The Power Rankings are taking a beating today so I wanted to circle back with some open-minded commentary.
You guys can tell me the logic sucks but at least the logic exists.
I can stand behind that.
The Braves Should Be Much Better.
But they’re not right now and that’s for a number of reasons.
Tough schedule, sure.
But elite teams don’t go 9-13 then complain about a schedule.
Max Fried should be a bigger question mark than the positive updates from sources suggest.
Bryce Elder probably isn’t a sub-2.00 ERA guy over his first full season.
Charlie Morton is older than Klemmer.
Michael Soroka is back for the first time in almost 3 years and he’s instantly depended upon.
The bullpen’s been taxed more than you’d like.
And all the while, the Braves have elite talent at 6 of 8 every day positions.
All-Star caliber at a minimum, MVP potential at several.
Super experienced team that has only performed worse and become more injured in the last couple weeks.
Does that mean the Braves suck?
They arguably have the best core of talent across baseball.
He’s 64% worse than Mark Canha right now (36 OPS+).
Shave that down to 30% and the Braves are in a notably better position.
If Fried can get back and be himself.
If Elder really is this good.
Then the Braves are the class of the National League.
I Could Be Wrong About The Yankees.
Hubbs got engaged this weekeend.
Anthony Volpe was the photographer.
The crux of the argument for the Yankees being at 8 and not higher is a number of factors.
Maybe I didn’t measure them appropriately in hindsight.
They’ve survived a ton of injuries.
They’ve played a brutal schedule.
They don’t have off days right now.
Stanton just came back.
The supporting cast has clenched its butt cheeks and battled through some crazy adversity.
Michael King’s on an All Star pace.
Cole is a bonafide #1 and pitching like it.
The Yankees keep winning despite a bunch of reasons to regress.
All fair points that have been repeatedly rammed down my fucking throat this morning.
Thank you guys, sincerely.
The last 6 west coast games could have been much worse.
The Yankees could very much be waking up into the best stretch of baseball following some much needed rest.
I overlooked all of this when recording.
What we focused on was the pitching depth and the rest of the division.
The Yankees kill bad teams.
They’re 4-6 against the Rays and Orioles in the last 4 weeks.
They’re 14-18 this year against the 1st place AL teams and the rest of the East.
For now I’m still trying to make sense of them.
They drop 3 in a row then win 4 in a row.
The Orioles and Rays have played better in the same division.
They lose a heartbreaker then get their doors blown off.
Then they win 2 straight against an NL powerhouse with such a limited lineup.
If anything they’re extremely interesting.
A dead on balls coin flip between them and the Braves right now after writing this out.
But definitely not worse than the 8th team in baseball so that’s nice.
Eddie Rosario hit his grandslam mid recording.
There’s a lot of considerations.
They’ve been red hot and that includes two separate 3-game losing streaks in May.
They won 6 in a row last week with a big home series against the Braves.
Eddie Rosario then hit that grandslam.
Am I throwing out the Diamondbacks emergence because of this?
In favor of Michael Soroka’s 2nd bad start since spending 1,000+ days on the IL?
These are the questions we wrestle with on a weekly basis.
That’s called Progress.
The Rangers Should Be 1st Overallbut we’re not there yet.
That’s next week.
That’s how hot the Texas Rangers are.
Semien, Lowe, Jung, Garcia have all been outstanding.
Corey Seager is probably the best player in baseball that people won’t talk about this year.
The rotation keeps improving and Jon Gray might make an All Star game.
Meanwhile deGrom strengthens forearm muscles you never knew existed until he injured them.
Bruce Bochy has the boys going hard and everything is pointing up.
So much that their run differential is the highest through 58 games since the 1939 Yankees.
That was a relatively unremarkable Yankees group in the broader context of their individual career accolades.
Btw Ruffing should not be in the HOF.
Remind me to bring that up to Klemmer on Wednesday.
The Early June reality is that every team on this list could win the World Series.
These are good clubs.
But all these teams are very talented.
And then there’s a whole list of extremely talented, yet underperforming clubs.
The Padres, Phillies, Mariners, Mets and Cardinals should all be better.
The Angels and Marlins and Brewers are dangerous teams that can win 8 of 10 without surprising anyone.
There’s so many different degrees of Good Baseball right now.
you could’t say the same about Shitty Baseball.
That’s gradually becoming a dying concept and I think we’re all better for it.
Stay positive and focus on that.
As for the Yankees, we’ll get that sorted out next week I promise.
