This week I kept the San Diego Padres at ninth in my rankings.  The aggregate rankings at Yardbarker have the Padres at sixth, down from fifth last week.  Not too bad for a team ranked number 30 in the Yardbarker standings at the start of the season.

Here is how I had the NL West ranked (Yardbarker ranks in parentheses)…

8. Colorado Rockies (16): Scored 8 runs against Greinke in 3.1 innings.

9. San Diego Padres (6): The joy of interleague play: the Padres-Mariners ‘rivalry

10. Los Angeles Dodgers (9): Despite some terrible starting pitching, the Dodgers are only one game out of first.

14. San Francisco Giants (14): Does any team have better starting pitching? … hitting and relievers - not so much

25. Arizona Diamondbacks (22): Dan Haren (4.79 ERA) has given up a lot of homeruns. Otherwise, he has been the same pitcher he has always been.

Sorry, no time for additional comments this week.

This week I ranked the San Diego Padres ninth, down from eighth last week.  As Myron outlined a few days ago, there is real reason to be concerned about the team’s offense.  Nonetheless, the Padres continued their climb up the Yardbarker rankings, and are currently fifth–second amongst National League teams.

Here were my notes and rankings for each of the N.L. West teams (Yardbarker rank in parentheses)…

7. Colorado Rockies (15): The Rockies now have a winning record. Ubaldo Jimenez continues to dominate.

9. San Diego Padres (5): The Padres are having some serious issues scoring runs. The bats will need to come alive for this team to continue winning games.

11. San Francisco Giants (7): The Giants are 0-6 against San Diego; 21-9 against everybody else.

12. Los Angeles Dodgers (16): After sweeping the first place Padres, the Dodgers are only two games out of first place.

24. Arizona Diamondbacks (27): The Diamondbacks have established themselves as consistently mediocre.

Basically, I like the Dodgers and Rockies more than others seem to like them.  And that has been the case all season.

Other notes…

• The Toronto Blue Jays have won a lot of games in a very tough division.
• The Houston Astros once again emerged from my cellar, and swapped spots with the Pittsburgh Pirates.  The Astros are still terrible, but a sweep of the St. Louis Cardinals was impressive.
• The Chicago White Sox, who started the season ranked twelfth in my rankings, are now at 22. Huge disappointment.
• Yardbarker now has the Washington Nationals at 13.  I have them at 25.  I am right.  The other voters are wrong.
• Cincinnati is, at best, a 0.500 team, as indicated by their +3 run differential.  I have them at 18, compared to eleventh in the Yardbarker rankings.

I had the San Diego Padres ranked eighth again this week.  I think that is as high as I am willing to go with this team.  Its not that the team is bad–it isn’t–its just that it does not have the same amount of talent that a number of other teams do.

Here’s how I had the N.L. West ranked this week, along with my comments (Yardbarker rank in parentheses)…

7. Colorado Rockies (14): Perhaps the Rockies won’t miss Jorge De La Rosa so much after all. His replacement, Jhoulys Chacin, has now thrown 15 innings of shutout ball.

8. San Diego Padres (7): Tim Stauffer has only allowed one run in 23 innings. He’s the team’s 7th starter.

9. San Francisco Giants (6): Mark DeRosa (0.279 OBP, 0.258 SLG) is having a nightmare of a season.

16. Los Angeles Dodgers (19): The concept of having a knuckle-baller in the rotation is neat, but Charlie Haeger (20 BB in 23 IP) needs to go.

22. Arizona Diamondbacks (23): Ian Kennedy is having a lot more success in the NL West than he did in the AL East.

Other notes…

• I like the Rockies a lot more than the other voters.  I truly believe they are the most talented and well balanced team in the division.
• The Atlanta Braves are too talented to continue losing games at this rate.  I had them ranked 15th this week, but 5th in my pre-season ranking.  Eventually they will string together some wins.
• In week 3, I had the Seattle Mariners ranked 10th.  This week, I have them at 25.  That team is an absolute wreck right now.
• I am still not buying into the Washington Nationals.  Their pitching is terrible, and outside of Ryan Zimmerman, their position players are pretty junky as well.  Despite a winning record, I have the Nationals ranked 27th, well below the Yardbarker rank of 16.
• One team that has not moved much in my rankings has been the Diamondbacks, a team that is certainly below average, but not laughably terrible.  Over the course of the rankings I have had them: 19, 19, 22, 21, 22, 22.
• But the Diamondback’s consistency in my rankings cannot even compare to that of the New York Yankees.  I have ranked the Yankees first every week, and am likely to continue ranking them first for the foreseeable future.

This week I had the San Diego Padres ranked eighth.  Exactly where the team ranked in the overall Yardbarker rankings.  However, as I mentioned yesterday on Twitter, “I’m a bit uncomfortable ranking [the Padres] that high.”  Its not that I don’t think the Padres are a decent team, its just that I feel the American League is so much better than the National League that some of the A.L. teams with lower winning percentages could be amongst the better teams in the N.L.

Here’s how I ranked the NL West, with the Yardbarker rank in parentheses.

7. Colorado Rockies (13): Losing Jorge De La Rosa for an extended period of time will hurt the Rockies more than many people realize.

8. San Diego Padres (8): This Padres team just keeps winning.

9. San Francisco Giants (6): Barry Zito is nowhere near as good as his 1.53 ERA suggests, but he is pitching well, and is a nice early-season story.

15. Los Angeles Dodgers (20): The Dodger’s starting rotation is way too thin for this team to seriously compete.

22. Arizona Diamondbacks (23): Not a single pitcher (starter or reliever) has an ERA under 4.

Other Notes:

• I know the Rays are playing great ball, but I still have the Yankees ranked first.  New York is playing great as well.
• Yardbarker has the A’s ranked 10th, I have them at 19.  I’m not sure what the other voters see in this 13-14 team.
• The 7-19 Orioles are a much better team than the Pirates and Astros, both of whom play in a much easier division than Baltimore.  Ranking the Orioles 30th last week was silly, and an overreaction to their terrible record.  Doing so again this week after they swept the Red Sox reeks of laziness by the voters.
• The Nationals are ranked 19th in the Yardbarker list.  I have Washington at 27.  Their pitching is not good enough to be in the top 20.
• The Pirates with a -89 run differential are really, really bad.

In recent weeks, I have published a number of articles that have cautioned against overly raising expectations for this Padres team.  Although I have consistently stated that the San Diego Padres are probably around a 0.500 team (which is nothing to be ashamed of), such talk has elicited murmurs that I might not even be a Padres fan!

In this week’s Yardbarker Power Rankings, I did my best to put aside all questions about my Padres fanhood. Despite my belief that the Padres are a 0.500ish team going forward, I ranked the Padres 12th!

Okay, I guess 12th isn’t that high.   The Padres’ overall rank in the standings was tenth–suggesting that I, a Padres fan, am a tad more pessimistic about the team than the average voter.  There are thirty major league teams, so a team with 0.500 talent should probably be placed somewhere between ten and twenty, but hey, twelfth is a start, and a serious jump from the 21 spot that I had the team in last week.

Here was how I ranked the NL West (Yardbarker rank in parentheses):

7. Colorado Rockies (8): Miguel Olivo would be pretty darn good if he ever learned to take a walk.

8. Los Angeles Dodgers (15): Billingsley has a 5.40 ERA, but a 3.79 FIP that is consistent with his career numbers. He will be fine.

12. San Diego Padres (10): The Padres have one of the best records in the National League, but this is a 0.500 team at best.

13. San Francisco Giants (7): Jonathan Sanchez and Sergio Romo combined to hold San Diego to one hit–a single–on April 20. But it wasn’t good enough for the win, as the Padres became only the 15th team since 1920 to win a game with a mere single.

21. Arizona Diamondbacks (22): Thanks to a ridiculously unsustainable HR/FB rate (37%), Kelly Johnson has 7 home runs. Johnson is a solid enough hitter, but his fantasy owners should enjoy this while it lasts.

Other Thoughts…

• The Red Sox still rank 14th?  Um, yeah….
• The NL West has four teams in both the Yardbarker top 15, as well as my personal top 15.  Its something that doesn’t sound right, but is not completely ridiculous.  The NL West has a lot of average to slightly above average teams, and those teams get to play each other a lot.  The NL West is deep, it just doesn’t have a great team.
• The Orioles, at 3-16, are the last ranked team in the Yardbarker rankings.  I cannot blame the other voters for ranking the Orioles last because their record is that bad.  But Baltimore is not really the worst team in the league.  They have played a brutal schedule.
• The Rays are first, and the Yankees second in the Yardbarker rankings.  I have those two teams flipped. The difference is not significant, but it does highlight my belief that we should weight our pre-season predictions heavier than actual on-field performance at this point in the season.  I felt the Yankees were the best team prior to the season, and with only one more loss than the Rays so far, I see no reason to change my mind.

The week 2 power rankings are up at Yardbarker.  This was how I rated the NL West teams (Yardbarker rank in parentheses), along with my comments:

7. Colorado Rockies (9)-Jimenez’s no-hitter should help him get the recognition he deserves. He is a fantastic young pitcher.

9. Los Angeles Dodgers (14)-Aside from Kuroda, the starting pitching has struggled mightily. Billingsley and Kershaw are too talented for those struggles to continue much longer.

10. San Francisco Giants (6)-The pitching has been phenomenal, but the Giants are amongst the league leaders in runs scored as well.

21. San Diego Padres (24)-Chase Headley is showing why he was once the Padres’ top prospect. Kevin Correia is doing a good job proving his solid 2009 was no fluke.

22. Arizona Diamondbacks (16)-After a number of disappointing seasons, Chris Young is off to a solid start.

Here are some additional notes on the rankings:

• I may have overcompensated for the Giants hot start.  I think I will have them ranked lower than 10 next week.  That their average rank was 6 is still shocking to me.
• The Boston Red Sox fell to 13 in the Yardbarker rankings.  I had the Red Sox rated fourth this week.  As Joe Sheehan mentioned on Twitter: “1) A 4-9 stretch isn’t unusual for even a good team. 2) The Red Sox have played an above-average schedule to start the season.”  To the voters who ranked the Red Sox so low, I ask them whether they truly believe teams like the Giants, A’s, Marlins, Tigers, and Blue Jays are likely to defeat the Red Sox in a 7 game series if it started today.
• The New York Mets are not the third worst team in the majors.  I had them ranked 17th, and feel anything between 15 and 20 is fair.
• The Pittsburgh Pirates are not the 15th best team in the majors.  Their negative 22 run differential (yes, I realize its early to be talking about run differential) is more telling than their 7-5 record.