LATEST MLB Power rankings: Dodgers Back on TOP | CBS Sports

Stop me if you've heard this before, there's a new number one in Matt Schneider's power rankings. It's been tough. It's been tough. It's been a season. Dodgers are back in the top spot little over a month left in the Major League Baseball season. The NL West and A.L. central continue to flood the top ten this week. Rockies, Marlins and White Sox have remained locked deep in Matt's basement. Hey there folks, I'm Tommy Tran. Let's bring in our power rankings guru Matt Schneider and our MLB insider, Jim Bowden. With any agreements, disagreements, and of course, team news. And maybe Jim will have something on Shohei Ohtani because the Dodgers claimed the top spot. Ohtani with that forearm injury, perhaps a sigh of relief. Matt, take me through the thought process of putting think Blue at number one. Yeah they're hitting their stride right now. The Dodgers they've won six of seven. They're 15 and seven in August are 22 and 12 since the all star break. Getting healthier in the lineup has been a big part of that. Mookie Betts is back now. He's been good not great since the return, but that shows that there's room for improvement. Ohtani actually went through a little bit of a slump, but now he's back on track, hitting 333 in his last five games. Freddie Freeman has been struggling about the past month. They just got Max Muncy back. Tommy Edman came back from injury after they traded for him. They still have a little bit of a patchwork rotation, but they're getting the job done and you have to give a lot of credit to someone like Gavin Stone, who's been kind of the stalwart of their rotation this season. Go to the back end of the bullpen. Things have really settled down and solidified with Michael Kopech, who has been amazing since the trade deadline. This was close for me. I think the Yankees are really close and obviously the Phillies are in the conversation, but I thought the way the Dodgers are playing right now, they have the look of the best team in baseball and their talent is really starting to take over because they do have a ton of upside with that top level talent. As you mentioned, Tommy, Shohei Ohtani joined the 40 homer, 40 stolen base club over the weekend. An amazing accomplishment for him. And now he's got a chance to be the first player in the history of the sport to hit 47 homers and steal 47 bases. Who knows, maybe even be the only human being to do the 50 over 50 club. But the scare that you're talking about happened on Sunday night when he was hit by a pitch up near the wrist. Everyone kind of held their breath. Everybody felt like this could be serious, he was in a lot of pain. I talked to Brandon Gomez afterwards, the GM of the Dodgers. He assured me the X-rays were negative and he is going to be absolutely fine. So there was a scare. That's all it was. Now in terms of the Dodgers being number one on Matt's power rankings, I can't put them there yet. Now, I agree with everything he said about the lineup and how well they've been playing, but for me to put them number one in the power rankings, you've got to tell me their two best starting pitchers are healthy now. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who is supposed to be their best starter, is expected to go on a rehab assignment on Wednesday. Brandon Gomez telling me they're expecting him to go two innings. They say he's pitching extremely well. If he can get back in the rotation, pitching as a custom level, that will be a difference maker. However, they also had some bad news on their other ace, Tyler Glasnow, who has had a setback. He is going to be out at least two more weeks because of a setback he had last week. So if and when Yamamoto and Glasnow can be healthy and pitch up to standards, then I will agree with Matt. They are the best team in baseball. Until then, I'll go with the Phillies and Yankees over the Dodgers. Okay, a little bit of disagreement there. I told you guys, of course, that this was NL West heavy in terms of the top ten Padres coming in at number eight. Jim, I'm going to go to you though, because in mid-July was an afterthought that Paul Skenes would be the runaway favorite for rookie of the year in the NL. And all of a sudden, Jackson Merrill not only has entered the conversation, depending on what day you look, he is the betting favorite. How did this all happen? What stands out to you about Merrill's play? Well, let me start with this, Tommy. The writers need to change the rules, because we need to have a rookie pitcher of the year and a rookie position player of the year in each league, just like we do with the MVP and the Cy Young Award for veteran players. It's an absolute joke that we don't have the two awards for both leagues that needs to change now. After that, right now, if they voted, Paul Skenes would win rookie of the year. I know Vegas says no, but that's the case. He's got a 4.4 War. He's got eight wins. He's got A21 ERA. He's got 130 punchouts and 104 innings. And the fact is, if they voted today, he's going to get it. He started the all star game for the National League. But and I say a big but the Pirates are expected at some point to shut him down once they're eliminated. Or maybe even before that if that happens. To your point, Jackson Merrill has a direct pathway to win this award. He's hitting 288, he's got 19 homers. He's got 13 steals, he's got a War of 3.4 and an Ops+ of 125. But I want to mention a third name because I don't want anyone to ignore Jackson Chourio of the Milwaukee Brewers, who is absolutely in this race. He's got a war right now of 3.1, but he got off to a really slow start. He did not hit in April and May, and since then he's hitting 314 from June 1st on. And oh by the way in the second half of the season he's batting 336. And he already has 15 homers and 18 steals. And he is absolutely in this race. So it's going to come right down to the wire. But as of today it's Skenes one, Merrill two. And Chourio three. All right. You want to sprinkle a little cheerio 55 the one to win the award. So it will be interesting to see how that plays out. Matt. If we get to the Arizona six game win streak, reigning NL pennant holders currently holding that top wild card spot, they look really, really good right now. And they're doing it when they're not even close to being full strength. Gabriel Gabriel Moreno is on the injured list. Christian Walker has been for a little bit Ketel Marte just joined them on the injured list and he's an MVP candidate this year. So look they've gotten Josh Bell. They got him at the trade deadline. He's been very good since Eugenio Suarez. Got a little bit of his power stroke back. The main thing offensively is Corbin Carroll who looked like he was having a lost season. But in the past month he's hitting 271 with a 357 on base and 625 slugging. He's looking like the Corbin Carroll of last year and that's what they needed, especially when Marte went down. They needed Carroll to step up and he has done so. Also we know about all the starting pitchers coming off the injured list Eduardo Rodriguez, Merrill Kelly. I don't know what's going on with Jordan Montgomery. Now. He's in the bullpen and he's blaming Scott Boris. But Justin Martinez has really helped this bullpen rounding into form here, stepping into that closer role. The Diamondbacks are 26 and eight since the all star break. That's the best record in baseball since then. But you could go back even further. Since June 28th, they're 36 and 13 and that is the best record in baseball by a little bit. Christian Walker and Ketel Marte are going to be back probably within the next couple of weeks. The Diamondbacks are looking very, very strong as we head toward October. Matt, I'm going to go right back to you and go back to near the top of the power rankings with the New York Yankees. How are you envisioning the Bronx Bombers this week? Well, I'm envisioning envisioning a lot of coverage of Aaron Judge because 51 home runs on August 25th. That's amazing. We know that the only players that have gone over 60 multiple times are Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, and we don't need to get into why there's a little asterisk next to that. There's nothing like that. On Judge. Plus, let's look at his RBI 122 right now. So he's on pace for 150. We haven't seen anybody get to 150 RBIs since A-Rod in 2007. If he gets a little hot. We haven't seen anybody get to 160 since Sammy Sosa in 2001. So it's not just the home runs on judge. And obviously Juan Soto has been amazing. You've got the crowd chanting Re-sign Soto. We're talking about that after the game. Yankees won two out of three over the Guardians. They probably should have swept that series. They only got two out of three against the Rockies. I say only because the Rockies are abysmal on the road. Would have liked to see the Yankees sweep that I probably would have left them number one if that was the case. But they're right there. They're right there. I could have easily gone with the Yankees number one, and they have a workable next two weeks on the schedule. If you look at it, they're at nationals versus the Cardinals at Rangers, at Cubs. It's nothing like a bunch of Rockies and A's or anything like that. But those are all very workable series for the Yankees. They are a little inconsistent, but look much better than the Orioles right now. So I really like the Yankees to win the Al East. And Jim, if we get to the Red Sox nine game back in the division four and a half game back in the wild card, you and I were talking about how Alex Cora admitted to scoreboard watching. You kind of have to when you're a team in a position that the Red Sox are in, what continues to be some of the deficiencies that you're seeing on the diamond? Well, it's basically the pitching staff right now. Tommy especially the starting rotation last six starts. Carter Crawford's ERA is 7.67. Tanner Houck is 5.05. And over his last four starts, Nick Pivetta has put up a 5.48. That's not going to get it done. Oh, by the way, over the last month their bullpen has nine blown saves. That's been the problem. But the Red Sox are only four and a half games out in the wild card. And look at the Kansas City Royals schedule right now. Next ten games seven against Cleveland, three against Houston. Minnesota's about to start a series against Atlanta, while Boston has Toronto at home. It's very reasonable to think that the four and a half games can be cut to one and a half or two, and a half by the end of this week because of the schedule. Red Sox just have to pitch better. Tommy, our thanks to Jim Bowden and Matt Snyder as you take the rest of Matt Snyder's tier rankings here from 11 to 20, you can check out the entire list on CBS sports.com. Finishing up with some notable games tonight, Blanco and Wheeler as the Astros are in Philly to take on the Phillies. A couple of 12 game winners. Also onhe bump. Jose Berrios