April is in the books; how do the MLB Power Rankings look after the first month of the season?
You can’t make the playoffs in April, but you can sure play your way out of them. Around Major League Baseball, several teams may have already taken themselves out of contention. The Kansas City Royals, San Francisco Giants, Toronto Blue Jays, Texas Rangers, and Seattle Mariners were all expected to fight for playoff spots, but are looking up at long climbs back up the standings.
MLB’s nice scheduling quirk with divisional play dominating most of April makes it difficult for real separation to occur in the standings. Only one divisional leader has a lead of more than four games entering play on Wednesday night. There have been fierce battles around the league between divisional rivals, none more so than between the Baltimore Orioles and Boston Red Sox. MLB has had something to say about that, however.
Which teams have made the biggest climb up the Power Rankings since the start of the year? Who wants a redo on the month of April? Read on to find out.
The Royals have scored one run or fewer in nine of their first 25 games this year. They are rightfully deserving of the dead-last slot in the MLB Power Rankings and have shown no signs of life so far this year. The Royals have still not cracked 70 runs on the year. The number-one team in these rankings put up over 70 in one week.
Every offensive flaw that was harped on while the Royals were making trips to the World Series — no power, no walks, too many ground balls, too many first-pitch swings, etc — have come back to bite them this year. Is there an end of the core in sight? It very well may be time to start holding a fire sale in Kansas City.
Deciding he wanted to make another attempt as an MLB starter is looking like the best move possible for Trevor Cahill, and it was very smart to sign with the Padres and pitch in their massive ballpark. In five starts this year, the starter-turned-reliever-turned-starter is 2-2 with a 3.60 ERA and 37 strikeouts in 30.0 innings.
Cahill is pitching himself back into a viable number-two starter. Do not forget that he won 18 games in 2010 for the Athletics before bouncing around the league and being turned into a reliever. Cahill could fetch a nice prospect haul for the Padres in July.