Welcome to July! The weather is heating up, and so are things across the league!

The All-Star break is just one a week away, and we are already starting to see the trade rumors flying. Whether it is Trevor Story, Adam Frazier, Kyle Gibson, or Joey Gallo, we know some big names will eventually be on the move. Regardless, it is always funny to see what kinds of off-the-wall trade proposals fans can cook up on social media.

Fringe teams really only have 2 or 3 more weeks to figure out if they’re going to be looking for trade pieces to make a playoff run, or if they’ll be packing it in and looking forward to next season’s spring training. With that said, we’ve seen some teams (Boston, Milwaukee, Atlanta) move up the power rankings and assert themselves as legitimate contenders. On the flip side, the Cubs and Yankees have done themselves no favors lately, and it might only be a matter of time before they start trading away some of their bigger names.

• The Boston Red Sox have won 9 of their last 10 games, including back-to-back sweeps of the Yankees and Royals, to jump up to 2nd in this weeks power ratings.
• Milwaukee has taken a commanding lead in the NL Central, now 7 games ahead of Cincinnati!
• Seattle is (somehow) winning baseball games and climbing the rankings! They’re now 45-40, and are 7 games behind Houston in the American League West. They do, however, have a -42 run differential, so we think they are still pretenders.
• The Cubs tumbled 6 places to 18th in this weeks ratings on the back of a 9-game losing streak. It’s almost certain now that they’ll be trading some big pieces soon. Will it be Bryant? Kimbrel? We shall see!
• The Yankees have lost 7 of their last 10 games and are officially double-digit games back in the AL East. If they can’t turn things around in a hurry, will a team with this much money really be deadline sellers?

• Houston looks to increase their AL West lead over the Athletics as they play a 3-game mid-week series.
• Milwaukee takes on the Mets in a battle of National League division leaders.
• The Padres hope to gain some ground on the Dodgers and Giants this week as they take on the Nationals and the Rockies.
• Atlanta can continue clawing their way back in the NL East race as they play 3 games against the lowly Pirates and 3 games against the Marlins.