USA Today’s Weekly MLB Power Rankings

This has got to be the most disgusting thing I think I have ever seen and I just had to share....

Boy we haven’t done one of these in a while, have we Yankees fans? There may be a good reason for that. First and foremost the USA Today, where I get these power rankings from, haven’t exactly been doing the best job in keeping their rankings up to date but also the Yankees haven’t exactly been killing it on these rankings either to be completely honest. How far have the mighty fallen you ask? Keep reading to find out.

At one point this season the New York Yankees were ranked as high as high as second overall in the league while the team at one point fell all the way to 18^th. This week though the Yankees were ranked still in the Top 10 with the 9^th overall position, falling one spot from their ranking last week. Gary Sanchez apparently can’t play defense, which is not a new development if you have followed him since being signed as an international free agent, and CC Sabathia’s knee is hurt. Bring back Jordan Montgomery and/or continue the youth movement with Chance Adams. Don’t fret, the team is playing with house money here in 2017.

The biggest rise of the week went to the Baltimore Orioles who rose three spots to the #16 position overall while the biggest fall of the week goes to the Texas Rangers who fell three spots to the #19 position. In the immortal words of Joe Girardi, that’s not what you want.

The American League East shakes up like this. The Boston Red Sox are ranked 5^th overall and leading the division followed by the Yankees who are 9^th overall in the rankings and the Tampa Bay Rays who are 11^th in the rankings here by the USA Today. Baltimore rose to 16^th this week while the Toronto Blue Jays are 21^st overall on the rankings.

The Los Angeles Dodgers, Houston Astros, Washington Nationals, Arizona Diamondbacks and Boston Red Sox round out the Top 5 while the Colorado Rockies, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees and Milwaukee Brewers round out the Top 10.

USA Today’s Weekly MLB Power Rankings

The New York Yankees are holding strong at the top of the American League East Division after another week of baseball being put in the record books and they are holding strong at the top of the USA Today’s Weekly MLB Power Rankings as well. For the third straight week the New York Yankees remained steady at the #3 position in all of Major League Baseball with only the Houston Astros and the Washington Nationals ahead of them. Let’s check out the rest of the standings.

You have the Top 3 teams on the list and the fourth and fifth slot look relatively the same as last week with only the Dodgers and Orioles swapping spots finishing 4^th and 5^th respectively. The Cubs held steady at the 9^th position overall while the Milwaukee Brewers crept into the Top 10. The Boston Red Sox dropped to 13^th while the Tampa Bay Rays climbed to 14^th after taking two-of-three from the Yankees over the weekend. Also keep an eye out on those Toronto Blue Jays who find themselves suddenly 21^st overall. The rankings don’t suggest it but I still think they are much better than they have shown thus far this season.

The biggest rise of the week went to the Texas Rangers who rose five spots, a ten game winning streak has a way of doing that to a team, to the #11 position while the St. Louis Cardinals were the biggest fall this week dropping five spots back to the #12 position. These two teams have been all over the rankings this season both falling in the 20’s while both teams have also been in the Top 10 at points during the year.

Oh and let me state that I absolutely love the fact that the New York Mets are 20^th. Okay, gloating done. Have a great day everyone and enjoy the game tonight. I always love watching Luis Severino pitch and I can remember back in 2015 heading down to Atlanta’s Turner Field and watching him pitch during his rookie campaign and being impressed as hell. Impress me again, please?

Fantasy Baseball Top 50 for 2017

The USA Today is a publication that I frequent pretty much every day, a publication that I even frequented when I was on my extended break and hiatus from the site and from the world here a few weeks back, because I like what the cast of writers over there brings. They bring opinions, they bring the news, they bring weekly power rankings that we showcase here on the site every Tuesday and they think outside the box more than most I’ve read. One other thing the USA Today brings is some great Fantasy Baseball advice and this week they brought the Top 200 Fantasy Baseball Player Rankings for the 2017. Now while I won’t bring you the entire Top 200 list here on the blog, you can head over to those guys and give them a much deserved click and view or two to see the entire list, I will bring you the Top 50 and the notable Yankees inclusions. Enjoy.

1.    Mike Trout, Angels    OF
2.    Mookie Betts, Red Sox    OF
3.    Jose Altuve, Astros    2B
4.    Paul Goldschmidt, Diamondbacks    1B
5.    Kris Bryant, Cubs    3B/OF
6.    Nolan Arenado, Rockies    3B
7.    Clayton Kershaw, Dodgers    SP
8.    Manny Machado, Orioles    3B/SS
9.    Bryce Harper, Nationals    OF
10.    Josh Donaldson, Blue Jays    3B
11.    Anthony Rizzo, Cubs    1B
12.    Miguel Cabrera, Tigers    1B
13.    Max Scherzer, Nationals    SP
14.    Trea Turner, Nationals    OF/2B
15.    Starling Marte, Pirates    OF
16.    Madison Bumgarner, Giants    SP
17.    Carlos Correa, Astros    SS
18.    Edwin Encarnacion, Indians    1B
19.    Corey Seager, Dodgers    SS
20.    Charlie Blackmon, Rockies    OF
21.    Joey Votto, Reds    1B
22.    Francisco Lindor, Indians    SS
23.    Freddie Freeman, Braves    1B
24.    Robinson Cano, Mariners    2B
25.    Corey Kluber, Indians    SP
26.    Noah Syndergaard, Mets    SP
27.    A.J. Pollock, Diamondbacks    OF
28.    Chris Sale, Red Sox    SP
29.    Jonathan Villar, Brewers    SS/3B
30.    Ryan Braun, Brewers    OF
31.    Daniel Murphy, Nationals    2B/1B
32.    Trevor Story, Rockies    SS
33.    Jon Lester, Cubs    SP
34.    Giancarlo Stanton, Marlins    OF
35.    Xander Bogaerts, Red Sox    SS
36.    Brian Dozier, Twins    2B
37.    Jake Arrieta, Cubs    SP
38.    David Price, Red Sox    SP
39.    Christian Yelich, Marlins    OF
40.    Nelson Cruz, Mariners    OF
41.    Rougned Odor, Rangers    2B
42.    Carlos Gonzalez, Rockies    OF
43.    Dee Gordon, Marlins    2B
44.    George Springer, Astros    OF
45.    Johnny Cueto, Giants    SP
46.    Buster Posey, Giants    C
47.    Justin Verlander, Tigers    SP
48.    Andrew McCutchen, Pirates    OF
49.    Kyle Seager, Mariners    3B
50.    J.D. Martinez, Tigers    OF

62.    Aroldis Chapman, Yankees    RP
81.    Masahiro Tanaka, Yankees    SP
83.    Gary Sanchez, Yankees    C
181.    Dellin Betances, Yankees    RP
194.    Brett Gardner, Yankees    OF
199.    Michael Pineda, Yankees    SP

USA Today’s Weekly MLB Power Rankings

I don’t think anyone can deny it anymore, this New York Yankees team is for real. Many wondered when the team would fold or the “new” would wear off with all these young guys and prospects they keep throwing out there and despite all the tales of horror the Bronx Bombers keep winning. The Yankees were on a seven-game winning streak entering Sunday before having that streak snapped ending another very impressive week of baseball in the Bronx. Did the USA Today take notice and how far did they rise in this week’s standings? Keep reading…

The bias against this Yankees team continues. Did the Yankees move a spot this week after climbing within a game or less of the Wild Card this week? Nope. They stayed at #14. You can go 6-1 in a week and not climb a spot? Whatever. To round out the rest of the American League East, you know that division the Yankees can still win and have beat up on this week, you have the Boston Red Sox 5^th overall, the Toronto Blue Jays 7^th, the Baltimore Orioles 8^th and the Tampa Ray Rays 24^th overall.

The biggest rise of the week went to another New York team but not the Yankees, no it went to the Mets who rose three spots to the #10 position. The Mets also went 6-1 this week so what’s good for one should be good for the other, right? Especially when three of those six Yankees wins came at the expense of the team leading their division at the time. The biggest fall of the week went to the Toronto Blue Jays, the team who got swept by the Yankees and swept out of first place for the time being, who fell two spots to the #7 spot.

The Top Five teams according to the rankings are the Chicago Cubs, the Washington Nationals, the Texas Rangers, the Cleveland Indians and the Boston Red Sox. Meanwhile the five worst teams in the rankings are the #26 Cincinnati Reds, the #27 San Diego Padres, the #28 Arizona Diamondbacks, the #29 Atlanta Braves and the #30 Minnesota Twins. To see where your team fell if it’s not listed here head over to the USA Today and check out their weekly MLB power rankings for yourself.

Three weeks. That’s all that’s left to decide the regular season in Major League Baseball for 2016. Three weeks. I’m not sure I would even call it a marathon or a sprint at this point, it’s a flat out run. Need a win. Get a win. Not that any of them will matter here on these rankings apparently. 

USA Today’s Weekly MLB Power Rankings

The New York Yankees can trade away any amount of talent that they want before any trading deadline they want but as long as they are replacing this talent with players like Adam Warren, Aaron Judge and Tyler Austin they can keep the good times rolling. By good times rolling I mean winning and that has been all the Yankees have known to do here lately yet you couldn’t tell it by checking out the weekly power rankings provided by the USA Today.

The USA Today has remained stagnant with the Yankees only seemingly waiting on them to fail so they can drop them down, typical ESPN bias if you ask me but that’s only if you ask me, but this week the team forced the hands of the crew over there who actually had the Yankees climb a spot from the 18^th position to the 17^th position. That will do for now I guess. Meanwhile the rest of the American League East is doing well in these rankings with the Toronto Blue Jays coming in 5^th, the Baltimore Orioles coming in seventh while being the biggest fall of the week dropping from the #4 position, the Red Sox were 9^th overall and the Tampa Bay Rays brought up the rear at the 26^th position overall.

The Top Five teams in the league according to the rankings are the Chicago Cubs, the Washington Nationals, the Cleveland Indians, the Texas Rangers and the Toronto Blue Jays while the five worst teams according to those same rankings are the #26 Tampa Bay Rays, the #27 Cincinnati Reds, the #28 Minnesota Twins, the #29 Arizona Diamondbacks and the #30 Atlanta Braves.

The biggest risers aren’t rising as much as they had been in previous rankings and the biggest falls haven’t fallen all that far from grace lately as we see a true sample size start to hit the league. Teams will have streaky weeks and months, both good and bad, but these rankings are pretty much what they say they are. The teams in the top half of the rankings are either destined for the postseason or just on the outside looking in while the teams in the bottom half are either fighting for their playoff lives or are thinking about next year and the year beyond already. If you want to see what chances your team has check out these rankings, they can tell you a lot about what’s about to happen here in the league. Enjoy. 

USA Today’s Weekly MLB Power Rankings

The New York Yankees had a week similar to their week last week but would they have another stagnant and similar week in these power rankings? Once again the Yankees week was dominated by a series with the Twins, which they won, and a series with the Colorado Rockies, which they struggled in. Last week the Yankees position did not move despite winning three-of-four from the lowly Twins so what would two-out-of-three (ain’t bad) get them? Keep reading.

The Yankees fell one spot this week from the #17 position to the #18 position. I guess struggling against the Rockies and beating up on the #30 team in the rankings isn’t enough to convince anyone that they are for real. Meanwhile the rest of the American League East went as follows. The Boston Red Sox finished the week 7th while the Baltimore Orioles finished the week with the #4 ranking. The Toronto Blue Jays are climbing a bit in the AL East and they are climbing a bit in these rankings as well finishing with the #9 position while there may be no hope for the Tampa Bay Rays after finishing the week with the #23 position in the rankings.

The Top Five teams according to the USA Today this week are the Chicago Cubs, the Texas Rangers, the San Francisco Giants, the Baltimore Orioles and the Cleveland Indians. The five teams no one wants to be are the #26 Philadelphia Phillies, the #27 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, the #28 Cincinnati Reds, the #29 Atlanta Braves and the #30 Minnesota Twins.

The biggest rise of the week went to the Houston Astros who rose seven spots to finish with the #11 while the biggest fall of the week went to the Kansas City Royals who fell four spots to finish 14th overall.

There you have it. Another week of the MLB season in the books and another week of Weekly MLB Power Rankings released by the USA Today. These rankings are now painting a picture. Those outside the Top 15 should probably be thinking about and at least preparing for the possibility to sell at this year’s trading deadline while the Top 15 or so should quietly be looking ahead to the deadline as a way to solidify their teams to make that final push. The Yankees by this logic the team should be ready to sell here in about a month or so. 

But will they? Stay tuned.