Trio of streaking teams rush up Rankings but Indians stay on top

As Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci wrote last year around this time, "Oakland GM Billy Beane parcels the season in thirds: the first third for taking stock of

Joe Lemire | May 26, 2011

As Sports Illustrated's Tom Verducci wrote last year around this time, "Oakland GM Billy Beane parcels the season in thirds: the first third for taking stock of your team, the second third for roster adjustment and the final third to let the modifications play out."

Now that every team has played between 47 and 51 games -- 29-31 percent of the season -- clubs are preparing to enter the roster adjustment period and at least three are probably looking very differently at their chances now then they were a week or so ago.

The Brewers, Diamondbacks, Mariners and Red Sox all began or ended a six-game winning streak within the past week. The Red Sox already had too much invested in this year's team not to continue to trudge ahead and hope to contend, but the other three will no longer be so quick to trade veterans or promote prospects.

The Brewers have won six in a row and 13 out of 16, jumping in the Power Rankings from No. 27 two weeks ago to No. 16 last week and now to No. 7. At the end of play on May 8, when they were 14-20, the debate of whether to hold onto free-agent-to-be Prince Fielder or trade him to maximize his return value was probably looming within the next month or so if not for the turnaround. After adding Zack Greinke and Shaun Marcum to the rotation this offseason, Milwaukee appeared to be poised to make a run but tripped coming out of the blocks.

Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks have won 10 of their last 12 to ascend nine spots to No. 13 in the Rankings, and the Mariners have won eight of 10 to escalate 13 spots to No. 15. Arizona is 2 1/2 games out of the NL West lead, and Seattle is just 1 1/2 games out of first in the AL West. Only the Indians in the AL Central have a divisional lead of at least 3 games, and exactly half of all baseball teams, 15 out of 30, are within four games of .500, meaning the pennant chases could be especially tight this year. For that reason, look for the D-backs and M's to linger a bit longer before making any major moves.

NOTE: All stats are updated through Wednesday, May 25.

MLB Power Rankings

Published May 26, 2011

JOE LEMIRE

Staff Writer, Sports Illustrated Staff writer Joe Lemire is in his seventh year at Sports Illustrated and his fourth season covering baseball full time. Lemire writes features and analysis for SI and SI.com and is responsible for the website's weekly MLB Power Rankings. He has profiled Pirates star Andrew McCutchen and Braves rookie sensation Evan Gattis for the magazine. Lemire's penchant for covering America's pastime is to be expected considering his inspirations, Tom Verducci and Peter Gammons, are among the most well-known writers in the sport. Before his current role, Lemire spent his first three years with SI oscillating between baseball, college basketball, high school football and sports business. This came on the heels of a summer internship with the magazine in 2004 and a tenure as a stringer with SI: On Campus. Born in Richmond, Va., and raised in Lowell, Mass., Lemire graduated from the University of Virginia in 2005 with a B.A. in government and a minor in economics. Before joining SI he covered high school and college sports for the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg, Va. He earned two Virginia Press Association awards for his work, one while a student writing at University of Virginia's Cavalier Daily and one at the Daily News-Record.