USA Today’s Weekly MLB Power Rankings

The USA Today’s Weekly MLB Power Rankings are back here on The Greedy Pinstripes and back again for the 2016 MLB season. In the preseason rankings the New York Yankees were ranked 14^th overall while the Chicago Cubs and San Francisco Giants occupied the top spots in the rankings. Has one week of regular season and meaningful baseball done anything to change any of that? Let’s find out.

Like always we start with the biggest rise of the week and that prestige goes to the Baltimore Orioles after a strong start to the season. Baltimore climbed all the way to the 13^th position overall after climbing seven spots during the week. With every big climb you have to have a big fall though and that fall goes to the team that was ranked 3^rd overall when the season began, the St. Louis Cardinals. The Cardinals were ranked 3^rd when the season began but just a week later the team finds themselves sitting in the #11 spot after falling a whopping eight spots, ouch. I have a sneaking suspicion they will be back before things are all settled in the league.

The New York Yankees dropped a spot this week to the #15 position on the rankings. You can’t get any more middle-of-the-road than that, can you? To round out the rest of the American League East Division you can find the Toronto Blue Jays at the #7 position, the Boston Red Sox at the #10 position, the aforementioned Baltimore Orioles #13 and the Tampa Bay Rays bringing up the rear at the #19 position.

The top five this week belong to, in order, the Chicago Cubs, the San Francisco Giants, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Kansas City Royals and the Los Angeles Dodgers while the five worst teams, again in order, according to the rankings, are the Minnesota Twins, the Colorado Rockies, the Milwaukee Brewers, the Philadelphia Phillies and the Atlanta Braves.

The thing about these early season power rankings is that you KNOW they are going to change. Teams will rise after slow starts just as quickly as teams will fall after hot starts and/or injuries. It happens. The consistent teams make the postseason while the teams that fly all over the rankings usually don’t. It sounds simple enough but it really is that simply if you make it that simple. Check in weekly and see where the Yankees fall and see how consistent they are in their search for the organization’s 28^th World Series Championship.