We’ve made it to June, and more teams continue to shuffle positions in our MLB power rankings. While some teams have continued to plummet after playing over their heads early on, one squad has finally appeared to come to life after high expectations over the off-season. All these weeks in however, one group still retains the title of being the team to beat. So let’s take a look at where we are as we enter the sixth month of 2016.
30. Minnesota Twins (16-40, previously 28) – The Twins move back in to the cellar after dropping three out of four to the visiting Tampa Bay Rays this weekend and are 4-6 in their last ten games. Minnesota now has a 9-18 home record with a -87 run differential overall.
29. Atlanta Braves (16-40, previously 30) – The Braves were predictably swept on the road by the Clayton Kershaw and the Los Angeles Dodgers, but they surprisingly split a four game series at home against the NL West leading San Francisco Giants last week at home. The Braves’ four home wins in their last ten games are double what they had before that point: two.
28. Cincinnati Reds (21-36, previously 29) – The Reds’ dismal stretch finally game to an end with a four game win streak, which included as shocking series victory against the red hot Nationals at the Great American Ballpark. Cincinnati is now 6-4 in its last ten games.
27. San Diego Padres (23-35, previously 27) – The future looks bleaker and bleaker in San Diego after SP James Shields was shipped from the Padres to the White Sox last week. San Diego is now 11.5 games out of first place in the NL West, merely a year after so many blockbuster acquisitions made them the favorite to win the division in 2015.
26. Oakland A’s (25-32, previously 26) – Oakland was swept in Houston this weekend to sink even deeper in to the cellar of the AL West, now 9.5 games behind the Rangers. Left fielder Khris Davis is one of the few people to cheer about on the A’s squad, already with 14 homers on the season.
25. Arizona Diamondbacks (25-34, previously 24) – The Diamondbacks finally handed Chicago Cubs’ ace Jake Arrieta his first loss of the season with a 3-2 victory over the best team in the majors on Sunday, but Arizona has lost 6 of its last 10 and is only a game and a half out of last place in the NL West. Arizona barely cracks the top ten in the league in most batting statistics, but sits at 26th in the league with a 4.74 team ERA and 28th with a 1.44 WHIP.
24. Tampa Bay Rays (25-30, previously 21) – Tampa Bay swept the 16-40 Twins this weekend, but that doesn’t say very much, like how the Rays lost four straight series before that. The Rays can at least find some hope in the fact they have the best record of all teams that find themselves in last place in their respective division.
23. Colorado Rockies (25-31, previously 20) – The Rockies failed to win series against last place squads in the forms of the Padres and Reds last week, and now have a losing record on the road in addition to at home. Colorado’s 301 runs allowed this season are the most in the majors.
22. Milwaukee Brewers (26-31, previously 23) – The Brewers had an average week at best, dropping a three game series to St. Louis 2-1 before splitting a four game series with the Phillies at home. Ryan Braun is in a groove with a .337 batting average and a .552 slugging percentage.
21. Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (26-30, previously 21) – The Angels have won two three-game series in a row by the score of 2-1, first against Detroit at home and then against the Pirates on the road. Tim Lincecum’s debut should be nearing too as we have entered the month of June, so watch out for the Halos to make some more noise.
20. New York Yankees (26-30, previously 19) – The Bronx Bombers ran into some trouble with Toronto and Baltimore last week, while winning a single game against Detroit in a make-up contest. Nobody on the squad is batting .300 while Masahiro Tanaka’s .278 ERA leads all starting pitchers on the team.
19. Philadelphia Phillies (28-29, previously 13) – Philadelphia continues to fall back to earth after surprising everyone over their first 41 games, going 2-8 in their last ten games while now sitting 29th in the majors with 184 runs scored, and dead last with an OBP of .289 – something that would make Billy Beane cringe.
18. Chicago White Sox (29-28, previously 14) – Can you say “free fall”? That’s what continues in the South Side, as the White Sox have fallen all the way to just a single game over .500 after sitting as many as 15 games over last month. The Sox have now gone 6-17 in their last 23 games, and things don’t appear to be looking any brighter has they host the Nationals this week. Todd Frazier continues to lead the team with 18 home runs, but his batting average has dropped all the way to .219. Ace Chris Sale has now dropped two games in a row as well after starting 9-0.
17. Houston Astros (28-30, previously 25) – Could Houston be for real after all? The ‘Stros swept Oakland at home this weekend and have now gone 8-2 in their last ten contests, boosting them all the way up from the cellar of the AL West to third place in their division, only two games below .500. While Dallas Keuchel has continued to struggle in recent starts, George Springer has batted in 36 runs this season while Jose Altuve is batting a whopping .330. The offensive production will need to continue if Houston hopes to make a surprise playoff run.
16. Detroit Tigers (28-28, previously 17) – The Tigers are finally back to .500 with a three game sweep of the ice-cold White Sox over the weekend. Victor Martinez is now batting .352 at DH and Jordan Zimmerman made his return to the mound, boosting his win count to 8 with a 10-3 victory on Friday. Look for Detroit to make a serious run in the summer months.
15. Miami Marlins (30-27, previously 15) – Miami continues to hover just above .500 at third place in the NL East. The Marlins seemed to have caught some momentum last week with a three game sweep of the Pirates at home, but then dropped two of three to the Mets at home over the weekend. Despite the winning record, the Fish has a -11 run differential, joining the Royals as the only team in that category.
14. Toronto Blue Jays (31-27, previously 18) – The Blues Jays are flying high after going 8-2 in their last ten games, all coming against the Yankees and Red Sox who they have alternated against in their last four series. Josh Donaldson leads the squad with 13 homers while Michael Saunders boasts a team-high batting average of .289. Next up, a meeting with a Tigers squad that has looked more and more composed of late.
13. St. Louis Cardinals (30-27, previously 16) – The Cardinals had themselves a fun weekend in which they took two out of three against San Francisco Giants, homering four times off Jeff Samardzija on Saturday before rallying late on Sunday night to complete back to back comeback wins. St. Louis remains ten games out of first place but is only half a game behind Pittsburgh for second. Matt Carpenter is finally finding his groove, now with 36 RBIs while SS Aledmys Diaz is hitting a whopping .328.
12. Seattle Mariners (31-25, previously 10) – Things have been trending downward for Seattle ever since their brief stint atop the AL West standings, now having gone 3-7 in their last ten contests. The Mariners were swept on the road by the red-hot Rangers this weekend, but Nelson Cruz had his moment with 451 ft blast on Sunday. Now the Mariners must handle the NL Central leading Indians at home, where Seattle has only gone 12-14 this season.
11. Kansas City Royals (30-26, previously 7) – After winning six straight, the Royals have now gone a four game skid, getting swept by the Indians to drop out of first place in the AL Central. Kansas City only scored six runs in the entire series. The defending champs will be challenged again this week when they face the AL-East leading Baltimore Orioles.
10. Pittsburgh Pirates (30-27, previously 4) – A brutal week for Pittsburgh after they so showed so much promise just a week ago. The Bucs lost six of seven games, and are now 3-7 in their past ten. At least Starling Marte remains on a tear with a .326 batting average, an integral part of Pittsburgh’s second best team BA of .277. Yet, even he has had some struggles as seen above.
9. Los Angeles Dodgers (31-27, previously 12) – The Dodgers continue to climb, albeit they got a break with a three game sweep against the NL-worst Braves at home this weekend. Corey Seager went crazy for LA with five homers in the series, launching two of 400+ feet on Sunday’s win. The Dodgers are now only 3.5 games out of first place as the Giants simultaneously lost two in a row on Saturday and Sunday.
8. New York Mets (31-24, previously 9) – The Mets dropped two out of three to the struggling Chicago White Sox last week before taking two out of three against division rival Miami. New York’s combined SP ERA of 3.14 is the 2nd best in the majors, with Noah Syndergaard continuing to lead the way at 1.91. Also notable was that SP Steven Matz was named the NL Rookie of the Month for May last week.
7. Cleveland Indians (31-24, previously 11) – Five straight wins for the Tribe, including a four game sweep of the Royals at home, puts the squad atop the standings in the AL Central. Mike Napoli now has team high 14 home runs while SP Danny Salazar has lowered his ERA to 2.24 with six wins on the year. Do we dare start saying “believeland” from here on out?
6. Baltimore Orioles (32-23, previously 8) – The O’s found themselves back atop the AL East after a 4-3 week while Boston found themselves taking a bit of a drop, part of a 4-6 stretch for the Sox. Mark Trumbo now has 18 home runs and a team high 43 RBIs for the team. Next up will be a chance to pad their division lead as they take on the Royals, who are looking to end a four game skid at the moment.
5. San Francisco Giants (35-24, previously 3) – After winning 15 of 17 contests, the Giants hit a bump in the road when they only split a four game series against lowly Atlanta before dropping two out of three to St. Louis this weekend, the squad’s first series loss in a month. San Francisco blew a lead in the sixth inning or beyond three times last week and took an additional blow as Hunter Pence suffered a torn hamstring tendon. Pence will be out for at least eight weeks and possibly for the year if he elects to have surgery. Is it too early to use the term “June Swoon”?
4. Boston Red Sox (33-24, previously 2) – Boston hit a bit of a bump as well with a 4-6 stretch, dropping two out of three against the Blue Jays this weekend. The Sox’ bats remain hot, but that could very well change this week as they head to a pitchers park out west to take on the San Francisco Giants where they are slated to face Johnny Cueto and Madison Bumgarner. David Ortiz now has 16 homers on the year with a batting average of .340.
3. Washington Nationals (34-23, previously 3) – The Nationals maintain a two game lead over New York for first place in the NL East, but failed to win a series against the lowly-Reds this weekend. Nonetheless, Daniel Murphy is still batting an extraordinary .384 while Max Scherzer already has reached 101 strikeouts on the year. What’s remarkable is that Nats crack the top three in team ERA, WHIP and BAA. They will have the chance to use that to their advantage against the White Sox this week.
2. Texas Rangers (34-22, previously 5) – The Rangers are now above the .600 mark with a three game sweep of the Mariners this weekend, winning eight of their last ten contests. Nomar Mazara was also named AL Rookie of the Month last week. I guess everything truly is bigger (and better) in Texas.
1. Chicago Cubs (39-16, previously 1) – After looking vulnerable two weeks ago with back-to-back series losses, the Cubs are right back on track, winning eight of their last ten games to put them an MLB best 23 games above .500 mark. Jake Arrieta suffered his first loss of the season on Sunday against the Diamondbacks, but he still boasts a 9-1 record with a 1.80 ERA. There appears to be no slowing down for the Cubbies as they take on the struggling Phillies and Braves in their next six contests.
Biggest Jump: Houston Astros (+8)
Biggest Drop: Pittsburgh Pirates/Philadelphia Phillies (-6)