USA Today’s Weekly MLB Power Rankings

Here we are in the third week of the MLB season bringing you the second set of MLB power rankings brought to you by the crew over at the USA Today. Technically this is the third set of rankings if you include the preseason rankings but who is really counting anyway? Not I, especially since I believe the Yankees are destined to fall and fall hard this week after losing four straight games at one point this week. I also expect the St. Louis Cardinals to rise and rise quickly in the rankings but you’re not here to read my presumptions and predictions, you’re here to read the rankings, so let’s get on with shall we?

The New York Yankees finished the rankings down two spots as they fell to the 17th position from #15 last week. The rest of the American League East took a bit of a dive as well overall with the Baltimore Orioles finishing 7^th, the Boston Red Sox finishing 11th, the Toronto Blue Jays finishing 12th and the Tampa Bay Rays finishing 19th.

The biggest rise of the week went to the Washington Nationals who rose six spots from the 8^th position all the way to the #2 position. With every rise you must have a fall though and the biggest fall this week went to the New York Mets who fell seven spots from the 6^th position all the way to the #13 position.

The Top 5 spots on the list belong to the Chicago Cubs, Washington Nationals, Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals. Meanwhile the bottom feeders of the list in descending order are the #26 ranked San Diego Padres, the #27 ranked Philadelphia Phillies, the #28 ranked Minnesota Twins, the #29 ranked Milwaukee Brewers and the #30 ranked Atlanta Braves.

The sample sizes are larger but they are still relatively small when you look at a 162-game season in the big picture. Many will fall, many will rise and it won’t be until about the beginning of June before we see a clear picture of the league and the potential contenders and pretenders. That will come just in time for the August 1^st trading deadline when everything gets thrown for a loop once again when teams sell and buy off expensive and key players at the deadline. It’s going to be fun and I can’t wait so be sure to check in every Tuesday afternoon for a new set of rankings.