9/14/08 Baseball power rankings

(Last week’s ranking in parentheses)

1. Angels (2) Yes, he had some cheap saves on his Road To Thigpen, but F-Rod is no F-Raud

2. Tampa Bay (1) Rays finally call up lefty David Price, their phenom du jourr

3. Boston (3) If Dodgers win it all, who will be first to blame The Curse of Manny Ramirez?

4. Cubs (4) Lou’s tantrum came after the tirade deadline, so he had to clear ravers

5. Mets (6) Looks like final game at Shea could be about a month after Yankee Stadium finale

6. Houston (12) It took Hurricane Ike to slow down the rampaging Astros

7. Toronto (10) Jays may finally beat out Yankees, and still won’t make the playoffs

8. Milwaukee (5) Not that they’re choking, but Brews just hired a new team physician: Dr. Heimlich

9. White Sox (7) With Quentin out and Konerko ailing, they really need Junior to hack like it’s 1998

10. Minnesota (8) They could really use Dome-field advantage in the postseason

11. Philadelphia (9) Earliest baseball reference (1755) found in England: a Jamie Moyer autograph

12. St. Louis (11) Cardinals’ goal is no longer catching Milwaukee; now they have to catch Houston

13. Dodgers (15) Holy Terry Forster! Dodgers play Giants six of the final nine

14. Yankees (13) Mark McGwire won’t talk about his past; Brian Cashman won’t talk about his future

15. Florida (16) Marlins nearing new stadium, will provide elegance & comfort to their 11,836 fans

16. Cleveland (17) This team is completely, sincerely, totally, endlessly, amazingly, happily Cliff Lee

17. Arizona (14) Melvin must be getting stretch-drive managerial advice from Willie Randolph

18. Texas (19) Rangers are exquisitely balanced: They’ve scored and given up most runs in majors

19. Detroit (20) Sheffield nears 500 HR — roughly one for every gripe he’s publicly aired in his career

20. Cincinnati (21) Reds needed one more big bat, so they got Micah Owings

21. Colorado (18) Where’s Vinny Castilla when you really need him?

22. Oakland (23) Can’t wait to read the new book about 2008 A’s: “Crummyball”

23. San Francisco (24) You can start calling him Cy Lincecum — or, in Seattle, Heavy Sigh Lincecum

24. Atlanta (26) Cox says he’ll be back; unfortunately, he can’t bring 1995 Greg Maddux with him

25. Baltimore (22) Saddest Baltimore finish since final episode of “The Wire”

26. Kansas City (25) Royals under Hillman are Trey mal.

27. Pittsburgh (27) The way these guys are losing, they must want to be the Strasburg Pirates

28. Seattle (28) No champagne this year; just a lot of sham and a lot of pain

29. Washington (30) Bowden gives vote of confidence to Acta, but it turns out he wasn’t registered

30. San Diego (29) Padres haven’t been the same since Matt Holliday was called safe at the plate.

— Larry Stone/The Seattle Times