Some technical difficulties recently put the Sports Nickel MLB Power Rankings on hiatus. And I know that you were all waiting with bated breath for them to return. With your anticipation at a fever pitch (no pun intended), I decided that you’ve been patient enough.

Here then are your MLB Power Rankings for the week beginning July 11th. It’s only fitting that we time their release with the end of the first half.

I’ll be publishing a new set every 2 weeks as the season rolls on.

Rank*
Team

1
NY Yankees

2
Tampa Bay

3
Atlanta

4
San Diego

5
Boston

6
Texas

7
Chicago Sox

8
NY Mets

9
Philadelphia

10
San Francisco

11
St. Louis

12
Colorado

13
LA Dodgers

14
Cincinnati

15
Detroit

16
Minnesota

17
Florida

18
Toronto

19
Oakland

20
LA Angels

21
Kansas City

22
Washington

23
Milwaukee

24
Chicago Cubs

25
Cleveland

26
Seattle

27
Arizona

28
Houston

29
Baltimore

30
Pittsburgh

It’s no surprise that baseball’s best team playing in baseball’s toughest division tops the list. The Yankees, as usual, have been dominant thus far despite having to deal with other quality clubs like Tampa, Boston, and Toronto.

Atlanta has been a surprise team over the first half- I had them pegged as the wild card winners in my pre-season predictions, but so far the Braves are exceeding even that lofty expectation. 

The Padres have been amazingly stingy, keeping opponents under control with strong pitching. Will San Diego’s stable of young arms be able to hold up over the course of the season?

The Rangers, already atop the A.L. West, made a major move by acquiring Cliff lee from Seattle. This puts them in the driver’s seat as fat as that division goes.

The Reds and Cards have been battling for the N.L. Central in an extremely tight race. That will likely continue as summer wears on.

The A.L. Central has been surprisingly competitive over the first 3 months, and looking ahead, the question is whether or not the ChiSox will be able to overcome the loss of Jake Peavy.

No shockers at the bottom of the rankings– the Astros, Orioles, and Pirates don’t have much to be happy about in 2010.

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*About the rankings: The MLB Power Rankings are compiled using in-season data from numerous statistical categories. These include winning percentage, expected (Pythagorean) winning percentage, runs scored, runs allowed, run differential, and record in last 10 games. These are combined with a strength of division rating, and all data are then normalized. Categories are weighted and averaged into a single power coefficient. These are rank ordered 1-30 to provide the final rankings.

Related posts:

1. Week 3 Power Rankings.
2. MLB Weekly Power Rankings
3. MLB Trades: Who Should Be Selling Before the Deadline?

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