Nearly 50 games have been played in the Major League Baseball season and the defending World Series champion Boston Red Sox again sit atop our power rankings.

Teams such as the Pittsburgh Pirates and Kansas City Royals have flirted with the elusive .500 mark only to fall back, two surprising Florida contenders, the Tampa Bay Rays and Florida Marlins, have become fixtures in the top 10, while the New York Mets and New York Yankees have slipped into the mediocrity mudpit.

1. Boston Red Sox - 6 game win streak includes a Jon Lester no-hitter and Bartolo Colon’s first win since last June
2. Arizona Diamondbacks - Have outscored opponents by 53 runs and 3.54 team ERA ranks 4th in MLB
3. Chicago Cubs - First in NL with 246 runs scored and .814 OPS, with Wood and Marmol excelling in bullpen
4. Los Angeles Angels - Lackey, Saunders and Santana solid, and K-Rod leads MLB with 19 saves
5. Florida Marlins - Second in the majors with 65 home runs, but still attendance doormat
6. Tampa Bay Rays - Kazmir and Shields must excel during inevitable slumps from young hitters
7. Philadelphia Phillies - Offense leads the league in home runs with 68, but a struggling Brett Myers may be cause for concern
8. Houston Astros - Berkman, Tejada, Lee making up for mediocre pitching
9. Oakland Athletics - Not flashy, but 3rd in AL in runs allowed (3.7) and 4th in runs scored (4.5)
10. Atlanta Braves - Thanks to Chipper Jones (.410), lead the NL in team batting average(.284)
11. St. Louis Cardinals - Lead the NL in saves (16) despite troubles of Jason Isringhausen
12. Baltimore Orioles - Unspectacular O’s 5-2 against Red Sox and Yankees
13. New York Mets - Have dropped 3 in a row after sweeping Subway Series
14. Chicago White Sox - 4th in MLB with 57 home runs, but 26th in batting average (.248)
15. Cleveland Indians - Cliff Lee and C.C. Sabathia head one of league’s best strating rotations
16. Los Angeles Dodgers - Rafael Furcal (.366 avg) and James Loney (29 RBIs) lead Joe Torre’s club to within 3 games of D’backs in NL West
17. Texas Rangers -58 home runs lead AL, but this year no exception to historically poor pitching
18. Cincinnati Reds - Young rotation leads majors in Ks (360)
19. Toronto Blue Jays - Sputtering offense has preseason favorite 2 games below .500
20. Minnesota Twins - Joe Mauer (.336 BA),Justin Morneau (35 RBIs) and perenially formidable bullpen have Twins only 2.5 games out of first in AL Central
21. New York Yankees - Yanks hope Joba Chamberlain will be solution to starting pitching woes
22. Milwaukee Brewers - Ryan Braun starting to heat up after signing 8 yr, $45 million contract
23. Colorado Rockies - Injuries to Troy Tulowitzki and Matt Holliday have Rockies reeling
24. Detroit Tigers - One of league’s best lineups negated by 5.00 team ERA
25. Washington Nationals - After Ryan Zimmerman and oft-injured Nick Johnson, not much offense to speak of
26. Seattle Mariners - Consensus preseason contender struggling with .250 team batting average and 4.60 ERA
27. Pittsburgh Pirates - 4.8 runs per game 10th in MLB, but 4.94 team ERA explains poor record
28. Kansas City Royals - In the headlines for the wrong reasons after being no-hit by Jon Lester and beat by Bartolo Colon
29. San Francisco Giants - Barry Zito signing not working out (0-8, 6.25 ERA)
30. San Diego Padres - Last in MLB in runs scored and 21st in team ERA a formula for failure- and an injured Jake Peavy doesn’t help

Dave DeIuliis will be a senior at Penn State University’s School of Journalism. He can be reached at dmd5042@psu.edu