When you hear the words “power rankings”, what comes to mind?
You want to tell yourself it is the honest breakdown of teams in a league from top to bottom but you know that is not the truth.
Part of the reason it is not the truth is because an honest breakdown would simply be based on winning percentage and that is boring. Another part of the reason is natural biases in mainstream media. If you put “east coast bias” into your Google search engine it will spit out the following:
East Coast bias is the tendency for sports broadcasting and journalism in the United States and Canada to give greater weight and attention to teams and athletes on the East Coast of their respective countries than those on the West Coast.
The above is the logical and honest reason why the 32-22 .593 win percentage New York Yankees are commonly found higher in power rankings than the 36-23 .610 win percentage Colorado Rockies.
Then there are cases like the 28-27 Chicago Cubs. Everyone expects the Cubs to not only make the playoffs but win the NL Central. The expectation on the World Series champions to defend their throne in September keeps them inside the top ten of many rankings lists despite the fact they currently have the 12th best win percentage in the league.
For examples, both The Score and USA Today have the Cubs ahead of the current NL Central leaders the Milwaukee Brewers. The Brewers have played two extra games than the Cubs and have won both those games. Personally, this writer would mortgage his house to bet the Cubs finish the season ahead of the Brewers but the here and the now of the situation is the Brewers are better.
Aren’t power rankings suppose to be snapshot of the present without any preconceived notions of the future?
The following power rankings are a honest assembly of all 30 teams with the top team in each division slotted automatically 1-6 based on their respective win-loss records. Win percentage is used to rank the teams 7-30 with a team’s record in the past ten games used as tie-breaker.
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- Houston 41-16
- Washington 35-20 .636
- Colorado 36-23 .610
- New York Yankees .593
- Minnesota .547
- Milwaukee .526
- Los Angeles 35-23
- Arizona 34-25
- Boston 31-25
- Cleveland 29-26 (5-5 last 10)
- Baltimore 29-26 (4-6 last 10)
- Cubs 28-27 .509
- Detroit 28-28 .500
- Tampa Bay 29-30 .492
- Toronto 28-29 .491
- Anaheim 29 -31 .483
- Seattle 28-30 .483
- St. Louis 26-28 .481
- Pittsburgh 26-31 (5-5 last 10)
- Texas 26-31 (2-8 last 10)
- Cincinnati 25-30 .455
- Atlanta 24-30 .444
- Miami 24-31 (8-2 last 10)
- Mets 24-31 (5-5 last 10)
- Kansas City 24-31 (5-5 last 10)
- White Sox 24-31 (4-6 last 10)
- Oakland 24-32 .429
- San Diego 23-35 (6-4 last 10)
- San Francisco 23-35 (3-7 last 10)
- Philadelphia 19-41
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