GW’s MLB Power Ratings (Week 25)

Beyond Golf — 30 September 2012 by Jim Street

GW’s MLB West Power Ratings (Week 25)

(Final ratings of the 2012 season)

1. Giants (1): GW salutes the NL West champs for deciding that their playoff run will not include banished outfielder Melky Cabrera, MLB’s latest poster child for C-H-E-A-T-E-R!!

2. Rangers (2): The road to the World Series looks more daunting in 2012 than either of the past two seasons, especially with the beasts of the AL East Yankees and Orioles lurking.

3. Athletics (3): If there was an award for the “surprise team in MLB”, the Bob Melvin-led A’s would be right up there with the Orioles. Job well done. Too bad home attendance was so abysmal.

4. Angels (4): I don’t have a vote for awards, but if I did, my choice would be Mike Trout for AL MVP and Jered Weaver for the Cy Young Award. Call it: “West Coast bias.”

5. Dodgers (5): That old “Wait ‘til next year” slogan used often in Brooklyn decades ago has become a popular sentence in the City of Angels as well. GW’s gut feeling though is 2013 will be the Dodgers’ year.

6. Diamondbacks (6): The defending NL West champs gave the playoffs a good run at the end, lasting until the final week of the regular season before mathematical elimination. Question now is: Who will Justin Upton be traded to?

7. Padres (8): When you get a chance, check out the stats closer Huston Street compiled this season. Imagine how good a year it could have been if he had he been close to 100 percent healthy.

8. Mariners (7): A winless September (going into Monday night’s start) undoubtedly cost King Felix his second career Cy Young Award, meaning his season highlight was the perfect game that he pitched in August.

9. Rockies (9): Thursday morning can’t come soon enough for the Rox, who have had a lock on last place in the NL West for most of this forgettable campaign. But there is some good news – Todd Helton will return in ’13 for a season-long curtain call.
(Last Week’s rating in parenthesis)

About Author

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.