MLB Power Rankings: Who is 1st, Cubs or Giants?
It took until basically the end of June, but the Chicago Cubs finally had a bad week during the 2016 MLB season, but was it enough to make them slip out of the No. 1 spot in the MLB Power Rankings?
Things in the National League are starting to get a little closer in terms of the overall standings with the Chicago Cubs and the San Francisco Giants each leading their division by no less than seven games and showing for the majority of the season they are the two teams in the NL to watch for.
That said, the Chicago Cubs finally had a week where they looked normal instead of invincible. They’ve currently lost four of their past 10, plus are on a two-game skid, which is somewhat rare for this year’s team.
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There have been Cubs teams in the past that would have loved to be 4-6 in a 10-game span, but not this year, as they have a chance to end a 108-year World Series champion drought, and thus far they’ve been the class of the entire MLB.
For the week, the Cubs were 1-6, including being swept in a three-game series by their rival St. Louis Cardinals at Wrigley Field,and losing three-of-four to the Miami Marlins, giving Chicago a record of 48-26 overall, still leading the NL Central by nine games headed into Monday’s schedule.
The Giants, on the other hand, are 49-28 overall with a .636 winning percentage, just a tick under what the Cubs have for their winning percentage of .649. There are only two other teams in the majors with a .600 or better winning percentage, and they are in the American League with the Texas Rangers at .645 (49-27) and the Baltimore Orioles at .600 (45-30).
Anyway you look at it, this past week was unexpected with the Cubs playing so poorly when it comes to wins and losses, and though they’ve not been mentioned yet, the Cleveland Indians can’t lose right now with nine straight wins and being 9-1 in their past 10 games, leading the AL Central by five games over the Kansas City Royals with Cleveland having a 44-30 overall record.
This is the time of year where things become a tad more interesting, and it is now OK to not just worry about how your team is playing, but to really start getting to the point where it is a must to demand better play, a coaching change or want to trade to add to your team for even greater success. It is now also time to raise the awareness level up a couple notches as this is the final week of June, and with the season rolling into the month of July on Friday, things will only continue to get more interesting.
Here are this week’s Call to the Pen MLB Power Rankings.
Next: MLB Power Rankings: 30-26
Minnesota Twins. 30. team. 2. This past week, the Minnesota Twins won three games, but that still isn’t enough to get them out of the bottom spot of these MLB Power Rankings because they don’t even have 25 wins for the season. Minnesota did win two of three against the Philadelphia Phillies, but then came back to lose a series to the New York Yankees over this past weekend.. (24-51). Previous:
29. team. 17. The Atlanta Braves still just have 26 wins this season, and that can’t be overlooked, even with them winning three of those games this past week, including two against the New York Mets on Thursday and Sunday. Being in a rebuild mode, this ball club still has a long way to go this season and even next year.. (26-49). Previous: . Atlanta Braves
28. team. 61. Still looking for their 30th win of the season, the Cincinnati Reds may have won just two games this past week, with a win over the very good Texas Rangers and gaining their first shutout win of the season against the San Diego Padres on Sunday, but this week for them was about honoring <a href=. (29-47). Previous: . Cincinnati Reds
27. team. 21. Tampa Bay has lost 11 straight games, and this past week they had the unfortunate task of facing both the Cleveland Indians and the Baltimore Orioles in seven games. Add that to last weekend where they had to play the Giants and were swept in three games by them as well, and that is facing three division leaders, and not only that, but three of the best teams in all of baseball.. (31-43). Previous: . Tampa Bay Rays
6. The Philadelphia Phillies stay pat this week just for the fact they didn’t play well enough or poorly enough to leave the 26th spot. That said, they somehow managed to lose to the Minnesota Twins on two occasions this past week, but defeat the Giants on Saturday. Plus, on Sunday, it took San Francisco winning via a walk-off to gain that win.. (32-45). Previous: . Philadelphia Phillies. 26. team
Next: MLB Power Rankings: 25-21
<a href=. (32-44). Previous: . Los Angeles Angels. 25. team. 102
Previous: . Oakland Athletics. 24. team. 96. Oakland had a nice week this past week by winning four games, with a two-game series split with Milwaukee and winning three of four and coming one run short of a sweep against the Los Angeles Angels. Oakland isn’t the best team, and they could get back one day to where they used to be a contender in the AL West, but that’s not happening this season.. (32-43)
A win against the Baltimore Orioles on Tuesday by a 10-7 score was a very good win, but the Padres came back the next day to lose to a very solid O’s team by a 7-2 score in what was a two-game series. Over the weekend in Cincinnati, they sat through three different days of Pete Rose celebrations, but they did win three of the four games played from Thursday through Sunday, so a four-game week was “Roses” for the Padres.. (33-44). Previous: . San Diego Padres. 23. team. 127
team. 8. The Arizona Diamondbacks in their first five games this past week went 4-1, but they ended the week with two weekend losses to the Rockies. Overall this week, the Diamondbacks played decent, but the reason for the drop in the rankings is because the Brewers were just a little more impressive in their wins.. (36-42). Previous: . Arizona Diamondbacks. 22
Milwaukee Brewers. 21. team. 76. Though Milwaukee split with the Athletics, they move up in these MLB Power Rankings because of the fact they won two of three against the Washington Nationals, a team that leads the NL East and a team that has 44 wins on the season. At least for this week, the Brewers showed they can play well against the big-time teams in the majors.. (34-41). Previous:
Next: MLB Power Rankings: 20-16
team. 108. Colorado finished the week 4-3 overall but are still three games under the .500 mark for the season. They won games against the Miami Marlins, New York Yankees and the Arizona Diamondbacks, but they still didn’t do much damage in the standings of the NL West and are still 12 games back of the leader of the West, and let’s be honest, being in the Top 20 in the final week of June is a nice accomplishment for the Rockies.. (36-39). Previous: . Colorado Rockies. 20
43. New York played in just five games this week, finishing 3-2 in games with the Rockies and Twins, winning the weekend series vs. Minnesota and splitting a two-game series with Colorado. This team is 7.5 games back in the AL East and 2.5 games back of a Wild Card spot, but with two very tough teams battling for the top spot in the East right now, it is a long road ahead for the “Bronx Bombers.”. (37-37). Previous: . New York Yankees. 19. team
Chicago White Sox. 18. team. 128. The White Sox won back-to-back series for the first time since April this past week by defeating the Boston Red Sox three of their four games (three straight wins to start that series) and then winning two of three against the Blue Jays. Now the question is can the White Sox take that momentum into this upcoming week?. (38-38). Previous:
62. Here is how strange baseball can be … the Mariners were swept in a four-game series to start the week against the Tigers, then won two of three against the St. Louis Cardinals. Also this week, that same Tigers team was swept by the Indians, and that same St. Louis team swept the Cubs in a four-game set. With all of that said, the Mariners are currently a .500 team, and maybe that explains the aforementioned series of events.. (38-38). Previous: . Seattle Mariners. 17. team
(38-38). Previous: . Detroit Tigers. 16. team. 63. Detroit played well four days this week with a four-game sweep of the Seattle Mariners, but the shoe dropped from Friday through Sunday when they lost three straight to the red-hot Indians, including being shut out by a 6-0 score in Cleveland. The Tigers are on the borderline of being a productive team or a bad team, and it will be interesting to see which way they fall.
Next: MLB Power Rankings: 15-11
15. team. 4. Pittsburgh is a team that plays in a tough division, but still manages to play a good ball game most of the time. Though they are two games under .500, this Pittsburgh is better than their record, as they showed that with a three-game weekend sweep of the Dodgers, including defeating <a href=. (37-39). Previous: . Pittsburgh Pirates
Houston Astros. 14. team. 135. This was one heck of a week for the Astros, and maybe they don’t have a problem anymore as they won three straight vs. the Angels and won two of three vs. the Royals, putting them two games over the .500 mark. Maybe this is the start of the path of where this young group of players should have been playing all season long. Better late than never, right?. (39-37). Previous:
(40-34). Previous: . New York Mets. 13. team. 3. What do you do with the New York Mets? Are they a good team, or are they an underachieving team? Are the Mets a team about to hit their stride, or are they going to continue to make a person think they are a formable player in AL East one moment, but then make a person shake their head the next? They won a two-game series over the Royals to start the week, then against a weak Braves lineup they split a four-game set, including a 5-2 loss on Sunday.
7. Kansas City is like the Mets in the thinking what kind of team is assembled here? They lost four straight this week before winning Sunday against Houston, but they are still four games over .500 and can still contend for the AL Central crown. This will be a big week for the Royals as they host the Cardinals for two and travel to St. Louis for two for their first four games of the week.. (39-35). Previous: . Kansas City Royals. 12. team
(41-36). Previous: . Toronto Blue Jays. 11. team. 39. Toronto split a series (two games) with Arizona, then lost two of three against the White Sox in Chicago. Toronto should be a better team than the way they’ve played this season, and though they won on Saturday by a 10-8 score, they gave up seven home runs in a single game, showing they aren’t playing up to their potential thus far in ’16.
Next: MLB Power Rankings: 10-6
33. This season, if the Cardinals want the NL Central championship, they will have to go through the Chicago Cubs, and for three games this past week St. Louis did just that, sweeping the team from the North Side of Chicago to start the week. That should have been great momentum to have for the weekend series with Seattle … it wasn’t, as Seattle took two of three from the Cardinals, with the two losses being by a combined two runs.. (39-35). Previous: . St. Louis Cardinals. 10. team
team. 71. This was another team that made you think just about what kind of team are they, with Los Angeles sweeping the Nationals by a combined 11-6 differential, but coming back to lose three straight to the Pirates by a combined 18-10 differential. Again, who are the real Dodgers and what type of team are they going to be on a consistent basis? They trail the Giants by eight games in the NL West.. (41-36). Previous: . Los Angeles Dodgers. 9
Miami Marlins. 8. team. 82. Miami is a team that could continue to shake things up and make baseball even more interesting in the final week of June. Though they began the week with a loss to the Rockies and a loss to the Braves, they came back to split a series with the 26-win Atlanta club. Next, they had to play the Cubs from Thursday through Sunday – the same Cubs that have nearly 50 wins – and won three of those four games. It was an impressive way to end the week for a very young Marlins team.. (41-35). Previous:
Maybe the Red Sox are cooling down some as they lost three of four to the Chicago White Sox, and then lost two of three to the Texas Rangers. Boston is still having back-of-the-rotation issues (but what MLB team is great at the back end of the rotation?), and this week just wasn’t productive for them, being held to two or fewer runs on three occasions.. (41-34). Previous: . Boston Red Sox. 7. team. 14
90. Every time it looks like the Nationals are going to take that next step and battle for the best record in the National League, they seem to take a half of a step or one full step backwards, losing five of six this week, with the cherry on top being <a href=. (44-32). Previous: . Washington Nationals. 6. team
Next: MLB Power Rankings: The Top 5
The O’s had a bit of a tough start to the week by losing a makeup game to the Rangers, followed by a loss to the Padres, but they came back to play undefeated baseball the rest of the week with five straight wins, including a doubleheader win over the Rays on Saturday. Baltimore leads the AL East by four games, finally giving them some space from the Red Sox.. (45-30). Previous: . Baltimore Orioles. 4. team. 11
team. 126. The Rangers are tied for the most wins in baseball with the San Francisco Giants and have made it a three-team race as to who is the best team in the majors entering this upcoming week. With 49 wins and a 10-game lead in the AL West, the Rangers are the team to beat in the AL, and maybe the team to beat in baseball. Texas won two of three over Boston this weekend and also won one game each against the O’s and Reds this past week as well for a 4-2 week.. (49-27). Previous: . Texas Rangers. 3
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2. team. 9. Granted, the Chicago Cubs have the best winning percentage and best run differential in baseball, but after having a 1-6 week, including being swept in one of their two series, maybe it is time to treat the Cubs like they might just be human. Yes, the Cubs are still a very, very good baseball team, but right now there is one team who is playing slightly better, but that doesn’t mean the Cubs being in second in these MLB Power Rankings will last more than a week with <a href=. (48-26). Previous: . Chicago Cubs
Previous: . San Francisco Giants. 1. team. 40. What is it about even numbered years with the Giants? Right now, they are playing some very nice baseball, winning games the way championship teams win them by large margins at times like they did this past week when they defeated the Pirates, 15-4, and games with walk-off victories like on Sunday with an 8-7 win over the Phillies. The Giants have been on the verge of being the hottest team in the Majors, and though they lost two games this past week, they did win two series and started to show with their total of 49 wins they aren’t letting the Cubs run away with the best record in the majors just quite that easily.. (49-28)