Beyond Golf — 05 August 2012 by Jim Street
GW’s MLB Power Ratings (Week 17)

GW MLB West Power Ratings (Week 17):

1. Rangers (1): The top team in the AL the past two seasons appears to be a little bored right now, but that is bound to change when the equally-talented Angels finally get their collective acts together.

2. Giants (3): Buster Posey has turned the post-All-Star Game period into a personal bid to capture the NL’s Most Valuable Player award. He is a hitting machine.

3. Athletics (4): Raise your hand if you thought the A’s would be nine games over .500 on August 5 and in second place. No hands up?

4. Angels (2): All of us are waiting for a torrid streak from a team that has just about everything it needs to reel off 10 or more consecutive wins.

5. Dodgers (5): Something every NL West contender wants to hear: The Rockies are coming to town!

6. Diamondbacks (6): Best news of the season so far for Snakes fans: The non-waiver trading deadline has passed and Justin Upton is still on the team.

7. Mariners (8): Just a coincidence that the Mariners got hot at the same time that Ichiro got traded? I think not.  What a concept that a “team” has no “I” or “i” in it.

8. Padres (7): Not sure what question the organization had in mind when they signed right-hander Kip Wells, but he certainly wasn’t the answer.

9. Rockies (9): Times are tough indeed when you must reach down to the Double-A level to fill spots on a beleaguered pitching staff. Welcome to the world of the Rockies.

(Last Week’s rating in parenthesis)

Related Articles

Share

About Author

avatar
Jim Street

Jim’s 40-year sportswriting career started with the San Jose Mercury-News in 1970 and ended on a full-time basis on October 31, 2010 following a 10-year stint with MLB.com. He grew up in Dorris, Calif., several long drives from the nearest golf course. His first tee shot was a week before being inducted into the Army in 1968. Upon his return from Vietnam, where he was a war correspondent for the 9th Infantry Division, Jim took up golf semi-seriously while working for the Mercury-News and covered numerous tournaments, including the U.S. Open in 1982, when Tom Watson made the shot of his life on the 17th hole at Pebble Beach. Jim also covered several Bing Crosby Pro-Am tournaments, the women’s U.S. Open, and other golfing events in the San Francisco area. He has a 17-handicap, made his first and only hole-in-one on March 12, 2018 at Sand Point Country Club in Seattle and witnessed the first round Ken Griffey Jr. ever played – at Arizona State during Spring Training in 1990. Pebble Beach Golf Links, the Kapalua Plantation Course, Pinehurst No. 2, Spyglass Hill, Winged Foot, Torrey Pines, Medinah, Chambers Bay, North Berwick, Gleneagles and Castle Stuart in Scotland, and numerous gems in Hawaii are among the courses he has had the pleasure of playing. Hitting the ball down the middle of the fairway is not a strong part of Jim’s game, but he is known (in his own mind) as the best putter not on tour. Most of Jim’s writing career was spent covering Major League Baseball, a tenure that started with the Oakland Athletics, who won 101 games in 1971, and ended with the Seattle Mariners, who lost 101 games in 2010. Symmetry is a wonderful thing. He currently lives in Seattle and has an 8-year-old grandson, Andrew, who is the club's current junior champion at his home course (Oakmont CC) in Glendale, Calif.

(0) Readers Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.