MLB Power Rankings, Week 5: Rays and Yankees on Top

The Rays are still on top of the league, but the Yankees aren't far behind.

With April behind us, we’re starting to get a better sense of which teams are real contenders and which aren’t. The Rays have continued their scorching hot start, rolling to a 20-7 record. The Yankees aren’t far behind, though, holding steady at the #2 position. The big surprise continues to be San Diego, who many picked to finish last in the NL West, yet sits atop the division with a 17-11 record.

This week, rather than simply listing each team’s score and ranking, I’m going to split them into divisions. There’s a difference between “contender” and “pretender”, but not all pretender teams are pretending equally. There’s a huge gap between the Mets the Pirates, for instance, so let’s stop pretending they’re both the same.

And with that, let’s jump into Week 5 of the power rankings.

Division V: Truly, unapologetically terrible

This group has five of the usual suspects (Kansas City, Cleveland, Baltimore, Houston, and Pittsburgh) and one big surprise: the Angels. So far, the Angels’ record has been less than impressive (just 12-17), and they’ve allowed 47 more runs than they’ve scored, good for 27^th in the major league. Granted, there are still over 130 games to play, but if they’re going to turn this around, they’ll want to do so sooner rather than later, for fear of becoming this year’s New York Mets (i.e., the team everyone thought would contend, but was actually dead in the water in May).

Division IV: Bad, but not awful

This group is anyone who is beneath average, but not terrible to the point of needing to be in Division V. That includes a fair amount of trendy preseason picks, like Boston, Los Angeles (Dodgers), Seattle, and Atlanta. Boston’s struggles are well-documented thus far, but the Dodgers are sitting in last in the NL West after being a popular champion pick. These teams still have time to turn things around, but after 5 weeks, one wonders if this is all we’re ever going to see out of them this year.

Division III: Good, but not a contender

This group includes above average teams, but those who fall short of a contending score. Colorado falls into this group this week after continuing their lackluster start. The Rockies are well known for their slow starts and scorching finishes, but holding steady at .500 after being a dark horse World Series pick isn’t exactly encouraging. All of these teams are in good shape, but need to pick up the pace if they want to make the leap to contender status.

Division II: Contenders

These are teams that would make the playoffs if the postseason started today. No real surprises here, with the exception of San Diego. The Padres are rolling and don’t show any signs of slowing down anytime soon. Their scoring differential is just short of the Phillies’ and slightly higher than the Rockies’. Considering those are two clubs famous for offense, and that the Padres are famous for being a doormat, that’s pretty impressive. They’ve earned their rank this week.

Division I: The Favorite(s)

Normally, this division only includes one team, but I can’t leave the Yankees out this week. The Rays are clearly the team to beat right now, but the Yankees aren’t far behind. The Rays are projected to finish with a record of 129-33 if they can keep this pace up, while the Yankees would finish 117-45. Of course, those paces aren’t sustainable, but it shows what an impressive start they’ve had so far. Here’s hoping they can keep it up.

The numbers