Updated: May 13, 2013, 11:28 AM ET

Cardinals fly into the top spot

Week:

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After being among the top five teams in each of the past two weeks, the St. Louis Cardinals take over the top spot for Week 7.

The Texas Rangers hold firm to the No. 2 position for the second straight week, while the San Francisco Giants move up two spots to No. 3. The Baltimore Orioles rise four spots to take over the No. 4 position, and the Boston Red Sox drop four spots to land at No. 5 to round out the top five.

This week's voters were Jim Bowden of ESPN Insider, Tim Kurkjian of ESPN The Magazine, David Schoenfield of the SweetSpot Blog Network/ESPN.com and Jayson Stark of ESPN.com. Most of the team comments come courtesy of the fan bloggers on the SweetSpot Blog Network. Meanwhile, which teams should be among baseball's top five? Go ahead and rank the teams yourself.

Tell us what you think about the Power Rankings. Use the hashtag #ESPNMLBPOWER.

2013 Power Rankings: May 13
RANKTEAM / RECORD TRENDINGCOMMENTS
1
2
Last Week: 3		Matt Adams returned from the disabled list, Shelby Miller pitched one of the best games in team history and the pitching staff continues to be tops in the National League with a 3.11 FIP and a 3.39 xFIP. -- Matt Philip, Fungoes
2
Rangers
24-13
--

Last Week: 2		The Rangers continue to beat up on their AL West "rivals" as they're now 14-5 against the Astros, Angels and Mariners. And their first series of the year against a slumping and beat-up A's team starts on Monday. -- David Schoenfield, SweetSpot
3
Giants
23-15
2
Last Week: 5		After struggling out of the gate, Marco Scutaro's recent hot streak -- .479/.519/.729 over the past two weeks -- places him as the third best NL second baseman by FanGraph's WAR (1.2). -- Chris Quick, Bay City Ball
4
Orioles
23-15
4
Last Week: 8		Orioles pitchers keep dropping like flies, but the offense led by Chris Davis, Adam Jones and Manny Machado has helped to put them alone in second place in the AL East behind the Yankees. -- Jon Shepherd, Camden Depot
5
Red Sox
22-16
4
Last Week: 1		After steamrolling through the month of April, the Red Sox have cooled off considerably, having lost eight of their past 10 games. Central to their struggles has been their offense, which has struggled to hit with runners in scoring position. -- Hunter Golden, Fire Brand of the AL
6
Tigers
20-15
2
Last Week: 4		While no one should be focusing on their (lack of) defensive prowess, the Tigers' middle infield of Jhonny Peralta and Omar Infante has certainly produced at the plate, which is really what they are being paid to do. Both have hit over .300 and both have an OPS over .800 at this point. -- Joshua Worn, Walkoff Woodward
7
Yankees
23-13
--

Last Week: 7		Mariano Rivera is now 15-for-15 in save opportunities, putting him on pace for 68 saves. Now THAT would be the way to go out. -- David Schoenfield, SweetSpot
8
Braves
21-16
2
Last Week: 6		B.J. Upton continues to struggle, as he's batting .153 with a .248 on-base percentage in 124 at-bats. -- ESPN.com
9
6
Last Week: 15		Left-hander Patrick Corbin continues to impress. He's allowed two or fewer runs in each of his seven starts and has given up only two home runs in 46 1/3 innings pitched. -- ESPN.com
10
Reds
22-16
2
Last Week: 12		Want to know how good Reds pitching has been? Mike Leake, with a 4.32 ERA, has been roughly league average this season. He has been Cincinnati's sixth best starter. -- Jason Linden, Redleg Nation
11
2
Last Week: 13		Stephen Strasburg's problems distract from the real reason the Nats haven't turned the corner: Their offense has scored two or fewer runs 18 times in 37 games. -- Harper Gordek, Nationals Baseball
12
Indians
20-15
4
Last Week: 16		The Indians swept a four-game series against the A's and won two of three games against AL Central rival Detroit. The Indians are now tied for first place with the Tigers in the AL Central. -- Susan Petrone, It's Pronounced "Lajaway"
13
Royals
18-16
4
Last Week: 9		The Royals were swept at home by the Yankees over the weekend, ending a bad 1-6 week. Three one-run losses and two two-run losses will make for a long flight to Anaheim to start a 10-game road trip (Angels, A's and Astros). Mike Moustakas hit his first three homers of the year during the week. -- Diane Firstman, Value Over Replacement Grit
14
Pirates
21-16
--

Last Week: 14		The Pirates won four of six during the week. Took three of four against the Mets to push their road record to 11-9. They haven't won more than 37 road games in a year since 1996. Soft home schedule (10 games versus the Brewers, Cubs and Astros) coming up. -- Diane Firstman, Value Over Replacement Grit
15
4
Last Week: 11		Oakland has lost eight of its past 11, and it's not clear that getting Chris Young back by the middle of this week will help that much. After a disappointing 2012, Young was off to a .172/.277/.391 start in 101 plate appearances before suffering a quad injury. -- Jason Wojciechowski, Beaneball
16
Rockies
20-17
6
Last Week: 10		The Rockies are 3-6 in their past nine games, the low point coming against the Cardinals when they went 50 straight plate appearances without a hit spanning two games. The new-season shininess appears to be wearing off. -- Travis Lay, Blake Street Bulletin
17
Rays
19-18
--

Last Week: 17		After a horrific start to the week, the Rays are riding a five-game win streak as the Red Sox come to town. Evan Longoria (.333/.403/.610) and James Loney (.376/.429/.560) are leading the way while the bullpen closed the week with 13 2/3 scoreless innings. -- Tommy Rancel, The Process Report
18
Twins
17-17
5
Last Week: 23		Vance Worley has given up a whopping 66 hits in 39 innings pitched and has a 7.15 ERA (eight starts). -- ESPN.com
19
2
Last Week: 21		Justin Smoak is showing signs of ... well, something, although it's hard to figure out what. He's tied for 10th in the majors with 21 walks and has a respectable .357 OBP, but is still sitting on one home run with six RBIs. Hey, the Mariners' lineup on Sunday had five guys with a .350-plus OBP. When was the last time that was the case for Seattle? -- David Schoenfield, SweetSpot
20
--

Last Week: 20		The Phillies tout the NL's third lowest team OBP and fourth highest staff ERA, but have somehow managed to hover around .500 thus far. Strong foes await (Indians, Reds, Red Sox and Nationals) and things will have to improve if they hope to finish May above the NL East's troposphere. They'll utilize off days to deploy a four-man rotation until May 21. -- Eric Longenhagen, Crashburn Alley
21
Padres
16-21
5
Last Week: 26		Things were looking up after they swept the Marlins, but then they began a tough upcoming slate of games by getting swept in Tampa Bay, including a tough walk-off loss on Saturday when Huston Street served up the game-losing two-run homer to Evan Longoria. That's five home runs already allowed by Street in just 14 2/3 innings. -- David Schoenfield, SweetSpot
22
Brewers
15-20
4
Last Week: 18		It's been a rough couple of weeks for the Brewers, as they've dropped nine of their past 10 games. The biggest issue appears to be the starting rotation, which ranks dead last in the National League with a combined 5.25 ERA. -- J.P. Breen, Disciples of Uecker
23
Angels
14-23
1
Last Week: 24		Despite playing all six of their games last week against sub-.500 teams, the Halos went just 3-3, pushing their overall record to a dismal 14-23. Among the few bright spots from the week were Mike Trout's return to greatness (.333/.407/.542) and the starting rotation stringing together four quality starts. On Monday, the Angels begin a nine-game homestand. -- Justin Millar, Halos Daily
24
1
Last Week: 25		Gavin Floyd underwent season-ending right elbow surgery, but he was 0-4 with a 5.18 ERA before he was shut down. Hector Santiago gave up just one run in two starts last week and may end up being a nice upgrade to the rotation. -- David Schoenfield, SweetSpot
25
Mets
14-20
3
Last Week: 22		One positive note for Mets fans: Mets catchers have hit 11 home runs so far this year -- which is equal to the total number of home runs all Mets catchers hit in 2011 and 2012 combined. -- Joe Janish, Mets Today
26
Dodgers
15-21
7
Last Week: 19		The Dodgers finally ended an eight-game losing streak with two wins over the Marlins and may welcome Zack Greinke back to the rotation on Wednesday, even though he allowed eight runs in a rehab start in Class A this past Friday. -- David Schoenfield, SweetSpot
27
Cubs
15-22
1
Last Week: 28		The Cubs locked up one of their building blocks on Sunday, signing Anthony Rizzo to a seven-year, $41 million deal. -- Joe Aiello, View from the Bleachers
28
1
Last Week: 27		The slow march toward .500 continues, as the Jays went 4-3 last week. The Jays will attempt to weather the storm this week, with only five games scheduled, and a number of players hitting the DL. -- Matthias Koster, Mop-Up Duty
29
Marlins
11-27
--

Last Week: 29		The Marlins finished off a 1-5 week on the West Coast, lowlighted by scoring zero or one run four times. Their team OPS of .608 is 63 points lower than the next worst in the NL (Nationals). They come home to crowds averaging fewer than 18,000 for the year. -- Diane Firstman, Value Over Replacement Grit
30
Astros
10-28
--

Last Week: 30		OK, something positive: The Astros have scored more runs than the Nationals, Dodgers and Angels. So that's good. And they're doing it without having to pay any of those expensive free agents. Or getting to draft Bryce Harper. So take that, Nationals, Dodgers and Angels! -- David Schoenfield, SweetSpot
  • Biggest Jump:
  • 6
  • Biggest Drop:
  • 7

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