Week In Review/Top 15 Power Rankings: Week 10 (06/04 - 06/10)

Welcome to another Week In Review/Top 15 Power Rankings report! This week's report is going to be more condensed than in past weeks as I will no longer be writing out wordy descriptions about each team and will instead list out my rankings followed up by a summary of my thoughts on certain rankings. With that said, let's get started!

Week In Review 

• MLB Draft - The most exciting thing to happen all week was likely the MLB draft where hundreds of prospects and their families found out the exciting news that they had been drafted and could be playing on a big league field one day. An exciting time for all involved and for those diehard baseball fans out there, it's always fun to keep track of these guys as they come up through the minors. 
• Blue Jays Following the Theme of Blue Genes - Following the draft on Monday night, the Blue Jays now have five sons of former big league players including: Griffin Conine, Kacy Clemens, Cain Biggio, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and Bo Bichette. Pretty impressive and a smart tactic by the organization. 
• Continued Dominance of Luis Severino - Luis Severino continues to have a monster season and continues to be the Yankees workhorse at the top of their starting rotation. Don't be surprised one bit if he ends up being a finalist or even winning the AL Cy Young Award this season. It's going to be difficult because of someone on the Astros named, Justin Verlander, but anything is possible! 
• Max Scherzer's Immaculate Inning - As if we needed anymore proof of how great Max Scherzer was, he ended up pitching an immaculate inning against the Rays on Tuesday night. That's right, 9 pitches and 9 strikeouts for Mad Max. That was the second immaculate inning for Scherzer during his career thus far and the only other pitcher with 2 immaculate innings over the last 30 years was Randy Johnson! 
• MadBum Returns - For the first time during the 2018 regular season, Madison Bumgarner pitched off a big league mound and went 6 innings, recorded 3 strikeouts, while giving up 8 hits and 2 earned runs. MadBum's presence within the Giants starting rotation will once again be welcome as they have missed their workhorse all season, but have still somehow found a way to stay relevant in the NL West. 
• Heaney Gives a Gift to Himself and the Angels - Also on Tuesday night, Angels starting pitcher, Andrew Heaney, went the distance pitching a complete game, while giving up 1 hit and recording 4 strikeouts against the Kansas City Royals. Best part was that the stellar performance happened on his birthday. 
• Big Sexy Continues to Make History - 243, that is the number of wins that Bartolo Colon has recorded in his big league career, which ties him with Juan Marichal for the most wins in MLB history by a native of the Dominican Republic. As if Big Sexy couldn't get more amazing! 
• Dodgers Keep Trying to Come Back - Over the past week, the Dodgers have won 4 of their last 6 games and currently sit 2 and 1/2 games back of first place in the NL West. Shocking considering the way the season started and all of the injuries that Los Angeles seemed to have hit them right from the get go. 
• Vintage Outing for Jon Lester - Saturday seemed to be a walk in the park for Chicago Cubs starting pitcher, Jon Lester, who pitched 7 innings, while recording 5 strikeouts and giving up only 1 hit. The Cubs could sure use Lester to step up and this performance was proof that he still has what it takes to do just that. 
• Flaming Hot Paul Goldschmidt - Also on Saturday, Paul Goldschmidt, who had been struggling all season leading up to the Giants series in San Francisco, hit 2 home runs and had 4 home runs in 7 plate appearances. It would seem as though Goldy is finally back to his old self and ready to show baseball why the Dbacks stuck with him through the first two months of this year. 
• Springer Dinger - Springer Dinger is a phrase we are all familiar with and refers to the home runs that Astros outfielder, George Springer, hits on a daily basis, but yesterday afternoon, Springer hit his 3rd leadoff home run of the season against the Texas Rangers. However, yesterday's was unique in that it came on the very first pitch of the game. 
• Klubot Domination - Following yesterday's win over the Detroit Tigers, Corey Kluber became the first AL starting pitcher to record 10 wins this season. Go ahead and enter Corey Kluber into the conversation for AL Cy Young as well as he is equally as deserving as Justin Verlander and Luis Severino are. 
• Dbacks Sweep the Rockies - The Dbacks smashed 29 runs in their 3-game series against their division opponent, Colorado Rockies, at Coors Field. Arizona is now back in first place in the NL West and with the way Goldy is starting to hit, watch out! 

Top 15 Power Rankings

1. New York Yankees (42-19) [Ranking Last Week: 3] 

2. Houston Astros (42-25) [Ranking Last Week: 2] 

3. Boston Red Sox (44-22) [Ranking Last Week: 3] 

4. Chicago Cubs (37-25) [Ranking Last Week: 9] 

5. Seattle Mariners (41-24) [Ranking Last Week: 6]

6. Washington Nationals (36-27) [Ranking Last Week: 5] 

7. Arizona Diamondbacks (35-29) [Ranking Last Week: 8] 

8. Milwaukee Brewers (39-26) [Ranking Last Week: 7] 

9. Cleveland Indians (34-29) [Ranking Last Week: 12] 

10. Atlanta Braves (37-28) [Ranking Last Week: 4] 

11. St. Louis Cardinals (35-28) [Ranking Last Week: 11] 

12. Los Angeles Angels (37-29) [Ranking Last Week: 13] 

13. Los Angeles Dodgers (33-32) [Ranking Last Week: 10] 

14. Philadelphia Phillies (33-30) [Ranking Last Week: 14] 

15. Oakland Athletics (34-32) [Ranking Last Week: 15] 

Summary of Thoughts 

The biggest question out of the rankings above, likely relates to what I thought about the Los Angeles Dodgers and where I put them in the rankings. Yes, they have bounced back extremely well to date, but I am still worried about the health of their team and the strength of their 25-man roster overall. I believe there are 12 teams (listed above) that are better off than the Dodgers are from a talent and depth perspective and that is why they are ranked where they are. Could they continue to climb in the rankings for the remainder of the season? Absolutely, but I still want to see how the depth continues to perform and find out how they are going to address the shortcomings in their starting rotation over that period of time. 

As for the first three teams, those should be no surprise whatsoever. All three have been in those spots, in different order, all season long. The Yankees moved into first place this week because of the run they have been on as of late. However, the Astros are still a very good team with a superb starting rotation and the Red Sox can go up against the best of them with their 25-man roster and all of the talent that it possesses. 

Finally, both the Chicago Cubs and Cleveland Indians made the biggest climbs this week because of the way they have played lately. For the Cubs, they have a 8-2 record over their last 10 games, while the Indians possess a 6-4 record over their last 10. The Cubs are probably the best team in the National League right now because they have everything they need to succeed on their roster. Anthony Rizzo has been very good as of late and if he continues to keep hitting, their lineup might be the best one in the league. On the other hand, the Indians continue to get very good starting pitching and it looks like the problems that once plagued the Tribe's bullpen could finally be in the rearview mirror. Over the last week, outside of Cody Allen, every Indians reliever has a 0.00 ERA. 

MVPs of the Week

American League: 

1. Khris Davis (Athletics): 7-for-23 with 1 double, 4 home runs, 6 home runs, 2 walks, a .304 batting average, and a .360 on-base percentage 

2. Justin Upton (Angels): 9-for-20 with 3 home runs, 4 RBI, 4 walks, a .450 batting average, and a .560 on-base percentage 

3. Reynaldo Lopez (White Sox): 0.68 ERA over 13.1 IP w/ a .156 Opponent Batting Average Against 

4. Corey Kluber (Indians): 1.80 ERA over 15.0 IP w/ a 0.80 WHIP 

National League: 

1. Paul Goldschmidt (Dbacks): 16-for-25 with 6 doubles, 1 triple, 4 home runs, 11 RBI, 3 walks, a .640 batting average, and a .690 on-base percentage 

2. Jose Martinez (St. Louis Cardinals): 12-for-20 with 1 double, 4 home runs, 9 RBI, 4 walks, a .600 batting average, and a .667 on-base percentage 

3. Ross Stripling (Dodgers): 1.54 ERA over 11.2 IP w/ a .186 Opponent Batting Average Against 

4. Zack Eflin (Phillies): 1.98 ERA over 13.2 IP w/ a 0.95 WHIP