  Minnesota Twins 37 – 48 (23) -1: Trade Justin Morneau and only trade Josh Willingham if you receive a good prospect.

25.  New York Mets 37 – 48 (26) +1:  Sending Ike Davis to Las Vegas may have worked.

26.  Chicago Cubs 38 – 48 (27) -1:  Alfonso Soriano and Matt Garza heating up just in time to be traded.

27.  Chicago White Sox 34 – 51 (25) -2:  This team is now abysmal – and the GM should count his lucky stars that Adam Dunn has hit for an OPS over 1.000 since June.1.  Chris Sale and Paul Konerko are the only guys that couldn’t be traded.

28.  Milwaukee Brewers 35 – 52 (28) Even:  Aramis Ramirez and “LAMBO” Yovani Gallardo.  The evolution of going for the playoffs in 2008.  Time for the rebuild.

29.  Miami Marlins 32 – 55 (29):  The Bloggers will be giving those Giancarlo Stanton rumors soon.  Ricky Nolasco trade wasn’t bad

30.  Houston Astros 32 – 57 (30);  Keep picking #1 Overall fellas!

The Nationals are starting to gel together, and they are within striking for the NL East Division.  Bryce Harper has made a monumental difference being reinserted into the starting lineup.  Massive snubs from the initial roster set for from Bruce Bochy.  Use it as momentum.

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

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Ballpark Chasers Steve Fekete (left) and MLB Reports Owner Chuck Booth(Right).

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