The Times’ baseball rankings

Left field used to be a premium offensive position. Barry Bonds played there when he set the single-season home run record and Manny Ramirez won batting and home run titles there. But times have changed. Here’s how the 30 teams rank there this season. Each player’s stats are for games played as a left fielder.

1. Milwaukee: Ryan Braun leads NL with 12 HRs, 37 RBIs, no errors.

2. St. Louis: Matt Holliday’s hitting league-best .357 .

3. Washington: Laynce Nix (.333, 6 HRs) doing most of the playing, hitting

4. Florida: Logan Morrison batting .311 with 6 HRs

5. Atlanta: Former infielder Martin Prado batting.298 with 6 HRs.

6. Cubs: Alfonso Soriano is second in the league with 12 home runs

7. Kansas City: Alex Gordon, another former infielder, .hitting .297.

8. Colorado: After slow start CarGo slugging .567 in May.

9. San Francisco: Most of Giants’ HRs (7) , walks (24) are here

10. San Diego: Ryan Ludwick leads team in HRs (8), RBIs (29)

11. Philadelphia: Slumping Raul Ibanez still has 25 RBIs, 25 runs

12. Yankees: Brett Gardner has .267 average but just 12 RBIs

13. Arizona: Gerardo Parra hitting .277 but slugging just .370

14. Cincinnati: Jonny Gomes supplying power (7 HRs), not much else

15. Oakland: Josh Willingham leads team in HRs, RBIs

16. Baltimore: Luke Scott hitting .223 but leads team in HRs

17. Houston: Carlos Lee slowed to a .258 pace

18. Texas: Return of Nelson Cruz makes this position better

19. White Sox: Juan Pierre on pace for career lows in hitting. Steals.

20. Pittsburgh: LF of future Jose Tabata proving future is not now

21. Tampa Bay: Sam Fuld in major funk in May, hitting .151

22. Mets: Jason Bay not hitting (.234), slugging (.340) or driving in runs (eight RBIs)

23. Cleveland: 3-player platoon hitting .237, 1 HR, 11 RBIs

24. Seattle: Carlos Peguero making no one forget Milton Bradley

25. Dodgers: Don Mattingly’s tried six players here and has been rewarded with 1 HR and a .227 average

26. Toronto: Juan Rivera, Travis Snider combine to hit .195 with 1 HR

27. Boston: $142 million investment Carl Crawford hitting .215 with 14 RBIs and six steals.

28. Detroit: Ryan Raburn: Hitting .195 with 2 HRs and 12 RBIs – but 44 strikeouts.

29. Angels: Vernon Wells went to DL with .184 batting average and oinly 13 RBIs

30. Minnesota: The Twins have used five left-fielders -- and three are hitting below .177.