Hey Sportsfans — it's time for Week 2 of
r/baseball Power Rankings: We've got real numbers to work with as the judgement begins in earnest. If you happen to have not been blinded recently, I hope you enjoy these baseball numbers!
Every voter has their own style / system and the only voting instructions are these:
"To an extent determined individually, you must take into account how strong a team is right now and likely to be going forward. You must, to some degree, give weight to the events and games of the previous week."
TRANSPARENCY: This link will show you who voted each team where and has added neat statistics!
If something is a little messed up, feel free to pester me let me know.
Total Votes: 28 of 30. 93% Totality.
| # | Team | Δ | Comment | Record | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Braves | +1 | Writing this as I am sitting at Terrapin Brewing at The Battery pregaming for tonight's game. I am here with my mother who was at the game 50 years ago to the day where Hank Aaron became the Homerun King. She scored free tickets to the game because of proving she was there. Super excited to come to the TP and be a part of an awesome celebration. Oh…I forgot i need to blurb about the team: Braves have some scary problems at SP…fortunately for us, they are a powerhouse on offense…and the top of the order hasn't even gotten going yet. Cheers y'all…maybe I'll be on TV? | 6-2 | |
| 2 | Dodgers | -1 | Now that the Dodgers have unlocked Shohei Ohtani's powers, the season can begin. The Dodgers look incredible and I would say they are can't miss baseball. Other than the last game against the Cubs the team has been unstoppable offensively. Yamamoto has had a couple great outings in a row and the young Dodgers pitchers are doing their best. This team is absurdly stacked and will only get better. I hope. Until disaster inevitably strikes. | 8-4 | |
| 3 | Rangers | +1 | The Eclipse isn't the moon blocking the sun, it's Adolis Garcia's massive dongs blocking out the sun. | 6-3 | |
| 4 | Yankees | +1 | The Yankees looked rock-solid against both the Astros and Diamondbacks, and the offense is trending in the right direction against the Blue Jays. A Cole-less rotation is holding up quite well, quelling the prevailing fears after the team got neither Snell nor Montgomery. Anthony Volpe, Juan Soto, and Oswaldo Cabrera are early-season standouts, and it appears Judge and Stanton are both heating up. The biggest question mark right now is the bullpen, thanks to the loss of Jonathan Loaisiga and the shakiness of Clay Holmes. Still, so far this Yankees squad is vastly better (and funner) than last year’s. | 8-2 | |
| 5 | Orioles | -2 | I think 9 games in might be a bit early to be overly concerned, however when you have 5 every day players hitting .216 or lower it's a bit jarring. 24 runs in the first two games and then 23 over the next 7 games is not exactly a recipe for success. I know everyone is clamoring for call-ups, mostly because Norfolk is averaging about 20 runs a game. It'll be interesting to see how much longer players like Urias, Mateo and yes even Hays and Mullins have before there needs to be a huge shake-up. Like I said, 9 games is still a bit early but with the pitching being what it is this team needs to score runs in order to win. | 5-4 | |
| 6 | D-Backs | +1 | The Diamondbacks had a bad week, losing two of three at home to the Yankees before getting swept in a three-game set in Atlanta. If Snakes fans can take solace in anything, it's that most of the games could have gone the other way if not for some bad breaks. The starting pitching has mostly looked solid and the offense is still producing even with Corbin Carroll slow out of the gate; the defense has been uncharacteristically bad, and the bullpen has been characteristically bad. | 4-6 | |
| 7 | ☀️ | Rays | +1 | 5-5 | |
| 8 | Cubs | +7 | After dropping their opening series vs the Rangers, the Cubs went 5-1 this week against the Rockies and Dodgers. New pitching signing Shota Imanaga made his hyped debut, and starred, as he pitched 10 scoreless innings with 12 Ks and no walks over two starts. Not to be outdone, the offense scored an MLB best 50 runs despite some adverse hitting conditions. The Cubs will look to continue their hot start as they embark on a long road trip, playing 3 games against the Padres and Mariners this week. | 6-3 | |
| 9 | Brewers | +7 | The young lineup has shown up, both at the plate and with their gloves. However, with Junis on the IL and the bullpen already showing signs of fatigue, there are questions around starting pitching depth until Gasser and Misiorowski are ready for the show. Of course, this early in the season, you have to be careful not to overreact, but I think it is safe to say that THE MILWAUKEE BREWERS ARE THE BEST TEAM IN BASEBALL, CHOURIO IS A HALL OF FAMER, YELICH HAS NEVER BEEN SO BACK, AND BRICE TURANG IS GOING TO SWIPE 100 BAGS. | 6-2 | |
| 10 | Phillies | -2 | Another year, another slow start for the Phillies. The pitching looks good but the offense, aided by the worst player in baseball Nick Castellanos, is simply not scoring enough. Johan Rojas looks like the same offensive black hole (a shocking .205 OPS) that he looked like in the Playoffs and in Spring Training. Harper, Realmuto, and Marsh are bright spots so far, but the rest of the lineup needs to wake up if they want any shot at the division. A relatively easy stretch of the schedule continues, as they don't play another 2023 playoff team until May 7. This week it's 3 games in St. Louis before a 4 game set with the fearsome April Pirates. | 4-5 | |
| 11 | Astros | -5 | Pitching? Woof (except for Blanco). Hitting? Woof (except for Yordan). Joe Espada has certainly got his work cut out for him. It'll be interesting to see how long Abreu will tie his little beard-thing to the first base bag. Overall thoughts? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6NC0rKLZuU | 3-7 | |
| 12 | Guardians | +5 | The Guardians were off to a good start to the season. Then we found out our best pitcher needs Tommy John surgery. Ugh. Anyway, the beginning of the season is always weird for rankings because the sample size is so small. Hopefully the Guardians keep doing well. But they have the best record and the best run differential as of writing, so I'm making them #1. Just go with it. | 7-2 | |
| 13 | Pirates | +10 | The Pirates didn't play their best ball this week, and yet the ended up taking series against the Beltway Ballcubs of Washington and Baltimore. Thank a surprisingly resilient rotation, which has held up well even beyond the much-hyped debut of Jared Jones. The Pirates won the series against a good O's club thanks to the performances of Marco Gonzales and the maligned Bailey Falter, along with some great at-bats that ground down Baltimore's pitching corps. | 8-2 | |
| 14 | Red Sox | +7 | 7-3 on the west coast road trip? Brayan Bello is our worst starter?? A team ERA of 1.49 over the first 10 games??? This staff was supposed to be a downgrade from our mediocre 2023 squad. Instead, they're making five aces a reality (only about a decade late) and are being held back by a slightly-above-average lineup. I should be mad about Trevor Story exploding six games into the season, but honestly I'm just relieved I can finally give up on any hope of him being a real baseball player anymore. See you in June Marcelo!! | 7-3 | |
| 15 | Blue Jays | -5 | The offensive woes from last year have carried over into the first 10 games of this season, with a handful of no-shows with RISP leaving the Jays at a semi-respectable 4-6 start at TB, HOU, and NYY. This team needs to figure something out in the 5-7 spots of the lineup, with guys like Kirk and Varsho looking lost far too often. They also need to shore up the 5th spot in the rotation, as Francis has been lit up twice, Manoah couldn't throw a strike in his A-ball debut, and young promising arms in Tiedemann and Yariel not quite ready for the big leagues. Thankfully the delayed home opener is here, the top of the lineup has shown a lot of promise, and the rotation is mostly settled in. Do better. | 4-6 | |
| 16 | Twins | -4 | Well that wasn't a very good week. Royce Lewis was injured in the first game he played and will be out for a month. We won the Royals series, but got blown out 11-0 in the finale, split with the Brewers, then got stomped on by Guardians pitching, bad umpiring, and a rainout. Also, last year's strikeouts still aren't going away. We have the 3rd highest K% in the league, but are 30th in HRs, so selling out for power hasn't paid off yet. | 3-4 | |
| 17 | Padres | -4 | Expectations are kind of everything. I feel like last season, I would’ve been annoyed at the sub.500 start, but I’m really not bugging. The first four series have come with two splits, and two losses, but I’m just kind of in the acceptance stage right now. I got a lot more joy out of seeing Profar hit a grand slam in our win vs San Fran than I did any negative vibes that I got out of the Pads two losses over the weekend. Jackson Merill had 4 hits on Sunday! | 5-7 | |
| 18 | Mariners | -7 | Three things are sure in this life: death, taxes, and the Mariners having a slow start to the season. For a team that claimed to want to reduce strikeouts with all their roster changes, the results thus far have been very much… not that. Thankfully, it's still early, and while the start is disappointing, it can definitely be overcome. Just no more walking the bases loaded and then walking in the winning run, please. Up next: 3 @ Canada, 3 vs. Tiny Bears | 4-6 | |
| 19 | Reds | -1 | Fuck Cornbread. Okay, I’m gonna get into my rankings in second but I’m at my mother’s right now, I’m staying here for a couple days due to water damage at my house, and she made a big pot of ham and beans for dinner with cornbread. This is fine, but it’s morning now and I go to make a bagel and the butter container is just fucking full of cornbread bits because of how crumbly it is, so I had to spend like 5 minutes picking out all the cornbread bits from the butter. So my hands are covered in butter and it takes forever to clean them because I keep getting butter everywhere. Alright so anyway, the Reds took a series from the Phillies and lost one to the Mets, go figure. I’m trying to find the best way to describe being a Reds fan. Imagine if, I don’t know, you’re married and you’re trying to make love to your wife, and she’s just lying there asking if you’re inside her yet but you already finished 30 seconds ago and are half asleep on top of her too tired to move because that small, almost unnoticeable act of passion was the most soul draining thing you’ve done all week. Being a Reds fan is like…well it’s like wanting a Bagel in the morning and ending up with Cornbread bits in it that’s right we’re back on Cornbread. Anyway, I know some Reds fans don’t agree with me but I think it’s time to be seriously concerned about Elly. Sure he just had a 13 game hit streak end, but in every single metric he is just not great. His speed is a great asset but his defense so far is far from acceptable. He has yet to hit a home run this year and looks lost at the plate. Like seriously lost. Like your 4 year old brother turned on your Xbox and is playing The Show on the hardest difficulty lost. Things need to improve. On a final note I wanted to again thank the Minnesota Twins for giving us Spencer Steer. Thank you. P.S. the NL Central makes me want to die. | 5-4 | |
| 20 | Giants | -6 | The first reinforcements of the year arrive today in Blake Snell and he couldn’t come at a better time – SF starting pitchers, outside of Webb and Hicks, have had mixed results. 4 – 6 to start the year, the Giants have tread water against the | 4-6 | |
| 21 | Tigers | +1 | Three series in and we still haven't seen how the boys shake out against the best teams in the Bigs. Even though the record sits at 6-3, we're still looking for Tork, Greene, Keith, Baez (lol), Meadows, and more to wake up. How soon till Maeda is replaced by Manning in the rotation? The back end of the pen of Jason Foley and Shelby Miller have been absolute nails though. This week: 2 at PIT, 4 vs. MIN. | 6-3 | |
| 22 | Cardinals | -2 | The Cardinals answered back after losing their opening series in LA with a couple of series wins, one in San Diego and one against the visiting Marlins. This week they'll get their first look at Sonny Gray (slated to make his debut on Tuesday) and face last year's NLCS participants as the Phillies come to town before they head back out west to take on Arizona. | 5-5 | |
| 23 | Royals | +2 | These Royals are fun to watch. The starters have been excellent and there is a buzz around the team. They really remind me of the 2013 squad right now. Maybe they're not at the point of contending yet, but you can see the pieces. Playing the Orioles are tough as they did is a statement as well. Could the Royals actually be…good? | 6-4 | |
| 24 | Angels | +2 | Do not stare directly into the Angels pitching. Despite some gaudy outings from the rotation so far, Reid Detmers has impressed through his first two outings of the season. His 24 K's and 2.45 ERA over 18.1 IP back in Arizona during Spring Training look more and more like a preview of coming attractions than a mirage. He's sporting a 1.64 ERA and 15.5 K/9 over his 11 IP against the Orioles and Red Sox—neither of whom have otherwise been slouches with the bats. Insert all the obligatory disclaimers about sample size here, but the 24-year old former top 50 prospect is a guy worth watching. | 5-4 | |
| 25 | Mets | -6 | After a rough start, the Mets might have a little something going after taking 2 out of 3 in Cincy over the weekend. Our upcoming 4 game series against the Braves will be an early test – do we actually have what it takes to compete with the big dogs this year or is it going to be a long summer? It kicks off tomorrow with a Julio Teheran revenge game. We'll finish the upcoming week by welcoming the Royals to Citi Field. Hopefully it goes better than that other famous time they visited Citi Field. | 3-6 | |
| 26 | Nationals | +1 | Nationals are exactly where we expected them to be. Winning 1 of every 3 with some young stars playing for ticket sales. | 3-6 | |
| 27 | Marlins | -3 | Well fish fans, good news and bad news. Good news is that we won our first game of 2024! Max meyer was on the mound shovin and the marlins had some geat offensive production, highlighted by Jazz and Nick Gordon hittin back to back dingers in the 1st. It seems our bullpen has finally started to settle down after multiple games where they dont blow an early lead. The bad news……well its bad. The fish are currently 1-9 and the FO and skip have seemingly decided to part ways after this season. The more time passes, the more bs we see from Sherman and co. It really does seem like we went from one stingy ass meddlesome owner to yet another one. All i can say is Sherman aint very well liked in Miami right now. | 1-9 | |
| 28 | Athletics | +2 | 3-7 | ||
| 29 | White Sox | -1 | Make sure you're paying attention folks, because this team might be one of the worst teams to grace the MLB in history. The rumor is that Robert Jr. will be on the IL for "months" after spraining his hip flexor. He had the same injury in 2021 that kept him out months as well. He was the lone bright spot in a lineup devoid of, well, talent. They have 6 guys sporting a negative wRC+ in this young season, including the highest paid player in White Sox history, Benintendi, and the player they traded one of their top prospects for this offseason, Fletcher. (Once again, that's negative wRC+, not below 100) They have a team SLG worse than the OBP of 19 different teams. And an OBP that's worse than 6 teams AVG so far. Yes, it's early, but through 9 games they have scored 16 runs and there is no help anywhere on the horizon. | 1-8 | |
| 30 | Rockies | -1 | The Rockies have the worst run differential in baseball at -34. The only reason they aren't tied for the worst record in baseball is a walk-off salami in the home opener delivered by Ryan McMahon. He has been one of the few bright spots in what is otherwise already shaping up to a bleak season. | 2-8 |
2024 r/baseball Power Rankings — Week 2: ☀️ Braves Eclipse Dodgers for #1, 🕶️Pirates Plunder Sunny Seas, New Moon Rises in North Side, Brewers Stare at Success, and Red Sox Took Umbra-ge With Previous Rank, Mariners See Spots and Hit Rocks, Mets Melt in Totality with SF Stumbling in the Dark🌙
byu/kasutori_Jack inbaseball
19 comments
**Mobile Friendly Ranks + ‘True Rank’**
*Close* refers to less than .250 mean score separation with the team above them.
1. Braves 1.75
2. Dodgers 2.321
3. Rangers 3.929
4. Yankees 4.357
5. Orioles 5.321
6. D-Backs 9.75
7. Rays 10.071
8. Cubs 10.214 — *CLOSE!*
9. Brewers 10.679
10. Phillies 11.25
11. Astros 11.286 — *CLOSE!*
12. Guardians 12.214
13. Pirates 13.214
14. Red Sox 14.071
15. Blue Jays 14.714
16. Twins 15.893
17. Padres 16.393
18. Mariners 17.036
19. Reds 17.179 — *CLOSE!*
20. Giants 18.429
21. Tigers 18.5 — *CLOSE!*
22. Cardinals 20.393
23. Royals 21.179
24. Angels 22.75
25. Mets 22.964
26. Nationals 26.429
27. Marlins 26.643
28. Athletics 28.357
29. White Sox 28.679
30. Rockies 29.036
Rangers voter here, ask me about the sun.
cardinals voter here.
Will be interesting to see if the Braves start to drop now that Strider is out and Fried looking like he’s probably injured as well. Not sure what kind of rotation depth they have
Once again I’m grateful for the Reds voter and I hope you’re ok.
Reds ranker you okay bud?
Astros voter, ask me about 00s tv shows
Existential Reds power ranking write-ups are back on the menu boys
The Yankees are going to have a mid season collapse that will shock everyone except me
That’s the Reds voter I remember. Hope everything turns around for you (and the Reds).
Reminder: early season is very volatile so don’t be surprised as we sort things out! Like, for example, I’m not a huge fan of the Giants dropping 6 spots after playing only the Dodgers and Padres, but a lot of that is because the Top 15 is filled with surprisingly streaking teams.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the *actual mean vote score* is where voters truly believe a team to be. So, again using the Giants, voters thought they were much closer to being an 18th ranked team rather than 20. The nature of forcibily sorting teams means sometimes clubs are shoved up or down. And, just like that, dropping from 14 to 18 for the Giants sounds much more reasonable, no?
Edit:
Anywa, [](/SF)Giants voter here. These are some ways you can yell at me:
*Note*: This ignores some uninteresting ties at the top and bottom ranks.
**Tied for Outlier: Liking A Team Too Much**
[](/MIL)Brewers **5**
**Tied for Outlier: Disliking A Team Too Much**
[](/STL)Cardinals **24**
[](/NYM)Mets **25**
[](/CIN)Reds **23**
Rockies are appropriately ranked. I am really hoping for some expansion teams so I can put them closer to 31 or 32 in the future.
Miami voter here, ama
I wonder how many the Tigers will have to take from the Twins next week to make it out of the bottom 1/3
Mets voter here. My methodology for these rankings is to start with preseason projections/vibes and slowly adjust as time goes on.
Every Sunday night I sit down with the standings and put together rough categories of who belongs where. I then hone them based off of things like which teams I actually believe are good (sorry Pittsburgh, you almost fooled me last year too) and who’s been hot.
Final thing I do is a gut check against my previous lists. Occasionally I’ll notice I somehow dropped a team that just went 6-1 or something so I’ll tweak things to be logically consistent.
Reds Voter here, I’ve officially taken cornbread out of my diet, any suggestions on a substitute?
First time Yankee voter here! AMA about how not-even-close my picks were to the final list
Our bullpen has been a LOT better since the first Padres series.
Brewers voter here. I want to put this on the record before we play the Reds, I like corn bread.