For the second week in a row, the No. 1 team in all the land is the Detroit Tigers. I think this qualifies as surprising.

1. Detroit (1) – Time to make a stand: In a stretch of 10 home games with Indians, Yankees, Red Sox.
2. St. Louis (2) – Someone needs to tell Pujols that sticking up for Barry Bonds is like defending oil companies.
3. Chicago White Sox (3) – Michael Barrett not the first to want to punch A.J. Pierzynski and probably not the last to try.
4. Boston (5) – New team motto: Beckett and Schilling and then comes the drilling.
5. New York Mets (6) – If El Duque fails, maybe they can ask Jerry Koosman to come out of retirement.
6. Cincinnati (4) – Maybe they know something we don’t after signing Royals’ castoff Joe Mays (0-4, 10.27 ERA).
7. Arizona (11) – Rumor has it they are one of many teams trying to pry Dontrelle Willis out of Florida.
8. Los Angeles Dodgers (18) – Seriously, that’s not the same Aaron Sele that pitched for Seattle last year (6-12, 5.66 ERA), right?
9. New York Yankees (8) – Because of all the injuries, The Boss instructs GM Brian Cashman to explore trades for a new trainer.
10. Toronto (10) – Installing Angels’ reject Edgardo Alfonzo at second after infield shakeup.
11. Colorado (12) – Rockies put out APB for Todd Helton’s missing bat.
12. Philadelphia (9) – How is Cole Hamels like a crystal carafe? Both are nice but fragile pitchers.
13. Houston (13) – Rotation could really use a booster Rocket.
14. Atlanta (16) – Not a good sign: Only the Royals bullpen has blown more save chances.
15. San Diego (7) – Must be some kind of rule that only one NL West team per week is allowed to be on a hot streak.
16. San Francisco (19) – Reason No. 41 to dislike Barry Bonds: He has bad table manners.
17. Milwaukee (14) – Outfielder Carlos Lee might be the most underrated slugger in the game.
18. Texas (17) – Mark Teixeira enters weekend with as many homers (five) as Damon Hollins. Who’s Damon Hollins? Exactly.
19. Cleveland (20) – Go ahead and give C.C. Sabathia pitcher of the month honors (4-1, 0.92 ERA).
20. Oakland (15) – They’re cold, they’re hot, they’re cold, they’re hot, they’re cold… what are they, a faucet?
21. Seattle (26) – Could have gone 7-0 on homestand if they had not been shut down by slopballers John Halama and Rodrigo Lopez.
22. Minnesota (25) – Will Boof go through the roof or be a spoof and go poof? Man, how we like that name, Boof Bonser.
23. Tampa Bay (23) – They’re really improved but you would never know it because of that division.
24. Baltimore (21) – Bold prediction: Chris Ray is the next top closer in baseball.
25. Washington (25) – We’ll forgive F-Robby for crying after Thursday’s games. We’ve seen the Nats play, too.
26. Los Angeles Angels (24) – At this rate, Anaheim is going to sue team to get their name off the franchise entirely.
27. Chicago Cubs (22) – Only hope for playoffs is to make a second-half charge like the Astros did last year.
28. Florida (29) – Difference between Marlins in Royals is that Florida has young players who are bad while Kansas City has old players who are bad.
29. Pittsburgh (27) – If you ask me, they should bring back those round caps from the ‘70s.
30. Kansas City (30) – It’s official: They’ve been eliminated from the playoffs for the 2007 season.