MLB Power Rankings: Brewers are kings of the Central, Astros invading the West
By Tim Boyle
20) MLB Power Rankings: Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are bouncing between the best of the worst and the worst of the best teams in baseball. It’s precisely where they should end the year. The club simply doesn’t have enough talent to be one of the better ones in baseball yet they have too much to completely remove themselves from the playoff picture.
What should be troubling for the Phillies is that they aren’t losing games the way they should. The bullpen has blown a few but hasn’t been atrociously bad. The offense continues to drag its feet. The star of the rotation has been Kyle Gibson. It’s a strange year for the Phillies who built a roster of sluggers who aren’t slugging.
19) MLB Power Rankings: Arizona Diamondbacks
Only one division in baseball has nothing but .500 teams and we can thank the Arizona Diamondbacks for it. How long it sticks is anyone’s guess. It shouldn’t be long before they suffer a similar fate as the Athletics and see themselves freefalling in the MLB Power Rankings.
For Meghan Trainor, it’s all about that bass. For this baseball team, it’s all about that pitching. Merrill Kelly has a 1.22 ERA through 37 innings of work while Zac Gallen is at 0.95 after 28.1 frames. Madison Bumgarner is in playoff mode with a 1.50 ERA in his 24 innings of work. Let’s not forget Zach Davies either. He has a 3.34 ERA. Someway, somehow, the Diamondbacks may end up with the best pitching staff on the stat sheet and worst offense. About that offense—if you have nothing to say, say nothing at all.
18) MLB Power Rankings: Seattle Mariners
The Seattle Mariners may have simply fallen on some hard times over the last week. They’re 2-8 in their last ten games and a series versus the Phillies could be exactly what they need to get back into the good graces of the MLB Power Rankings.
The Mariners have gotten an early Cy Young performance out of Logan Gilbert, not Robbie Ray the reigning winner of the award. Somebody needs to make sure they didn’t simply swap jerseys. The Mariners are going to have their work cut out for them in the division they play. Likely another season away from looking really good, a trip to the postseason and the bitter taste of defeat in October could be what they need to get over the hump.
17) MLB Power Rankings: Cleveland Guardians
One week the Cleveland Guardians look awful, the next they look like they really can hang with the rest of the American League. They’re back to .500 following a successful week of baseball. By next week, they may have dropped every game on the schedule or won them all. This is a streaky team with some major holes but also incredible pitching.
The Guardians have four regulars hitting over .300—Jose Ramirez is the only one that makes sense. The other three are Steven Kwan, Owen Miller, and Andres Gimenez. Had Cleveland done any buying whatsoever in the offseason, they would be taken seriously. Instead, most are waiting for them to fade away in early or mid-September if they haven’t completely fallen apart earlier.
16) MLB Power Rankings: Atlanta Braves
Here come the Atlanta Braves. They have Ronald Acuña Jr. back and things are looking up! There’s still a lot more they need to do well in order to curry favor. Another splendid week should get them inched closer to the top ten.
Offense has been a huge weakness for the Braves. If not for Max Fried and Kyle Wright, they might be right there with the Nationals at the bottom of the division. Those two are carrying this team along with several members of the bullpen. Things will need to change in Atlanta. It’s hard to believe they can head into July playing poorly yet again this year and fix all of their problems with trades. Miracles like that don’t happen often.