USA Today’s Power Rankings After Week One

USA Today releases their power rankings for all 30 Major League Baseball teams on a weekly basis and released their first regular season set yesterday. Occupying the top spot was the undefeated Detroit Tigers followed by the undefeated Kansas City Royals. The St. Louis Cardinals were in the third spot while the top five was rounded out by a pair of American League East teams in the Boston Red Sox and the Toronto Blue Jays. Where were the Yankees you ask? Well I’m not sure how much the Sunday night beat down of the Red Sox counted towards these but nonetheless you could find the Yankees all the way down at the #28 spot on the list.

It could be worse I guess as the Minnesota Twins were ranked dead last on the list preceded by the 1-5 Milwaukee Brewers. You have to wonder how much thought goes into these rankings though as the Miami Marlins sit at 1-5 on the season after being swept by an Atlanta Braves team that their own fan base wouldn’t even recognize and were ranked ahead of New York at #26.

The team with the highest payroll, the Los Angeles Dodgers, are 6^th while the team may pick to win it all, the Washington Nationals, are 7^th with Oakland, Seattle and Baltimore rounding out the Top 10 in that order. The defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants are #13 while the rejuvenated Chicago Cubs are #16.

So after a week of baseball and the games finally meaning something what does it all mean? Absolutely nothing. Come speak to me in September and we’ll look back at this list and laugh.