As the season gets into mid-June, who sits at the top of the MLB Power Rankings?
Major League Baseball pennant races are shaking out a bit as the season moves into the second half of June, and our MLB power rankings will reflect that. The division races are sorting themselves out, with some teams looking like strong contenders and some teams looking like 100-game losers. Of course, there was a time when mid-June was a much more important date on the baseball calendar.
For those old enough to remember baseball pre-1986, the MLB trade deadline used to be June 15. Yep, three days ago. Imagine baseball teams needing to decide what moves to make by mid-June. Those were different times.
One of those June 15 trades from many years ago involved a Hall of Fame player whose birthday is today, coincidentally. Happy birthday to Lou Brock, who was traded by the Chicago Cubs to the St. Louis Cardinals on June 15, 1964 for Ernie Broglio. Actually, it was a six-player trade but the big names were Brock and Broglio. That didn’t work out too well for the Cubs. Brock went on to play another 15 years. Broglio was out of the big leagues three years later.
Now that the trade deadline is July 31, major league teams don’t need to make such hasty decisions as they did years ago. They still have time to decide whether they’re still in the race or playing for next year. At last, that’s the idea. This year, especially in the American League, baseball is very much the haves and the have-nots. At least the National League has some drama in the division races.
So with baseball moving into the second half of June, let’s take a look at the Power Rankings. These rankings are based on a special formula that includes each team’s actual record, run-differential, and how they’ve played over the last 30 days. I’ve included that information with each team, along with their Expected Record based on their current run-differential.