Hallelujah! It’s baseball season again and the USA Today has
released their first set of power rankings for the season. As you know last
season we brought you the weekly power rankings every Tuesday morning and today
we bring you the first set of the year. Obviously these mean little besides who
the publication thinks won the offseason and did the most to improve their
teams but it is still fun to look at. It means baseball is on the horizon,
baseball that actually counts too, and things are about to get interesting
again for the New York Yankees.
The Top 10 in order consist of the Chicago Cubs, San
Francisco Giants, St. Louis Cardinals, New York Mets, Kansas City Royals, Los
Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, Toronto Blue Jays, Pittsburgh Pirates and the
Washington Nationals. It’s interesting to me to see these teams and not some of
the heavier spenders this winter, the Boston Red Sox and Arizona Diamondbacks
for example, while a team like Los Angeles that lost Zack Greinke is still
ranked so highly.
The next 10 spots in the rankings belong to the #11 Boston
Red Sox, Texas Rangers, Arizona Diamondbacks, New York Yankees, Detroit Tigers,
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Tampa Bay Rays, Chicago White Sox, Minnesota
Twins and the #20 ranked Cleveland Indians. I can’t say I’m shocked to see the
Yankees right at the middle of the pack, that’s where everyone has the team and
that is close to where it finished last season. I have absolutely no issues
being the underdog though, none.
The final ten spots begin with the #21 ranked Baltimore
Orioles and continue with the Miami Marlins, Seattle Mariners, San Diego
Padres, Oakland Athletics, Milwaukee Brewers, Cincinnati Reds, Colorado
Rockies, Atlanta Braves and bringing up the rear is the Philadelphia Phillies.
This crop of 10 intrigues me the most possibly with teams that are considered
to be “going for it” like Seattle ranked just above teams that are rebuilding
like San Diego.
That’s it, the very first set of power rankings for the 2016
MLB regular season. Who’s excited?