Monday, May 3rd -

The first month of the MLB regular season is in the books. The MVP’s of April were Robinson Cano (AL) and Albert Pujols (NL). My Cy Young awards would go to Francisco Liriano (AL) and Roy Halladay (NL). The surprise team of April was undoubtedly the San Diego Padres, who remain comfortably atop the NL West standings. Let’s check out the first power rankings for the month of May.

This Power Rankings takes into account season performance thus far, but also accounts for expected future performance and reasons for past performance (such as a major injury, etc). Therefore, current team records won’t always correspond with a team’s spot in the rankings. Like always, debate is encouraged. Here is the Week 5 MLB Power Rankings, with Last Week’s Rank in parentheses:

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1. (1) Tampa Bay Rays, 18-7 - The Rays stay at the top with the best record in baseball. Evan Longoria is playing at an MVP level, and Matt Garza is pitching at a Cy Young level. David Price looks like a star, and Wade Davis is another young starter pitching lights out. The upside of this team is endless. Ben Zobrist, who led the AL in OPS last season, is not backing up his performance from last year. He’s one of the few Rays off to a slow start.

2. (2) New York Yankees, 16-8 - Robinson Cano is in the top 3 in baseball in runs, hits, home runs, total bases, average, and OPS. Curtis Granderson is out for 4-6 weeks with a groin injury. Luckily, his replacement (Marcus Thames) is hitting .458 thus far. The dynamic of the team changes with Granderson out of the lineup, but New York should be fine. Phil Hughes continues to pitch very well.

3. (5) St. Louis Cardinals, 17-8 - The Cardinals’ starting pitchers have not allowed a home run in 18 straight starts. The offense has been inconsistent, but the rotation is giving St. Louis an edge in most games. Pujols continues to be a Triple Crown threat, and David Freese has a .944 OPS in 21 starts at third base.

4. (4) Minnesota Twins, 16-9 - They lost 2 of 3 from the Tigers for their first series loss of the season. But Minnesota continues to pace the AL Central, thanks to solid starting pitching led by Cy Young candidate Francisco Liriano. Joe Mauer’s left heel is bothersome and may sideline him for some games in May, but the most important thing is to keep him healthy for the stretch run.

5. (3) Philadelphia Phillies, 14-10 - While the Phillies’ lineup has been inconsistent, they displayed their potential dominance on Sunday night by knocking in 9 runs in one inning off of Johan Santana. Philadelphia is back in first place in the division. Roy Halladay is the runaway Cy Young favorite in the NL thus far.

6. (6) San Francisco Giants, 14-10 - The Giants lead baseball with a 2.66 ERA. The rotation is built for the long haul with 4 legitimate starters. The goal for this team is just to make the playoffs, and they know that they can make noise in the postseason with this rotation. They have to hope that the lineup continues to produce just enough runs to get them victories.

7. (10) Detroit Tigers, 16-10 - Justin Verlander is starting to get hot, which is great news. Rick Porcello, on the other hand, is not. Miguel Cabrera continues to be a top-5 run producer in the AL, and Austin Jackson now leads all of baseball in hits at the top of the lineup. The pieces are there for this team to compete for the playoffs.

8. (19) New York Mets, 14-11 - Tough way to end the week for the Mets, who looked poised to take a series from the Phillies before Johan Santana was lit up in an 11-5 loss. But the Mets are still the hottest team in the NL. Since Ike Davis was called up, the lineup has been way more consistent and threatening. Mike Pelfrey, however, might be in for a regression from his hot start. The rotation is the issue.

9. (13) San Diego Padres, 16-9 - San Diego continues to lead the NL West with solid starting pitching, and they’re on another 5-game winning streak. However, any regression in the starting rotation could be bad news, as the lineup has not done much. Chase Headley is the only starter batting over .300.

10. (8) Colorado Rockies, 12-13 - The NL West is very competitive, and Colorado is not making their mark on the division. But I still think they might be the favorites to win it, given their explosive lineup and emerging rotation. Ubaldo Jimenez is a top 3 pitcher in the NL thus far, and Jhoulys Chacin just pitched a gem in his first start of the season on Sunday.

11. (9) Los Angeles Angels, 12-14 - The Angels have looked very shaky at times this season, especially defensively. But after all the woes of the early season, they are still just 2 games below .500 and have a pretty polished rotation that they trust. If the hitting and defense pick up like they have in the past few years, the Angels will see more success.

12. (11) Florida Marlins, 13-12 - Jorge Cantu continues to be an RBI machine, and Hanley Ramirez has more home runs in two May games than he did in all of April. This rotation is very talented, and Chris Volstad is now emerging. The only question mark now is the bullpen, as Leo Nunez has looked shaky as the closer.

13. (17) Texas Rangers, 13-12 - Ian Kinsler is back and already looks good. The Rangers swept the Mariners in Seattle over the weekend, and they are on the rise. The closer role is still up in the air, as Neftali Feliz and Frank Francisco traded saves in the weekend series. The good news is that both guys are very solid relievers.

14. (12) Seattle Mariners, 11-14 - Tough series for the Mariners last weekend, who got three very solid pitching performances from their starters and still got swept by the Rangers. Doug Fister looks great (especially at home), and Cliff Lee pitched a gem in his first start back. The issues continue to be the same, as the lineup does not produce enough runs on a daily basis. Milton Bradley, Jose Lopez or someone else needs to get hot in the 4-hole of the lineup.

15. (7) Oakland Athletics, 13-13 - With the A’s at 15, that means all 4 AL West teams are in the 10-15 range. This division is wide open, and nobody knows the favorite. Oakland went 1-5 last week and look much worse as a .500 team now. The glass looks half empty this week, as opposed to the optimism of the first 4 weeks of the season. Ben Sheets has pitched poorly in his last 2 outings, and Brett Anderson is out for 4 weeks.

16. (16) Toronto Blue Jays, 13-13 - The Blue Jays continue to swing the bats well, led by resurgent Vernon Wells. They are a very good home team and seem very confident in Toronto. 24 HR at home leads the league. They need their starting pitchers to carry them on the road, something that has not happened thus far.

17. (25) Chicago Cubs, 13-13 - The Cubs lineup is way more productive when Alfonso Soriano is swinging the bat well. He hit 4 home runs last week and is regaining his groove a bit. Aramis Ramirez, however, is not hitting at all. The rotation has done a solid enough job to keep them competitive.

18. (21) Washington Nationals, 13-12 - The Nationals continue to play .500 ball while they wait for Stephen Strasburg’s call-up to the majors. I think he will be starting for the big club by the All-Star break. Ryan Zimmerman hit 2 home runs over the weekend and is starting to get hot. The lineup is a scrappy bunch but has not been scoring as many runs lately as they did in the first 3 weeks of the season.

19. (24) Cincinnati Reds, 12-13 - The Reds won 5 straight games last week and finally are putting it together. There is still no starting hitter batting over .300, but as a group they have the potential to be a scary bunch. Enough solid starting pitching is keeping them in ballgames, as Aroldis Chapman is waiting in Double-A for a June call-up.

20. (18) Arizona Diamondbacks, 11-14 - Kelly Johnson and Mark Reynolds are doing the heavy lifting for this lineup while they await for Justin Upton to snap out of his funk at the plate. The rotation has been disappointing, led by the consecutive awful outings by Edwin Jackson. He has given up 8 runs in 3 or less innings in two straight starts.

21. (14) Los Angeles Dodgers, 11-14 - The Dodgers have been an inconsistent bunch outside of their outfield. Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier continue to play tremendous baseball and are MVP candidates, but nobody else on the team is playing at an All-Star level. The rotation is not getting it done, and they need their young starters to start being more consistent. They’re in last place right now.

22. (20) Boston Red Sox, 11-14 - After being swept by the MLB-worst Orioles this weekend, the Sox are starting to get into panic mode. The Rays and Yankees are clearly better teams, and they’re fighting for 3rd place right now. Daisuke Matsuzaka got lit up in his first start in 2010.

23. (15) Atlanta Braves, 11-14 - The Braves are slumping pretty bad right now. Imagine what this lineup would look like without Jason Heyward in there every day. And while Tommy Hanson is pitching well and Tim Hudson has been just fine, the other 3 starters are not getting it done. Jair Jurrjens has the potential to be very good, but he’s battling a hamstring injury and will miss his next scheduled start

24. (22) Milwaukee Brewers, 10-15 - This team is basically the fighting Ryan Brauns, as no other regular is batting over .300. Braun is playing at an MVP level and will continue to do so all season. Prince Fielder is hitting .234 with 2 home runs and 25 strikeouts. Doug Davis and Jeff Suppan have been awful in the rotation, as has Trevor Hoffman in the bullpen. Yovani Gallardo is the only bright spot of the pitching staff right now. This team needs some other guys to pick it up.

25. (23) Chicago White Sox, 10-15 - Paul Konerko still has a commanding lead in Home Runs in all of baseball, with 12 so far. Andruw Jones has added another 8 himself. The rest of the lineup, though, has shown absolutely nothing. The lead-off spot has a total of 1 extra base hit in 108 at-bats. There are no words to describe how atrocious that is. John Danks is the only starter pitching well, but he is a top Cy Young candidate in the early going.

26. (27) Cleveland Indians, 10-14 - The Indians have a league-worst .692 team OPS, which is shockingly low. The rotation is being led by Mitch Talbot and Fausto Carmona, two guys that have the potential to get rocked on any given outing. Yet still, Cleveland is only 4 games below .500 and stays competitive at home.

27. (28) Kansas City Royals, 10-15 - It’s the same old story for the Royals. They have a good team batting average, but have no pop. And they have the AL’s most dominant starter (Zack Greinke), but they provide him with no run support. This team would be competitive if they had better starting pitching, but it gets really bad really fast after Greinke.

28. (26) Houston Astros, 8-16 - The ‘Stros got swept in back to series last week, going 0-6. Carlos Lee is having an awful season, which is bad news for the power-less Astros. The starting pitching has done a good enough job to keep them in games. Their top of the order guys (Bourn-Pence-Berkman-Lee) have the potential to be a run-producing bunch, but it needs to happen very soon.

29. (30) Baltimore Orioles, 7-18 - A sweep of the Red Sox was huge for this team to gain some momentum. Unfortunately, they’re heading to Yankee Stadium to face the Yanks in their next 3 games. Alfredo Simon has looked decent in the closer role, but who knows how many chances he’ll have on a week-to-week basis. The lineup needs to get healthy to become the explosive young bunch that many expected them to be.

30. (29) Pittsburgh Pirates, 10-15 - Pittsburgh has a better record than the O’s and ‘Stros, but they move into last place because their pitching is just that bad. They have the worst ERA in baseball by a full run and a half, and no starting pitcher has an ERA under 4.80. Evan Meek has been stellar in the bullpen and looks to be the closer of the future.

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BIGGEST RISERS -
New York Mets (Currently 8th, up 11 from last week)
Chicago Cubs (17th, up 8)
Cincinnati Reds (19th, up 5)

BIGGEST FALLERS -
Oakland Athletics (15th, down 8)
Atlanta Braves (23rd, down 8)
Los Angeles Dodgers (21st, down 7)

Disagree with any of these rankings? Drop a comment and let me know. Be on the lookout for a new update every Monday.