Lake County Sentinel
Justin Lada's Major League Baseball Power Rankings
Week One
1. Chicago Cubs (5-1) - If anyone can handle a devastating injury to a hitter like Kyle Schwarber, it’s the Cubs. Even Jake Arrieta is hitting 440 foot homers now.
2. Kansas City Royals (4-1) - How do you go 4-1 in the first week with leading baseball 5.25 BB/9 as a pitching staff? Have the Kansas City Royals defense and wind up with a 88.2 strand rate.
3. San Francisco Giants (5-2) - Second in baseball with 11 homers over the first week and did it without a guy hitting seven of them. One was even by Madison Bumgarner, off of Clayton Kershaw.
4. Los Angeles Dodgers (4-3) - They can thank the San Diego Padres for their +19 run differential. They have an All-Star MASH unit but are still pitching well too
5. Washington Nationals (3-1) - Nobody told Daniel Murphy it’s not October anymore. Someone told Bryce Harper to reign it back in, but so far he’s playing like the reigning MVP.
6. Baltimore Orioles (5-0) - Baltimore has seven homers as a team, but more surprisingly, a staff ERA of 1.50 that’s the second best in baseball.
7. New York Mets (2-3) - The only pitching staff in baseball with a better ERA? The Mets of course (1.92)
8. Toronto Blue Jays (3-4) - Roberto Osuna has allowed two base-runners in three saves so far. Getting to Osuna has been tough for the Blue Jays relievers, however.
9. Pittsburgh Pirates (4-2) - It’s only been one start, but Ray Searage’s version of Juan Nicasio looks legitimate and pretty good.
10. New York Yankees (3-2) - CC Sabathia’s six innings were the longest start of the season for the Yankees so far. But if they can get six innings from any starter, they’ll be ok.
11. St. Louis Cardinals (3-3) - The first trip through their rotation was ugly, but then they get contributions from players like Jeremy Hazelbaker and you know they’re gonna stick around all season.
12. Boston Red Sox (3-2) - David Price is pretty good. The offense is pretty good. The bullpen is really good. The rest of their rotation really bites. Pablo Sandoval swung and ripped his belt. They should be docked more points for the last two items, but so far, they’ve played OK.
13. CLEVELAND INDIANS (2-2) - So far, the Indians offense is more reason for two wins than their pitching. At some point, they’ll play more than two games in a row. Maybe.
14. Detroit Tigers (3-1) - They probably won’t hit .300 as a team all year. But they might. Bank on K-Rod being much better than he has so far.
15. Cincinnati Reds (5-1) - I’ll bite on being 5-1 after six games. Suarez had a nice week and Brandon Finnegan looked good. A nice place to start rebuilding off at for them.
16. Houston Astros (2-4) - Hard not to think any team with Carlos Correa leading it won’t find their way to the top here.
17. Texas Rangers (3-4) Shawn Tolleson had a pretty gruesome week, but outside of that not a bad first week.
18. Tampa Bay Rays (2-4) - If they can score some runs, that baseball leading 10.64 K/9 is going to win them a lot of games.
19. Oakland Athletics (4-3) - Good first week for the pitching staff despite Sonny Gray’s first start being whacked by food poisoning.
20. Chicago White Sox (4-2) - Jose Quintana already has one of his 15 no decisions this year.
21.Seattle Mariners (2-4) - Not a bad week for the pitching staff, outside of Steve Cishek, of course.
22. Arizona Diamondbacks (2-5) - They won the offseason by acquiring Zack Grienke and Shelby Miller. So far, the pitching staff hasn’t won many games for them.
23.Miami Marlins (1-3) - Giancarlo Stanton is already sitting atop several Statcast leaderboards
24. Los Angeles Angels (2-4) - Call me crazy, but Mike Trout probably won’t hit .200 all year.
25Milwaukee Brewers (3-3 - Somehow, things got better after that rough Opening Day loss.
26. Colorado Rockies (3-3) - Trevor Story has made them watchable for one week. What will he do for chapter 2?
27. San Diego Padres (2-4) - A team that didn’t score it’s first two games of the season is somehow not the worst team in baseball.
28. Philadelphia Phillies (2-3) - Jeanmar Gomez has saves in both of their wins. So far, he’s been the bullpen’s savior.
29. Atlanta Braves (0-5) - Why aren’t they last? Because they were expected to be this bad.
30. Minnesota Twins (0-6) - Not a good start for what should have been a better offense
jlada@lakecountysentinel.com or follow Justin on Twitter @JL_Baseball you can also check out our IndiansNation fan page
POSTED 04/11/2016 13:57
