As the season nears its halfway mark, the standings \u2013 and the power rankings \u2013 look less and less surprising and more and more like we thought they\u2019d look before the season started. <\/p>\n
(Previous rankings in brackets)<\/strong><\/p>\n 1. (1) Philadelphia Phillies (45-28): <\/strong>Chase Utley\u2019s bat is warming up, the arms keep dominating, and the Phillie name is practically etched in stone atop the power rankings.<\/p>\n 2. (11) Boston Red Sox (43-28): <\/strong>The injury bug has bitten just when the BoSox were really catching fire. Even with Carl Crawford and Clay Buchholz sidelined, though, David Ortiz seems determined to carry the team on his back for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n 3. (3) New York Yankees (41-29): <\/strong>Carlos Zambrano wants to waive his no-trade clause. The Bronx seems like a perfect fit, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n 4. (2) Cleveland Indians (39-31): <\/strong>Just when we\u2019re ready to start their season eulogy, they win three straight and stake the American League Central lead again. The Tribe isn\u2019t finished surprising us just yet.<\/p>\n 5. (30) Minnesota Twins (31-39): <\/strong>Hey, we\u2019re talking relative strength here. The Twinkies have won seven straight and are 14-3 since the last instalment of the power rankings on June 1. The Marlins (1-18 since June 1) virtually flip places with them.<\/p>\n 6. (10) Tampa Bay Rays (39-33): <\/strong>Five complete games and two consecutive shutouts for James Shields. Has he been baseball\u2019s best pitcher this season?<\/p>\n 7. (4) Milwaukee Brewers (40-33): <\/strong>The hitting is constant but Milwaukee\u2019s success fluctuates along with its starting pitching. Shaun leaves a start after one inning, Yovani Gallardo gets shelled, and boom \u2013 the team slumps.<\/p>\n 8. (9) Detroit Tigers (39-33): <\/strong>Is Justin Verlander determined to flirt with a no-hitter every time he pitches now? Maybe he\u2019s taking out his anger over last year\u2019s Armando Galarraga incident.<\/p>\n 9. (5) St. Louis Cardinals (40-33): <\/strong>Their fingers are crossed hoping that Albert Pujols\u2019 wrist injury isn\u2019t serious.<\/p>\n 10. (13) Atlanta Braves (40-33): <\/strong>Who knew there would even be talk about Dan Uggla getting sent to the minors? Tommy Hanson\u2019s shoulder injury also comes at an inopportune time.<\/p>\n 11. (20) Cincinnati Reds (38-35): <\/strong>Their play has improved but they\u2019re also back in the National League Central race simply because the Brewers and Cards have slumped.<\/p>\n 12. (14) San Francisco Giants (39-33): <\/strong>They\u2019ve lost four straight but still lead the division. Is it just me or is the NL West looking weak these days?<\/p>\n 13. (6) Arizona Diamondbacks (39-34): <\/strong>J.J. Putz is starting to blow saves after two nearly perfect months and the D-Backs\u2019 little hot streak appears to have ended.<\/p>\n 14. (21) Oakland Athletics (33-40): <\/strong>They\u2019re last in the AL West, so why rank them ahead of every team in their division? Because the A\u2019s have won five straight.<\/p>\n 15. (8) Seattle Mariners (37-35): <\/strong>Kudos to Seattle for handing the keys to the young guys (Pineda, Smoak, Ackley) even when they\u2019re in the thick of the AL West race. [soliloquy id=”82219″]<\/p>\n 16. (12) Texas Rangers (38-35): <\/strong>You can see the gap left by Cliff Lee right now. Would they not be three to five games better with him in the lineup? The Rangers are another candidate for Zambrano.<\/p>\n 17. (19) Chicago White Sox (35-38): <\/strong>With the Indians coming back in the pack, there\u2019s still time for Adam Dunn to make his mark and help the White Sox get back in the AL Central hunt.<\/p>\n 18. (15) Toronto Blue Jays (36-36): <\/strong>Jose Bautista\u2019s play has tailed off but the Jays have stayed the same thanks to Adam Lind\u2019s sizzling June (15 GP, .377, 8 HR, 17 RBI).<\/p>\n 19. (27) Washington Nationals (35-37): <\/strong>Very quietly 8-2 over their last 10 games. Too bad they share a division with Atlanta and Philadelphia.<\/p>\n 20. (26) New York Mets (35-37): <\/strong>Dillon Gee\u2019s 7-0 start is a bright spot in what will otherwise be a forgettable 2011 campaign for the Mets.<\/p>\n 21. (16) Los Angeles Angels (35-38)<\/strong> We’re nearly halfway thru the 2011 MLB gambling season. It\u2019s time to NOW bring your best\u00a0baseball betting<\/a> hat to the table for gambling on baseball. Cappers Picks all season long provides\u00a0MLB baseball gambling<\/a> predictions, so check back often.<\/p>\n Shea Matthews’s weighs in with another edition the the 2011 MLB power rankings. The Phillies are in top spot this week for the first time in a long time…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":195,"featured_media":24462,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[670],"tags":[48291,108,12218,66497,683,3775,1015],"class_list":["post-39479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb-baseball","tag-2011-mlb-baseball-power-rankings","tag-baseball-handicapping","tag-baseball-power-rankings","tag-mlb","tag-mlb-handicapping","tag-mlb-odds","tag-power-ratings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/195"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39479"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39913,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39479\/revisions\/39913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24462"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n22. (23) Colorado Rockies (35-36)<\/strong>
\n23. (28) Kansas City Royals (31-41)<\/strong>
\n24. (22) Pittsburgh Pirates (35-36)<\/strong>
\n25. (17) Los Angeles Dodgers (32-41)<\/strong>
\n26. (29) Baltimore Orioles (32-37)<\/strong>
\n27. (18) San Diego Padres (30-43)<\/strong>
\n28. (25) Chicago Cubs (29-42)<\/strong>
\n29. (24) Houston Astros (27-46)<\/strong>
\n30. (7) Florida Marlins (32-40) <\/strong><\/p>\nCLICK HERE TO GRAB OUR BEST Picks Packages for 2011 MLB Betting! \u2014\u2013><\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"