The gap has become decidedly much closer, especially after news that shortstop Jimmy Rollins is out, but the Philadelphia Phillies remain the top team in the TSN.ca MLB Power Rankings for the fourth consecutive week.
While the Phillies' offence has been maligned, at times, they are getting a nice contribution from OF John Mayberry Jr., who leads the club with a 1.164 OPS in August.
The see-saw battle between the Yankees and Red Sox took a turn for the New Yorkers this week, largely on the fates at the hot corner, as the Yankees' Alex Rodriguez returned to the lineup for the first time since July 7, while forever-dinged Red Sox third baseman Kevin Youkilis had to be put on the disabled list with a bad back. As a result, the Yankees have climbed to second spot, while the Red Sox sit third.
Getting righthander Jair Jurrjens back from the DL helped lift the Atlanta Braves up to sixth spot, from ninth the week before.
Still just a game-and-a-half behind the Arizona Diamondbacks in the National League West, despite losing 16 of their last 23 games, the San Francisco Giants have run into more injury troubles, losing rightfielder Carlos Beltran and closer Brian Wilson to the DL. The slide drops the Giants from fifth to eighth spot in this week's rankings.
The free-falling Pirates also dropped from 21st to 28th this week, as their struggling rotation also lost lefty Paul Maholm to the DL.
Toronto sits 12th in the rankings, up one from the week before; not bad for a team that is ranked fourth-best in its division.
Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook.
