MLB Power Groupings: Behold The Marlin Heat

(Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Here we are, where we should be.

Boston, Philadelphia, Los Angeles Angels, St. Louis, Los Angeles Dodgers

Surely Boston can do better than 3-3 in a week against Baltimore and Seattle. As I mentioned, luck is on their side this week, with another pair of teams that are in last and second-to-last place.

Hey, Philadelphia, do you feel that? It's the heat the fish from Florida are putting on you. Better watch your backs!

As I mentioned with the Rangers, there is a big series coming up with both teams. The Angels have some of their big guns going, too. Make sure you mark down this upcoming start for Ervin Santana; I'd say it's really important to see what he does in this spot.

Ditto that for the St. Louis Cardinals and their upcoming battle with Milwaukee. It won't be the biggest series of the year for them, but it will probably be the biggest series of the first half.

Then we have the Dodgers. I hear they got some left fielder named Ramirez back; pretty cool for them.

Extra Bases

Evened Up: Cincinnati is at an even .500 record overall and they are symmetrically respectful with their 20-20 records both at home and on the road. Houston is a game short at home of that coolness.

Find a Way: Seattle and Florida are the two lone teams with negative run differentials and winning records.

Don't go extras: Colorado is the lone team in the entire game to not win an extra inning game this season.

On that Subject: Speaking of games in extra innings, the Cubs and Phillies have played the most with 11. The Rays and White Sox have played the least, with three.

Bring on the West: For the first time since opening weekend, Cleveland faced a team from the AL West when they faced Oakland this past weekend.

AL Dominance: The Rays and Angels benefited most from interleague play with 13 and 14 wins, respectively.

Not Beneficial: Some teams received more benefit from interleague play than others. Cleveland is the AL team that fared the worst, with five wins, while the Mets, Brewers, Padres, and Diamondbacks all won just five games as well.

Remember, though—all but a few NL teams lose three interleague games because of the difference in teams.

Coming Up Clutch, but Losing: You know I was really on Cleveland earlier this year for hitting with runners in scoring position, but this year they are right up there in runs scored with two outs and runners in scoring position.

They're third in the AL, behind Boston and Los Angeles by just two and three runs. However they've struck out 181 times with runners in scoring position, only Tampa Bay is worse.

Power Outage: Texas is usually a 40 HR a month team. In June, they hit just 32 long balls. This is a team that had 11 home games in April and hit 41 homers. They played three more home games in June, and still fell nine short of that number.

Pen Help: Oakland is the only team in baseball to not have a pitcher go the distance so far. Is that much of a surprise when they haven't had a pitcher who's started more than one game over the age of 26?

Young arms, especially ones as young as the A's, are protected and are typically just not conditioned to go too deep unless their pitch count is low.

Work Horse: The Dodgers are next to last in quality starts in the National League, yet they've got the best number two man for that stat in all of baseball in Chad Billingsley. That's 44 percent of his team's quality starts.

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*All statistics, standings, and opinions were based off their states going into action on July 6.

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