Latest MLB Power Rankings: Brewers remain No. 1, Guardians Biggest Risers, & Mets lose 7 Straight ⚾️

Latest MLB Power Rankings: Brewers remain No. 1, Guardians Biggest Risers, & Mets lose 7 Straight ⚾️

Back here on CBS Sports HQ where another week brings us a fresh list of MLB power rankings and surprise surprise, the Milwaukee Brewers are not slowing down. 24-4 since July 5th, 9-0 in August. Naturally claim our top spot. Movement elsewhere though as you see at the top here. Phillies were not in first place after a loss last Saturday. They now have a 5 and a half game lead. jumped three spots in our rankings behind the Brewers, followed by the Phillies, Dodgers, and Blue Jays, the Padres’s thanks to Dylan CE, who may be back to ace form, round out the top five. To walk us through some of these rankings, let’s go ahead and welcome in Julian McWills and Matt Snder. Matt, let’s go ahead and begin. Brewers in this top spot. No surprise here. Nine straight wins. Everything that they’re doing just continues to be a no-brainer for them to be number one. I mean, I think the easiest way to summarize how good they’ve been is they were down 5- nothing in the early innings yesterday, and I kind of jokingly said to myself like, well, their their comeback win is going to be epic. And sure enough, tie in the eighth, walk-off home run in the ninth. I mean, they got Andrew Vaughn from the White Socks and he’s been unbelievable since they acquired him. And it’s funny, the only reason that trade happened was because Aaron Seavali was getting bumped from the rotation and he requested a trade. So, they’re like, “Fine, we’ll send him to the White Sox.” And they got Andrew Vaughn back and he’s been amazing. Isaac Collins scrap heap pickup from the Rockies has been unbelievable. Youngsters like Sal Felic, Bryce Tering. It’s I mean what can you say? This team is doing absolutely everything incredibly well right now. 48 and 16 since May 24th. Are you kidding me? They were six and a half down on the Cubs at one point. Now they’re six up. It’s just ridiculous what they’re doing right now. Yeah, Matt, you mentioned Andrew Vaughn. I mean, right now he’s since coming back he’s hitting .342 with seven homers and a 1.0410 041 OPS that’ll play. And look, we were talking about the slug with him, right? And I think he brings some of that with with the homers he’s been hitting because if there was only thing that you questioned, it was their slug. But look, this team has been hot for a long long time. And I think we start I think the league needs to start taking them as a real contender. Um how they hold up in the playoffs, that’s that’s still to be to be determined. But I think if you’re looking at this team, how they pitch, how they hit, how they play defense, how they steal bases. You mentioned Salick being one of the scrappiest players on the team. He’s a hockey guy by trade. He’s a Boston guy. I must be Boston College. So, if you’re looking at him and you’re seeing what what he’s done and what this team has done, it’s been pretty special. What a story. What a story for Pat Murphy, too, because he was a college guy. A lot of times these college coaches, it doesn’t necessarily translate to the big leagues, but with him, you’re seeing it. And and good for this team. It’s good for that city as well. That’s a great point, Julian. Uh these Brewers not slowing down anytime soon. It’s been fun to watch. Elsewhere in these rankings, we had a bit of movement, Matt. Uh let’s pick on the Mariners here. Somehow find themselves a half game back of the Astros for the AL West lead. Yeah, they look better than the Astros right now. They’ve won nine of their last 10. Remember, at the trade deadline, they picked up Josh Naylor and then AU Heneos Suarez from the Mariner. Suarez actually hasn’t even done anything so far, but the lineup as a whole looks a lot better with those two guys in there. And you know, one of the guys who’s reaping the rewards is Julio Rodriguez. He’s been great the last couple weeks offensively. He’s always going to be great defensively and on the bases, but he’s hitting now. Uh good starting pitching, good relief pitching. A lot to like about this Mariners team right now. And uh yeah, I think I would take him to win the West. It’s almost like if you if you do something at the deadline, unless you’re the Yankees, uh you’re this is the team that you can also reap the benefits of having a successful uh successful games as the as the Mariners have had. And you mentioned Julio Rodriguez. He’s typically a slow starter. He gets he gets going in the second half. So, this is this is really really on brand for him to be able to do this. But you mentioned they have one of the best better pitching staffs in baseball and it’s only been amplified with the additions that they made. They with the addition of Josh Sn withition with the additions of Ein Suarez. Those guys are going to play and just having that protection in the lineup because their lineup has always been shaky. But just having that protection in the lineup I think bodess well for this team and I think they’re my pick to win the West as well. In terms of the American League wildcard spot, you guys, the Guardians a half game out. What’s your outlook right now, Julian, on the Guardians? It’s it’s so it’s so fascinating, Jordan, that this is a team that has two guys uh that that that have been that are placed on leave for betting scandals and yet they’re a half game out. I think if you look at this team, they’re always going to be there because what they do, they do the little things from, you know, being able to put the ball in play. They don’t have many big guys, but I think that’s sort of by design with that ballpark because if you get in the air, you can sort of get it out of there a little bit, but they have guys that can put the battle in the ball. They’re always going to pitch. They’re always going to do that. And I think even with the even with the batting scandal thing, I think they still felt like they were in a position where they can sort of be able to be able to to reap the benefits of a of a league that’s been struggling. The Yankees, this is a team that went out and added at the deadline. They have been struggling. And I think you look at the AL this is there there’s this window for teams to be successful. Shoot I won’t even count the to count the Royals out in this right because we’re looking at these teams there aren’t any teams that necessarily have taken over the division like they have to have in the West like the Brewers. So if you’re looking at this team you’re looking at the the Cleveland Guardians this totality that’s a team that they can make some noise particularly down the stretchs because what they do at the end of the day they pitch. It was just over a month ago that the I had the Guardians down in the 20s. They had lost 10 games in a row. We were hearing rumors that they were going to trade Emanuel Claus that they were going to trade Steven Quan. And my question was, well, if they’re going to do that, why wouldn’t they just trade Jose Ramirez, too? Well, now they keep everybody most of the guys. They traded two guys who were hurt, but they kept everybody else. And Kyle Manardo right now 365 with seven homers and 19 RBI in the last 20 games. The bullpen’s awesome again, even with Claus on leave right now. Uh it’s everything’s just coming together and they’re one of those teams I always think about when you think about who punches above their weight. What teams end up winning more games than it looks like their personnel should? The Brewers are one of those teams. Obviously right now they’re unbelievable, but where you look at the personnel and you think, hey, this Guardians team right now, maybe they’ll win 80, 81 games. They always seem to add six, seven, eight, or even more wins than that just by playing a lot better than you think they can. Yeah. Some teams like Cleveland are trending upward, some not so much. The Mets are one of those teams. They have now lost 11 of 12, falls five spots in your rankings to 13. Matt, I don’t know if I like the ending. Yeah, that was probably generous to keep them in the Yankees like 12 and 13, but I we’re going trying to go with the whole body of work right out. Yeah, 1 and 11 in their last 12 games. Uh worrisome to me is there’s there’s been inconsistency on the offensive end. Uh there’s always going to be inconsistency in the bullpen, but to see Helley and then Edwin Diaz both cough it up yesterday, that’s worrisome. The starting pitching is thin and Frankie Monttos has been really, really bad. Um getting swept by the Brewers probably not the hugest deal in the world because the Brewers are sweeping everybody right now, but still there are other a lot of other games that the they’ve left wins on the table and it’s funny how quickly things can turn around because they had a halfame lead earlier this month. It was in August they had halfame lead and now they’re all the way down to five and a half games behind the Phillies. Rough rough times in New York. Yeah. I look at the two guys for me and I think it starts with Francisco Lindor and I think it starts with with with Juan Sto on the offensive end and they just have not been getting it done. Uh Francisco Lindor was was early in the season was my pick to finish second in MVP voting behind Otani. I think I should probably take that one back because he’s been horrendous offensively. And then if you look at Juan Sto, typically it takes him probably a year or so to get adjusted to a new team. We saw him go through as the Padres’s. He did not go through this with the Yankees. I think he benefited probably from having Aaron Judge in lineup as well. So there is a new setting here. But look, if you’re looking at this team, the one thing that you thought they would do, you thought they would hit. But they haven’t really got it from Bentos. They haven’t really got it from Alvarez. They got all the guys that you expected to take a step forward, they haven’t been really been doing that. Obviously on the pitching side, that was the one thing that I’ve always questioned with them is will they be able to have enough starting pitching and clearly that’s not the case right now. Lastly here, gentlemen, the Rays now 10 and 26 in the end of June, the 28th to be exact. Uh just quickly here, Julian, what’s your pulse on Tampa right now? I I I don’t see much going on with them. And in fact, I know they were reluctant to get rid of Yandandy Diaz at the deadline. I think they probably should have. I mean, this is a team that’s typically in the hunt every year, but the last two years, for some reason, because of faulty pitching, uh, untimely hitting, I think they they haven’t necessarily been the team that’s been their identity for for decades, right? And if we’re looking at a Ray’s team, they are the epitome of a team that that Matt talked about. They punch above their weight and they have not been doing that so far. Yeah. One thing to consider is the ballpark situation for the Rays with Tropicana Field, the the hurricane damage. Then they have to play in that minor league ballpark in Tampa outside. So then the schedule stacked all their home games early and late in the season. They’re in the middle of a stretch right now where they have to play 19 out of 22 games on the road. They had an extended road trip earlier in July. And I think that’s one of the things that’s really getting to them. Guys, great stuff. As always, you can check out Matt Snider’s full list of MLB power rankings over on cbsports.com. As you take a look at some of the notable games going on tonight in Major League Baseball, it begins at 610. First pitch between the Phillies and Reds, Twins, Yankees at 7:05. At 8:00, we’ll see the Red Sox and Astros, followed by the Dodgers and Angels and Padres’s and Giants as our night cap. [Music]

Matt Snyder and Julian McWilliams join CBS Sports HQ to discuss the latest MLB power rankings.

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